I think Kim Lathrope might fancy me..!
Editors notes: Our researchers were initially puzzled as to how Cook had come to this conclusion. There was little else to back up this statement other than a brief mention of needing to find and take some analgesics for an headache and a slightly worried comment to the effect that real study was impossible in the school. Fortunately as was often the case entries would augmented or cross referenced and we found this addition stapled to the back of the diary for that year.
***It wasn’t particularly difficult to work out that Kim was interested in me. The big clue was the fact she tried to half kill me. As I recall there was a direct relationship between the amount of violence you offered someone and just how attractive you found them. Steve and Beverley wrestled each other after school, while Mark and Diane indulged in a form of low level guerrilla war that at time threatened to damage classrooms.
My first inkling that Kim might like me was during a bout of what I can only describe as gender war centred on the green rooms at the back of the stage. I forget the exact rules but it seemed to be to either trap a member of the opposite sex in one of the rooms or ensure that that person couldn’t get into the room - I think the rules changed depending on whether Stuart Jones was playing or not. There had been a lot of charging around and general shouting and horse play and I had decided to attack the girls who had locked themselves in one of the green rooms. My target for no particular reason was Kim but she had armed herself with a coat as a weapon - an early example of the school-equipment-based martial art that Mark would later call as “Win-Do”(1) But the coat had a large AA battery in it. I was less than impressed with the coat as a weapon and said so. But Kim was about to prove herself a master of this form of Win-Do...
I recall clearly standing there with a devil may care expression on my face as she swung the coat which was quickly replace by one of bemused pain as I found myself floored by a small lump of lead connecting painfully with my temple. Kim was a little concerned although much of this was covered by laughter and I was forced to retire from the conflict ego and temple bruised. I had always assumed that Cupid fired arrows and was a bit startled to learn that he also had a bludgeon in his collection.***
1 Many cultures have developed their own martial arts and it notable that many environment adapt and alter fighting arts to suit their own needs. America prisons had created fighting styles designed with the cramped conditions of cells in mind and it seems that Cook, Powell and Johnson were well on the way towards their own version.
Win-do had it own empty hand form but for the most part used a very special weapons set consisting of 'Chair', 'Metal Waste Paper Basket', 'wooden ruler', the 'win-do pole' and the walrus killer (Steve Johnson's penknife with one inch blade. Occasional use was made of desk lids, book spines, ties, shoes and doors. Interestingly, Cook and company's martial art seems to have pre-dated the ones found in prisons and other institutions by at least a decade.
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