Cheradine - Whole Lotta History

Chapter 1

She's awoken with mild annoyance as the sound of her phone reverberates around the darkened bedroom. She's still not quite used to being back on UK time and she curses herself for not putting it on silent. Rolling over, she flings her arm in the general direction of the disturbance, opening an eye when her first effort is unsuccessful. She stares unblinking at the name on the screen, now wide awake.

Kimberley.

That name stops her in her tracks. She hasn't spoken to the older girl in years, and things were less than amicable the last time they saw each other. The decision to disband after 10 years together was made without her and she had never felt so alienated, especially by people she considered her closest friends. Fuelled by a little too much alcohol after the final show she let them all know exactly how she felt, and in turn they did the same.

Even after all this time Nadine felt a dull ache in her chest at the memory. She regretted a lot of what she said that night and in the years that followed, it all turned into an indirect slanging match between her and her former bandmates in various interviews, the passive aggressive back and fourths never said to each other, but about each other.

She takes a deep breath before tentatively accepting the call.

"Hello?"

"I wasn't sure you were going to pick up."

"Neither was I."

There's an awkward lull.

"I just wanted to call to congratulate you, see how you're doing. Sorry I didn't call sooner, I just thought that you'd want some time to readjust back into normal life." Kimberley ends her sentence with a gentle laugh, trying to dispel some of the tension.

Nadine hadn't long been back in London after winning the latest series of I'm A Celebrity. No one was as shocked at winning as she was, she always felt she was the least loved of the band and that reflected in her solo career. Her first album failed to hit the ground running and she retreated to lick her wounds alone. She had released music since then, but none of it charted high enough to garner her any real attention.

When she went into the jungle the public got to see her, the real her, not the bitch the media had tried to make her out to be for the past 7 years. Then to her, and probably everybody else's surprise, they loved her enough to crown her the queen of the jungle.

"Thank you." She was at a loss for what else to say. What do you say to someone after all this time.

She hears a sigh from the other end of the line.

"Listen, seeing you in there it got us thinking."

"Us?"

"Me, Nicola.... and Cheryl"

Nadine feels rather than hears the pause Kimberley takes before saying Cheryl's name. She waits for the older girl to continue.

"It affected us more than we thought. It was horrible seeing what you had to go through. Cheryl even cried when you had to jump out of that helicopter."

Nadine cringes at the memory, she was usually such a scaredy-cat and the jungle pushed her so far out of her comfort zone she doesn't fully recognise the woman she was for those 3 weeks. She had no choice but to pull her socks up and get on with it, a far cry from the comfortable lifestyle she lived in London.

"Yeah well I didn't do much, not really. I was strapped to a man that gave me no choice." She returns playfully. "Besides, you'd all do the same."

"I'm not too sure about that."

There's another lull in the conversation.

"Kim, I don't mean to be rude but" She holds her breath. "Why are you really calling?"