by Margot Bish
“It’s OK, Mum. Look. I can put the sandwiches in my pockets and carry the thermos. I don’t need the other stuff. See. It says here, in the brochure “Extra blankets provided” and over here “, he thumbed a couple of pages, “look “Instructors are qualified first aiders” so they’re bound to carry their own first aid kits to use on us”.
“Come on, Mum”, his dad said. “Let’s get rid of him”. The Turners had arranged to pick up Jack and Dave en route, as the boys all had to meet the mini bus in Cardiff, and there was a flight to Paris from Cardiff airport, too. Ross was relieved to find his fellow adventurers also had bulging rucksacks and carried pack lunches. David even had a spare blanket, which he tried to hide from Ross’s gaze, not realising Ross was gazing at it in sympathy, rather than laughing at his friend. At Cardiff, they joined a line of fifteen other ten to fourteen year olds.
“You never said there’d be girls,” hissed David, carefully leaving the blanket in the car before slamming the door, and standing so that Ross’s parents couldn’t see what he’d done.
“Maybe they do the cooking and stuff”, Jack suggested, a bit too loudly, and received a look of pure cobra venom from the redheaded twelve year old who’d overheard him. “My big mouth”, said Jack, with a grin and tried to give the girl a look of apology. She pointedly turned her back and ignored him.
”Oh, oh. Now I’m in trouble. I’m probably going to be ignored for the rest of the holiday”. “We’ll wait in the car until the bus goes”, Mr Turner announced, deciding not to get involved. “Come on Anna”.
He manoeuvred her away to avoid the embarrassing kiss scene, Ross had been dreading. Ross was extremely thankful.
“You’ve got our number at the hotel. You can ring anytime. Even the middle of the night…” Anna called over her shoulder as she was dragged reluctantly away.
THE ADVENTURE BEGINS
“All aboard”, a man wearing a “Llyn Fridd Outward Bound” sweatshirt called as he opened the doors of the two mini buses, and the lines disintegrated into a mad scramble. The boys, and especially Jack, were relieved to find the red headed girl, in fact all the girls, had made a beeline for the other bus.
“Yes! Yes! Here we go”, Jack chanted. “Not a parent in sight. Wales, here we come”.
The man slammed the doors, clambered into the driving seat and picked up a clipboard.
“Right then,” he said, twisting himself around so that he could see everyone. “Welcome to Wales. Let’s see who we’ve got. Call out your name when I point at you, and not too fast as I’ve got to tick you off this list, here,” he waved his clipboard, ”and it has a lot of names on it for me to sort through”.
He stabbed his pen in the direction of the end of the first row. “Arthur Andrews” a scrawny boy wearing spectacles responded, shyly, a tick went down and the pen stabbed. “Dean Nicholson” a blond boy bounced up and bounced down again with an eager grin, “Patrick McMahon” the next boy announced with an arrogant tone, anticipating the pen stab. The man gave him a look of recognition. “Welcome back, Patrick”, he said, ticked off his name and looked at David. “David Rouse” David replied, and so the list continued until everyone on board was ticked off. The man counted heads and checked he had the right number of ticks.
“OK, back in a sec”, he said and bounced out of the bus to check with the other driver. The boys glanced shyly at each other, not yet ready to make friends. Only Patrick sat slumped and relaxed. Everyone else on board was strung as tight as a guitar string.
The man returned and dropped the clipboard next to his seat. “OK. Perfect. Everyone’s here that is supposed to be and no one is here that shouldn’t be. Hurrah for that. My name is Owen Jones. Any problems, any time, come and see me. We’ll be stopping half way for lunch so don’t start eating yet. I’m a crazy driver so you’d only miss your mouths if you try and you don’t want to spend your holiday cleaning mouldy breadcrumbs out of the bus. When we get to the Centre, we need to show you around first and let you know the routine so DON’T go rushing off on your own. Even if you have been her before”. He glanced at the arrogant boy as he said this. Patrick was gazing out of the window. “Got that Patrick?”
