14.
Harry walked out of the sports hall feeling rather good, other than the cramp in his right hand. None of his friends had been in the Latin exam, so he wasn't subjected to the 'what did you get for question 4' conversations going on around him, but he was fairly certain he had done well in the translations, and the comprehension hadn't been too difficult...
Either way, he was glad that he had finished the exam. Three papers spread over two weeks had been more nerve-wracking than he would have thought, and he was ready to relax for the final four weeks of term. They had had a 0500 PT session on the morning of his second paper as well, which Harry thought was simply cruel.
Tyler was in C-dorm when he got back, having finished his physics paper half an hour earlier. He stood up and gave Harry a quick congratulatory hug, and grinned down at him.
"How was it?"
Harry shrugged. "Fine, I think. Not terrible, but I don't think I got an A."
Tyler waved a hand. "Bet you aced it."
Harry grinned and just shrugged again, loosening his tie.
"We're doing a celebratory swim in the pond." Tyler said. "Now exams are over. You in?"
"Sure." Harry nodded. "Who's we?"
"The whole squad. I think Chen might even be coming." Tyler said.
"Cool." Harry said, dropping onto his bed.
Tyler nodded. "Yeah, skinny dipping in the school pond in the middle of the night is generally a laugh after exams."
"Skinny dipping?" Harry repeated.
"It's sort of a tradition." Tyler said. "We've done it every year I've been here, at least. Saturday after exams are done."
"Right."
"Aw, come in, it's fun!" Tyler laughed. "It's dark, you don't need to worry about Oakley seeing your ding-dong."
"Ding-dong?" Harry repeated, laughing.
Tyler shrugged. "Yates has got Russian on Friday, but that's the last exam, so the plan is to go this Saturday."
Harry nodded, just as the bell rang outside the dorm to signal the start of lunch. He reluctantly straightened his tie and they hurried down to the courtyard, where they slipped into formation just as Brigadier O'Reilly called "Company-shun!" and the boys stamped to attention.
Although the last of the O level and A-level exams were over, the stiffs were still working them as hard as ever in tips, although nobody was really in the mood to work. By the end of one biology tip, Lieutenant Atkinson had handed out a total of 165 laps and 500 hours' worth of duty to boys who weren't concentrating.
Mr. Smoke and Mr. Little made them do circuits in the sun for six hours after lunch, and that seemed to sap most of the more boisterous boys' energy. They traipsed back to their dorms almost an hour later than normal and showered off the sweat and dust before heading down for EM.
The dining hall was much noisier than usual, full of people celebrating the end of exams, and for a few of the pupils their last four weeks at Coleshill Academy. Despite still having to work up to the end of term, most of the boys were in good spirits, laughing and joking and shoving each other around.
Most of bravo squad were excited for their traditional midnight swim, and none of them could properly concentrate on their banco, but it hardly mattered, as f-dorm seemed to have somehow gotten hold of at least 2 bottles of vodka, and were stumbling around and trying to climb the curtains before Major Bradford arrived and hauled them all off to the brigadier.
"That's a bugger." Tyler said, listening to Major Bradford screaming at the corporal on duty. "They're going to keep checking the rest of us to make sure we haven't got any as well."
Harry got into bed with Tyler at the usual time when the lights turned off, and they lay watching a movie, hiding it under the duvet when stiffs opened the door to check they were asleep.
"Shall we go?" Javid hissed, some time around midnight.
"At least another hour." Tyler whispered back. "Norwood won't have left until midnight, and we've got to leave time after that."
"I know that." Bhandi snapped.
At 0116, the door to the bathroom opened, and Nat appeared in the middle of their dorm. "You canks haven't chickened out have you?"
"We were waiting to make sure the stiffs had all gone." Tyler replied, rolling his eyes even though Nat couldn't see him.
"Yeah, well, we may as well go." Nat said. "Bradford and Pearson left at like 2330."
