Wings

Buckingham Palace

"You wanna come back to mine?" Just a suggestion, didn't mean anything. We were both cold and tired and both had English homework, thank God we were in the same English class, if it were maths, we would have been dead. "Sure, how far is it from here?" I'd never actually thought about it before, I never really had friends over, just walked alone from school, I never realised how much danger I was putting myself in, highway on my right, Atlanta rise to my left. Jeez. "Um, well it's Kelly Park, so, a couple buildings on from Atlanta, do you mind walking?" Franny shook her head, she didn't really seemed bothered about anything, like she seemed eager to do stuff but never really minded anything. I suppose that's what made her so appealing, she was unassuming. And... Pretty.

We approached the entryway for Kelly Park, it looked quite ugly from the outside, but I just thought of it as my little place. The thing is, since I'd met Franny, it made me realise stuff. Like I'd never had anyone around me before, I'd never really been conscious of my surroundings, I thought I was too cool to notice. My house was on the outskirts, and substantially nicer than some of the others a you wade deeper into the houses. "It's not exactly Buckingham palace... Just my little house." Franny-Ruth smiled, she looked quite humbled. "It's nicer than my house." I laughed, she must live in a cardboard box or something. "Oh really? Why don't I come over tomorrow and check out your place." I would have thought, judging by her clothes she was one of those rich kids who lives in a gigantic house which stands in the middle of a small posh village and dominates all the other houses. It doesn't stand in a street like normal, middle class houses, and it's surrounded by huge trees and only the front can be peered at through a car window. I'm not usually one to judge, but this one, was more obvious than my uncle's 'secret' biscuit stash. "Deal, worst house wins." Our competition seemed a little odd, but it took our mind off other things. I took my key out of my pocket and unlocked the front door, I thought my Mum was in, I could smell her cooking. Spaghetti Bake. "Something smells good!" I thought that was better than hello to my Mum, she would have been worrying where I was. "I have a friend over, ok?" Me and Franny-Ruth were standing in the cramped hallway, it had paintings of flowers in vases and abstract expressions of fruit and stuff like that scattered around, my Mum was quite creative, she liked anything like that, cooking, painting, sketching, arranging dinners and stuff. She was in the kitchen preparing a meal. "Okay, will he like spaghetti bake?" I laughed and looked at Franny-Ruth "I think SHE will like it just fine." My Mum laughed and walked into the hallway to greet us. "Hi I'm Franny-Ruth." Franny said shyly "dinner smells great." Mum smiled she always liked being complimented. She always said she only cared about others, but honestly, who doesn't like flattery? My Mum certainly does. "Thank you Franny, I'll have you round any time." Franny smiled, I think she knew my Mum was saying that half-heartedly, but didn't want to seem rude on a first impression "That's very kind of you Mrs Edwards." My Mum pulled a duster out of her apron pocket, a little unhygienic if you ask me... But anyway, she started dusting the nest of tables we'd inherited from my great granny, mahogany... Quite rare and expensive, my Mum always tried to keep the small house clean. She smiled at Franny "Callie," Franny nodded and looked at me, I took her hand and lead her upstairs to my room, out of earshot of my Mum. "Callie's an interesting name." I laughed, she was trying so hard not to use the word weird. "It's American, you can probably hear her accent, she found love in my Dad when she came over here, then they split up, wasn't meant to last." Franny looked up at the ceiling, when I was younger and first adopted the smallish room at the top of my stairs as my bedroom I had decorated the ceiling with planets and stars, Franny smiled when she saw them, "my mum's not from here either, she's French, she doesn't really have an accent though, but she does speak fluently, she moved over when she was five, got a job, earned loads and sold her products in France, she designed shoes... She became pretty famous in France actually, she's called Fluer, typical French, I still think it's pretty anyhow. My middle name's French y'know, Celestine, my whole name's a bit of a mouthful, I suppose my last name's a little bit French, it sounds it, my Dad wasn't French... But it's not his name, when my Mum changed back, she said I should too." I flicked the space mobile I'd strung from my ceiling with my finger. "Well why's that?" Franny swallowed and sat down on my bed, starting to unbutton her coat. "My dad was an idiot, god knows where he is now."