The Beginning of Never

by O. E. Boroni

  One of the girls had the top of her head completely covered in spaghetti, and was dripping with tomato sauce. Her hands were up in the air in shock, and everyone watched to see what she would do.

  Not surprisingly, she picked up a handful from her own plate, but of course her opponent dodged the hit and it met the excited face of a boy a table away from them. They were unlucky because the table was full of boys, and so more excited than offended, they rose and aimed food back at their entire table.

  And so the mess began. As I watched, horrified, I couldn’t help thinking of how this was too much of a perfect day for a food fight. It was hurls of tomato sauce and soup all the way, and soon, the whole hall had turned into a sporadic scene of flying food.

  The boys from our table, including James, eagerly got up and rushed to join the scene, which was rapidly spreading out towards us. Not sure whether to be upset or irritated, I grabbed the piece of bread I had saved to devour later in the night, and I stood up to leave the hall.

  Others that felt the same way as I, got up to escape too, but most of them were gunned down with food before they could leave. I prayed that they would miss me, and was about to run out when a sharp tug on my arm pulled me back.

  The loaf flew out of my hands as I tried to land on the bench, instead of the floor. Shocked, I turned to see Nathan staring at me as if he had just said hello instead of almost injuring me.

  “Where are you going?” he asked, and my mouth hung open.

  “Are you crazy? Or are you not seeing what’s going on?” Somewhere along the line, the couple had left the table so we were the only ones there, and as soon as I noticed the mischievous glint that was flashing in his eyes, I suspected that I was in trouble. I wasn’t sure whether to completely believe it, so I slowly straightened, but before I could even turn to face him, a cup of orange juice was thrown in my face.

  « CHAPTER 9 »

  My eyes remained closed as I tried to take in what had just happened. A few seconds later I reopened them, intending to bring down hell against him but when I saw the grin on his face – my breath caught in my throat.

  I remembered imagining what it would look like to see a full and genuine smile from him, and now that I did, I wanted to melt into a puddle on the wooden floor. I was now very excited so I rose, and started to go around the table towards him.

  However before I could take more than two steps, he was up and out of his seat. I grabbed a handful of spaghetti from his plate, and continued approaching him. He was backing up now with his hands held out to protect himself, and a devastatingly beautiful smile on his face. I couldn’t believe it.

  “Stop,” he said. “I was kidding.”

  “Oh were you now?” I mocked, unable to control my own smile which had stretched my lips painfully taut. When his back reached the wooden wall, I rushed at him but was abruptly stopped when his hands came out to still mine in mid-air.

  He started laughing as I struggled to lower it enough to reach his face, but when he still wouldn’t let go, I just flicked the food at him. He swerved his upper body to the right so that he could avoid it but it was too late. The sauce soaked spaghetti hit the side of his head, and trickled down onto his shoulder.

  Laughing, I immediately started to move backwards as he slowly wiped the food away from his face. He reopened his eyes and watched me as I continued to retreat, but when a sharp scream from across the room briefly distracted me, I turned back to him, only to find that he had moved. Instantly I turned on my heels so that I could get away, but I wasn’t quick enough.

  The next thing I knew, his hand had caught mine and I was screaming in delight as he pulled me against him. With one solid arm around my middle, he glued me to him and stretched his free hand so that he could reach the nearest plate. I continued struggling to get away, trying my best to pull his arm from around my waist until my legs had practically left the floor.

  But it was of no use. He was able to keep me against his tall frame, until his other hand came up to show me the food he had in it. With a loud shriek, I shot my hands up so that I could protect my head.

  However he wasn’t aiming for my head, but I didn’t realize what he was planning to do until I felt the warm food on my legs. Before I could react, he had rubbed it all the way up my thigh. Almost jumping out of my skin, I flew out of his hold and started to swipe at it while he just watched me with a wide smile, entirely too pleased at my horror.

  I started to reach for the bowl of sauce that he had gotten for me but out of the corner of my eye, I saw him move so quickly that one minute I was reaching for the bowl and the next my hands were held together in his.

  “Nathan let me go!” I said, in a tone that I had hoped would sound stern enough for him to comply, but instead the words came out in a giggle. He shook his head and held on, our gazes firmly fixed on each other until my back finally met the wall.

  Suddenly, the deafening shrill of a whistle rang across hall and we stopped, our faces ablaze with amusement. But slowly, and as a semblance of order began to fill the room, the magic dissipated and he let me go. Our smiles waned, gazes faltered and soon, he had turned away to face the houseparent who now stood at the entrance of the hall.

  "Wow! Dogs of Lancaster Academy. You respond well to whistles,” Mr. Dwayne Cart said, and my head snapped up at his bitter tone. He was Grizedale’s houseparent. Low-toned giggles broke out from every corner of the room, but I was done smiling- this wasn’t going to end well.

  He gave the hall a dark look that instantly quieted it down, and then in a yell, low enough not to offend but loud and angry enough to spike dread through our hearts, he said, "Are you all out of your minds? Where do you think you are? Who started this mess?"

