the time, she had also left a little note wishing me good luck for my first day of
school, but I ... The boy next to him, who I remember so clearly, was Nicholas.
The Nicholas Scout Crew by Bethany Slaughter I crisscrossed and looped the black laces and there they were, perfectly tied. It was the first time I had tied my shoelaces all by myself. My hands smelled of shoe polish; my little fingers were blackened, and left a trail of thumbprints across my new ‘Finding Nemo’ lunchbox. Mum packed my favourites that day: two peanut brittle cookies that melted in my mouth, a shiny, crisp and crunchy apple, and a Vegemite sandwich on white bread. Unbeknownst to myself at the time, she had also left a little note wishing me good luck for my first day of school, but I was too giddy with excitement to notice. I tucked my “flip gloss” phone into the side pocket of my Winnie the Pooh backpack, pulled the straps high enough that the bag made a proud, square on my back and marched towards the car. Mum still had to help me up into the back seat, though. I bounced up and down in the car all the way to the school’s grand entrance: ‘Welcome to Percy Bay Primary’. My grin was so wide my teeth my cheeks started to hurt. My mouth was watering with excitement; I was like a little puppy meeting its new owners for the first time. I held Mum’s hand as I crossed the road, making careful attention not to step on the white lines of the zebra crossing. The taller year four boys, wearing the bright, fluorescent orange vests, held the crossing monitor STOP signs. They grinned at me with every hyperextended step I took. As soon as I reached the other side of the road, I bolted towards the other kids. I didn’t know who any of them were, but it didn’t matter: we still hugged and made like we were best friends in a matter of minutes. Our parents hugged the walls to chat, gossip, and proudly point out which child belonged to them (and point out how cute they were). Eventually we were all gathered into lines in the quadrangle. As first years, teachers guided us to the front of the assembly, while the bigger year fives were herded to the back. We were told to put our hats on so we didn’t burn in the sunlight, so from the principal’s perspective on the steps we looked like a sea of navy blue umbrellas. The principal’s name was Susan Downer, as she told us through the loud, crackling megaphone. She was very pretty – honey golden hair that showed barely any trace of grey, bright green eyes and a small, button nose. Her smile was warm and welcoming. She had rosy cheeks that stood out against her pale, almost translucent, skin. She welcomed us all, told us how beautiful we looked in our crisp, new, yellow-checkered uniforms and then began to direct us towards our classrooms. I was in room three with Mr. Brock. He was a bald headed man with half a smile – the left side of his mouth was in a straight line that proceeded to curve upwards on the right side. He wore a tidy, pale blue and white striped shirt with a bright blue tie, and wrote his name in swirling cursive on the whiteboard. While I couldn’t read it, I admired how pretty it looked. He had arranged the desks in his room into groups of four. I took a seat on the table nearest to the door. The girl next to me was called Trudy. She had a short, red bob and freckles that made her skin reminiscent of a piece of fairy bread. When she spoke, she had a lisp that sssounded like she had ssstuck half her two lips together with sssuperglue. Across me sat Daniel – a very tall boy for six years old, of an Asian descent with two dark and defined eyebrows, hazelnut brown eyes and slicked back black hair to compliment his tan coloured skin. He answered every question in the form of a song. “I’m Daniel, I’m Daniel, I’m DANIEL”. The boy next to him, who I remember so clearly, was Nicholas. Nicholas had brown hair the same chocolate shade as mine. It was slightly oily, as he didn’t appear to have washed it recently. He had big blue eyes, small chubby cheeks and his mouth was slightly pursed, almost
