Romantacise This

Glass Beach

Jack was crying. I mean, I cried when it was my first day but not halfway through the train ride. Honestly his on and off on and off repetitive crying was getting irritating not only for myself but for other passengers. I could feel them all giving us sly looks apart from this one nice elderly lady who talked to Jack and I about the journey and kept him as comfortable as she could. Ironically she was an alum of the school and recognised the logo from a bag tag on our luggage. She offered us both a Werthers Original and began telling us stories upon stories of her hijinks (her words, not mine) she got up to whilst in attendance. I was falling in an out of listening as the poor internet meant that my music would cut in and out constantly. It was extremely annoying especially when trying to jam out to Jesus of Suburbia whilst trying to speed finish the final two chapters of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' I rolled my eyes. "Word of warning Jack, don't take English Literature A-Level" I whispered to my brother who to my glee had shut up finally. Mum had tried to reasure him before setting off despite his many, many attempts at convincing her to let him go to a regular high school. Which she probably doesn't realise she should have listened to but she isn't the one dealing with a snivelling eleven year old on a packed train to the coast. "Jack," I tapped his shoulder akin to how sheldon knocks on Penny's door in the big bang theory in an attempt to get him to just shut up. "What Ellis?"

"We're almost there, if you really don't want to be there after the first term when we go home talk to Mum and dad." I hoped that that would cheer him up whilst simultaneously knowing that it would do nothing as he'd fall into place there, I did and I'm essentially the handbook for ADHD in girls. "Ill even come with you to talk to them," Reasurance, nice, maybe I should look into therapy as a job. Kidding.

If you looked up from where we were sat the ceiling vinyl on the train looks as if you could peel back the whole thing. But, if you did then you'd be kicked off the whole train and that was the thing I wanted the least as I didn't want to have to deal with my brother in the Kirkham and Wesham train station. "Jack, we're coming up to Kirkham, only two stops to go until we get to Poulton. Gather your shit." He rolled his eyes and turned off his phone. "Jack i'm serious, I know you don't want to do this but Mum
will kill me first, then you, when she finds you." He rolled his eyes harder "Fine" he grumbled out quietly under his breath. I Grabbed my bag from the overhead shelf and tucked my book into the top and made sure I had all my stuff.

Over the intercom I could just about makeout the sound that we were almost at Poulton. I waved goodbye to the sweet old woman sat near us and hurried Jack along so he could grab his two suitcases so I could grab mine and the transition from on and off the train would be smooth. The train came to a hard halt and when the doors opened we were shoved off by the bustle of people just trying to get off the train annoyingly tutting at our ridiculous amount of luggage. We hopped off and I took the time to phone Mum.

It wasnt too much longer into the call when I had to deal with Jack complaining at me that he had to go to the bathroom - my turn to role my eyes. "Look Mum, got to go, I love you. Bye-bye!" I picked up the handles on my suitcases and anticipated the climb up the stairs to the top of the station, the bathroom
is never open at Poulton so we'd have to go to the one nearest the station. Not fun when you have a complaining Eleven year old whining in your ear every five minutes of it being too far away and how it was so unfair that the nearest toilet was a 5 minute walk away. "Give me your things Jack, these bathrooms are the silly dystopian ones where you can use apple pay to pay to piss so i'm not digging around for some change just so you can piss." He rolled his eyes, If I thought we got along before that entire train journey ended whatever sibling relationship we were working with.

"Jack, I'm phoning the taxi company okay?" No response. I rolled my eyes for what felt like one hundreth time today and dialed them up. They took forever to pick up but it was better than dealing with whatever public transport was like at Two in the afternoon up north - I knew we had to change buses atleast once but I wasnt about to complete that task with double the amount of Baggage than usual. Luckily the Taxi company was lovely about our masses of crap we were taking with us which I was so greatful for, I would've cried if they didn't let us get in with our bags. "Thankyou Jack for hassling mum for Taxi money and thankyou Dad for caving in." I muttered to myself. Jack left the bathroom and sat down on the top of his suitcase. "When's the Taxi getting here?"