David Clarke

Scarface and the Alien

Chapters 6-10

Chapter Six

This time we'll see Martin and Luke making plans for their feral boys experiment, and we'll also get to watch as the cribbage league continues. And by now the forfeits have started getting quite a bit more serious, too.

Saturday May 17th

Luke came round to visit today. He came round in the morning and stayed for lunch, just like I did at his house last week. And he was right: my parents (my dad's at home this weekend) didn't mention his scar at all, and neither did Miles, and none of them seemed to look at Luke's face for very long, though I caught Miles looking when Luke was talking to someone else. I still don't understand why, because it seems to me that Luke's scar is part of who he is, and it seems silly not to look at him because of it. But maybe that's just me thinking like an alien again.

After lunch we went up to my room. He had a look at my CD collection and at my books and seemed to be interested in quite a lot of both. And he told me that he's been doing some research into the behaviour of real-life feral children who have been discovered living in jungles: he says he wants our experiment to be as realistic as possible. He's also been investigating the way monkeys and wolves behave, so that he can act appropriately for our project.

It isn't so easy for me to do research because I only have a single set of encyclopaedias to look things up in, but he says I can go to his house one evening after school and use his computer if I want. I think that's a good idea, so I asked my mother if it would be all right. She wanted to know what I would be researching, so I said we were investigating the way pack animals behave towards each other and towards outsiders, and she said that sounded interesting and that I could go.

We couldn't go out for a walk as I'd planned because it was drizzling, so after we'd talked about the project for a while I didn't know what else we could do. But he said it would be nice if we could just read for a while. Obviously I like reading, so I said I'd be happy to do that. So he took the first book in the Donaldson series I'm reading so that he could start from the beginning, and I said I'd carry on reading the second one, which was the one I'd been reading while I waited for him in the dip two weeks ago – I'm still only about halfway through it because I haven't had a lot of time for reading, what with studying and starting to get the shed organised.

But before he started reading he said he was going to remove his hearing aids – he said he liked to stop all distractions while he was reading a good book. He said he was sure by now he could trust me, though normally he hardly ever turned his hearing aids off except when he was alone. And I said I didn't mind that at all, because I liked reading quietly, too, and that if I needed him I'd tap him on the shoulder. So he removed his hearing aids and lay down on the bed next to me and we both lay there reading for about two hours.

It was nice, somehow, even though neither of us said anything: I just liked sharing my room with someone and being close to them while I was reading. Occasionally when he stopped to turn a page he smiled at me, and that was nice, too.

Eventually he put the book down, rolled over onto his back and lay there looking at the ceiling. I looked at him, and he just said that it was okay, he was just going to rest for a bit, and that I could carry on reading. So I did that until I reached the end of the next chapter, and then I put my book down and rolled onto my back, too.

We lay like that for quite a while, and I was almost falling asleep. But then he sat up and put his hearing aids back on.

'Thanks, Martin,' he said. 'You're the only person I've ever read with who doesn't want to talk all the time. Next time I'll know that I don't need to take my electric ears off, because if you're just going to lie next to me and read peacefully I won't need to.'

So I said I wouldn't mind whether he kept them on or not, but I wouldn't interrupt him when he was reading because I think doing that is just bad manners. And he smiled at me and said something really nice: he said 'I think we're definitely going to be friends'. And I really hope he's right.

Miles and Twitch didn't have a game this week, but they saw no reason why they shouldn't go along to watch the fun anyway, and so after lunch on the Saturday afternoon Miles's dad drove him to Graham's house, where today's two games were taking place, diverting to pick up Twitch on the way. And knowing that they wouldn't have to undress whatever happened today made it easy for them to relax, and even when Toby greeted them with "Oh, look, it's the boyfriends," they were able just to ignore him.

Today's first game was Jack and Robyn against Tom and Kevin, so either way Miles thought it was going to be interesting: either he'd get to see a naked girl or a naked thirteen-year-old boy with an advanced case of 'Monkey Disease'. And Jack seemed to have done some good preparation work with Robyn, because they played really well together, eventually winning by eighteen points.

Both brothers looked a bit embarrassed, but Kevin had rather more to be embarrassed about, as became clear when he removed his underwear, because he already had an erection, and that drew quite a lot of teasing. As Graham had said, Kevin's cock wasn't very big – probably not a lot bigger than Miles's own – but the smoky curls of black hair around the base did make it look interesting. Robyn in particular seemed entranced.

"Do all boys get hair like that when they get old enough?" she asked. "I think that looks interesting. What does it feel like?"

"Have a feel," suggested Jack. "After all, we won the game, so I think you should be allowed to."

Kevin looked extremely nervous, but there wasn't much he could do, and so Robyn came and felt his little curls.

"It feels soft," she said. "It's nice. And you've got a nice hard cock, too." And she squeezed it, increasing Kevin's embarrassment ten-fold. Then, to his relief, she turned to Tom.

"Yours is tiny," she told him. "I think we ought to see it when it's hard. Do you want to do it yourself, or should we get your brother to do it for you?"

"Make his brother do it," suggested Toby. "That'll be more embarrassing for both of them."

"Okay," agreed Robyn. "Go on, then, Kevin, make it nice and hard."

Both brothers glared at Toby, but he just put his tongue out at them and then sat smirking while Kevin played with his brother's penis until it went hard.

"That's better," said Robyn, approvingly. "Now it doesn't look tiny at all."

And it didn't: Miles thought it was about the same size as Graham's.

Toby said they ought to get a really bad forfeit because Kevin was older and so should be better at cards, but Jack and Robyn agreed that as this was the first time they'd lost they should just do twenty press-ups each, after which they were allowed to get dressed. And then the second game took place, between Graham and Rob and Jamie and Toby.

"This is going to be the second game you'll have lost," Toby told Graham as he dealt the first hand. "So you'll get double forfeits. I'm sure we can think of something really bad if we try."

"You haven't won yet," Graham pointed out, and he was right: in the event he and Rob won by three points. Toby didn't look happy.

"I bet you miscounted somewhere," he complained.

"No, he didn't," said Kevin. "I was checking."

"So, what were you saying about forfeits?" asked Graham. "Something about really bad ones, wasn't it?"

"You can't do anything too bad, because it's the first time we've lost," Jamie pointed out, and Toby was quick to second that.

"Okay," said Graham. "Just get undressed and we'll let you off with something easy."

Toby really didn't look happy, but Jamie simply began to get undressed and that left him little choice but to do the same. As had happened after the football penalty game Jamie had an erection when his pants came off, but he made no attempt to hide it, just standing there with his hands on his hips waiting for his partner to finish taking his clothes off. Finally Toby took off his briefs and then stood with his hands clasped in front of his groin.

"Glasses off, Toby," said Graham. "You'd better, because otherwise they're likely to fall off."

"But I can't see properly without them," protested Toby.

"You don't need to see us. As long as we can see you, that's all that matters. Right, now for your forfeit you have to do twenty stride jumps. Once you've done them – if you do them properly – you can get dressed."

This was a great choice because it left Toby with no way to avoid exposing himself, which was something that he quite obviously didn't want to do. Jamie started his jumps straight away and had already done five before Toby finally removed his hands from in front of his groin and began to do his own forfeit. In fact he didn't have anything to be ashamed of: his genitals looked perfectly normal. Maybe his balls were a little large in proportion to his penis, but it was in no way out of the ordinary. But clearly he found this extremely embarrassing, and of course as he jumped his genitals bounced and jiggled and looked really funny.

Jamie finished his jumps, his erection as stiff as ever, and pulled his boxers back on, but Toby still had seven or eight to go, and of course that meant he now had the entire company staring at him. Even without his glasses on he could hear the giggling and the rude comments, and he was blushing copiously, which just attracted even more teasing. Finally he finished and grabbed his briefs.

"You wait," he said, pulling them on hurriedly before groping for his glasses. "I'm going to think up some really bad stuff for you lot now."

"You have to beat us first," Graham pointed out. "So, next Saturday we're at Jamie's house, and then we can sort out what we're doing at half-term. I was thinking it might be nice to go out and play the next couple of rounds in the woods somewhere, if the weather's nice. As long as the rest of you aren't scared, of course."

Obviously nobody was going to admit to being scared, and so nobody argued.

"Good," said Graham. "Okay, who's staying for a go on the PlayStation?"

Most of the company decide to stay for a bit, though Toby said he had to get home. Once he had gone Jamie said, "He was absolutely convinced we were going to win every game. I tried telling him that the likelihood was that someone would beat us – after all, there is quite a lot of luck in this game – but he said he was sure nobody would be good enough. He thought he was going to be able to sit here and watch all the rest of you having to strip in front of him. I think it came as a nasty shock to discover he was wrong about that, and I'm not sure he'll want to go on playing."

"He'd better," said Graham. "He signed up to it, so he can't back out now unless he wants to get duffed up. You'll have to try to talk him into carrying on."

"Tell him he's still got a chance of seeing me undressed," said Robyn. "You're playing us next week, don't forget."

"And if that doesn't do it, tell him that we'll think he's chicken if he backs out, but we'll think he's okay if he keeps going. Maybe we might even stop calling him 'teacher's pet' and stuff," added Jack. "We won't, of course, but he might believe it."

Miles and Twitch didn't stay very long because Twitch thought it would be unwise for him to be around once the PlayStation screen started flashing, and so they said goodbye to everyone and walked back to Miles's house. They went up to Miles's bedroom and closed the door.

"You didn't have to come with me," Twitch said. "If you'd wanted to stay and play on Graham's PlayStation I wouldn't have minded. I could always have got my dad to come and pick me up."

"I can play on Graham's PlayStation any time. Besides, there were loads of people wanting to play, so I wouldn't have got long on it. And it's more fun talking to you – you make me laugh."

"Yes, all you have to do is look at my face."

"I said 'laugh', not 'scream' or 'vomit'."

Twitch grinned at him. "You're getting good at it now," he said. "So – what are we going to do?"

"What would you like to do?"

Twitch shrugged. "I don't mind. We can have another battle with your soldiers if you like…"

So they did that, and it kept them busy until shortly before Twitch had to go home for tea.

"At half-term," Miles began, as they put the soldiers away, "do you think you'd be allowed to come and sleep over? I haven't had a friend round for a sleepover for ages. And your parents know that I can manage if you have a seizure."

"I'd like that. I'll ask as soon as I get in. Thanks, Miles."

"Great! I reckon we could have fun – and once the lights are out I won't even have to look at your face…"

"I'll bring a torch specially and keep it pointing into my face all night."

"Do that and I'll throw you out of the bedroom window."

Twitch grinned at him again. "Do I need to bring a sleeping bag?" he asked.

"Well, you could bring one if you like, but you don't have to use it. I think Mars is hoping to spend part of the half-term holiday with his new friend, so you might be able to use his bed. Or you could share mine, which would be nice."

"Is it really big enough for two?"

"Yes – I've shared it with Mars a couple of times, and we both slept okay. If course, if you start thrashing about in the night and hit me I might have to kill you, but otherwise I'm sure we'd be fine."

"Could we really both sleep in that bed, though? It looks quite small."

"Get undressed and we'll try it out," suggested Miles, and he began to undress. Twitch thought that was a good idea, so he got undressed as well. Miles paused long enough to wedge the chair under the door-handle once more and then he got into bed, and Twitch got in next to him. They snuggled up to each other and got comfortable.

"Do you think you could get to sleep like this?" Miles asked him.

"Probably. I sometimes move about in my sleep, though, so I might wake you up."

"If you do that I'll pull your balls off," said Miles, reaching around and taking hold of them. Twitch gasped and froze.

"Okay, I won't wake you up," he said.

"You'd better not." Miles took hold of Twitch's penis instead and found that it was already stiffening up, and so he didn't need to do anything more than hold it gently to get it up to full stretch. Then he started rubbing it slowly.

"If you're going to do that I won't be able to get to sleep at all," said Twitch. "But I won't want to sleep if you're going to do that…"

"That's okay, then," said Miles, still rubbing gently, "because I probably won't want to get to sleep straight away, either."

He kept rubbing until Twitch reached orgasm, and then Twitch insisted that Miles had to get excited, too, otherwise it wouldn't be fair. So they rolled over and Twitch returned the favour.

"Now we could probably go to sleep," said Miles, once he had recovered. "So if we have trouble falling asleep when you stay, we'll have to do that. In fact maybe we should do it even if we feel tired, just to make sure."

"That sounds like a good idea." Twitch rolled out of bed and began to get dressed, and Miles lay still for a moment watching him. He couldn't believe how quickly Twitch had become such an important part of his life. He'd really miss him now if he wasn't around. He decided that they were definitely going to spend a good part of the half-term holidays together.

***

The last week before the holidays rolled past. On the Friday afternoon Martin got his bike out of the garage and rode to Luke's house, arriving almost at the same time as the bus Luke was coming home from school on. Luke didn't see him straight away, and it was only when the bus pulled away that he noticed Martin waiting on the other side of the road.

"Oh, hello," he said. "Have you been waiting long?"

"No, I only just got here."

"Good. Come on – you can put the bike round behind the garage."

Martin did that and followed Luke indoors. He noticed that Luke was limping a little, but he didn't say anything: he'd got the impression when asking about Luke's scar that talking about things like that wasn't normal.

Luke took him up to his bedroom. "Give me a minute to get changed and then I'll get the computer ready," he said. "I hope you've had something to eat, because I didn't tell my mother I'd have a guest for tea and she might not have anything ready for you."

"No, I had a sandwich before I left home, and I'll have supper when I get back," Martin assured him.

Luke removed his school uniform, hanging his trousers and blazer on a hanger and putting them in his wardrobe, putting his tie in a drawer and throwing his shirt out onto the landing to be put in the laundry basket later. He didn't seem uncomfortable to be just wearing his briefs in front of Martin, but of course Martin had already seen him naked, so there was no reason for him to be self-conscious now.

He got a tee-shirt and a pair of jeans out of the wardrobe, but before he put them on he turned on the computer so that it would be ready to use one he was dressed. And Martin saw that he had a big bruise on his left leg and a couple of smaller ones on his left arm, and he promptly forgot about not asking questions.

"What happened?" he asked, indicating the bruises. "Did you do that playing football?"

"We don't play football at my school, we play rugby," Luke told him. "But in the summer term we play cricket, and no, I didn't get these playing cricket. There's a boy at school who likes hitting me, that's all."

"Oh. Can't you hit him back, or is he bigger than you?"

"He's a bit bigger than me, but not much, and I have tried hitting back, but he's got a mate who joins in, and it's hard to fight two of them."

"He's got a mate? You mean a girlfriend?"

"No, Dimbo, not a mate like wolves and apes, a mate like a friend. Like you and me are mates, sort of."

"Oh. Are we? Okay. So there are two of them… that doesn't seem very fair."

"It isn't, but I suppose it's the same with wolves and other predators, too: they band together to hunt other animals. Anyway, I haven't got to worry about them for another ten days or so, so sod 'em – let's get the computer to work. I'll show you what I found about wolves, and then you'll know what sort of stuff you'd have learned with your wolf pack. The important stuff is social behaviour, how wolves relate to other wolves, status and stuff like that. I've done some digging and found some of the same sort of thing about apes, so then we'll both know how we're supposed to behave towards each other."

Luke scrolled down his Favorites list and connected to a site he'd been using and then got dressed while Martin was reading. Martin was quickly engrossed and scarcely noticed when Luke went downstairs for tea and he was still making notes when Luke came back twenty minutes later.

"I've got permission to camp out from Monday to Wednesday," he said. "That'll give us two nights. I might be able to persuade them to let me stay another night if they know I won't be on my own. And I've solved at least part of the food problem: we've got a couple of big cold-boxes that will keep food fresh for quite a while, and I've got a calor-gas cooker, too. Okay, it's cheating a bit because it isn't a proper fire we've made ourselves, but it's probably safer."

"We ought to eat everything raw really," Martin pointed out.

"Yes, but we're not going to," Luke said. "I think we'd get food poisoning. I guess Mowgli got used to it, but we're not Mowgli, so we're going to cook our meat. We can eat fruit and stuff, but I want at least one decent hot meal a day. And I've found a big container for water, too, and we'll need that because there isn't any in the dip. In fact I don't know where the nearest water is, so we'll have to make sure it lasts."

"Well, we won't be washing, anyway," Martin reminded him, "so we'll only need water for drinking and cooking…. You realise we ought to be eating with our bare hands? We wouldn't have knives and forks in the jungle – and that's going to make eating anything liquid a bit tricky, because we won't have cups, either."

"That's true… maybe we ought to cheat about that, too. I mean, if we're using food from a cold-box cooked on a gas ring we might as well use plates and cutlery, too."

"Well… perhaps. But it would be nice to try to get through at least one day without using anything modern. You know, eating cold food, fruit and stuff, and at least trying to avoid using the tent. OK? If it's really too cold, or if we simply can't manage otherwise, we go back to modern living – but can we try? I think it would be interesting to see if we could."

"I suppose so. Okay, we'll do that. If we can't manage we'll pretend to have found the cave… if we do that on Monday we can have a big breakfast at home before he set out, and then we won't feel quite so hungry later on…"

Saturday May 24th

I managed to do quite a lot of research on Luke's computer last night, though after a while we stopped and listened to some more music on that You Tube thing he showed me last time. He played me something by a group called 'Porcupine Tree', which I said was a strange name, but he said it was no stranger than Cradle of Filth, and I suppose he's right. It was good music, though. He said that maybe at the end of the week, after we've finished our feral boys experiment, I could go round to his house for the whole day, and then we'd be able to listen to lots of different music, and maybe do some reading together, too, like last time.

We were thinking about taking our books when we do the experiment in case we get bored in the evenings, but we decided we shouldn't, at least while we're being feral, because wild kids wouldn't know how to read. But we're thinking about spending the last day and night in the dip just being ourselves, so then we'll be able to read and listen to music and eat proper food… we both want to try the experiment, but maybe after a couple of days we'll have learned enough about it, and then we can go back to being ourselves. We've both said we'd like to go camping together because we're both happy just lying quietly and reading. Of course, we both do that a lot anyway, but we found it's really nice doing it together: having a friend who likes doing the same stuff as you makes it feel special.

