Ben nodded, but he wasn’t really concentrating on what Mike was saying. Ben was more interested in finding a seat on the train, and then finding the toilet. It was Monday night, and they’d just been to see a production of Twelfth Night by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon. It had taken the group two-and-a-half hours to get there by train that morning, and then they’d had the joy of traipsing around Stratford in the pouring rain, their teachers getting excited over Shakespeare’s house whilst the students stood around feeling bored. Then there had been the play, which although Ben didn’t usually like Shakespeare, he had to admit he enjoyed. And afterwards they had been allowed to have a few drinks in the posh bar before making their way back to the train station.
Ben had drunk a few beers, and they had quickly found their way to his bladder. He hadn’t been able to use the toilet when they arrived at the station as the train was already stopped there, and the teachers had rushed them on. So Ben was keen to use the toilet on the train now they were on it.
There was only one carriage on the train, and with a group of 41, plus 5 teachers, the sixth-formers took up most of it. Luckily there were only two other passengers on the train.
Ben sat down next to Mike, with Gabby and Chloe sitting facing them.
“I’m just going to go to the toilet quickly,” Ben said when the train started moving. He walked to one end of the carriage, and realised the toilet was at the other end of the train. He walked back past his friends to the other end, he found the toilet, but a large handwritten sign stuck onto it announced ‘Out Of Order.’ Ben tried the door nervously, and to his dismay it was locked. This train journey was going to be two-and-a-half hours long, he wasn’t sure he could wait that long, and he wished he’d gone to the toilet before they left the theatre. Instead, when Mr Allen had announced that they were leaving in 5 minutes he’d bought another beer and quickly gulped it down.