“Sure”, Patrick said, without turning around.
Owen wasn’t worried. He gave them all another grin and swung forwards. The engine roared and they were off.
“Sing song, anyone?” Owen yelled over the engine noise and without waiting for an answer, launched into song. Brilliant. He knew all the chart songs and never once touched on “Ten Green Bottles” or all the other trendy holiday songs. Only Patrick curled his lip and didn’t join in, but then, that was up to him, and even he smiled at the breaking high notes as Owen tried to emulate the top female artists. The others were rolling in their seats, and tears of laughter ran down Dean’s face as he bounced in his seat.
The OB Centre wasn’t the massive square building Ross had imagined, but four terraced houses knocked into one with their once long thin gardens now grounds laid out for basketball, football, tennis and archery, a giant maze and a mini assault course. WOW!
The houses had been knocked about a bit, too but were still something of a rabbit warren.
You almost need a map to find the front door”, David gasped as they were led into the dining room first.
“Everyone take a seat, quickly now”, Owen yelled, “and everyone SHUT UP”. Everyone did.
Owen had the kind of voice that added “or else” without him having to say it.
“OK . Rules first, and then we can have fun. Number one. Some of the activities you are doing can be dangerous, so if an instructor says you do, you do. If he says you don’t , you don’t. No arguments allowed. This also saves time and gives more time to enjoy ourselves. Breakfast is at 7.30. If you’re late, you might get a piece of bread and butter, you might get nothing at all, so don’t be late. Everyone keeps their bed and space around it tidy.
HERE WE GO
You have a cupboard by the bed, so please use it. This cuts down on the number of broken legs we have to deal with. Everyone clears their own mess in the dining room and there’s a rota up for the other jobs to be shared. No swapping allowed. Anyone who breaks the rules goes home. That way, believe it or not we all get more time to have fun”. He paused to let this sink in. “OK. I’m now dishing out a list of the activities we do here. You can all choose five you really want to do and two others you would like to do if you can’t do all the others. You’ve got twenty minutes to circle the top five, and put triangles round two more. We’ll do our best to sort you all for your favourites but it doesn’t always work out”. While he had been speaking, he had divided his pile of lists into three and he and two other instructors were walking down the tables giving a list and a pen to each person. The list was massive. Ross gazed at the paper in amazement, and then looked at Jack who was scribbling away.
“What are you choosing?” Ross asked after finding it impossible to choose only five. Jack shoved his list over towards Ross and chewed the pen end.
“Can’t decide out of skiing or judo,” he frowned. Ross studied the form. Sailing, abseiling, archery, horseriding. “Horseriding?” he spluttered. “Can’t see you in jodhpurs and jacket. You sure that’s what you want to do?”
“Fancied a day sitting down, didn’t I?” Jack defended himself, and managed not to look embarrassed. David laughed.
“A day in the saddle and you won’t want to sit the next”, he chuckled. Jack squirmed. “I fancy being able to ride like a cowboy”, he explained, “Not like you’re thinking, a show jumper or something poncey like that”. In self defence, he grabbed David’s list to counter attack.
“What you picked then?”
He scanned the list hopefully. “Canoeing, skiing, mountain climbing, go karting”, he paused and gave David a fishy glance, “Go Karting’s for four year olds”, he returned to the list. “Karate and sailing. Hey, that’s six”.
David gave him a superior look. “Yes,” he explained, “but sailing�
�s a triangle isn’t it? Come on. Give us the list back. I’ve got one more triangle to pick”.
Ross, now knew what his friends were doing, and started his own circling. It wasn’t that he was afraid of doing things on his own, but it would be more fun sharing the excitement with someone he already knew. Sailing, canoeing (that would be with Nick), skiing, hill walking, abseiling. He paused. There were still too many good choices left. Deciding to leave things to fate he shut his eyes and stabbed at the list twice with his pen. Opening his eyes to admire his handiwork, he quickly obliterated the mark by sweet making and inked in the nearest manly choice – judo. The other mark had placed itself neatly alongside horseriding. “Oh well,” Anyway, he wouldn’t be on his own, he thought, changing the dot into a triangle.
