CHAPTER FOUR
The rest of Harvey Hunter's first week did not go smoothly.
Tuesday, bolstered by his brother's words and a decent night of sleep, Harvey walked into school confidently, not disillusioned by the chanting in the playground. As he strutted along to his first lesson, he thought to himself:
'So what if they hang around in circles and chant all day? It's fine, all schools do that… I hope.'
His first lesson had been English. They were starting their first book of that term; A Midsummer's Night Dream. They all had to take turns reading a few paragraphs and when Harvey found his turn approaching, he properly focussed on the words, eyes widening in disbelief. The words made no sense!
'How am I supposed to read this?! This is too complicated. Half of these words aren't even English!'
The person next to him began to read their section and Harvey found his face heating up. His usual tactic when faced with uncomfortable situations, was not to confront them head-on, but to try and weasel his way out of it. So, thinking quickly, Harvey shot his hand up, making his body wriggle in his seat.
"Yes, Mr… Hunter?"
Harvey did not miss the souring of the lips as his surname was spoken aloud, and he wondered why he was the only child to receive such a negative reaction.
"Need the toilet, Sir. I'm busting to go! Please?"
His teacher tutted, but fortunately decided to let the young boy go. Harvey thanked him, before leaving the classroom and slouching against the wall as soon as he had shut the door behind him.
'That was a close one. Hopefully, if I take my time, they'll have moved onto something else by the time I get back."
He made his way to the nearest bathroom, having to double back on a corridor once he'd realised that he had gone the wrong way, and slipped into the end cubicle, sitting on the closed lid. Harvey sighed in relief, his new school shoes resting on the clean bathroom floor. He checked his Simpsons watch, mentally timing his break. If he took roughly five minutes in the bathroom, then had a slow stroll back, he wouldn't get into trouble for 'taking too long' and would miss his turn at reading. It was a simple solution and he allowed a small smile to appear onto his face at such an act of advanced intelligence. However, what Harvey didn't count on were the Prefects and being new to the school, he didn't realise that the Prefects patrolled and the bathroom he was in, was one that they regularly checked.
Jeff Morgan strode along the corridor, ears tuned to the perfect silence that echoed throughout all of the hall-ways. His duty was to catch anyone snooping around outside of class, his job being to put them in their place. A swift dishing out of detention did the trick, but sometimes, Jeff wanted more. He wanted the children to properly fear him, but when all of them did everything he told them at all times, it became frustrating. He wanted someone who didn't obey every order, even someone who rebelled against the orders.
He didn't expect to find that someone in the bathroom near the English corridor.
Entering the bathroom, Jeff checked every cubicle, hoping to find a male student that he could make fun of for catching them sitting on a toilet, trousers down. The prospect of a punishment for the one caught in the act urged Jeff to whack open the cubicle doors with more intensity the further along the row he got. By the time he got to the end cubicle, Jeff was pumped up with energy so when he kicked open the door, revealing a young round-faced boy sitting on the closed toilet seat, face quickly melting into shock, Jeff's lips stretched back into a gleeful smile.
"Hello, little boy. Don't think I've seen you around before." His eyes roamed over Harvey from head to toe as he barked: "What is your name?"
The younger boy gulped, sweat slicking his palms. He hadn't expected to be caught, and to be caught by one of the creepy Prefects was not what he envisioned on his second day. He could be marched off to see the Headmaster again and there was no chance that Harvey wanted another meeting with the man.
"H… Harvey." He wasn't going to stutter, no matter how much this Prefect unnerved him. He may be one of the youngest pupils in the school, not even in his teenage years yet, but a growing part of Harvey didn't want to be a target. By all rights, he was the perfect sort of meat to throw to the lions, but he would not be lion meat. Never.
"Harvey what? Your name is common and befits a chav."
"Hunter." Anyone wiser and older would have left their answer short and sweet, but Harvey wanted to prove he was not worthless nor useless. "My name isn't common! I like my name, I think it's cool. What's yours?" He couldn't remember the boy's name, even though he'd been pushed around by him at Lloyd's parents evenings for the past two years.
The Prefect arched an eyebrow. Someone questioning his authority? 'Challenge accepted.' He thought.
