Gwyneth.
Chapter One
My final year at high school was a fill-in before I started university. I was 18, and when I discussed it with my parents, we decided another year would be a good thing before I settled into 3 or 4 years of hard graft. I wasn't the only one at high school to take this option. My friend Charles (Charlie) and a couple of others returned at the beginning of the year for the same reason. One was Gwyneth who had to wait until she was twenty before she planned to become a Police woman.
Gwyneth was one of the hottest items at school. She wasn't particularly tall maybe 5'6". Blonde with long hair, an awesome figure and a gorgeous face. Her green eyes were mischievous and when she smiled or laughed, which wasn't that often, she made my heart skip a beat. I can't explain why but to me despite everything else she possessed, this to me was the most erotic. The most interesting thing about her was she was somewhat of a mystery. One rumour was that she had recently had an affair with a PE teacher, and he moved onto another school shortly after these started.
Gwyneth was one of those rare creatures who exuded sex when she walked, smiled, or talked. Every male pupil in the school and every male teacher was very aware of this when she was around. I had the feeling other girls avoided her because they found her great looks intimidating and felt inferior in her company. She was always getting detention for dress code violations with regards to the length of her skirt, pierced ears, and non-code blouses.
I guess I had something in common with Gwyneth. Not the sexy bit, but I seemed to always end up in detention with her. This high school was a Grammar School, one of the elite schools within my city and adhered to strict rules and regulations. One was that we boys had to wear a cap to and from school. I refused to do so. I was old enough to vote, drink, or be drafted, and wasn't going to wear a stupid cap. This became an ongoing battle with the school, and I was lucky not to be expelled, but would usually end up in a detention class at least once a week when some teacher had spotted me coming or going to school.
Since I usually trained by running to and from school every day this really pissed me off. Then there was my hair. I surfed, and along with my older brother cultivated the appropriate hair to fit with the surf culture lifestyle. Every so often in previous years, after a few detentions, I would be summoned to the headmaster's office for a caning as was permitted in those days, along with instructions to "get it above the ears and off the collar." Possibly one of the reasons I was not expelled was because the headmaster and my dad were wartime buddies, having both fought in the Pacific. When I was fifteen and legally allowed to do so, the school suggested that maybe I should leave but I had other plans.
Chapter Two
Gwyneth and I would end up so often in detention, that we had a bit of a common bond and would have a bit of a smile and laugh about it as we spent an hour in class after school. Where others would shy away from Gwyneth not knowing how to relate to her, I found her easy to get on with and not in the least intimidating, that is unless she smiled.
At the beginning of this my last year, I heard that there was an incident on Gwyneth's school bus going home from school. A boy by the name of Jason had a go at groping Gwyneth's tits and she screamed at him and told him to "fuck off." As a result, this got reported to the school, but not the groping bit, only Gwyneth's language. The 'F' word was a 'no-no' in those days, and the use of it was generally resigned to the workplace between males, although my brother and his mates would drop it quite often, but they were Tradies having finished their apprenticeships. The resulting detention co-incited with my latest misdemeanour. She wasn't very happy and her usual smile to me was a bit subdued.
Miss Denon was our detention teacher that particular day, and the youngest teacher in our school, only just out of Teachers training college. She was also an ex-pupil. She was cool, and not far removed from our own ages, I guess about 22. As the only two in detention, she ignored the norm of giving us a set writing project and just came over, sat at a desk in front of us turned around and had a chat. Her brother surfed with mine, so we yakked about what the two of them were up to, their girlfriends and latest surf trips up the coast.
"You don't look very happy Gwyneth, what's the problem?"
"Umm...I just don't think I deserve to be here Miss."
"Please call me Chrissy when no other teachers are around, what happened."
Gwyneth gave me a sideways glance. I took the hint. "I can step out if you want," and got up to leave the classroom but Gwyneth put her hand on my arm and glanced up at me.
"It's Ok Tim. I know you won't go blabbing if you hear what really happened."
I sat down again.
"That prick Jason...Whoops sorry about the language Chrissy, has been hassling me for weeks. He lives a couple of doors away from me and I've caught him trying to have a perv when I sunbathe and a couple of times at night, I got the creepy feeling that he might be trying to look into my bedroom. Didn't see him, just got the feeling. Anyway" ... she glanced at Chrissy and me. "A few weeks ago, I had a friend arrive at home...umm an older guy and Jason saw him. We've never done anything, and I told the guy I wasn't interested. It's just that this guy was trying to hook up with me for a while, but he was way older and umm...everyone knows him. So that prick Jason hit me up and told me if I didn't put out to him, he was going to tell everyone what he'd seen. I guess you've heard the rumours and you know who I'm talking about, so I told Jason to "F' off. Anyway, now he's telling his mates he's having it off with me. On the bus the other day they called his bluff and told him to prove it. That's when he grabbed at my tits...sorry, I mean breasts". She glanced at me again and I saw a couple of tears forming in her eyes. "I know I've got a bit of a reputation, but I don't deserve this."
Gwyneth started crying and Chrissy moved across, knelt down and hugged her, looked at me, then indicated towards the door with a nod of her head. I was pissed off. Jason was also in his final year, but there was no chance he was going to university, and he was a real blowhard. He was quite big and had always been a bit of a bully. I'd seen him a couple of times picking on kids much smaller than him.
Chapter Three
At the last school swimming sports, I had cleaned up in a couple of freestyle events and was now on the school swimming team. The school had a history of great swimmers and a few Olympians over the years, but I was never a competitive swimmer. However, my surfing kept me fit and I was a strong paddler. My house was a good five miles from school and plenty of detentions meant I often missed the bus home, so would run, no doubt contributing to my win in the senior cross-country event. I was also training for the upcoming inter-school regional cross-country champs, often running to school in the mornings as well as home again. I'm sure my sporting achievements also helped with me being not expelled, the school being very focused on its sporting prowess amongst the others.
