Both Sides of The Field

(This is my latest story, I just want to get some feedback from everybody about the story and how it plays out in the opening chapter before moving on. I would love every bit of feedback to gauge interest in the story.)

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“The St Matthew’s College leadership summit is all about harnessing our best and brightest minds for the future leaders of our community that we have here at St Matthew’s College across Academia, Sports, Community, Culture and Religion” it doesn’t matter where he is or who is talking to, Mr White the school principal always has to talk as if he is trying to promote himself as almost the second coming of god. The self-promotion of himself and the school is nauseating especially given how much of a shit hole the place is when there isn’t something to promote or the cameras aren’t rolling.

There is never a week though when there isn’t some sort of puffed-up positive media attention on the school with camera crews there every day and it feels like you end up in more photo ops, media shoots and staged events than what the Kardashians do.

I suppose when you are the top Boy’s school in the state attracting kids from almost only the richest, most important and influential families in the state, country and world, it’s important to maintain a good image. The good image and constant positive coverage are probably important especially when your highest profile student, a visiting member of an international royal family is caught in the showers having sex with a married female PE teacher and with the widespread knowledge that it wasn’t just a one-time thing between him and her either.

Sitting there listening to Mr White, I start to tune out and think about other things like what we are going to do over the next week and the possibility of who I’m going to have to share a room with because every speech from Mr White is the exact same thing.

It feels like an hour later but in reality, it is only 15 minutes before he finally finishes all the talking in his monotoned voice that could the worst insomniac to sleep and hands the podium to Mrs Hunt, the said PE teacher who had the affair who somehow not only kept her job but got a promotion to Head Teacher of Leadership and Development.

“So as always, the next week you will be paired up where you will live together, work together and do everything as a duo” I sit there looking at the 24 of us that are there and realise that there are very few people that I would actively choose to work with for a whole week.

The names are drawn out and very quickly I realise that I’m going to end up with someone that isn’t going to be a friend of mine as I see who is actually left. The last four of us are sitting there as I’m just hoping that a certain name doesn’t get called out when mine does.

Mrs Hunt looks back down at her list “Walker and Schofield” she says as I throw my head back groaning quietly as I hear his voice “Why do I have to go with that fucking loser nerd again” I just shake my head as Mr Hunt gives us the instructions for the week and the timetable. She tells us that because of a recent storm, we’ve had to be assigned to a Villa in a different section from everyone else which seems odd that we are on the Riverview side of the complex as opposed to the Parkside area where everyone else will be.

I turn around and see that Henry has grabbed his stuff and key and just walked off towards the villa as I shake my head. Henry Walker is the captain of the School Rugby team which gives him an extra sense of entitlement and ego which he doesn’t need to begin with considering his family background and that he’s the school’s vice-captain.

Along with being the Rugby Captain and School vice-captain, he comes from one of the most prominent journalistic families in the country who helped to build at least three-quarters of the historic buildings in the city and then countless of others all around the country. Adding to this, it is hard to go past an entryway, photograph, picture or display that doesn’t have the words “Donated to St Matthew’s by the Walker family” or something similar with one of the many members of the family who have influence around the place.

Henry is the guy that knows that he can get away with just about anything and then when he does have to answer questions, he has the charisma and charms that he uses to put the pressure onto someone else or the issue just gets dropped overall. Despite having the charms, there is also a belief around the place that the hierarchy at St Matthew’s are scared to say or do anything negative against Henry because of the reputation of his father as a prominent journalist and Television presenter who despite saying some of the most controversial things, always seems to be the person pulling the strings in every part of the country.

My family situation is quite different to the Walker’s because there is no way that our family could be called rich by any stretch of the imagination although thinking about it, we are probably called rich given that we are probably better off than most in the community these days with the jobs that my parents both have.

The situation currently with my family is complicated with my parents living and working in Singapore, the plan was initially that we were all going to move over there about three years ago after Dad had settled in for a while and whether it was a worthwhile venture. After almost a year there, we decided to move across to Singapore however COVID struck and the harsh restrictions both there and here meant we couldn’t move at all.

After the opportunity opened for the family to move across to Singapore, my parents decided for me to stay in Sydney because I was so close to finishing High School that it would make more sense if I stayed here and my little brother Ryan who is 14 would move across with my parents.

Thankfully, my parents forked out enough money to the school in addition to the exorbitant school fees to ensure that I got my own private dorm apartment for the senior years at school which mean that I don’t have to share with any of the idiots that frequent the school or get into any trouble in my parents' words.

I wander up to the front to get my information pack for the week knowing that Henry has already stormed to the villa where we are staying and it doesn’t bother me because I know that I can handle his attitude. I start to leave when Mrs Hunt stops me “If there are any issues then just let me know ok?” she says referring to Henry’s attitude when he found out about us being together.

