365 Days (20 page)

Thank God it’s Friday! I’m knackered! We’re only two weeks into term and I’m fed up with it all already. At this rate, I’ll be booking myself into some health spa by Christmas and demanding that comely maidens feed me grapes by the pool. Instead of that, I had to content myself with sitting in my bedroom till 9:30 tonight doing History coursework and answering texts from Ems asking me if Hitler was Austrian or German, and was his moustache real or had someone drawn it on in the book she was reading? If she doesn’t know something as important as this by now, how the hell is she ever going to pass her exams?

Saturday 22 September

Had a brilliant day with Han today. Weather was great, so we took a picnic and headed off to the woods at the back of the house and hid ourselves away deep in the copse so we could have some privacy. The sun was shining down through the trees and we spread a rug down and lay out on it and I felt so darned contented, I think I could have cried.

Han was stroking my hair and telling me how much she loved me, and I felt so wanted and protected by her. I love her confidence and the security she gives me, and I love the fact she loves me and I love her. It feels so real, so grown-up! Han’s like the final piece of the jigsaw. I feel happy. Free, like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders ’cos I now know exactly who I am. It’s like all that worry over J, over Ben and, I suppose, over Alice has all been for nothing ’cos at last I’m deeply, madly, in love with someone who loves me just as deeply and madly back!!

Went to bed feeling VERY loved up!

Sunday 23 September

Went bowling at the Multi-Plex with Han, Ems, Ryan, Marcie, Charlie, and Caroline this afternoon. Alice came too but did her best to ignore me all afternoon, I noticed. I can’t say I cared too much, ’cos I was too busy looking at Han, who has recently rediscovered her EMO roots and so came dressed looking like she was the living dead, decked out from head to foot in black, with a studded choke chain round her neck and matching wristbands, joined together by a long chain. Charlie looked dead scared of her, like she was going to bite his head off or torture him slowly or something, the wimp! I think maybe Goth gear isn’t the best thing to go bowling in, though, ’cos I noticed Han getting narked ’cos her accessories were getting in her way. She finally conceded defeat and removed her ankle-length black leather coat, oversized jumper, and the wrist chains, which she said were interfering with her swing.

Han’s like, still tanned from Portugal and she was wearing this dead tight T-shirt which made her look sexy as hell. I noticed Ryan giving her admiring looks (all this while Ems’ eyes bored into his back like some kind of laser beam) and I felt this flood of smug satisfaction that she was mine and not his!

Came back from bowling early ’cos had, like, three hours’ worth of homework to get done for next week. It’s so unfair to work us like this; if school kids had a union I’d be a fully paid-up member, I’m telling you!

Monday 24 September

Henri asked us in French today whether any of us had been to France during the summer. Bethany Jones meekly put her hand up and Henri flung his arms around in that tiresomely exaggerated Gallic manner of his and shouted, ‘Merveilleux, merveilleux’ at the top of his voice. He asked her where in France she’d gone and she said, ‘Calais, for a day.’ Henri seemed to deflate in front of our very eyes, poor man. So I put my hand up and told him I’d been to Brittany for two weeks, to which Henri replied, ‘en français,’ to which I replied, ‘Oui, en France.’ Fancy a Frenchman not knowing that Brittany is in France! I bet he comes from Paris.

Tuesday 25 September

Han asked me if I wanted to go over to her house after school tonight. She said we hadn’t had much ‘quality time together alone’ lately. Which meant she was probably horny and wanted to have a session in her room before her parents got home from work.

I sent Mum a text and asked her if I could go to Han’s and she just sent one back saying, ‘No’, so I had to make up some story to Han about how Mum wanted me to help her with something tonight.

I don’t want Han thinking my mother is some trussed-up fascist. I have standards.

Wednesday 26 September

Had a mock listening test in Spanish today. It was okay. It helped that the narrator spoke in a really slow voice, and in a really obvious English accent, so I was able to ascertain that:

• Yes, the weather
  will
  be nice tomorrow. We will go to the beach.
  
• Ah, thank you! The train will leave in ten minutes from platform one.
  
• Pablo wanted an orange juice, please.
  
• Maria-Theresa’s father is a teacher of Mathematics, and
  
• Rafael lives in Madrid with his mother, father, sister, and a dog called José (at least that’s what it sounded like—although José doesn’t sound much of a fun name for a dog. I wonder what the Spanish for Barbara is?)
  

Thursday 27 September

Went into town after school tonight to buy a present for Han’s birthday. There’s this clothes shop that she likes to go to called Goths and Cloths, so I went there in the hope of finding something suitably black and scary. The guy behind the counter looked at me suspiciously ’cos I was still wearing my school uniform, but I would have thought he was well used to seeing people in school uniforms (even the 30-somethings). I saw a T-shirt that said, ‘Dip Me in Chocolate and Throw Me to the Lesbians’, which made me giggle. I was sorely tempted to buy it, but then thought it wasn’t really the sort of thing I could wear to do the weekly supermarket shop with Mum!

Anyway, for Han, I plumped for a black bandana, a new pair of black sweatbands with a skull and crossbones on it ’cos I know that her brother Joe nicked her other ones and she hasn’t had the heart to take them back off him. I also got her a leather necklace with big black, green, and white beads on it. Had a crisis on the way back down through town that my presents were crap, so went into the Virgin Megastore and got her a Green Day CD with my last tenner. Spent a flipping fortune on her, but I figure she’s worth it.

When I got home, Mum was in the kitchen and asked me what I’d bought her. When I showed her all the Goth gear that I’d bought, she just sighed and said, ‘Y’know, Han’s such a
pretty
girl. Why does she live in black all the time? A nice bright jumper would show off those lovely eyes of hers.’ I sighed impatiently and said, ‘Mum, she’s a
Goth.
Goths don’t do colours! Don’t you know
anything
?’

