Chapter 1

Chapter 1. 

“History club? Seriously Mum!!”

Tom was not happy.

School holidays were always a mix of time with family and time spent in holiday clubs. Tom didn’t love holiday clubs, but usually he went to CampFun where at least there was a good mix of sports and activities, and usually there would be a few people there that he knew from school. 

This summer however was different. He was going to “History club”. 

“I’m sorry Tom. You know I was stuck for options. This was the only thing that had a space for you, and that was close enough to work to allow me to drop you off. It was the best I could do! It’s only for a week, so it’s not going to kill you”. 

Tom wasn’t so sure. 

He knew deep down that his Mum was doing her best, but that didn’t stop him from feeling grumpy with her at the moment. The plan had been for Tom to spend time at home this week, while his Dad did online work meetings upstairs, but last minute Dad had to travel to Canada, and Mum had to make other arrangements. Mum worked as a doctor and he knew it was difficult for her to change her shifts last minute. Understanding the situation didn’t make it suck any less.

”Anyway”, said mum in her best trying to get someone out of a grump voice, “you like history”. 

“I liked learning about the tanks in WW2. That’s not the same thing” replied Tom, not yet ready to forgive her yet. At least next year Tom would be old enough to stay at home instead of needing babysitting in a holiday club. 

Tom’s Mum drove the Mini through the entrance to a industrial park, and around the back a selection of warehouses selling plumbing supplies and used tyres. “ This can’t be right” muttered Tom’s Mum as she scowled at the satnav and looked around for any sign of being in the right place. 

“Is that it?” Said Tom, spotting a single story storage container that appeared to have been converted into a classroom of sorts, with a door, window and a homemade sign, poorly painted, saying “Hisotry Club”. 

“Oh thank goodness” said Tom’s Mum, hastily stopping the car and encouraging Tom to collect his bag. “Come on, I’m running late for work!”.

Two people came out of the doorway, looking as unsure to meet Tom as he was to meet them. They were both wearing matching yellow caps and T shirts, and smiled, slightly unnaturally, in unison. “Welcome to History Camp”. For some reason Tom was focused in on their teeth while they smiled. Perhaps too many? Perhaps just too big? 

Probably just his imagination.

”Hi there”, said Tom’s mum, not really looking at the two camp leaders. “This is Tom. I registered him yesterday online? He’s got some lunch in his bag and I’ve signed all the forms already.” Tom’s Mum turned to him, clearly in “stress mode” and kissed him hastily on the top of his head. “ Have a great time. Love you. See you at 4!”. And before he knew it, the red mini was skidding off, back to the main road, leaving Tom feeling a little like he had been abandoned at the roadside like an unwanted puppy. 

The two camp leaders turned to Tom in unison, their fixed, too many teeth, smiles still on their faces, and said “Welcome Tom, come on in and meet the others”. 

Tom sighed, picked up his bag, and walked through the door. 

Tom appeared to have been the last to arrive at the club. On walking into the building he could see a selection of  chairs and tables with a big table towards the front of the room. One wall was filled with kitchen cabinets, a small oven and hob, and a sink. The back of the room had two comfy looking sofas, and shelves filled with well used books. There was a storage unit near the shelves filled with paper and art supplies. The walls were covered in maps and history time lines. There were two more doors, one opening from close to the kitchen area, and the other close to the bookshelves at the back. 

Most of the seats were already taken so Tom sat himself down at one of the small tables next to another boy who was sitting, arms folded, leaning back on his chair and staring at the ceiling. 

“Uh, Hi” said Tom, unsure of himself, but feeling like he needed to make a bit of effort if he was here for a week. 

“Hi” said the other boy gruffly, still swinging back on his chair and not moving his eyes from the ceiling. He looked as happy to be there as Tom was. 

Tom looked around the room. There were only 6 of them there, but along with the two leaders, they pretty much filled the small space. Along with “Mr personality” next to him there was a girl at the back, already half way through a massive leather bound book, nodding and muttering to herself; a boy busy drawing with sheets of paper in front of him, another girl chewing gum and playing on her luminous yellow phone, and another boy, sitting slightly apart from the others, with a sudoku book in front of him.

The two camp leaders were muttering to each other and seemed to be trying to push each other forward to speak to the group. When they realised that everyone was staring at them they stopped muttering, coughed awkwardly, and turned to face everyone. 

“Welcome” said the person on the right, who was slightly taller than their colleague and had a mop of thick blonde hair sprouting out from under their cap. They smiled awkwardly around, and again Tom couldn’t work out why the smile was odd. 

