This time we'll see Martin and Luke making plans for their feral boys experiment, and we'll also get to watch as the cribbage league continues. And by now the forfeits have started getting quite a bit more serious, too.
Saturday May 17th
Luke came round to visit today. He came round in the morning and stayed for lunch, just like I did at his house last week. And he was right: my parents (my dad’s at home this weekend) didn’t mention his scar at all, and neither did Miles, and none of them seemed to look at Luke’s face for very long, though I caught Miles looking when Luke was talking to someone else. I still don’t understand why, because it seems to me that Luke’s scar is part of who he is, and it seems silly not to look at him because of it. But maybe that’s just me thinking like an alien again.
After lunch we went up to my room. He had a look at my CD collection and at my books and seemed to be interested in quite a lot of both. And he told me that he’s been doing some research into the behaviour of real-life feral children who have been discovered living in jungles: he says he wants our experiment to be as realistic as possible. He’s also been investigating the way monkeys and wolves behave, so that he can act appropriately for our project.
It isn’t so easy for me to do research because I only have a single set of encyclopaedias to look things up in, but he says I can go to his house one evening after school and use his computer if I want. I think that’s a good idea, so I asked my mother if it would be all right. She wanted to know what I would be researching, so I said we were investigating the way pack animals behave towards each other and towards outsiders, and she said that sounded interesting and that I could go.
We couldn’t go out for a walk as I’d planned because it was drizzling, so after we’d talked about the project for a while I didn’t know what else we could do. But he said it would be nice if we could just read for a while. Obviously I like reading, so I said I’d be happy to do that. So he took the first book in the Donaldson series I’m reading so that he could start from the beginning, and I said I’d carry on reading the second one, which was the one I’d been reading while I waited for him in the dip two weeks ago – I’m still only about halfway through it because I haven’t had a lot of time for reading, what with studying and starting to get the shed organised.
But before he started reading he said he was going to remove his hearing aids – he said he liked to stop all distractions while he was reading a good book. He said he was sure by now he could trust me, though normally he hardly ever turned his hearing aids off except when he was alone. And I said I didn’t mind that at all, because I liked reading quietly, too, and that if I needed him I’d tap him on the shoulder. So he removed his hearing aids and lay down on the bed next to me and we both lay there reading for about two hours.
It was nice, somehow, even though neither of us said anything: I just liked sharing my room with someone and being close to them while I was reading. Occasionally when he stopped to turn a page he smiled at me, and that was nice, too.
Eventually he put the book down, rolled over onto his back and lay there looking at the ceiling. I looked at him, and he just said that it was okay, he was just going to rest for a bit, and that I could carry on reading. So I did that until I reached the end of the next chapter, and then I put my book down and rolled onto my back, too.
We lay like that for quite a while, and I was almost falling asleep. But then he sat up and put his hearing aids back on.
‘Thanks, Martin,’ he said. ‘You’re the only person I’ve ever read with who doesn’t want to talk all the time. Next time I’ll know that I don’t need to take my electric ears off, because if you’re just going to lie next to me and read peacefully I won’t need to.’
So I said I wouldn’t mind whether he kept them on or not, but I wouldn’t interrupt him when he was reading because I think doing that is just bad manners. And he smiled at me and said something really nice: he said ‘I think we’re definitely going to be friends’. And I really hope he’s right.
Miles and Twitch didn't have a game this week, but they saw no reason why they shouldn't go along to watch the fun anyway, and so after lunch on the Saturday afternoon Miles’s dad drove him to Graham's house, where today's two games were taking place, diverting to pick up Twitch on the way. And knowing that they wouldn't have to undress whatever happened today made it easy for them to relax, and even when Toby greeted them with "Oh, look, it's the boyfriends," they were able just to ignore him.
Today's first game was Jack and Robyn against Tom and Kevin, so either way Miles thought it was going to be interesting: either he'd get to see a naked girl or a naked thirteen-year-old boy with an advanced case of 'Monkey Disease'. And Jack seemed to have done some good preparation work with Robyn, because they played really well together, eventually winning by eighteen points.
