Terry Forster
GREENHOUSE
I wish it was lunch time, I have no idea why I chose to do this on my last day at school. I'm 17 years old, 18 in a few weeks time and I already know what I want to do with my life. I have already won a place at Kings College In London and I am looking forward to being there. It's a long way from my home though and I will have to fend for myself when I get there. All the student rooms are double rooms with two single beds in them. We have to share rooms so I hope to goodness I will be sharing with a Male and not a female. I have heard stories about this male female sharing and I do not want anything like that happening to me “Make sure you are always clean and tidy” my dad said.
“Make sure your hair is cut on a regular basis, and don’t forget what I have told you many times before, polished shoes are a sign of a real gentleman.”
My fingers are really aching and I can't even see what I am doing, This blindfold is making my nose itch and I might sneeze at any time now. If I do sneeze there will be snot all over my nose, mouth and face and everyone will laugh at me. I don't mind at all if they laugh, doesn't bother me one little bit but I just hope that some of the others here sneeze as well. This teachers idea of determining what the item in our hands is while blindfolded is ridiculous. I wouldn’t walk into a shop blindfolded to buy a pair of socks and a tie now would I. Well thank goodness for that bell, time for lunch in the canteen today and hopefully the main meal is not fish and chips with soggy mushy peas again. Last Friday was fish and chips and I think the fish had died normally in the sea before it was caught and sent here. The chips are out of a packet again, I guess no one really knows how to peel a potato any more and make chips like my grandma does.
Thank goodness the sweet was OK, I guess no one in the kitchen knows how to spoil a Rolly Poly pudding covered in custard. After lunch I was going to slip around the side of the canteen and smoked a cigarette.
I wasn't the only one there as this out of the way place was used by every one as smoking on school property was an offense and could lead to dismissal. That didn't bother me though as this was my last day here so I didn't really bother to hide and smoked my cigarette out in the open. Billy Higgins had a half bottle of whisky in his pocket and was letting everyone have a sip of whisky.
I wasn't offered a sip though and if I had been offered I would have refused. All those lips sucking on the bottle opening made me feel sick as goodness knows where all those lips had been last night and this morning.
Miss Barlow, the cookery teacher with the extra long nose, had taken it upon herself to advise the students what was to be an open opportunity for them with a certificate when the left the school and I was chosen for typing lessons. Johnny Robson who still couldn't write his name was chosen for cookery lessons, he had to ask someone "What does cookery mean."
Back to the classroom again. We could all see what we were doing but for me it made no difference at all as I never ever wanted to be super fast typist and the click click click of the hammer keys on the paper drum drove me crazy. I was asked to stay behind when school was over for the day, I had heard that it would be for a presentation. It would probably be a certificate and then a short speech and a handshake. Well I was right again as that was exactly what it was and exactly how it happened and the typing certificate I was presented with from Miss Barlow ended up in the bin when I arrived home.
So, that was it for me, no more school, no more school uniform and no more illiterate children to bother me. I deal in facts, not testimonials, I don't believe most of what is written in the newspapers as all the stories are buttered up with false facts and innuendoes to make people buy the newspaper. In three weeks time I will be in London on my own which will be great and I just hope that my room partner will be as knowledgeable as I am.
Well here I am now in London. I have a nice room looking out onto part of the large gardens, a wardrobe and chest of drawers with a single bed and comfortable mattress. My room sharing partner hasn't arrived yet and it's getting late and almost tea time. I might as well go for tea as it now 5:pm and half way through tea time. Nothing seems to be what is expected nowadays. When I arrived back at my room there was no young man sitting on the spare bed but a young woman about the same age as myself. At least I guessed it was my bed as I had chosen it first. She was a good looking young woman, not out of this world beautiful though which for me was quite satisfactory in all respects.
"Sorry" she said in her wonderful warm voice. "I thought mixed sharing had stopped in this university, if you don't want to be sharing with me I will try and find somewhere else."
"NO, NO" There is no need for that" I replied as I blushed a deep red colour all over my face.
"If you are OK about sharing with me then I really don't mind at all, it will be nice to have someone to talk to other than teenage boys. By the way, my name is Greg" Greg Middlemass and we shook hands, she replied that her name was Jane Ord. So it seemed that it was settled and we would share the room together. We were very lucky indeed as our room was one of five rooms on this level with its own toilet and hand basin.
