School ReYOUnion

Chapter One

Remind myself why I'm even here? I mean seriously, why am I putting myself through this? Is what I so anxiously now ask myself.

Okay, so I may look nice – a big fat tick ✔

And maybe, I smell nice too – another big fat tick ✔

But alas, I'm not feeling too nice – a big fat X

Being back in the main hall of Nortonhill Secondary School, just makes me feel like the awkward teen that I was ten years ago—the smell of its historic wooden beams in the pyramidal roof, the ornate dado panelling and the beautifully-aged flooring—whisks me right back to the very first time that I had nervously walked into this place.

At the age of fifteen, we had to leave Bourton on the Water, to come and live in Bisley; a blink-and-you'd-miss-it kind of a little village in Gloucestershire, because my mum wanted to be nearer to her ageing parents. Both of my parents were accountants who worked from home, so they had the luxury to be able to simply up sticks...great for them, not so great for me.

I was settled in Bourton.

My friends were there. All of my hopes and dreams had been born there. So to leave that all behind, made me sad and vulnerable.

I was a gawky, unfashionable and spotty geek. But in Bourton, everyone had grown up with that gawky, unfashionable and spotty geek. At my old school, I could be that girl with no questions asked. I was the me, who everyone had always known. Then, I had to put that girl in a new place, in amongst new people.

That new place with new people, was Nortonhill Secondary.

It was in a nearby country town to Bisley, and would become somewhere that I couldn't wait to leave.

I wore glasses.

My dark hair was a frizzy mess.

My teeth were crooked.

Hormones made my skin greasy.

I read books...a lot of books.

I preferred Warhammer to mascara...

.....I was a geek.

A skinny geek at that. Not even the power of puberty wanted to give me a shapely butt and a half decent pair of boobs. No, I was given the gawky, butt and boob-less look.

It would be some years later before I was to discover a Push-Up bra. My goodness, what a great day that was. To look down and see that I had my very own and very real cleavage, actually had that glorious cleavage bouncing up and down in the bra fitting room, let me tell you.

Now here I am, back in the place that I couldn't ever wait to get away from. Maybe it is simple curiosity that cemented my reason for wanting to come? Maybe I just wanted to show off who I have now become? The fact is, I am here. I am here, and now feeling stupidly nervous. Eyeing the room as I slowly stroll deeper into it, I stare at the prettily decorated hall. Extravagant gold drapes hang from the ceiling, fairy lights are everywhere that I look, and music is quietly greeting all of its guests. Those who have organised this reunion shindig, have actually put a lot of thought into it.

"Rebecca Adams?"

My stomach actually rolls at the unexpected use of my name. Turning in my high heels, an apprehensive smile quickly flourishes into a warm and wide one. "Laura, it's so good to see you!" It really is good to see her. Laura and I used to be pretty good friends at Nortonhill. She was a fellow geek. A fellow awkward teen, only she had been blessed with a butt and a decent set of boobs.