Ugly Beautiful (25 page)

'Don't be so ridiculous, Michael. Now do what you're told, boy. Come on now, everyone. Turn to page five.'

Mrs Pointon's firm tone took charge of the classroom once again. The other kids
'
laughter turned to faint titters and giggles before dying out completely. Michael dragged his book from his backpack and slammed it down hard upon the table in front of me, but much closer to his side of the desk than mine.

'So what regiment's your dad in, chunk?'

'Six two Cyprus Support squadron! The Royal Engineers.' I replied proudly.

'The Engineers!' Sneered Michael. 'So all your dad gets to do is fix things all day like a glorified handyman. Sounds a bit boring if you ask me. My dad's in the infantry so he gets to carry guns around and shoot people whenever he likes.'

'You can't shoot people over here.'

I almost chuckled to myself at the absurdity of his statement. I stopped laughing immediately though when he turned to face me with a complete look of seriousness.

'My dad can. And he could shoot you if he wanted to, and your dad.'

I had to bite my tongue and grit my teeth from arguing with him anymore. He either really did believe this deluded guff he spoke or else he was just winding me up to get a reaction. Maybe so he could thump me one or something more violent. I remained quiet. I placed my eyes firmly down upon the text book in front of me, of what I could see of it, and began to read.

Chapter 2

Lunchtime couldn't have come soon enough. I ended up sitting by myself at the edge of the School playing fields munching away on my packed lunch while watching some of the other boys from the same year, including Michael, join together to play football. I noticed that Michael took full charge and control of the game right from the start. Not only were they playing with his ball, but he'd also allocated himself as team captain and star player of his team. So there was no surprise to discover who the 'un-discussed' referee was going to be also. And out of the other dozen or so boys playing, Michael was the only one who could be heard screaming out and directing his team mates around the pitch with dominating chants that usually consisted of. 'Pass to me arsehole!' or 'Give me the ball arsehole!' or 'Give me the ball now or I'll thump you one!'

I finished my second ham and cheese sandwich to the sound of Michael moaning at yet another boy who'd just given the ball away to the opposing team.

'Pass to me quicker next time dip stick. I'm the best player here, so just pass the ball to me quicker next time, all right?'

Out of nowhere the ball was kicked out of play and came bouncing directly towards me. At the time I was getting ready to place a small plastic straw inside my carton of fruit juice. My heart sank to the bottom of my stomach as I watched the ball come closer and closer. I was actually a little excited too about whether to run and fetch it or not and pass it back to the players. Before I could make that decision though, Michael had already made it for me.

'Oih! Kick the ball back to us Chunk. Quickly now.'

In a flash I found myself abandoning the rest of my packed lunch and running after the stray football. I had to kick it back towards Michael so I knew it had to be an inch perfect, yet fast paced, razor sharp pass, just to prove I was indeed a half decent player in his eyes. Of course I knew I was already a decent little player at the best of times. This was thanks to my father who once had a trial for the great 'Glasgow Celtic' at the tender age of sixteen. He choose to join the army instead when he never quite made the professional football cut. But he did manage to pass down some basic and useful skills and techniques over the years that's for sure. Right now I had to prove those skills all at once. Right at this very moment and beyond a shadow of a doubt in front of all the other kids playing. The eyes of my school world were upon me. Messing this pass up meant I was going to be a figure of ridicule for the remainder of my school days here and quite frankly that wasn't an option.

'Mind to pass the ball back to us Chunk and not eat it, yeah!' Michael continued cheerfully. 'It's not a jelly doughnut you know.'

I ignored his taunts and ran up to the ball, hitting it with a slight touch to steady it first, just to give it a bit of gentle pace. I then let loose my right foot with a thunderous and curving mid air boomerang pass. It floated with an awesome pace right towards Michael's feet. Michael looked more surprised than anyone as he stopped the ball dead with his left foot.

'Hey man! Good pass chunk.'

Michael flicked the ball up with his right foot and caught it with his hands. He was just about to turn back to the game when he half turned back to face me.

'Hey! Do you fancy a game?'

Did I ever. I felt a huge smile rip roaring from one side of my face to the other along with a great glowing feeling inside of just the tiniest bit of acceptance.

'Yeah, absolutely! Thanks a lot.'

I jogged over towards the pitch.

'You're on my team then Chunk. And mind not to spew your lunch up anywhere near me.'

The word chunk, which hit me like a slap to the face when I first heard it in class, was becoming less and less painful to hear. I mean I hadn't quite accepted this new nickname just yet, but to tell you the truth I didn't care in this particular moment anymore. Right now I was wearing my invisible happy helmet which made me invincible to everyone else around me, well, almost.

We played for fifteen more minutes that lunchtime and I felt myself ease more and more into the game. I didn't want to upset anyone on my first day so I made sure to listen carefully to Michael's dictating rants and passed the ball to wherever he wanted it to be passed.

We were edging towards the end of the game and were tied seven a piece. The final whistle was going to be the end of lunch time bell. Nobody had a watch, but we could all sense it was about to start ringing at any goddamn given second. There was an anxious atmosphere and an intense aura filtering all over the playing pitch. Both teams were riskily pushing players forward for that all important winning last goal.