Both brothers looked a bit embarrassed, but Kevin had rather more to be embarrassed about, as became clear when he removed his underwear, because he already had an erection, and that drew quite a lot of teasing. As Graham had said, Kevin's cock wasn't very big – probably not a lot bigger than Miles’s own – but the smoky curls of black hair around the base did make it look interesting. Robyn in particular seemed entranced.
"Do all boys get hair like that when they get old enough?" she asked. "I think that looks interesting. What does it feel like?"
"Have a feel," suggested Jack. "After all, we won the game, so I think you should be allowed to."
Kevin looked extremely nervous, but there wasn't much he could do, and so Robyn came and felt his little curls.
"It feels soft," she said. "It's nice. And you've got a nice hard cock, too." And she squeezed it, increasing Kevin's embarrassment ten-fold. Then, to his relief, she turned to Tom.
"Yours is tiny," she told him. "I think we ought to see it when it's hard. Do you want to do it yourself, or should we get your brother to do it for you?"
“Make his brother do it,” suggested Toby. “That’ll be more embarrassing for both of them.”
“Okay,” agreed Robyn. “Go on, then, Kevin, make it nice and hard.”
Both brothers glared at Toby, but he just put his tongue out at them and then sat smirking while Kevin played with his brother’s penis until it went hard.
“That’s better,” said Robyn, approvingly. “Now it doesn’t look tiny at all.”
And it didn’t: Miles thought it was about the same size as Graham’s.
Toby said they ought to get a really bad forfeit because Kevin was older and so should be better at cards, but Jack and Robyn agreed that as this was the first time they’d lost they should just do twenty press-ups each, after which they were allowed to get dressed. And then the second game took place, between Graham and Rob and Jamie and Toby.
“This is going to be the second game you’ll have lost,” Toby told Graham as he dealt the first hand. “So you’ll get double forfeits. I’m sure we can think of something really bad if we try.”
“You haven’t won yet,” Graham pointed out, and he was right: in the event he and Rob won by three points. Toby didn’t look happy.
“I bet you miscounted somewhere,” he complained.
“No, he didn’t,” said Kevin. “I was checking.”
“So, what were you saying about forfeits?” asked Graham. “Something about really bad ones, wasn’t it?”
“You can’t do anything too bad, because it’s the first time we’ve lost,” Jamie pointed out, and Toby was quick to second that.
“Okay,” said Graham. “Just get undressed and we’ll let you off with something easy.”
Toby really didn’t look happy, but Jamie simply began to get undressed and that left him little choice but to do the same. As had happened after the football penalty game Jamie had an erection when his pants came off, but he made no attempt to hide it, just standing there with his hands on his hips waiting for his partner to finish taking his clothes off. Finally Toby took off his briefs and then stood with his hands clasped in front of his groin.
“Glasses off, Toby,” said Graham. “You’d better, because otherwise they’re likely to fall off.”
“But I can’t see properly without them,” protested Toby.
“You don’t need to see us. As long as we can see you, that’s all that matters. Right, now for your forfeit you have to do twenty stride jumps. Once you’ve done them – if you do them properly – you can get dressed.”
This was a great choice because it left Toby with no way to avoid exposing himself, which was something that he quite obviously didn’t want to do. Jamie started his jumps straight away and had already done five before Toby finally removed his hands from in front of his groin and began to do his own forfeit. In fact he didn’t have anything to be ashamed of: his genitals looked perfectly normal. Maybe his balls were a little large in proportion to his penis, but it was in no way out of the ordinary. But clearly he found this extremely embarrassing, and of course as he jumped his genitals bounced and jiggled and looked really funny.
Jamie finished his jumps, his erection as stiff as ever, and pulled his boxers back on, but Toby still had seven or eight to go, and of course that meant he now had the entire company staring at him. Even without his glasses on he could hear the giggling and the rude comments, and he was blushing copiously, which just attracted even more teasing. Finally he finished and grabbed his briefs.
“You wait,” he said, pulling them on hurriedly before groping for his glasses. “I’m going to think up some really bad stuff for you lot now.”
“You have to beat us first,” Graham pointed out. “So, next Saturday we’re at Jamie’s house, and then we can sort out what we’re doing at half-term. I was thinking it might be nice to go out and play the next couple of rounds in the woods somewhere, if the weather’s nice. As long as the rest of you aren’t scared, of course.”
Obviously nobody was going to admit to being scared, and so nobody argued.