”Yes, Welcome”, said the person on the left. Their voice was a little higher, and they again had shoulder length thick dark hair poking out from under their hat. They looked uncertainly at the gatherered group, and then at their colleague. 

“Sooooo” said leader one. 

“Soooooooooo” said leader two.  “Welcome!”

”You’ve said that already” said Mr personality, briefly moving his focus from the ceiling to the group leaders. 

The leaders looked a each other and muttered “Welcome…… now introductions…..”

”We would like to introduce ourselves” said leader one. “I am Sal”. 

“And I”, said leader two, “ Am Sam”. 

They both smiled and looked weirdly proud of themselves. 

On seeing 6 sets of staring young faces looking back at them, their smiles faded, and Sal looked down at a scrap of paper in their hand. “Introductions……. Children’s introductions”. 

Sal looked up and shouted “Introduce yourselves!”. 

6 sets of young faces looked other in confusion.

Sal looked a Tom and pointed. “Introduce yourself!!”. 

Heat rose to Tom’s face. He was never a fan of public speaking, and certainly wouldn’t be the first to speak up in this kind of environment. 

“Er, I’m Tom” he said, awkwardly turning in his chair to give a half hearted wave to the others at the back of the room.

Sal and Sam shouted “Welcome Tom” in unison, and then pointed at Mr Personality. 

“Introduce yourself!!”. 

“Mo” said Mo, not bothering to look at anyone, and maintaining his icy stare at the ceiling. Tom could see that Mo was wearing a knee brace, a Cardiff City football kit, and had a half drunk protein shake in front of him. 

The introductions carried on around the room. The book worm at the back turned out to be Delyth, who introduced herself and then gave a 5 minute monologueon the facts she’d just read about the Egyptian god Baas. She was clearly REALLY into history!

Mali gave everyone a smile as she stuck her chewing gum under the table before  introducing herself. There was a wicked twinkle in her eye, and Tom got the feeling that she was enjoying a joke all of her own making that the rest of them weren’t aware of. 

Cai spoke deliberately and clearly as he introduced himself. He was a little smaller than the rest of them, and wore a Lycra sleeve on his right arm and leg. His drawings appeared to be colourful creations depicting animals and birds. 

The boy with the sudoku book spoke softly and needed to repeat himself to be heard. He only looked up briefly to say his name was Bert then returned to filling in numbers hurriedly into the puzzle. 

Sal coughed and looked at Sam. Sam looked at Sal. They both looked at the piece of paper in Sal’s hand. 

Mo sighed and dropped his chair on to all four feet for the first time. As his feet touched the ground Tom noticed Mo wince and touch his knee. He set his focus on Sal and Sam.

“You guys have done this before haven’t you?”

Silence. Sal and Sam looked at Mo, then at each other. 

“O. M. G. You haven’t!! You’ve never done this! What kind of stupid camp is this??!!”. Mo looked is disbelief.

Sal and Sam looked flustered. Eventually Sam said. 

“Well, no….. but there has to be a first time for everything, and well we do know a LOT about history”. 

“Yes, LOADS!” Interjected Sal, nodding passionately with such vigour that their hat, and maybe also hair, rocked back and forth. 

“History is BORING” said Mo, crossing his arms and huffing audibly. “I should have been at the Cardiff football development camp if it wasn’t for THIS” indicating his knee. “This sucks”, and returned his glare to the ceiling. 

“Well, I don’t want to be here either, but I’m not making such a fuss about it” said Tom, half under his breath. 

“What!”, said Mo, turning to face Tom, brown eye’s glaring in his direction in defiance.

Tom, hating confrontation, but feeling the need to stand up for himself, replied “ I said, I don’t want to be here either, but I’m not making such a fuss about it!

I mean, we’ve all got to make the most of this, haven’t we, and us giving Sal and Sam a hard time isn’t going to make the situation any more fun for anyone is it?”

Mo looked like someone answering back to him was a new experience. Tom was red in the face, and feeling a bit sweaty, but was inwardly proud of himself for speaking up. Mo grunted, continued to sit with crossed arms, but seemed to have lost a little of his defiance. 

From the back of the room, Delyth cleared her throat. She had clearly finished the book in front of her and was returning it to the shelf. 

Looking expectantly at Sal and Sam she said “So, what’s today’s itinerary?”

Sal and Sam looked at each other. “Itinerary?”

”Yes! Itinerary! What are we doing today. We’ve got another seven and a half hours before we get picked up, and that’s a lot of history we could be learning! I would suggest that we started with the basics on early Egyptian gods, and then maybe work up towards the location of the tombs in the era of…..”