Another Fine Mess by Britguy
Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2025 9:46 pm
Another Fine Mess
First published 12/12/2015
Chapter One – The Error
I should never have taken that shortcut. Unusually for England, my town had Elementary, Middle and High schools like they do in America instead of the Primary and Secondary that is normal here. That’s unusual but a few places do it. I was in what was normally the lower sixth and my school chose to call Year 12, which meant that all the bullies and morons I didn’t like had left the previous July at age sixteen. Americans would call that ‘dropping out’ I think but it was quite normal to leave at sixteen back in the eighties and most kids did. Only swots like me stayed on.
On this particular day Mum had asked me to meet her at the Tesco store on the edge of town to help with the big food shop. She and Dad usually did it together on Saturday morning but got sick of the crowds so she decided to experiment with Thursday afternoon but Dad was at work then so I got roped in. Tesco was located right next to a fairly large social housing estate. They didn’t mind the neighbours, who were mostly their customers. More affluent customers drove there anyway and used the entrance from the main road.
The quickest way from school to both Tesco and the estate was to cut through the park. There were bullies enough in the years below me and mostly they lived on the estate, or one of the others like it in the town but I had a study period at the end of the day and left the library a couple of minutes early so I was literally walking out the gate as the bell rang. By walking quickly I could stay ahead of everyone else.
I walked quickly through the park with no problems. It was as I approached the exit that led to the estate and Tesco that I saw them. Eight of my erstwhile classmates, four boys and four girls, now part of Maggie’s Millions [unemployed], sitting at the two picnic tables near the exit, cans of lager in front of them. I realised it must be Giro [unemployment benefit check] day and wondered how many they’d had.
“Hey, it’s Stan!” shouted a girl named Tracy. “Come over here and talk to us! Where’s Ollie today?” I should explain that my name is not Stan, it’s Julian, but I was very thin and my best friend the year before had been a fairly fat boy called Oliver. Some (half) wit had dubbed us Laurel and Hardy and the nickname stuck, at least among my peers. Younger kids who wanted an insulting name preferred ‘Julie.’
I smiled at her but didn’t speak and kept walking quickly towards the gate. Next thing I knew the four boys had surrounded me and hustled me over to the table Tracy was sitting at. “That’s very rude of you to ignore me” she scolded. “Where’s Ollie today?”
“Well I don’t know do I?” I replied. “He left school when you did. He’s probably working somewhere or something, I don’t know. Excuse me; I’ve got to be somewhere.” I turned to leave and found the four boys blocking my way.
“He’s so rude isn’t he?” complained Helen. “Somebody ought to teach him some manners.” I started looking around, sizing up my options if I had to run for it. Paul and Gary noticed this and took hold of my arms. This was getting scary. I wondered how much drink they’d had and what they would do.
“Look, I’m sorry” I said. “I didn’t mean to be rude but I really do have to meet someone at Tesco.”
“You will be sorry” said Danny menacingly. He grinned at Rob. “You know when we was at school I always wanted to get Stan’s trousers off him in the yard but we never managed it, he was too good at keeping out of the way. Why don’t we make up for it now?”
I felt cold. It didn’t happen often but occasionally the school’s bullies would gang up on some boy and remove his trousers, which they would then pass to the nearest girl. The victim would spend the next few minutes running around in his underwear chasing his trousers from girl to girl as they passed them around until one of them relented or a teacher intervened. I didn’t need that indignity.
“Good idea” said Rob. “Put him on the table.” Soon I was on my back on the table, Paul and Gary still holding my arms, Rob holding my ankles, Danny getting to work on my belt buckle. It didn’t take long for him to get my trousers open and then Rob grabbed the bottom of the legs and rapidly pulled them off over my shoes. Danny pulled my shirt and sweater half way up my chest and I lay there in my y-fronts as the girls jeered.
“That’ll teach you!” said Helen.
“Yeah right!” agreed Jane.
“Nice legs!” jeered Sylvie.
“Shame about the face!” added Tracy.
“Let’s give these girls a treat” suggested Rob. “Get his dick out!”
“You must be joking!” retorted Danny to my relief. “I’m not putting my hands in there looking for it!”
“You don’t have to. Just rip his keks off.”
There was a chorus of female encouragement and then Danny grabbed the sides of my underwear and rapidly pulled them down to my ankles for Rob to remove. The laughter, wolf-whistles and jeering got louder and that was when my body betrayed me. Above-the-neck Julian was utterly horrified to be assaulted like this by people he had never liked. Below-the-waist Julian seemed only to care about being the centre of females’ attention for the first time ever and responded. It didn’t take long for my tormentors to notice.
“Look! He’s getting a touch on!”
“Bloody hell, he is as well!”
“He likes this! He actually likes it!”
“What a pervert!”
“Can you believe this?”
These comments were bad enough but it was about to get much worse. Un-noticed by any of us the kids from school who lived on the estate had been approaching the exit and Rob’s fourteen year old sister Kate had seen him and come over to ask him something. She saw me lying there and did a double take at my lack of clothing. “Oh my God” she said quietly. Then she whistled loudly to get attention. “Come over here” she shouted. “They’ve got Julie Patterson on the table with no pants on!”
