Matt And The Scouts

How Matt Got Thrown Out Of The Scouts.
By Alan Goodenough

Matt stood in the doorway to the Scout hut, his uniform slightly dishevelled, his neckerchief loosely done up around his neck, his woggle half way down his chest. He breathed deep, the things he did to please his parents; Scouts wasn't his idea, forced to join the Cubs and then on to the Scouts, something to do, character building his dad called it. Camping, cooking and camaraderie. The horror.

The Scout hut stood tall in the neighbouring village to where Matt lived and for all of Matt's life he had known that the kids from his village and the next were mortal enemies, and this was paramount to being behind enemy lines, joining his life long foes to dib, dib, dob.

Matt took a step into the building, turned to wave at his mum as she drove off into the night. Oh God, he thought, another two hours of hell.

“Hi, Matt,” Nathan said as he saw him. Nathan was in Matt's pack, his Sixer, the leader of the pack. “You all right? Tonight we're going to try and get you your Scouts badge.” This means memorising the Scout motto and repeating it over and over again, folding, unfolding and hanging the Union Jack flag, hoping not to put it upside down as this was almost treason.

“I'm fine thanks, how're you?” Matt replied.

“Good, good, thank you.” Nathan was two years older than Matt, fifteen years old. Matt kind of looked up to him, but also had a fair amount of spite towards the older boy.

“Fall In!” Shouted Akela..The boys lined up in their packs. “Attention!” The boys all stood to attention. Matt stood third in line, between David and Leaf. At the end of Matt's pack stood Arran, a particularly nasty boy of sixteen. “Tonight we're going to help the younger members to gain their Scouting badge. Nathan you will assist Dave, Chris you will assist Leaf and Matt, you'll have Arran's guiding hand.”

Shit, thought Matt. Arran lent his head forward and nodded at him. Shit, he thought again.

The evening progressed, Matt spent time trying to memorise the Scout code. “I promise to do my duty to God and to The Queen...” Matt could never remember it, he'd had it drummed into him since he joined the Cubs some three years ago.

“Come on, Monroe, get on with it!” Arran said, without a hint of passion. “You'll never amount to anything, you worthless shit. Now, come on, again.”

“I promise to do my duty to The Que..”

“No!” Arran punched Matt on the arm. “Again!”

“I promise to do my duty to God and to The Q...”

“Slower, don't rush.” Arran punched Matt on the arm.

“Stop hitting me.”

“You'd better start to get it right then, dickhead.”

“I'll tell Akela.”

“She'll never believe you.” Arran grabbed Matt's arm and gave him a Chinese burn through his shirt. Matt knew it would've hurt more if it had been on his flesh and not through the shirt, but it still hurt a lot, but he didn't make a noise, he didn't want to give Arran the satisfaction.

Time went on, Matt continued to try to learn the code, Arran continued to bully him. Matt went to take a piss, he stood in the toilet seething with anger. Where the fuck does he get off treating me like this?

When Matt returned to the hall, Arran was off in the far corner talking to Nathan. Matt returned to his book and began trying to memorise the code. Arran walked over to him. “OK, useless, let's forget about this for now, and try to do the flag, maybe you can get that right, although I doubt you will.

Matt took the flag and folded it up. “Wrong!” Another strike on his arm, “try again. Like this.” Arran showed Matt how to fold the flag, then whipped it open and handed it to the younger boy. Matt tried again. And again. And again. Each time he got it wrong, Arran would hit his arm.

“I've had enough of this. I'm telling Akela.” Matt stood up and Arran pulled him down.

“You sit there, you're going nowhere.” Matt pushed Arran away and walked outside. Matt stood in the cold night air and breathed heavily, he could feel his blood boiling. From behind him he heard a voice, “get back inside you little worm. Get back inside NOW!” Matt span around to see Arran coming towards him, Nathan closely behind.

“What's going on here, Matt? Explain yourself.”

“Nathan, every time I try and do something and get it wrong, this moron hits me.”

“Is this true?”

“Yes.”

“No, of course not,” Arran butted in. “He's not getting it, so he's trying to blame it on me, he's useless, totally not cut out to be a Scout, a disgrace.”

“Arran, that's enough. I'll deal with this, go back inside.” Nathan walked out to Matt, put his arm around him and punched him in the stomach. “Now, listen, Arran is one of the most loyal scouts this unit has ever had, he is only trying to help you, now get it through your thick skull and toughen up for God's sake.”