I think Luke probably is my friend now. We like reading and music and I don't think he has a lot of other friends, just like me – maybe in his case it's because people think his scar makes him look bad and they don't want to be seen with him. I think that's pretty stupid, to be honest: It's obvious that what a person is like inside is far more important than what he looks like. I mean, Miles's friend, the one with epilepsy, is sort of ugly, but Miles really likes him and says they're going to spend a lot of the holiday together. So Miles knows that it doesn't matter what you look like – so why can't the kids at Luke's school? Of course, Miles is quite clever, and he understands people – better than I do, I think.

Or maybe Luke doesn't want a lot of friends. Perhaps he's like me, happy being on his own a lot… except I've found I like being with him quite a lot. And I think he likes being with me.

When I have my bath tomorrow night I'm going to get rid of the fur round my personal places, just in case Miles is telling the truth about Monkey Disease. I was going to borrow my dad's razor, but he's not here this weekend and he's taken it with him. But I found some stuff in the bathroom cabinet that my mother uses to get rid of hair on her legs – apparently ladies get a little bit of hair there, too, just like men do. Graham said a bit of hair on the legs is normal for all men, and apparently it is for ladies, too, only they prefer to get rid of it. I was fairly sure that's what the stuff was, but I took it to my mother, said I'd found it in the cabinet and asked what it was for, and she told me. So I'm going to use it to remove my fur, and then Luke won't think I've got something wrong with me.

I'm really looking forward to Monday. The weather forecast seems good, so perhaps we'll be able to do it properly and not use the tent. I think this is going to be a really interesting week.

That Saturday afternoon Miles and Twitch went round to Tom's house for the third round of the cribbage tournament. Toby did turn up, so either he'd recovered from the shock of not being invincible, or his concerns were outweighed by the hope of seeing Robyn with no clothes on. Or maybe Jamie had just persuaded him not to be a chicken. In any case, he was there with the rest when the first match, Miles and Twitch against Tom and Kevin, got under way.

And today the luck that had deserted Miles and Twitch during the previous round returned in spades, as it were: almost every deal brought them good cards, the play-out favoured them every time, and they eventually won by a street and a half (or call it forty-four points).

"Wow, there has to be a serious mega-forfeit for losing that badly!" said Toby, whose enthusiasm for the tournament seemed to have returned. "And it is the second time they've lost…"

The brothers looked a bit nervous, and it showed in the fact that when Kevin took his briefs off his penis was soft. So was his brother's.

"What do you think, Twitch?" asked Miles. "What should we make them do?"

Twitch thought for a moment. Of course, these two didn't go to his school and so had never made fun of him, and that made him more inclined to be generous. He didn't want to make them do anything too awful, or too dirty, either, though maybe if it had been some of the boys in his class…

"I know," he said. "They have to go into the bathroom and stand under a cold shower for two minutes."

That seemed a popular idea, except of course with Tom and Kevin, but their objections were overruled. They were herded into the bathroom and made to get into the shower together, and then Miles reached in, moved the temperature selector to the end of the blue section and turned on. The brothers gasped as the water fell, wrapping their arms around themselves and trying to stop their teeth from chattering.

"I hope you're timing this," said Tom, after a few seconds.

"Oh, bother," said Miles, grinning. "I forgot to start the clock. Never mind, your two minutes start… now!"

The brothers were made to turn round under the flow to make sure that every millimetre of them got a chance to experience the bracing conditions, and to them the two minutes seemed to last about two hours, but eventually they were allowed to turn the water off and get out. Kevin's penis had shrunk until it looked smaller than Rob's normally did, and Tom's had almost disappeared. The rest of the gang teased them for a bit and then let them dry themselves off and get dressed again.

The second game was between Jack and Robyn and Jamie and Toby. For a long time Jamie and Toby were ahead, and Toby was getting very lippy, threatening to think up forfeits that would make a cold shower seem like a Caribbean holiday. But then Robyn got one of those once-in-a-blue moon hands, two tens and two fives with a third five cut up.

"Is that twenty?" she asked, laying them down.

"Twenty-two," said Jack, grinning hugely. "You forgot the three fives making another fifteen. And I've got twelve. I think that puts us into the lead."

It did. Toby suddenly went quiet, and when Jack scored sixteen for his next hand it was enough to take them over the finishing line.

"That's the second time you two have lost," Graham pointed out to Toby. "So I reckon it must be time for one of those super-evil forfeits you were just talking about. What's it going to be, Robyn?"

For a moment Robyn and Jack just looked at each other, and then Jack leaned over and whispered in her ear. And Robyn burst out laughing.

"We couldn't do that!" she said. "Or… seeing that it's Toby, perhaps we could. Get undressed, you two."

Slowly the losers stripped off, and Toby once again held his hands in front of his groin as soon as he removed his pants. Jamie, who for once didn't have an erection, didn't bother.

"Now go into the bathroom and get into the shower, and stand facing each other," Robyn ordered, and they did that, the rest of the gang following to watch the entertainment.

"And now," Robyn told them, "you have to pee on each other."

The audience burst out laughing while the two victims stared at her in horror.

"No way!" protested Toby. "Anyway, I can't go, and I bet Jamie can't, either!"

"If you don't do it," said Jack, "we're all going to do it all over you instead. Do the forfeit and you'll only be pissed on once; refuse and you'll have all of us doing it to you."

"Except me, obviously," added Robyn. "So, are you going to do it yourself?"

"I suppose so," said Jamie.

"No! It's disgusting!" cried Toby.

"Yes, it is, but you'll be allowed to rinse yourselves down afterwards – with warm water, too," Jack promised. "If you make us do it, you don't get to rinse off."

"Come on, Toby," said Jamie. "It'll be better if it's just us and not all that lot. Let's just do it and get it over with, okay?"

Toby still looked profoundly unhappy, but at last he gave a sullen nod, turned to face Jamie and took hold of his small penis. Jamie did the same and started to pee, and a couple of seconds later Toby did, too. They peed onto each other's stomachs and the pee ran down onto their groins and down their legs. Finally both boys ran dry.

"That's it," said Jack, "your forfeit's over. Wash yourselves down – can they use some of that shower gel, Kevin?"

"Of course, just don't go mad with it."

So they turned the water on, squealed when they realised it was still set to 'Siberia', and grabbed for the temperature control. Toby spun it over-enthusiastically in the opposite direction and ended up with the 'Vesuvius' setting instead, which drew another yell, but eventually they got it somewhere in the middle and were able to wash themselves down. Kevin passed them the towels the others had used, which were a bit damp but which still did the job, more or less, and then they were allowed to return to the bedroom and get dressed.

"Good forfeit, Jack," approved Graham. "Okay, we can't play on Monday because too many of us aren't going to be free, so on Tuesday, if the weather stays good, we're going to go into the woods down Broom Lane way and play outdoors. There'll be stuff we can do outdoors that we can't do in the house, and it'll be way more embarrassing for the losers. If it rains you can all come to mine, but that won't be so good because my sister will be there, so we won't be able to go outside my room. So let's meet at the Greyhound at half past two – we'll be playing four games each day from now on, so everyone will get at least one game. And try to think up lots of good forfeits – after all, if any of today's losers lose again it's quadruple forfeit time!"

Once again the gathering dissolved into groups: Kevin turned on his PlayStation and a general scrimmage formed around him as everyone demanded that they play a different game. Miles and Twitch got the cards and started to play knockout whist, making sure Twitch had his back to the monitor, and after a bit Jamie and Rob came and asked to be dealt in.

Even Toby had stayed this time instead of running off, and when he came and asked if he could play too Miles simply reshuffled the pack and started the game again from scratch.

They played for an hour or so, different players coming and going as the PS became available, and then Twitch said he ought to be going, so Miles got up, too.

"Going to walk your boyfriend home?" asked Toby, smirking – apparently he had recovered from his experience in the shower.

"You're just jealous," replied Miles.

They said goodbye to everyone. Miles noticed that Graham, who had been on the PlayStation for much of the time, was fiddling with his mobile phone, and so he beckoned him over.

"Are you doing what I think you're doing?" he asked, quietly.

"I expect so," said Graham, grinning. "It's funny how nobody is looking at me when people are doing forfeits. I could probably get out a great big TV camera and nobody would notice. They certainly didn't notice this, anyway."

"Got some good ones?"

"I'm pretty sure I got some brilliant ones of Jamie and Toby, and I got Tom and Kevin shivering in the shower, too. I'll see when I get home. If you want to come and look at what I've got on Tuesday, you can."

"I will….does that mean you took some of me and Twitch, too?"

Graham grinned at him. "It's funny you should say that," he said.

"Right, then I'm definitely bringing my phone on Tuesday. If you and Rob lose it'll all be captured."

"I don't mind as long as nobody sees it except you and me. I promise I won't show anyone else the ones I took of you, anyway."

"You'd better not if you want to live."

Graham grinned at him again. "See you Tuesday," he said, and he went to join the card players.

Miles walked home with Twitch and stayed long enough to have another go with the train set. He decided he definitely wanted one, though whether he would be able to persuade his parents to let him use the attic was another question. Still, even a small layout in his room would be nice.

Before he left Twitch negotiated with his parents and managed to persuade them to let him stay over with Miles on the Tuesday night: he'd go home with Miles after the crib tournament finished and stay with him right through Wednesday, going home for tea on Wednesday evening. Twitch was delighted, and Miles found himself really looking forward to it, too…

Things are moving forward… the half term holiday has now started, and in the next chapter we'll find out what sort of a job Martin and Luke make of being wild. And of course the cribbage forfeits are going to continue to escalate, too.

Chapter Seven

In this chapter we'll find out how Martin and Luke got on with their wild boys experiment. And the cribbage league moves outdoors, and the forfeits get correspondingly rather more serious.

Tuesday May 27th

I'm filling in the journal on Tuesday evening – I'm going back to the dip shortly, but we both thought it would be a good idea to nip home for a bath and a meal before we start the second part of our camping experiment…. Actually it won't really be an experiment any longer because we're going to be normal civilised boys for the next day and a half, but we'll still be camping out on our own and preparing our own food and so on.

But I need to record the first part, because that was when we were being wild boys, and it was really interesting. I went round to Luke's house for lunch yesterday, and as soon as we'd finished eating we took everything to the dip. It took two trips because the water was heavy and we couldn't manage to carry everything in one go.

We pitched the tent at one side of the dip so that it would be out of the way of Luke's rope swing and we put everything inside it: first a sleeping-bag which Luke put opened out on the floor of the tent to help insulate us from the cold, then the gas cooker, which we'd agreed not to use until the following day, then the blankets we'd brought to keep us warm, and finally our clothes. We kept our shoes near the front of the tent because we'd agreed that we could wear shoes when we weren't in the dip – Mowgli and Tarzan had toughened feet because they had never worn shoes, but we didn't, and so this was one cheat that we thought we could do, provided we took the shoes off as soon as possible. We'd also brought some fruit and some sandwiches (okay, that was cheating, too, but it meant that we wouldn't have to hunt or to try eating raw rabbit or something, so it was probably a sensible sort of cheating).

Then we closed the tent, agreed that we weren't going to speak English for the next twenty-four hours and started the experiment. We did it the same way we actually first met: I sat on the branch and Luke came into the dip and found me in his hunting-ground, and of course he was angry about it because it meant, as I'd said to Luke before, that we would be in competition for limited food resources (and I still can't see why he thought that sounded 'poncey')

So he snarled and ran down the bank towards me, and I got up and turned to meet him, growling. I'm no good at fighting – of course I haven't had any chance to practise recently, except for some play fights with Miles, which he usually wins anyway – but whenever I got into a fight when I was still at school I lost. But this time I was trying to think like a wolf, and so when he jumped at me I was ready and grabbed him, snarling.

We rolled about on the ground, snapping our teeth at each other and trying to rip each other open with our claws (actually he did manage to give me a heavy scratch or two, and if he had been equipped with claws I would have been in serious trouble). I almost got my teeth into his neck but he jerked his head away just in time. And he bit me on the shoulder, but I managed to shove him away before he broke the skin.

But in the end he got on top of me and pinned me down, and he was threatening to rip my throat out, so I had no choice. I went limp to indicate that I wasn't going to resist any longer, and when he got off me I stayed lying on my back with my stomach exposed, showing that if he wanted to rip it open with his claws I wouldn't be able to prevent him. This is apparently one way of demonstrating submission in the animal kingdom. He stood over me, snarling, and did a little burst of pee onto my personal places, which I suppose meant that he'd marked me as belonging to him, the same way that dogs mark trees and lamp-posts with their pee to indicate that they own the territory round the tree or lamp-post. Then he pulled me to his feet and started to train me.

(I should say that I'd used that stuff of my mother's on my personal places on Sunday evening, and it worked really well, so when Luke saw me undressed there was no trace of fur at all and I looked exactly the same as him).

The training was hard work: he raced me, cuffing me and knocking me down if I wasn't fast enough; he showed me how to let go of his rope swing at the right moment so as to land as far forward as possible (and again he hit me if I messed it up, as I did the first two or three times); he showed me his spear and tried to teach me how to throw it (and when I missed the tree completely he knocked me down and snarled at me); and he also tried to teach me to throw a knife, but as he wasn't too good at that himself at least I didn't get smacked for messing that up.

We trained for a while, and I became quite good at using the rope and not too bad with the spear, though he was far better. But at least as the afternoon went on I didn't get hit quite so often.

And then he tried to get me to climb the tree and use the rope to get back down, and that was really hard for me – as I've said before, I don't like heights very much. I tried to indicate that I didn't want to climb the tree, but he just snarled and hit my bottom with the shaft of the spear, and so I started to climb – after all, I suppose I'm built quite like an ape, and they climb easily. He came up behind me, growling to keep me moving, until I reached the branch where the rope was, but then I made the mistake of looking down, and I got scared. I think he could see that I was really worried, and so the 'real' Luke overruled Feral Luke for a few moments, long enough for him to go past me onto the branch. He gave a particular sort of grunt that meant 'watch' (he pointed at his eyes, so I'd know what he meant) and then he walked out along the branch, sat down next to the rope, took hold of it and swung out onto it, climbing down hand over hand.

I knew I could never do that without falling, so I stayed where I was until he climbed back up the tree, and then I indicated that I was scared and couldn't do it. He growled at me a couple of times, but I just shook my head, and in the end he pointed back down the tree and let me climb back the way I had come up. Even that wasn't easy, but I managed it.

Once I was back on the ground I indicated that I was sorry by going back into the submission position, and he snarled at me but then pulled me to my feet again.

After that we rested for a bit while we worked on a system of communication, agreeing certain noises to have particular meanings. This was interesting – obviously it wouldn't be possible to build a proper vocabulary, because we could only deal with solid concepts like nouns and verbs of action, but if you're two feral boys who have just met then that is plenty. Basically I was learning his language, because he was the alpha male (he'd won the fight, of course), and so he was in charge.

I wasn't sure what the time was by now – obviously we'd left our watches in the tent – but all that exercise had left me feeling a bit hungry, so I indicated this and he went to the tent and came out with an apple and a banana. He sat and ate about half of the apple and then threw it to me, and then did the same thing with the banana (though he did peel it first, which maybe he learned while living with the apes). I wasn't sure about this – it wasn't very hygienic to finish an apple someone else has started – but I was hungry, and I supposed that in real life I'd be lucky if the alpha male left me anything except the core, so I ate it, and the banana, and then we drank a little water – we'd left the container outside the tent so that we could run a little into our cupped hands to drink.

We rested for a little while, and then he stuck his head into the tent and retrieved our trainers, indicating that I should put mine on, and then he picked up his spear, growled at me to follow him, and walked up out of the dip.

I really wasn't sure about this: it was still broad daylight, and anyone might have been about. But Luke just strode off across the field to the gate that led out onto the lane, climbed over it and stood in the middle of the road, naked except for his shoes. So of course I had to follow him. Fortunately there was no traffic, but I found it frightening, all the same.

He walked a short way down the lane and then climbed over another gate on the opposite side of the road and headed off into a field. Obviously I was much happier here, especially since there was a wood right next to the part of the field we were in, which made it far less likely that anyone would see us.

After about fifty yards he turned and went into the wood. Here the trees were mostly pines: there was a carpet of pine needles underfoot which would probably have been quite comfortable even in bare feet, and indeed after a bit Luke sat down and removed his shoes, giving them to me to carry. I took mine off too and followed him carrying both pairs.

Once we were a little way into the trees we found that we were sheltered from the breeze. It was a nice warm day and the breeze hadn't been uncomfortable, but here in the trees we were protected from it anyway. And then Luke led me through the branches of one tree, which was a large one and quite old, and against the trunk and between the branches was a small clear space, out of the wind, with a thick layer of pine needles under our feet. He mimed sleeping and I nodded vigorously: this would be a really good place to spend the night and it would save us from having to use the tent.

We marked the trail back to the field so that we could find it after dark, left a wooden marker at the edge of the field so that we could find the beginning of the trail and then explored a bit further. Eventually we reached the corner of the wood, and from here the land sloped down towards the river, and as it was all open country with virtually no shelter we thought that it would be too dangerous to explore further in daylight. So, still with bare feet, we retraced our steps, climbed back over the gate, walked the fifty yards or so back to the other gate, and so made our way back to the dip.

We spent some more time training and I began to get a bit better with the spear (though I still got cuffed when I missed the tree completely) and Luke tried to get me to climb the rope, but I couldn't. After I failed to get more than a couple of feet off the ground for the third time he made out he was really angry, making me lie on the ground in the 'submission' position and threatening to stab me with the spear. If I'd really been a wolf-boy I'd have been terrified, but of course I knew Luke wouldn't really kill me… and I realised that maybe this was why I couldn't climb the rope, because I was still thinking like a rational human (or alien), not like a feral kid. So I tried to think more like a wolf, and actually got a little further up the rope – though since wolves can't climb ropes, perhaps being more wolf-like didn't really help.

