Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 00:57:00 +0000 (GMT)
From: Nathan Me <nathan7new@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: james chapter35

'James' by Nathan

Email address nathan7new@yahoo.co.uk

My stories are archived at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nathansstories/.

This story contains material of a sexual nature and describes sexual acts
between adults and children. If you find this kind of material offensive,
if you are under the legal age to read such material or if it is illegal in
your country, please do not read any further.

My stories may contain some factual or autobiographical elements, but they
are works of fiction and any apparent similarities of my characters to real
people are not intended.

This story is protected by copyright. It may not be downloaded, copied,
printed or otherwise reproduced in any way other than for your private
enjoyment and may not be changed in any way without express written consent
of the author, me!

I hope you enjoy this story.


James: Chapter 35

They drove the van right up to the maintenance sheds and Mr Spiller carried
the rucksack back to the school and up to James' room. Sam was just getting
ready to go down to dinner and James joined him, thanking the two men for
their help. Tom watched James run off with his friend and felt a pang of
jealousy.  "Well, Tom, so how has your first proper day been?"  "Eventful."
The counsellor laughed. "I guess you could call it that." They started
walking towards the stairs.  "You off home now, Mr Spiller?"  "Please, Tom,
call me Alan, when the kids aren't around. No, I've got another couple of
hours before my shift ends." He looked across at the young man and decided
now was as good a time as any for their chat about James and any other kids
that might make sexual advances. "I need to have a quick chat with you
about the kids, Tom, especially young James."

Tom immediately felt uncomfortable. Did the counsellor sense something?
"Oh?"  "Yeah. You know that many of them have been through very difficult
experiences and for some they have a warped view of what is expected of
them. They don't know how to behave appropriately and can even make sexual
overtures to adults because they think that's what's expected of them."
"Ok. I read something like that in the bumph I was given before I started."
Why was he going through this again? He must know something.  "Well, a few
days ago, I was talking to young James and he obviously felt he needed to
respond to me and he tried to touch me sexually. It was embarrassing for
both of us, but I explained that no matter what he'd had to do before, he
didn't need to do those kind of things for adults here and that it would be
better if he didn't get into those kind of sexual situations 'til he was
older."  "Right."  "So, he seems to have taken a liking to you and I'm sure
the other boys have too, after your heroics today, so you may find yourself
in some uncomfortable situations. The best way to deal with them is to
explain they don't need to be sexual with adults, you're not offended, but
don't want that kind of relationship. Then you must always come and report
to the duty counsellor or duty head, to cover yourself in case anybody says
anything about it later on. Last thing you or the school needs is a
accusation, so cover yourself at all times."  "Ok, Mr... er, Alan." Phew,
so this was general, not based on something Alan knew.

"Have you read the requirements for the Durham trip yet?"  "Skimmed
them. All seems very bureaucratic."  "True. There are a lot of rules and
regulations regarding school trips. But most came about as the result of
previous problems, so they are there for a reason. James and his friends
have all put their names down, so how would you feel about supervising
their group?"  "Er, fine, if you think it's ok, what with James being
like..."  "I don't think hell try anything on with you, but he does seem to
like you, so you just need to be careful, but it's good for them to have
someone they feel they can communicate with."  "Ok, then."  "Just one other
fly in the ointment."  "What's that?" Again, Tom worried what Alan was
going to say.  "Seems we will have an observer on the trip. We're going to
be assessed."  "Oh. Does that happen often?"  "Not on school trips, but Mrs
Daniels, the Social Work liaison, has it in for us and so she is personally
going to assess how close we stick to the rules on this trip."  "Is she
that big a pain?"  "Big, bigger, biggest pain ever."
  They walked into the refectory and joined the diner queue. Tom looked
around and saw James and Sam sitting with another boy he didn't
recognise. They were deep in conversation, but something must have cued
James that he was being watched, as he turned, saw Tom and a big grin
stretched across his sweet young face.

