Tommy's First Year at College Pt. 01

This new series covers the stories of Tommy Singleton-Scarborough and Dom and Sandro and their daughters. There is both gay and straight sex.

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Chapter 1 Tommy enters Saint Boniface's College

When Thomas Albert Singleton-Scarborough matriculated at Saint Boniface's College, Camford, it was actually the first time that he had left home on his own since he had been adopted at the age of ten, apart from short stays with relatives. The brutal treatment that he had been subjected to by his biological parents had led to his new parents being rather over-protective. He had gone to school in Camford at Winton College School, and now here he was starting at University in his home town. Not many students start at a college a five-minute bus ride from their home. But his parents had made it clear to him that while he was welcome to call in at home at any time, they really hoped that they would not see him again until the end of the Martinmas Term. He was now eighteen, and it was time for him to learn to live independently. He would get all his meals provided in college, so they had no worries about his diet and he had a generous allowance of £1000 per month, which was essentially pocket money for him to buy clothes and books, entertainment and drink. They had enrolled him as a member of the Camford Men's Fitness Centre, so that he could go swimming whenever he had time. But Tommy was rather a loner, and his fathers feared that he might have difficulty in making friends and settling as a student.

Tommy had excellent grades in his A Levels in Latin, Greek, French and Italian and was to study the first two languages for his first two years at University. He had been uneasy at first about applying to a college of which both his parents were honorary fellows, but as the subjects he was studying were far removed from their fields of interest (David taught singing and Jon first-year chemistry), it was decided that no conflict of interest could possibly arise. His brother Luke had studied at Buckingham College, but many people regarded that men-only college as a place for gays, and since puberty, because of his family background, Tommy had avoided anything that might suggest gayness. His interview at Boni's, as the college was usually referred to, had been something of a formality, since he had good grades and the college was anxious to have some male students studying classics.

As a preliminary to his going up to university, there had been an intensive and very enjoyable three weeks of the summer in which his two fathers had given him instruction on how to drink sensibly and how to appreciate beer and wine. "You will spend a surprising amount of time at university drinking, and it's important that you should do something that is basically very enjoyable in a way that does not damage your health and does not interfere with your work," his father David, whom he called Dad, told him. "The other thing is that you should learn to appreciate and enjoy proper beer and not the gassy rubbish that many of your age-group consume! The multiplicity of pubs in the town, the variety of small breweries in Camfordshire and the diversity of their products means that a pub crawl in Camford is a very enjoyable was of spending an evening."

Taking advantage of his position as a Fellow, David had given Tommy a detailed tour of the college, including many parts that undergraduates do not normally see. He showed him the beer cellar, which was open daily at lunchtime, but only for a couple of hours in the evening. "You won't meet me or your Pop in here," David told him. "Most tutors avoid drinking here. You might meet research fellows and non-teaching staff here, but it is an unwritten rule that those involved in undergraduate teaching do their drinking elsewhere. We have recently got a bar selling decent beer in the Senior Common Room, so now the non-gin-and-tonic drinkers no longer have to go out to a pub! That in itself was somewhat risky, because pubs are much frequented by students, especially the Lion, which is the nearest pub to the college. The beer cellar sells two good traditional draught beers, as well as one fizzy rubbish beer that has had all the flavour removed from it by pasteurization. Camford is an excellent place to drink beer, as long as you don't overdo the alcohol."

"That's something I hope I will never do," said Tommy. "My birth father was always at his most brutal when he had had a lot to drink." This remark startled David, because it was not often that Tommy mentioned the cruelty and abuse that he had suffered before he had run away from home and been rescued by his gay cousin Sandro and Sandro's boyfriend Dom Overton.

