My Teenage Years: 16

I was now a sixth-former. Initially, Adam was still my only real friend, though I was on good terms with his friends, including the gorgeous Nicola and the oft-mentioned Nathan. Early on in the year I attempted to woo the new girl, Cheryl, only to be turned down promptly. Upon reading my journal, it’s clear that I had been watching too much Red Dwarf, as I apparently emulated Arnold Rimmer’s romantic technique down to a tee. I also continued to lech after her for a few weeks, which must have made her incredibly uncomfortable, and if I had any sense it should have made me uncomfortable too. By now I’m past my phase of ranking girls according to fanciability though, which is healthy. I would tend to pursue one girl for a fortnight or so ((notable instances being Kay and Ruth)), eventually plump up the courage to ask her out, and then get turned down. I’d be miserable for a while and then the cycle would repeat. Meanwhile, I’d periodically go to a party, get drunk, and then get off with some girl that I had never met before, so it wasn’t a world devoid of contrast.

Whereas for the last three years my form tutor had been a Physics teacher, my sixth-form tutor was an English teacher, and she persuaded me to get involved in her dramatic productions. In retrospect, I’m very glad that she did, as this enabled me to make new friends and to solidify existing ones, most notably with Nicola and Nathan (who were also in my new form group). At last I was feeling the spectre of Stephen lift from my shoulders. I was starting to feel like a likeable human being. I had friends that I enjoyed getting drunk with ((ironically, thanks to my tendency to log transactions in detail, I can see that my alcohol tolerance, though very high when I was at University, now seems to have settled back down to a level similar to my 16-year old self. I have so many conflicting emotions about this.)) – in just the first four months of that year, everything changed for the better. Whereas my diary had once featured the same 3 or 4 names over and over again, it suddenly contains dozens and dozens of people whom I chat to on the phone, or go to a cafe at lunch with, or go to a party with, and so on.

The nature of A-levels also meant that I had very distinct social groups. In Chemistry, I sat with Tim, Matthew and Martin ((Though I have mentioned Tims and Martins previously in this series, you should be aware that this Tim and Martin are entirely different guys)). In Physics, I sat with my old pal Adam and two girls called Melanie and Laura. In Further Maths, I sat next to a guy called Tom ((there were only four people taking this class, so it’s not really relevant whether I sat next to Tom or Melanie or Joanne, because we were all like one big happy family anyway)). Tom was very popular and a fully-paid up member of the in-crowd, most of whom still shunned me (which was fine, because I shunned them too). However, he was also a genuinely nice guy, so he didn’t let such petty politics dictate his actions, and so we got on well. I’m struggling to find the correct term to describe our relationship, because it was more than just a convenient acquaintance (it existed outside of Further Maths, and outside of school on more than one occasion, and we did talk to eachother about matters of importance in our lives) but the word “friendship” feels like it goes a bit far (for example, we didn’t used to go to the pub together, though we sometimes bumped into eachother there and would stop for a chat). In the following year he was elected Head Boy, which makes sense because I don’t think there was anyone in the school who was so universally liked and respected.

By the middle of the year I was really getting into music, spending the majority of my disposable income on CDs. By the end of the year, I learned to play the guitar riff from *Babies* by Pulp on my dad’s old acoustic guitar, and I bought my first plectrums. I was also developing something of an obsession over Nicola, phoning her up daily. She’d always been aware of my crush on her, and had handled it with remarkable grace, and she continued to do so even when I was at my most annoying.

*This is part 6 of a 7-part series called “My Teenage Years” which documents my school days between the ages of 11 and 17*