Ben reached for his phone, screwing up his eyes as it’s bright blue light first glared out at him. He waited for his eyes to adjust, and looked at the time. 4:46am. He had awoken even earlier than usual, his body tingling with a mixture of nerves and excitement. Today was the school’s annual sixth-form trip to London. And Laura Miller, the girl he’d had a crush on since year seven, was coming. He hadn’t wanted to go on the trip at first. Although there were eighty pupils in the sixth-form, the trip open to all, most of the teenagers dismissed the trip as boring. And Ben was no exception, a week being dragged around museums by his sadistic teachers didn’t sound like fun to him. Plus there was his problem to contend with, and he really didn’t want the hassle of dealing with it away from home.
However, Laura and her friends had all signed up for the trip, and when Laura herself asked Ben if he was going he had said yes without even thinking about it. Here was the hottest girl in the school, at least in his opinion, asking if he was going on the trip, did that mean she wanted him to? It was too good an opportunity for Ben to miss, and so he had persuaded his best friend, Mike, and a few other good friends, to accompany him. Even if it was boring at least they got to miss a week of school, and their head of year, Mr Allen had promised them they would have plenty of chances to go off on their own.
Ben got out of bed, and groggily stumbled to the bathroom. He stripped off his wet boxers, throwing them in the washing basket for his Mum to deal with, and stepped into the shower. He stood under the hot water for ten minutes, scrubbing himself clean with plenty of soap, before wrapping himself in a towel and making his way back to his bedroom.
Ben dressed in a clean T-shirt with the band name ‘MUSE’ emblazoned across the front, and a crumbled pair of baggy jeans he picked off the floor. Once he was dressed he knew he had better strip his bed of the wet sheets, he often forgot about them and wouldn’t remember until he got home from school, or even until he was ready to go to bed the next night, but he knew if he left them until he got back from London his room would really stink, and so he bundled up the wet sheets and duvet cover and took them to the kitchen, where he loaded up the washing machine and grabbed himself a piece of toast.
