Date: Sun, 19 May 2013 12:48:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: Caleb Wilson <cable4uw@yahoo.com>
Subject: Je t'aime Chapter 1

The usual disclaimers apply to this story


				Je t'aime
				    by
			       Caleb Wilson


				  Part 1


He made his solitary way towards school, his shoes scuffing the pavement as
he walked in a gesture of boredom.  This was his daily routine Monday to
Friday during school days, making his tedious journey to his destination,
St Peter's Institute of Learning.  He neither liked nor disliked school.
He did his required subjects to the best of his ability and on most
occasions, as it happened, his grades were above average.

Since he was an only child, school was at times a welcome break from the
monotony of home.  At other times he hated going to school. That was once a
week on a Friday, when after the lunch break they had the whole afternoon
dedicated to sporting activities.  It wasn't that he hated sports.  He
actually enjoyed watching the sports programmes on the telly.  It was just
that when it came to partaking in the activities he was pretty useless.
The other day that he dreaded at school was when once a fortnight they went
to the local public swimming pool. This came about when three months ago
the Principal of the school in all his wisdom decided that all the pupils
in his school should learn how to swim.  Swimming he hated, not the water.
If he were just allowed to play in the shallow end, he would be quite happy
to mess around all day, but when they tried to teach him how to do the
breast stroke or crawl, he always ended up getting a lung full of water and
stood up coughing and spluttering, and under his breath calling the tutors
all the nasty names that he could imagine.  If he had swallowed an extra
amount of water, the insults were even more intense. He refrained from
using the profanities out aloud. He learnt from experience that if it
happened to be another student coaching him, a quick knee between his legs
added more pain to his discomfort.  His many tutors in the swimming pool
ranged from teachers to other students.  The last time he had been in the
pool it had been Mr Bentley who was supporting him as he splashed along in
what he thought was the crawl at about 50 mph, till Mr Bentley took his
arms away and he went under, coming up in his usual manner coughing and
spluttering.  When he'd recovered sufficiently, he walked to the side of
the pool with Mr Bentley in attendance at his side.

While he rested on the edge of the pool trying to regain some sort of
composure, the teacher said "Taylor, you're absolutely bloody useless.
It's been nearly three months and you can't swim a stroke."

"Sorry, sir."

"God, I give up.  Listen to me, Taylor.  If you're ever on a boat at sea or
on a river or canal and it's about to sink, you know what would be the best
action for you to take?"

"No, sir, please enlighten me?"

"My advice to you would be, take a deep breath, go straight to the bottom
and run like hell for shore."

"Yes, sir, thank you, sir, for your words of wisdom."

"Don't try to be sarcastic, Taylor.  Go and get changed."

He climbed out of the pool that day thinking `Yeah, Bentley was a real
foreskin face and penis breath all rolled into one.'

The teacher watched the boy as he made his way to the changing rooms.  `How
can a boy of nearly sixteen be so small and also not be able to swim,' he
thought, `and why does he have to wear those stupid bloody swimming shorts
that reach down to his knees instead of a Speedo?'  The teacher turned away
shaking his head in resignation to attend to the other students, who had
more possibility in learning how to swim.

So as there would be no swimming this week, he perked up a bit at the
thought and he walked with a sprightlier step.  As he made his way towards
school his thoughts focused again on the Friday sporting activities.  `Just
hope they don't have cricket this Friday, would much prefer it if they had
track and field trials.  He hated cricket, not the fielding so much, but
the batting when he had to face the fast bowlers.  God!  That ball came at
you like a zillion mph.  He invariably shut his eyes and just swung his bat
and he always missed, with the ball either crashing into the wicket or in
most cases some part of his anatomy, which left him lying on the floor in
agony and inevitably the pea brain bowler bending over him saying he was
sorry and 'are you okay?'.  Of course I'm not bloody okay.  I wouldn't be
lying on the effing floor in agony if I was.  Yeah and I bet he's sorry.
He wouldn't have that sly grin on his face when he says it.  Just wish I
could hit one of the bowlers in the goolies with a cricket bat.  That would
lift their voices a few octaves and stop them playing with themselves for a
few days.'

He walked through the school gates his hand in his pocket scratching his
private parts.  `Jeez,' he thought, `ever since I've started getting pubes,
the base of my dick and balls never stop itching.  I spend bloody hours
scratching.  I wonder if girls get itchy as well.  I've seen plenty of kids
scratching their balls, but never seen a girl scratching her crutch.'

