The Re-Set

Home Truths

"Olivia...what are you doing?" Caroline asked a little testily, as Felicity did meekly as she was told and sat down at the kitchen table. I was under similar instructions, after being divested of my coat and boater in the hall, but I had paused, momentarily, to shrug off my blazer.

"Taking my blazer off?" I replied, just as tetchily, trying to keep my temper but beginning to feel that I was fighting a losing battle. I had cried in the car, but I had not let Caroline or Felicity see, whilst I tried to be mature. Caroline had suggested that Beth was mature, which seemed to be her outrageous excuse for asking my best friend to keep a close eye on me at Redstone. By default, therefore, she was clearly accusing me of being immature, an insulting view that was still festering inside me, considering that she really hardly knew me. And if I started arguing with her, I realised that I risked living up to that false opinion and losing any sympathy I could expect from my dear father, when I got home. It was a much better idea to just get through the rest of the afternoon, keeping my powder dry, and then tell Dad what had happened when he picked me up. It was only going to be a couple of hours, after all, and I was the innocent party in everything, thus far, but if I got into a slanging match with his annoying girlfriend, I reckoned that I would be throwing away my tactical advantage. I intended to show Caroline Buckingham just how mature I was, and make Dad see that she was completely the wrong person for him in every possible way. I glared at her, almost daring her to do something else to add to her growing rap sheet, but she just smiled and shook her head at me.

"No, dear...you need to ask permission to take anything off...and I would like you to stay in your full uniform until you have finished your homework." She said, moving across the kitchen to my side, and pulling the striped jacket back on me, so that she could do up the stupid buttons for the third time in one day. "In fact, that is Deepdene policy, too...it helps you to concentrate on your prep and treat studying at home as part of the whole school experience..."

"I really don't need your permission to do anything...let alone take my blazer off?" I insisted stubbornly, although it sounded rather more like a helpless whine, even to me. But I did not try to stop her. I found myself being guided to a seat next to Felicity, at the large table, who was just sitting there, like the good little girl she was, presumably quite accustomed to her mother's peculiar behaviour. I was beginning to feel rather sorry for her. It was no wonder that she was such a wet fish, if her mother treated her like a toddler all the time.

"My house, my rules, Olivia...now stop being so silly and let me get you two some milk and a snack before going upstairs to do your prep." Caroline said firmly, turning back to the fridge to take out some milk and fill two large glasses. "How was your first day, Felicity? Did Beth help you find your way around, dear?"

"Yes, Mummy...Beth was so nice...she helped us a lot, didn't she, Olivia?" Felicity replied obediently as her mother put a glass in front of each of us, and then a plate full of fruit between us. There were grapes, strawberries, chunks of melon, slices of apple and oranges.

"She didn't help me...I've been at Redstone for ten years, with Beth...and we made sure you knew where you were going and weren't left on your own at lunch?" I pointed out, feeling just a little aggrieved that she had failed to mention my assistance during the day, as well as irritated that Caroline had sort of put Beth in charge of me in the first place. Beth was a very responsible girl, I suppose. I mean, I knew the real her, and she was irreverent and funny and always happy to mess around with me, but she also got on really well with all of our teachers, and tended to be the one chosen as class monitor or whatever. Dad had always said that she was just that sort of girl, whenever I moaned about my friend always getting recognised by adults, and had even once suggested that she would be a prefect, and possibly head girl, when we got older. That had annoyed me, because my mother had been head girl, and I had always wanted to match her at Redstone, because I thought that she would have been proud of me. But all adults appeared to like Beth as soon as they met her, even Caroline, who had only met her for two minutes that morning. I could feel the heat building behind my eyes, as the anger deep inside of me really started to boil and bubble. "Beth is my best friend...she doesn't look after me?"