There was no bath tub or shower as the showers and bathroom were down the hallway. Our room toilet would come in very handy though when we were going to bed and getting up in the mornings, as one of us could dress and undress or dress in the toilet while the other used the bedroom. Jane was studying modern fashion design whilst I was studying to be a writer of ancient history and a publisher. Two different worlds between us but then I thought we should get on just fine together as long as we remained in our own private little worlds.
The first year went by quite quickly, it wasn’t just the classes I attended every day that caused the days to flash by but the hours I spent in the library in my own time either reading up on a subject or writing about it. I saw little of my room mate throughout the day as she was visiting fashion houses, boutiques and sometimes she stayed away overnight a couple of times each week. Birthdays and Christmas came and went year after year and we were now in our final year. My group had been given the task of writing by describing a flower in great detail. We could choose the flower ourselves but the name of the flower must be the very last word of its description. I found this task very hard indeed and I wasn’t the only one of course. It was after we had lunch when I saw Jane in the Greenhouse with lots of other female and male students walking a make do catwalk and changing into different clothes behind a large black curtain.
We had a short break at 3 pm and I sat with a coffee in my hand when I was suddenly kissed on the cheek. To my surprise It was Jane who kissed me and when I stood up she threw her arms around my neck and kissed me on the lips. I was really shocked for a short while as she had kissed me in front of my fellow students and they were clapping and laughing at my reaction. Then Jane took my hand in hers and pulled me behind the black curtain, threw her arms around my neck and kissed me once again. She looked me straight in my eyes and said,
“I think I have fallen in love with you Greg. I know its a shock for you and its really a shock for me as well. I was in the hotel with my colleagues last evening and Tony, that’s him over there with the beard, tried to kiss me and I pushed him away from me. It was after I rushed up to my room in tears that I realized I wish it had been you who had tried to kiss me. We have been together now for almost four years, living in the same room and sharing everything together. My heart is pounding right now and I feel so content in the comfort of your arms.”
I was shocked at first but she was right of course. We had shared everything together, our life stories, our hopes for the future along with lots of intimate details of our lives. There had been many times that I wished I had the nerve to crawl into her bed at night and lie with her in my arms. Jane is a successful designer now and she runs her own business. I also run my own business as a writer and publisher. We have been married for six years now and we have two wonderful children, a girl called Elizabeth and a boy called James. It was the time, the place, and the greenhouse that brought us together on that day. I have one in my garden now, you guessed it, its a greenhouse.
1,735 Words
GREENHOUSE
I wish it was lunch time, I have no idea why I chose to do this on my last day at school. I'm 17 years old, 18 in a few weeks time and I already know what I want to do with my life. I have already won a place at Kings College In London and I am looking forward to being there. It's a long way from my home though and I will have to fend for myself when I get there. All the student rooms are double rooms with two single beds in them. We have to share rooms so I hope to goodness I will be sharing with a Male and not a female. I have heard stories about this male female sharing and I do not want anything like that happening to me “Make sure you are always clean and tidy” my dad said.
“Make sure your hair is cut on a regular basis, and don’t forget what I have told you many times before, polished shoes are a sign of a real gentleman.”
My fingers are really aching and I can't even see what I am doing, This blindfold is making my nose itch and I might sneeze at any time now. If I do sneeze there will be snot all over my nose, mouth and face and everyone will laugh at me. I don't mind at all if they laugh, doesn't bother me one little bit but I just hope that some of the others here sneeze as well. This teachers idea of determining what the item in our hands is while blindfolded is ridiculous. I wouldn’t walk into a shop blindfolded to buy a pair of socks and a tie now would I. Well thank goodness for that bell, time for lunch in the canteen today and hopefully the main meal is not fish and chips with soggy mushy peas again. Last Friday was fish and chips and I think the fish had died normally in the sea before it was caught and sent here. The chips are out of a packet again, I guess no one really knows how to peel a potato any more and make chips like my grandma does.
Thank goodness the sweet was OK, I guess no one in the kitchen knows how to spoil a Rolly Poly pudding covered in custard. After lunch I was going to slip around the side of the canteen and smoked a cigarette.
I wasn't the only one there as this out of the way place was used by every one as smoking on school property was an offense and could lead to dismissal. That didn't bother me though as this was my last day here so I didn't really bother to hide and smoked my cigarette out in the open. Billy Higgins had a half bottle of whisky in his pocket and was letting everyone have a sip of whisky.
I wasn't offered a sip though and if I had been offered I would have refused. All those lips sucking on the bottle opening made me feel sick as goodness knows where all those lips had been last night and this morning.
