It’s Friday afternoon. Peter, his friend Alan and a handful of pals exit the school gates, each is looking forward to their mid-term break. Their heels clack loudly on the pavement. It’s drizzly and they’ve spent the last two periods playing Hockey on the astro-turf. Their cheeks are pink, their hair is damp but the body heat generated from the highly active sport means they’re all toasty and warm in spite of the frosty February air. Keith complains that they had to play hockey in the rain. “I’d rather play hockey in the rain than do Gym.” Alan states.
Peter agrees. “Gym wouldn’t be so bad if we could wear tights or leggings.” he stated. “But it’d still be mind numbingly boring.” he added.
“Yeah.” another of their groups says. “Given the choice I’d rather do dance than gymnastics.”
“No way!” Alan retorted. “Dance is duller than dull.” he mimicked their dance teacher’s twee middle class tone; first two three four, second three four, third two three four …over and over. The simple truth of the matter is, there’s a fine line between dance and gym classes. At least gymnastics is isn’t regular like their twice weekly dance class. It’s only undertaken when rain stops play and since they can’t predict the weather, they always pack their gym kit, just in case. Unlike their dance leotards which have thin shoulder straps, the leotards they wear for gymnastics have long sleeves and a slightly scooped back so they can get into it. They wear the same ‘flattening and flattering’ control knickers that they wear for dance, but they don’t wear tights for gymnastics.
“They’re both dull if you’re stuck the beginner’s groups.” it’s claimed. “Anyhow, when you going down south Jacko?”
“Tuesday.” Peter replied. “Back on Thursday I think.”
“Where is it again?”
“Slough.”
“What’s it like?”
“It’s OK… a lot bigger than Butterworth.”
“Do you miss it?”
“Sort of… I miss some of my mates, and I miss having a local cinema, going bowling, karting, stuff like that.” Peter replied. “And wearing long pants for school.” he added.
“Yeah.” Alan agreed.
“You miss long pants full-stop Jonesey!” one of the others blurted.
“Or does he?” another jovially quizzed.
Jonesey, aka Alan Jones used to attend the academy and whilst the high school boys were desperate to transfer to the academy, Alan’s parents were busy transferring him to the high school. He and Peter were both new boys back in September so ended up hanging out together. It’s rumoured that school isn’t the only time that Alan has to dress in girl’s clothing, but that same rumour goes for plenty of other boys.
The simple fact of the matter is, many of the high school boys do wear girl’s clothes outside of school because the school recommends that they should remain in uniform whilst doing their homework assignments. The school also recommends that the regulation underwear is worn on a daily basis and this includes weekends and school holidays too. Some parents are more lenient than others so not all follow the school’s advice regarding ‘extra-curricular petticoating’.