"My name is Jeff Morgan and I am Deputy Prefect of St Champions. I will warn you now that disobey me at any point…" His eyes gleamed. "And you will end up in a world of trouble. Understand?"
Harvey nodded, standing up and imagining a string pulling his body up so that he appeared taller. This Jeff was intimidating, but Harvey didn't want to show that he was scared. If he showed his nervousness, he would be picked on, non-stop.
"What are you doing here? You should be attending class, not skipping."
"I wasn't." Harvey fidgeted slightly. "I mean, I was in English and I needed the toilet so I asked my teacher if I could go. I was about to go back before you showed up."
"Really?" Jeff snorted. "I wasn't aware that you could go to the toilet when the lid was down." He stepped into the cubicle, shortening the space between himself and Harvey. "Next time you want to hide from authority figures, make sure you pull your feet up. Yes, I noticed they were on the floor when I spotted you. Even if you'd had the door closed and I had looked underneath, I would have caught sight of your feet…"
Jeff chuckled, hand dipping into his blazer pocket. "For skipping class, I will be giving you a detention tonight. With me." He produced a slip of paper, fingers pulling out a pen clipped to his top pocket. Jeff started to write on the paper, his words sending Harvey's stomach plummeting.
"At the end of the day, you will report to the Prefect's room, where you will await instructions. Your detention, as it is your first, will last for an hour. I am taking pity on you as you are still new to this school. I have heard that you are a troublemaker and unlike your fellow new pupils, you did not listen attentively to the Headmaster and therefore, you have been banned from Assembly. So, we will all be watching you closely. Keep your nose clean. Got it?"
Harvey nodded, knowing that Jeff was lying because he did listen to the Headmaster and it wasn't his fault that he wasn't tired!
Blinking rapidly for a few seconds, Harvey took the slip of paper that Jeff handed to him, read it, then pocketed the paper in his blazer. "I'm going back to class now."
Turning sideways so that Harvey could leave the cubicle, Jeff glowered down at the small boy.
"I think you've got the right idea. You better hope that you don't come to my attention again, Harvey. Because next time, I won't be so generous."
His teacher ended up shouting at him for 'wasting time dawdling to and from the bathroom' and when Harvey let slip that he had already gone into trouble for wasting time by a Prefect, his teacher pounced on the chance to demand Harvey hand over his detention slip so he could read it out in front of the class.
Harvey was forced to listen and at the disapproving frowns he received from his classmates, he wondered if maybe his brother and parents were wrong. Maybe things were not meant to get better for him.
As soon as the teacher gave him back the paper, the bell rung, signalling the end of class. Harvey collected his bag and trudged out of the classroom, pausing to glance at his timetable. No one else around him seemed to have to look at their timetable to find out their next class. It seemed as if they knew exactly where they were going, in a new school on their second day.
Harvey sighed, slumping. He had PE next and he'd forgotten his new PE kit. He wanted to be brave, but he didn't have the courage to try and skip PE or come up with an excuse. He would be honest about his kit, but not looking forward to the consequences for his act of forgetfulness, Harvey walked along slowly, hoping that he would never make it there.
In the end, he'd had to borrow a spare kit, the shirt far too big for his small torso, swamping his figure horribly. For his class's first PE lesson, they were playing hockey. Harvey grimaced as he was handed a stick. He'd never played hockey and the only mention of it had been from the books his Mum used to read as a little girl. They consisted of girls in boarding schools in olden times, talking funny and playing hockey. So thus, Harvey thought hockey was for girls and felt embarrassed at playing it. He passed the puck the first chance he could and spent the rest of the lesson standing up, rubbing his sore back.
Once the lesson had finished, they all went back to the changing room and as Harvey changed back into his school uniform, he wished that someone would speak. He felt so uncomfortable and wanted to scream in frustration. None of this seemed right!
Harvey tried his best to tuck his shirt into his trousers and straighten his tie, but compared to his classmates, he was not as presentable looking. He growled in annoyance, hands falling away from his tie. This was the third time he'd worn this uniform, once trying it on at the uniform shop, but each time, his mother had helped him smooth out any little creases. However now, he was all alone and he couldn't get his uniform perfect.
