Date: Sun, 26 Dec 2004 14:04:45 +0000 (GMT)
From: roy p...... <sunbeamtb@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Peter Johnson part five

Here we are, part five of the Peter Johnson saga - or soap
opera as someone has suggested. Perhaps Nifty could sell the
advertising rights to a commercial break halfway through
each episode! Usual warnings and disclaimers: Shouldn't
mustn't - then don't. All characters, places and incidents
are fictitious, more's the pity.


                         Part Five


The next morning Peter was up early and dressed ready for
school. And the day's adventure. When his mother came down
to prepare breakfast, he was just finishing off his second
piece of toast, and had eaten a bowl of Sugar Flakes as
well. "It's Ian's introduction day at school," he answered
his mother's questioning stare with. "I offered to show him
round, so I'm going to his to get him!"  Marjorie Johnson
was still amazed by Peter's change in attitude to life. He
was always so perky nowadays, full of life as a teenager
ought to be. He hadn't mentioned a girl's name yet, but
well, Christmas would soon be here, and perhaps he'd want to
bring a 'special friend' home during the holidays. The peck
on her cheek woke her up again. "'Bye Mum, see you later"
and with a rush he was gone. She daydreamed back to her own
teen years, remembering the excitement of falling in love
with - but that had been a long time ago. She'd met Henry,
the brash young apprentice, had a whirlwind romance, the
white wedding her mother had planned to the finest detail,
the Spanish honeymoon paid for by his parents, and had
quickly settled down to her life as housewife and mother in
comfortable suburbia. She'd forgotten the argument, the hard
slap to the face that stung more than her skin, and the
tears. Her Father had been right, this was what she had to
do. Marjorie pulled herself back to today, and lit the gas
under the frying pan.
Ian opened the front door before Peter's finger was off the
bell push. "Let's do it." He said. "Let's go."

Peter told Ian some of the stuff he needed to know about the
school and the way it was run on their walk, but really they
didn't talk much. Peter was too nervous to chat, and Ian was
running through his mind the plan he had to follow. They
soon reached the school and met Nathan just outside the
gates, he flashed a smile at them as they approached.
Actually it was 'that' smile flashed at Peter, and it began
to have the usual effect on him. Ian caught the smile too,
and whispered to Peter "You lucky bastard - actually,
though, I don't know which of you is the luckier bastard!"
Peter just elbowed him in the ribs. "Behave!" "O.K," Nathan
started, turning into the school yard, "This way to the
Secretary's office. Come on!" and led the way through the
yard and into the main school building. Ian glanced at
several groups of boys, chatting amongst themselves. Some
heads turned and watched him, the stranger in their camp,
and he wondered if any of them - "Here it is." Nathan said,
and added "come on - stop daydreaming!"
Mrs Burns had just sat at her desk when the trio walked into
the outer office and introduced Ian as a new starter, and
asked if he could have a look around. She looked through a
couple of files on her desk, then smiled at Ian. "Ah, yes,
here we are. Mr. Price, you're due to start here next
Monday, but I'm glad you've popped in early, there's a few
details I've got to get down about you." The first bell of
the schoolday rang out, quickly followed by the sound of
hurrying footsteps in the corridor outside. "Look," she
continued, "I've got to deal with this morning's mail first,
then type up the minutes of yesterday's staff meeting - why
don't you go along with your friends for a couple of
lessons, then come and see me at dinnertime. Or after if
you're going to eat here. Here, I'll give you a note to show
the teachers, so they know who you are and why you're here,
and it'll give you a feel for the place." The plan was
coming together.