“Good,” said Graham. “Okay, who’s staying for a go on the PlayStation?”
Most of the company decide to stay for a bit, though Toby said he had to get home. Once he had gone Jamie said, “He was absolutely convinced we were going to win every game. I tried telling him that the likelihood was that someone would beat us – after all, there is quite a lot of luck in this game – but he said he was sure nobody would be good enough. He thought he was going to be able to sit here and watch all the rest of you having to strip in front of him. I think it came as a nasty shock to discover he was wrong about that, and I’m not sure he’ll want to go on playing.”
“He’d better,” said Graham. “He signed up to it, so he can’t back out now unless he wants to get duffed up. You’ll have to try to talk him into carrying on.”
“Tell him he’s still got a chance of seeing me undressed,” said Robyn. “You’re playing us next week, don’t forget.”
“And if that doesn’t do it, tell him that we’ll think he’s chicken if he backs out, but we’ll think he’s okay if he keeps going. Maybe we might even stop calling him ‘teacher’s pet’ and stuff,” added Jack. “We won’t, of course, but he might believe it.”
Miles and Twitch didn’t stay very long because Twitch thought it would be unwise for him to be around once the PlayStation screen started flashing, and so they said goodbye to everyone and walked back to Miles’s house. They went up to Miles’s bedroom and closed the door.
“You didn’t have to come with me,” Twitch said. “If you’d wanted to stay and play on Graham’s PlayStation I wouldn’t have minded. I could always have got my dad to come and pick me up.”
”I can play on Graham’s PlayStation any time. Besides, there were loads of people wanting to play, so I wouldn’t have got long on it. And it’s more fun talking to you – you make me laugh.”
“Yes, all you have to do is look at my face.”
“I said ‘laugh’, not ‘scream’ or ‘vomit’.”
Twitch grinned at him. “You’re getting good at it now,” he said. “So – what are we going to do?”
“What would you like to do?”
Twitch shrugged. “I don’t mind. We can have another battle with your soldiers if you like…”
So they did that, and it kept them busy until shortly before Twitch had to go home for tea.
“At half-term,” Miles began, as they put the soldiers away, “do you think you’d be allowed to come and sleep over? I haven’t had a friend round for a sleepover for ages. And your parents know that I can manage if you have a seizure.”
“I’d like that. I’ll ask as soon as I get in. Thanks, Miles.”
“Great! I reckon we could have fun – and once the lights are out I won’t even have to look at your face…”
“I’ll bring a torch specially and keep it pointing into my face all night.”
“Do that and I’ll throw you out of the bedroom window.”
Twitch grinned at him again. “Do I need to bring a sleeping bag?” he asked.
“Well, you could bring one if you like, but you don’t have to use it. I think Mars is hoping to spend part of the half-term holiday with his new friend, so you might be able to use his bed. Or you could share mine, which would be nice.”
“Is it really big enough for two?”
“Yes – I’ve shared it with Mars a couple of times, and we both slept okay. If course, if you start thrashing about in the night and hit me I might have to kill you, but otherwise I’m sure we’d be fine.”
“Could we really both sleep in that bed, though? It looks quite small.”
“Get undressed and we’ll try it out,” suggested Miles, and he began to undress. Twitch thought that was a good idea, so he got undressed as well. Miles paused long enough to wedge the chair under the door-handle once more and then he got into bed, and Twitch got in next to him. They snuggled up to each other and got comfortable.
“Do you think you could get to sleep like this?” Miles asked him.
“Probably. I sometimes move about in my sleep, though, so I might wake you up.”
“If you do that I’ll pull your balls off,” said Miles, reaching around and taking hold of them. Twitch gasped and froze.
“Okay, I won’t wake you up,” he said.
“You’d better not.” Miles took hold of Twitch’s penis instead and found that it was already stiffening up, and so he didn’t need to do anything more than hold it gently to get it up to full stretch. Then he started rubbing it slowly.
“If you’re going to do that I won’t be able to get to sleep at all,” said Twitch. “But I won’t want to sleep if you’re going to do that…”
“That’s okay, then,” said Miles, still rubbing gently, “because I probably won’t want to get to sleep straight away, either.”