Tommy had been brought up to consider homosexuality normal. Both his two fathers and his adoptive brother Luke were gay, but his fathers had always emphasized to him that his background was no reason why he should not be a heterosexual adolescent, and indeed when he was in the sixth form at school he had spent a lot of time with Beatrice Semperamini, his auntie Caterina's granddaughter, but had not met anyone who really attracted him. Beatrice had made it clear to him however that after her term had started at Islip College, she did not want to see him during term time. He sometimes wondered if the rather crude way that his parents talked at home had in some way diminished his personal attractiveness to women, but decided that calling a spade a spade was in no way offensive except to persons with an exceptionally delicate upbringing. He had never been taught to use baby-words or euphemisms for parts of the body below the waist or for the natural functions that involve those lower parts of the body. So he habitually thought in four-letter words, or at least traditional Anglo-Saxon words.

A major change in Boni's since his cousin Sandro had been a student was that since all but one of the staircases in the college now had en-suite bathroom facilities, the need to segregate men and women on separate staircases no longer existed, and the college had started gradually making all the staircases co-educational, except the single staircase with communal bathrooms, which remained men only. It was thought that mixed staircases might make the residential parts of the college less noisy in the evenings, and this had proved to be the case. There had been a lengthy discussion about whether duplex rooms (which shared a sitting-room and bathroom) should remain single sex, or whether couples should be allowed to share a bathroom. Eventually it was decided that because there was no evidence that academic performance was adversely affected by male and female students sharing, mixed duplex rooms should be permitted to those who wanted them. The take-up was not massive, but several couples who were items, same-sex as well as mixed sex, opted to share each year. The remaining duplex rooms were then assigned to freshmen students.

The trees in Jesserod Meadow were showing their autumn colours as one misty October morning early in the twenty-first century, Tommy climbed out of his fathers' 4x4 outside Saint Boniface's and the two them carried his luggage into the porter's lodge. Then David, who was driving, left him and went home.

The first thing that Tommy did when he staggered through the college quad with suitcase and backpack to his staircase, number XIX, was to look at the list of names inside the front door. Of the ten rooms on three floors, five were occupied by men, and five by women. His room was on the top floor along with two others and the other two were both assigned to women. He was glad about this as it meant, he hoped, that it would be quieter on the top floor. His room had a magnificent view. It was high enough to see not only the whole of the college quad, but over the roofs to the dreaming spires of the Camford churches and colleges.

Chapter 2 Carol enters Saint Boniface's College

Later that day, Carol Hampton arrived at Boni's from Camford station in a cab. The driver helped her to unload two large suitcases and a backpack at the college lodge, and then drove off. She staggered into the lodge and the porter told her that she was on staircase XIX and showed her where the mail pigeonhole was. She asked to leave two of her bags in the lodge while she found her room. As she crossed the quad to staircase XIX, a young man emerged from it. He saw her approaching and asked if he could help her with her bag. She agreed gratefully and said that she was in room 9. "That's on the top floor, next to mine," the boy said. As they climbed the stairs, Carol noticed his lithe figure, his small round compact arse in his relatively skinny jeans, and his short, crew-cut dark hair. What she saw pleased her. She unlocked her door and he carried her suitcase into the room. The ancient stairs had prevented them from using the suitcase wheels.

"There's another two items in the lodge," she told him.

"Right, shall we go and get them then?" he asked.

'This boy went to a private boys' school,' she thought. 'He's too well-mannered to have gone to a comprehensive.' She knew from her own experience that teenagers of either sex are not particularly well-mannered. As they walked back across the quad, she had a better view of his face. Unusually for a boy of his age, he was well shaven. Clearly he shaved daily. She looked lower down. His tight jeans revealed an interesting bulge between his legs. They collected the other suitcase and the backpack and took them back to her room.

"Before you start to unpack," the boy asked, "would you like a cup of tea? I got here this morning, and I've had time to unpack. My fathers told me about all the things that I would need, so I've already got a kettle." She said yes, so he went next door and she heard him fill a kettle and plug it in. He returned and asked about milk and sugar and a few minutes later reappeared with two mugs of tea.

As they drank the tea, he looked at Carol appraisingly. She looked quite attractive. She was tall, slim and with dark curly hair. "How did you manage to get here so quickly from the station?" he asked. "There must have been a queue a mile long for taxis."