“We’ll be right for sure, I know how to handle his shit when he puts it on towards me,” I say as Mrs Hunt just laughs and nods her head and insists that she walks down to the cabin and that we know our way to and from the villa when we have to head back.

 Getting to the villa she looks at me and Henry “You two are out here because we trust you two the most you ok?” she says as I nod trying to assure her that she has nothing to worry about. “If we hear anything from you two then you’ll be back with everyone else and sharing a teacher's cabin with one of us” I nod my head knowing that nothing is going to go wrong from my end at the very least.

We both acknowledge Mrs Hunt as she leaves and I can see that Henry has already made himself at home claiming both beds in the single bedroom and putting his stuff in both sets of cupboards that are there for us and his general stuff is everywhere.

“You didn’t take long to claim everything at all did it,” I say annoyed that Henry thinks so much of himself that he hasn’t bothered to give me a chance to put any of my stuff away or discuss which bed is the one that I wanted.

“Snooze ya lose,” he says shrugging with the ultimate childishness like the kid who got what he wanted and never cared about anyone else in the world. Henry starts to take off his school shirt which we had to wear for the first part and shows off his Nike tank top and his amazing chest and arms as I just gasp. “Wow… snooze ya lose… best and brightest minds and apparently your both smart and sporty”.

Henry just looks at me and shakes his head as he closes the door to the bedroom as I just open it and put my stuff in there much to his annoyance. “You didn’t take the fucking hit that I don’t share?” Henry says annoyed that I’m claiming the other bed in the room when he thought he could just walk over me.

“So what? You expected me to just go out there and sleep on the couch that’s tiny simply because you are Henry Walker and you get what you want” I say with a smirk on my face because I know exactly how to handle him so easily and it really gets underneath his skin when I do.

Henry doesn’t bother to answer me as he just walks outside for a minute as I put my stuff down and lay on the bed which is surprisingly comfortable considering that these places are usually cheap and nasty. I lay there for a bit because we actually have about an hour until the first activity which is going to be an interesting experience of how he’s going to react to it all.

Henry Walker can be read like the most basic children’s book, he wants to be around people where he feels superior to them but also they can boost his ego by telling him how good he is or how “hot” he is and just all general nonsense like that.

The one positive of the moment is that they haven’t taken our phones away yet so I message my little bro just to let him know that I might not be in contact for the week or that I might need to be venting at him.

“Hey bro, I’m at the leadership retreat for the week now and of course, I got stuck with HW this week… think they take phones tonight so talk soon”

Laying down on the bed, I try to keep my cool and focus on the positives that can come out of all this. I fall asleep for a few minutes before getting up and getting changed into my $15 Kmart t-shirt which is going to bring the collective price down of the room so much compared to everyone else’s clothes there.

Heading to the main hall, the first task is going to be interesting because it’s all about working together and giving directions to each other and focuses on how well we know each other and can respond to each other. I roll my eyes at the instructions because I know that Henry doesn’t take directions from anyone being the Rugby captain he is usually the one dishing them out but I know especially from me he’s not going to take them.

The activity goes ok even though I know that Henry resents my giving him directions but he gets that I’m forced to right at that moment and despite some choice phrases towards my way, I manage to get through and we get through relatively unscathed.

After lunch, the afternoon set of tasks drives me insane as Henry is completely ignoring me which is defeating the whole purpose of why we are here at the “Leadership and Teamwork Retreat” this week and I know that we are being judged by the teachers as well.

The final task of the afternoon pushes me to the borderline of insanity because we have to build a bridge together out of Wooden sticks but the catch and the overall complication is that we need to build it in two halves separately and put it together. This is fraught with danger for everybody but for Henry and me in particular because it means that we are going to have to communicate what the best idea is and I know that I have an upper hand in building models but Henry isn’t going to take on my ideas.

Sitting there working, I tell Henry what the plan is and the most efficient way of getting it done as I hear him groaning about all my plans “Why the fuck are we doing it this way? It’s not like we need to build the fucking Harbour Bridge” he says as I just roll my eyes with my back turned.

“It doesn’t need to be the harbour bridge but it needs to be a fucking bridge doesn’t it? At least one that stands” I snap back at Henry who just tells me to fucking chill about it because he says we got this in the back which just adds to my frustration right now about how superior he acts and thinks that he is.

After a while, we’ve somehow ended up on the same page building the bridge although you could say that we are at different ends of the page with how our halves have come together but overall we somehow made a bridge.

There is meant to be one final activity outside but given the rain passing through, the retreat leaders call it off saying that it’s too wet meaning that we get some free time in the afternoon to ourselves to do whatever we want even though there isn’t a lot around.

