I woke to the clattering of third formers' feet down rickety wooden stairs outside our dorm door. I yawned one of those really big "first one of the morning" yawns, stretching my arms and legs to the extents of their travel in the process. As my arm came down, I felt it come into contact with something warm, which took me quite by surprise. I then remembered where I was - in Tay's bed - and then where I was again - at school.

"Morning," whispered Tay, rubbing his hand up and down my arm, giving me Goosebumps all over. I lent over and we kissed our first kiss of the day.

"I'd better get back to my own bed before..." I didn't have chance to finish. Curruthers smashed through our door, having tripped over the section of loose, unfastened carpet just outside.

"DAMN AND BLAST!" he yelled, steadying himself against a rather unstable wardrobe, causing it to teeter precariously back and forth. Once he'd recovered, he continued with his routine.

"Morning, chaps!" he said, switching the lights on and off a couple of times in a flawed attempt to get us out of bed. As anyone will know, during the holidays, kids of our age tend to go to bed as late as our bodies will allow (or later) and get up after twelve hours or so later; the outcome being us accustomed to getting up in the afternoon.

I squinted and rubbed my eyes as the bare electric light bulb displaced the relative calm of the darkness, revealing a lunar landscape of threadbare carpet, strewn clothes and assorted suitcases and handbaggage, all of which looked as if it had seen twice the amount of service it had been designed to. I got out of Tay's bed and promptly tripped over his knapsack, sending me flying back onto my own bed and landed in a very ungraceful heap. Curruthers eyed my in his "don't even try to explain" sort of look, smiling widely.

"Well, seeing as you two are up," Did I detect a slight emphasis on that last word? Surely not... "You can save me a job by getting these three up..." Without waiting for an answer, he strode out, shaking his head.

"That guy is seriously cool," said Tay. "D'you think he knew we'd slept together?"

"I'd say so. There's no way I could've got out of my bed and landed at this angle! So, do you wanna get 'em up, or shall I?"

"Let me," said Tay, putting two fingers to his lips. I covered my ears.

Jamie sat bolt upright as Tay's unbelievably piercing whistle echoed of the glossy walls and whacked his head on the bunk above him with a thud. He yelled and collapsed backwards, only to hit the back of his head on his headboard, causing him to yell again. He was now very wide awake, if a little dazed "Taylor, that could be classed as an offensive weapon," smiled Triv, gradually opening his eyes. Ash hadn't moved an inch. He was renowned for sleeping late and resisting all but the most persistent and uncomfortable "persuasive techniques" to get him out of bed.

"Ashish," I said, walking over to him. No response.

"ASHISH," I said, a little louder.

"Whatthefuckdyouwant..." came the duvet-muffled reply.

"Time to get up," I informed him. A hand emerged from under the duvet and gave me the bird.

"Fuck off."

"Aw, don't be mean," I said and ripped his cocoon-like duvet off him, allowing the chilly air in the dorm to attack his bare legs and arms, Goosebumps appearing almost immediately. Ash turned over onto his back so he could see me.

"I hate you with the very fabric of my being," he said in a flat, emotionless tone, best described as that of MTV's "Daria".

Tay and I just laughed and headed off to the bathroom after Triv and Jamie, the latter staggering a bit. Just so Ash didn't have the option, we took his duvet with us.

If you're a third former, you're keen. It's written into your contract. For some completely bizarre reason, when you get into third form, you feel an overwhelming desire to get up as early in the morning as is physically possible, have the quickest wash imaginable (if at all) and then leg it out the house and up to breakfast. Why they do this - just as I did a year back - is now completely beyond me: They get up so early breakfast hasn't started, so they hang around outside the dining hall for a half-hour...

This morning was no exception - by the time we'd reached the bathroom, the last third former was just slamming the back door behind him, cycle lights, helmet and school issue reflective belt in hand.

The school had always had a very prominent safety policy, but no more so after a car hit a kid as he was walking back to his boarding house one night.

He died a few hours later in hospital.

I never knew him (it happened before my time) but everyone knew _of_ him - his parents were so dumbfounded by what happened they insisted the story be told to each newcomer as a warning, and to help the situation, the school imposed heavy penalties on kids not wearing reflective belts. If you were found not wearing one, you were gated for a fortnight without exception. Even one of the prefects fell foul to this, much to our amusement...

Thankfully, the "3rd form keen, 6th form can't give a shit" attitude worked well, Curruthers actually encouraging it: the reason being that it allowed quite a nice staggered start to the day, meaning the bathroom was free for the particular year wanting to use it and "traffic jams were less likely than in the evening.

No one was in the showers, so T-shirts and boxer shorts were flung off and the four of us leapt in, only to leap out again a second or so later.

"ARRGH! IT'S FUCKING FREEZING!" yelled Triv, outraged. If there was one thing he was partial to, it was his morning shower. ("Clears the shit outa my head" as he put it).

Curruthers, with his unique timing, stuck his head round the bathroom door. "I must tell you, lads, I forgot to switch the water heaters on again last night. You can have a shower if you want, but it might... be... a... bit..." he noticed that all four of us were naked, drenched and shivering madly. "...er, cold..." he finished, and made a rapid exit. Triv looked like he was about ready to kill someone, Curruthers probably being fairly high up on his list!

Tay grabbed my towel from the row of pegs behind us and began drying my back off without thinking. It hadn't occurred to me or Tay that doing this may be considered a little strange for a pair of fourteen year old lads, and was indicated but the sudden lack of noise - of any kind - from Jamie and Triv. I looked round to see both of them just staring at us, not quite sure what to make of it. Everyone knew I was gay, but what about Taylor? Was he just being friendly, or was there a little more to it?