Peter's first lesson was English, and Ian went with him to
that while Nathan went off to the science block for Physics.
Ian showed the note, actually a hastily filled in printed
form, to Mr. Gorton, the class teacher, who nodded his
understanding and pointed Ian towards an empty seat. The
boys all settled down somewhat, aided by Mr. Gorton saying
to the class "This is Mr. Price who will be joining us from
next week. Now don't stare at him like he's some sideshow
freak, pay attention to me, I'm the main attraction!" There
was a ripple of laughter, the ice was broken and the lesson
started normally. Afterwards, Ian told Peter he thought Mr.
Gorton was O.K, and liked his slightly humorous way of
teaching. "Don't cross him though," said Peter, smiling, "he
'humorously' gives extra homework if he catches you talking
in class." "Oh, O.K, I'll have to be careful with him then.
What's the next lesson?" "French" replied Peter. "With Mr.
Tyler. He's O.K, quite easy going actually. Then P.E. I
think you'll be the 'main attraction' in there, though!" "We
all will be," said Ian, "Whether it works or not."

The French lesson passed easily enough - Ian had passed the
stage they were at and joined in with some of the answers to
Mr. Tyler's questions to the class and read aloud, and
translated, a passage from a French Newspaper the teacher
had brought in.

They entered the gym changing room and found Nathan already
almost changed into his gym kit. As he pulled up his shorts,
he saw two pairs of eyes staring at the diminishing gap
between the shorts' waistband and his vest. He tried to
smile at Peter and scowl at Ian at the same time, but the
resulting look just became stupid. Peter giggled. "Here he
is!" hissed Nathan to Ian as Mr. Hunt strode in through  the
door from the gym. "Hurry up you lazy tykes!" he bawled at
the roomful of boys, "You should all be ready by now!"
Ian walked purposefully up to him with the form held out and
said, not particularly quietly "Hello, my name's Ian Price
and I'm starting here next week. I'm to show you this form
from the secretary's offi- Oh, hello Mr. Hunter!"
Hunt/Hunter froze, a look of shock on his face as he heard
his old identity spoken out. The shock moved slightly
towards horror as he recognised the face of a boy from his
previous school. "I - I -" he was thinking fast, but not as
fast as Nathan and Peter moved to stand either side of Ian.
"Ian's told us," Nathan said  calmly, but not quietly, "that
you left Northbridge Secondary a bit sudden, and why. Do you
remember Jack Jones," he added, using the most probable name
Ian had given him, and not giving Mr. Hunt time to reply,
"Jackin' Jones was his nickname afterwards!" "I - I'm not
going to be blackmailed by you pair of faggots!" Mr. Hunt
burst out, burning the bridges of both sides with his first
retort. The room, already hushed, fell silent. Every ear was
trained on the outburst. "I'm not into blackmail," Nathan
continued, "in fact I don't believe in keeping secrets from
- anybody!" he said the last word louder, and twisted round
to look at the now very attentive audience of boys behind
him. As he untwisted back, Hunt lashed out toward him with a
clenched fist. Nathan sidestepped the blow, then instantly
regained his position beside Ian. "Oh Mr. Hunter, I didn't
know you were into violence as well." He carried on, still
calmly, and quieter now. Everyone could hear clearly. Hunt's
face was crimson, there was practically steam coming from
his ears. "You - you - fucking little queer!" Hunt screamed,
holding a clenched fish less than two inches from Nathan's
nose "I - I'll -" "No you won't," said Nathan, still calm
until then, but screwing up his face in anger to snarl
"you'll NEVER molest an innocent boy again!" He wanted to
scream 'FUCK OFF!' into Hunt's face, but he knew he was
winning, he didn't need to. Hunt's arm dropped. He was
fighting a losing battle with anything he could grab.
"Innocent? INNOCENT? What were you doing to him then?" Hunt
spat out, too late realising he'd shot himself down instead
of his opponent. Nathan regained his composure, and calmly
said "I love Peter Johnson and what I do is to make him
happy." Peter groaned and wished the ground would open and
swallow him up. He felt a couple of dozen pairs of eyes on
the back of his neck. Why did it have to go this way? Why
was Nathan, whom he would die for, throwing him to the lions
of his class - and the school? Nathan's snarl snapped him
back. "What you did and wanted us to do was for your own
personal pleasure, not ours, so you're not blackmailing us
into that. And certainly not when I hear you've done it
before at Northbridge!"
Hunt turned on his heel and stormed out of the room. Ian was
shaking with fear at the outburst, he hadn't guessed it
would have been this public. Peter's tears streamed down his
face. Everybody knows now, he thought. Why did his life
always turn to shit, just as he got happy. Nathan took
Peter's hand, returned to the bench and sat, his legs
stretched in front of him and crossed at the ankles, closed
his eyes, squeezed Peter's hand and basked in the glow of
his victory. Peter stood in front of him, his hand as
trapped as he was in full view of those he feared most at
that moment, his class. The room erupted in talk, shouting,
statements and questions. Nathan opened his eyes, saw a
crowd of boys before him, all shouting questions at him.
"Peter's my boyfriend," he stated, calmly but loud enough to
be heard, and still holding his hand. "Live with it. We do."
A quieter buzz of conversation followed "and SOMEBODY" he
added, "needs to tell the office we need a teacher for the
rest of this lesson!"

