All work and no play. That was the vow for this school term, their final term ever. Parties were banned. No boys. No fun. Nothing but study and revision until exams were over.

It was the plan anyway. Once they were through it they could enjoy the summer and endless freedom.

"I hope we don’t end up dull girls," Alice said. She was walking to the first assembly of term with her two best friends. Strange to think that this routine of lining up and shuffling into their various rows would soon be over. It had been a morning ritual for years.

"Never." Jules had always been the wildest and most rebellious of them and was having to make the biggest effort to knuckle down this term. "I’ll be partying for at least a year afterwards."

It was late April and the world still smelt like spring rather than early summer. The last of the daffodils were still out. They matched Fairmount’s school colours of bottle green and gold and were planted everywhere.

Alice laughed. She felt in sudden high spirits, despite the huge, overwhelming cloud of A-levels that hung on the horizon. At least the first exams were still a month away. Right now the sun was shining, the sky was cool and blue and clear, and even if they had to suffer the Headmaster droning on for the next hour it was going to be a perfect day.

Becky was the most nervous about exams. "I just can’t wait for them all to be over. I get this horrible feeling in my stomach just thinking about them, getting closer every day."

In Alice’s mind the two-month wait afterwards to get their results would be more of an ordeal. But she didn’t want to stress Becky out any more by mentioning it. She tried to reassure Becky but she felt the same flicker of panic herself from time to time. So many of their future plans rested on their A-levels.

Inside the hall there was the usual sense of restlessness at the start of term. Rustling and fidgeting and hushed whispers. Many people were still catching up with friends they hadn’t seen over the holidays and being herded into the assembly hall limited chatter.

Alice, Jules and Becky sat together in the same row on the grey plastic interlocking chairs that had to be stacked and unstacked every day. It was a chore they wouldn’t miss.

For the first assembly of term the teaching staff sat on the stage behind Mr Francis, the Headmaster, rather than at the back of the hall. It was always more relaxed - and easier for surreptitious conversation - not having teachers’ eyes on the back of your head.

Alice was still searching for other friends of hers in the crowd when Jules gave her a sharp nudge.

"Who’s that guy?" Jules indicated the stage.

She saw instantly whom Jules was referring to. Sitting beside the regular staff, who looked just the same as they always did, was an unknown man. He was tall and bronzed and exceptionally good looking.

Alice felt a jolt in her stomach. She wasn’t the type for teacher crushes, but he was something else.

"Have any of the other teachers left?" she asked, wondering whom he might be a replacement for. She scanned the stage but all the staff that she could think of seemed to be there.

"Perhaps he’s the new dinner lady," Jules said. Alice had to smother a laugh.

"He must be the new cricket coach," Becky whispered. Fairmount employed a dedicated coach for boys’ cricket every summer term, usually a former professional player.

"He does look like a sportsman," Jules agreed.

Around them some other sixth form girls were also eyeing the new member of staff amid giggles and murmurs. Alice wondered if he realised how many curious eyes were upon him.

The buzz of conversation continued until everyone was inside and seated and the order was given for silence.

Sure enough, Mr Francis eventually informed them that Mr Walker, who was from Australia, would be coaching the boys for cricket that term. "We look forward to a successful season and I am sure you will all make him very welcome."

"What a waste. Why can’t they us get a tennis coach like that?" some girl said behind them.

"Or they should let us play cricket. It’s so sexist," her neighbour replied.

Alice privately agreed. It was stupid being segregated for sport, with boys never getting a chance to play tennis either. After all men played at Wimbledon didn’t they? Given the school’s dismal prowess in cricket the previous year there might be more glory to be won by handing out a few racquets.

Various other announcements were made and the assembly closed, with Mr Francis and the staff leaving first. Many eyes were on the new coach as he walked out, tall and powerfully built and somehow out of place. Was it because he was new or because he was Australian? Alice wasn’t sure.

Outside she was distracted from her thoughts by catching up with more old friends on the way to her first class, which was Chemistry.

She loved the chemistry lab with its stained and scarred benches, wooden racks of test tubes and Bunsen burners. There wouldn’t be much time for practical experiments this term though, it was mainly theory.

Alice chose a seat on the back row by the window, being one of the first to arrive. Others filed in and then she saw a girl called Sarah Norris looking for somewhere to sit. Alice had always felt sorry for her as she was rather plain and unpopular. There was nothing wrong with her, she just ranked at the bottom of the social ladder by whatever arcane and unspoken method decided it.