I needed a pee at one point. Luke had gone a couple of times, just standing still for a moment and letting it happen without seeming to care in the slightest that I was watching (the second time he'd sprayed my personal places again, just to reinforce that he owned me), but it was hard for me to do the same until I got properly into the wolf frame of mind. Then I was able just to let it happen. It still felt a bit strange, knowing that Luke was watching, but I decided that I didn't mind too much after all.

Then he decided that it was time for tea. We'd brought some ham sandwiches with us – we couldn't eat real raw meat, so we pretended that the sandwiches were chunks of wild boar. Luke took one, sat on the branch – he made me sit on the ground in front of him, even though there was probably room for both of us on the branch – and ate the first sandwich, just throwing me a bit of crust. He did the same with the second one, and I was starting to think I was going to go hungry, but of course he was the alpha male and so he had the right to the best of the meat. But then he grinned and threw me a complete sandwich, so that was all right.

When it got dark we collected the blankets from the tent – they were supposed to be animal skins, of course – and set off to spend the night in the shelter of the pine tree we had found. It was exciting trying to follow the trail through the wood because it was really dark under the trees, but we followed it successfully and settled down under our tree. We put one blanket on the ground, folded up, and then sat on it side by side with our backs to the trunk of the tree and wrapped the other one around us. It felt good like that, and we were nice and warm, too: our bodies were right up against each other, the blanket kept our body heat in and the tree protected us from any wind.

We didn't go to sleep straight away and in fact after a bit I had to pee again, so I got up, went outside the tree and urinated. When I came back Luke was angry that I had disturbed him and he snarled at me and wouldn't let me back under the blanket. He pointed to his feet and made me curl up there. I thought I wouldn't be able to sleep like that and that it would get cold later in the night, but after a few minutes he let me come back and share the blanket with him.

We slept better than I had expected: I woke up a couple of times, but I wasn't cold and I got back to sleep fairly easily. In the morning we went back to the dip and had breakfast – we'd brought some milk (we pretended we'd got it direct from a cow) and we ate a couple of Weetabix each (that could have been grains of wheat taken from a field). We spent the morning wrestling a bit, training some more and working on our vocabulary, until by lunchtime we could communicate quite well without using actual words at all.

We had some more fruit for lunch, and once we'd completed twenty-four hours from the start of the experiment Luke suggested that we should both go home to have a bath and a hot meal and then come back to the dip for the night, though if we wanted to we could just be normal, civilised boys from now on.

So I'm about to have my bath and my mother is cooking us a meal, but I thought I should write up the journal first. Luke and I will discuss the experiment this evening, but I think it proves we could survive as wild boys if we had access to food and some animal skins or something else to keep us warm at night.

Miles's epileptic friend is here with him at the moment, and I think he's staying the night, so it looks as if we've both found a proper friend. I'm not sure how they spent the day, but I expect what Luke and I were doing was more interesting…

In fact Miles's day had also been highly entertaining. Graham had invited him to come round for lunch, and before eating they had gone up to Graham's room and wedged the anti-sister chair under the door-handle as usual.

"Let's see the photos, then," said Miles, and Graham grinned at him and turned on the computer.

"They came out even better than I'd hoped," he said, sitting down and typing in a long password. A couple of clicks after that he was able to open a folder of pictures, and he selected one and brought it up on the screen. And Miles found himself looking at a photo of himself and Twitch with their arms round each other, kissing and playing with each other's genitals.

"This was the best one because you can see everything," Graham said, grinning at him some more. "If we weren't friends I could blackmail you really badly with that – I could tell you to give me your allowance every week, and if you refused copies of this would start getting emailed all round the school and hard copies would start turning up on the school notice-boards."

That got Miles quite worried, but Graham went on, "But obviously I won't. We're mates, and you don't drop your mates in it like that. On the other hand, we've got Toby…"

He had a couple of Toby doing his stride jumps and a short video clip of Toby and Jamie peeing on each other.

"I can't really use that one as it is without annoying Jamie, but I might be able to find a way to blank out Jamie's face, if I decide to start passing this around the class. I've got some basic editing software… I'll copy the film and do some experiments. Anyway, here are the other photos I've got so far."

He started a slide-show presentation, and Miles was impressed with the quality: obviously Graham's mobile phone had a high-resolution camera. The collection included a full-frontal picture of everyone who had lost a game of crib so far, except Graham and his partner Rob, of course, and it also included pictures of the various forfeits that had taken place. He particularly liked the one of Kevin taken just after he got out of the cold shower, his balls drawn up tight against his body, his penis small and his pubic hair plastered around the base of it.

"These are really good," he said. "But I'll definitely be taking a couple of you and Rob next time you lose – after all, we ought to have a complete collection."

"Like I said, I don't mind as long as nobody sees it except us. If you showed it to anyone else, though, I'd have to beat you up."

"Yeah? You and whose army?"

That led to a wrestling match, and this time Miles ended up on top and was able to twist Graham's ear until he submitted.

"For that I'll make sure you get some really bad forfeits if you lose today," Graham promised him, rubbing his sore ear. "And I'll get loads of close-ups, too."

"Except maybe it'll be you who loses."

"No chance! Me and Rob are too cool to lose."

"We'll see. So, have you thought up some good forfeits, then?"

"I've got some really nasty ones. It'll depend who loses, though, because I'll be saving the really bad ones for Toby. I'm not going to do anything too horrible to my mates… except Jamie, of course, but that's his fault for wanting to team up with Little Miss Perfect."

So after lunch they rode round to the Greyhound, and over the next fifteen minutes or so everyone else turned up. It was a nice warm day. In one way this was a good thing, though Miles thought it might be funny if the losers had to run about naked in the rain – as long as he and Twitch didn't lose, of course.

They walked off down Broom Lane, those with bikes pushing them so that those on foot could keep up, and a couple of hundred yards down the lane they climbed the bank and went into the woods. At the far side of the woods was a barbed-wire fence, beyond which was a field of long grass, and they climbed through the fence, leaving the bikes against a tree inside the wood, and sat down on the grass to play the first game. This was a good place: the wood bordered the field on two sides here, and ran along a third side of the field about a hundred yards away. The fourth side was open, but there were no houses anywhere in sight and the field was clearly not in use at the moment either for crops or for grazing animals, because the grass was long and untouched.

The first game was Miles and Twitch against Graham and Rob, and this time Miles and Twitch won comfortably.

"Okay," said Miles, "you have to strip naked and run from here to the bottom of the field and back. The last one back has to go again – and if you try to get out of it by finishing together you'll both have to go again." And he got his phone out, set it to camera and waited – and, as Graham had said, he found that everyone was watching the two losers getting undressed and nobody was watching him.

He ordered them to make themselves stiff first, since that would give him time for a couple of preliminary photos (and he ignored Toby's demand that they should be made to do it to each other). And when they were both satisfactorily erect and he had taken a couple of photos of each of them he started the race.

As he had rather expected, Graham won comfortably, and so Rob was forced to run a further couple of hundred yards, still naked, while Graham got dressed. Eventually he got back, apparently exhausted, and was allowed to put his clothes back on.

"That was too easy," complained Toby. "You should have given them something a lot worse than that."

"Well, it was only the second time they've lost," Miles pointed out. "There'll be plenty of worse stuff we can do to them later on."

The second game saw Miles and Twitch playing again, this time against Jack and Robyn. This was a much closer game, but Miles and Twitch finally pegged out a couple of points ahead. And that meant that Robyn had finally lost a game for the first time, causing a lot of anticipation among the audience – though in fact Graham had told Miles beforehand that Jack had never lost a game of penalties, so he would be stripping for the first time today as well.

And in fact Miles thought that Jack looked a lot more interesting: as he had expected, Robyn's chest looked almost exactly the same as her brother's, and her other main area of interest was basically just a vertical slit with no hair – though it did look a little more interesting when Twitch told her to spread her legs. Jack, on the other hand, was interesting because he looked different from most of the others. For a start he had a little hair – nothing like as much as Kevin, but there were a few there all the same. Plus, he was circumcised, and his penis looked a little thicker than usual, and his balls looked a bit bigger, too. And, finally, because he was looking at Robyn when he took his pants off and so had an erection. Miles thought it was about the same length as his but Jack's was definitely a bit thicker.

Graham was surreptitiously taking pictures, and this time Miles had his own phone out, too.

"Okay," he said, putting it back in his pocket for a moment, "since this is the first time you've lost you just have to do twenty press-ups."

He wondered if Robyn would be able to do them, but in the event she managed far more easily than he expected. He did find it interesting that when she was doing them, her legs spread a little, he could see her vagina from the back.

Jack wasn't having any problem with the press-ups, either, and soon they had both finished the allotted twenty, at which point Miles told them that they could get dressed, despite protests from most of the boys that this was far too easy a forfeit.

In the next game Tom and Kevin beat Jamie and Toby by a couple of points, provoking a demand for a recount from Toby. The recount clearly showed the score was correct.

"Oh, dear, third failure," said Kevin, grinning. "Now we are going to have to get serious. Get undressed."

He climbed back through the fence and returned a minute or so later with a couple of stinging-nettles.

"Now, Jamie," he ordered, "you have to take one of these, stroke it all over Toby's cock and balls and then swipe his bum with it. Toby, after that it'll be your turn."

Both tried to protest, but Graham assured them that this was entirely within the rules, adding that if they refused to do it to each other the rest of the gang would do it for them. So in the end Jamie took one of the nettles and did as he had been told, and Toby yelped as he was stung several times. Finally Jamie gave a sort of half-hearted swing of the nettle against Toby's bum.

Toby took his nettle and set to work, and he was obviously doing his best to make sure Jamie got stung as much as possible. Jamie was erect, of course, and so it was easier to sting his penis all over, and Toby made sure he did that, even carrying on for a few seconds after Kevin told him he should stop and swipe his partner's bum. And then he delivered a full-blooded swing of the nettle, dragging it across the buttocks afterwards to ensure maximum soreness. Jamie glared at him, but Toby ignored him, throwing down his nettle and grabbing his briefs.

"Last game for today," Graham announced, quickly shoving his phone back into his pocket before anyone noticed, "me and Rob against Jack and Robyn. And I can promise that if we win you two aren't going to get away anything like as lightly this time."

But in the event Jack and Robyn won fairly easily.

"Strip!" ordered Jack. "Then you have to lie down on your back, Graham, and Rob has to lie on top of you, facing you – oh, make sure you're both nice and stiff first."

Reluctantly they got into position.

"And now Rob has to pee," continued Jack. "And the usual rule applies: do it yourself, or we'll all do it."

Rob did it, to the general amusement.

"And, since we've decided pain is allowed, I think you should have some," Jack went on. "After all, this is the third time you two have lost."

He took his belt off and used it to strap Rob's bottom – quite hard, in fact, making Rob yelp with every blow. He gave him the customary six and then ordered them to change places. Now Graham had to pee, and then he was strapped. Finally they were made to stand up and face the company, their bottoms sore and pee trickling down their legs.

Jack took pity on them after ten seconds and told them they could get dressed, even throwing them an old towel he had brought along just in case. They hurriedly wiped themselves down and then threw their clothes back on.

"You wait, Jack," said Graham, giving him a black look. "You've got to play again tomorrow. You really need to start praying you don't lose."

"We won't," said Jack, confidently. "We're top of the league right now, aren't we? Well, joint top with Miles and Twitch, anyway. Face it, we're too good for you peasants."

"We'll see," said Graham. "So – what do you all want to do now? I think we might as well stay here for a bit. Anyone fancy a war game?"

They split into two teams and spent the next hour or so having a series of mock battles, sometimes shooting each other with pretend guns and sometimes having impromptu wrestling matches in the long grass, which Miles thought was a lot of fun. Twitch wasn't much good at fighting but joined in eagerly anyway, and even Toby, who was equally useless, did his best, though he tended to fight dirty, pinching and scratching if given a chance to do so. Robyn, on the other hand, fought like a boy, punching and wrestling, though she wasn't afraid of threatening to knee her opponents in the balls from time to time.

At around quarter to five the party broke up and Miles gave Twitch a ride back to his house on his carrier, which wasn't particularly comfortable but which was quicker than walking would have been. They dumped Twitch's bag in Miles's room and went to the bathroom to have a quick wash, but they reached the door at the same time as Martin, who was about to take a bath.

"Hello, Noel," said Martin, who didn't think calling an epileptic 'Twitch' was polite, whatever the boy himself said about it.

"Hi, Mars. You look a bit muddy."

Martin was only wearing his briefs, and so the amount of mud on his body was fairly obvious.

"I've been doing an experiment with my friend Luke to see what it's like being a feral boy," Martin told him.

"What's 'feral'?"

"It means wild, like a kid who has been raised by animals," Miles explained.

"Oh, right. That sounds fun."

"It was, actually," Martin told him, "even if it was really supposed to be an experiment. Is it okay if I run the bath? Only I told Luke I'd be back by six o'clock."

"Go ahead," invited Miles. "We're just going to have a quick wash."

So Martin began to run a bath while Miles gave Twitch first use of the wash-basin. Twitch had a quick wash but Miles told him to take his time, there really wasn't any need to rush. So Twitch slowed down a bit, and then Miles had a really leisurely wash himself, and as he had hoped Martin's bath was ready long before he had finished.

"It's okay, Mars, you can get in," Miles invited him. "Twitch won't mind – will you, Twitch?"

"Not at all!"

"It's okay, I can wait."

"You really haven't got time," Miles told him. "Mum said supper would be ready at half-past five, and it's twenty past now."

Martin still looked a bit uncertain, but he supposed his brother was right, so in the end he slipped his briefs off and got into the bath, keeping his back to them.

Of course, at that point Miles just stopped washing altogether, waiting until his brother was forced to sit down and start washing himself, and only then did Miles finish off, pick up the towel and stroll over to the side of the bath, drying his hands very slowly.

"Ah, I see something has changed, Mars," he commented, looking at his brother's groin.

"Well, yes. I didn't want Luke to know about…" Martin looked at Twitch, not very happily.

"Oh, don't worry about Twitch," said Miles, grinning. "He's my friend – I don't keep secrets from him."

"Yes, but it's not your secret!"

"I suppose not. Still, Twitch isn't going to tell anyone – are you, Twitch? I mean, you said last time that you liked my brother, so you won't give away his secrets, will you?"

"Of course not," said Twitch, straight away. "What secret, Miles?"

"Well, my brother has a very rare illness. It's called Monkey Disease. It's barely started yet, so I don't think it's a problem, but he gets a bit embarrassed about it… hang on, Mars, how come you were worried about Luke seeing you? Do you mean you were playing at feral kids without any clothes on?"

"Well, yes," mumbled Martin, feeling oddly ashamed. "Obviously boys growing up in the jungle and raised by animals wouldn't have any clothes."

"I suppose not. See, Twitch, Mars always does things properly: it's his alien brain. Normal boys would be happy to pretend and wear PE shorts or something, but Mars has to do it exactly right and so not wear any clothes at all. So Luke has seen you undressed, then?"

Martin nodded, still feeling he was on the defensive and not really understanding why, because it was obvious that feral boys wouldn't have any clothes, and so how else could you do a proper experiment?

"And that's why you cut it off?"

"I didn't cut it. I used some cream that our mother uses."

"Well, okay, but it's gone, anyway. I suppose you had to really, but you'll probably have to tell Luke the truth some day. Maybe when you've known him a bit longer, because I suppose you don't want to upset him until he's decided he really wants to be your friend. Stand up for a moment and show us."

Martin hesitated, but he had agreed to let Miles check him over whenever he thought it necessary, so after a few seconds he stood up. His penis was soft, because he felt really embarrassed about yet another of Miles's friends being allowed to look at him when he had no clothes on.

"I can't see anything wrong with him," said Twitch, looking with interest at Martin's groin, and in fact he thought Martin's looked almost exactly like his brother's, though maybe Martin had slightly larger balls.

"There isn't – at least, not so you can see now. See, Martin had a problem here," and Miles reached out and stroked the base of his brother's penis. This got no reaction, because Martin was still far too embarrassed to feel excited. "He was starting to turn into a monkey."

"Gosh! How come?"

"Let's go and let Martin have his bath in peace, and I'll tell you about it," said Miles, steering his friend out of the bathroom. Martin sat down and started to wash the mud off his legs, still feeling a bit uncomfortable about the liberties Miles was starting to take recently with his privacy.

Back in his room Miles explained the scam to Twitch, who thought it was funny but a little bit cruel as well. "I like your brother," he said, "even if he is a bit strange. You'll have to tell him the truth before too long, Miles."

"I will. Actually I probably won't have to: it's obvious he really likes Luke, and he'll probably pluck up the courage to ask him about it before too long, and Luke will set him straight. It's just sort of fun teasing him about it for a bit, that's all."

They ate supper together, and shortly afterwards Martin packed a small bag with a few odds and ends, including the books he and Luke were reading, and set out for the dip. What he didn't know was that Miles and Twitch were following him, keeping far enough back to be able to duck down quickly if necessary but not so far that they lost sight of their target. In fact Martin never looked back at all, just walking straight ahead and thinking about the evening ahead of him.

He climbed through the fence in the usual place and Miles and Twitch stopped and waited for him to disappear into the trees, because the field was completely open with no cover and it would have been too dangerous to leave the shelter of the footpath until Martin had disappeared. Then they climbed through the fence and ran across the field, stopping just short of the dip and crawling forwards to the edge. They saw that Martin was sitting on the branch and waiting, so Miles, realising that Luke had not yet arrived, led Twitch back away from the edge and moved round to the far side of the dip, where the undergrowth would provide them with better cover.

Ten minutes later Luke arrived carrying a bag, which he put down by the tent. Miles and Twitch watched for a few minutes, but the two older boys just sat on the branch talking, and after a bit Miles backed away from the edge of the dip, pulling Twitch with him.

"We'd better get back," he said. "I told Mum we were only going out for a quick walk. But we know where they are now, so we can come back in the morning and spy on them properly for a bit longer. I really want to see if they're both going to pretend to be wild and run about bare, or if Luke's got too much sense. We'll come back after breakfast and find out."