He made his way to his locker, took out what he required for first period
then left the rest of his stuff inside and made his way to his class.  No
one spoke to him, nor did he speak to anyone.  He arrived at his classroom
where the only person to greet him was Dawn Roberts, after which he made
his way to his desk, sat down and waited for the teacher to arrive and take
roll call.

Promptly at 8.45 am Mr Martin walked into the classroom, looked around to
get the pupils attention and also to silence their rabbiting.  Getting the
desired response he opened the register and took the morning roll call,
with the class taking pleasure announcing at the top of their voices "Not
here, sir," when there was no answer to a particular name.

The morning went as well as can be expected and at the meal break he went
to his locker to get his packed lunch which he took to the canteen to
consume.  He selected a table that was unoccupied and sat down to eat.  He
was halfway through his food when a chair was drawn out and looking up he
saw Dawn Roberts taking a seat.

Dawn was the plainest girl in their class; she had brown mousey coloured
hair worn in plaits, slightly protruding teeth, wore spectacles and had
freckles around her upturned nose, added to which she was completely
flat-chested.

"Okay if I join you, Reuben?"

"Yeah, sit down, Dee."  Dawn was one of the very few persons that talked to
him socially and he liked her as a friend.

As she sat, she looked at the boy opposite her.  He was about 5 feet 2
inches in height with brown hair and eyes, but had the most beautiful
pouting pink tinted lips that just asked to be kissed.  Reuben was one of
the few boys who never remarked or made fun of her looks or figure.  She
liked him, no, secretly she fancied him, but knew that the feelings weren't
reciprocated.  She'd known Rueben for over five years.  They had both come
up from junior school together and in all that time he had never once shown
any interest in taking their friendship past the purely platonic level.

"So what have you got to eat?"

Reuben swallowed a mouthful of food before answering.  "Ham and tomato
sandwiches."

"I've got the usual Monday school lunch, beef stew with veg, and apple
crumble and custard."

They sat making small talk till Dawn asked "How come in all the time I've
known you, Rube, you don't have a lot of friends?  Actually, besides me and
Richards who talks to you from time to time as he's the class monitor,
nobody seems to take much notice of you."

The boy shrugged his shoulders.  "Dunno.  Everyone seems to be too busy
talking to each other to notice me.  Anyway, I still have you to talk to."

"Yes, but at least I do have other friends.  Why don't you try making
friends with at least some other boy?"

"I... umm... I'm not sure I want to, at least not to anyone in our class,
but I wouldn't mind being friendly with Jason Samuels."

Dawn looked at her friend more intently when he mentioned the name.  She'd
had suspicions of Reuben for quite some time, but being the good friend
that she was, she didn't voice them and was prepared to wait for Reuben to
come out with it when he was ready.

Now for once, forgetting herself, she blurted out "Jason Samuels, he's a
senior, Rube.  He doesn't even know you exist."

Wistfully he looked upwards saying "Yeah, you don't have to tell me."  Then
realising that his actions and tone of voice betrayed his emotions, he
looked at Dawn who was smiling at him.  "How long have you known?"

"I've had my suspicions for over a year, but just now you confirmed them."

"So you going to blabber it all over the school?"

"Reuben Taylor, if I wasn't a good friend, I'd slap your face.  Is that how
little you think of me?"

"Sorry, Dee," he said forlornly.  "If you want, you can clobber me."

"Shut up," she said to the downcast boy.  "So how long have you been
fancying Jason?"

"Like the first time I saw him when we came to St Peter's.  The bad thing
is I heard he'll be leaving school at the end of this term."

"Why should that worry you, if he doesn't even know you exist?"

"I know that, but just seeing him makes my day and gives fuel for my
imagination."

"God, you've really got it bad, Rube.  Can't you find any other boy that
you could take a liking to?"

"No, I like him and that's it."

Before Dawn could respond to Reuben's statement they heard the bell and
both rose simultaneously to return to the classroom to resume their
lessons.  She topping him by six inches, looked like an older sister
looking after her younger brother.

During their afternoon break Dawn sought him out again to continue their
lunchtime conversation.

"So have you any ideas on how to get Jason's attention?"

"Lay off, Dee.  What's he going to see in me and in any case what makes you
think he'd be interested?  He might have a girl friend."