He suddenly realised I was looking at something and followed my line of sight to the two gobsmacked teenagers. He realised what he'd done and blushed that deep shade of crimson that I loved so much. I was just about to try and explain when Jamie, as ever, broke the silence.

"Um, this may sound like a bit of a stupid question, but you two aren't, uh... You aren't... um..." Jamie was lost for words, which was very strange indeed: Articulation of the English language usually never posed a problem at all, much to the amusement of his peers...

Tay took my hand and squeezed it tight, giving us both the courage to nod yes.

The look of disbelief grew on both their faces.

"How long?" asked Triv, the idea of sentence construction escaping completely.

"About six months, I guess..." admitted Tay shyly, glancing at me and grinning a mischievous grin that gave away more than he realised.

"You're winding me up!" laughed Jamie. "You're not that lucky, Mr. Lidster..."

"Ya think? Would I do this?" grinned Tay and grabbed me in one of those fifties style movie embraces, me draped over his arm and gazing into those deep eyes of his. Before I realised it, he'd planted his lips firmly on my own, his tongue forcing entry, which I gladly permitted. As he was bent over me, I could feel his dick and balls rubbing against my thigh, their delicious warmth against my cold skin making my own dick rise to the occasion. I wrapped my arm around Tay's neck, pulling him tighter against me in order to become a more active participant. I'm not usually such an exhibitionist, but I couldn't care less if it meant Tay and I could share each other...

"Guys, if you're in those showers then you're all crazier than I th... FUCK ME!" Ash was another who wasn't afraid to express himself, even when he had just emerged from bed. Tay broke the kiss dramatically by swinging me back onto my feet, my hair going hippie- style infront of my face. Believe me, I felt how I looked!! As soon as Tay released me, I suddenly became very self-conscious, my erection jutting out infront of me not helping in the slightest. I was almost afraid to rake the hair from my eyes as it would mean making contact with the others. I bit the bullet and dragged my fingers through my hair and looked at Triv and Jamie.

You know those cartoons where a character's jaw drops to the ground? Enter these two! They couldn't believe what they'd just seen: Sure, they knew I was gay, but seeing me actually _ACTING_ gay, especially with Tay, was a little too much for them to comprehend. However, in good "horny-lad" tradition, thy both had also got a little more excited than I'd have expected for a pair of straight lads. This made me feel a whole lot better, and I just shrugged my shoulders at them, smiling widely.

The spell was broken by the sound of the fifth form clattering down the stairs to the bathroom, and we all dived for our underwear to afford us a little modesty infront of the older lads. Glances were exchanged to ensure that this incident didn't go any further than the shower room, and we began to go back to the dorm to dress for school.

As we were leaving, the fifth formers muscled in, as yet unaware that the water was stone cold, and I noticed one or two of them looking Tay's half-naked body over, a couple shoving past him in a rather artificial manner in order to get a "feel" of him. I couldn't blame them a bit!

Back in the dorm there was a rather uneasy silence, the only sound that of arms being slid into cotton shirts etc. I couldn't live with this - I had to set the record straight one way or another with them.

"Uh, guys? Does what Tay and I did, um, bother you? I mean, you're not gonna freak are you?"

Jamie smiled widely. "Like hell it does! I'm as horny as shit now, and I can't do anything about it 'till this evening! My life's difficult enough as it is without you and Goldie Locks there turning me on..."

"Oh, I dunno," said Triv. "You got a fairly good deal last night..."

"Yeah, but it's _THIS MORNING_ now! Can't you bet me pigs will fly or something?" Jamie said in exasperation, rubbing the bulge in the front of his dark grey trousers.

"No, but as long as you'll do _me_ a favour, I'll get you off again..."

"Huh?!" Chorused everyone except Triv. This was getting a bit too good...

Tay sat by me on the edge of my bed and ran his hand up and down my thigh, his little finger just grazing my crotch slightly, and waited for the show to start.

"You're not Gay as well are you?" Jamie asked mockingly.

"I... I dunno... I really got turned on by watching those two," he said, glancing over at us. "and I wanna see how I feel..."

Jamie didn't quite know what to say - Triv with his hard commando looks and tented trousers was obviously having an effect on Jamie, but one that he himself wasn't quite prepared for. Jamie was quite visibly shaking now, half from excitement, half from fear. Emotions flashed across his face: joy, apprehension, lust, fear - all combining upon his rather delicate face. I looked down at my watch and noticed it was 7:30 already.

"Uh, guys, we'd better get up to school if we want to make breakfast."

Both Jamie and Triv relaxed as the focus of attention left them. We grabbed respective coats from the hooks on the door, and Tay and I picked up our blades from the side of my bed.

It was one of those fresh, crisp mornings that if you had time, would probably consider to be fairly beautiful. We didn't. Ash, Triv and Jamie headed for the bike sheds whilst Tay and I pulled our blades on and skated out onto the road, Tay takign a hard right and beginning to skate up the right hand side.

"'Scuse me, Mr. With-it, normal people tend to drive in the left hand side over here."

"Shit!" yelled Tay as he hastily made his way over to join me, a car screaming round the corner at breakneck speed a moment later. "I guess that could be rather bad for your health."

"HEY GUYS! HOLD ON A SECOND!" yelled Ike from behind us as he emerged from the lane that lead down to his house, his leather jacket flapping behind him. He came careering up to us and used Tay as a brake. "This boarding thing is seriously cool."

"Yeah? How come?"

"You haven't met my house master, Tay."


On to Chapter Six

Back to Chapter Four

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The Exchange is © 1999 by Dean Lidster. This work may not be duplicated in any form (physical, electronic, audio, or otherwise) without the author's written permission. All applicable copyright laws apply. All individuals depicted are fictional with any resemblance to real persons being purely coincidental.

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