Aaron Connor (19 page)

“
There are
football and basketball courts behind the Dormitories and I’m sure
that the school won’t mind if you borrow their balls as long as you
put them back. There’s a television in the Dormitory House, as well
as a pool table.

“
Do whatever
you feel you need to do to calm yourselves down and relax. If you
need anything, just go and ask one of the adults in this room. I
just hope that your all ok, thank you”

Unexpectedly, I got a huge
round of applause. Everyone in the room were clapping, shouting and
whistling. I was not expecting that. The kids, the adults, the
cooks and even Lizzie all clapped and smiled towards me. It was
deeply moving and was deeply touched by it. It certainly has become
one of the most memorable moments of my life, as brief as it
was.

The people in the room
dispersed in their own time, leaving the canteen and heading back
to the Dormitory House. A lot of the adults shook my hand before
leaving the room. The larger female cook, who I talked to before,
simply came out and gave me a thumbs up before disappearing back
into the kitchen. Laura came up to me and placed a hand on my
shoulder. She also placed her other hand on Lizzie’s shoulder.

“
I’m going to
make sure” she said, “that Joe gives you both the full amount of
cash he was going to give you at the end of this tour”

“
Oh no, you
don’t have to do that” I said, “don’t worry about me”

“
No, no Mr
Connor!” insisted Laura, “If you weren’t there today, I don’t
believe that those kids would have gotten back here safe. I don’t
even want to think about what could have happened. You two were
incredible toady. You deserve every penny. I promise you, that
before we leave for the Train Station tomorrow, you will have that
money. No excuses”

“
Thank you” I
said,

“
No” she
replied, “Thank you”

She patted both of our
shoulders, before walking out into the cold morning and across the
courtyard. After saying thank you again to the cooks, I and Lizzie
headed outside as well. We saw David walking by himself in the
middle of the courtyard. We jogged a little bit faster to catch up
with him. He was happy to see us. The two of us walked with him
back down the stairs into the tunnel, up the other end and towards
the Dormitory House.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

David hung out with me and
Lizzie for the remainder of the day. We didn’t really do much. All
we did was hang around the activities room with some of the others.
Some were playing a game of pool by pushing with balls with their
hands, still enjoying the game even though there was a lack of
cues. Some girls by the windows were playing a game of Truth or
Dare. The rest of the people in the room, kids and adults alike,
were watching some light hearted daytime television.

David, me and Lizzie were among
those who were just watching the television. We no longer felt all
uptight and wound up as we were before. Our bodies were relaxed,
our minds were free from panic and fear, and we breathed in a
natural rhythm. We no longer felt threatened by horrid
circumstances.

It wasn’t too long before we
saw the flashing lights of several police cars, project across the
walls of the room through a window. We all gathered around the
window to see what was going on. Joe, the man with the monk haircut
and all the others got out of the police cars and headed towards
the building. Their Nazi uniforms had been taken away and they were
all in their usual clothes again. They entered the building
escorted by two policemen, while the others stayed in their
cars.

The boys, the man with the monk
haircut and Joe all went into their rooms in silence. None of them
wanted to talk after the event that day. I don’t think I ever found
out what that guy’s name was, the man with the monk haircut, no one
ever got round to telling me. Oh well, he wasn’t in this book for
too long anyway, was he? Thankfully I won’t be seeing him or that
messed up sod Joe again.

A policewoman came into the
activities room to hand me and Lizzie an envelope from Joe. Inside
was £50, as he was planning to pay us £5 each for the five nights
the show as doing to run for. All together with the money we earned
from Purple Skull, we now had £70. That money was going to come in
handy, we both knew that we could make that last a fair while. We
thanked the policewoman, who tipped her hat to us and left the
room. The police went back to their cars and drove off out through
the archway.

Everyone was now accounted for.
Finally we knew where everyone was and were able to relax
completely. Joe didn’t talk to us again. He didn’t talk to anybody
from the theatre troupe after that event. He kept himself to his
room for the duration of the day. I think he finally understood his
mistake and felt ashamed. I don’t know what they said to him at
that police station, but it sure worked.

“
Do you guys
wanna come up to my room?” asked David sweetly, “I wanna show you
something”

“
Sure” we
replied.

We got up and followed the now
excited David out the room. I resealed the envelope and put it in
my jogger’s pocket. We following him down the hallway, through the
foyer, through the next set of doors, up three flights of stairs
and up onto the top level. We kept on following him down another
corridor lined with doors, all leading to separate rooms. David had
the room at the end. He opened the door, went inside and we
followed him in.

The room was just a tad bit
smaller then the one we were in. On the bed was a pair of Marvel
pyjama bottoms, an MP3 player and a very small guitar case. That
is, I thought it was a guitar case. I read the words that there
printed on it, which said: Gelderbloom Ukuleles. David was taking
the little ukulele from his case, when Lizzie noticed that there
was a small photograph of Tulisa from N-Dubs on the wall.

“
Is that
yours?” asked Lizzie,

“
Yeah” replied
David, his cheeks turned a rosy red, “I don’t like going anywhere
without it”

“
That’s cute”
said Lizzie, “do you like her?”

“
Yeah” he
replied, “she’s really pretty”

“
Gonna give us
a tune then, mate?” I asked,

“
Sure!”
replied David, “that’s what I brought you up here for”

David began to play the little
instrument with a surprising amount of skill. If you’ve never come
across a ukulele before, it’s basically a small guitar with four
strings on which you can play pretty much any song you can think
of. It’s a perfect sing-along and travel instrument, easier to
carry then a big ol’ guitar. I’ve got mine here by my desk. After
seeing David’s it inspired me to buy my own. Lovely thing it is.
Has a great sound to it.