Having always been an ok swimmer was probably the reason I did so well at the school swimming sports, but I had no style, and had never been coached, just went flat out. My mate Charlie was a competitive club and national age group swimmer and became my coach with the encouragement of the PE teachers. The worst thing about competitive swimming was that I had to ditch my boardshorts for a pair of Speedos which I hated. It took a while before I got some tan on my pale thighs to blend in with the rest of my body. We trained each lunchtime at school and because we were in a fill in year, often these sessions would extend out to a couple of hours without the school being concerned, providing the PE department didn't require the use of the pool.
About a week after that detention with Gwyneth, Charlie and I were heading around the back of the pool's changing sheds one lunchtime, prior to a training session, when we came across Jason. He had a mate with him, and a kid pushed up against the block wall. The kid Ben was a first-year student and Jason had a hand on the back of Ben's neck and his face squashed into the wall.
"Bugger off Jason leave him alone."
Jason turned to me. "Or what?" he let Ben go, headed towards, then stood in front of me, legs apart, hands on hips. I couldn't help myself and let rip as hard as I could with a kick right between his legs. I guess in the back of my mind I was thinking about Gwyneth and although it was a dirty thing to do, a bit of a red mist came over me. With Jason rolling on the ground clutching his crutch I started in on him and smacked him in the face a couple of times until his hands went from his crutch to his face and he cried out for me to stop. His nose was bleeding and his lip split. "That's for Gwyneth you prick. Hassle her again and watch out. This is nothing to what I'll do next time."
Meanwhile Charlie and Jason's mate William were having their own standoff, although no punches were thrown. I put an arm around Bill's shoulders and lead him away followed by Charlie who kept looking back and grinning at Jason and William. Around the corner I checked out Ben's face which had a few scratches on it from the rough wall.
"Thanks." his voice was a bit shaky.
"That's ok mate. Listen, you need to do us a favour. Don't tell anyone especially not the teachers or I will be in trouble for sure. Ok."
"Yeah...ok...but thanks."
"If that prick Jason gives you any grief from now on, or any of your mates, just tell Charlie or me."
Bill was grinning now. "Ok."
The school had a strict 'no fighting' policy. Any fighting on school grounds meant instant expulsion and that applied to girls too. If you wanted to have a bit of scrap, you did it away from school.
Chapter Four
Any hopes that this wasn't going to get out, were dashed as Jason ended up with the school nurse after a teacher saw the state of his face. To his credit though he never narked on me. It was a couple of days later when Gwyneth fronted up to me and Charlie.
"It was you guys wasn't it."
"No idea what you are talking about Gwyneth."
She just grinned at us. "Yes, you do... Did you do that for me?"
"Gwyneth...you must keep this under your hat. Yes, for you, but also the kid he was beating up on."
"I don't know how I can ever thank you... Jason saw me as he was coming out of his house yesterday and instead of hassling me, turned around and walked back inside. He's got stitches on his lip you know." She looked around, then reached up and gave Charlie a kiss on the cheek before doing the same to me. "I can get my life back to normal now. Did you tell him to leave me alone?"
"Ah yeah. He won't bother you anymore. How did you find out?"
"William. He's fallen out with Jason, Jason reckoned he should have helped him out. I guess you had that covered didn't you Charlie, and now he's telling everyone you gave Jason a hiding."
"Aw shit. That's no good, hope that's not the end of my school days. You know how rumours get around the school."
"Hell...I never thought of that, do you think they will expel you. I'm so sorry... I guess it's my fault."
"Nah...that's ok." I laughed. "Had one foot on the banana skin and one in the gutter for a while now. You know that...don't sweat it Gwyneth."
"Ok...doesn't seem fair though." She lightly punched me in the arm. "Who am I going to spend detention with if they find out?"
"I'll grow my hair long and throw away my cap if you like Gwyneth." Charlie chipped in.
The inevitable happened, a summons to the headmaster's office, an accusation, my confirmation that I had done it, and my school days were over. I shook the headmaster's hand as he wished me the best. "And get a haircut." He laughed as I headed for the door and grinned back at him.
I sat down with my parents that night and told them what had happened before they got notification from the school but left out the details about Gwyneth. My mother was sympathetic, my father a bit angry at first but then he said he would have done the same thing.
Chapter Five
The following Tuesday I got a call to drop back in and see the headmaster. I borrowed my mother's car and drove to school wondering what was up. In the back of my mind was always the worry that Jason might lay assault charges, but that would have meant a visit from the Police, not a summons back to school.
The headmaster was quite warm with me as we headed into his office, and he offered me a seat before sitting behind his desk.
"Tim... a bit of information has come my way with regards to what happened the other day. You know the school's policy on fighting so there was no option there...automatic expulsion. However, we've had some of your friends come forward and explain the reasons for...let's say your indiscretion. In view of this I'm offering you the opportunity to return...that's if you want to."
I grinned at, and thanked him, not believing my luck, as I was not looking forward to working in my father's factory for the rest of the year.
"Just one thing, you're not getting away Scott free.
"Aw...come on sir...you're not going to cane me are you. I'm too big and old for that crap now."
He laughed. "No Tim wouldn't dream of it, but I've still got to set an example. A week's detention. That way I know you'll keep up your cross-country training."
"Ok...deal." I shook his hand as we both laughed.
I headed for the door, and again got a, "and Tim...get a bloody haircut."
