The Apprentice
by and © N Fourbois
Chapter 30
Kieran and Jack made their way to the Sixth Form Centre. As they went into the study area, they found a small gaggle of third formers, obviously fags awaiting their fagmasters' arrival. Kieran was surprised to see that young McLarney immediately broke away from the group and came across to his cubicle.
The cubicle was just that, a small space surrounded by wooden walls some seven feet high with no ceiling. The walls were painted in various pastel shades. Kieran's were painted pale pink which his sense of irony found fitting. The door opened outwards to give a little more room and was provided with a bolt, in case one wanted to 'sport one's oak', and a reinforced glass panel so that you didn't knock anyone over on opening it. The cubicle contained an adequate worktop with a chair, drawers, shelves, an internet connection and a large board for posters and notices.
"Good morning, Williams."
"Good morning, William. No, we can't have that. It sounds daft. You will call me Kieran and I shall continue to call you William, or do you prefer to be called Will or Billy?"
"William, thank you. That's what my friends call me."
"And if I call you McLarney you might rightly think that I'm displeased." William looked askance. For him it just was not feasible that someone might find him unsatisfactory and in the short time William had known him he did not expect Kieran to be the type who would be dissatisfied with anybody. The ground rules were being set and it was Kieran doing the setting. Obviously William needed the rough edges putting on.
"Have you any jobs for me before I go to registration?"
"None at the moment, William."
"Would you like anything from the tuckshop at break?"
"No. What I would like you do is to come here after tea and tidy my study. I take it that you will not be hurrying home."
"No, Wi... er... Kieran. I usually cycle to school and so I haven't got to worry about buses or being picked up."
"I'll see you after school and enjoy your day."
"Thank you, Kieran."
Kieran sat back in his chair and thought over the last five minutes. What a boy! It was his first opportunity to study William. Last Friday's meeting had been so fleeting. His face was eminently readable. The way the large eyes looked up to him communicated some form of immediate relationship. Was it awe? Was it fear? Was it admiration? The boy obviously possessed self-discipline and high self-esteem. He could see that by the way he was shocked when it was suggested he might do something wrong. Or was he just conscientious? While talking to him Kieran had taken the opportunity to check him out. Small, but perfect in every detail. He liked the cut of his straight, light brown hair, parted in the middle, but not flat. His face was open, dominated by the large brown eyes. His hands were small and wiry, his whole body petite. The neck of his white shirt was a size too large, but otherwise he was neatly dressed with his tie done up properly so as to hide the collar button. His trousers were well fitting - too well fitting to Kieran's mind as he had drag his eyes away from them several times in order to concentrate on their conversation. He had not been able to see his butt. That was a pleasure yet to come. His shoes were highly polished. He wondered whether he cleaned them himself or whether his mother did. And finally there was the rough recently broken voice that Kieran adored and was the best outward sign of the boy's adolescence.
"Are you ready for assembly, Kieran?" Jack's question snatched him out of his reverie.
"Yeah, sure."
"Don't forget your hymnbook, and don't forget to register." The sixth formers had a plastic identity card which they wore round their necks as if they were execs walking around the factory. They just had to zap the barcode on coming in and going out. "You looked out of it just then, as if you'd seen an apparition."
"Mmm, and maybe I have," said Kieran in a dreamy voice. He made an effort to clear his mind. "How did you get on with your fag?"
"What? Tobias Rex Cholmondeley, pronounced chumley? Fine. He'll break a few hearts before he's done here." They'd just arrived at the assembly hall where all conversation had to cease. Kieran became curious about Jack and one or two of the ways he'd spoken about his fag. Could he possibly be...? No, it's out of the question. The Headmaster and staff arrived, the School stood and assembly began.
