When We're Together (Damon Albarn)

Chapter Ten

Friday 3rd November 2006

"Ah Mr and Mrs Albarn, please do take a seat. As you'll know I'm Miss Matthews, Missy's teacher" Damon and I did as we were told and took our seats opposite her.

I always grew irrationally worried before parents evening, it always felt like it was the be all and end all of how good your parenting was. Something which Damon and I doubted ourselves enough on as it was. Hazel and Keith had offered to watch the children so we didn't have to try and keep the three of them entertained whilst we listened to their teachers. They were originally only meant to watch them for the evening but the three of them practically begged to stay at their house and they were only too happy to oblige.

"Missy seems to have settled into year two really well, once she feels comfortable around someone she is really outgoing and confident, but she can also be incredibly shy if she doesn't know someone" I smiled softly as I felt Damon look at me, we both knew that Missy got that from me. When I was younger, and even at times now, I was the exact same.

"Missy can also grow upset and frustrated very quickly, she was reading a few days ago and she got stuck on a word. Instead of trying to break it down, she grew upset and angry with herself that she couldn't do it. So much so, that she had to be taken outside of the classroom to calm down again. She seems to put an enormous amount of pressure on herself and if she can't do something straight away then she has little faith in herself that she will be able to do it" I nodded my head slowly at her words, that was completely a Damon trait in her. It was something we'd noticed at home and we were trying our best to build her confidence up.

"Yeah, we've been trying to help her grow in her confidence as there's so many things she can do, but she seems to forget that when she's faced with something she can't do straight away" Damon told her, she nodded her head and smiled at his words.

"Does she play any instruments?" Damon and I both looked at each other and pulled a face.

"Not really" I sighed "She'll sit down with a melodica or at a piano and will happily play them, but as soon as she hits the wrong note it's game over"

"She sees Eliza and I playing and because she can't play like we can straight away she just gets frustrated. She thinks we're lying to her when we tell her that we used to be at the exact same level as her" Damon mumbled with a shrug of his shoulders "But I'm sure she'll grow out of it soon"

"I think you're best to just keep on encouraging her and reminding her just what she's capable of and we'll do the same here" She dropped her eyes down to her notes "And for someone who's had an awful lot of time off her reading really is very impressive"

"Well she reads to one of us every single day without fail, even when we're away" I told her, taking a deep breath as I tried to refrain from rolling my eyes at her little dig.

"Even more so when we're away, there's always a member of the band or part of the crew who are more than happy to read with her. So she'll read with four or five people most days" Damon interjected, I nodded my head in agreement. I couldn't help but smile at the memory of Missy walking onto the stage with a book in hand and the entire sound check being paused whilst she read a chapter of her book to everyone on the stage.

"As much as I may not personally agree with the disruption your holidays, sorry work, brings to her life I can't disagree with the facts that she is above average in all of her subjects" I took hold of Damon's hand and gave it a hard squeeze, one more comment and I was just going to loose it with her "You're clearly doing something right, you should be really proud of her, try not to worry about her confidence problems, chances are she will grow out of it, we just all need to keep on reassuring her"