Suddenly, from a winning tackle which I made, I won the ball back. Surprise, surprise though, Michael was immediately sprinting up the field and screeching for me to pass the ball to him, no questions. Steven, another classmate, was in a much better position in front of me on the right wing. He had a chance for a one on one with the keeper to finish the opposing team off, but I opted to send a more difficult, yet inch perfect long ball pass to Michael instead. I looped the ball over the heads of three defenders on route to Michael's feet on the far left side of the pitch. Sprinting hard I made my own darting run into the oppositions penalty area to help out with our attack. Michael dribbled past another two players on the outside of the box, then played a one two with another boy. Inside the box both myself and Steven were open to take a clean shot at goal as another two defenders scrambled towards Michael to tackle him. We could all sense the school bell was about to ring at any second. Michael knew he couldn't score from this impossible left side angle with two defenders and a goalkeeper still to beat. Even if he had to thump one of them out of the way with his own hands just to take a clean shot first. Then the most surprising thing happened... Michael passed the ball... to me. Although he was screaming for it back again immediately just as soon as the ball left his foot.

'Pass it back chunk. Pass it back now.'

But I couldn't. The taste of glory was too much to resist. I had a half open goal in my sight as the keeper was completely wrong footed by Michael's sly pass. A herd of wild horses couldn't stop me from slotting the ball home and into the back of the opposing teams net. The end of lunch bell rang. The rest of my team mates bar Michael started jumping around celebrating with me in elated joy. It was like we'd won the World cup in extra time. Still, from the corner of my eye, I could sense that Michael wasn't happy. Steven, one of my other team mates cheerfully patted me on the back.

'Great goal there Liam! Really well taken mate.'

For an instant I'd lost all awareness of Michael's proximity. Suddenly he stormed out of nowhere and pushed me down hard to the ground. Some of the other boys began laughing too as Michael stood over me. He was really intimidating with a crazy scowl smeared across his face like he was chewing on a nest of hornets. I couldn't do anything else but lie there in shock. I was dazed and confused. I really believed he was about to lash out and kick me in the stomach or ribs at the very least.

'When I say pass the ball chunk. I bloody well mean it.'

'Come on Michael. He scored the winning goal for us.' I heard Steven say in my defence. Michael didn't even reply to that or acknowledge Steven in the slightest. Instead he just turned away and began walking off with some of the other boys back towards class. I had a feeling that I may have gotten off lightly.

'Fat tosser.' Michael shouted as he left.

As I turned over onto my side, but still on the ground, I caught a quick glimpse of the pretty tomboy brunette girl from class. She was sitting by herself underneath the shade of a nearby tree reading a book. But in this moment she was glancing over towards me and the recent commotion on the football field. When she noticed me staring back at her she quickly broke eye contact and stuffed her book back inside her bag. She then stood up and headed back to class.

'You all right Liam?' Said Steven, breaking my staring concentration. I sat up, still a little winded. I threw my arms around my knees composing myself. I glanced up at Steven but the hot sun was right behind his head and hurting my eyes.

'I'm fine, thanks.' I replied. 'Just a bit winded. I'll be okay though.'

Steven offered me his hand. I took it and let him pull me up onto my feet.

'Don
'
t worry about Michael. He doesn't like being upstaged that
'
s all. He
'
s a really bad loser.'

'But we won.'

'I know.
' Smiled Steven shrugging it off like this was an every day normal occurrence.
'Hey, you know what.' He continued. 'You should come down the beach with us this Saturday to play football. We could do with another good player like you.'

'Will Michael be there?' I asked cautiously hoping for a straight 'no' answer which was never going to surface.

'Sometimes yeah! If he's not hanging around with the older kids from the big school
.
But he should be all right with it. It
'
s just cuz you
'
re the new guy here that
'
s all. It's like he's marking his territory or something.'

I didn't know whether to feel proud of myself for registering as a threat on Michael's radar or stupid for not keeping my head down low and away from him.

'Great.' I said dryly. 'And when does he ease down a little from marking his territory.'

'Whenever the next new guy shows up.' Replied Steven grinning profusely as we both had a good chuckle at that.

'All right then
.' I finally said.
'What time do you play?'

'We usually head down for around four, just as the weather cools.'

'And how do I get there?'

'Head for the Cesac beach at the bottom of the barracks road. Head towards the shop and we play on the beach park, just a bit up from the shop.'

'All right. Cheers Steve.'

Steve patted me on the back and started jogging towards the classrooms.

'See you in class.'

I made my way over towards the edge of the playing fields to collect my things.

Chapter 3

I walked home after school taking a shortcut dirt path which lead towards the back of my house. I was kind of minding my own business and looking forward to sitting outside in the sunshine in our back garden for the next few hours. I was actually thinking about working on my new model tank Mum had purchased for me yesterday. I'd already built up an old spitfire World War Two aircraft on my first day here and was really looking forward to adding to the collection. When to my distant right, I spotted Michael standing beside an old and abandoned army storage building. He was smoking and larking around with some older boys. I tried not to make it too obvious I'd seen him and continued walking, looking straight ahead. Of course he noticed me right away and quickly left the older boys to jog after me, throwing his cigarette to the ground as he came over.