*Chapter 10*
Seasoned
“You’ve been drinking,” Mand accused when plopped myself onto her bed after depositing our cocoa on her desk.
“Not much.”
“Your rents’ll go ballistic.”
“What they don’t know,” I shrugged, “look sorry ‘bout ‘bandoning you here, shoulda invited you up.”
“I was late back anyway, so what were you all celebrating?”
“German Grammar, we had four hours today.”
“Yowch.”
“And the rest.”
I blame the vino but my resolve on the matter of the new job opportunity er dissolved and I spilt some slightly embroidered beans to my companion.
“Counts me out,” she sighed.
“Why?”
“Er no Kostüm?”
“You can borrow one of mine,” I offered.
“And be constantly fretting over spilling stuff on it and let’s face it, Gab, I might get away with it on a one off but I’m bigger than you.”
“Not that much.”
“Enough that I couldn’t wear one of yours for very long.”
“Well it’s not even confirmed yet, it might not even happen.
“Yeah, so you going to bed, some of us need our beauty sleep,” she hinted.
“Good luck in Barcelona,” I offered to Mum the following afternoon.
“Thanks, wish we were flying, I’m not looking forward to best part of two days driving.”
“Better than school,” I suggested.
“Amanda, can you try to keep my daughter out of trouble?”
“I’ll try, Mrs B.”
“And you, try not to get dyed, pierced or painted anymore before I get back.”
“I’ll wait until your home then.”
“You should clean that with salt water or it won’t heal properly,” she added.
“Eh?”
“Your nose? It looks nice but it won’t if it gets infected.”
Bum! I’d forgotten all about my newest hole, Jules hasn’t been home since Monday to take it out and, well I’ve just got used to it.
“That was Jules on Sunday, I thought it was glued on.”
“I thought your sister probably had something to do with it.”
“I tried taking it out but it’s got some weird catch or something.”
“Let’s have a look.”
It’s not the ideal position to be in, head thrown back with your mother looking up your nostrils! Hope there’s no big bogie up there.
“I see,” Jenny did indeed see, there wasn’t anything preventing the stud being pulled out, no catch, no barb, no clip – the only thing keeping it in place was Gaby. “I can’t work it out, you’ll have to get your sister to do it but in the meantime, keep it clean.”
“Yes, Mum.”
Beep, beep!
“That’ll be me, I’ll ring when we get there.”
Me and Mand went out to wave the girls off, they’ve got the dubious pleasure of a 1300km ride in the team bus with George, Petra and Mike are taking the bikes in the van.
“Your mum’s right,” Mand opined, “you really should keep it clean, one of the girls had to have half her ear cut off because it went septic after she got it pierced.”
“Gross!”
“You’d look a bit weird with half a nose, come on I’ll do it now.”
“Yes, mum,” I sighed following her back indoors.
“Ah girls, thank you for coming.”
The summons to the Head’s office Thursday lunchtime was, to say the least, out of blue. At least it wasn’t just me, the rest of the Angels were with me as I nervously entered the room.
“Find yourselves somewhere to sit, glad to see you’ve consigned those shorts to a more appropriate setting, Fraulein Bond.”
Sugar, she saw those flippin’ shorts!
I know you are in the middle of your exams and that you’ll have left us by then but I have been asked by the Governors to put a proposal to your little collective, I know you aren’t all here but I need to sound you out.”
“About what, Miss?” Steff asked.
“Oh sorry, the Weihnachts Market. I’m aware that your fundraising efforts the last couple of years have been off your own backs – and fantastic they’ve been. Well the school, that is, the Governors and myself, well we’d like to sponsor your stall at this year’s market.”
“How’s that work?” Pia queried.
“Well for starters we can get a stall booked now so you can get a better position but we’d also be responsible for promoting your efforts.”
“I don’t mean to sound ungrateful,” Steff started, “but what’s in it for the school? What do you want in return?”
“Ah yes, the catch, there’s always a catch isn’t there. Well we get connected with good works and, well we’d like to ‘apprentice’ a couple of students to you. Between you, you get things done, it’s not gone unnoticed by the powers that be and we’d like to tap into that ability.”
“But we do it because we want to,” I pointed out.