"I've been asking around and he hasn't got a girl friend."

"That doesn't mean a thing.  He might have a girl outside of this school."

"Yeah, could be, but since he's been at this school he's never really shown
much interest in any of the girls."

"What's got into to you?  Why are you trying to fix me up with someone who
doesn't even know I exist?"

"I don't like seeing my friends moping around all the time.  I want to see
a light in their eyes and a smile on their face."

Reuben split his mouth from cheek to cheek with a grin.  "Satisfied?  See?
I'm happy."

"Shut up, po face, and listen to me.  What would you say if I could get
Jason Samuels to talk to you?"

"WHAT!" Reuben yelled.  "I've just told you.  What's the big deal with you
trying to get Jason to notice me."

"Yeah, well why not?  I'm fed up of seeing you on your own all the time."

"Oh, God, Dee, you're going to screw me up well and truly."

"No, I won't, you wimp.  Just leave it to me."

Before Reuben could respond the bell went for the resumption of classes and
Dawn grabbed his arm saying "Come on, Rube, I'll sort you out and if it
doesn't work out, you could always try me."

He looked at her and noticed she was serious.  "Tell you what, Dee, if he
even gets to talk to me, I'll think you've achieved a miracle.  As for
trying you, umm... I'm not too sure about that, but if you grow some tits,
I'll think about it."

She gave him a friendly cuff around the head as they made their way to
classes.  "You wait and see.  I'll perform the miracle you want."

* * *

The rest of the week went by more or less the same as all the other weeks,
except this week his prayers were answered and they had field and track
practice on Friday afternoon.  His big achievement being that he increased
his position in the eight hundred metres from the normal last to second
last, making him feel that little bit better.  Mind you, he only beat
Henshaw who happened to have stomach cramps, having eaten too much at the
lunch break.

After he'd changed and was making his way home, he was just leaving through
the main gates when he heard his name called out.  Turning to face the
source from where his name had been called, he froze.  He saw a fair haired
six foot plus boy, slim but wiry, walking towards him.  He was paralyzed
till eventually with the senior only a few metres away he managed to murmur
under his breath "Jason," then out loud, "Uh did you call me?"

Jason Samuels caught up with him saying "If your name is Reuben Taylor,
then yes."

"Umm... yeah, that's me.  What can I do for you?"

The older boy looked the younger up and down.  "Your friend's description
of you was not very flattering.  You look a lot better than she described
you.  Anyway you owe her five pounds and she'll be collecting on Monday
when I tell her we had our conversation."

"Five pounds?  What are you talking about?  I never made any bets."

Jason looked a bit bewildered.  "You didn't make any bets with your
girlfriend about me being too stuck up to talk to the younger boys?"

"Girlfriend?  What girlfriend?"  Then it suddenly hit him.  Shit! Dawn.
"Was it a lanky flat chested girl with specs and plaits?"

"Yeah, that's her."

Reuben was nervous as hell.  His mind was working overtime, thinking of
ways to try and find out exactly what Dawn had told Jason and if she'd
mentioned that he was very much attracted to the older boy.  Knowing Dawn,
she would just about have the guts to say it.

"Uh, exactly what did she tell you about me?"

"About you?  Nothing.  All she said was that the two of you had been
talking and my name had come up in the conversation and you'd said I was
too stuck up to talk to any of the younger students.  The two of you had a
bet about it and to prove you wrong we're having a talk and she wins the
bet."

Reuben with head lowered was silent for a moment.  He was thinking of ways
to prolong the conversation.  He didn't want Jason walking off now that
he'd proven that he wasn't stuck up.

"Why the silence?"

His thoughts were interrupted by Jason's question.

"I... umm... I... crap, I don't know what to say."

"Tell you what, Reuben, I'll give you a lift home and on the way you can
think of something to say."

"Oh crikey, give me a lift home.  That's bloody brilliant.  Okay."  His
face split into a grin from ear to ear.

"That soon loosened your tongue and what's so brilliant about giving you a
lift home?"

"I... umm... uh... I don't know.  It just is."

Jason smiled.  He liked the look on the younger boy's face.  Actually, he
liked the boy period. He wasn't one of the boy ravers that all the girls
wet their knickers over or fell over themselves to get at, but there was
something about the boy.  If you stopped to study him, he sort of grew on
you.

"Come on, Reuben.  Let's go," and he led the younger boy to his car.