Henry quickly wanders off with his mates as my eye catches an empty and pretty good-looking gym attached to the main hall which we are allowed to use and I decided that I’m just going to get the tunes going and get a workout in.

My body whilst nowhere near as beefy and muscular as Henry or any of the Rugby guys is still pretty fit and ripped. I always like to think that I have the best set of abs around because I spend most of my time working on them when I’m at school living alone because there isn’t much else to do and I hate just doing nothing as well as having to credit being one of the main players on the school's cricket team.

Putting my earbuds in and just having random music playing as I work out for a while is the break that I needed mentally because even though we’ve only been here five hours and there’s still another four days to go, it’s really pushing me to breaking point right now. I don’t bother pushing my legs too much with a major hike coming up in a few days as well as the orienteering course which is gonna be a lot of fun with Henry.

I head back through the rain down to where our cabin is away from everyone as I see Henry sitting there outside like he is waiting for me to get back as he is just playing on his phone sitting there. “I’d say that you sitting there like that was you waiting for me but I know how stupid that sounds,” I say to Henry as he just rolls his eyes at me as I know my giving it back to him frustrates him.

I head straight into the bathroom to have a shower after the gym as I hear Henry in the bedroom moving shit around and I know that he is probably taking my stuff out of the wardrobe and dumping it somewhere and putting his stuff in there even though he has his own side.

Getting out of the shower, I grab a towel and wrap it around my waist as Henry looks at my body almost impressed by what he sees especially with my abs. Which to be fair I mean he should be fucking impressed by them because he certainly doesn’t have a six-pack like mine.

Henry walks out nodding, I can tell that there is some impression made on him as I open the wardrobe on my side and see that all of my stuff has been dumped onto the lower shelf close to the floor like it can’t be seen by anyone and then all his expensive branded stuff like a few Calvin Klein t-shirts and Nike hoodies, all stuff that probably costs more than what I’ve packed this week completely.

I look through what stuff is there and decide that I’m just going to put one of the Nike Hoodies that Henry put in the wardrobe in there, knowing full well that it’ll probably piss him off but I don’t give a shit as I put it with my Adidas pants and my own Nike shoes that I got massively discounted at a clearance store.

Walking out of the villa, Henry just glares at me and shakes his head as I head towards the dinner hall knowing that he isn’t happy that I’m wearing his clothes but he doesn’t say anything right now as we head up to dinner. The food is hardly top quality as we are served the worst Meatball pasta mess that I have ever seen that looks like all they’ve done is open the can, put it in a microwave for a few minutes and slopped it onto the plate and I say that as an expert of having plenty of Microwave and food out of a can before.

At dinner, I sit with Billy and Evan who I’d call mates but I wouldn’t say that we are particularly close because really we only talk to each other at break times and I share a few classes with them. Sitting there, Evan is about the only person eating dinner which is lucky because he’s a Vegetarian so he got a really good-looking salad I’m jealous of right now.

“So what’s it like with Captain narcissistic,” Evan asks having had more than his own fair share of problems with Henry and his group over the years having started primary school together and the dislike lasted since then. I sit there and go to answer before Billy steps in “I know that you’ve got your own problems with Henry and the way he talks to everyone, but there is probably a good person inside there” Billy says as I shrug thinking that it would be nice to see that person coming through more often.

Looking at Henry messing around with his mates, I just roll my eyes at how he can have everyone wrapped around his finger just falling off every word with his crisp brown eyes, his medium-length wavy brownish blonde hair and then the muscles underneath his shirt that always stick out. I shake my head and get back to the conversation with Billy and Evan as they bicker about Henry and whether there is actually a good person.

“I know that you are Mr Optimism and seem to be wearing rose-coloured contacts all the time William but…” I stop for a minute and look at Billy. “Wait, your name is really William?” I ask as he nods and laughs “Mine, my dads, my grandfathers, some families you inherit wealth or jobs… mine you just inherit names” he says as I nod.

“Back to the point, I don’t see the good in everyone but surely even Henry Walker has a good side even though his family are hate-filled arseholes… I’d like to think that he doesn’t take after them especially his father” I nod at the comments given that someone of the shit that Bryan Walker dribbles on his cable news program is absolute garbage and such hate-filled nonsense.

I sit there trying to finish dinner but each bite repulses my stomach “Can we talk less about toxic waste… which includes this food” I ask as they nod and agree because I need moments away from Henry if I’m going to get through this week without snapping.

After dinner there are a few games set up that we play, thankfully even though these are compulsory we don’t need to be with our assigned partner which gives me another break away from Henry before we head back to our villas for the night and the tense atmosphere.