Substitute referee

I was a substitute teacher at an all boys school for under-priveledged kids in a rough area. The playing fields surrounding the building were just semi-filled car parks.

At break times, the game of choice was football but played with an empty laptop bag as all the actual balls had either been kicked away or stolen.

I was refereeing a small tournament as their previous teacher was unavailable. I was getting on quite well with the kids however they still treated me warily as an outsider.

A couple of times during the match girls would approach the car park pitch and would ask one of the boys if they’d go out with them in an awkward poetry, grime like style complete with yes/no tick boxes on their notes.

At one point after a match I was being piled-on on by the kids as there wasn’t a lot of seating and more and more kids were joining from other classes. They were still talking and interacting with me as I was just getting buried further and further by the school kids.