A Love Like War

Chapter 2

Roxanne woke up nice and early the next morning. She wanted to be prepared for the shopping trip. George would need all new uniform, and shoes. But Roxanne also wanted to treat him to a new school bag and stationary. He personally wasn't that bothered by stationary but she thought it would be nice to start a new school with all new everything. She also quite liked buying stationary for the sake of it so she was glad she finally had a reason to.

Roxanne wrote herself a little check list for all the items she needed:
Pens,
Pencils,
Rubbers,
Pencil sharpener,
Highlighters,
Ruler,
Protractor,
Compass,
Calculator,
Pencil case,
Back pack,
Shoes

George was sure to put up a fight about all the items for his pencil case alone, but she didn't care, they would come in handy, if he didn't loose them within a week. She didn't want him to be using one random pen pulled from the depths of his bag for the majority of the year.

Roxanne knew there was a school uniform shop they could get everything else from, so that would make it easy enough. Roxanne then started to prepare breakfast. Jamie still wasn't up yet either, so she thought it would be nice to make him some too.

Coffee on, bacon and sausages in the grill, Roxanne put the radio on quietly and danced around the kitchen. She buttered the bread and cut the sausages in half when they were cooked. Roxanne put together three bacon and sausage sandwiches, with a little bit of ketchup and pepper in hers and poured herself a cup of coffee. She made a cup of tea for George and Jamie before laying them on the table and going upstairs to alert them both to breakfast.

"George!! Time to get up, we have a busy day, breakfast is on the table, don't let it go cold!" She called as she knocked on her door.

Roxanne knocked on her dads door and also alerted him to the fact breakfast was on the table. Roxanne returned downstairs and started to eat her breakfast, singing along to the radio in her head. She hadn't spent too much time thinking about how weird it was to be back. But now she was alone and there, it felt very weird. Familiar but foreign at the same time.

She had left when she was 16, without looking back. She had been happy to leave her adolescence behind and start fresh in a new place. This hadn't quite worked out as well as she had hoped, though. Not long after finishing college, her new friends moved away and they lost contact. She went straight to working as uni had never been in her plan.

Roxanne spent the next 5 years bouncing from retail to call centre jobs, anything to bring in a little extra cash to save up and eventually buy a house. She hadn't exactly been that happy with how things had turned out, but then she never really had a plan, so she couldn't complain, really.

Jamie came downstairs first, smiling at Roxanne as he sat down to eat his breakfast.

"If you need any money or anything for George's new uniform or anything, just ask. In fact, just take my credit card." He said, grabbing his wallet from the key/misc bowl on the table and taking his card out, passing it across the table to Roxanne.

She smiled in thanks, "Lovely thanks, I'll get us lunch as well then!" She laughed while putting his card into her own purse, Jamie shook his head while laughing along too.

George came down the stairs and joined them at the table, a comfortable silence had fallen among them as the radio played quietly in the background. Once breakfast was finished, Jamie started to clear the table.

"What is your plan for the day then?" Jamie asked Roxanne.

"Well, firstly head to get the school uniform, I already have the the list of requirements for the year. Once that is done, head to Clarks, and get some new shoes. And then depending on time, maybe stop off for some lunch before getting sport shoes and new stationary." She replied.