"You know what?" said Twitch as they headed back towards the footpath. "I think it could be sort of fun, running about naked, especially if the weather is nice and warm. Perhaps we should try it sometime."

"We might have to if we get beaten at crib tomorrow," Miles pointed out. "After all, Graham and Rob had to do it today."

"That's different. Okay, I suppose we'll have to if we lose and they tell us to, but it won't be any fun with all that lot laughing at us. I meant doing it like Mars, out here where nobody can see us. I think it would be sort of exciting."

"Well, okay – if we find somewhere safe maybe we could do that. But we'd have to be sure nobody found out about it – I don't want anyone spying on us!"

"I'm sure we could find somewhere if we go far enough away from the village. Maybe we can pretend to be explorers tomorrow morning: we could come and watch the wild boys, and then see if we can find somewhere of our own to play that sort of game. Can we, Miles?"

"Okay, why not? And if we don't get time tomorrow, I'm sure you can come over and play again before we go back to school."

"Cool! This is going to be really good, Miles!"

And Miles thought that maybe he was right, at that.

So now Miles and Twitch are considering a little outdoor experimentation of their own. They won't be taking it quite so seriously as Martin and Luke, though – next time we'll watch their experiment move into areas that Martin had not expected at the start.

Chapter Eight

In this chapter Martin finally learns a bit about sex, and from a practical point of view, too. And his brother improves his practical knowledge of it as well…

"So, have you recovered from being wild?" Luke asked Martin, as soon as he arrived.

"I think so. I had a good bath and ate something hot, so I suppose I'm back to normal. Are we going to do what we said and carry on with the game, but being sort of semi-civilised, using the tent and the cooker and speaking English and so on?"

"I'd like to do it like that, but it's up to you. Maybe you've had enough exercise for one day. If you have we could just spend the evening reading – I wouldn't mind that."

"I'd like to do that a bit later, but I really don't mind if you want to do something else before it gets dark – a bit more exploring, or something like that. And really it's up to you: you're still the alpha male, after all."

"Are you sure? I mean, I like being alpha, but I don't want to make you do a lot of stuff you don't want. I nearly treated you badly yesterday evening."

"What do you mean?"

"I'll tell you later. But, anyway, you can challenge me again if you want a shot at being alpha, or we could just be completely civilised and equal if you prefer."

"Well… I think we should carry on as we were, at least to start with. I know we're going to be cheating a lot with food and the tent and everything, but the basic game is still the same. And that means that if I don't want you in charge I have to challenge you, and I'm not ready to do that yet because I think you'd beat me. So you're still alpha, at least for tonight. Is that okay?"

"It's fine by me. Let's get the tent sorted out, and then we can decide… okay, I'll decide what we're going to do until it gets dark."

They went to the tent and Luke unpacked his bag. This contained another sleeping bag, a gas lantern and some more food. Martin waited outside while Luke got everything organised inside, and then Luke called him in. He found that there was now a blanket underneath the first sleeping bag, that the second had been attached to it at the foot and folded back with the second blanket beside it, and that everything else had been stacked neatly at the far end of the tent.

"I think we'll be warmest if we use the sleeping-bags as a double one," Luke said. "If we aren't warm enough like that we'll put the blanket on top. I've even found a couple of inflatable cushions we can use as pillows." He indicated these, still uninflated, at one side of the tent. "So, which side do you want?"

"I don't mind. You choose."

"Okay, I'll take the right side. Lie down and we'll see if we've got enough room."

Martin took his trainers off – Luke and already removed his – and lay down on the sleeping bag, and Luke came and lay beside him.

"I think there's enough room," Martin said. "So, should we get undressed?"

Luke hesitated, but only briefly. "Okay, then," he said. "You go first, and I'll try to stay out of your way."

Martin undressed, folding his clothes up as he went and putting them into his bag, which he put next to Luke's at the far end of the tent. Once he was naked he sat cross-legged next to the bags so that Luke would have room to get undressed, and when Luke was naked – and he just stuffed his clothes into his bag without folding them – they lay down side by side and Luke pulled the sleeping bag over them, though without zipping it up. Martin inflated one of the pillows and passed the other to Luke, and then they lay quietly for a couple of minutes.

"I think we'll sleep well in here," said Martin. "I didn't sleep too badly last night, but we'll be more comfortable like this. Of course, it is cheating if we're going to carry on with our experiment, and if you think we should go back to the pine tree for the night we can – but this would be warmer, probably."

"I think it's okay if we cheat from now on. We've already proved we can manage without the tent, so we don't need to do it again. And the same goes for hot food and speaking English – though it might be fun to practise our growling language a bit, because it would mean we could talk to each other without anyone else understanding us. But I'd like to do some more training… you're not angry with me for hitting you while we were training, are you?"

"Of course not. I'm no use to the pack if I'm too weak to hunt, so you have to make me stronger – and I'm sure that if we were doing it for real you'd have hit me a lot harder and a lot more often, or maybe you'd have given up on me and killed me so that you could eat me. So really I think you let me off too easily."

"I'll hit you a lot more in future if you want me to," offered Luke.

"It's not that I want you to, obviously, just that I think you probably should. Really you treated me too well – I mean, you probably wouldn't have shared the food with me unless I'd earned it if we were doing it properly, either. I'm glad you did, of course, but maybe it was a bit unrealistic."

Luke looked at him. "You really want me to be realistic?" he asked.

"Well, yes… except for killing me, anyway. Otherwise it won't be a proper experiment."

"Yes, but… look, Martin, the trouble is that you're my friend, and I want us to go on being friends afterwards. If I'm cruel to you, or hurt you, or do stuff you really don't want, you'll hate me and won't want to be friends afterwards."

"No, I won't. I want to do this properly, even if that means I get hurt. But I'll still want to be friends with you afterwards whatever happens."

"You might not. See, yesterday evening I nearly did some bad things to you."

"What sort of bad things? Beating me, you mean – or are you talking about forcing me to try to climb down the rope?"

"No, nothing like that – although it would be good if you could use the rope, and maybe we can try to find a way to work on that later. No, it's just… well… I was having some bad thoughts about you. See, if we were really in that situation, permanently, not going home after a couple of days… well… I might have…. No, I would have done things to you. Sex things."

"What do you mean?"

"Bloody hell, Martin, can't you guess? If I was really an alpha male, and we were the only humans around, I'd have made you have sex with me."

"What do you mean, 'have sex'? What are you talking about?"

Luke stared at him. "You know what having sex is. Everyone does."

"I don't. I've never been taught anything about it. I think my brother knows, and I was going to ask him, but I haven't got around to it yet."

"Are you serious? How old are you, Martin?"

"I'm twelve."

"You're twelve years old and you don't know anything about sex? Oh, come on – even if you missed the classes at school, you must have friends who'll have talked about it with you, surely?"

"I don't go to school – I told you that before. I haven't since I was nine. And I haven't got any friends, either… well, except you, now. Apart from my brother there's nobody I could ask awkward questions. I suppose I could talk to my dad, but I'd be too embarrassed – and, anyway, I'm sure my mother will make sure I'm taught about it when I'm old enough to need to know."

"So you really don't know anything at all about sex?"

Martin shook his head.

"Haven't you ever kissed a girl?"

"No – why would I want to do that?"

"Well, because you really like her, of course. Haven't you ever seen a girl and thought something like 'wow, she's really pretty'?"

"No. I don't see a lot of girls – but I can't imagine wanting to kiss one, anyway. I know some boys do like kissing girls, because I've seen it happen on television, but I don't really understand it. I've only ever kissed my parents – and my brother, sometimes."

"You've kissed your brother? Why?"

"Well, because I love him, I suppose. Sometimes he's really nice to me – okay, he teases me a lot, too, but I'm scared of thunderstorms, and when one wakes me up Miles lets me share his bed and tries to make me feel less scared. So when that happens I sometimes kiss him to say thank you and to show him I love him."

"Well, that's why boys kiss girls, to show them that they love them."

"Oh. Okay, I suppose that makes sense… but kissing is nothing to do with sex, surely? I mean, like I said, I kiss my brother…"

"Well, no, it isn't, really… but when a boy likes a girl, they might start out by holding hands and kissing, but after they get to know each other really well they might go past kissing and start doing sex-type things as well. Of course, some people do sex-type things with people they don't love, or even like, just because it feels good… but that's not really the same."

"Yes, but what do you mean by 'sex-type things'? What do they do, exactly?"

"Well… do you know where babies come from?"

"Yes. In reptiles and birds – and most other creatures, too, like insects and spiders and fish – the young hatch from eggs. They're called oviparous creatures. In mammals – except for the duck-billed platypus and one other that I've forgotten, which lay eggs – the young gestate inside the mother. Mammals are viviparous creatures."

"Thank you for the lecture, Professor. Well, forget the fish and birds and insects and duck-billed platypi…"

"Platypuses," interrupted Martin. "It's Greek, not Latin, so the plural should be 'puses'… actually, strictly speaking it should be 'platypodes', but for some reason nobody ever says that. Some dictionaries say you can just use 'platypus' as the plural, like 'moose' or 'sheep'…"

"Shut up! I don't care what the plural is – I'm never likely to meet one, never mind two, so they can call themselves whatever they like. What I was asking, before you interrupted, was: do you know how the young start gestating inside the mother?"

"Well… not exactly. It's something I haven't really studied. I know eggs are still involved, though in mammals the eggs are really, really small. I don't know why they appear in the first place, though."

"Okay. Well, in order for an egg to grow into a baby it has to be fertilised, and that's just like the reptiles and fish and platypussypodes – any egg that is going to grow into something living has to be fertilised. And in mammals – in fact, let's just talk about people, it'll be a lot easier – in humans, the egg is carried by the female but the fertilisation is done by the male. Which is why you need a man and a woman to create a baby. So – how does the man fertilise the egg?"

Martin shrugged.

Luke still found it incredible that a boy could reach the age of twelve without knowing this stuff. Maybe thirty years ago, he thought, before we had computers – but even then he supposed it would have been taught in schools. Of course, Martin didn't go to school and he hadn't got a computer, so maybe he really didn't have any way to find out about sex.

"Well," he said, throwing the sleeping bag back so that they could see each other's bodies, "that's what that is for." And he pointed at Martin's penis.

"Are you sure? I thought that was just used for urinating."

"Well, that's true in boys of our age and younger. But when we get a little bit older we'll be able to use them to make babies. Haven't you ever wondered what your balls are for?"

"I suppose so, but I've never seriously thought about it."

"Well, your balls are where your body makes the stuff that fertilises eggs. Loads of tiny little things called sperm are made in your balls – they look like tadpoles, but they're really, really tiny – and when you have sex with a girl they sort of swim into her body and meet up with an egg that she makes in her ovaries. And if everything goes well one of them fertilises the egg and starts a baby growing."

"Okay, I suppose that's sort of logical. But how does it happen – I mean, how do the sperm get from him into her?"

"Well, you know girls are different… I don't suppose you've actually seen a naked girl, have you?"

Martin shook his head. "But I know they don't have a penis or testicles," he said. "At my last school some of the boys in my class said I couldn't be a real boy because I don't like football. They said I must be a girl in disguise. So they pulled my shorts and pants down to see if I was a girl, and one of them said, 'No, he's got a willy, so he really is a boy,' or something like that. So I know girls don't have a penis."

"That's right. They have a hole instead. It's a sort of two-tier arrangement: they pee out of it, but there's also a sort of tunnel you put your penis into when you have sex. And that's how the sperm get from you into her."

"Oh. Okay, I'll remember that. But… when you were talking about us as feral boys, you said you might have made me have sex with you. How could you do that when we're both boys? Obviously I haven't got a place for you to put your penis."

"Well, we couldn't do it properly, obviously, but there is a way for me to have sex with you: I could put my penis in your bum."

Martin stared at him. "Why?" he asked. "I haven't got any eggs and boys can't have children, so what would be the point? And, anyway, it would be messy, doing that, wouldn't it?"

"You don't just do sex to have children. Most people do it for fun, because it feels really nice – in fact, most of the time when you have sex you don't want the girl to get pregnant. That's why they make contraceptives… okay, don't worry about those at the moment. The point is that it feels good, and that's why I might do it to you if we were really feral kids permanently. I've never done it with anyone before, so I don't know for certain what it would feel like, but I can imagine wanting to find out. And probably it would be a bit mucky, but if it feels as good as people make out then probably I wouldn't care very much."

"Well, then probably you should do it to me, shouldn't you? I mean, if we're doing the experiment properly then you should treat me the way you would in real life. That way I'd learn more about power dynamics within the pack."

Luke stared at him and pulled the sleeping bag back over them. "Look, Martin," he said, "we're friends. I like you a lot. If I did something like that to you – or if I hit you a lot and beat you when you mess up the training – you'd never want to speak to me again afterwards."

"Yes, I would. I told you, I want to do this properly. I like you too, and I want us to stay friends, and whatever happens in our experiment that's going to stay the same. So you should beat me and hurt me if I don't work hard enough, and do sex with me if you want, and keep most of the food if I don't earn any. You have to forget that we're friends and just act the way a real alpha male feral boy would."

"You swear that's what you really want?"

"I swear."

Luke was silent for a moment. "Okay," he said, eventually. "But if you're not happy and want to stop you just have to say so. Just say something like 'I want to stop the experiment now' and we'll go back to being the real us."

"Okay, but I won't say that unless I'm really hurt. I want this to be a proper experiment. So we can be civilised for sleeping and eating, but the rest of the time we have to be properly feral, okay?"

"Okay. In that case, let's rest for a bit and then we'll go out there and do some more training."

So Martin relaxed, though he was wondering exactly what he was letting himself in for here…

***

Miles and Twitch had a much more relaxing evening than the one Martin and Luke were planning. They walked back from the dip to Miles's house and spent much of the evening watching TV and then playing in Miles's bedroom. At nine o'clock Miles's mother said they ought to get to bed and suggested that they ought to have a bath first, so they decided to stop their latest battle, declaring it a draw.

"You go and have your bath now while I get the bedroom a bit tidier," said Miles – there were toy soldiers all over the floor. "Leave the water in – I'll get in after you."

"I can't bathe on my own," Twitch said. "Remember what I told you would happen if I had a seizure in the bath? I'd probably drown. I have to be supervised. I could ask your mum, but I'd much sooner you did it. Would that be okay?"

"Of course it would. Give me a hand putting this stuff away and then I'll come and make sure you're okay in the bath."

So they finished tidying up and then Twitch took all his clothes off and went through to the bathroom, waiting while Miles ran the bath for him. Once it was ready he got in and lay back, no longer remotely self-conscious about being naked in front of his friend.

He enjoyed the warm water for a while and then washed himself, and Miles helped him to wash his hair by holding the spray attachment and using it to make sure all of the shampoo had been washed out. Finally Twitch said he was finished, stood up and got out of the bath, taking the towel Miles offered him and starting to dry himself.

"I'll go and wait in the bedroom," he offered as Miles started to undress.

"Why? Stay here and we can talk while I get washed."

"Are you sure you don't mind?"

"Why should I mind? We're friends, Twitch, and we're going to sleep in the same bed, and I really don't mind you seeing me undressed."

He got into the bath and lay down, and they talked for a while about possible forfeits they had each dreamed up to inflict on their fellow crib-players next day. Some of these were to do with the other players' genitals, and talking about this made Miles get an erection, which Twitch teased him about until the same thing happened to him. After that they changed the subject while Miles washed himself and then shampooed his hair (and Twitch helped him with the spray, although he also rather mischievously used it to spray Miles's erection). Finally Miles stood up, still very stiff, and took the towel Twitch handed him.

"You look good like that," Twitch told him. "I think Robyn was impressed. You're bigger than anyone except Kevin, and maybe Jack, and yours looks nice, too. I think you'll be able to get girlfriends really easily."

"I don't want a girlfriend – or not yet, anyway. Maybe I will when I get to secondary school, provided it doesn't take too much time. After all, I'll want to spend most of my spare time playing with you and Graham and the others."

He finished drying himself, put the towel in the laundry basket, pulled the plug out of the bath, picked up his clothes and went back to the bedroom, where he dumped the clothes on a chair and got straight into bed.

"Aren't you going to wear pyjamas?" Twitch asked.

"No, it'll be too warm if we're sharing. And I dare you to sleep naked, too."

"Okay," said Twitch straight away, and he put his pyjamas back into his bag, closed the curtains, turned the light out and got into bed. And Miles pulled him close and put his arm round him.

"Wasn't there something we were going to do to help us get to sleep?" he asked.

"Yes, there was. Do you want to do it to me first?"

"Okay," agreed Miles, and so Twitch rolled onto his back and Miles took hold of his erection, rubbing it slowly but steadily in the way Twitch had taught him. And gradually Twitch was dragged closer and closer to what turned out to be a highly satisfactory orgasm.

They switched places and Twitch returned the favour, though they had to stop to put a folded handkerchief into Miles's mouth to stifle his gasps and groans a bit. Finally he bucked up hard, doing his best to suppress a cry of excitement.

"Wow, Twitch, that was amazing," he said afterwards. "Thanks for teaching me how to do that – it's a really cool feeling."

"I like it. And you're right, it's way better doing it to each other instead of on our own."

They snuggled up and eventually went to sleep.

***

"Right," said Luke, "let's get some more training done." He crawled out of the tent and stood up, and Martin came out and stood next to him. It was still quite warm, though there was a bit of a breeze.

"We'll race to the far end of the dip and back to the branch, and if I beat you you'll be punished," said Luke. "Ready? Go!"

Martin did his best but still finished three or four yards behind Luke, who snarled at him and pushed him hard, making him fall over. Luke dropped onto his knees beside him and slapped Martin's bottom as hard as he could, and Martin, who hadn't been expecting it, gave a cry of pain.

"Run, you useless little baby," snarled Luke, by now fully into his character as alpha male. "Run, or I'll rip your balls off and eat them."

