My First Puff

The two schools are only five minutes away from each other. One school is mine that is the primary school and the other school is the secondary school were all the big boys go to and were I am going to next year, I think.

In-between the schools is this great shop selling hundreds of sweets and drinks and things. Liquorice all sorts, frozen cherry tubes, jelly babies and lemon pops! Because we are eleven years old we can go to this shop at lunch time, the little children are not allowed, only us! And the older guys from the other school used to go to this shop too; I don't like them as they always just ignore us but one day I will be like them soon!

Last week I got into big trouble, the Headmistress and Mrs. Gregory my teacher and my mum all shouted at me and it was not even my fault. They never let me tell them what really happened. All the other children hate me as well as we are not allowed to go to the shop at lunchtime anymore. It must be bad because they changed the lunchtime of the schools so that both had different lunchtime's, don't known why they did this as they stopped us going there at lunchtime anyway.

It was on Monday and I was sucking happily on a Popsicle with my mate Harry. Outside the shop it was crowded, all the grownups from the big school in little groups all laughing and joking and me and Harry underneath it all and between all the legs of the grown up kids. It was great, I would take one suck of the ice and Harry would take the next and so on.

Big kids smoke cigarettes you know, not the sweets that look like them that you can buy in the sweet shop but the ones that adults use! They all share their cigarettes like Harry and me share our sweets and drinks if we don't have enough money to buy one each. One kid sucks in on the white tube and then blows out lots of smoke and then he passes it to another grown up boy or girl who does the same thing. Why would they want to do that? They all seem to enjoy it as they are always giggling and talking loudly when they have one in their mouths.

On Monday me and Harry were only eating our ice lolly when suddenly everybody goes quiet and we couldn't see what was happening as we were too small and in the middle of everybody else. All of a sudden the big kids started to disappear, some running away and up the road, other bending down behind cars and sneaking behind them along the other street. Harry looked at me and I looked at Harry and we didn't know what to do, it was like some monster was coming to attack or aliens with evil eyes had landed and were coming to get everybody. Just like in that film we watched the other day.

One big kid who was a bit slow and smoking a cigarette just handed me the thing and then ran away. So I stood there with this white and smoking stick, I hardly even knew I was holding the thing as I was too busy looking for the green giant or the vampires that were coming to attack and eat us for dinner!

When everybody was gone we just stood there and then Harry said "look, your smoking". And I was, I was standing outside the sweet shop with my best mate and I had a cigarette just like all the big boys. We started to play, pretending we were smoking! I put it to my lips and made sucking noises; I even held it like all the older kids do.

Then Harry said "look miss', he's smoking"!

Harry looked terrible, he had gone all white and his knees were shaking like he was standing on a washing machine going very fast. I turned round and pretended to puff smoke into the person that Harry was talking to but that person was the Headmistress and she was not smiling. She had her arms on her hips like my mum does when she is angry and she had this terrible face on her! She nearly hit me as she snatched the cigarette away from my hand and then she jumped up and down on it like it was a big spider. She was as all red in the face and if she wasn't hurting my arm so much I might have laughed.

Later that day my mum, my teacher, the still red faced headmistress and some sort of doctor all shouted at me and there was so much noise that I didn't know what they were all saying. My mum was really crying and her face looked like it was raining only it was sunny outside! I think they all shouted so much that half the school could hear what they were saying. Nobody asked me what had happened and so I didn't tell them, just listened and listened to the zoo that I was sitting in. Eventually they let me go away but for days and days and days they all watched me with strange eyes!

Harry got away, told them that he was trying to stop me smoking. We are not really friends anymore as he is a real coward.

Yesterday, I was called back to the Headmistress and her red face had gone. She looks nicer when she doesn't have a face that looks like a basketball. She told me to sit down and she asked me if I was still smoking! She's weird!

Ieuan Dolby
Author and Webmaster of SeaDolby.com
Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 22nd September 2005