Sarah tried to take a place near the front but one of the boys blocked her. "That’s saved. Find somewhere else." She looked mortified.

We’re too old for this, Alice thought. It was the last term, they would soon all be going their separate ways. It was time to do away with the meanness and the cliques. "Over here!" She waved Sarah into the seat next to her which she took gratefully.

A boy on the front row smirked and made a snide remark to his friend, deliberately audible. Alice ignored them. She was getting fed up with schoolboys; it was one of the reasons it had been easy to agree to their exam-term vow of no boys. At least when they started university the majority of guys would be older.

* * *

"Thank god our days of this are numbered. We should start a countdown to no-more-slop," said Jules as they stood in the queue for lunch.

The smell of school dinners permeated every brick and fibre of the dining hall. Plastic trays, stainless steel serving dishes, the slow shuffle along the line from cabbage to apple crumble. It was definitely one of the many things they wouldn’t miss.

As sixth formers they were first in the queue and got to sit at the tables on the far side by the windows, unsupervised by teachers. It made it much easier to gossip but most people tried to get lunch over with as quickly as possible. The real socialising took place afterwards when people sat out on the lawns until the bell went for afternoon lessons.

Their resolution this term, of course, was to cut out all socialising and do nothing except study. But the sun was shining and the grass was newly mown and Alice couldn’t face sitting in the dark and musty study room. Sunlight was probably good for the brain anyway.

"It’s only the first day back, let’s take our Economics notes outside," she suggested. "We can go straight from there to class."

The others needed no persuasion. Becky, who didn’t do Economics, took some other work with her.

Of course they did no work. Lying back in the spring sunshine, the hope of getting a sun-tan by two o’clock took precedence.

Some other people they knew sat nearby and everyone discussed the dread of exams for a while. The start of term was traditionally a time for flirting and new relationships, but not this term. Everyone was in a more serious mood.

"We just have to get through this, then it’s a year of freedom," Jules said.

Depending on their A-level results she and Alice planned to defer their university places and go backpacking for a year in South East Asia and Australia. If they didn't get the grades they needed they'd have to repeat their exams the next year at the sixth form college or choose different careers. So it was a big incentive to work hard this year.

A discussion began about gap years and different people’s plans. There were others planning to backpack around Australia or South America, build schools in Africa, work at orphanages in India.

"Did you get your flights yet?" someone asked.

"No, we’re going to wait for last minute bargains," Alice said. She wanted her travel budget to stretch as far as possible. If that meant flying on a dodgy airline taking half a dozen hops to get across Asia, so be it. Plus there was no point buying tickets now and then having to get a refund if she flunked out in August.

Still it was great to have something to focus on. She had an image of a beach in Thailand in her mind, of white sand and palm trees. It kept her going through the rainy days and revision. A whole year of summer: she was excited. It was so close.

2. The Dog & Duck

Fake student ID cost five quid and a passport photo, and you got it from some guy called Ricardo at the local sixth form college. Back in those days, you could still smile in your passport photo.

"We should get into the Dog & Duck before closing," Jules said. "There’s going to be a lock in."

Their good resolutions had lasted less than a week. By Friday they had decided they needed to relax and let off some steam. Staying home and studying could wait for another week.

Turning eighteen should have meant they no longer needed the fake student cards. But so many bars seemed to have over 21 nights these days. The cards did their trick and the doorman waved them through.

Such a throng of people. That was the problem with popular places, they were always packed. You could never get to the bar, never get a table.

Alice started looking around for people they knew. She recognised some people she didn’t know but whom they often saw in the same venues. She also saw some people she half knew. People you could nod and say hi to, but not strike up a conversation with.

There was no one else from their school anyway. Alice tried to elbow her way to the bar to order drinks.

"Oh my god!" Becky was shrieking. "That guy over there, it’s the new cricket coach."

"From school? Are you sure?"

"Yes, it’s definitely him." Alice looked over to where Becky was pointing, and saw him from the side. Outside of the school setting he seemed even more handsome.

"Does that mean other teachers are here?" Jules looked around. She didn’t want to be caught out on the town with fake ID.

"No, he’s with a group of guys. I don’t recognise any of them."

Jules studied them. "I think some of them are county cricketers. That red-haired guy looks familiar, I think he’s a bowler." Her father was into cricket and sometimes dragged her to matches. "We should go and introduce ourselves." Jules was always the bold one.

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