Long Tall Sally

Till There Was You

The rest of the day went by slow. It felt even more so when Julia and I were counting down the minutes till the end of the day. I went to politics on my own after lunch which was such a drag. I saw Julia waiting for me outside our human biology class, staring at her own nails. We always waited for each other outside classrooms, ever since we knew each other. After listening to the teacher who introduced herself as Edith ramble on about cells and embryos for an hour and a half, a note slid on my desk. The A4 was folded up with 'SJ' written on the upwards face. Which of course, meant it was from Julia. She always signed her notes SJ in school, because that was the initials of the popular girl who loved to pick on me, Sarah Jones. On the few times we were caught, because they were signed SJ, it was always Sarah who got into trouble which gave Julia and I great pleasure. To this day, she doesn't know it was us. I hope she never finds out. I never want to see that face again. I unfolded the paper:

7 mins. SJ xxx

Wherever Julia sat in a class, she always made sure it faced a clock so she could countdown the minutes. I sat close to the clock this lesson because underneath it, sat Paul next to his friend from lunch. He never looked at me once all lesson which made my heart sink. Maybe Julia was wrong and I was right- he was just glad to see I made it here without breaking any bones. I wrote back:

7 mins to long! Maybe we should start signing our notes. CW xx

CW obviously being the new Sarah Jones, Cindy Wheeler. I passed the note to my side and I heard Julia snort beside me, obviously realising who CW is.

"Are you okay there, Julia?" Edith turned around from the blackboard. I liked Edith. She was one of the few teachers here who treated us equally. She didn't class us by our last names and I felt comfortable not calling her 'madam'. She even let us speak quietly to each other when she wasn't talking, obviously as long as we were doing our work.

"Yes, Edith, I'm okay." Julia giggled, as did Edith. She started to scribble back on the paper before handing it to me.

You're CW, I'm SJ xxx

We always made our notes discreet incase we were caught and it was obvious that it wasn't Sarah or Cindy. I gave slight thumbs up to Julia enough for her to see. I was having doubts about going to the Casbah. Paul hadn't looked at me all lesson. Why would he want to see me there?

"Okay class, feel free to start packing up." Edith said as she began to do so herself. "Remember I want an essay a week today!" We all groaned in response.

"Are you ready to find some teddyboys?" Julia said, as she did some sort of dance.

"Yeah about that, I don't think I'm gonna go." There was some subtle sadness in my voice.

"What, why?" Julia's voice had gone high pitched as it always did when she was surprised.

"I think I'm gonna get started on this essay." I was such an awful lier and it was clear in my voice.

"That's not due till next week..." Julia's arms were folded.

I simply shrugged in response. Could I not have came up with a better reason?

"Sally..." Julia's arms were still folded. She knew me better than anyone else so she always knew when there was something more on my mind.

I simply looked at her and she knew.

"Let's walk and talk. Towards the Casbah." I gave Julia an angry look.

"And if you decide when we're close that you really don't want to go then you can get the bus home okay!" Julia said with her hands in the air. I nodded and we walked down the long and winding road that leads to the Casbah. "So, what's bottled up in that big mind of yours?"