"And Norwood?" Tyler asked, rolling out of bed.
"Hasn't been in for at least an hour." Nat replied.
They boys pulled on jumpers and boots in the dark, then left the dorm and quietly made their way down to the main reception, meeting up with Chen as thy did so. Rex had wedged the door open with a piece of folded paper in the mechanical lock earlier in the day, and they all slipped outside into the clear night, running across the grounds to the pond. They went around to the far side to minimise the risk of being caught, then left all their clothes in a heap under a tree.
Harry shivered as a gentle breeze blew over the group, a strange contrast to his heated face. "How deep is it?" He whispered to Tyler, arms crossed over his stomach.
"I can stand up right in the middle." Tyler replied reassuringly. "You'll be fine. Remember that PT last month? You can swim!"
Harry nodded uncertainly but made no move to step closer to the pitch black water.
"Come on Jefferson!" Turk called.
"Wuss much Potter?" Nathaniel jeered.
Harry grit his teeth and took a small step forward. Tyler took his hand with a smile and pulled him the rest of the way into the water, causing him to tip forwards and go under. Harry came up spluttering and gasping for air, but managed to join in the laughter, wading in to above his waist.
Harry splashed Tyler back, and soon they were all having a large water fight, laughing and ducking under the water. After a while, Chen brought out a large glass bottle, to cheers and whoops from the others.
"Good old Jack!" Nathaniel laughed.
They all clambered out of the pond and collapsed on the bank, then passed around the bottle, all taking a large swig before handing it on.
"How'd you get this trank in?" Owen asked.
Chen just grinned. "As if I'd tell you."
Rex gasped as he swallowed the liquid, then passed the bottle to Harry.
"What is this stuff?" He asked, sniffing the top and recoiling.
"Whiskey." Tyler replied.
"Just drink or pass it on." Jones complained.
Scowling, Harry raised the bottle to his lips and took a large sip, coughing as the liquid burned his throat. He passed the bottle to Tyler, pulling a face, and the other boys all burst out laughing. "That tastes like really old apple juice or something." Harry gasped, sticking out his tongue. That didn't stop him from taking a swig every time the bottle passed him as the ten naked boys messed around in the pond, laughing and fighting and relaxing after exams.
Bravo squad swam in the pond and chased each other around it, but Harry stayed mostly sat in the water at the edge. As he drank more of the Jack Daniels, Harry felt his confidence growing, and after a while he waded out towards Tyler, who was floating lazily in the middle of the pond. He had to swim the last few metres as the water got deeper, but then flicked a handful of pondweed at Tyler's head from behind.
"Oh, you cank!" Tyler said, turning around and pulling the plant off his head, before sweeping his arm through the water and sending a wave at Harry's face.
Harry saw the dark water rushing at him, and could do nothing more than squeeze his eyes shut before it crashed into him, rushing into his mouth and going up his nose. He tried to stand up, but the muddy ground was too far under his feet, and his head went under, causing him to swallow another mouthful of water. Harry began to panic.
He couldn't breathe. He didn't even know which way was up. He swallowed another mouthful of water as he tried to cough, his chest constricting painfully.
Suddenly he felt an arm around his chest, and then his head broke the surface and he could spit out the water in his mouth, coughing and gagging.
"Hey, hey, you ok?"
Harry nodded as he coughed up more pond water. He felt a hand gently rubbing his back, and realised that Tyler was holding him above the water with an arm under his legs, the other rubbing his back as he coughed.
"Thanks." Harry whispered, resting his forehead on Tyler's shoulder.
"Don't worry." Tyler replied quietly, but Harry thought his voice sounded strange.
Harry coughed again, and let his heartbeat come back down to normal, still pressed tight against Tyler. A thick stick between them was poking into his leg, but he couldn't be bothered to move it, enjoying the faint swaying motion as Tyler walked slowly around the pond. He stopped on the far side, away from the others who were having another water fight, now fuelled by alcohol, and looked up at the school, the occasional window lit from within in the aerie.