"I grabbed a baggage trolley and moved all the stuff as quickly as possible down in the lift and through the subway and I was very near the front of the taxi queue!" she said. Clearly she was a disciplined and well organised female. When she had finished drinking tea, she said to him, "Well, thank you very much!" in a dismissive sort of way.

"What's your name and what are you reading?" he asked her.

"Carol Hampton," she replied. "And I'm reading geography. What about you?"

"I'm Thomas Singleton-Scarborough, but most people call me Tommy," he answered. "I'm reading classical languages. Well," he said, "I must go and let you get on with unpacking."

...

Classical languages was a traditional field of study at Camford, and the Classics tutor at Boni's was excellent. Even so, the number of students in Boni's who elected to do Latin and Greek in the twenty-first century was quite small. There were four freshmen reading classical languages that year. Dr Featherstone organized his teaching so that each first-year student had a one-to-one tutorial each week, and a group tutorial every two weeks. This, together with four lectures per week in each language comprised the total contact hours for the first year. However, they were expected to read eight classical books per term. The face-to-face tutorials did not only involve writing essays, there were also translation exercises, especially of difficult authors like Livy.

In his first group session, Dr Featherstone said to them, "You will often be asked why you are studying such a useless subject as Classical Languages. The answer is that it is a field of study designed to exercise the MIND. The complex grammar of both languages, and the fact that Greek has a strange alphabet, are designed to stretch your memories and your minds and the texts you will study will develop your critical faculties. These skills will be useful, not just if you go on to study other languages, but also in the world of work. Also, it will open your minds to the entertaining world of ancient pornography! The ancients were very uninhibited in their discussion of sexual practices, and that is an aspect of study that will not have been dealt with in your schoolwork!"

Chapter 3 The chapel choir

Tommy saw no more of Carol for a couple of days, and then on the Friday evening there was a recruiting session for new members of the college chapel choir. Tommy's father David had encouraged him to join the choir. He told him that it would be a valuable musical exercise and that he would meet interesting people and that of course at the same time, he was serving God. "I hold the record" he said "for the longest serving undergraduate member of St Boniface's chapel choir. I was in the choir for no less than seven years during both my first degree and my Ph.D.", and he had shown Tommy the engraved tankard he had been given by the then President of Boni's when he had finally retired from the choir.

There were four men and seven women interested in joining the choir, which sang once weekly on Sundays for Evening Prayer, and had a weekly practice on Thursday evenings. One of the women was Carol, who sang alto. The Organ Scholar, who was also choirmaster, auditioned the eleven candidates, and all passed, having in most cases had previous singing experience. Tommy was a tenor. They then went on to rehearse an anthem for the first Sunday of term. The tradition of the chapel for many years had been to specialize in pre-nineteenth century music. The most recent composer of church music in their repertoire was Samuel Sebastian Wesley. But before they could sing the following Sunday, Tommy attended the 8 am eucharist, celebrated by the Chaplain. To his surprise, Carol was there and they went into breakfast together afterwards.

First-year students who attended chapel were allowed to go into formal dinner on Sunday nights, whereas the rest of the week they joined the other freshmen in the informal self-service dinner. The consequence of this is that the choir tended to sit together at formal dinner, at which the senior members of the college dined at high table and the Bible Clerk or Senior Scholar said grace in Latin. After dinner, the choir usually had coffee in the Junior Common Room before spending the rest of the evening at one or other of the numerous Camford pubs.

The girls in the choir were more abstemious than the men. Even the men however did not regard their Sunday night drinking as an opportunity to get drunk. Most confined themselves to a couple of pints. After all, most Camford students were not as wealthy as Tommy, who in addition to a generous parental allowance, had money of his own, inherited from Jon's mother. Jon was his cofather, David's civil partner.

Chapter 4 Tommy and Carol's first date

Carol had been surprised to meet Tommy at the early eucharist in chapel. Many of the choir members were in it for love of music rather than love of God. But she guessed from his demeanour in chapel that he had a deep religious faith. After a few weeks she noticed that he seemed to be a bit of a loner. He did not get visitors in his college room and he did not seem to go out much in the evenings.

