Seasons of the Heart

Spring

SPRING

"School's out for ever!" A group of kids sang loudly as they left school for the summer holidays. There was a lot of 'egging' going on - that is all the fifth form leavers were having eggs and flour thrown over them. Many had stripped off their uniforms and were having a ceremonial fire until a teacher caught them and made them put the bin out.

"Stupid boys!" Stacey, a fifth form leaver herself, said to her best friend, Jenny.

"What do you expect? They haven't got a brain cell between them." Jenny replied. "Well I am glad the exams are over, now for eight weeks of unbridled bliss. You going anywhere on holiday Stacey?"

"Nah. Mum can't afford it this year. Are you still going with your parents to Ibiza?" Stacey asked with a tinge of jealousy.

"You bet, I can't wait, but it's not until the end of August so we will have a few weeks to hang out." Jenny replied, feeling bad for her friend who would not get time away from this boring town.

"Fancy coming down the 'rec' (Recreation Park) later and see whose about?" Stacey said changing the subject.

"Suppose... nothing else to do in this dump of a town. See if you can pinch some of your Mum's wine that she makes... I bet she won't miss one bottle." Jenny asked hopefully.

"Dunno, Jen..." Stacey didn't like her Mum's wine and she would be punished if found out.

"Go on Stace, we can have a good 'ole drink to the summer hols" Jenny replied trying to encourage her.

"If she finds out she'll ground me forever!" Stacey objected as her friend was now becoming annoying.

"Oh well, if you daren't... I suppose we will have to go beg someone at the shop to buy us some. You got any money?" Jenny asked. Stacey knew she was not about to drop the subject, it was the last day at school after all.

"A bit, I'll see what I can do. Meet you at six by the bus stop okay?" Yet another subject change which Stacey fit in before they parted ways.

"Yeh, whatever!" in Jenny's best imitation of her heroine Catherine Tate.

They had reached the street corner where they went different ways. Stacey headed left towards her Mum's council flat, and Jenny turned right towards the footbridge that went over the train tracks, towards a more up market area of this relatively small town.

It was an 'everyone knew everyone' kind of town and everyone knew which side of the tracks they heralded from. It didn't bother Jenny where her mate came from, but her parents were constantly going on at her to choose a friend more suitable and not one who constantly got her into trouble.

Stacey and her Mum lived alone; her father had never taken any interest in her. She was the result of a fling, a one night stand, and not true love. Stacey was determined not to end up like her Mum; she was going to hang on to her dream of finding the perfect boyfriend and true love. She was saving herself for the wedding night - a virgin.

Jenny howled with laughter when Stacey talked about her slushy romantic ideas. She had admitted to her romantic friend that she had sex for the first time when she was only fourteen, but it had been a quick, unsatisfactory experience. In Jenny's world, practise makes perfect, so she kept on practising. She bragged to Stacey how she had done it on her Mum and Dads bed with one of her cousins. Stacey was horrified but kept Jenny's secrets as she was one of the 'popular' girls at school and she always looked out for her. Even when Jenny's parents placed the blame for her bad behaviour on her, she still stuck by her.

Now everything was set to change, the exams were over and depending on her results; Stacey hoped to go to college to do a photography diploma. Jenny was staying on in sixth form to do three a' levels and then go to uni (university) as planned for her, by her parents. But Jenny had no ambition for the future; she was a today person and tomorrow could look after itself. Where Stacey struggled for everything in life, Jenny had everything set out before her, like a pick and mix sweet counter and she did not care one bit, however much money her parents threw at her, to make her toe the line.