He kept rubbing until Twitch reached orgasm, and then Twitch insisted that Miles had to get excited, too, otherwise it wouldn’t be fair. So they rolled over and Twitch returned the favour.
“Now we could probably go to sleep,” said Miles, once he had recovered. “So if we have trouble falling asleep when you stay, we’ll have to do that. In fact maybe we should do it even if we feel tired, just to make sure.”
“That sounds like a good idea.” Twitch rolled out of bed and began to get dressed, and Miles lay still for a moment watching him. He couldn’t believe how quickly Twitch had become such an important part of his life. He’d really miss him now if he wasn’t around. He decided that they were definitely going to spend a good part of the half-term holidays together.
The last week before the holidays rolled past. On the Friday afternoon Martin got his bike out of the garage and rode to Luke’s house, arriving almost at the same time as the bus Luke was coming home from school on. Luke didn’t see him straight away, and it was only when the bus pulled away that he noticed Martin waiting on the other side of the road.
“Oh, hello,” he said. “Have you been waiting long?”
“No, I only just got here.”
“Good. Come on – you can put the bike round behind the garage.”
Martin did that and followed Luke indoors. He noticed that Luke was limping a little, but he didn’t say anything: he’d got the impression when asking about Luke’s scar that talking about things like that wasn’t normal.
Luke took him up to his bedroom. “Give me a minute to get changed and then I’ll get the computer ready,” he said. “I hope you’ve had something to eat, because I didn’t tell my mother I’d have a guest for tea and she might not have anything ready for you.”
“No, I had a sandwich before I left home, and I’ll have supper when I get back,” Martin assured him.
Luke removed his school uniform, hanging his trousers and blazer on a hanger and putting them in his wardrobe, putting his tie in a drawer and throwing his shirt out onto the landing to be put in the laundry basket later. He didn’t seem uncomfortable to be just wearing his briefs in front of Martin, but of course Martin had already seen him naked, so there was no reason for him to be self-conscious now.
He got a tee-shirt and a pair of jeans out of the wardrobe, but before he put them on he turned on the computer so that it would be ready to use one he was dressed. And Martin saw that he had a big bruise on his left leg and a couple of smaller ones on his left arm, and he promptly forgot about not asking questions.
“What happened?” he asked, indicating the bruises. “Did you do that playing football?”
“We don’t play football at my school, we play rugby,” Luke told him. “But in the summer term we play cricket, and no, I didn’t get these playing cricket. There’s a boy at school who likes hitting me, that’s all.”
“Oh. Can’t you hit him back, or is he bigger than you?”
“He’s a bit bigger than me, but not much, and I have tried hitting back, but he’s got a mate who joins in, and it’s hard to fight two of them.”
“He’s got a mate? You mean a girlfriend?”
“No, Dimbo, not a mate like wolves and apes, a mate like a friend. Like you and me are mates, sort of.”
“Oh. Are we? Okay. So there are two of them… that doesn’t seem very fair.”
“It isn’t, but I suppose it’s the same with wolves and other predators, too: they band together to hunt other animals. Anyway, I haven’t got to worry about them for another ten days or so, so sod ‘em – let’s get the computer to work. I’ll show you what I found about wolves, and then you’ll know what sort of stuff you’d have learned with your wolf pack. The important stuff is social behaviour, how wolves relate to other wolves, status and stuff like that. I’ve done some digging and found some of the same sort of thing about apes, so then we’ll both know how we’re supposed to behave towards each other.”
Luke scrolled down his Favorites list and connected to a site he’d been using and then got dressed while Martin was reading. Martin was quickly engrossed and scarcely noticed when Luke went downstairs for tea and he was still making notes when Luke came back twenty minutes later.
“I’ve got permission to camp out from Monday to Wednesday,” he said. “That’ll give us two nights. I might be able to persuade them to let me stay another night if they know I won’t be on my own. And I’ve solved at least part of the food problem: we’ve got a couple of big cold-boxes that will keep food fresh for quite a while, and I’ve got a calor-gas cooker, too. Okay, it’s cheating a bit because it isn’t a proper fire we’ve made ourselves, but it’s probably safer.”
“We ought to eat everything raw really,” Martin pointed out.