Harry suddenly realised quite how close together he and Tyler were, pressed together with water up to their ribs. He shifted, and Tyler grunted, before letting go of him and walking towards the shore, where he sat down in the shallows. Harry dropped down next to him, resolutely not looking at the older boy. They sat in companionable silence for a while, until Blake swam over to them.
"We've got to go now." He said, stood in the water a few metres in front of them. "It's already 0450."
Tyler looked at his watch in surprise. "Kubowa. We've been here three hours?"
"Apparently." Blake nodded. "We're all going to be winkered tomorrow."
Tyler grinned as he stood up. "How much do you want to bet Jones goes on aeger?"
Blake laughed. "Not taking that one."
Harry walked around the outside of the pond to his clothes, and dressed quickly, shivering slightly in the breeze.
Harry was too used to sneaking around at night to be bothered by the silent corridors, but it was always slightly creepy to see the school so dark and empty.
They all headed for the shower to rinse of the mud and pondweed that still clung to them before collapsing into bed.
Harry felt like his head had only just touched the pillow when the bell rang outside the dorm. Judging by everybody else's groans and shadowed eyes they felt the same.
They had Latin first lesson, and after giving the rest of the class a worksheet Major Kelly drew Harry to one side to ask him about his exams.
"I think it went quite well sir." Harry admitted. "There were a couple of words that I know I got wrong in the translation in paper 2, because I looked them up afterwards, but in general I think I did alright."
"What about the grammar questions?"
"I did the English to Latin instead." Harry replied. "I'm pretty sure I got them mostly right."
Major Kelly raised his eyebrows. "Mostly?"
"Well, I can't know if I got 100%, but I'm pretty sure I used the right cases and endings."
"Well, congratulations." Major Kelly said, resting a hand momentarily on Harry's shoulder. "We'll see how you do, but I've been thinking about moving you up into a higher set, with the boys doing A-level. We do some ancient Greek in those classes as well, which I think you'd be good at."
"Thank you, sir." Harry said.
"You have a natural talent for ancient languages, it seems," Major Kelly said. "Combined with an actual appreciation for the subject. Many boys don't see the point in learning a dead language, but I find that Latin especially can be rather useful in understanding the world around you, don't you think?"
"Er, I guess so sir. I've never really thought about it." Harry replied.
Major Kelly handed him a worksheet on derivations of words. "Well, do get on with your work, I've kept you long enough."
Harry slipped into his seat and worked his way through the questions until Major Kelly told them to start packing up, then walked with Robert McKinnley to Mr. Clarke's classroom.
Over the year the French classes had gotten steadily more difficult, and Harry had dropped down four more sets since February. He didn't really mid, as most of the boys in his original set had already taken their O level exams. The only downside was he didn't really know any of the 4 other boys in his new class, and none of them were the kind of people he could just walk up to and introduce himself, so he spent the majority of the lessons working quietly by himself at the back.
Their instructions were written on the whiteboard, and Harry started the comprehension as the rest of the class took their time taking out pencils and opening their exercise books.
"Hurry up please boys." Mr. Clarke called from the front of the classroom. "Don't forget to put the date and title."
"What even is the date today?" Harry asked the boy sitting next to him.
"25th." Came the curt reply.
Tyler was waiting for him outside the classroom at the end of the tip, and they walked back to C-dorm together to get their military skills and tactics folders. Milskil and tac lessons were one of the more unusual parts of Coleshill; the only lesson taught in squads rather than set by ability. They were probably also some of the more interesting lessons: As well as practicing drill and weapons' handling, they were taught first aid, commanded mock battles on a huge table top, learnt how to tie knots and set snares, read maps and planned hypothetical routes through field and down rivers, discussed past battles; 'Why did Napoleon move his troops here?' 'How could Bernard Montgomery have used the terrain to his advantage?' 'How did the British win at Plassey despite being outnumbered almost 15:1?' They had been told they would be moving on from discussing strategy in chess last tip, and Harry was excited to find out what they would be doing next.