He dragged Martin to his feet and made him race again, and Martin did his best to imagine how a real feral boy would feel – which was, he thought, terrified. He ran as fast as he possibly could, and although he finished second once more, at least he got a bit closer this time. Luke shoved him over again, but at least this time he didn't hit him.

"You're still too slow, but at least that time you were trying," Luke said. "Now go again, on your own this time, and if I don't think you're trying I'll kill you."

Martin got to his feet and ran towards the edge of the dip as fast as he possibly could and then ran back absolutely flat out, dropping to his knees and breathing heavily.

"Better," said Luke, adding the 'feral language' growl that conveyed satisfaction. "Now let's try the rope."

They swung on the rope for a while, and Martin found that a lot easier because he had learned the technique the previous afternoon. Next came the spear, and here Martin was still learning, and when he missed the tree completely Luke hit him hard, knocking him over, and then pinned him down and slapped his bottom as hard as he could, four times on each buttock. Martin yelled and struggled helplessly.

"If we were hunting and you missed your throw the whole pack could go hungry," Luke told him. "You'd be threatening all of us with starvation. Now pick up the spear and go on practising until I say you can stop."

Martin stood up, his bottom hurting, and limped off to pick up the spear. He knew that what Luke said was true: a pack had to work together when hunting, and they couldn't afford to let their prey escape. So he concentrated hard and worked on his throwing until he was hitting the target – though not the centre of it – with every throw.

"That's better," said Luke. "Tomorrow you can try from further back. And now we'll try climbing."

Martin wasn't happy about that, but Luke drove him up the tree again anyway, threatening to jab the spear up his bum if he didn't climb. And while Martin was climbing Luke went and collected a second piece of rope, this one a bit thinner, from the tent, and then wrapped it around himself and climbed quickly up to stand next to Martin at the point where the branch with the rope attached grew out of the trunk.

"Can you tie a bowline?" he asked, handing one end of the rope to Martin.

"Yes, but I don't think…"

"Shut up and do it, or I'll just shove you off the branch."

Martin was fairly sure Luke wouldn't do that, but maybe if Luke got too much into character he might do it before his rational self retook command, so he tied the rope round his waist in a bowline.

"Now move out along the branch. Crawl if you don't feel safe walking," ordered Luke, reinforcing the order with a snarl demanding compliance.

Nervously Martin crawled along the branch, managing not to look down, until he reached the point where the thicker rope was tied to it. Luke took the end of the rope that was tied round Martin's waist and fed it around the branch, making an extra loop around one of the smaller branches that grew off the main one and then tying the other end around his own waist.

"Now you're secure," he said, making sure that the loop around the branch was tight. "Take hold of the rope with both hands, hang on really tight, and then slip off the branch. Get your feet to grip the rope the way I showed you yesterday and then climb down hand over hand. Don't slide or you'll burn your hands."

"I don't think I can."

"Yes, you can. You can't fall because I've got you on the other rope. Look, if you don't just want to step off the branch try it like this: sit on the branch and then turn round as if you were going to lower yourself into a swimming pool with your back to the water. Slip down until your armpits are level with the branch – I've removed most of the bark there, so you won't get caught up. Once you're in position, hold on to the branch with your left arm and grab the rope with your right. Cross your feet and grip the rope with them the way I showed you yesterday, then let go of the branch and get hold of the rope with your left hand, and then you can lower yourself down. If you slip you won't fall because you're tied on."

Martin didn't like this at all: he was convinced he was going to fall, and that he might even pull Luke over with him. Even though he knew that the support rope was securely tied it was almost impossible to overcome his illogical fear. It was only because he didn't want Luke to think he was a baby that he forced himself to sit on the branch and then turn and lower himself. But then he couldn't bring himself to let go of the branch with his right arm.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I can't."

"Yes, you can. I know it's not easy and I'm not going to pretend it is, but you can do it. Or don't you trust me? Do you really think I'd let you fall?"

"Of course not, but…"

"Then do it. The rope is right beside you – just reach out and you'll find it."

Martin swallowed. He knew he had to do this if he didn't want Luke to think he was a loser, but… He looked up at Luke, who looked back at him, gripping the support rope tightly and making sure it wouldn't slip until he wanted it to. And Martin forced himself to let go of the branch with his right arm and grope for the rope.

He got hold of it, brought it close enough for him to be able to get his feet on it and then made himself let go of the branch. And he grabbed for the rope with his left hand, missed and fell…

…about two feet [half meter], after which the support rope brought him to an abrupt stop, digging into his body.

"See?" said Luke. "You're safe. Now get hold of the rope again."

Martin did that and got his feet back into position, and then he started to climb down hand over hand as Luke had demonstrated the previous day. He was fairly sure that if Luke hadn't been taking part of his weight with the support rope he wouldn't have been able to do it, but as things were he reached the ground safely.

"Well done," said Luke, untying the support rope. "Watch out, I'm coming down."

He reached over, took hold of the rope, stepped off the branch and then swarmed down the rope about five times faster than Martin had done.

"Come on," he said, untying Martin's end of the support rope because Martin's own hands were trembling, "let's go to the tent for a rest."

"That was really brave," he said, once they were lying side by side once more. "I could see how scared you were, but you still did it. Good one, Martin." And he put his arm round Martin's shoulders and gave him a quick hug.

"I don't think I'll be able to do that again," said Martin.

"I think you probably could, but I'm not going to make you – well, not today, anyway. And I think if I tie the rope on a bit differently – there's a side branch I could tie it to instead, and then you could get hold of it from a sitting position and just slide off the branch – you'll find it a lot easier. Perhaps I'll try that tomorrow. And you're getting better with the spear, too. Maybe I won't have to hit you so much tomorrow."

"You should if I don't do it right," said Martin, starting to recover a little. "That's the reason I ran so fast the last couple of times, because I didn't want you to hit me again."

"Then maybe I should just stick to being feral next time we're in the tree," said Luke, grinning. "If you don't step off the branch I'll push you, and if you fall and die it'll just get rid of a feeble little cub who's no use to the pack."

"You don't really mean that – do you?" asked Martin, not completely sure that Luke was joking.

"Grrrrr!!!" growled Luke, jumping on him and pretending to claw him. Martin fought back but was soon pinned down helplessly, having his ribs tickled.

"You okay now?" asked Luke, happy to see Martin laughing again.

Martin nodded at him.

"Good. Then I can start to beat you again if you deserve it. Or I could do something else…"

Lying on top of Martin's naked body as it wriggled underneath him had given Luke an erection and Martin could feel it pressing against him.

"Is this where you have sex with me, then?" he asked.

"Do you think I should?"

"Well, if it's what a real feral boy would do, then probably you ought to."

"Okay. But only if you're sure you don't mind."

"I don't know if I mind or not, because I don't know what it will feel like. If it hurts a lot I probably will mind; if it doesn't, I won't. I think you should just do it and then I'll tell you what it feels like."

"Okay, then… let's see how we can do this."

Luke thought for a moment and then made a mound using the two blankets and the top sleeping bag, which he unzipped from the bottom one. He placed this halfway down the bottom sleeping bag and got Martin to lie across it with his bottom in the air.

"Are you okay like that?" he asked. "Not too uncomfortable?"

"No it's fine."

"Good. Spread your legs so that I can see where I'm going."

Martin did that, feeling a bit strange – somehow having his bottom looked at was even more embarrassing than having people looking at his front.

Luke lined up and pushed, but nothing happened.

"Try to relax a bit," he said. "Open it up if you can."

Martin obediently did that, but still Luke couldn't force his way inside.

"Damn!" he said. "What are we doing wrong?"

"I don't know. I've never even imagined doing this, so I've got no idea how you're supposed to do it."

"Same here. Oh, well, let's forget about it, then. Let's just be normal boys again, then we can read for a bit. Is that okay with you?"

"Okay," said Martin. So they took a blanket each to sit on, and Martin got the books out of his bag. It was still light enough for them not to need the lantern at first, so they read quietly, and Luke left his hearing aids in this time, knowing Martin wouldn't interrupt him. But suddenly, after about half an hour, he did.

"Didn't you say you'd brought some bacon with you for breakfast?" he asked.

"Huh? Yes, why?"

"What are you going to cook it in?"

"I've got a frying pan," said Luke, looking bemused.

"No, I mean what are you going to put in the frying pan before you add the bacon?"

"I've brought a small bottle of sunflower oil. It's a lot healthier than using fat."

"Good. So… suppose you put a little oil on your penis? Wouldn't that make it slippery?"

"Why would I want to do that?"

"Because if it was slippery it might go into my bottom."

"Oh! Do you think so? Well, I suppose we could try. Okay, put the blankets and the sleeping bag back how we had them before and I'll look for the oil."

He found it in one of the cool-boxes, and by the time he had dug it out Martin was once again lying across a pile of blankets with his bottom in the air and his legs wide apart. That sight was enough to restore Luke's erection, even though he wasn't quite sure why. He took the bottle of oil and a roll of kitchen towels – because he didn't want oil dripping on the sleeping bag – got himself back into position between Martin's legs, poured a little oil onto the tip of his penis, added a drip or two to Martin's anus for good measure (and that made Martin gasp, because the oil was quite cold), and then put the bottle down and lined up once more.

"Try to relax and open up, like last time," he said, and Martin did that. And this time, once he finally got into the correct position, Luke found that his penis was able to slip past Martin's sphincter without too much difficulty. It felt strange, but interesting, too, so he pushed a little more, and soon it was as far in as it could get.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I think so. Can I stop trying to keep it open now?"

"Okay."

Martin relaxed, and Luke gasped as the tunnel closed in on him, squeezing. It was hot and somehow both hard and soft at the same time, and it felt really good. He assumed that sex would work the same like this as he had learned in his boy/girl instruction at school, so he pulled back a bit and then pushed once more, and that felt even more interesting. He began to rock slowly backwards and forwards.

Martin had expected this to hurt, and it had been a bit uncomfortable right at the start. But now that it was properly inside he found that it didn't really hurt at all – actually it felt quite nice.

Luke paused. "Are you sure this isn't hurting you too much?" he asked. "Tell the truth – I don't want you to put up with this if it's bad."

"No, it's fine, honestly. I like having you up against me like this – I don't know why, but it feels warm and sort of nice, somehow."

"Good. I wouldn't really want to do it if it was hurting you."

"It isn't. How does it feel to you?"

"It's really good. You're sort of tight and hot and it feels pretty incredible, to be honest. I can understand why people like doing it if this is what it feels like."

He started moving again. And now Martin could feel something happening, too: Luke's penis was doing something inside him. It felt strange, but it was a nice sort of strange, and it was making him feel good. And as Luke kept moving, so Martin felt better and better about what was happening to him…

And then Luke gave a couple of extra large thrusts and held still, crying out and gripping Martin's hips tightly, pulling him against his own body. And then he relaxed completely and moved back, allowing his penis to slide out of Martin's body.

"It's okay, I don't mind if you want to carry on," Martin said, feeling somehow disappointed that the sensations had stopped. "It isn't hurting, honest."

"No, I've finished," Luke told him, tearing a piece off the kitchen roll and wiping himself with it. "And it was bloody amazing – I would never have believed it could feel like that. Stay there, I'll wipe your bum for you – there's oil and… stuff on you."

He took another piece of kitchen towel and carefully wiped Martin's bottom.

"That should do it," he said. "So it didn't hurt, then?"

"No, it felt nice – I was actually sort of enjoying it just before you stopped. Of course, I suppose that just proves I'm an alien again, because I don't suppose human boys would enjoy having that done to them. I did, though, and I won't mind at all if you want to do it again."

"Cool! In that case I certainly will."

"So," Martin asked, "does that mean I'm your mate now? I mean, properly your mate, not just sort-of-friends-type mate?"

Luke laughed. "I don't know. I suppose so in a way, if we're going to have sex together. But really my mate would have to be a female, because the point of mating is to produce cubs, and you obviously can't have children. But I don't see why you can't think of yourself as my mate if you want to. After all, I'm not likely to get a female mate any time soon."

"Good, then I'll be your mate until you do…. Can I borrow the kitchen towel for a moment? I think I need to defecate."

"You need to what?"

"To defecate – you know, to… to shit."

"Oh, right. Okay. I've done that out here once or twice. If you squat on the branch a couple of yards past the bit we sit on, your bum will be right over the thorn bush, and if you do it there, we won't tread in it later."

He handed the roll to Martin, who went out and edged along the branch until he was over the small thorn bush. Then he squatted down, holding onto the other branch for support.

He was halfway through his business when Luke came out and peed into the same bush. Martin was mortified: nobody had seen him do this since he finished his potty-training as a toddler, but he was halfway through the process and so couldn't stop. But Luke didn't seem remotely concerned: he finished his pee and then sat on the branch a yard or so away from Martin.

"Hey, don't worry," he said, seeing that Martin was blushing and looking in the opposite direction. "Feral kids would do this in front of each other all the time. I'll probably need to go tomorrow, and I won't worry if you're around. Of course, really we ought to use moss when we're being wild, but we're being ourselves at the moment, more or less, so I suppose the paper is okay. You can bury it afterwards – it's supposed to be biodegradable, I think."

"Well, okay," mumbled Martin. "I think it might take me a bit longer to get used to having you watching me do this, though."

"Don't worry, if we play out here often enough you'll get used to it eventually. If you want us to keep playing here together, that is."

"Of course I do! It's just… I'm not used to doing personal stuff in public, that's all."

"I'm not the public – I'm your mate, remember?"

Martin finished off and buried his used paper in the earth at the edge of the thorn bush, and then they went back into the tent, rearranged the bedding once again, and lit the lantern so that they could carry on reading. And eventually they put the books aside, went out and had a quick cursory wash in cold water, cleaned their teeth – because they were being civilised at the moment – and then retired to the tent, closed the flap and settled down together. Luke rolled close to Martin and put his arm round him.

"Thank you," he said, quietly. "For letting me have sex with you, I mean. It was an amazing feeling, and I'll never forget it. You're a really good friend, Martin."

Martin rolled over to face him. "I enjoyed it, too," he said. "I like being out here with you, too – in fact I wouldn't really mind if we lived here all the time, as long as we could go home for a good meal and a hot bath sometimes."

"That'd be nice," agreed Luke. "At least, during the summer it would. In the winter we'd have to find a proper place to live – we'd have to build a hut, or something. Or get lots of extra blankets and stuff for the tent – which I suppose we could. Perhaps we should try it next winter – we could come out here and see if we could survive."

"I don't think we'd be able to if we didn't have any clothes," Martin pointed out. "I think we'd freeze."

"Not if we stayed in the tent all the time, and only came out to pee – although even that might be enough to make us freeze. I wonder if your pee can freeze before it hits the ground?"

"Not unless it's really cold, because it's warm to start with and there's salt in it. Maybe in Antarctica it would. I'll have to try to look it up."

Luke laughed. "You're really strange, Martin," he said. "I can't imagine anyone else I know seriously intending to do research into the freezing point of pee. But probably that's why I like you, because you're strange." And he hugged Martin and then took his hearing aids off and rolled over to go to sleep. And Martin lay there, thinking that the last couple of days had been the most interesting time he had experienced… well, ever. He felt really happy, and he wondered if it could possibly last…

Well, that has changed the relationship a bit, and certainly at this stage it seems to have been for the better, too. At least, both parties seem to have enjoyed it.

Chapter Nine

In this chapter Martin and Luke continue their game and Martin finds out a bit more about what it means to be Luke's 'mate'. And the cribbage league reaches its climax, and suddenly things get a lot more unpleasant…

When Martin woke up next morning he found that Luke was already awake and was propped up on one elbow looking at him.

"Morning," said Luke. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, thank you. How about you?"

"It was perfect. So – shall we get up and have some breakfast?"

"Okay."

Luke threw back the top sleeping bag – he had obviously already unzipped his side – and started to wriggle out.

"Your penis is hard," Martin observed. "Does that mean you want us to mate again?"

"Well… not necessarily. For some reason it's almost always hard when I wake up. But… I wouldn't mind doing it again, if you're sure you don't mind."

"I don't mind at all,' said Martin, unzipping his side of the bag and starting to get out. "I liked it."

"Great! I'll find the oil, then."

Martin, who was aware that his own penis was getting hard (though he wasn't sure why, since it wasn't going to be in use during this act of mating), got up and started arranging the blankets and the top sleeping bag into a mound once more, and by the time Luke had found the oil and the kitchen towels Martin was already in position with his bum in the air and his legs spread. Luke anointed himself and his partner and then lined up and pushed, and this time there were no problems and it slipped straight in.

From Martin's point of view this felt really good: once again there had been that moment of discomfort at the start, but after that it just felt nice. The only problem was that once again Luke stopped before Martin was really ready for him to.

"Sorry," said Luke, when Martin complained. "It just feels so good that I can't hold it back. If you like it that much, maybe we'll have to find something else to put in there for you – a carrot, or something like that."

"I suppose we could try. But what feels really nice is having you lying on top of me. And your penis is warm, which I don't think a carrot would be. I think I'll like proper mating best."

"Oh, well, we can probably do it again a bit later. Now let's have a wash and then get some breakfast."

They had decided that bacon and eggs wouldn't be cheating too much – after all, there were probably wild boar in their jungle somewhere, and plenty of birds. Cooking them in a frying pan, on the other hand… still, that was probably better than becoming ill through eating the bacon raw. So Luke did the cooking while Martin tidied the tent, and after breakfast they lay back in the tent to decide how to spend the rest of the day.

"I'd like to do some more training this morning," Luke said. "But how would you feel if we stopped being feral after lunch? We could get dressed and do some proper exploring."

"I'd like that. I like being naked out here – you were right: that does feel nice somehow – but we can't go too far in daylight without our clothes on. So we could go exploring and then you could come to my house for supper, if you want. And we could come back here to sleep – I'm sure my mother won't mind if we stay out for one more night."

"I'll have to check, but I'm fairly sure mine won't, either. So we can have a fully civilised twenty-four hours starting after lunch, just to see if we can survive together when we're not being feral."

"Okay – except… well, even if we're not being feral you can still mate with me if you want."