afraid. Altogether, he reminded me of a deer in headlights. When I smiled at him, he nervously returned it while shifting in his seat, which made my heart leap out of my little red chair. When he asked me to lend him a pencil, I shyly nodded and passed him my favourite sparkly blue pen with a feather on the end, even though his little hands were covered in mud. He was curiously quiet; he didn’t sing along when we burst into a chorus of Old MacDonald Had A Farm, he never raised his hand to answer a question, and he zipped in and out of the classroom at recess time without acknowledging anyone. The bell rang, I turned around, and he had disappeared faster than Violet from ‘The Incredibles’. After recess, whenever Nicholas looked at me, I could feel my face become flushed. Daniel chuckled. “All you need is love, love, love, …” he crooned with a boyish grin plastered across his face. Embarrassed, I hid my face, while Trudy put a lip to her finger. “SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSH” she spat at Daniel, who looked back innocently before returning to his crayons. Nicholas smiled, also embarrassed. At lunchtime, he once again disappeared from the classroom without a sound. I quickly grabbed my sandwich from my lunchbox, packed in its snap lock bag and went to look for him. He wasn’t on the playground, in the library or playing handball in the quadrangle like the other boys. I asked any teachers if they had seen him, and none knew quite where he was. I pulled out my “flip gloss” phone to call him, before realizing that I didn’t have his number so he probably wouldn’t answer. After a while, I decided to join in with some other girls who were playing with the jump ropes on the oval. We all took turns seeing who could skip the longest. Trudy turned out to be the “besssht” because she could skip twice as fast. During her turn, I saw a shadow move out of the corner of my eye. Curious, I instantly leapt to my feet and ran towards the tree. It was over the fence, so I latched my hand into the metal wiring and jumped. I managed to hoist myself over … only to fall flat on the other side. Mud went all up my leg and onto my new school dress. My ankle was hurting, and my eyes started to water. Then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Nicholas. He had hung his school shirt up on a tree to keep it from getting messy and was wearing a khaki top instead. He had smeared mud across his cheeks in two war stripes. Behind him, there was a pile of sticks that resembled a fire, and he had emptied his sultana packet onto the hard earth and divided them into rations for his companions: a stuffed green crocodile and a shark hand puppet, both wearing khaki sashes around their waists the same colour as his. “Where are we? I asked as I looked around. The gum tree encompassed the whole area, with its shadows making the little campsite appear shaded from the rest of the world. He nervously twisted his fingers and mumbled, “This is my scout camp.” I was confused, “what is a scout camp?” He mumbled something, then sat down on a piece of boarding that I recognized as an old canteen tray. He reached into the back of the crocodile’s khaki shirt and pulled out a small piece of fabric and passed it to me. In messy permanent marker, it read “Member of the Nicholas Scout Crew”. He pinned it to the hem of my dress with a safety pin, and moved the shark puppet to the right so there was room for the four of us to fit around the fire. I carefully crossed my legs, because my Mum had told me to be ladylike. “You are now a member of the Nicholas Scout Crew” he said, in a very impressive, official voice that made him seem much older than six.
For the rest of lunchtime Nicholas taught me all about the scouts. “We earn badges when they get real good at skills.” “What sort of skills?” I asked. He proudly pointed the four badges on his sash. They were all professionally made except his own “Member of the Nicholas Scout Crew” badge. “My badges are my fire safety badge, my camping badge and my reading badge,” he said as he smiled to the ground. “I’m the youngest member of my crew.” I admired my own badge. He coughed slightly. “There are girl scouts too … we meet on Thursday afternoons … you could … y’know … come if you want.” I beamed, and planted a small kiss on his cheek. His eyes went wide, and his face turned the colour of the ripest tomato. I giggled, which made him smile again. I liked it when he smiled. After we played pick up sticks with the firewood, the bell rang. He gathered his toys into a khaki rucksack, and slipped his school shirt over his Scout t-shirt. I could still recognize the khaki sleeve peeking out from under his yellow uniform. He led me towards the fence, and took my foot in his hands to give me a leg up. Once I was safely over, he jumped cleanly over the fence to my admiration. We walked over to the water fountain where I washed the mud off my leg, and Nicholas wiped away his war stripes. I splashed a bit of water in his hair so it wouldn’t look so oily, which made his smile almost as big as mine. Because we were running late, and mum told me not to be tardy, I tugged on his hand. And we ran back to class, hand in hand.
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