"That's him, behind Mr Spiller." James said to Dean. Dean looked round at
the dinner queue and saw the man standing with Mr Spiller.  "What, like a
judo roll or something?"  "Kinda." Sam replied. "He just scooped Danny up,
curled round him and rolled out of the way."  "It all happened so fast, but
seemed to go in slow motion, like in a movie." James added.  "Wow. He looks
fit. Guess he works out or something. So how many days will he be here?"
"Nita said a couple of days a week, Friday and Saturdays, I think."
"Mint. Is he going on the Durham trip?" Dean asked.  "Don't know. Is the
final list up yet?"  "Went up this afternoon. We're all listed. Going to be
great." Dean replied.  "You been before?" James asked through a mouthful of
spaghetti.  "Not to Durham, but I went to Cornwall this spring. We went
surfing and boating and Pony trekking up into the New Forrest."  "Sounds
great. Never been horse riding." Sam said.  "I did with my mum a couple of
times. First time I crushed my balls." James said and the others fell
around laughing.

Sam and James raced back up to their room. Mr Spiller was going to try and
arrange for Sam, Chris and Danny to fetch some personal items from their
home too, but as arrangements had dragged, they had lost hope that it would
actually happen. James getting his stuff rekindled that hope. They tore
into their room and James grabbed the rucksack and tipped everything out
onto his bed. They spent a couple of hours arranging and rearranging the
toys and photos on the desk and shelves. They sat and played together,
until they decided to go back down to the common room and watch some
TV. When they got there, Danny was sitting between Tom and Big Tony. There
wasn't much difference in size between the teen and the man. Both were tall
and broad. They were talking football and watching a league game on the
TV. Danny was comical. He sat between them, looking at whoever was
speaking, so that his head swivelled back and forth, as if he were watching
a tennis match. Chris walked in behind them and thumped James on his
shoulder.  "Bully."  "Pansy."  "Daffodil."  "Daffodil?"  "Well, you started
with the flowers." The boys flopped, laughing at their silly jokes, onto
seats beside Tom. He was the centre of attention as the rumours of the
afternoon's events spread and grew like Chinese whispers.

By the Friday evening of the Durham trip, Tom had spent another two full
days at the school. He'd helped out one morning with gym for the younger
kids, spent an afternoon helping in Maths, Saturday morning he was a
linesman and in the afternoon he and another volunteer, Alex, had taken a
group of kids shopping and bowling. He saw James in the refectory and a
couple of times in the hallway. They had said, 'hi' to each other and had
quick little chats, but had not had any real opportunity for deeper
conversations. Tom had helped Sam in his maths class and they got on
fine. Sam was a little slow, but not at all thick. There was a 'lost'
quality to the boy that Tom found intriguing. Tom was enjoying working with
the kids, but the more time he spent with them, the more he realised that
the majority had some tragic story. It was like the school specialised in
hard cases and when he suggested this to Nita as they prepped the minibus
for the Durham trip, she agreed.  "This school and the others the charity
runs are all specialist. We take the hard cases and mostly try to give them
as normal a life as we can. Since the charity started we have seen kids
grow up and go off to university. Many of them could not have hoped for
anything like that if they had stayed at home. Small class sizes and on
site counsellors help, but the whole ethos of the place is to do the best
for the kids. It's not at all like a council run place."  "What are they
like?" He asked.  "Mostly run down, overcrowded, understaffed and under
resourced. I know some of them resent the Christian ethos of this place,
but it, and all the money the charity puts into it, do make a huge
difference to the way the kids are treated and their outcomes."
"Outcomes?"  "You've not heard that one yet?" She asked. He shook his head.
"It's literally what it says: the outcome of the child's situation after
intervention is complete. So when a child is taken into care, normally they
end up in some dive and the outcome is that they learn, at best, to be
petty criminals, at worst they are abused for years till they are old
enough to leave. When they leave here they go to uni, to college or we find
them homes and jobs. Although you can't stamp it out completely, 'cause
about 25% of abuse is done by other kids, there is very little physical,
sexual or psychological abuse here. Even difficult cases are treated with
the same care and get all the help they need. The counselling team are
excellent. And of course, there are the volunteers who make a big
difference too."  "Like you."  "And you, Tom."  "I guess. What made you
start?"  "I saw some of this from the other side first hand and I got help
form a really nice family who fostered me for a while. I decided I wanted
to give something back and they pointed me to the charity. What about you?"
"I'm not to great a human being and I needed to start putting that right. A
friend pointed me here, said the kids wouldn't let me get away with not
being a real person."  "That's for sure. They have great bullshit
detectors." They both laughed.