“Yes, but we’re not going to,” Luke said. “I think we’d get food poisoning. I guess Mowgli got used to it, but we’re not Mowgli, so we’re going to cook our meat. We can eat fruit and stuff, but I want at least one decent hot meal a day. And I’ve found a big container for water, too, and we’ll need that because there isn’t any in the dip. In fact I don’t know where the nearest water is, so we’ll have to make sure it lasts.”
“Well, we won’t be washing, anyway,” Martin reminded him, “so we’ll only need water for drinking and cooking…. You realise we ought to be eating with our bare hands? We wouldn’t have knives and forks in the jungle – and that’s going to make eating anything liquid a bit tricky, because we won’t have cups, either.”
“That’s true… maybe we ought to cheat about that, too. I mean, if we’re using food from a cold-box cooked on a gas ring we might as well use plates and cutlery, too.”
“Well… perhaps. But it would be nice to try to get through at least one day without using anything modern. You know, eating cold food, fruit and stuff, and at least trying to avoid using the tent. OK? If it’s really too cold, or if we simply can’t manage otherwise, we go back to modern living – but can we try? I think it would be interesting to see if we could.”
“I suppose so. Okay, we’ll do that. If we can’t manage we’ll pretend to have found the cave… if we do that on Monday we can have a big breakfast at home before he set out, and then we won’t feel quite so hungry later on…”
Saturday May 24th
I managed to do quite a lot of research on Luke’s computer last night, though after a while we stopped and listened to some more music on that You Tube thing he showed me last time. He played me something by a group called ‘Porcupine Tree’, which I said was a strange name, but he said it was no stranger than Cradle of Filth, and I suppose he’s right. It was good music, though. He said that maybe at the end of the week, after we’ve finished our feral boys experiment, I could go round to his house for the whole day, and then we’d be able to listen to lots of different music, and maybe do some reading together, too, like last time.
We were thinking about taking our books when we do the experiment in case we get bored in the evenings, but we decided we shouldn’t, at least while we’re being feral, because wild kids wouldn’t know how to read. But we’re thinking about spending the last day and night in the dip just being ourselves, so then we’ll be able to read and listen to music and eat proper food… we both want to try the experiment, but maybe after a couple of days we’ll have learned enough about it, and then we can go back to being ourselves. We’ve both said we’d like to go camping together because we’re both happy just lying quietly and reading. Of course, we both do that a lot anyway, but we found it’s really nice doing it together: having a friend who likes doing the same stuff as you makes it feel special.
I think Luke probably is my friend now. We like reading and music and I don’t think he has a lot of other friends, just like me – maybe in his case it’s because people think his scar makes him look bad and they don’t want to be seen with him. I think that’s pretty stupid, to be honest: It’s obvious that what a person is like inside is far more important than what he looks like. I mean, Miles’s friend, the one with epilepsy, is sort of ugly, but Miles really likes him and says they’re going to spend a lot of the holiday together. So Miles knows that it doesn’t matter what you look like – so why can’t the kids at Luke’s school? Of course, Miles is quite clever, and he understands people – better than I do, I think.
Or maybe Luke doesn’t want a lot of friends. Perhaps he’s like me, happy being on his own a lot… except I’ve found I like being with him quite a lot. And I think he likes being with me.
When I have my bath tomorrow night I’m going to get rid of the fur round my personal places, just in case Miles is telling the truth about Monkey Disease. I was going to borrow my dad’s razor, but he’s not here this weekend and he’s taken it with him. But I found some stuff in the bathroom cabinet that my mother uses to get rid of hair on her legs – apparently ladies get a little bit of hair there, too, just like men do. Graham said a bit of hair on the legs is normal for all men, and apparently it is for ladies, too, only they prefer to get rid of it. I was fairly sure that’s what the stuff was, but I took it to my mother, said I’d found it in the cabinet and asked what it was for, and she told me. So I’m going to use it to remove my fur, and then Luke won’t think I’ve got something wrong with me.
I’m really looking forward to Monday. The weather forecast seems good, so perhaps we’ll be able to do it properly and not use the tent. I think this is going to be a really interesting week.
That Saturday afternoon Miles and Twitch went round to Tom’s house for the third round of the cribbage tournament. Toby did turn up, so either he’d recovered from the shock of not being invincible, or his concerns were outweighed by the hope of seeing Robyn with no clothes on. Or maybe Jamie had just persuaded him not to be a chicken. In any case, he was there with the rest when the first match, Miles and Twitch against Tom and Kevin, got under way.
