3
Alex’s Story
Alex Crass lived on a farm in Mannings Heath near Horsham. He was lucky to have a large room. Alex had an afro hairstyle and was very smart, needless to say he was in most of the top level classes at school. As most school days started Alex got up and started to get dressed. He put on his shirt, next came his trousers and lastly Alex did up his tie – short, which was the fashion at the time. In one breath he greeted his mum and said goodbye to her, just as she was opening the morning paper to browse through it. Alex had to run down the lane so that he wouldn’t miss the number 89 school bus which would take him to his school, Warden Park, in Cuckfield. He jumped on to the bus just in time for it to pull out of the bus stop. As he moved further down the bus, he noticed that all the boys were sat downstairs and therefore presumed that all the girls must have been upstairs. This seemed very strange to Alex that the boys and girls would choose to sit in different parts of the bus, so he decided to ask his mate Sam why.
“I think it is because they are all sad about Chris’s accident.” Sam replied. “Girls and boys tend to talk differently amongst themselves about these things.”
Alex and Sam had a music lesson with Mr Powello first thing. Alex was on the keyboard, but he couldn’t play any song apart from the one Chris had previously taught him. He tried but he couldn’t bring himself to play anything else. The rest of that lesson was filled up with Mr Powello asking him what the matter was.
“You’re not your usual self today, what’s troubling you?”
Alex couldn’t answer. Alex was relieved when the bell sounded for break because he could get away from Mr Powello and his insistent questioning.
The break was for ten minutes so Alex just had time to go to the canteen and buy a Swiss roll something he always looked forward to. No sooner had he put the first bite in his mouth, he lost interest in it and decided he wasn’t hungry after all. He went to the language block and up the stairs for his next lesson, Spanish. Then he had information technology to look forward to after Spanish with Miss Fincelk! The previous night, Alex hadn’t had time to cope with homework on top of doing farm work. The class boffin, Kathryn, walked in smiling to the teacher knowing that Alex hadn’t done any work on his assignment. She had done it for him to say thanks for helping her litter pick, which was part of a detention she had been given falsely. Kathryn had previously been dobbed on for something she hadn’t done. Alex knew that Miss Fincelk wasn’t one for accepting any excuses and he couldn’t face her fierce tongue, it felt a relief to have Kathryn’s help.
Alex had information technology next which was as much fun as watching paint dry! He walked in to the Learning Resource Centre, put his bag down, greeted Miss Charkle and sat down on his usual chair. Harry came through the big double doors and put his bag down next to Alex’s. Sam followed closely behind, then Holly-Anne, Robin, James, Mattie and Olli. Then the inseparable threesome Adam, Andy and Omeed, looking as though they had something to hide. Miss C came out of her office with the Sunday Mirror newspaper in her hand; she put it down and looked around the room indicating that everyone should now get on with some work. Alex turned the computer on, he only needed to print off stuff for his biology coursework for the Tuesday coming. Miss C walked around the class, checking that everyone was actually doing some work. She was only about three people away from Alex so he quickly clicked on “Word” and opened the document “Darrell Blunder”. It didn’t matter which file he opened just as long as he looked as if he was working.
After I.T Alex was due to go home and the only thing that mattered was that he caught the bus in time so that he could get back to Horsham and relax. As he lay on his bed that evening he found his mind drifting onto Chris and wondered how ill he really was.