David was playing a song I knew
very well. It was Hey, Soul Sister by Train. He had a very nice
singing voice, which is probably why he got into the theatre
company in the first place. His voice had that Indie sound to it.
Not the lousy imitation that the band back at St.Ians were doing,
but a more genuine and natural sounding voice. It was really nice
listening to him. In fact, it was so nice that it gave Lizzie an
idea. She waited for him to finish playing first, when he did we
gave him a round of applause.

“
Very good,
mate!” I said, “Your pretty nifty on that, aren’t yah!”

“
Thanks” he
replied,

“
Yeah, you
were fantastic!” added Lizzie, “can I ask you
something?”

“
Yeah, sure”
replied David,

“
Do you know,
which room Amber is in?” asked Lizzie,

“
Yeah, room
thirteen, on the floor below” answered David, “Why?”

“
Come with me”
she said, getting herself all excited, “and bring the Ukulele with
you. I have the best idea, ever!”

Before we could ask her what
she was going on about, she had already gotten up and darted from
the room. It seemed that we had no choice in the matter, so we
followed her out of the room. When we came out into the hallway,
all we saw was a flash at the end of the hall, which was Lizzie
zooming down the flight of stairs. David and I also went down the
stairs, but not at the dangerously fast speed that Lizzie did it
in.

We arrived at the floor below,
where we found Lizzie standing in front of the door with a number
“13” on it. There was an eager grin spread across her face, she was
practically hopping on the spot with excitement. When she saw
David, she grabbed his wrist and pulled him in front of the door.
Lizzie went to the side where I was standing. She left David
standing in front of the door holding his ukulele in his hand.

There was a quiet pause. David
just stood there and no idea what to do. He slowly turned on the
spot and stared at Lizzie in confusion. She just smiled back at
him.

“
Knock on the
door” she explained, “and when she answers it, you play that song,
just like how you did for us”

“
Are you off
your rocker?” he asked, “I can’t do that!”

“
Why not?” she
asked,

“
Because . .
.” he replied, he was trying to think of something that would a
good argument, “because . . .”

“
Exactly” said
Lizzie, “Just do it. If it doesn’t turn out good, then you won’t be
any less of a man then you were before. But, it might go really
well, it’s worth a shot!”

“
I’m with
Lizzie on this one” I added, “couldn’t hurt to try”

“
I guess not”
said David, he finally gave in,

“
Then, go on!”
insisted Lizzie, “do it, do it!”

David nodded nervously to
Lizzie. He turned his head and stared at the door. The time he was
staring at that door felt like a century. The air felt still. Not a
sound could be heard. No one moved. David took a very deep breath
and knocked on the door. The sound rang through silence loudly. It
was like he was knocking on an old wooden door, in a cathedral.

We only had to wait for a few
minutes for Amber to answer the door. She opened the door wearing a
white blouse and had a red bow in her long black hair. She smiled
at David who smiled back. There was an awkward silence for a few
moments, with David still clutching at his ukulele.

“
Come on”
Lizzie whispered, “Come on, come on!”

Finally, to our great relief,
David began to strum on that ukulele. We both sighed loudly and
giggled among ourselves. For a few moments, we thought that he
wouldn’t do it and blow this opportunity. We thought that Amber
would just close the door on him, and then he’d go back to his room
defeated. He didn’t though. He played that little ukulele and sung
the same song that he sung to us.

Amber’s face lit up. Her hand
went up to her mouth. When we looked closer, we saw that her hand
was shaking. The young girl’s other hand was rested on her chest.
Her smile was wide and bashful. David kept on singing and playing.
Then we saw the exact thing that Lizzie was hoping to see, she saw
adoration in Amber’s eyes. The plan had worked. David had
successfully pulled at Amber’s heart strings.

David finished the song and
stood there, waiting for a final outcome. Amber wasn’t sure what to
do at first. She swallowed and bit her lip. A smile spread across
her face again, while she looked at David. Her right hand was
playing with strand of hair, nervously.

“
Do you want
to come in?” she asked, “I’ve got some games on my
phone”

Bless her heart, she literally
had no idea what else to suggest. David’s song had really made an
impression on Amber, but she wasn’t sure what to do about it. It
was really sweet to watch. It was so innocent. Even David was quite
shy and wasn’t sure what to do with himself.

“
Sure” he
replied simply,

“
Cool” Amber
said.

She took David’s wrist and led
him into her room. Me and Lizzie mimed “yes!”, and then high fived
each other. I know, it’s really corny but we were honestly that
happy. David won the heart of the girl he’d always fancied, other
than Tulisa of course. After such a nasty day, it was nice to do a
good deed like that. It would become something else to add to our
list of good deeds. Out of all the things we’d done on that trip,
getting David and Amber together was one of my favourites.

Aaron Connor and Lizzie Penny:
the matchmakers. It was a nice feeling, the feel that you’ve really
ignited a spark between two people. I can see why people get such a
buzz out of it, it really can be a wonderful experience.

The two of us went back down to
our own room, feeling all light and bubbly. We didn’t do much. I
put the money that the policewoman gave me, into my safe with the
Moped key and the other money. I and Lizzie just sat on the bed,
played Angry Birds on her phone and had a bit of a chat. It was the
kind of chat we have almost everyday, the chat in which you talk
about nothing of any real importance. You chat about films, music,
celebrities, funny videos we’ve seen online, gossip and so on. We
also had a little kiss and a cuddle, there on the bed. It was nice
to have some time just to ourselves.

The cooks prepared a few more
meals during the day. There were some games played across the site,
using items which were “borrowed” from the school’s sports
cupboard. These games included: cricket, rugby, football,
basketball, hockey, rounders and ultimate Frisbee. Those who
weren’t playing were at the sides and enjoying being the game’s
audience. There were some fantastic football chants, some were very
funny and some were filthy for kids of that age.