“Time’s up” Owen said. “The boys to hand their papers to Nick, and Jerry, here, and follow them with your gear to the dorms. Girls with Tess and Jane, here. You can explore until 5pm when I want you back here for grub. Off you go.”
CHAPTER 4
It was actually Patrick who led the way to the dorms and got first pick of the beds. It was becoming a bit of a drag, coming here for the third year, running and with all the lads being younger than him. The activities were still going to be good, so long as they let him move at his own pace, and at least knowing how everything happened, he could dodge the queues for the showers and such. He took his normal bed by the window, chucked his whole rucksack in the cupboard by his bed and took his mobile phone from his pocket, ear plugs in and he was away in his own world. The younger boys were chatting to Nick. Jack hadn’t noticed any change in his older brother, but David was feeling almost shy. It was odd how just one year at University, and now working here, Nick seemed much more of an adult than at home. At home, Nick always led them into trouble and got yelled at with the rest of them when they were caught. Here, it felt more like, if anyone was in trouble, Nick would be leading them out. Kind of comforting if you were maybe a bit homesick, David thought, and then looked round, furtively, in case anyone had read his mind. Of course he wasn’t homesick, after all he’d only just got here. Dumping his stuff on a bed well away from the arrogant Patrick, he asked, “Can we go anywhere?”
“Anywhere in the grounds or houses, except the kitchen. They’ll be cooking in there so it’s not safe”, Nick replied, “And you wouldn’t look good wearing a roast chicken”
“Is it not safe because of burning hot oil scalding us?” Jack asked.
“Because of their tempers if you got in the way,” Jerry said with a grin, “They have a synchronised system of movement which miraculously creates twenty dinners or so all at exactly the right moment. If the tiniest thing gets in the way, the result is total motorway pile up”.
“Just like home”, the bouncy blond boy said, chucking a pair of hiking boots under the bed by the door and stuffing his rucksack into his locker. ”Come on. Let’s go and explore.”
They left Arthur methodically folding his clothes into his locker, and Patrick pressing buttons on his phone while sprawled flat on his bed, and clattered downstairs, Dean in the lead. The place was amazing. One room had a massive TV and loads of sprawly armchairs and cushions. Then there was a room with games and a pool table and some computer terminals with a huge notice saying “DON’T HOG!” There was even a pinball machine. Then along the corridor, passed the dining room and clattering steamy kitchen, they found a door and were soon outside and venturing into the gardens.
”Let’s find the maze”, David suggested.
“Hey, yeah” Jack agreed.
They bounded down some steps, startling the girls who all seemed to be sitting together on some benches on a tiny patio.
“Boys” the redhead said as they raced by. Some of the other girls giggled.
“I suppose we will be able to get back out before tea?” Dean said doubtfully as they reached the entrance. “I’m starving. Mum forgot to put any cake in my lunch box. Have you noticed how sandwiches never fill you up?”
Jack looked at his watch. “We’ve got nearly an hour yet. It can’t be that difficult. Look. We’ll set my timer for twenty minutes, and if we’re not in, we’ll give up and head out. OK?”
“That’s if we’re not totally lost by then”, added Ross helpfully, while Jack fiddled with his watch and got the timer set and running.
“Come on,” came David’s voice from behind the hedge. “You’re wasting time”.
They followed him in. The maze was a good one and led the boys in quite a few circles, and to millions of dead ends, but at nineteen minutes and fourteen seconds, they arrived at a pond with “SUCCESS” emblazoned across a wooden bridge straddling the water lilies and, just across the bridge was a map showing how to get out.
“Huh. Just keep turning second left”, Jack said pointing the route out. They were out in five minutes.
“Dead easy”, Jack said.