And today the luck that had deserted Miles and Twitch during the previous round returned in spades, as it were: almost every deal brought them good cards, the play-out favoured them every time, and they eventually won by a street and a half (or call it forty-four points).
“Wow, there has to be a serious mega-forfeit for losing that badly!” said Toby, whose enthusiasm for the tournament seemed to have returned. “And it is the second time they’ve lost…”
The brothers looked a bit nervous, and it showed in the fact that when Kevin took his briefs off his penis was soft. So was his brother’s.
“What do you think, Twitch?” asked Miles. “What should we make them do?”
Twitch thought for a moment. Of course, these two didn’t go to his school and so had never made fun of him, and that made him more inclined to be generous. He didn’t want to make them do anything too awful, or too dirty, either, though maybe if it had been some of the boys in his class…
“I know,” he said. “They have to go into the bathroom and stand under a cold shower for two minutes.”
That seemed a popular idea, except of course with Tom and Kevin, but their objections were overruled. They were herded into the bathroom and made to get into the shower together, and then Miles reached in, moved the temperature selector to the end of the blue section and turned on. The brothers gasped as the water fell, wrapping their arms around themselves and trying to stop their teeth from chattering.
“I hope you’re timing this,” said Tom, after a few seconds.
“Oh, bother,” said Miles, grinning. “I forgot to start the clock. Never mind, your two minutes start… now!”
The brothers were made to turn round under the flow to make sure that every millimetre of them got a chance to experience the bracing conditions, and to them the two minutes seemed to last about two hours, but eventually they were allowed to turn the water off and get out. Kevin’s penis had shrunk until it looked smaller than Rob’s normally did, and Tom’s had almost disappeared. The rest of the gang teased them for a bit and then let them dry themselves off and get dressed again.
The second game was between Jack and Robyn and Jamie and Toby. For a long time Jamie and Toby were ahead, and Toby was getting very lippy, threatening to think up forfeits that would make a cold shower seem like a Caribbean holiday. But then Robyn got one of those once-in-a-blue moon hands, two tens and two fives with a third five cut up.
“Is that twenty?” she asked, laying them down.
“Twenty-two,” said Jack, grinning hugely. “You forgot the three fives making another fifteen. And I’ve got twelve. I think that puts us into the lead.”
It did. Toby suddenly went quiet, and when Jack scored sixteen for his next hand it was enough to take them over the finishing line.
“That’s the second time you two have lost,” Graham pointed out to Toby. “So I reckon it must be time for one of those super-evil forfeits you were just talking about. What’s it going to be, Robyn?”
For a moment Robyn and Jack just looked at each other, and then Jack leaned over and whispered in her ear. And Robyn burst out laughing.
“We couldn’t do that!” she said. “Or… seeing that it’s Toby, perhaps we could. Get undressed, you two.”
Slowly the losers stripped off, and Toby once again held his hands in front of his groin as soon as he removed his pants. Jamie, who for once didn’t have an erection, didn’t bother.
“Now go into the bathroom and get into the shower, and stand facing each other,” Robyn ordered, and they did that, the rest of the gang following to watch the entertainment.
“And now,” Robyn told them, “you have to pee on each other.”
The audience burst out laughing while the two victims stared at her in horror.
“No way!” protested Toby. “Anyway, I can’t go, and I bet Jamie can’t, either!”
“If you don’t do it,” said Jack, “we’re all going to do it all over you instead. Do the forfeit and you’ll only be pissed on once; refuse and you’ll have all of us doing it to you.”
“Except me, obviously,” added Robyn. “So, are you going to do it yourself?”
“I suppose so,” said Jamie.
“No! It’s disgusting!” cried Toby.
“Yes, it is, but you’ll be allowed to rinse yourselves down afterwards – with warm water, too,” Jack promised. “If you make us do it, you don’t get to rinse off.”
“Come on, Toby,” said Jamie. “It’ll be better if it’s just us and not all that lot. Let’s just do it and get it over with, okay?”