She clearly doesn’t [/exasperated/].

Friday 28 September

Han’s seventeenth birthday! How I would have loved to have woken up next to her on her birthday, but I had to content myself with sending her a ‘Nappy Birfday’ text first thing. Went over to her house before school to give her her presents. When I got there, she was beaming with excitement, ’cos her mum’s told her she can get her eyebrow pierced! She’s soooo lucky! Mum and Dad would, like,
never
agree to me ever doing anything like that! The only concession is that Han’s mum said she’s got to get it done during half-term so it can have a chance to heal, ’cos she’s not allowed to wear it in school. Chance would be a fine thing! Old Mother Unwin would have a fit if she saw it anyway!

Anyway, I gave her the presents and she seemed suitably pleased. She wore her sweatband but made sure she hid it up her sleeve so she wouldn’t be told to take it off by the KGB (Unwin and her henchmen). We bought Han a birthday cake at lunchtime and sang Happy Birthday to her, and she got a bit flustered, which was well cute!

She’s going out for a meal with her mum, dad, and brothers tonight, but I’ve promised her a slap-up meal at Burger King tomorrow night.

Saturday 29 September

Went over and picked up Han from her house at around 6 tonight. Her mum was in the lounge doing her yoga (I heard straining sounds behind the door so I assume that’s what she was doing), so me and Han went to her room for a bit before going out. Her parents gave her a wicked iPod for her birthday, as well as the eyebrow piercing, so we spent some time downloading some new music onto it, then went down to town to find somewhere to eat. I thought Burger King was a bit of a naff place to go for a birthday, so we ended up at Nice Noodles, the Chinese place next door to the Unemployment Benefit office, and had a very grown-up time asking for a table, perusing the menu, and ordering our food and drinks. It descended into childishness when the chopsticks arrived, but on the whole I think we acquitted ourselves quite well over the course of the evening!

Sunday 30 September

Had a weird dream about noodles and chopsticks last night. I dreamt me and Han were in Nice Noodles and the chopsticks on our plate were dancing over the noodles, kicking their ‘legs’ like they were a Tiller Girl or something. Then the noodles slithered off the plate like worms and Cliff Richard came in wearing a matador’s outfit and singing ‘O Sole Mio’ while a group of pensioners did the conga behind him. The dream was teetering on the edge of insanity when I woke up needing a pee, so thank goodness for my weak bladder ’cos bugger only knows how the dream might have ended!

I don’t know why I keep getting these weird dreams. Apparently eating cheese before bedtime can give you vivid dreams, but I only had a handful of jam cookies before I went to bed so I can’t understand it.

Monday 1 October

Henri gave us a vocabulary and grammar test in French today. He kept telling us to write our answers down on a ‘piss of pepper’ and got very cross when we kept giggling. Such are the puerile minds of a bunch of seventeen-year-olds!

Tuesday 2 October

Spotted Alice in the corridor today and called after her. She stopped and turned to look at who had called her, but when she saw it was me, she just carried on walking!

Bloody great! I’m really trying with her but it seems she doesn’t want anything more to do with me. I feel a bit sad about it. She WAS my friend, after all, before all that stuff in France happened, and now it seems like I’ve lost her.

Wednesday 3 October

We did something about German philanthropists today in History but I got philanthropy mixed up with philately and spent the whole lesson wondering why we needed to know about German stamp collectors! I’m never gonna to pass my exams at this rate.

Thursday 4 October

Have spent the last coupla days thinking about Alice and wondering how she is. It’s been, like, nearly two months since France and she still won’t talk to me properly! She never speaks to me anymore when we’re all at school together, but doesn’t make it obvious enough so that the others will notice. But I notice. I really wish I could talk to someone—ANYONE—about it, but if I do, then everything’s going to come out, isn’t it? And I don’t feel ready for everything to come out.

It’s such a bloody mess.

Friday 5 October

Dad’s thinking about buying a new car ’cos his is too small. He’s been round some showrooms and picked up some brochures but can’t decide what he wants. He knows he wants something bigger than the one we’ve currently got, but he doesn’t want something too big, and he doesn’t want it to be a 4x4 because ‘they guzzle fuel and only wankers drive them’. Mum said to me, ‘I thought Alice’s dad drove one?’ Enough said.

Saturday 6 October

England played Australia tonight in the Rugby World Cup. We got ourselves a takeaway curry in, draped the flag of St George over Barbara, and sat glued to every minute. We won! Mine and Dad’s voices are hoarse from shouting at the TV. Mum kept telling us that the players couldn’t hear us, so why shout at the telly? She has no idea what it’s like to be a full-throttle sports fan.

Sunday 7 October

Han came over today. We took Barbara out for a walk up in the woods and held hands when we knew we were out of sight of my house. Han told me she loved me again today and I loved it! Thought for a minute about telling her about how worried I was over Alice, but I couldn’t be arsed having to explain everything, and if I’m honest, I didn’t want to spoil what was a perfect afternoon talking about bloody Alice!

Monday 8 October

Got given loads of work to do by Mr. Harman today so went to the library at lunchtime with Han, Matty, and Caroline with the intention of starting some of it, but ended up having a paper-throwing contest behind the geography books instead!!!

I figured study can wait. I’ll only be young once!

Tuesday 9 October

Dad tried to get Mum interested in the car-buying malarkey. He showed her some from his well-thumbed brochures and she pointed at one costing £24, 000 and said she liked it. When he asked her why she liked it, she said it was because it was Pomegranate Red and she liked the idea of driving a car with pomegranate in its name. Dad just picked up the brochures and walked out of the room without another word. Poor Dad! She’d probably put a brown throw over it anyway, Pa!