The whole of his first proper day was a novelty to Kieran. He got to know his classmates, met his schoolmasters for the first time and enjoyed the experience of starting the International Baccalaureate instead of A-levels. He knew it would be a challenge - more subjects, different subjects and to a high standard. Jack helped him meet new people and to do the right things at the right time. As the week went on he noticed how Jack gradually withdrew and allowed Kieran to gain his independence, but they were slowly developing into school buddies, especially when Kieran learnt that Jack's best mate had left the previous term and his parents had taken him out to New Zealand. They met at the beginning and end of each day, sometimes in lessons, and possibly at lunch, but with staggered times for lessons and activities over a long lunch break that was not always certain. Although Kieran was a long way from outing himself at College he spent a lot of time talent spotting, or more familiarly boywatching. In fact he was overwhelmed by the amount of 'talent' available. The genes of the English middle classes had certainly claimed a monopoly over beautiful boys, and possibly beautiful girls, but that was something he knew nothing about. His power of gaydar had apparently abandoned him, simply because he lived in constant fear of committing the same indiscretion at College as he had done at St Sergius's. He did, however, suspect that his form tutor was gay - little mannerisms, little facial expressions and the way he took an interest in the members of his tutor group, all backed up by school gossip. It wouldn't have surprised Kieran because his last school must have sent College a report on him which would have explained the circumstances of his leaving. Did that mean that other members of his tutor group were gay and College simply brought together sympathetic people? So much to find out.
At the end of that first Monday Kieran caught up with Jack at tea. They saw their fags on the other side of the dining hall amongst a group of third formers. Kieran's sharp eyes spotted that both William and Toby acknowledged their arrival. When Kieran and Jack had finished, their fags deferentially cleared away their own crockery and cutlery and followed them out as they made their way to the Sixth Form Centre. The study area was the only part accessible to those below the sixth, and then only when they were on fagging duties. The remaining facilities were strictly out of bounds to lesser mortals. Kieran pulled the door of his cubicle open and switched on the light. William was right behind him.
"Hi, William, did you have a good day?"
"Art was a bit boring. We had this still life to draw - very still life. And I'm not good at drawing and painting anyway."
"What was the best part of the day, and don't say lunch."
"No, it was PE. It's different from my old school where you'd turn up at the gym and do a few exercises and that was it."
"Okay, I'm going to tell you what I want done and you can tell me about the PE lesson while you're doing it. The first thing is to tidy my desk. When you've finished, it should only have my blotter and tray (filled if need be) on it." William started to take the textbooks and put them on one of the shelves. "Now, when you're working you should take your blazer off. That's right. Hang it over the back of my chair." There was an ulterior motive behind Kieran's insistence. He was better able to watch William at work. He looked at his slender arms coming out of a short sleeved shirt, still tanned from the summer holidays, the arms, not the shirt. The little hairs picked up the light as it illuminated the youthful fuzz. He saw his bottom for the first time in his tight grey uniform trousers. It was attractive, no way a bubble butt, slightly pear shaped with a nice little curve that under different circumstances would invite patting, perhaps stroking. His package intrigued Kieran, for instead of being longer in the vertical, the horizontal exceeded the height, and incidentally heightened his curiosity.
"You wanted to hear about the PE lesson, Kieran?"
"Oh, yes," he replied as his mind after a temporary absence rejoined his body.
"We have to pair up with a partner. Mine is Toby Cholmondeley." Dream team, thought Kieran and then silently scolded himself for perving on little boys, but only slightly. "We warm up and then do as many as we can of a set exercise for a minute and a half, write down the number and go on to the next until we've done ten sets. It's called circuit training and it acts as a further warm up and the number we do in the time should increase showing we're getting fitter. We spend a couple of weeks doing that until we're used to it and then we're going on to do proper gymnastics. Mr Bridgeman says I've got just the right kind of body structure to be good at it." 'You can say that again,' thought Kieran, almost drooling. "Okay, the desk is clear. What next?"
"Put the books on the shelf in order so that the tallest are on the outside and the smallest in the middle and then you can go home." That wasn't Kieran making work for work's sake; that was Kieran pandering to his obsessive streak. The task accomplished, Kieran helped William on with his jacket, an excuse to touch him and said goodbye and that he would see him in the morning.
Jack was ready to go home as well and so Kieran locked away his laptop securely and pocketed the memory stick he needed for that night's prep, though as it was gym night he didn't know when he would get it all done. The two boys walked out of school after zapping their ID cards and caught the bus home.
"Hi, Mum," Kieran shouted as he let himself in though the front door.
"Good day?"
