Kingsway

“Want one?”

“Oh are we allowed? Brilliant! Thanks”

I took a Marlboro from the pack Adam offered me and lit it from the fat Zippo lighter he was holding.

God you could even smoke - it was amazing this place – I was definitely glad I’d decided to come here. I’d never ever been anywhere like this before. For a start, there were boys everywhere – I hadn’t been at school with boys since I was ten. Disappointingly, most of them still seemed very young, but you never knew – there might be one or two who acted a bit more mature.

I sat down next to Adam, trying not to stare at his fucked up nose, and took a drag on the cigarette. I was really glad to know one person there on my first day, even if he wasn’t glamorous and sophisticated like his big brother Matt.

It had been Matt who’d told me about Kingsway. He’d come to my school one day. I remembered how interesting he’d looked, slouching against the wall outside, in his leather jacket, waiting for us one lunchtime. I think he was friends with one of the other girls there and a whole crowd of us had taken him to a coffee bar just off Victoria Street.

I’d been very taken with him – he was a couple of years older than me and as well as being extremely good-looking, he’d made me laugh almost all the time. He also wore an earring, drove a fast motorbike and looked as if he often did things that were illegal in one way or another.

While we drank coffee, he’d said no one made you go to lessons at his college. That had sounded very appealing to me. I was coming to the end of my time at the tutors and I hadn’t yet decided what to do next. At first I’d thought of going to boarding school – getting away from home being the point in that – but my father refused to pay any more money for my education - so option two had been somewhere I could do art, because that’s what I’d always planned to do – and somewhere I could have fun. Fun was the main thing. I’d gone home that day and said I’d decided to do the pre-foundation course at Kingsway.

I looked sideways at Adam so he wouldn’t know I was looking at him. I was fascinated by his nose – I’d never seen one with a hole in before. Matt had told me about it –how they’d been sent to boarding school for two years when their dad had first got sick, and how Adam had been unhappy and done too much speed. It was healed up now, but you could still see the scar on the side. It was very hard not to stare.

It was a shame he wasn’t as good looking as Matt, but he did have an earring and seemed funny, and what was more important he was welcoming and knew loads of other people there. I didn’t know anyone else at all – there had only been fifty of us at Victoria Street and most of the other girls were either going to boarding school or Lucie Clayton.

I tried to remember the other people Matt had told me to look up – they were from his boarding school and had weird names – Smut and Mucky – that’s what they were. I wished Matt was still there, but he’d left the summer before – he was a trainee reporter now.

“They’ll be wearing denim jackets and jeans” he’d said; well that wasn’t much help – everyone was wearing denim jackets and jeans – even the teachers I’d met so far, except the strange woman who taught fabric design - she had surprisingly been wearing a man’s suit and tie. There hadn’t been anyone like her at my tutors. It had been a tweed skirt and sensible shoes kind of place.

There was a big crowd of Adam’s friends at the table. I turned to the boy next to me and summoned up all my courage;

“Are you Smut or Mucky?”

He looked at me as if I had two heads or something and recoiled slightly. Oh god, oh god I’d spoilt everything – it was all ruined now. I felt my face starting to go red and I wanted to flee back up the stairs and out of the college. Then Adam turned around and saved me

“That’s Zachary. Smut and Mucky are over there”

He gestured to the end of the table where I could see one tall dark boy and another shorter blonde one with a scarf around his neck. I looked back at Zachary to see if he realised now that I wasn’t mad and I couldn’t be sure, He was looking at me and laughing softly but I couldn’t tell if it was with me or at me

Suddenly a bread roll landed on the table in front of us. I looked up and I could see a laughing boy with floppy black hair had thrown it from the queue for the till. Adam picked it up and threw it back. Then another came from the other side of the room, and another, and suddenly the air was thick with them. The table was scattered with bread and I joined in throwing them back – it was hilarious – we were all giggling and ducking under the tables between shots. I found myself crouching next to the dark boy who’d started it.

“Who are we aiming at?” I asked him

“No fucking idea. Some lunatics. It’s fun though isn’t it?”

“Absolutely. Were you at Hampstead Free too?

“Yeah – we’re all going to pub for lunch in a minute– want to come?”

“Oh thanks, I’d love to”

“We’ll have to make a run for it – come on”

He got up and moved fast across the room half ducking, like he was in Starsky and Hutch. I followed and soon we were back in the entrance lobby, out of breath, brushing crumbs from our clothes, laughing, and waiting for the others. I felt very pleased with my first morning- I thought I was quite probably going to have a good time at Kingsway if things went on like that.