Thirty minutes later, he had changed his mind. He frowned as he tried to focus on the taps coming from the other side of the open folder propped up on the table, blocking out the clicks and scrapes sounding around the room. Morse code was a bugger to understand at the best of times, and trying to focus on the noises one boy with a pencil was making in a room full of 30 people was taking his full concentration.
"3000 enemy soldiers camped in fortified trenches on the Eastern side of the church?" Harry asked, looking over the top of the folder.
Tyler dropped his pencil and nodded. "Your turn."
"These sentences are so weird." Harry said, shaking his head.
Tyler laughed. "What do you expect? It's Smoke. They're all going to be some kind of battle simulation."
"True." Harry grinned. "At least we're not drawing up battle plans any more."
Tyler laughed. "Just because your tactics are so bad."
"Probably true." Harry shrugged, picking up his ruler and tapping it on the table.
Twenty minutes later, they had translated all of the sentences on the worksheet they had been given into and out of Morse code, and Harry and Tyler left together. They had finished five minutes before the lesson was scheduled to end, but they were by no means the first to leave, and so they walked slowly back to C-dorm from the classroom.
Harry saw Sergeant Kent heading down the corridor towards them and gave a small groan.
"Private Potter." Sergeant Kent said, stopping in front of them and blocking Harry's way down the corridor.
"Yes sir." Harry said, moving to stand to attention.
"I still haven't had your banco." Sergeant Kent said, looking down his long nose. "I told you to bring it to me before the weekend."
"Sorry Sir." Harry said. "It's in my dorm, if you want me to go and get it?"
Sergeant Kent nodded. "If it's on my desk before lunch then I won't give you a div."
"Yes sir."
"Private Jefferson, you may continue." Sergeant Kent said to Tyler, who moved from attention and turned on his heel, glancing over his shoulder just before he turned the corner. "At ease, private." Sergeant Kent said, and Harry relaxed to his hands behind his back. "The thing is Potter, this isn't the first time this has happened. I understand that you were under some pressure taking an O level early, but a lot of other boys were in you position and they still manage to hand in their banco on time, and you're not exactly having that problem any more, are you?"
"No sir." Harry said, slightly irritated.
"I'm not going to give you laps, but I do expect you to start taking some responsibility and organising yourself better." Sergeant Kent continued.
"Yes sir." Harry repeated.
"Good. I will be in my classroom until 1215. If you can get your banco to me by then, you will only receive a tardy, but if I still don't have it by next tip, you're going to be in detention."
"Yes sir."
"Dismissed." Sergeant Kent nodded, and Harry snapped to attention before hurrying down the corridor. He started running up towards is dorm, but was stopped on the stairs by a shout.
"Potter!"
Groaning, Harry moved to attention and waited as Major Bradford walked towards him.
"Sorry sir." He tried.
Major Bradford raised an eyebrow. "So you do know what you were doing is against the rules. As you have so much energy, why don't you take 10 laps?"
"Yes sir." Harry said.
"Dismissed."
Harry walked up the stairs, but as soon as Major Bradford was out of earshot, he began sprinting to C-dorm. Tyler was sitting at his desk, and Harry gave him a brief smile before grabbing the maths worksheet.
He ran to Sergeant Kent's classroom, only slowing to a walk when he heard Major Bradford and Mr. Callahan talking as they walked up a set of stairs, not wanting any more laps.
He knocked on the door and stepped into the classroom, walking over to the man's desk and handing him the papers. Sergeant Kent glanced up at the clock on the wall, and Harry span to look as well.
"Only just." Sergeant Kent said, raising his eyebrows. "If you hand in your banco late again I will have to start divving you, Potter."
"Yes sir."
"Dismissed."