“And we don’t want to change that, we can help by making some things a bit easier for you, the students would be extra hands of course but we’d hope that they’d pick up some useful skills.”
“When do we need to decide about this?” Con enquired.
“Well the sooner the better of course, clearly you have things to discuss between yourselves, shall we say a couple of weeks? Easter?”
Steff took on the job of mouthpiece for the Angels, “Okay Miss, we’ll talk to everyone and let you know by Easter.”
“Excellent, I’ll get you a draft proposal, you can pick it up from Claudia in the morning. Thanks for coming ladies, and Gaby?”
“Yes, Miss?”
“The purple hair really didn’t suit you.”
“No, Miss.”
“What was that all about? I mean, really?” Pia asked as we rescued our steeds from the bike sheds.
“No idea,” Nena opined.
“What do we do?” Con queried.
“I guess we should get everyone together for a meeting,” Steff suggested.
“We’re all here,” Bridg noted.
“We should include the lads, and Anna,” I added, “they put a lot into it too.”
“You get the lads, Gab, I’ll talk to Anna.”
“When?” Con started, “and where?”
“How about mine after school, Tuesday?” I offered.
“Suits,” Bridg allowed.
“Tuesday afternoon at Gab’s then,” Steff confirmed.
I grimaced at the reflection of my chest; I thought this tattoo thing was temporary just wait until I see Jules!
“Hello! Anyone in?”
Talk of the devil.
“Up here.”
A moment later my sister’s head appeared in the doorway to my eyrie, “Heya, wasn’t sure if you were home yet, you want a cuppa?”
“I thought you said this tattoo thingy would come off?”
“It will, I use them all the time.”
“Well I’ve rubbed myself raw and it’s made no difference.”
“Weren’t you listening Sunday, I guess not, anyway it looks cute on you.”
“No it doesn’t it looks cheap.”
“Come here, you got some baby oil?”
“In the cupboard.”
“Sit,” she instructed.
It took her about sixty seconds to remove what I’d been scrubbing at for four days.
“I thought you said it would wash off.”
“Not with water, they’re supposed to stay on for up to a month unless you use the right stuff, I did tell you on Sunday.”
“And what about this?” I pointed at my nostril.
“You’ve still got that in? It does look good doesn’t it?”
“I can’t get it out.”
“What’re you talking about, let me look.”
She leant in for a look, “Looks like it’s just about healed, when we did Kirsty’s at that sleepover it went a bit manky, it took about a month for it to heal.”
“Kirsty in Warsop?”
“How many do you know? Anyhow yours is fine.”
“So it won’t come out?”
“Course it will,” she tugged and with a slight ‘pop’ it came free, “see?”
“So why couldn’t I get it out?”
“Dunno, you could put something else in if you want, I bet you’d look good with a sleeper in.”
“I do not want a ring in my nose,” I stated.
“Okay, just saying, hang on then.”
I must be losing it, before I could argue the stud was back in my nose.
“Tea?”
She’d made her escape before I could react, I’ll get you Juliette Bond!
“You got rid of the tattoo then,” Mand observed finding me in the kitchen making a sandwich before going to Garde.
“Yeah, apparently it was waterproof, you take it off with baby oil.”
“Wouldn’t’ve thought of that, keeping the stud then?”
“She was gonna put a ring in,” I huffed.
“That could look good, I’ve got some tiny gold ones if you want to try.”
“I don’t ‘want’ this.”
“So why’ve you still got it in?”
She’s got me there, “Dunno.”
We did the ‘Ring circuit Saturday morning then I was off for my last Saturday afternoon shift at the bakery, I start doing the early shift next week.
“Feels like the end of an era,” Con mentioned as we cleaned up.
“Why’s that?”
“Well you changing shifts, it seems like we’ve been doing this together for ever.”
“I’ve done early shifts before,” I pointed out.
“But you still did Sundays then.”
“Well it’s not like we won’t see each other, I’m here nearly everyday.”
“But it’s not the same as working together.”
I hadn’t given it a second thought, I’ll probably miss working with Con too, instead I’ll be with her Mum, I guess that means no slacking! If she hadn’t said it wouldn’t have bothered me but now it’s making me maudlin.
“You want a coffee?” I suggested.
Maddy Bell 30.07.16