"You really like doing that, don't you? Okay, then: we can keep doing that whether we're wild or not. Now, let's get on with our training…"

***

"You snore!" said Twitch, as soon as Miles woke up.

"I do not!"

"You do, too. Okay, not very loudly, and only when you're on your back, like you are now. But you still snore. And your thingy sticks up while you're asleep, too. Were you having dirty dreams?"

"I don't think so. I can't remember any, anyway."

"I bet you were dreaming about Robyn, weren't you?"

"No, I wasn't!" protested Miles, indignantly. "If I was going to have a dirty dream it would probably be about you."

"Really?" said Twitch, looking pleased. "How come?"

"Because you're the only person I've ever done anything bad with. At least if I dreamed about you it would be based on reality."

"If you dreamed about me it would be a nightmare!"

"I don't think so."

"It would – the censor would have to blank my face out, unless he wanted to give it an 18 certificate, and if he did that you wouldn't be allowed to dream it."

"You're strange," commented Miles, grinning at him. "I'm starting to wonder if you come from the same planet as my brother."

"Doubt it. Your brother's quite good-looking. Actually, maybe we could make our own horror film: we'd dress you up as a girl and tie you to a tree, and then I'd pretend to be Frankenstein's monster and come and terrorise you. It'd be cheap: I wouldn't need much make-up…"

"I'm not dressing up as a girl for anyone, not even you."

"Pity. You'd look sweet in a dress."

Miles thumped him in the ribs, and the fight that followed resulted in both of them falling out of bed. They got up, remade the bed (more or less) and then pulled their underwear on and went to the bathroom to get washed.

After breakfast they set out for the dip to see what Martin and Luke were doing. As before they approached really quietly, this time going straight to the end of the dip where most of the undergrowth was, since they were fairly certain that if the older boys were going naked again they wouldn't come too close to this end. But when they arrived there was no sign of life.

"Do you think they've gone?" whispered Twitch.

"They could be in the tent," said Miles. "Let's wait for a bit."

And ten minutes or so later they saw Luke come out of the tent, walk a short distance to a thorn bush and pee into it. Then he went to the water container and rinsed his hands. While he was washing Martin came out and had a pee, too, and then waited to wash, which he did rather more thoroughly: he had a wash-bag with him, and he washed his face and neck fairly thoroughly.

"Bet that water's cold," said Miles, in a low voice.

"Perhaps on his home planet they don't care about the cold," replied Twitch.

They watched the older boys eat breakfast and then go back into the tent, and for five or ten minutes nothing happened. But then they came out, both still naked, and started training. The younger boys watched with interest as Luke drove Martin to run faster and faster, smacking his bottom when he was too slow.

"Looks like Luke is in charge," commented Twitch. "If we play this game you're not going to hit me like that, are you?"

"Depends if you're too slow," said Miles, grinning.

The older boys moved onto the rope, swinging and jumping off, and by now Martin had got the hang of it and didn't need beating at all. The younger boys thought that looked like fun.

"Maybe we'll come back after they go back home, then we can try," suggested Twitch.

"If they leave the rope here," said Miles, because at that point Luke scampered up into the tree, walked confidently out along the branch and untied the rope. But he simply repositioned it around one of the side branches and tied it on again, calling down to Martin to see if it made any difference to the swing.

"Not really," reported Martin, after trying. "You're a little higher up when you let go, that's all."

"Good, then we'll leave it here," said Luke, and he shinned down the rope.

They practised with the spear for a while, and Miles was surprised to see how good his brother was with it – though he still wasn't quite good enough for Luke, who smacked him a couple of times. After the second of these Martin decided to fight back and they wrestled for a while, rolling about on the ground. But eventually Luke got on top and dug a thumb into Martin's rib-cage until he surrendered.

He stood up and Martin stayed on his back on the ground, spreading his arms and legs wide in the submission position, and the watching boys were amazed to see Luke peeing on his defeated opponent's groin.

"Well, you're definitely not doing that to me," commented Twitch when he had finished giggling.

"I can if I'm in charge."

"Try it and you'll see what happens."

Next the older boys climbed the tree and Martin crawled out as far as the rope. He still didn't like this at all and only forced himself to do it so as not to let his friend down. But even though the rope was much easier to get hold of in its new position – you just had to sit on the branch, reach forward, take hold of the rope and push yourself of the branch – he still couldn't contemplate doing it without the safety rope attached. With the safety rope he managed to do it, not once but twice, but he still knew he wouldn't have been able to get down the rope without Luke taking some of his weight on the support rope.

Nonetheless Luke was happy enough with his efforts not to beat him, and was especially pleased that he'd found the courage to climb back up for a second go after making his first descent, during which it was obvious that he'd been scared.

"Well done," said Luke, shinning down the rope after Martin's second safe landing. "Let's rest for a bit before lunch." And the two older boys retired to the tent.

"There's no way I'm doing that," said Twitch, firmly.

"Me neither – at least, not without the safety rope. And I'm not sure about it even then. Anyway, it looks as if they've finished for now, so let's go home. It'll be lunchtime soon."

So they went back to Miles's house for lunch, and after lunch Miles gave Twitch a ride on his carrier as far as the Greyhound, where they met the rest of the card-players. Once everyone had arrived they went back to the same place as the previous afternoon.

"Okay," said Graham. "We're going to play five games today and the other five tomorrow. That should mean that everyone gets two games today and two more tomorrow. Today's first game will be me and Rob against Tom and Kevin."

This was a fairly close one, but Graham and Robert won by five points.

"Oh, dear," crowed Graham, "that's the third time you two have lost, so we're getting into serious penalty country. Let's see… Lie on your back, Tom, and Kevin, you come and stand over him with your feet on each side of his thighs… yes, that'll do. Now pee all over him."

"Hang on," argued Tom, "we haven't got any clean water out here. How are we going to wash it off?"

"You aren't, just like me and Rob couldn't when we had to pee on each other last time."

"Yes, but… I mean, that was the last game…"

"So what? We stayed around playing afterwards, didn't we? So get on with it."

So the brothers were made to pee on each other, from the neck down to the groin.

"You should have made them pee in each other's faces," said Toby afterwards. "That would have been funny."

"I'll remember that for the next time you lose," said Tom, still dripping. Toby put his tongue out at him.

"Okay, now it's Jamie and Toby against Miles and Twitch," announced Graham. "Make sure you get him back for that comment if you win, Miles."

Miles would have been delighted to do that, but unfortunately he and Twitch lost fairly easily.

"Nettles!" cried Toby, gleefully. "I like that one. Only I don't trust you to do it to each other, so I'm going to do it for you. Get undressed."

"Hey, come on, Toby," protested Twitch. "This is only the second time we've lost."

"So? It's not my fault if you keep letting people off too easily."

So Miles and Twitch had to strip while Toby went and picked some nettles, which he then used to sting their genitals extensively. Finally he made them lie face down on the ground while he thrashed their bottoms with the nettles.

"You wait till the next time you lose," said Miles, getting up and rubbing his bottom.

"It isn't going to happen. Jamie and I are too good to lose to you lot."

In the next game Graham and Rob won again, this time beating Jack and Robyn.

"It's the third time you two have lost, so I think nettles is fair enough," said Graham. "You can do it to each other, and you don't have to go quite as far overboard as Toby did, either: a quick wipe front and back will do."

Neither seemed to enjoy being stung: Jack was erect again, which made it easier to sting his balls as well as his erection, and Robyn's entrance seemed quite sensitive, making her wince and dance as she was stung.

Graham kept to his word and let them off fairly quickly, despite some grumbling from Toby, who wanted to see them given a proper beating. Instead Graham told them to get dressed and handed the cards to Kevin: he and his brother were playing Miles and Twitch next.

This time Miles and Twitch won.

"That's four times you two have lost," Graham pointed out. "I think that calls for something a bit more painful. What do you reckon, Miles?"

"Well… there's a holly bush over there. Let's try giving them a quick swipe or two with some holly."

He climbed through the fence into the wood and cut a short length from the holly bush, and then made the brothers strip and bend over. He took a swing at Tom's bottom first, and was horrified when the holly immediately drew blood.

"Oh, God, I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't realise… I'll find something else."

"No, you'd better give me one like that, too," said Kevin. "It won't be fair on Tom otherwise."

"I don't want to," said Miles.

"I'll do it for you!" volunteered Toby, eagerly.

"No, you do it," said Kevin to Miles. "I trust you to do it once and then stop."

So unenthusiastically Miles did it, but despite the half-hearted swipe he gave it still drew some pinpoints of blood.

"That's it," he said. "You'd better stay bare for a bit, though, or you'll get blood on your underwear. And I'm sorry: I really didn't know it would make you bleed."

"That's okay," said Tom. "I wouldn't have guessed, either."

The final game of the day was between Jack and Robyn and Jamie and Toby, and this time Jack and Robyn won fairly comfortably.

"I think maybe we should go for something embarrassing," said Jack. "Strip off, you two, and make yourselves stiff. You can do it yourself, but if you're not both good and hard inside a couple of minutes we'll make you do it to each other."

Toby really didn't like that because so far nobody had seen him with an erection, but there was no way out of this, and well inside the two minutes they were both naked and erect. Jamie's erection was a little longer, though Toby's balls were bigger.

"Now you have to kiss each other's cocks," said Jack.

"What? Get lost!" was Toby's reaction.

"Please yourself. But once you've done that you're going to be beaten. If you do it, you'll only be spanked; if not we'll have to use holly, and it won't just be one hit, either."

"Come on, Toby, I'm not getting whipped with holly," said Jamie. "You saw what it did to Tom and Kevin. I'll go first, if you like." And he dropped to his knees and planted a quick kiss on the tip of Toby's erection.

"Now his balls," ordered Jack, and Jamie did that too.

"Good. Toby, your turn."

Toby looked unhappy (and if he'd seen Graham and Miles with their phones out he'd have been a lot more unhappy) but he did as he was told, standing up and wiping his mouth on the back of his hand afterwards.

"Good," said Jack. "Now you get spanked – and I think it'll be more embarrassing if Robyn does it. Naked and spanked by a girl in front of an audience – yes, that sounds pretty embarrassing. Jamie, you can go first."

Robyn sat on the ground and Jamie lay across her lap and got spanked six times, quite hard. And then Toby took his place and got spanked six times very hard, each one making him yelp, and when he stood up afterwards, clutching his bum, his eyes were watering.

"That's it," said Jack. "Forfeit over. You can get dressed."

They did so, hurriedly. It was interesting to see that, while Toby's erection had disappeared, Jamie's was still very much in evidence.

Once they were dressed Graham reminded them that they would be meeting for the final round of games the following afternoon.

"Well, it's still possible for anyone to win and anyone to lose," he told them. "At the moment Jack and Robyn and Miles and Twitch have eight points, me and Rob have got six and the rest of you have got four. We've all got two games left, so tomorrow should be interesting. And after tomorrow's games, one team is going to be in serious trouble…"

Thursday May 29th

Yesterday was really interesting. In the morning we did some more training, and this time I managed to get down the rope a couple of times – though I know I couldn't have done it unless Luke had been supporting me with the second rope. Still, it wasn't quite as frightening as it had been the first time. After we finished training we went to rest in the tent for a while. I hoped Luke might want to mate with me again, but he didn't say anything, and as he's alpha it has to be his choice. So instead we rested for a while and then he cooked lunch for us: we had spaghetti with a sauce from a jar, which wasn't too bad but wasn't as good as when my mother makes it: she has her own recipe and uses lots of different ingredients, and it tastes really great. I promised Luke I'd invite him round next time she makes one.

After lunch we rested for a little while and then got dressed and went exploring. We went the way we had gone on the first day, but because we were wearing clothes this time we were able to go right down to the river. We followed the river until it reached the main road and then Luke showed me some more footpaths that started just past the railway station and eventually came out behind his house. It was quite a long walk, so when we got to his house we stopped for a rest and a glass of Coke. Luke got permission to stay out for one more night, and then we walked to my house. We spent the time before supper listening to music in my room, which we went back to after we had eaten, and then, when it was starting to get dark, we walked back to the dip. We'd had a good wash at my house, so we didn't have to worry about the water being cold this time.

We lay awake talking for a while, mostly about music and books, and then we got undressed and went to sleep.

This morning Luke's penis was hard again when he woke up and so we mated again. And this time it felt even nicer to me than it had before, and in fact I got a really strange, but brilliant, feeling just before Luke stopped doing it to me. Actually it was a little bit embarrassing, because when I got up afterwards I saw that I'd wet the blanket a little bit: I must have lost control of myself and peed a little when I was having that weird feeling. Fortunately Luke had gone outside to pee, so it gave me a chance to blot it up with a bit of kitchen towel – although there was hardly any, and probably he wouldn't have noticed even if I hadn't blotted it up.

We had some breakfast and afterwards we tidied everything up, putting away all the things we wouldn't need any more, and then spent the rest of the morning lying in the tent with no clothes on, reading. I've decided I really like being bare with him – I still get embarrassed when Miles sees me bare, and even more when his friends are with him, but having no clothes on with Luke doesn't worry me at all any longer. It's probably because we're mates now.

Around midday we took the tent down and carried everything back to Luke's house. It was easier this time because we'd used a lot of stuff up, and we were able to empty the water container, too, which made it a lot easier to carry. It still took us two trips, but it was a lot easier. We had lunch at his house and then read our books lying on his bed for a while, and when I thought I ought to go so I wouldn't be late for tea he walked part of the way with me.

It's been a really good week. Okay, I didn't like it when he hit me for messing up my training, but he was right to do it so I would know what it would be like to be a real feral boy – and I think I'd have to be a lot tougher if I wanted to survive. That's why I hope we're going to go on training together in future. And apart from that it was really, really good, and if he wants to do it again during the summer holidays I'll certainly want to, too. I definitely like having a mate…

On the Thursday afternoon Miles met his friends at the Greyhound and went to the woods with them for the final round of their tournament. He thought they'd done pretty well so far, especially since Twitch had only learned the game recently, but he was hoping they wouldn't lose again today: the forfeits were getting both painful and embarrassing.

They were involved in the first game today, against Jack and Robyn, and they won a close game by three points. At first Miles was so relieved that he was inclined to let his opponents off with something easy, but Graham pointed out that this was the final day and so the forfeits had to be interesting to watch.

"And difficult to do," added Toby, whose confidence seemed high today.

"Well… in that case I think we'll make them pee on each other, like Tom and Kevin had to do yesterday," said Miles. "At least that won't hurt, and it'll be interesting to watch."

It was, too: Jack was so stiff he had trouble bending his penis down far enough to hit the target between his feet, and in the end he had to step back a yard and arc the water down onto Robyn's body. Robyn obviously had no such difficulty: she simply stood astride Jack and peed straight down onto him, fascinating the boys, who had never seen a girl pee before.

"Okay, you're done," said Miles, once Robyn ran dry. Who's up next?"

Today Graham was drawing cards at random to determine the order of games, and that's why Jack and Robyn found themselves playing again, this time against Tom and Kevin. And they lost again.

"It was hardly worth getting dressed," grumbled Jack, pulling his shirt back off. "So what do we have to do this time?"

"Make them have sex!" demanded Toby, and for once he found that one of his suggestions wasn't immediately shouted down. "Go on – Jack's still hard, so they'll be able to easily."

"Absolutely not," said Robyn, folding her arms and glaring at Toby. "Okay, I like Jack…" (At that Jack's face lit up) "… but I'm not ready for sex yet. It's different for girls – we think it's really important who you choose to do it for the first time with, and I'm far too young to think about that yet. And when I do it'll be my choice. Of course, in three or four years' time I might choose Jack, but we're not doing it now, and that's that. Got it?"

"Fair enough," agreed Graham, despite a few groans from elsewhere (and Jack looked disappointed, too). "We'll accept that it's different for girls, so we can't make Robyn do that. Tom? Kevin?"

"Well, I was thinking of making them pee in each other's faces," said Tom, "but as they only went a few minutes ago I don't suppose they can do it again yet."

"We could do it for them," suggested his brother. And, despite further arguments from the losers, that's what happened: Tom peed in Robyn's face and Kevin did it to Jack.

"Thank God that was our last game," said Jack, rubbing his face and upper body with the towel he'd thought to bring with him. "At least now we can sit back and watch nasty things happening to the rest of you."

The third game saw Graham and Rob drawn against Miles and Twitch, and – in revenge for what had happened in their first game – Graham and Rob came out on top.

"Strip and make each other stiff," demanded Graham, putting the cards down and reaching for his phone. Miles knew what he was doing but he didn't say anything about it because he had every intention of using his own phone if Graham lost his second game.

They made each other erect, which didn't take very long.

"Now," said Graham, grinning, "this is an idea Kevin gave me, and I like it, so it's what's going to happen. Miles, kneel down in front of Twitch and lick his cock."

Miles glared at him, but Graham showed no sign of changing his mind, and so reluctantly he dropped to his knees and licked the length of Twitch's erection.

"Now open your mouth, put his cock in it and suck on it."

"Oh, come on," said Miles. "That's disgusting!"

"I know. But you've still got to do it."

Somehow Miles forced himself to close his lips around his friend's penis and then he began to suck, though without moving his head. Twitch gave a gasp.

"No, you have to sort of slide it into and out of your mouth," said Kevin, and he coached Miles until he got the idea. He carried on for about ten seconds and then stopped.

"That's long enough, Graham," he said.

"I suppose so. Swap places."

And then Miles found out what had made Twitch gasp, because this felt really nice. He tried not to let it show in case he was laughed at, but it definitely felt good, and when Twitch stopped he felt really disappointed, even though Twitch had done it to him for longer than he had done when it was his turn.

"Okay, you're done," said Graham, sliding his phone back into his pocket.

"You wait," Miles warned him, pulling his underwear back on. "Wait till you lose."

"The next game will probably decide who comes last," Graham told them. "At the moment it looks like it'll be either Jamie and Toby or Tom and Kevin. If Jamie and Toby win their last two games they won't be last, but otherwise they will. So you're playing each other – let's see if we can fid a loser!"

