That Summer
Just the start of a story a found myself writing.
I’m sat looking out on the lake, it’s like peering back in time to my child hood. The memories of my old friends come flooding back to me…
I was fifteen back then, the time in your life when people say you have no worries in life however for me and my friends this couldn’t have been further from the truth. We had all grown up in the small town of Kedington which is isolated out in the country side, but we were an odd group of friends, all with different interests.
It was the eagerly awaited start of the summer holidays and as always we gather upon the hill near the local church, me and Andy are the first to get there as we had the same lesson together at the end of school. Me and Andy are intelligent but we still go to the same "no hope" school as the rest of the children in our area, we are smart enough to go to a private school but our parents don’t care enough to pay for our education. We hardly speak but that doesn’t bother me because it’s a comfortable silence, where neither of us is pressured to start pointless conversation and are content with each others company. We lie down on the sodden grass and cast our sight over the large lake on the outskirts of the village. We sit there in silently in appreciation of the view, while Andy extracts a notepad from his bag and began to compose a poem, this isn’t unusual for Andy because he is always writing stories, poems and drawing pictures. Some people mock him for this, but I think it is out of jealousy because I wish I could put my thoughts and feelings into words or pictures like Andy but instead I keep them bottled up inside of me.
"Hello ladies! Having a nice picnic are we?" Laughs Darren, I know its Darren immediately from jeer and the rough but charming accent. I turn around to see Darren and Mike striding towards us, Darren is of a much larger build than Mike mainly because he plays for the school rugby and football team. He towers above Mike at about six foot two, with his prominent muscles bulging out from under his polo shirt; he may look ruff and act ruff but I know Darren more than anybody. He is like a brother to me because his mum ran away and left him alone with his dad, and then when his dad died he had no family left, so my family sheltered him. It was only meant to be for a small amount of time but my parents hardly cared what I got up to, so after a while it became natural and Darren became part of the family. I respected Darren he could have been one of the cool kids, unlike me, but he chose to stand by me and protected me like I had done for him at a young age by giving him a home. Darren knew he wasn’t clever, but he pushed me more than my parents did, he actually showed interest in me and would tell me that if I worked hard I could be one of the people who made it out of Kedington.
Mike may look much smaller than Darren but Mike was tough in a different way, people called him a lunatic after his dad use to beat him until his dad ended up in jail for robbery, this sent Mike mad for a short period but we still accepted him into our group. We were all a bunch of misfits but we found comfort in one another and we were the closest each of us had to a family. So there was the four of us just about to start the summer holidays…
"Its beautiful" Andy broke the silence as he gazed over the lake. The rest of us just grunted in agreement, we all were thinking that, but Andy put it into words.
"Well why don’t we go and see it up close!" Exclaimed Darren, as usual he’s the one in the group to come up with a plan. "It’s only about 20 miles away, we could walk there in a day, and it’s not like anybody will notice we are gone" We knew what he meant, none of our parents would care if we just disappeared for a week or so, I enjoyed being able to go where I wanted without having my parents bug me, but at the same time I wish they did care about me. "Yeah! Sounds like a great idea" Mike interrupted my thoughts and soon we were all agreeing. . So there was the four of us just about to start the summer holidays…
Any comments, and suggestions whether I should carry on writing would be much appreciated.
I was fifteen back then, the time in your life when people say you have no worries in life however for me and my friends this couldn’t have been further from the truth. We had all grown up in the small town of Kedington which is isolated out in the country side, but we were an odd group of friends, all with different interests.
It was the eagerly awaited start of the summer holidays and as always we gather upon the hill near the local church, me and Andy are the first to get there as we had the same lesson together at the end of school. Me and Andy are intelligent but we still go to the same "no hope" school as the rest of the children in our area, we are smart enough to go to a private school but our parents don’t care enough to pay for our education. We hardly speak but that doesn’t bother me because it’s a comfortable silence, where neither of us is pressured to start pointless conversation and are content with each others company. We lie down on the sodden grass and cast our sight over the large lake on the outskirts of the village. We sit there in silently in appreciation of the view, while Andy extracts a notepad from his bag and began to compose a poem, this isn’t unusual for Andy because he is always writing stories, poems and drawing pictures. Some people mock him for this, but I think it is out of jealousy because I wish I could put my thoughts and feelings into words or pictures like Andy but instead I keep them bottled up inside of me.
"Hello ladies! Having a nice picnic are we?" Laughs Darren, I know its Darren immediately from jeer and the rough but charming accent. I turn around to see Darren and Mike striding towards us, Darren is of a much larger build than Mike mainly because he plays for the school rugby and football team. He towers above Mike at about six foot two, with his prominent muscles bulging out from under his polo shirt; he may look ruff and act ruff but I know Darren more than anybody. He is like a brother to me because his mum ran away and left him alone with his dad, and then when his dad died he had no family left, so my family sheltered him. It was only meant to be for a small amount of time but my parents hardly cared what I got up to, so after a while it became natural and Darren became part of the family. I respected Darren he could have been one of the cool kids, unlike me, but he chose to stand by me and protected me like I had done for him at a young age by giving him a home. Darren knew he wasn’t clever, but he pushed me more than my parents did, he actually showed interest in me and would tell me that if I worked hard I could be one of the people who made it out of Kedington.
Mike may look much smaller than Darren but Mike was tough in a different way, people called him a lunatic after his dad use to beat him until his dad ended up in jail for robbery, this sent Mike mad for a short period but we still accepted him into our group. We were all a bunch of misfits but we found comfort in one another and we were the closest each of us had to a family. So there was the four of us just about to start the summer holidays…
"Its beautiful" Andy broke the silence as he gazed over the lake. The rest of us just grunted in agreement, we all were thinking that, but Andy put it into words.
"Well why don’t we go and see it up close!" Exclaimed Darren, as usual he’s the one in the group to come up with a plan. "It’s only about 20 miles away, we could walk there in a day, and it’s not like anybody will notice we are gone" We knew what he meant, none of our parents would care if we just disappeared for a week or so, I enjoyed being able to go where I wanted without having my parents bug me, but at the same time I wish they did care about me. "Yeah! Sounds like a great idea" Mike interrupted my thoughts and soon we were all agreeing. . So there was the four of us just about to start the summer holidays…
Any comments, and suggestions whether I should carry on writing would be much appreciated.
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