Divided.

Divided. (Part 8)

Rat tat tat tat tat tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat tat ... tat ....tat ..... tat; that was the sound the stick made as it rippled across the metal bars of the school gate. Daisy was walking out of the now un-padlocked school gate towards her mother. She hadn't forgotten about what had happened at lunch time; she was still eyeing the crowd of waiting mothers for someone who looked official, someone who might be waiting to take her away; probably a man in a uniform of some sort, or a man with a cage like the child catcher in chitty chitty bang bang. She really hoped it wasn't the latter.

The little un-advanced boy was still sat running his stick across the metal bars and the noise of the clatter made her feel jumpy.

The whole afternoon had been terrible, she'd been on edge the whole time; if someone knocked on the classroom door she'd slouch all the way down in her chair and when the school bell rang she'd virtually jumped out of her skin. She'd had no choice but to leave the toilet cubical when she heard the bell that signified the end of their lunch break; if she stayed hiding she'd be punished, no other child would be punished in the way that Daisy would be for arriving late for class ... her teacher would use all the ammunition she could just to pick on Daisy.

"Any trouble today?" her mother asked giving in to the squeeze she was getting from her daughter. Daisy didn't usually give her mother hugs, not like this one.

"No mummy" Daisy said holding her mothers cuddle. She wanted to stay there forever, warm and wrapped up in her mothers cheap coat that smelt of stale cigarettes and cheap perfume. To Daisy it was like being on cloud nine.

A couple of weeks later Daisy was sitting by the duck pond in Hyde Park pilling mud in to heaped piles. She'd already put 3 or 4 ladybirds in to one of her mothers old plastic tupperware pots that they'd eaten their sandwiches out of, thrown in a handful of grass and then twisted a mountain of daisy flowers in to a beautiful (albeit scraggily) necklace. She was officially bored. The sun was at its highest for the day and if she were older she'd have been happy to sit on the grass all day like her older sister and work on bronzing her pale legs.

It was Saturday and there was nowhere for her to be other than in the capable hands of her babysitting older sister Jasmine.

"Can I go and get some water from the fountain?" She pleaded, she wasn't allowed to wonder off alone but persuading her 16 year old sister wouldn't be tricky.

"If you come straight back," she granted.

Fountains like everything else were divided. One for the un-advanced's one for the 'others.' Daisy pulled back her long sunburnt blonde hair; she could feel the skin on the top of her head was burnt because it stung badly. She held her hair as she lent forward to feel the cold water on her salty lips. She was wearing a pair of old green kaki shorts and one of Jasmine's old and plain white t-shirts, not very fashionable for a girl her age but it's all her mother could afford. The water was refreshing and at one point she made an "mmm" noise out loud.

It wasn't only fountains that were divided, shops were too, like the one opposite the fountain; it had an orange sticker in the window which meant that Daisy's 1 pound would not be welcome in that shop. Daisy was longing for a strawberry ice-cream, after all that's what her mother had given her the pound for in the first place.

"Hey," a voice whispered at the fountain a few meters away from the one she was standing at. Daisy's a smart young woman so she didn't look over because the voice was coming from the advanced's water fountain. Instead she decided to whisper, "Hi," back before taking more water in to her mouth.

"Meet me in the toilets by the duck pond café." He said and she heard his flip flop sandals as they started to flip off away.

The smart girl faded away once she'd finished her water, she was much too curious to be accountable now. And it wasn't as if anyone was watching; not like they do on the school grounds.

The toilets weren't far away, just a hop skip and a jump from the duck pond which was only 100 meters away from where Jasmine was sleeping; it wasn't as if she were wondering far. PLUS, she needed the toilet; because of all the water she'd drank so she wasn't breaking any rules in theory.

The toilet blocks were divided in to 6 as well, 2 boy, 2 girls, 2 disabled; one for each division so to speak. One big wall separated the toilet queue from the grass of the park on the other side. There wasn't much of a queue now, just a gathering of wiggly children who needed to 'go.'

Daisy thought it was nice to be standing there because the café casted a shadow on the floor and it was nice to not be subjected to direct sunlight for a while.

"Hi" his voice came from nowhere again. The last child and his mother had disappeared in to an empty un-advanced ladies toilet and as far as Daisy could tell they were alone.

"Why do you keep following me Jack?"