the first time we had seen him in water and it was very entertaining. He didn’t seem to understand that coming out onto the grassy area and shaking all seven stone of waterlogged pooch wasn’t going to win us any friends though. He did completely drench a small child and Mum told me off for laughing! The parent wasn’t impressed and the kid wouldn’t stop crying. Mum told Reggie off too, but he clearly had no idea what he’d done wrong as he did exactly the same thing again two minutes later! In an attempt to prevent any more small children getting soaked we headed into the dry part of the park!
I was still laughing when we were greeted by a very cute Labrador. Reggie was ecstatic that he’d found a friend and they proceeded to chase each other around the park. We were really pleased as this was by far the best way to tire him out! We found out that the Labrador was called Bailey when his owner came running up apologising that he was chasing Reggie. We very quickly explained that this was not a problem and it was really nice for Reggie to play! Bailey’s owner seemed relieved that she wasn’t the only one with a naughty pooch as we told her about Reggie’s water related incidents. She introduced herself as Jenny and said that she had a daughter, Katie.
We introduced ourselves and Mum launched into the prepared speech. ‘We’re new to the area as I was offered a job up here that was too good to pass up so poor Danielle has had tomove schools too. We’re living on the new development near the school, which is nice, but very quiet compared to what we were used to.’ She was flawless. I nodded along and smiled in the right places as it turned out that I went to the same school as her daughter and we were in the same year.
Jenny seemed really nice and said she wished her daughter would join her on walks with Bailey. Mum was in full flow and they were talking for ages while I wandered off and entertained myself with the dogs. Reggie was in his element and it was so nice to see him playing. I looked over at Mum talking so easily to Jenny that I couldn’t help feeling a bit jealous.
On the way home, Mum said that it was really nice to just talk to someone about normal things. She said that Jenny and Katie also lived on their own and she had a similar background with Katie’s Dad. I didn’t understand how Mum could just talk so easily about something so personal! The fear started to rise and Mum must have known what I was thinking. She assured me that would never tell anyone what had happened without my permission. The speed with which the fear rose in me really took me by surprise, but I knew that Mum would never say anything. Maybe it was just nice that there are other people out there in a similar situation to us! There’s hope yet that we can make friends and build a life here. I could see that meeting Jenny had really given Mum a boost. It has to be my turn next! For now though, it’s back to reality and time to get ready for school tomorrow.
Seventeen
Today did not go quite as well as I had hoped.
When I talked to Mum about decided to sign up for the sports teams trials I had a real hope that it would be the start of something positive for me. In my old school I was on all of the teams and, looking back, I think I took it for granted. I didn’t just love the sport, I loved being around people and having a good time in the process. We did have a lot of fun and even though I did quite a lot of moaning about training in the cold or the rain, we always found something to laugh about. I was the reason for a lot of the laughter in hockey as I was very good at sprinting and then falling over as I went for the ball, I would quite often manage to find the muddiest part of the field to do this in, and end up looking like I’d had some sort of weird mud massage just without the posh spa. While I was walking to the sports building I couldn’t help smiling to myself thinking that maybe this would be the turning
I was still laughing when we were greeted by a very cute Labrador. Reggie was ecstatic that he’d found a friend and they proceeded to chase each other around the park. We were really pleased as this was by far the best way to tire him out! We found out that the Labrador was called Bailey when his owner came running up apologising that he was chasing Reggie. We very quickly explained that this was not a problem and it was really nice for Reggie to play! Bailey’s owner seemed relieved that she wasn’t the only one with a naughty pooch as we told her about Reggie’s water related incidents. She introduced herself as Jenny and said that she had a daughter, Katie.
We introduced ourselves and Mum launched into the prepared speech. ‘We’re new to the area as I was offered a job up here that was too good to pass up so poor Danielle has had tomove schools too. We’re living on the new development near the school, which is nice, but very quiet compared to what we were used to.’ She was flawless. I nodded along and smiled in the right places as it turned out that I went to the same school as her daughter and we were in the same year.
Jenny seemed really nice and said she wished her daughter would join her on walks with Bailey. Mum was in full flow and they were talking for ages while I wandered off and entertained myself with the dogs. Reggie was in his element and it was so nice to see him playing. I looked over at Mum talking so easily to Jenny that I couldn’t help feeling a bit jealous.
On the way home, Mum said that it was really nice to just talk to someone about normal things. She said that Jenny and Katie also lived on their own and she had a similar background with Katie’s Dad. I didn’t understand how Mum could just talk so easily about something so personal! The fear started to rise and Mum must have known what I was thinking. She assured me that would never tell anyone what had happened without my permission. The speed with which the fear rose in me really took me by surprise, but I knew that Mum would never say anything. Maybe it was just nice that there are other people out there in a similar situation to us! There’s hope yet that we can make friends and build a life here. I could see that meeting Jenny had really given Mum a boost. It has to be my turn next! For now though, it’s back to reality and time to get ready for school tomorrow.
Seventeen
Today did not go quite as well as I had hoped.
When I talked to Mum about decided to sign up for the sports teams trials I had a real hope that it would be the start of something positive for me. In my old school I was on all of the teams and, looking back, I think I took it for granted. I didn’t just love the sport, I loved being around people and having a good time in the process. We did have a lot of fun and even though I did quite a lot of moaning about training in the cold or the rain, we always found something to laugh about. I was the reason for a lot of the laughter in hockey as I was very good at sprinting and then falling over as I went for the ball, I would quite often manage to find the muddiest part of the field to do this in, and end up looking like I’d had some sort of weird mud massage just without the posh spa. While I was walking to the sports building I couldn’t help smiling to myself thinking that maybe this would be the turning
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