  As expected, no one answered him. He smiled sardonically. "It’s good to see that you’re all united in vandalism. As young adults, one would expect you'd have developed enough sense to act like proper human beings, even without supervision, but I can now see that I was deluded."

  The murmurings heightened to a deafening buzz, but again quieted down when he turned his hostile gaze around the room. Three of the other house parents who had been around but unable to stop the fight, scowled behind him. Bowland’s Mrs. Lucy Ryan, Lonsdale’s Margaret Hetcher and Cartmel’s Michael Beveridge. An assistant I’d seen around also stood a little ways away from them but I couldn’t remember what house he belonged to. Our Pendle’s Mariam Kempster was absent, as well as Mr. Cassidy Maine. What an amiable house we were.

  "Thank God it's Friday," he said as he looked around, a wicked smile stretching the corners of his lips. "This hall could use an overnight scrubbing."

  Gasps erupted throughout the room. Someone muttered in disbelief behind me; "he wouldn't", but as he continued, we came to realize that he actually would.

  "The halls have been locked, so don't even dream of going back anytime soon,” he said. “As you all know, there are taps behind the hall in the kitchen. The stewards will provide you with buckets and other cleaning materials. Scrub this place until it’s clean enough to eat from the floor."

  The murmuring turned into full-blown complaints, but Mr. Dwayne Cart ignored it. "Everyone cleans the area in which they sat – from the tables to the benches and to the plates and cutlery you used. If there are any stains on the wall, wipe them clean. If no one on your table is tall enough to get to any of the spots, get a ladder. You're welcome to break your necks in the process."

  Muffled laughter was hard to miss. He went on, "There were at least seven of you on each table, so one of you should have enough sense to know how to divide the chores amongst yourselves."

  He glanced at his watch. "We'll be back in two hours, and if the work's not complete by then, I'll give you an extra two. So if you prefer, take it all as a joke. You'll end up staying here till morning."

  He turned to leave, but then stopped and turned back to us. "One more thing," he said. "There's extra duty. So any table that doesn't meet my satisfaction in anyway, will stay up and clean al
l the hallways ... in all the houses. Tonight. And trust me, there will be some tables that I don't like. And since you are all smeared like rats, I wouldn't want your filth messing up my hallways as you return to your rooms now would I?”

  He gave a dry smile. "Have fun," he said before he walked out, the other three filing out after him.

  “Is he allowed to talk to us like that?” I heard someone say from behind me, in a deep Russian accent. I rolled my eyes in disgust; Like that was what mattered now.

  With a heavy heart I took a good look at the hall, no longer with a quiet admiration for how exquisite it was, but with a serious dread for how long we were all going to spend cleaning it. Thankfully, the wooden walls on our side didn’t look as bad as some of the others further down, and better still, the stone walls that extended to the roof from its eight-foot glory, also looked untouched.

  The rows of portraits that hosted past headmasters seemed to be smiling down at us in mockery. I sighed, and like most people, wandered off in search of the taps. I couldn’t stand one more second as soiled as I was.

  Nathan had left the hall as soon as Mr. Cart had finished speaking. In my years at Lancaster, playing with him the way I had during the food fight was the first time that I’d actually let my hair down enough to enjoy something, especially something as senseless as a food fight. I was reminiscing about his arm around me when I met the impossible crowd that was already gathered at the taps. That quickly wiped any more fantasies out of my mind as I tried to find a way to help myself.

  After waiting for a while, I got my turn and I immediately loosened my hair so that I could wet my fingers with the gushing faucet and run it through them. It was a little damp when I was done, but it didn’t bother me. I moved down to my leg and as I washed the grime away, I remembered the brief, but fiery thrill that I had felt when he had rubbed his hand along it. God… now that I was thinking about it, it had been a fairly inappropriate thing to do, but then I hadn’t been thinking straight. Now I was, and I wished he’d have taken his time.

  I washed my face when I was done, and dusted at the front of my t-shirt. Anymore and I’d be thoroughly embarrassed since the shirt was white – or had been before Nathan had decided to splash orange juice all over it. I caught myself smiling at the thought as I walked away, and then I frowned when I realized that I shouldn’t have been amused.

  Straightening my back, I returned to the hall to see that everyone on my table was present. James looked like he had bathed in tomato sauce, but it obviously didn’t concern him as much as it did me because he was standing in front of the table, and speaking. Nathan, on the other hand, was leaning casually against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. Apart from a small stain on his shoulder and his slightly damp hair, he looked almost spotless and it made me wonder if I had only imagined his participation in the fight.

  He started to turn towards me – or at least I thought so – so I removed my eyes from him and focused on returning to my seat. The couple were leaning against each other, while the other two boys looked like they’d rather be idly gazing at stars than participating in the chore we were about to embark on. James was just finishing when I got to them.

  "Lenora," he called out smiling, and everyone turned to look at me. It made me feel uncomfortable, so I quickly sat down. James however continued to stare at me but he snapped out of it when I started to frown.

  "What?" I asked.

  "Uh, nothing. We just thought you’d bailed on us." he said. I didn't think I needed to answer that so I just waited for him to address me.