After a somewhat shortened P.E. lesson, tutored by a
disgruntled geography teacher whose otherwise free period
had been suddenly snatched from him, Ian asked Nathan if
they were going to have a dinner in the school canteen. As
he'd said that they weren't, he'd thought it better to lie
low for the dinner break time and he'd have to calm Peter
down after publicly outing them both, and their
relationship, Ian decided to return to the school secretary
and complete her record update she'd asked him to do. When
he reached the office, all was in chaos. Headless chickens
were running everywhere, and Mrs Burns stopped only long
enough to apologise she wouldn't have time to deal with him
today - "We've just had a teacher resign - just walked in,
slapped this down -" she held up a short letter written on a
page ripped from a school book - "and I've got to revise the
rotas and organise an advert for the vacancy for the
Headmaster to authorise, so I can't possibly see you today.
You'll just have to miss your first lesson on Monday." She
said. He smiled to himself as he left the school on his way
home, glad he'd been able to help Peter, and Nathan, and
hoped he'd paid off more of his apology debts to them both.
Already some boys were staring at him, pointing fingers and
whispering. He wondered if there'd be any trouble for him,
after all he'd stood with two others as they'd outed
themselves spectacularly to a room full of boys, he'd be
classed as 'one of them'. Oh, well, he wouldn't be alone
this time.



 Nathan took Peter round the school until they found an

empty room they could use for a private talk.  He sat facing

Peter, holding his hands. Peter's tears streamed down his

face again. "Why'd you have to say that?" he sobbed. "Why'd

you tell everybody about us? They'll make our life hell. I

can't go on like that, I can't stand it. Everybody'll know

in hours, it'll get out and - and -" he broke down, sobbing

hard. Nathan squeezed Peter's hands tighter. "Sorry, Pete, I

had to. I had to take away the only weapon he had left, the

blackmail of us, what we are. I hated myself as I said it,

no way did I want to embarrass you like that, but I had to

take the threat from him. If you hate me for it, I'll

understand." He watched the tears stream down Peter's face,

and it hurt him deeply. Perhaps he shouldn't have done it

like that, or at all even. He considered the alternatives,

and when the thought of what Hunter had wanted from them

came, he felt physically sick. Again he looked at Peter, and

feared he would lose him, drive him away by trying to

protect him. Tears ran down his own cheeks and between sobs,

he said "I love you so much, Pete, I had to. I couldn't bear

the thought of him - doing - to you. I just had to stop him

there and then." Both boys heads fell on each others'

shoulders as the tears flowed and the sobbing wracked their

bodies. "Don't leave me, Pete! Please don't leave me!"

Nathan sobbed into Peter's ear.









Well, what happens next? Is Peter strong enough to stay with
Nathan? Does he really want to after the humiliation he's
gone through? Do their classmates accept their difference,
or treat them as outcasts? Can I be bothered to write any
more? Feedback, please - and thanks to those who already
have written. sunbeamtb@yahoo.com



Roy