Chapter 6

 

“I’m so happy!” I sang as I skipped up the pavement, my two friends rushing to catch up with me.

 

“Why?”

 

“It’s the weekend, I love the weekends, no school!”

 

“If you are so happy about not being at school why on earth are we hanging around in Wroxham on a Saturday?” Jemma commented.

 

Good point!  We did always seem to end up hanging around in Wroxham on our weekends, it wasn’t like it was the centre of social activity in Norfolk, it was just that it was easier to get to than Norwich.

 

Wroxham was a village a few miles away from Horsmere, it was described by the locals as the “out of town shopping experience” and had its own branch of stores across the village, a little department store, supermarket, toy shop, garden centre and even a clothing store. Surrounding the shopping complex were lots of other little shops, mainly things that appealed to the tourists as Wroxham was positioned on the Broads.

 

It wasn’t only popular with the holidaymakers, Wroxham had a special role in the Broadland community, providing the locals with a much needed Bank, Mc Donalds and of course Jarrold High.

 

“So why are we hanging in Wroxham?” Rena asked.

 

“Newsagents,” I commented simply, “they have the best Norfolk Fudge for miles.”

 

I grinned at my friends and lead them into the tiny newsagent that had become my sweet heaven during the last few months. 

 

The one plus point about being a prefect was that you got to go down to Wroxham during lunchtimes, meaning that I had discovered the newsagents and had been able to meet my sweet addiction… of course this had backfired and I had now become so addicted I had started coming down at weekends.

 

I entered, taking in a deep breath of the gorgeous sweet smell that surrounded us.

 

“My favourite smell,” I commented, taking in an over exaggerated sniff.

 

“Is a bit too sickly if you ask me,” Rena replied.

 

I ignored her, moving over to the fudge counter.  It was all displayed in little colourful blocks, labelled with a bit of cardboard.  I smiled at the lady pointing to the bits I wanted and trying not to dribble as she cut some chunks off for me and handed me the pretty pink paper bag.

 

I was in high spirits when we left the shop, I think the sweet smell had somewhat gone to my head.

 

I gave a little backwards skip as we left, smiling at my friends and chatting happily to them, not noticing the small wall that was directly behind us.  Needless to say I ended up tripping over it and ending up in a rather ungracious heap on the pavement.

 

It took my friends a good few moments to ask me if I was alright – it must have been one of those comical moments when you know that you should ask if the casualty is alright but instead your face just twists into an incontrollable grin that ends up dissolving into giggles.

 

Luckily I wasn’t too hurt, just shamefully embarrassing and so I was only too happy to suggest that we call our trip to Wroxham short and go back to my house where we were spending the night.

 

Nearly every weekend we had a sleepover, each taking a turn to be the hostess, although they were all very similar we always had a great time, and it gave us something to look forward to, pulling us through the sluggish school week.

 

When it came to my turn we always spent most of the evening hanging out in my bedroom.  I loved my bedroom, it was my pride and joy and a very cosy place to bring your friends.  It was girly, if anything I had overdone it, the walls were purple and my curtains were pink to match my bed linen – admittedly that description doesn’t sound too nice, but believe me it worked. 

 

My favourite part of the room was in the corner by my television, after months and months of nagging my Dad he had finally bought me a set of three pink beanbags.  They were perfect, we had one each and could sprawl out in front of the TV.  Now all I needed to do was convince him that he really did want to buy me a larger wardrobe!

 

On this particular occasion we all flopped down on to the beanbags.

 

“So what you want to do first?” I asked being the perfect hostess.

 

“I don’t know, what you would like to do?” Rena replied, returning the question back to me.

 

That was always so irritating, why is it that when you invite people round they never say what they want to do and you end up sitting there for hours discussing it at length?

 

Deciding to be decisive for a change I made a suggestion.

 

“How about we all throw on our PJs and then raid my dresser?”

 

This was met by many squeals of approval – if there was one thing we all loved to do it was mess around with the lotions and potions I had scattered around my dressing table.

 

After we’d all got changed we put the radio on and sat in a circle, painting each others nails and swigging from the bottles of Hooch that were sat by our sides.