It took no time at all for him to get pulled up on his uniform as one of the Prefects, a tall girl called Sue who frightened the hell out of Harvey, stopped in front of him and started yanking at his uniform.
"Hunter, yeah I know who you are. Your uniform is not correct. You need it adjusting. I am helping you today, but after today, you are on your own. Do you understand?"
Harvey nodded, feeling like a puppet on strings as he was pulled around. He was given a clip to the ear as a send-off and he walked away, feeling miserable. He headed towards the playground, glad to have a break. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to attach himself to a circle and join in with the chanting, but it was worth a go.
Ten large circles were dotted around the playground and Harvey headed towards the circle that contained his brother, slipping in to stand next to Lloyd.
"Harvey, you shouldn't be joining in. You're not one of us."
The rejection stung, he had to admit. After the chat with his parents and brother last night, Harvey thought that they were behind him, on his side. Now it was clear that they were not.
"Fine." He spat the word out like a curse, infuriated at the treatment he was receiving from his own flesh and blood. "Am I too lame for you? Too much of a troublemaker? Cause I don't think I am! I think you can't stand having me here so you treat me like I'm scum! Well, guess what, I'm not!"
Lloyd coolly looked at his little brother as he finished venting his anger, face red and fists clenched.
"Run along, Harvey. Not literally, mind you. You are aware of the rules."
"Something tells me I wouldn't be able to forget them, Lloyd."
Harvey walked off in a huff, staying close to the edge of the playground. He'd rather be in a corner than hang out with his traitorous brother! Lloyd was meant to look after him, not beat him down every chance he got! He sighed as only a few minutes later, the Prefects marched out onto the steps and he shuffled into his line.
'This place is hell.'
Half three on the dot, Harvey slumped against the wall outside of the Prefect's room, dreading to enter the room. His encounters with Jeff had been limited, but something told him that this was going to be brutal. He swallowed down the growing lump in his throat as Jeff approached from the far end of the corridor, barking out a command at the younger boy:
"Off the wall, Hunter! I'm not having you lazing about the place!"
Harvey pushed himself off of the wall and turned to face Jeff, unable to stop himself from giving a little shudder. The older boy was creepy, a hollow face that could easily have come out of a horror film, one that was too high in rating for his age but he most likely had already sneakily seen.
"What's my detention going to be?"
In hindsight, perhaps he should have been more cautious with his wording, but he was only young and impatient.
Jeff narrowed his eyes, a sign of displeasure that he was being questioned.
"None of your business! You need to learn to stop prying into matters that don't concern you, or you'll be seeing a lot more of me than you wish too!"
Opening the door to the room, Jeff strode in and barked: "Inside, Hunter. Go and sit down at one of the desks."
Harvey stepped into the room, eyeing up the six spaced out desks in the room, before choosing one of the desks situated at the back, so that he was as far away as possible from Jeff.
Jeff smirked at the troublemaker's seating, waiting for Harvey to get settled in his chair to move over to stand in front of him. Placing his fingertips on the taken desk, he sneered:
"I'll be giving you lines to write and you better write them perfectly."
Harvey nodded, unsure of why the Prefect was being so threatening. Sure, he had broken a 'rule' and might have told a little lie about using the bathroom when he didn't need it, but why was he being threatened?
Jeff moved away to grab a sheet of lined paper and a pencil, putting them down on the taken desk.
"I want you to write 'I will obey all rules at St Champions', one hundred times." He raised his arm, eyes flickering to the watch on his wrist. "You should be finished within an hour. Best start."
Harvey's fingers held a tremor as he picked up the pencil and set it to paper. It was time to get this detention over with.
He walked speedily out of the school, the past fifty minutes weighing heavily on his mind. His hand had smudged a few of the lines, the ache in his palm unbearable by the time he wrote out the one hundredth line. It had taken him forty five minutes, and with only accompaniments of heavy breathing and a ticking clock, Harvey felt like he was going to slowly go insane.
Even though his work had smudged, Jeff did not comment, instead telling him to get going before he changed his mind. Harvey was relieved that he had been dealt with a small mercy, but once he got home, he was sure he was going to get it in the neck.