And Tom and Kevin won by thirteen points, which was unlucky for Toby and Jamie. To rub it in they then lost the final game, against Graham and Rob.

"We didn't do forfeits after the last game because we already knew who was going to come last," Graham told them. "And since they lost again they've got loads of forfeits to come, especially if we count them by Toby's method. But maybe it's unfair to punish both of them: maybe one of them played well and the other was crap. So we'll give one of them a chance to get out of it. You'll play a singles game against each other: whoever wins gets let off, and whoever loses gets all the punishments. Is that okay with you?"

"I don't know," said Jamie. "I mean, if we both get punished would we only get half the punishments?"

"Yes, but it would still be quite a lot."

"It might still be better like that, though," said Jamie.

"No, I want to play against him," demanded Toby, convinced he was the better player.

"Well, if you're sure," said Graham. "Get undressed, both of you: you can play naked, and we'll give the winner his clothes back. That'll stop the loser from trying to run for it."

"I wouldn't run," said Jamie. "I agreed to this before the tournament started." But he started to undress, all the same.

Toby didn't say anything, but after a few seconds he started to strip, too. While they were getting undressed Graham took the cards to shuffle them but managed a complete miss-shuffle, dropping the cards on the ground and managing to tread on a couple as he stepped forward to grab for them.

"Sorry," he said. "We can't really use these, because the bent ones will be too easy to identify. I'll get the other pack out. Use this one to cut for deal."

Toby won, and Graham gathered up the damaged pack, went to his jacket and came back with another one, which he put down in front of Toby. Toby offered the pack to Jamie to cut, but Jamie just shook his head and told him to go ahead and deal.

The game got under way. It was fairly close, but – aided by one spectacular box – Jamie steadily pulled ahead, finally winning by nineteen points. At that point Toby looked really nervous, but there wasn't a lot he could do about it. Jamie was given his clothes back and quickly pulled them on, which left Toby naked and surrounded by grinning kids.

"Now, let's see," said Graham. "By your calculation, you get sixteen forfeits for losing the fifth game and thirty-two for losing the sixth. But you've got Jamie's as well as your own, so that gives you… gosh, ninety-six forfeits! Of course, we won't actually give you ninety-six, but what you get will have to be worth ninety-six forfeits. So we'll have to beat you with nettles, and with holly, and with a proper cane; you'll have to suck our cocks, like we made Miles and Twitch do; we'll piss on you – several times, and all over, including in your mouth – and all of the boys will have sex with you. That should do for starters."

Toby's face was a picture. At first he was sure Graham was joking, but then he realised he wasn't, and at that point he looked genuinely terrified.

"Lets start with a nice whipping," suggested Graham. "I think we'll use the holly first, then the blood will make it easier for us to fuck you. Let's have a competition: let's see who can make a teacher's pet yell loudest."

He got Kevin and Jack to grab Toby while he went into the wood and came back with some good leafy pieces of the holly bush. They got Toby face down on the ground and Graham took the first swipe with the holly. Toby screamed, and small spots of blood appeared on his bum.

"Six each, I think," said Graham. "Who wants to go next?"

Robert picked up a length of holly, but before he could use it Twitch grabbed his arm.

"Stop!" he cried. "Come on, Graham, you can't seriously do this to him!"

"Why not? He's been trying to get us to do worse and worse stuff since we started playing."

"Yes, but this is far too bad!"

"Not for him, it isn't. Come on, Twitch, he laughs at you worse than any of us. I'd have thought you'd want to get him back for it."

"I don't mind making him do normal forfeits, but what you're talking about is way beyond normal forfeits. You're talking about torture. And if we all join in, it's bullying – really bad bullying, too."

"But it's Toby, for God's sake! You know what he's like: 'Please, Miss, I know, Miss, ask me, Miss, I'm cleverer than all the other kids, Miss…' He deserves sorting out."

"Not by all of us, and not like this. I don't want to be a bully."

"Then go home! Nobody's making you stay, if you're too chicken to join in."

Twitch turned to Miles. "I don't want to do this," he said. "Please come with me, Miles."

"He's staying – aren't you, Miles? One thing Miles isn't is chicken."

"Please, Miles? You're not a bully, I know that…"

Miles looked from Twitch to Graham and read the same expression on both faces: both of his friends wanted – no, needed his support. He felt really bad, because he was going to have to disappoint one of them.

"Look, Graham," he said, "I don't know Toby as well as you do, so maybe you don't need me. And it isn't safe to let Twitch walk about on his own…"

"No! Don't go, Miles – you're one of us. Come on, it'll be a really good laugh… and maybe we won't do all that stuff to him…"

Miles felt himself wavering: maybe by staying he could stop Graham and the others from going too far. But Twitch tugged at his sleeve. "Please?" he said again.

"I'm sorry," Miles said to Graham. "I've got to go with Twitch."

Graham stared at him, and then spat on the ground. "Go on, then, you traitor," he said. "Get lost. We don't need you, anyway."

"I know you don't," said Miles, trying to keep his temper. "But Twitch does need me. That's why I've got to go."

"Yeah, right. Fuck off with your boyfriend, then, and don't bother coming back."

Feeling really bad, Miles helped Twitch through the fence and walked back through the woods with him, pushing his bike. Behind them they heard Toby yell again, and again…

He gave Twitch a ride home but declined the invitation to come in for a bit. Instead he rode home, wondering if he would be able to mend his fences with Graham and the others, or if he had just lost all except one of the friends he had made since he moved here…

Suddenly things have gone off in a nasty, unexpected direction, and Miles has been forced to make a choice. And in the next chapter there will be consequences.

Chapter Ten

This chapter is going to explore the fallout from the end of the cribbage league. In the course of the chapter Miles is going to discover what Graham thinks about what happened, and he'll also learn what Toby's reaction to it all was. And that's going to give him plenty to think about…

Miles had arranged previously to go and visit Graham on the Friday morning: he wanted to see the pictures Graham had taken over the past couple of days. But in the event he didn't get a chance: Graham met him at the front door, and that was as far as he got.

"What do you want?" asked Graham, in an unfriendly voice.

"I… I thought we'd agreed I could come and look at your photos."

"Well, you can't. I don't want traitors in my house."

"I'm not a traitor, Graham!"

"You had a choice between me and Twitch, and you chose him. I thought we were friends, but it looks like I was wrong. Christ, Miles, how could you possibly choose Twitch, of all people?"

"Because he needed me, okay? I couldn't let him go off on his own in case he had a seizure."

"You know bloody well he hardly ever has a seizure. That was just an excuse. Well, okay, you chose him instead of me, so at least I know where I am now. So you can get lost, okay?

"Look, Graham…"

"I said get lost! Just fuck off and don't come back!" And Graham slammed the door in his face.

Miles got back on his bike and cycled to Twitch's house, because he needed to talk to someone and he thought that probably Twitch was the only friend he had left now.

Twitch was at home and was happy to see him, inviting him straight up to his room and happily closing the door, which of course he could only do when he had someone with him. But he realised almost at once that Miles wasn't happy.

"Still worrying about yesterday?" he asked. "Don't worry, I'm sure Graham and the others will realise we were right before too long."

"I don't think so: I've just been to visit Graham and he told me to eff off and slammed the door in my face. I don't know what to do, Twitch: I thought we were friends, him and me."

"I expect he'll be okay in a couple of days' time. I can understand how he feels, though: if you hadn't come with me yesterday I'd have been really upset. But I knew you weren't a bully, so I was pretty sure you'd back me up."

"Well… I don't know, Twitch. After all, if you hadn't been there I'd have stayed and joined in, at least to start with. And I don't think Graham would really have done all that stuff to him. I reckon he was just winding him up."

"I don't know – after all, I know that most of the kids in our class don't like Toby much. Graham was right when he did that impression of him – you know, 'Please, Miss, I'm clever, Miss, ask me, not these thickos, Miss'. We all get pretty tired of it, to be honest. Did you know that most of the girls call him 'Hermione'?"

"Why?"

"You know, like Harry's friend in the Harry Potter films. She always sticks her hand up as soon as a question gets asked in class. It's just a pity Miss Steadman and the other teachers don't ignore it the way Snape does her. At least Hermione isn't obnoxious the way Toby is… Anyway, like I said, nobody likes him much, so it wouldn't surprise me if he really did get whipped and stuff like Graham was saying. I just thought they'd go way too far, and I didn't want anything to do with it. I suppose it's because I know a bit about being bullied… I mean, nobody actually hits me, or anything, but they do treat me as if I'm thick as well as epileptic, and you'll have heard them calling me names now and again. I don't mind being called 'Twitch', of course – like I said, I like that – but I hate being called a freak or a spas. And it's okay for me to make jokes about the way I look, or for proper friends like you, because that's just us having fun, but it's different when someone I don't really know does it… Still, I suppose it's best to get used to it now because I suppose it'll be the same at secondary school."

"Not unless they want me to give them a smack," said Miles, loyally. "If we end up at the same school, of course."

"Gosh! I have a knight in shining armour!" exclaimed Twitch, theatrically. "But I thought knights were supposed to slay ugly dragons, not stick up for them."

"I'll slay you if you'd prefer."

"Like to see you try!"

So they wrestled, starting on the bed and ending up on the floor, tickling each other and digging each other in the ribs and trying to pin each other down. Eventually Miles ended up on top.

"Submit!" he demanded.

"Nope. So what are you going to do about it? If you let go of my wrists I'll just escape again."

Miles thought for a moment. "I could pretend to be wild, like my brother," he said. "If I was I could bite your throat out." And he snarled and set his teeth to Twitch's windpipe.

"Ah, but if you swallowed any of my blood by mistake you'd get Twitchitis and turn into an ugly kid who has fits."

"I could never be as ugly as you. Nobody could."

"That's what you think. If I ever had kids they'd be twice as ugly as me, unless I had a really pretty wife – and I don't think any pretty girls would want to marry me."

"They might if they got to know you," said Miles, seriously. "Looks aren't everything, you know."

"I know. But looks are what get you noticed first. I bet if you went round all the girls in our class and asked which boy they'd least like to go out with, I'd come top. Or maybe second behind Toby, because at least I don't wear specs."

"And you've got a much nicer personality, too."

"Yes, but that's a bit like saying I'm better looking than someone who has been flattened by a steam-roller."

"But that wouldn't be true!"

Twitch grinned and tried to throw Miles off, but he couldn't shift him.

"So what are we going to do now?" he asked.

"I'm quite comfy like this," Miles told him. "Perhaps I'll just stay here for the rest of the morning."

"I wouldn't mind. It would be nicer if we were undressed, though."

"Should we?"

"Not here. Mum might stick her head round the door to make sure I'm okay. We'll have to steal your brother's tent and camp out at the dip."

"It's not his, it's Luke's, I think. But it would be nice to camp out… shall we go there after lunch? We could try swinging on the rope, if they left it for us."

"That'd be fun. Okay, then – you can stay for lunch, can't you?"

"I'll call and ask, but I should think so."

So he called home and was told that he could stay for lunch if that was all right with Twitch's mother but that he had to be home for supper.

"Can I bring Twitch home to eat with us?" Miles asked.

"If you like. He can sleep over as well if his parents don't mind."

So Miles had lunch with Twitch and then they rode back to Miles's house – well, Miles pedalled and Twitch rode on his carrier. They parked the bike by the garage and went upstairs, mainly to see if Martin was at home or not: Miles guessed that if he was then the dip would probably be free.

They knocked at his door and got no answer, but Miles was used to his brother using his earphones when he was listening to music and so he went in anyway. And indeed Martin was there, sitting at his desk with his back to the door, his earphones on his head, listening to something loud and apparently writing. Miles walked quietly across the room and looked over his brother's shoulder, but he saw that he was writing using some sort of foreign script, which meant that he couldn't understand anything. So he tapped his brother on the shoulder, and Martin jumped, slammed the book he was writing in shut and spun round.

"Sorry to make you jump," said Miles, looking at the now-closed exercise book with interest, "but you obviously didn't hear us knock. You should try turning the music down a bit, or you'll end up like your friend."

"No, I won't. I keep the volume to a safe decibel limit. Hello, Noel."

"Hello, Mars," replied Twitch, politely.

"What's that book?" asked Miles.

"Oh, I'm just practising writing," said Martin, not meeting his eye. "So, what do you want?"

"We really just came in to say hello. Twitch wanted to know if you enjoyed your camping out, because it's something we'd like to do together sometime."

"Yes, it was fun. It was a good experiment, too: we managed to live completely wild with no hot food or shelter for twenty-four hours. It was nicer having a tent, though: it was a lot more comfortable. And coming home for hot meals was good, too, although Luke did manage to do some cooking while we were there."

"What else did you do?" asked Miles, guilelessly. "Apart from eating and sleeping, I mean."

"We worked on our fitness a bit. Luke is a lot fitter than I am, but he helped me to train."

"And did you stay bare all the time?"

"Not all the time, no. We went for a long walk on Wednesday afternoon, and we really had to get dressed for that. But it felt sort of nice having nothing on the rest of the time. I wouldn't like to try in the winter, but it would be nice in the summer. Why, were you two going to try doing the same thing?"

"Probably not," said Miles. "We're not as weird as you. But camping out would be fun. Do you think we could come with you next time you do it?"

"Oh… well… probably not. The tent's only really big enough for two."

"Then perhaps we can borrow a bigger one," said Miles, grinning at him.

"I don't think Luke would like it. And if you did come you'd have to be properly feral, so you wouldn't be able to wear any clothes, and if you annoyed the alpha male you'd get beaten and you wouldn't get any food. I don't think you'd like that."

"Is that what happened to you? Did Luke beat you and starve you?"

"No… well, he shared the food. He did hit me once or twice when I messed up in training, though. It's part of being in the pack. And because you two are smaller you'd get hit a lot more. I really don't think you'd enjoy it."

"Maybe we're stronger than you think. Will you ask Luke if we can play next time, anyway? I think it might be fun."

"Okay, I'll ask. But I'm sure he'll say no."

"I expect we'll manage to change his mind. Me and Twitch are a good team – most packs would be queuing up to recruit us. Anyway, we'll leave you in peace: we're going out for a walk." And they went out and closed the door behind them.

Friday May 30th

…I was bringing the journal up to date when my brother came in with his friend Noel, the one with epilepsy. I didn't hear him because I was listening to Motorhead, and they're a bit loud, so when I've got the earphones on I can't hear much else. Anyway, he came right up behind me before I realised he was there, so he saw the journal. I suppose it doesn't really matter because he wouldn't be able to read it, but I didn't really want him to know I was even keeping one, and maybe he'll have guessed what it was now, because Miles does have moments when he's quite bright.

Noel wanted to know about the time I spent camping with Luke, and so I told him some of it. Not everything, obviously: I'm not going to tell anyone that I'm Luke's mate. But then Miles said that he'd like it if he and Noel could come camping with us next time, and I really don't think I'd like that. In one way it might be fun, because with four of us it would be like a proper pack, and obviously if they were bare too I wouldn't mind them seeing me without my clothes on so much – though I wouldn't want to have to defecate with my brother watching me. But I really wouldn't like it if we were all in one tent, because it would mean Luke and I couldn't mate with each other… well, I suppose if we were all really completely feral he'd just do it anyway, even if the rest of the pack were watching, but it's something I don't want Miles to know about yet. I think he's too young. And it would be sort of embarrassing, too – I'd feel really strange if my brother saw me mating. I mean, I trust him completely, so I know he'd never tell our parents or anything, and I don't think he'd let Noel tell anyone, either, but… no, I really don't want him knowing about it.

Maybe if Miles and Noel had a separate tent it would be okay, though. Perhaps I'll ask what Luke thinks of the idea when I go to see him on Sunday. If he thinks it would be okay perhaps we can do it twice during the summer holidays, once on our own and once with Miles and Noel.

The really good news is that there's no sign of my Monkey Disease coming back yet. The stuff my mother uses is supposed to last quite a while, but it's been nearly a week already and there's no sign at all of fur. It might have even cured it completely, though I suppose it's too soon to say that yet. But it would be nice if it was true…

Miles and Twitch went downstairs and set off for the dip.

"Do we really want to go camping with them?" asked Twitch. "Okay, it might be fun, but not if Luke is going to be all alpha male and smacking us all the time. I don't think I'd like that at all."

"Me neither. We might be better just camping on our own. But… if we work hard and don't disappoint him I think we'd be okay – I reckon you're at least as fit as Mars, and I know I'm better than him. Or perhaps they'll let us camp with them when they're not being feral. Anyway, we won't have to decide until the summer."

They walked on to the dip and were delighted to find that the rope was still there, though Luke had tethered it against the tree as he usually did when he went home. Miles untied the string holding it against the tree, took the rope to the top of the bank, jumped off and swung, though he didn't let go, allowing the rope to carry him back towards the bank. He hung on until the rope stopped and then dropped off.

"Aren't you supposed to let go at the other end of the swing?" asked Twitch.

"Yes, but it's quite high, and I wanted to have a proper swing first. I'll jump off next time. You have a go."

So Twitch took the rope and swung, but he jumped off in the approved manner, though he fell over on landing.

"Are you okay?" asked Miles.

"Yes. You were right: it is quite a long way to drop. We'll need to practice a bit if we don't want Luke smacking us. You try it."

They practised swinging for a while until both could let go and land on their feet every time.

"Shall we try it without our clothes?" asked Twitch.

"Well…" Now that it came down to it Miles was nervous. Down in the dip they wouldn't see anyone approaching until it was too late. Okay, Luke and Martin had done it without being discovered (except by him and Twitch, of course), but maybe they had just been lucky.

"Come on," encouraged Twitch. "I'm going to, anyway." And he threw his clothes off, grabbed the rope and swung once more, dropping to his feet lightly at the end of the swing.

"It feels nice – sort of… I don't know, free, or something. Come on, you try – or are you chicken?"

"Well, no…"

"Come on, then!"

So Miles took his clothes off and swung, and discovered that Twitch was right: this did feel good. And once he'd done it once he wanted to do it again, and the result was that they spent a good couple of hours swinging on the rope and running about the dip naked. They climbed the tree, too, though neither felt like trying to come down using the rope, especially since Luke had apparently taken the support rope home with him. Instead they climbed back down the tree the way they had climbed up.