Carol was a lover of music and one day, having noticed in the lodge a notice about an upcoming classical concert, she knocked on Tommy's door and asked him if he was interested in going to it. He accepted gratefully and said, "I'll pay for both tickets. It will be so nice to have company to go to a concert with!" Carol realized that he was a bit lonely, though why he should be, she couldn't guess.

"I'll tell you what, why don't we sign out of dinner and eat before the concert? I know lots of good places to eat!" he said, to her surprise.

"OK!" she said. She wondered where he would take her.

The following Tuesday, duly signed out, they walked from college the short distance to the Venezia restaurant. Carol was surprised when Tommy was greeted by the waiter, who said in Italian, "Buona sera, Signor, would you like your fathers' table?"

"Si, Paolo, per favore!" replied Tommy. "We are going on to a concert after the meal, so we will have to drink wine by the glass," he said in Italian. "But I guess that we can begin with a glass of Prosecco each," he said to Carol in English, "while we look at the menu." He smiled happily at her. She was amazed that on familiar ground he was much more relaxed. It seemed as if he had poorly developed social skills. "Don't choose pasta or pizza," he advised her. "There are lots of much more interesting Italian dishes."

They enjoyed the meal. With a glass of Prosecco inside him, Tommy became much more confident, as well as more chatty. He explained that since he had been adopted he had come here regularly in his teenage years with his fathers. He smiled happily at Carol and she realized that he was enjoying her company, and she was impressed that he knew enough Italian to speak it to the waiters. She also thought that his smile made him look really sweet. She wondered if maybe she was beginning to fancy him.

Realistically, they only had time for two courses. But there was enough time for two glasses of wine each and an espresso before they left. Tommy paid the bill with his credit card.

The concert was in the town hall, and featured a well known orchestra, with a programme that included a Mozart piano concerto. About half way through the concert, Tommy gently got hold of her hand. She let him hold it, without making any resistance, because she found herself enjoying it. As they walked back to the college together, he said to her. "Would you be interested in going to concerts regularly? There are a lot of small chamber music concerts in Camford, some of which are very good. I hate going to concerts on my own, and you so obviously enjoy classical music, which not many of our age group do. Of course, having a father who was an opera singer, I've been exposed to a lot of music during adolescence. There's a string quartet performing in Q College next Wednesday. It's at 8 pm, so we wouldn't need to sign out of dinner, unless you wanted to of course."

"I'd love to, Tommy," she said. "We've got a field trip next Wednesday afternoon, but I'll be back in time for dinner, so we'll eat in college."

"Meet me in the beer-cellar then, and we'll go into hall together."

Carol found herself looking forward to her date the following week. This guy Tommy was an interesting person, as well as sharing some of her interests.

And what about Tommy himself? How did he feel about this girl? He just felt grateful that a girl had noticed him. Although he enjoyed his studies, he was conscious that he was not enjoying Camford as much as he should. In addition to the chapel choir, he had joined the Camford Bach choir and spent one night a week practising with them. The idea of dating someone regularly appealed to him, because he did not make friends easily.

Chapter 5 A death and new titles

One Monday morning, Alessandro Ovenden-Mascagnoli walked with his twin eleven-year-old adopted daughters to the station at Womble. Having kissed them goodbye and put them on to the train for Cheltenham, where they were at school, he crossed to the opposite platform and waited for a train to take him to work in Swindon. The girls' other father, his gay partner Dominic, who usually walked them to the train was away at the bedside of his dying grandfather. The train was almost full, but Sandro, as everyone called him, managed to find a seat, and fifteen minutes later stepped out of the train in Swindon and walked the short distance to the offices of Rail-UK, where he was working on planning the signalling system for the new high-speed railway line HS2, only the second long distance line to be built in England for over a hundred years. He had worked for the company for about ten years and was now established in a fairly well-paid senior position. Sandro was Italian by birth, but had lived in England since he went up to Camford University at the age of nineteen to read engineering. He and Dom, as everyone called his lover, had been civil partners ever since he had got his Ph.D.