EOTW/Alex Backstory/ Nine Days Earlier
Nine Days Ago
"Hey, Alex!" Another boy shouted at him from across the playground. Alex responded by gracefully passing the football in his direction. The two of them continued to pass it backwards and forwards, occasionally running from side to side to pick up a wild shot.
"Finally got out of detention?" Alex laughed "What was it for this time?"
"Same thing as always. They just won't get off my back...".
"We'll maybe if you did your homework for once..."
"Maybe if you helped me like you said you would!"
"How about after tea tonight?"
"Oh do we have to..."
"Sam!"
"Ok fine, but you have to do that thing for my sister!"
"What thing?"
"You know, that thing where you go like this..."
Sam started to move about, pretending to dance seductively, taking his polo-shirt off in the process. The both of them were laughing and joking together, but Alex was secretly plotting his revenge. He had had a crush of Sam's sister, who was just one year younger than themselves, for ages now, but he hated Sam for bringing it up in front of her. Slowly he moved towards Sam, who was still dancing topless and even beginning to remove his school shorts. The moment the shorts were around his ankles Alex took the opportunity to strike. He ran at his friend, rugby tackled him, and pushed him to the ground. As he did so, he lost his own balance and fell on top.
The both of them lay there laughing for a while, but the atmosphere soon changed to a very different form of tense. The two boys looked each other in the eyes, slowly moving their faces together as if they were going to kiss. Suddenly the both of them realised what they were doing, and they very quickly pushed each other apart. Before they even had a chance to say anything to break the awkwardness, the boys realised that they were alone, and probably had been for a while.
"Where is everyone?" Sam asked obliviously.
"I think lunch ended! We'd better get to class quick!"
The boys ran as fast as they could back into the school building and up the stairs to their year-four classroom, Sam trying to get his clothes back on as they went. When they arrived they only caught the end of what their teacher was saying.
"...because of this we will be sending you all home early. Please go straight home to your parents, and we will see you again first thing Monday morning."
Sam an Alex looked at each other and grinned. An extra three hours to their weekend; they could go straight to Sam's house and have plenty of time before the sister or, most importantly, the parents arrived home. It wasn't long, however, before the both of them noticed a tear down their teacher's face; he was trying not to cry! Something wasn't right, but they daren't fight against the crowd of classmates to find out what it was.
Twenty minutes later the both of them were out of the school gates, and on the road back home.
"We're going straight back to mine right? You can ring your mum from there! It's so cool that we get extra time. Now we get three hours before my stupid sister gets back..."
"Sam!" Alex interrupted abruptly. "Don't you think there's something weird about what teach said?"
"Who cares! We got extra time..."
"Sam teach was trying not to cry! Why do you think he would be crying if they were just letting us go early." There was a silence when Alex paused, neither of them knowing quite what to say. "Sam...I don't think we're going back to school on Monday!"
or