 

“So what’s going on with you and Simon then?” Jemma asked, gently blowing on her nails.

 

“Nothing,” I replied quickly, “absolutely nothing.”

 

“So no Valentines then?” Rena asked, with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

 

“Nope, he’s just my mate… and why do you sound so disappointed?”

 

“I just thought it would be cool if one of us had a boyfriend that’s all,” she shrugged her shoulders.

 

“Why?”

 

“Well none of us have had any action for ages.”

 

I almost blushed at this point – everyone knew that I was hardly an expert in the romance department, both Jemma and Rena had had snogs in the last 3 months and I had still never kissed anyone properly. 

 

“It’s not important,” I muttered.

 

“But it is!” Jemma insisted, deciding to join in with the conversation, “I mean it’s the Year 11 Winter Dance soon and I’d quite like someone to go with.”

 

I rolled my eyes at her, not seeing the point in needing a date for a stupid school event, the whole thing seemed too American for my liking; dances, dresses and dates … this was Norfolk for heavens sake, not Sweet Valley High.

 

“You could take Sean,” Rena sniggered at Jemma.

 

Sean was the year’s rebel, he was large and rather stupid looking, he reminded me of Lurch from the Adams Family.  There must have been a brain in his head somewhere, but he always decided not to use it and spent most of the time trying to make the class laugh.  Somehow Jemma had got so drunk on Archers at the youth club a few months earlier that she had got off with him, and it was something that was very much still laughed at.

 

“I’m not taking Sean, that was a bad moment.”

 

“Bet you enjoyed it!” Rena teased, “you looked like you were from where I was standing.”

 

“Did not!  He was all rough and moved around too fast.”

 

I laughed along with Rena, although my heart wasn’t really in it, how was I an expert on kissing, I’d only ever had one and that was hardly worth mentioning as it had been nothing.

 

“Right, so you need to go with someone that can kiss.” Rena observed.

 

“Oooh Ben Adams please!” Jemma piped up.

 

“And how do you know that he can kiss?” I asked, annoyed that yet again the conversation had come round to him.

 

“Well of course he can,” Rena retorted, “you’ve only got to look at him, he’s gorgeous.”

 

“Doesn’t mean anything,” I muttered.

 

They both eyed me in curiosity.

 

“OK then, come on, spill the beans, as the only person here that has snogged Ben what was he like.”

 

I shuddered as my mind went back to that cold January evening a few years back, it was awful to think that I had shared my first intimate moment with him.

 

“It wasn’t a snog!” I protested, “it was nothing at all, a little peck on the lips and that was it.”

 

“I wouldn’t mind just that from him,” Jemma sighed, a dreamy look taking over her face.

 

I ignored the conversation that was developing in front of me, personally I wasn’t really interested in how fit Ben was or how beautiful Kelly Homer looked.  Instead I turned my attention to the my video shelf and began to scan it for a film to watch, may be if I just threw one into the VCR and turned the lights out they’d shut up and watch it.

 

Finally settling on “Clueless” I threw it into the player and started to rewind it.

 

“Ooooooooooooh” Jemma leapt up from her beanbag and ran over to the window, Rena close behind her.

 

I knew immediately what they were doing. 

 

The boy wonder had obviously decided to leave his house.  I glanced quickly at the window, as usual he was just standing outside posing, as if he knew there were people watching him. 

 

Tutting I turned my attention back to the video.

 

Both my friends had now stood up and were pulling their clothes on.

 

“What on earth are you doing?” I asked, unable to ignore the fact that they were both heading towards the bedroom door.

 

“We are going to go and see Ben,” Rena winked.

 

“You are going to talk to him?” I asked in disbelief.

 

Chuckling Jemma shook her head.

 

This was when I realised that all they were going to do was walk casually past him, hoping for a smile or recognition.

 

Although angry, I decided not to stop them, and with a wave of my hand let them leave my perfect little sleepover and go outside onto the freezing road below.

 

Shutting the curtains I wedge a hole in them so I could look outside without being seen.

 

He was still standing there, causing my anger to increase.

 

I scowled down at him, how was it that one person had so much control over people?