“How about a quick look at the tennis courts and then tea?” David suggested.
They sprinted after him, and before long were seated in the dining room, tucking into chicken pie and beans with chocolate sponge to follow.
“This place is the tops,” Dean said spooning in his third helpings of sponge. Even Patrick seemed to be enjoying the food. Gradually the noise of clattering spoons came to an end as even the biggest appetites were satisfied. Owen’s voice quietened them all.
“OK, people. Dishes to the hatch in a line please and I will tell you where you’re helping out to tidy up as you pass me. Remember, no job swapping allowed”.
Jack was handed a wet cloth, “Tables” Owen said. David was awarded a broom. “Corridors” he was told. Ross found himself in the kitchen with Arthur and two of the girls, Jo and Kerry. He and Arthur were armed with drying up cloths, the girls with floppy rubber gloves and brushes to wash the dishes. Kerry was a right natterbox.
“Have you been here before?” Giving no time for an answer, she continued. “My sister, Laura was here last year and she said it was the best holiday ever. Mind you that could have been just ‘cos she met this boy, Craig, and fell in love doing hill walking. I mean they were hill walking when they met, not when they fell in love….” Ross felt breathless just listening to her. How did she breathe and talk at the same time? He exchanged a grin with Jo, and realised that Arthur, too was enjoying the joke as they let Kerry natter on. “I think they fell in love playing tennis together…”
Arthur had worked out the efficient pattern now, picking up the rinsed dishes and adding them to the tidy pile between the sinks. Ross was working well alongside, and if only Kerry would stop waving things around while she made a point, they’d soon be done. He grabbed a fork as it swooped past his nose, and Kerry moved onto the next item. It wasn’t so very long before they were finished. Arthur wiped the steam from his glasses as they left the kitchen.
“I think we’ve got the worst job over with first. The rest of the week will be playtime in comparison”, he said analytically. Ross looked in on the games room, and Arthur peered around him. Six pairs of eyes were glued to computer games and budding snooker champions were engrossed in angles and spin.
“Let’s try the TV”, Arthur said. In fact they interrupted Owen sorting DVD’s.
“Ah, good. Not fallen down the plughole, then. Ross, go and stick your head round a few doors and let everyone know we have a film starting in five minutes, would you? Erm, with the girls’ dorm, just knock and shout, to avoid embarrassments.”
It didn’t take much announcing to fill the room. The film was funny. They all laughed together, even the analytical Arthur. Even Patrick snorted a couple of times despite trying to pretend the film was much too young for him. In the middle there was an interval with hot chocolate and biscuits.
“Straight to bed at the end of the film, please”, Owen said, “And lights out by ten o’ clock. We want you up and alert on time tomorrow”.
As Ross cleaned his teeth, he grinned to himself. If his mum could see him now, she’d faint with shock. Not a word of a
rgument about bedtime, cleaning his teeth without being told. Funny how things he’d never do for his parents, he was doing and enjoying here. Tired out by all the excitement and the newness of everything, it was nice to snuggle up in his holiday bed. He’d intended holding a whispered conversation with the others, but he was asleep before he had the chance. The next thing he knew, Jerry’s head was poking around the door, the sun was shining and Jerry was yelling, “Breakfast in ten”.
“Ten what?” came David’s sleepy voice.
“Minutes, dozy” Patrick drawled, already dressed and with his head in a magazine about mountaineering. He’d enjoyed the peace and privacy that beating the morning call had given him. He wondered if tomorrow anyone else would spoil it for him. Getting washed and dressed with the others was bedlam. Ross could see why Patrick had jumped the gun as Dean’s soap dropped on his toe and his towel was accidentally used as a sponge by Arthur who had left his glasses in the dorm. Breakfast was pretty chaotic, too with everyone experimenting with six types of cereal and then the best way to make an egg, bacon and sausage sandwich. Then Nick called for their attention. He wasn’t as good at it as Owen and had to resort to banging a spoon on the table before he obtained silence.
