Conflicted Emotions

Chapter 20: Good Times

It was 2 days until half term holiday. It felt so good having my best friends back, we did everything together, our friendship only made stronger by the separation. I still apologized to Michelle, feeling awful that she had almost slept with Spencer because of something I said. She said not to worry about it.

Because the next day we would be caught up in winter-term awards, we decided to have a group fun day. We would be going swimming, bowling, playing sports and a group lunch in town to celebrate our friendship. Today was certainly going to be a good day.

I had just got dressed into a long sleeved black tshirt with a short sleeved purple one over the top, a pair of black skinny jeans, and some purple and black checked converse. My auburn hair was tied into a high pony-tail and my sleeves were rolled up, my arms covered instead with numerous hair bands, string bands, rubber bands with slogans imprinted in (you know the ones I mean?) and a selection of multi-coloured elastic bands.

I joined Steph and we went downstairs, talking, laughing, making up for lost time.

"So!" exclaimed Martin when we arrived at our usual table for breakfast. We started heading towards the breakfast queue together, like we always did - the ten of us, all together, so no-one would get left out. "What first?"

"I think we should go swimming in the afternoon, because loads of people are going in the morning I heard," said Nina, leaning against the wall in the queue.

"Good plan. OK, movies first then?" suggested Chris.

"No! Movies after dinner, we can have an all-nighter. Considering we never manage it at sleepovers, we can do that tonight." Exclaimed Steph, edging away from the creep in the queue next to her.

"How about we have a girls/boys morning - as in us girls go shopping and you guys do whatever - and then lunch, then sports, then bowling, then swimming, then dinner, then movies?"

"Sounds good!" I agreed, high-fiving Lucy, who had spoken. We all chatted about what the day was going to be like, where we would go, who would win what sport, who would lose at bowling and where we should go for lunch. We eventually got our breakfast (full English with orange juice) and sat down at our table, bubbling with excitement. Me and the girls started talking about what shops we were going to go to, and we decided on Primark, New Look, H&M, BHS, TK Maxx, Debenhams and the shoe shop we always went in but could never remember the name of. The guys had decided they would be going to get birthday presents for various different people, and I think Forest mentioned something about getting his cousin a belated Christmas present. A very belated Christmas present.

We finished breakfast, ditched the remainder and went to go and get our money and stuff to go out. We met the guys downstairs and walked towards the school entrance, looking forwards to freedom. As we stepped out into the pavement, Lucy and Michelle, in an act of madness, skipped forwards with their arms in the air, laughing and shrieking. The rest of us looked at each other like 'oh my god do we really know these people', but we were smiling - we loved them really. However, the moment was spoiled when I heard Jamie's unpleasant, unwanted voice behind me sneer,

"Oh look, Jess, your friends are complete freaks. Why did you want them back in the first place?"

"At least I've got friends," I said breezily, and skipped off following my mad friends. Nina and Steph followed shortly, deciding it would be fun, and we laughed and joked around together, leaving an unhappy and fuming Jamie behind.

**

Soon enough, the nine of us had entered the streets of London. Lucy had spotted her all time favourite shop. This was bad news for us - more specifically, our eardrums.