  "We’ve just divided the chores,” he told me. “We'll handle the tables, while Eric and Seth will head over to the kitchen to wash the dishes. Alexandre will handle the walls since he’s tall while they –” he pointed to the couple, “– will handle the floor. Are you okay with that?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah. It’s fine.”

  “Okay. Let’s get to work,” he said. He turned to the boys to ask, “Can you guys come help me get the materials?”

  They took a couple of moments before rising, but even that I suspected, was just because James was a year above them and a prefect. I didn’t miss the dark scowl Nathan gave to them when they started to complain. As they walked away, Nathan pulled himself away from the wall and took a seat on the bench. With his back against the table, he brought out his ear phones and plugged it into his ears.

  If I had had any doubt about his intention before, I had none now. He had literally turned his back on me. Trying not to become upset because that would just be ridiculous, I looked away from him, and focused my attention on the rowdy hall. However a few minutes after, the couple drew my attention back to the table when they stood up, and started to leave.

  “Where are you going?” I asked.

  “We’ll be back soon,” the boy answered, but when I realized that their absence would leave me alone with Nathan, I tried getting them to stay.

  "James will be back soon," I said, but it didn’t stop them.

  "We won't be long,” the girl said. “Plus our chore is the last one so you guys won’t need us till later. We'll be back," she assured me before she ran off with her boyfriend.

  Nathan of course ignored me, which made me a little ashamed that I had even bothered trying to keep the couple with me. He had probably forgotten I was even seated there.

  James came back a few minutes later looking almost angry, and it was surprising since I’d never even seen him frown before.

  “Bad news,” he said as he reached us, surprised to see the table almost empty. “There’s not enough utensils for everyone so we’ll have to wait our turn. The punishment isn’t the cleaning, it’s the wasting of our goddamn time. Do you mind us getting started on the table?” he asked me.

  “No, it’s fine.” I answered.

  He tossed a damp dish cloth to me, so after moving our tableware to a corner by the wall, we started to wipe down the furniture. Not long after, Nathan was able to get a bowl of water so he started on his chore too. I had finished with mine and was seated, when I heard Nathan call my name. James had gone to the kitchen to check on Eric and Seth.

  “Do you want to go to the stream tomorrow?” he asked, when I turned to him.

  “Uh … I don’t know,” I replied, surprised that he was asking me. Then I remembered that I was supposed to have confronted him about letting me stew in my fear. I decided to let it go.

  “Well, if you want to, I’ll be going in the morning,” he said, and he returned to wiping the wall.

  “Thanks, but when I want to I’ll just go on my own.

  “You can’t.” he said. “Because I have the key to the place,”

  I frowned. “Why do you have the key to the place?”

  “It’s not exactly a common area is it?”

  “Then how do you have access to it?”

  “It’s none of your concern. You weren’t even supposed to find out about it.”

  “But I did, didn’t I?” I sneered. “And I wouldn’t want to go with you anyway since you enjoy letting people stew in their fear when they get lost.”

  He didn’t even try to look surprised. He knew exactly what I was talking about.

  “You chose to get lost,” he said.

  I scoffed. “And so that gave you enough reason to let me almost die there?”

  “I didn’t leave.” he said, looking almost bored. “If I had you might have actually not found your way back, and then the whole school would be searching for you. Shouldn’t you be thanking me for that?”

  “I should, but I won’t. You probably would have been happier if I’d stayed lost and never came back.”

  The coldness returned to his gaze when I said that, and I instantly felt his withdrawal like a shadow at the appearance of light. He turned away from me without a word and continued with his task.

  « CHAPTER 10 »

  We left the hall around 10:30pm, after almost three hours of waiting. Tables that hadn't met the acceptable standard wer
e set on extra duty until about 11:30pm, since they had to clean the hallways that we stained as we returned to our rooms. No one had any strength to do anything else that evening, so most people just collapsed on their beds. Only a few remained awake to chat about the events of the evening. I was more than exhausted, but still, I couldn't sleep.

  I had made the statement about him not caring if I came back, not because I had actually meant it but because some part of me had wanted him to refute me and insist that he would have cared. But instead, it had annoyed him.

  He’d been civil enough until we’d all gone our separate ways, but now I felt like one of the many other girls that he never paid any attention to, and it made me ponder religiously on how to rectify it.

  His offer still stood I supposed, and I wanted to take it, but I didn’t imagine that he’d want me there anymore. I tried pushing the whole issue out of my mind and completely forgetting about him, but when hours later, my eyes were still wide open and thoughts were still coursing through my head so much that I forgot to blink, I decided to take another approach.

  Maybe I could be just his friend, and wipe away any notions I had conceived of it being anything more than that. That would mean that I could accept the offer and if I got to the storage room and he told me that he had withdrawn it, I would feel absolutely nothing whatsoever, and casually return to my house.

  Yet, by 10:30 the next morning, as I pushed the door to the storage room open, I wondered why my heart was pounding so painfully in my chest.

  As expected, the door behind the bookcase was locked so I leaned against the wall beside it to wait, and eventually just slid down to the floor. I was considering leaving about forty-five minutes later when the door to the room opened, and he came in.