Chapter 1-2

The brain is a funny, complex, amazing thing, in those few seconds I stood before that imposing dark blue door it managed to re-run the whole of the last 3 days through my mind, 3 scary, bewildering and frankly confusing days. All I had to do was tell him, he would understand even him, with his don't care attitude would surely have his heart strings plucked by this tale. That's it, I would just tell him straight, sir, I would say, my world has been ripped apart. He had to understand.

My whole body shuddered as the bellowing word crashed though the door as if it were rice paper, "Enter.." I gingerly turned the handle and pushed the door open. "Come in, come in," he raged impatiently as he gestured for me to stand in the middle of the big round red rug in front of his desk. Oh that desk, I knew every inch of it, the dark wood panels and green leather inlay it seemed so big. "Well sir..." I started hesitantly, then without looking up from his paperwork he silenced me, "Jones, you will talk when I tell you to." He snapped. That was it, any confidence I had drained away with a slurp, like the last soapy suds at bath time. I was empty and dry, how did he do that? I waited patiently for what seemed like an hour and eventually he lifted his head, rested back in his chair and folder his arms across his chest. "Hmmm Jones" he said sarcastically, "why am I not surprised to see you here." I could feel myself physically shaking, "well sir, if your so called 'teacher' could actually teach and answer my question you might not see me so often." is what was going through my mind, what actually came out was, "Well sir, er, um, I.... Er I". He stood up and walked round the desk towering over me he looked down, "For Gods sake boy, spit it out, what kind of excuse are you going to use today? " he shouted at the top of his voice.

"My dad, my dad" is all I could say, "my dad" again and again that's all that kept coming out of my mouth, no matter how hard I tried I could say nothing more, my whole body started to shake, tears started welling up in my eyes, my heart was pounding, sweat pouring out of me I dropped to my knees and sobbed and sobbed, "my dad, has gone" finally I said it. Hoping this would be enough I looked desperately up at my headmaster.

"what?" he said indigently, "what are you blabbing on about?"

3 days earlier.......