SEBASTIAN AND DANIEL
A semi-autobiographical LGBT coming-of-age story about a pair of social outcasts who find peace within each other’s company. May contain uncompromising real-world situations.
CHAPTER FOUR [extensive rewrite]
While not terribly in the spirit things, Daniel stood there in the most passive of ways one could possibly stand.
He enjoyed sports, more than any other subject the improving primary school could throw at him, but today he noted something of a contradiction. Although a mixed-sex institution, there was still a great parting of ways between the genders. The girls did their sports. And the boys did theirs. Perhaps there would be a greater physical difference further down the line, once oestrogen and testosterone had taken hold, but the boys and girls were evenly matched at that point in their lives.
In a fit of moral angst, Daniel wondered what it was he was meant to do about the sporting inequality. To be quite honest, he neither had an answer nor was of the belief that he could formulate one. He simply stood there, his skinny form being laughed at by the boys around him, themselves encased in more acceptable puppy-fat.
Through the changing room walls, Daniel could hear his female classmates giggling with precocious venom, sometimes knocking on the divide to illicit flirtatious contact.
“Show us your willies!” Would come a distant screech.
Then more cackling.
The girls were certainly more of an entertaining troupe to Daniel. The boys around him mostly barked tediously of smashing things and exalted grotesque noises from their various openings. While certainly being a physical child by nature, Daniel preferred none of the things usually required of him by nature.
Or was it society? He was never sure.
Now being in possession of a towel not being used as a door jam, Daniel dried off the clean water, rather than his sister’s second-hand swamp, and retired grimly into his grey school uniform. It had not been washed in weeks, therefore the boy was also the subject of further mockery regarding his stench. Rumour had it he would soon be diverted into the headmistress’ office for discussion regarding his home life. Daniel did not know how to explain his domestic situation, as it was both rudimentary and chaotic at best. Another contradiction for the boy to deal with.
While certainly of rougher means, he oddly loved his mother and sister, so found no desire to “turn them in” for neglect.
Daniel’s male peers also enjoyed teasing him over his working-class origin story and requirement for charitable school dinners. His mother always gave him cash though, whether consciously or not, so Daniel treated the charity as merely an excuse to sit in the dining hall amongst the girls he so connected with.
The commandeered cash he would spend on a packet of sandwiches after school, since a proper meal his bleary-eyed mother and social butterfly of an older sister certainly would not have the ability to prepare.
After stuffing his PE kit back into his regular school bag, a separate sports holder being far more organisation than the boy was willing to do, Daniel abandoned the other boys to their nonsense and began stalking the halls.
“Is that Daniel?!” Came a voice behind him.
“Yes.” He said in reply, his gaze darting left and right for the voice’s owner.
“It’s only me!” Said the headmistress, finally emerging from a store cupboard carrying a mop and bucket. “One of the girls has been sick, I’m afraid.”
Daniel nodded, being well aware of the delicate stomachs amongst his classmates. Often was his inclination to shuffle over in the assembly hall, after a boy or girl unwillingly gave up their right to basic human dignity and blew chunks, to use the colloquialism, all over the place mid-hymn.
“Have you got sawdust?” Said Daniel, noting the woman’s administrative leanings, rather than janitorial.
The headmistress was a plump woman, amiable enough and easy to talk to, but adorned in the most garish of bohemian apparel. She made a pleasant contrast to their previous headteacher, a man who believed intimidation was the way to guide keen young minds through life.
The woman chuckled, which served as a nervous tick.
“Oh yes, one of the teachers knew what to do.” She said, the mop falling to the floor with an unpleasant clatter.
Daniel ran over and picked it up.
“I’ll carry it for you.” He said. “Where’s the janitor?”
“Kevin?” She said, recalculating her usual response for the ten-year-old. “At home, he’s not well. Bit too much exuberance at the weekend, I’m afraid.”
Daniel nodded again, then felt plain speaking would put the wobbling administrator more at ease.
“You mean he got pissed and feels like crap today?”
The awkward silence that followed almost generated its own echo.
“I’m afraid so.” The woman said, gesturing with her head, being the only available appendage on her body, to the girls’ changing rooms. “Although your teacher won’t approve of that sort of language, so only use it with me, understood?”
“Yes, miss.” Said Daniel, stopping short of the changing room’s threshold.
The confused headmistress turned to eye Daniel’s coy behaviour.
“Well, come on in!” She said, the task of holding the door open becoming something of a task in itself.
Daniel nodded and followed the woman.
“Sorry, miss, I’m just not used to going into this one.”
The woman chuckled again, placing the bucket down next to a pile of moist sawdust.
“Well, I should hope so! They’ve all gone back to class anyway, so this will be a revealing little adventure for you.” She said, filling the bucket with water from the shower and squirting in some disinfectant.
Daniel looked around at the mirror image of the boy’s changing room. It lacked the bunches of pretty flowers and prancing unicorns most men assumed were in such places, but it certainly smelled more agreeable.
“I could get used to this.” He said, handing over the mop.
As the woman worked away at the pile of vomit, Daniel decided to pull the mental plaster from his emotional strife.
“Missus Baxter said you wanted to talk to me about something, miss.” He said, eyeing a training bra slung over the changing bench in the far corner.
“Oh yes,” said the administrator, “but it can wait.”
“Have I done something wrong, miss?”
“Absolutely not, young man!” She said, wiping the sweat, caused by modest physical exertion, from her pale brow. “Your teacher merely had some concerns about your hygiene, that’s all.”
Daniel gave a cursory sniff under his arms.
“Do I smell, miss?”
“Yes, to put it bluntly.” She said, pouring the contents of the bucket down the shower drain she had managed to prize open. “Is it you or your clothes or something you’re carrying?”
Daniel squirmed on the spot with shame.
“I think it’s my clothes, miss.” He said, backing away from the woman slightly, in her best interest.
“Well, never fear, there are some spare uniforms in the offices, so you can borrow one of those whilst we get yours cleaned up!”
“Thank you, miss.” Said the boy, wiping away an involuntary tear making its way down his cheek.
“No need to get emotional!” The woman said, hugging the boy after giving her own hands a wash. “Nothing’s happened that can’t be fixed.”
Daniel ducked his head into the plump woman’s bosom as even more tears began forming a defiant stream.
“My mum’s nice, you know.” He said, with a maudlin sniff.
“I know she is, child.” Said the headmistress. “But something’s amiss at home, isn’t it?”
Without giving details, Daniel simply nodded once more. He knew this was all the intuitive woman needed in terms of a response.
“Well, let’s go pick you out a new uniform and get cracking on sorting your laundry problems out!”
For the first time in seemingly forever, Daniel felt a pinch of parental responsibility nudging at his young heart. He put his plan to walk out the school gates and spend the afternoon truant about the Archampton woods on hold, although he kept it close by as an additional option, should his expanded meeting with the headmistress find him in precarious straits.
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