Writing for Fun
September 2019
Crusade - Pete Norman
‘She’s the most beautiful girl in the class.’ Jonathon murmured.
Every day he raced into school to get there a few minutes before her, so he could stand near the Infant’s gate where he could hide amongst the confusion of the parents and smaller children. Every day he stood right here just so that he could watch her walk through the school gate.
She was always immaculately dressed – it was true that it was exactly the same uniform that all the other girls wore but on her it looked really special – and she carried her Hello Kitty bag delicately in her hand as if it was the most expensive handbag in the world.
She was always happy, all day long she had a half smile on her face which brightened up his dull school days like a ray of warm sunshine.
‘She’s the most beautiful girl in the school.’ He whispered as she walked across the playground just ten yards away from where he stood, trying desperately to be invisible. Of course he knew that the fuss he was making to be invisible was completely unnecessary as she would never see him – she did not even know that he existed – at the most to her he would just be that skinny, awkward boy who sat at the back of the class and barely said a word. However, he most definitely did not want anyone else in his class to see him and guess what he was doing and why he was doing it – that would be the end of his world as he knew it.
‘She’s the most beautiful girl in the universe!’ This declaration, which was made with all the fire and passion of a seven years, eleven months old boy desperately in love, brought puzzled looks from a few of the parents passing by and he realised to his horror that he had said the words aloud – in fact he had fairly shouted them. Fortunately Angela did not appear to have heard his comment, she just kept on walking towards the entrance door as always as if he had said nothing. Right there beside her – as always – was Big Eddie, the gorilla, the Neanderthal, the class bully.
What she saw in an ape like him he would never know but there he was, within touching distance of his angel, as he was all the way through the school day; he never left her side for one moment. In the classroom he sat behind her, at lunch every day he sat beside her, standing guard, keeping the opposition at bay; even at play time he trailed after her like a lovesick caveman, his knuckles trailing along the floor as he walked – the only thing missing was a big wooden club.
He was disruptive in class and was always being told off by Mrs Thornbrough, or being hauled off to Mr Snipe’s office. Jonathon did suspect that he might be more clever than he seemed – and that would not have been difficult – but he always played dumb and tough, could never concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time and was always making a nuisance of himself and making it difficult for Jonathon to concentrate on his work.
Of course, in his kinder moments, which were becoming more rare as the days crept by, he did try to empathise with the goon; Jonathon thought that if she was his girl, then he too would protect her from all of the misfortunes of the world – he grinned – and especially from apes like Eddie.
Jonathon had only been at Bedford Road School for one term; his family had moved down from Suffolk as his dad’s firm had closed down and he had said, ‘There’s, no work up here in this sleepy backwater, we’re going down the smoke.’
Go down the smoke they did and Jonathon found himself in Bedford Road School, which was complete pants – with the exception, of course, of the adorable Angela.
He thought about her constantly – and it was having a detrimental effect on his school work – but he had absolutely no idea how he could make her notice him, to make her desert the gorilla and become his BFF.
His life changed forever on his eighth birthday when he opened his presents: the book . . . and the film . . . and the costume.
He now knew exactly what he had to do . . .
When the Saracens took Jerusalem, King Richard – the Lion Heart – took all his knights on a crusade and made them give it back. Well, at the end of the book it said they didn’t actually give it back but they did say that they’d let the pilgrims go there, so he supposed he did sort of win really . . . and now he exactly what he had to do . . . he had to make his own pilgrimage and rescue his angel from the Infidel . . . and he knew exactly how he was going to do it.
It was obvious to him that the main reason Angela liked Big Eddie was because he was big and strong . . . but he was a complete dork. If Jonathon could make her see that he too was strong and totally not a dork then all of his prayers would be answered . . . and he knew exactly when it was all going to happen.
The end of term disco was going to be fancy dress and he had his costume already.
On the day of the disco, as he stood in the lounge dressed to kill, his mum said, ‘Do you think your costume is really appropriate?’
Jonathon was adamant that it was and begrudgingly his mother drove him the quarter mile to school.
However, the moment he walked into the hall he realised to his horror that his mother had been completely right all along – most of the kids hadn’t even bothered to dress up and the few that did were dressed up as Pop Stars and things. He quickly turned around to leave but the doorway was now filled by the gorilla and two of his mates.
‘Hey, guys, look what we got ‘ere – a little tin soldier.’
Jonathon tried to push past them but Big Eddie grabbed him and shoved him back so hard that he fell over. He landed on his large plastic sword and it broke in half.
Big Eddie grabbed the sword and waved it in the air. ‘Don’t look like you’s gonna kill many ‘AYrabs’ with that, soldier boy, does it?’
The other two roared their support as Big Eddie gave him a sneaky little kick in the ribs but then, suddenly, as if from nowhere, Angela forced her way in-between them and pushed the gorilla back. She was dressed as Merida – the fiery Scots girl from ‘Brave’ – but she looked twice as fiery.
‘You leave him alone, do you hear?’
‘But he looks a right pansy in that stuff.’
‘No he doesn’t and at least he made an effort to dress up, which is more than you and these creeps have.’ Big Eddie squared up to her but she hit him hard between the eyes with the ultimate threat: ‘If you don’t leave him alone . . . I’ll tell your mum.’
To Jonathon’s amazement Big Eddie snorted and stormed off, shouting a greeting to another couple of his mates on the other side of the hall as if nothing had happened.
Angela helped Jonathon to his feet, brushed down his white surcoat, which was emblazoned with a large red cross and straightened his plastic chain mail headgear.
Jonathon was speechless.
Angela smiled that smile, like a ray of warm sunshine, ‘I’m sorry about my stupid cousin. He’s always trying to protect me from boys but he won’t touch you again, I promise.’
‘But what about you?’ Jonathon blurted out. ‘He’ll get you for this.’
She slipped her arm through his and led him onto the dancefloor. ‘Not with my knight in shining armour to protect me.’
As the music started she leaned forwards and whispered in his ear, ‘And I did hear what you said . . .’