They wrestled a bit, too: Miles said they ought to find out which of them was alpha in their little pack, though they both knew that if they joined up with Luke and Martin they would both find themselves following Luke's leadership. Miles won the fight, but decided not to prove his mastery by peeing on his friend's groin the way they had seen Luke doing to Martin. Instead he just smacked his bum lightly.

When they got tired they sat side by side on the branch to rest for a bit.

"I like doing this," Twitch said. "Maybe when things have settled down we could try doing this with Graham and the others, too: we could have a proper, full sized pack. I think it could be fun."

"If Graham ever forgives us," said Miles, gloomily.

"He will, I'm sure. Just give it a week or so."

Miles wasn't so certain, but he supposed there wasn't any point in worrying about it at the moment.

After a bit they got dressed and went back to Miles's house. And when bedtime finally came round they got into bed together naked, as they had before.

"Can I ask you something?" Miles asked, as they settled down.

"What?"

"When they made us… you know, suck on each other – what did it feel like to you?"

"What: when I was doing it or when you were doing it to me?"

"Both."

"Well… when I was in your mouth it felt nice, I suppose. And I didn't really mind doing it to you, either: it's not as if it tasted bad, or anything."

"That's about how I felt. So… would you like to do it again?"

"What, now?"

"Yes. I think it'll feel pretty good, especially if we don't have an audience."

"Okay." And Twitch burrowed his way into the bed until he found Miles's erection, which he slipped into his mouth with no hesitation at all. He started to suck on it the way Kevin had told him, sliding it into and out of his mouth, and Miles wriggled about, trying not to make any of the noises he usually made when Twitch was rubbing it for him, because it felt good – really good – and fairly quickly he realised that if Twitch kept going for any length of time he was going to get that same brilliant feeling he got when Twitch used his hand instead.

Twitch had already worked out that this would be the result and so he kept going steadily until Miles finally lost control, bucking against him.

"I'd guess you liked that," he said, wriggling back up to lie face to face with his friend.

"You'd be right. I think it's even nicer than when you rub it for me. Okay, my turn: let's see what you think of it."

A few minutes later Twitch decided that he liked it very much indeed, and when Miles came back to lie beside him he told him so.

"We're definitely going to have to do that again," he said. "I thought I was going to explode, it felt so good."

"That's a good description. Okay, we'll do that whenever we spend the night together. I wonder how Kevin found out about it? I mean, it's not the sort of thing you'd find out by accident, is it? We certainly wouldn't have tried it unless Kevin had made us do it, after all. So I wonder who made him do it – and does he do it with his brother, do you think?"

"Probably – after all, once you find out how nice it feels I'd bet you want to do it a lot, and if you've got a brother… but it would be interesting to find out how he learned about it. Probably from someone at his school, I suppose."

"Suppose so. Although I don't think having a brother would always mean you'd do something like that with him. I don't think I'm likely to do it with Mars, after all."

"Why not?"

"Because I've got you, and because Mars is too weird: he might forget what he was doing and bite it off or something."

"If I had a seizure while I was doing it to you I probably would bite it off. I'd bite my own tongue off if it got stuck between my teeth."

"Then you'd better not have a seizure while you're doing it, had you? Because if you bit mine off I'd have to bite yours off – and your balls, too."

"I'm sure I could get Doctor Frankenstein to sew me on a new set. But you'd have to go through life without, so maybe you'd end up in that dress you didn't want to wear after all."

"No chance! Even if I didn't have any bits I'd still be a boy, and I'd dress like one, too."

"You'd better not lose any forfeit games against me in future, then, because now I know that's how you feel I'll borrow one of Robyn's dresses and force you to wear it to school the first time you lose."

"You still wouldn't get to see it, though, because if you made me do that I'd gouge your eyes out. Or maybe I'd just kill you instead."

"Then maybe I won't make you do it after all. Doctor Frankenstein has trouble finding eyes that work."

"You'd better not."

Twitch went home after breakfast, and Miles and Martin had a quiet Saturday at home. Miles tried calling Graham, but Graham just hung up on him, so he decided to leave it and try to sort it out once they were back at school. And that meant that Miles also had a quiet Sunday at home, since Twitch was going out and there was nobody else he felt able to call on: he had no reason to think any of the others would feel differently about him from the way Graham apparently did.

Martin, on the other hand, had arranged to go and see Luke. He rode round to Luke's house after lunch and spent the afternoon in Luke's bedroom. They started out by reading and listening to music…

Sunday June 1st

I had a nice afternoon at Luke's house – he introduced me to some more new bands and he sang along a couple of times, too. He has a nice singing voice, so I said that next time he comes round to my house maybe I can try accompanying him on the piano: he hasn't heard me playing the piano yet, and I hope he'll be impressed. I want him to see that there are things I am good at, because so far he's really only seen me doing things I'm not very good at, like running and climbing.

I stayed for tea, which we ate in his room (it was only sandwiches and things like that) so that we could keep listening to our music. But after tea he seems to get a bit quiet, so I asked if he had a headache or if he wanted me to go, and he said it wasn't anything like that. He said he'd had a really good week and that he'd enjoyed being with me a lot (which I thought was really good news) but that he was a bit down because he had to go back to school tomorrow.

He really doesn't like school much. It isn't because he isn't any good at school because he is: he's quite intelligent and enjoys most of his lessons. The problem is these boys who keep bullying him: it's upsetting him a lot, even though he tries hard not to let that show when he's at school, and he doesn't know what to do about it.

As he told me before, he thinks he could deal with one of the kids, but because there are always two of them and only one of him he always ends up getting beaten up. They call him a freak all the time because of his scars and because of his hearing aids, and he really hates it. I still can't understand why they pick on him for something he can't control, but I know kids are like that sometimes.

I asked if there was anything I could do to help, but of course there isn't really, because the bullying takes place at school or on the bus coming home (both the boys who bully him live in the village about a mile and a half [2½ km] from his house, and so they catch the same bus home). But I really wish I could do something, because I don't like him being unhappy. I'm going to try to think of something that could help him, though I really don't know what at the moment. For now I'll just have to try to help by cheering him up at weekends…

Miles knew that his relationship with Graham had completely disintegrated when he got to school on Monday morning and found a knot of his classmates crowded round the class notice-board and laughing, and when he appeared they started laughing even more loudly. He pushed his way through them to the board and found himself looking at a photograph of himself and Twitch kissing. At least Graham had cropped it, so that it only showed their heads and shoulders, but of course there was no guarantee that the next photo to appear wouldn't be the full-length one. He ripped it from the board and marched up to Graham's desk.

"You bastard!" he said. "Why did you do that?"

"Why shouldn't I? I thought the rest of the class ought to know about you and your boy-friend – after all, you made it obvious last week that you care more about him than anyone else."

"And what makes you think I won't bring one of the photos I took of you into school tomorrow?"

"You can't. You haven't got a computer and you haven't got a printer."

"That's true, but Twitch has, and I think he'll be only too happy to let me use them when I show him this."

"Don't lie! He'd never be allowed a computer, because the flashing would send him off into a fit all the time."

"Normal computer programs don't flash. He only uses ordinary search engines and email and stuff, and none of those flash. He's got a Hewlett Packard – call him over as soon as he gets here and ask what type he's got and he'll tell you. I'll just sit quietly at my desk until he gets here so I can't tell him what to say. Then you'll know I'm not lying. And I don't lie to my friends, anyway, even the ones who aren't acting like friends any more."

Graham looked a lot less certain. "If you print one of me I'll put the full version of that one up," he threatened. "Do you really want everyone looking at you and Twitch feeling each other's balls while you kiss?"

"No. And you probably don't want them looking at the ones I've got of you and Rob. But I'm not going to put those up anyway – unless you really do put the full version of this one up – because I'd have to let Twitch see them if I use his computer to print them, and I promised you I wouldn't let anyone see them except you and me."

"Yeah, like you really haven't already shown them to him," exclaimed Graham in disbelief.

"Ask him. He won't know what you're talking about. We're not all like you: some of us keep our word."

Graham looked uncomfortable. "Well, okay, then," he said. "I won't put up any more of you if you don't put up any of me."

"It's a bit late now, isn't it? They're all laughing themselves stupid about me and Twitch, and even if you don't stick up any more that's not going to change, is it? Oh, and… don't you think the rest of the gang are going to work out that if you took photos of me and Twitch you probably took photos of them, too? Bet they won't like that." And Miles walked back to his desk, feeling that at least he'd rattled Graham's cage a bit. But he was still seething: he simply would never have imagined Graham betraying him like that, no matter how badly let down he felt.

Twitch's arrival a few minutes later drew a cheer which obviously confused him – at least until he reached his desk, at which point Miles told him what had happened and showed him the photo.

"What a bastard," was Twitch's reaction. "I thought he was your friend, Miles."

"So did I. Obviously I was wrong."

Miles had been wondering how Toby was feeling this morning, but although Toby generally got to school bright and early, today he wasn't there even when Miss Steadman came in and took the register. And she didn't call his name, either, which should have warned them all that something was up.

"You'll have noticed that Toby Gubbins isn't here today," she began, as soon as she had put the register away. "That's because he's in hospital. He's going to be okay, but he'll be away for a few days while things get sorted out. I'll be arranging a card for him later today and it would be nice if everyone could sign it for him. Right, now off you go to… yes, Josh?"

Josh Knowles, a nonentity of a boy who sat next to Toby, had raised his hand. "Please, Miss," he asked, "what happened to him? I mean, it isn't anything catching, is it?"

"No, Josh, it isn't anything catching. It was just a sort of accident, that's all. Now, off to assembly with you."

Miss Steadman led them out, which was just as well because it meant that she wasn't there to see Twitch push his way over to Graham's desk.

"So you put him in hospital, did you? And you think that isn't bullying?"

"We didn't! He was fine when we left him – and we didn't do anything that would have put him in hospital! Okay, we whipped him a bit, but he was still okay afterwards. It must be something else altogether – maybe he fell downstairs or got hit by a car or something. But it certainly wasn't our fault!"

"He's right," said Robert, who was sitting next to Graham as usual. "I mean, maybe we did overdo it a bit, but he was still okay afterwards. We whipped his bum with the holly, but that was the only blood, and it stopped almost straight away. It can't have been anything to do with us."

"Yeah, well, we'll find out, won't we?" And Twitch marched off angrily.

After assembly he took Miles to one side. "I'm going to visit him," he said. "I'll offer to deliver Miss Steadman's card this evening. Can you come with me? I want to find out what happened to him – because I bet it was Graham and the others, whatever he says. You can come back to my house – Mum will take us to the hospital after tea."

"Okay, I'll call home and ask if I can. I expect it'll be okay, though, as long as I'm not too late getting home afterwards."

"We'll take you straight home from the hospital."

And on that understanding Miles was told that he could go, and since Miss Steadman thought it was a kind gesture from Twitch and Miles to go and visit Toby on behalf of the whole class she had no objection, either. She passed a large 'Get well soon' card round at the start of afternoon school and everyone signed it – including, Twitch noted, Graham and the rest of the gang – and they took it with them when they went to visit Toby that evening.

They found Toby in a small private room close to the nurses' station. They were a bit surprised that his parents weren't with him, but of course that made it a lot easier to talk to him. He looked up when they came in and put down the book he was reading.

"Hi, Toby," said Twitch. "Miss Steadman told us you were here, so we thought we'd come and see how you are. And we've got a card from the whole class, look. Everyone's signed it."

"How did she manage that? Did she hold a gun to everyone's head, or something?"

"No, nothing like that. Look, Toby, she didn't tell us why you're here, just that it was some sort of accident. So what happened?"

"An accident?! That's the last thing it was… anyway, what do you care?"

"We do, that's all. Look… was it what Graham and the others did? Because that wasn't us, if you remember."

"Well, yes, I suppose you did try to talk them out of it. Didn't do any good, though, did it?"

"No, not if it put you in here," said Miles. "Look, Toby, I'm sorry: maybe we should have stayed and tried to do more to stop them."

"I don't think it would have done any good, because there were only two of you and seven of them. Anyway, it wasn't what they did that put me in here…. Well, it was, but not like you think. Do you really want to know what happened?"

"Yes, please, Toby. And we won't tell anyone else unless you want us to."

"Well… after they finished having their fun they just went off and left me lying there. I didn't want to move for quite a long time because I was hurting – they whipped my bum for ages. But eventually I got up, dried myself off as best I could with my tee-shirt, got dressed and went home. I didn't say anything to my parents, because I couldn't see the point – you'd understand if you knew them. I had a long bath before I went to bed, but I didn't feel any better, and all through Friday and Saturday I kept thinking about it. I mean, I knew nobody at school liked me much, but I hadn't realised how much they hated me…"

"I don't think they really hate you," interrupted Miles. "But… well, you do ask for it a bit, always trying to be teacher's pet and making out you're cleverer than everyone else."

"You don't understand at all. My parents never stop pushing me: I spend most evenings studying. It's not that I'm cleverer than anyone else, just that I know lots of facts. If you read encyclopaedias in your spare time you would, too. And if I don't come top of the class my parents give me a really hard time – they never stop telling me I won't succeed in life unless I exert myself, and stuff like that. That's really why I wanted to play cards with you, to try to get away from that for a bit and just do something normal."

"Oh. So why did you keep trying to make everyone do worse and worse forfeits, then?"

"Well, partly because I thought that's what everyone else wanted too, but they were too scared of upsetting their friends to say so themselves, and partly because… well, none of you lot are very nice to me, are you? Okay, maybe I do annoy you by trying to answer every question the teachers ask, but it's only because I have to try to keep my parents happy. And I still think it would have been interesting to make Jack and Robyn have sex. Don't you?"

"I suppose so. But, anyway, if it wasn't Graham and the others beating you that got you in here, what happened?"

"Like I was saying, I hadn't realised how much they disliked me – and I knew they'd tear me apart on Monday because they were taking photos while they were beating me and… and doing other stuff to me. I thought I'd walk into class on Monday and find dirty pictures of me all over the walls. My parents made me start studying again on Sunday, and when I said I wasn't in the mood for it I got a massive lecture about ending up working at McDonalds or somewhere like that… and by the time I went to bed I couldn't face anything any more. I knew running away would be pointless – where could I go? They'd just find me and bring me back…

"My parents were going out on Sunday night: they go to play cards with a friend of my father's and his wife every three or four weeks, so I knew they wouldn't be back until really late, and then they'd just go straight to bed. They put me to bed at eight o'clock and then set off for their friends' house, and as soon as they had gone I went and took my mother's sleeping pills from the bathroom cabinet and swallowed the lot. I washed them down with some of my father's whisky: it tasted horrible, but I'd found something on the computer that said it would help the pills to work quickly. And then I just went to bed.

"But something went wrong: my father's friend got called in to work – he's got one of those jobs that operate round the clock, apparently – and so they abandoned the cards and my parents came home a lot sooner than I'd expected. And because it was still quite early my mother came in to see if I was still awake, and she saw the bottle… and so I ended up here having my stomach pumped. I really wish they hadn't bothered…"

Toby started to cry, and Twitch took one of his hands and squeezed it.

"God, Toby, did you really think killing yourself was the only thing to do?" he asked. "I don't think I could ever think that way – and I've got a nasty disease and a face like the wrong end of a cow. And I didn't have any friends either, until Miles came along."

"No, but I bet your parents don't treat you like a robot, do they? At least things get better for you when you're at home. They don't for me. And then when the other kids at school showed me what they really think of me I just couldn't see that there was any point in carrying on…" He was still crying, so Miles took his other hand.

"It'll be okay," he said. "Nothing like that will happen again."

"It won't be okay – you don't understand! See, when the doctors examined me they saw I'd been whipped, and they wanted to know who had done it. And I couldn't tell them, because Graham said that if I grassed them up he'd kill me – and because I wouldn't say who did it they thought it was my parents. So they called Social Services in, and now they won't let my parents see me, and they won't let me go home with them, either. I told them it wasn't my parents, but because I refuse to say who it was they think I'm lying… but I can't say who really did it or Graham will kill me! And I don't know what to do…"

"You have to tell them the truth," said Miles. "We'll back you up. I mean, you can say it was just a game that went too far, which is true – I don't suppose Graham or the others would get into trouble for that, and so he wouldn't get mad at you. Besides, Graham wouldn't really kill you – he's not like that."

"You weren't there when he was whipping me and stuff. I think he might easily kill me. I'm not going to risk it, anyway."

"But… what are you going to do, then? If you can't go home with your parents, what's going to happen to you? You can't just stay here, because the hospital won't have room for you once you're better. You'll end up in a Home, or something. Come on, Toby, you can't let that happen – you'll have to tell them what really happened."

"I can't! I mean, I was okay about dying by taking pills and just going to sleep, but getting stabbed or having my throat cut is totally different. And maybe a Home would be better: at least there I wouldn't get nagged all the time and made to spend every minute studying."

"You don't mean that. Besides, a children's home would probably be horrible: you'd get bullied, or have to share a room with some really nasty kids, or something like that. Look, I'll talk to Graham tomorrow. I'm sure once he knows what's happening he'll realise you have to tell the truth."

"Well… okay, but until he swears to leave me alone I'm not saying a word to anyone."

"Okay. We'll talk to Graham and the others tomorrow, and as soon as they've promised not to hurt you we'll come back and tell you, and then you can tell the truth and go home. It'll be okay, Toby, I promise."

They stayed with Toby for another half hour, but he was still unconvinced when they left: he still seemed more scared of Graham than he was about being taken into care – though they thought that maybe his home life might be playing a part in his thinking, too, now that they knew a bit about it.

Twitch's mother dropped Miles off at home twenty minutes after they left the hospital. He knew that next day he was somehow going to have to talk Graham into admitting what had happened, but he had no idea of how to go about it…

Sorting this mess out is not going to be an easy job, and in the next chapter we'll find out what Graham and his friends think about the situation.

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