Little White Lies 2

I was in year 9 of secondary school and another school trip was approaching. This year was a water sports trip to France, which sounded amazing, especially in comparison to the previous two years in Germany seeing cathedrals with thousands of steps and France seeing caves, where they kept wine.

The plans for the water sports trip included water skiing, banana boats and all the wet fun imaginable...(except that).

However there was one day on the itinerary which involved a group bike ride around the area. Which obviously struck fear into my heart, how could I possibly avoid going on a bike ride everyone was doing? I couldn't muddle through and hope no one noticed me falling off every five seconds or perhaps I could magically learn before the trip.

Instead I asked my tutor, a P.E teacher, about the trip and whether you had to go on a bike ride.

"Whys that?" he asked

"Erm, erm, erm, I just don't fancy it, know what I mean" I replied in the most nonchalant and macho voice i could muster.

"Well, yeah probably, sure you can put up with it."

Luckily, he was a particularly simple minded P.E teacher, who didn't click why someone would adamantly not want to go on a bike ride for no reason. Maybe the idea of a 16-year-old unable to ride a bike was ridiculous. Either way, the last thing I wanted to do was give ammunition to a cocky, cynical, athletic P.E teacher. He was the last person I would ever want to know about not being able to ride a bike.

I never did go on the trip, no way could I risk having to go on the bike ride, even though everyone was going on the trip and I really wanted to do everything else.

I remember when everyone got back, all tanned and full of stories about some lad's dirty pants, I asked someone.

"How was that big bike ride then?"

"Oh, we never went."


Bollocks.