Toby still looked profoundly unhappy, but at last he gave a sullen nod, turned to face Jamie and took hold of his small penis. Jamie did the same and started to pee, and a couple of seconds later Toby did, too. They peed onto each other’s stomachs and the pee ran down onto their groins and down their legs. Finally both boys ran dry.
“That’s it,” said Jack, “your forfeit’s over. Wash yourselves down – can they use some of that shower gel, Kevin?”
“Of course, just don’t go mad with it.”
So they turned the water on, squealed when they realised it was still set to ‘Siberia’, and grabbed for the temperature control. Toby spun it over-enthusiastically in the opposite direction and ended up with the ‘Vesuvius’ setting instead, which drew another yell, but eventually they got it somewhere in the middle and were able to wash themselves down. Kevin passed them the towels the others had used, which were a bit damp but which still did the job, more or less, and then they were allowed to return to the bedroom and get dressed.
“Good forfeit, Jack,” approved Graham. “Okay, we can't play on Monday because too many of us aren't going to be free, so on Tuesday, if the weather stays good, we’re going to go into the woods down Broom Lane way and play outdoors. There’ll be stuff we can do outdoors that we can’t do in the house, and it’ll be way more embarrassing for the losers. If it rains you can all come to mine, but that won’t be so good because my sister will be there, so we won’t be able to go outside my room. So let’s meet at the Greyhound at half past two – we’ll be playing four games each day from now on, so everyone will get at least one game. And try to think up lots of good forfeits – after all, if any of today’s losers lose again it’s quadruple forfeit time!”
Once again the gathering dissolved into groups: Kevin turned on his PlayStation and a general scrimmage formed around him as everyone demanded that they play a different game. Miles and Twitch got the cards and started to play knockout whist, making sure Twitch had his back to the monitor, and after a bit Jamie and Rob came and asked to be dealt in.
Even Toby had stayed this time instead of running off, and when he came and asked if he could play too Miles simply reshuffled the pack and started the game again from scratch.
They played for an hour or so, different players coming and going as the PS became available, and then Twitch said he ought to be going, so Miles got up, too.
“Going to walk your boyfriend home?” asked Toby, smirking – apparently he had recovered from his experience in the shower.
“You’re just jealous,” replied Miles.
They said goodbye to everyone. Miles noticed that Graham, who had been on the PlayStation for much of the time, was fiddling with his mobile phone, and so he beckoned him over.
“Are you doing what I think you’re doing?” he asked, quietly.
“I expect so,” said Graham, grinning. “It’s funny how nobody is looking at me when people are doing forfeits. I could probably get out a great big TV camera and nobody would notice. They certainly didn’t notice this, anyway.”
“Got some good ones?”
“I’m pretty sure I got some brilliant ones of Jamie and Toby, and I got Tom and Kevin shivering in the shower, too. I’ll see when I get home. If you want to come and look at what I’ve got on Tuesday, you can.”
“I will….does that mean you took some of me and Twitch, too?”
Graham grinned at him. “It’s funny you should say that,” he said.
“Right, then I’m definitely bringing my phone on Tuesday. If you and Rob lose it’ll all be captured.”
“I don’t mind as long as nobody sees it except you and me. I promise I won’t show anyone else the ones I took of you, anyway.”
“You’d better not if you want to live.”
Graham grinned at him again. “See you Tuesday,” he said, and he went to join the card players.
Miles walked home with Twitch and stayed long enough to have another go with the train set. He decided he definitely wanted one, though whether he would be able to persuade his parents to let him use the attic was another question. Still, even a small layout in his room would be nice.
Before he left Twitch negotiated with his parents and managed to persuade them to let him stay over with Miles on the Tuesday night: he'd go home with Miles after the crib tournament finished and stay with him right through Wednesday, going home for tea on Wednesday evening. Twitch was delighted, and Miles found himself really looking forward to it, too...
Things are moving forward... the half term holiday has now started, and in the next chapter we'll find out what sort of a job Martin and Luke make of being wild. And of course the cribbage forfeits are going to continue to escalate, too.
I was thinking about not giving the mail address this time, but then I decided that I like getting mail far too much to do something that stupid. So here it is, as usual: gothmog@nyms.net
Copyright 2009: all rights reserved. Please do not reprint, repost or otherwise reproduce this or any part of it anywhere without my written permission.
David Clarke