"Yes. I think my form tutor's gay. The other boys say he is."
"Is that what your father and I are paying all this money out in school fees for?" his mother retorted, but with a smile on her face.
"Guess so," Kieran grinned back.
"Now, you're not eating with us tonight, are you?"
"No. I can't eat before gym or I'll throw up..." His mother made a face at his choice of vocabulary. "So we'll get a takeaway afterwards and eat it at his place."
"You'd better give Eric this," said his mother as she handed over a twenty pound note. We can't expect him to keep on shelling out to keep a voracious adolescent from starvation.
"Thanks, Mum. I'm going up to get my homework done. I'll be too knackered when I get back."
Eric picked Kieran up at twenty to seven, said a quick 'hallo' to his sister and brother-in-law and drove off. As it was September the nights were drawing in and it would soon be sunset. Kieran handed over the twenty pounds.
"Oh, thanks a lot. That'll help quite a bit. It'll buy a little bit of petrol."
"It's supposed to be for grub."
"Oh, right. Thank Colleen for me anyway."
Kieran enjoyed his Monday nights at the gym. He enjoyed Uncle Eric's company as they were like minded, he could see the difference it was making to his body - nice pecs and abs without making him appear musclebound, and he enjoyed looking round at the hunks training with him. That's why they came on Monday nights for the men only session. As a private club, they could do that. When the session was over they said good night to Olaf, peeled off the lycra, showered and changed into jeans and a polo shirt and went on their way. In the shower Eric checked his nephew out.
"Mmm, this training is making quite an acceptable young man out of you. I could quite fancy you."
"I thought you already did," replied Kieran with a knowing grin.
"How on earth did you get that impression?" said Eric in a scandalised tone.
"Anyway, don't bother. I've got other irons in the fire."
"Oh, yes?" Kieran tapped the side of his nose with his forefinger.
"No names, no packdrill."
"I take it from that you are enjoying yourself at the College."
"Come on, Eric. I'm starving," said Kieran, deliberately changing the subject.
Seated in the car Eric said
"Well, what do you fancy tonight?"
"What, to eat?"
"What else?"
"I could sink a pizza."
"From Domino's?"
"Well, you never know what might happen, especially after our first visit there."
"Lightning never strikes twice in the same place."
Eric started the car and made for the pizza parlour. All the waiting staff were dressed in their neat black and white uniforms, but there was not one waiter among them. The place was not the same without Orlando. It was just that, a pizza parlour. They picked up their order, returned to the car and drove back to Eric's flat.
"Ignore the mess. It was quite a busy weekend right up to the time I had to kick Todd out and go to work. I was working late and didn't have time to tidy up." Kieran couldn't help but look in as he passed Eric's doorless bedroom. The bed was an unmade shambles and there were knotted condoms scattered on the floor.
"You're expecting Tracey Emin, are you?" asked Kieran with a tad of sarcasm.
"Oh, that. If you knew Todd, you'd know why we didn't have time to clear up after ourselves."
They settled in the kitchen. Eric managed to find some clean plates and cutlery, ran the plates under the hot tap to warm them and they opened up the boxes and dug in.
"So you had a good weekend with this Todd?"
"You couldn't fail to. I don't know where he gets all his energy from."
"Is Todd his real name? It's such a gay name. I can't imagine parents christening their son Todd."
"No. In fact, I don't even know what his real name is. We do role play. He knows me as Dirk and we try to do the things that Todd and Dirk would do in a gay porno novel. It's quite fun really."
"So I see, but they never use jonnies in porno novels..."
"And they never contract STDs in porno novels, either. You have to be realistic about some things."
They finished their pizzas and retired to the sitting room to wash them down with isotonic drinks after their exertions. They chatted for a while. Then Kieran looked at his watch and decided it was time to go.
"Luckily I didn't have much homework tonight, or prep as we call it at College. But we get non-contact modules..."
"What?"
"Free periods." Eric knew that Kieran was taking the piss. "I shall have to use them on a Monday to get ahead when the work really starts piling up."
Eric duly delivered Kieran to the door, came in to have a short chat with Colleen and Dean and to thank them for the maintenance grant, while Kieran went off to bed early.
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