Miss Barlow, the cookery teacher with the extra long nose, had taken it upon herself to advise the students what was to be an open opportunity for them with a certificate when the left the school and I was chosen for typing lessons. Johnny Robson who still couldn't write his name was chosen for cookery lessons, he had to ask someone "What does cookery mean."
Back to the classroom again. We could all see what we were doing but for me it made no difference at all as I never ever wanted to be super fast typist and the click click click of the hammer keys on the paper drum drove me crazy. I was asked to stay behind when school was over for the day, I had heard that it would be for a presentation. It would probably be a certificate and then a short speech and a handshake. Well I was right again as that was exactly what it was and exactly how it happened and the typing certificate I was presented with from Miss Barlow ended up in the bin when I arrived home.
So, that was it for me, no more school, no more school uniform and no more illiterate children to bother me. I deal in facts, not testimonials, I don't believe most of what is written in the newspapers as all the stories are buttered up with false facts and innuendoes to make people buy the newspaper. In three weeks time I will be in London on my own which will be great and I just hope that my room partner will be as knowledgeable as I am.
Well here I am now in London. I have a nice room looking out onto part of the large gardens, a wardrobe and chest of drawers with a single bed and comfortable mattress. My room sharing partner hasn't arrived yet and it's getting late and almost tea time. I might as well go for tea as it now 5:pm and half way through tea time. Nothing seems to be what is expected nowadays. When I arrived back at my room there was no young man sitting on the spare bed but a young woman about the same age as myself. At least I guessed it was my bed as I had chosen it first. She was a good looking young woman, not out of this world beautiful though which for me was quite satisfactory in all respects.
"Sorry" she said in her wonderful warm voice. "I thought mixed sharing had stopped in this university, if you don't want to be sharing with me I will try and find somewhere else."
"NO, NO" There is no need for that" I replied as I blushed a deep red colour all over my face.
"If you are OK about sharing with me then I really don't mind at all, it will be nice to have someone to talk to other than teenage boys. By the way, my name is Greg" Greg Middlemass and we shook hands, she replied that her name was Jane Ord. So it seemed that it was settled and we would share the room together. We were very lucky indeed as our room was one of five rooms on this level with its own toilet and hand basin.
There was no bath tub or shower as the showers and bathroom were down the hallway. Our room toilet would come in very handy though when we were going to bed and getting up in the mornings, as one of us could dress and undress or dress in the toilet while the other used the bedroom. Jane was studying modern fashion design whilst I was studying to be a writer of ancient history and a publisher. Two different worlds between us but then I thought we should get on just fine together as long as we remained in our own private little worlds.
The first year went by quite quickly, it wasn’t just the classes I attended every day that caused the days to flash by but the hours I spent in the library in my own time either reading up on a subject or writing about it. I saw little of my room mate throughout the day as she was visiting fashion houses, boutiques and sometimes she stayed away overnight a couple of times each week. Birthdays and Christmas came and went year after year and we were now in our final year. My group had been given the task of writing by describing a flower in great detail. We could choose the flower ourselves but the name of the flower must be the very last word of its description. I found this task very hard indeed and I wasn’t the only one of course. It was after we had lunch when I saw Jane in the Greenhouse with lots of other female and male students walking a make do catwalk and changing into different clothes behind a large black curtain.
We had a short break at 3 pm and I sat with a coffee in my hand when I was suddenly kissed on the cheek. To my surprise It was Jane who kissed me and when I stood up she threw her arms around my neck and kissed me on the lips. I was really shocked for a short while as she had kissed me in front of my fellow students and they were clapping and laughing at my reaction. Then Jane took my hand in hers and pulled me behind the black curtain, threw her arms around my neck and kissed me once again. She looked me straight in my eyes and said,
“I think I have fallen in love with you Greg. I know its a shock for you and its really a shock for me as well. I was in the hotel with my colleagues last evening and Tony, that’s him over there with the beard, tried to kiss me and I pushed him away from me. It was after I rushed up to my room in tears that I realized I wish it had been you who had tried to kiss me. We have been together now for almost four years, living in the same room and sharing everything together. My heart is pounding right now and I feel so content in the comfort of your arms.”
I was shocked at first but she was right of course. We had shared everything together, our life stories, our hopes for the future along with lots of intimate details of our lives. There had been many times that I wished I had the nerve to crawl into her bed at night and lie with her in my arms. Jane is a successful designer now and she runs her own business. I also run my own business as a writer and publisher. We have been married for six years now and we have two wonderful children, a girl called Elizabeth and a boy called James. It was the time, the place, and the greenhouse that brought us together on that day. I have one in my garden now, you guessed it, its a greenhouse.
1,735 Words