When he walked through the door of his home, Harvey was set upon by his mother and he could tell that she was seeing red.
"Harvey James! There I was, waiting for my two boys to get home, only for Lloyd to come in and tell me that you were going to be home late because you're serving detention with the Deputy Head Prefect for breaking a rule!"
Teresa moved her hands from her hips to tucking them under her arms as she crossed them.
"Honestly, Harvey, it's only your second day of big school and already, you're getting into trouble! I want you to go to your room and think about what you've done."
He sighed in response, kicking off his shoes as he trudged up the stairs towards his room. On the landing, he caught a glimpse of Lloyd hovering in the doorway to his bedroom and Harvey felt annoyance consume him. He stamped his foot on the landing floor, snapping:
"Didn't have to go and tell Mum, did you?"
"You broke a rule, Harvey and she would have wondered where you had got too. You're my responsibility."
"No, I am not." Harvey marched towards his own bedroom. "Now I'm stuck in my room, thanks a lot, Lloyd."
He slammed the door behind him and threw himself onto his bed, wallowing in his own self-pity.
That evening had finished with a meaningless apology to his parents for receiving a detention and an early bedtime straight after dinner. The events of the day and the detention had fuelled his disliking for St Champions and as Harvey entered the school grounds on the Wednesday, he found himself wishing that he was at home.
All the way through to Friday afternoon, Harvey found himself steadily getting into more trouble, the Prefects and teachers firing warnings and detentions at him full-pelt. He landed himself in hot water for arguing back against Mr Venables, who lectured him in front of the entire class for not achieving 100% on the test about the solar system. Everyone else in his class, pray everyone in the entire school achieved one hundred percent except for him. Mr Venables had demanded to know why he had not passed the surprise test and Harvey had fired back unwisely:
"How the hell am I supposed to know about the solar system when you don't teach us anything and expect us to pull the information from our brains?!"
That had landed him in a detention after hours and now Harvey was sitting in his last lesson before the weekend and cursing whoever made the timetable for stitching him up with Mr Venables on the last hour of a Friday afternoon.
The bell shrilled and Harvey leant back in his chair, able to relax now that he had completed his full first week at St Champions. However, Mr Venables had other ideas.
"Class, you are dismissed. All pupils make their way to the school gates. Harvey Hunter, you are going to see the Headmaster immediately." As the young boy gaped, Mr Venables rapped his knuckles on the desk. "Hurry up, boy! Do not keep the Headmaster waiting!"
Harvey propelled himself to his feet and fled the classroom at a fast walking pace, wanting to get the meeting with the Headmaster over as quickly as possible. He approached the door to the man's lair and knocked, pushing his nerves down deep to the pit of his stomach.
The order for him to enter boomed out into the corridor and Harvey opened the door, slipping into the room and closing the door behind him, before taking a seat opposite the man.
The Headmaster glared at his visitor, deciding to make this meeting quick for both of their sakes.
"Your first week over with, Mr Hunter and I must say, I am not impressed. Monday, you provide me with backchat and do not acknowledge me with the respect that I deserve. Tuesday, you cut certain parts of your class only to be caught by one of my Prefects, where you, once again, spoke disrespectfully. You were given a detention and let off lightly."
The Headmaster let a slight growl impact his voice, to scare the boy into realisation.
"Wednesday, Rose told you three times that your behaviour outside in the playground and within the school corridors was unacceptable. You did not adhere to the rules so she gave you a detention during your lunch break, followed up by another one after school for not listening. Yesterday, you bickered with one of your teachers and for that, you ended up in detention with Mr Venables."
The Headmaster shook his head. "Three out of four weekdays, you have had to stay after school to suffer. We have all given you chances to straighten yourself out, but it seems as if you do not want to improve your behaviour. This is why I told Mr Venables today to send you to me."
Harvey's jaw dropped at the words he uttered next. He'd been given no opportunities to defend himself or explain his actions and hearing this piece of news was all too much.
"I have decided that you will be spending all day here tomorrow, undertaking a detention. You will be spending your Saturday with me and we will be having a… little chat on how we can improve this behaviour of yours."
Harvey so badly wanted to look badass and swear, but all he could do was simply slouch down in his seat, face draining of colour.