They had loaded boxes and bags on the roof rack, secured them down and then
covered the whole lot with a tarpaulin, which they then also secured with
ropes.  "Ever thought about fostering yourself." He asked.  "Yeah, and in
some boroughs they'd even let a single young woman do it, they are so
desperate, but most want you to be a mature married couple."  "No chance
for me then." He laughed, but half meant it. He was thinking about James
again. He desperately wanted to spend more time with the boy, but could he
do it and not hurt him?  "I guess it depends on where you live, who you
know and how picky you are."  "What d'you mean?"  "Well, most people want
babies or little children to look after. The borough Social Service
placement teams can never find anywhere to put older kids or teens. They
come with too much baggage and behavioural problems." She opened the
driver's door and climbed behind the wheel. "Get in. Why do you fancy it?"
"Don't know. Just fell I need to do more, you know?"  "I know, but don't
get too deep in here, Tom. Remember that some will be going back to their
own homes and some will be here till they're 18. If you get too involved
with them, you will get hurt. It happens to us all and none of us listen to
the advice, but it's true."  "I guess."

They drove round to the front of the building and blew the horn. The other
bus was already sitting waiting and kids were milling up and down the stone
steps, brining out their personal luggage. Alex and Allan were loading the
first bus, watched by Mrs Daniels. Another school counsellor called Ann was
herding twelve and thirteen year old children towards Nita and Tom. Ann was
in her mid thirties. She wore faded blue denim jeans and a loose, off-white
cotton blouse with an elasticised waist. She was maybe five feet, six and
very trim. Her hair was pulled back into an auburn ponytail, which hung
between her shoulder blades. A nice package and Tom couldn't help but look.
"Don't be so obvious, Tom." Nita poked his ribs.  "Oh, sorry. Haven't met
her before. Who is she?"  "That's Ann Morris. She's a Deputy Counsellor and
works mainly with the younger children, but it's all hands on deck when it
comes to trips. Don't play her at cards, though: she cheats."  "I heard
that, Nita." Ann walked up to the open drivers door.  "You were supposed
to."  "You're just a sore looser, missy."  "Ann, meet Tom."  "Hi." Tom
reached across Nita to shake Ann's outstretched hand.  "Hi
yourself. Handsome young man, Nita. Where have you been hiding this one?"
"Tom's the new volunteer who rescued wee Danny."  "Ahhhhh. Superman. The
Children tell of how you flew right across the room and swept Danny up and
put him down out of harms way, right before you saved the rest of the
world. You are already a legend, Tom. Please to meat you at last."  "I
think they might just have exaggerate that a little bit, Ann."  "Think so?"
She winked and had a good hearty laugh.

Tom looked at the group she had been herding. Amongst them were Chris, Sam,
James and the boy he had seen with James a few times, Dean. The rest of the
group were girls. The trip was only for the twelve and thirteen year old
children, so little Danny was nowhere to be seen. The kids piled in, stowed
their personal luggage and settled into their seats. Each seat had a
seatbelt and Ann went round making sure everyone was securely buckled in
before they set off. Alan came across and made sure Nita and Ann had the
directions and their mobile switched on in case they needed anything. He
saw Tom, sitting in between the two women and said, "Rose between two
thorns, eh, Tom?" Nita, who was still sitting in the driver seat, punched
him playfully and told him to clear off. He did and moments later, the two
busses rolled off in convoy.


More to come...