First published 12/12/2015
Chapter One – The Error
I should never have taken that shortcut. Unusually for England, my town had Elementary, Middle and High schools like they do in America instead of the Primary and Secondary that is normal here. That’s unusual but a few places do it. I was in what was normally the lower sixth and my school chose to call Year 12, which meant that all the bullies and morons I didn’t like had left the previous July at age sixteen. Americans would call that ‘dropping out’ I think but it was quite normal to leave at sixteen back in the eighties and most kids did. Only swots like me stayed on.
On this particular day Mum had asked me to meet her at the Tesco store on the edge of town to help with the big food shop. She and Dad usually did it together on Saturday morning but got sick of the crowds so she decided to experiment with Thursday afternoon but Dad was at work then so I got roped in. Tesco was located right next to a fairly large social housing estate. They didn’t mind the neighbours, who were mostly their customers. More affluent customers drove there anyway and used the entrance from the main road.
The quickest way from school to both Tesco and the estate was to cut through the park. There were bullies enough in the years below me and mostly they lived on the estate, or one of the others like it in the town but I had a study period at the end of the day and left the library a couple of minutes early so I was literally walking out the gate as the bell rang. By walking quickly I could stay ahead of everyone else.
I walked quickly through the park with no problems. It was as I approached the exit that led to the estate and Tesco that I saw them. Eight of my erstwhile classmates, four boys and four girls, now part of Maggie’s Millions [unemployed], sitting at the two picnic tables near the exit, cans of lager in front of them. I realised it must be Giro [unemployment benefit check] day and wondered how many they’d had.
“Hey, it’s Stan!” shouted a girl named Tracy. “Come over here and talk to us! Where’s Ollie today?” I should explain that my name is not Stan, it’s Julian, but I was very thin and my best friend the year before had been a fairly fat boy called Oliver. Some (half) wit had dubbed us Laurel and Hardy and the nickname stuck, at least among my peers. Younger kids who wanted an insulting name preferred ‘Julie.’
I smiled at her but didn’t speak and kept walking quickly towards the gate. Next thing I knew the four boys had surrounded me and hustled me over to the table Tracy was sitting at. “That’s very rude of you to ignore me” she scolded. “Where’s Ollie today?”
“Well I don’t know do I?” I replied. “He left school when you did. He’s probably working somewhere or something, I don’t know. Excuse me; I’ve got to be somewhere.” I turned to leave and found the four boys blocking my way.
“He’s so rude isn’t he?” complained Helen. “Somebody ought to teach him some manners.” I started looking around, sizing up my options if I had to run for it. Paul and Gary noticed this and took hold of my arms. This was getting scary. I wondered how much drink they’d had and what they would do.
“Look, I’m sorry” I said. “I didn’t mean to be rude but I really do have to meet someone at Tesco.”
“You will be sorry” said Danny menacingly. He grinned at Rob. “You know when we was at school I always wanted to get Stan’s trousers off him in the yard but we never managed it, he was too good at keeping out of the way. Why don’t we make up for it now?”
I felt cold. It didn’t happen often but occasionally the school’s bullies would gang up on some boy and remove his trousers, which they would then pass to the nearest girl. The victim would spend the next few minutes running around in his underwear chasing his trousers from girl to girl as they passed them around until one of them relented or a teacher intervened. I didn’t need that indignity.
“Good idea” said Rob. “Put him on the table.” Soon I was on my back on the table, Paul and Gary still holding my arms, Rob holding my ankles, Danny getting to work on my belt buckle. It didn’t take long for him to get my trousers open and then Rob grabbed the bottom of the legs and rapidly pulled them off over my shoes. Danny pulled my shirt and sweater half way up my chest and I lay there in my y-fronts as the girls jeered.
“That’ll teach you!” said Helen.
“Yeah right!” agreed Jane.
“Nice legs!” jeered Sylvie.
“Shame about the face!” added Tracy.
“Let’s give these girls a treat” suggested Rob. “Get his dick out!”
“You must be joking!” retorted Danny to my relief. “I’m not putting my hands in there looking for it!”
“You don’t have to. Just rip his keks off.”
There was a chorus of female encouragement and then Danny grabbed the sides of my underwear and rapidly pulled them down to my ankles for Rob to remove. The laughter, wolf-whistles and jeering got louder and that was when my body betrayed me. Above-the-neck Julian was utterly horrified to be assaulted like this by people he had never liked. Below-the-waist Julian seemed only to care about being the centre of females’ attention for the first time ever and responded. It didn’t take long for my tormentors to notice.
“Look! He’s getting a touch on!”
“Bloody hell, he is as well!”
“He likes this! He actually likes it!”
“What a pervert!”
“Can you believe this?”
These comments were bad enough but it was about to get much worse. Un-noticed by any of us the kids from school who lived on the estate had been approaching the exit and Rob’s fourteen year old sister Kate had seen him and come over to ask him something. She saw me lying there and did a double take at my lack of clothing. “Oh my God” she said quietly. Then she whistled loudly to get attention. “Come over here” she shouted. “They’ve got Julie Patterson on the table with no pants on!”