Matt choked a little from the punch, winded and frightened at the attack from the boy he thought his friend. “Fuck off, I've had enough.” Nathan grabbed Matt by the neck and pulled him back into the building.

“You go in there and act like nothings happened, learn what you need to learn and say nothing of this, else you'll get more, and it'll be worse.” Matt walked back into the hall, a little shaken but trying hard not to show it for fear of giving it away and getting another beating. He went over to Arran and was again made to watch the flag folding, had another go, got it right.

“Well done, dickhead,” Arran said as he punched him again.

“I got it right, what was that for?”

“Embarrassing me,” Arran replied before spitting on Matt's face. Matt wiped it off, and grinned. Something inside of him snapped at that moment. He stood up, faced away from Arran, tears formed in his eyes, he tried to hold them back, willing them to go back into his eyes, but they would not. Matt felt his fists clench tight, his nails digging into his palms. Embarrassed him, did I? I'll fucking show him.

“Hey, Arran,”

“What?”

“Fuck you.” Matt swung around and hit Arran in the face with so much force the older boy hit the floor. Matt jumped on top of him and swung punch after punch into Arran's face.

“Stop it now!” Akela screamed from across the room. She dashed over to the boys on the floor and tried to pull Matt off of Arran, but by the time she had gotten there, Matt was a whirl of fists and spit. She tried to pull him off but got knocked back by Matt's flailing arms. The other boys ran over and knocked Matt off of Arran.

“Stop it!” Nathan screamed. Dave and Leaf pinned Matt's arms to the floor whilst Chris held his legs. Nathan got in the younger boys face, Matt head-butted him on the nose, Nathan flew back off of him, clutching his nose. Arran looked up, his face all bloodied. “Little punk, I'll fucking kill you.” Arran leapt at the prone Matt on the floor, punching and kicking him. Matt tried to fight Dave and Leaf off of him to free his arms, but the two boys kept him pinned there.

“Get off me, get off me!” he screamed.

“Kill him!” Nathan told Arran. “Beat him fucking stupid.”

“All of you STOP IT NOW!” Akela screamed. “Fall in! Fall in!” Hearing Akela's voice, Nathan, Arran, Leaf and David lined up. “You too, Matt, for God's sake get on your feet.”

Matt struggled to rise. “Fuck you all.” Matt pulled himself to his feet and started to head for the door.

“Mr Monroe, get your arse IN THAT LINE!” Akela screeched. Matt turned on his heel and lined up with the other boys. “I will not tolerate this behaviour in my unit! Now what is going on here?”

“Matt attacked me. He was having..”

“Fucking liar!” Matt shouted.

“Silence,” Akela ordered.

“He was having trouble with learning the motto, he became frustrated at me and then just attacked me.”

“It's all true, Akela,” Nathan interjected, “I saw it all.”

“You bloody liars,” Matt said.

“Listen, boy,” Akela started, “Arran has witnesses.”

“Oh, come on, you all saw him hitting me first.”

“It matters not who hit first, Matthew.”

“It does to me, fuck you all,” Matt tried to walk off, but Akela stopped him.

“You walk out now, you don't come back.”

“Fine with me. Arran, I'll see you on the outside. I'll fucking kill you.” Matt pushed passed Akela, and through the door. He walked down the drive and onto the street. Behind him he heard footsteps running towards him. He turned to see Arran charging down the road. Matt clenched his fist, raised it up and as Arran got within striking distance let the fist fly. Arran hit the ground, Matt turned and ran and ran and ran until he saw his mother's car heading towards him. He waved her down, and once she had stopped, got in.

“What the hell happened to you?”

“Mum, the bast..”

“Language, Matthew.”

“Sorry, I had enough, Arran kept hitting me, so I hit him back, just got a bit carried away. I'm not going back mum, never, I've been bullied there for the last time, I never wanted to go, never, and now I'm not going back, I've been kicked out and I'm glad.”

“Let's go and talk to Akela, see if we can sort this out.”

“No, mum, she won't believe me, she didn't believe me that I'd been hit first, and lots and... just look at my arm, please, just take me home.”

“We'll enrol you in another unit.”

“No, mum, I don't want to, look at the state of me, every bloody week I get bullied, hit and I'm not going back, not there, not to any damned Scouts. No.”

“Your father will be so disappointed.”

“Is that all you care about? How dad will feel? What about me? Christ mum, what about me.”

“We're your parents we know what's best.”

“No, really you don't. I won't go.”

“We'll talk about this when we get home.”