Jade found herself wandering to the same spot in the same park everyday. There she would sit under the same tree and let her mind free on her page. She'd draw anything whether it would be something in her mind or something in front of her. This was her way of expressing herself and the only way she knew. You see, Jade wasn't very sociable. She wasn't going to the park to hang around with her friends and discuss her day with them. She would come to the park alone to just be alone.
She'd see a lot of the same people that would always come to the park. She'd see a group of women on a Wednesday that would come through in their gym gear as if they were having a mid life crisis. All of them struggling to keep up the pace running by her. She'd see the same Mums bring their children to the park to play and the Mums sit and have a casual conversation. But there was one group of people that came to the park that Jade always watched. When they entered she would move further into the shadows so they wouldn't spot her. She'd watch how the group wandered in causally going to their same spot. They'd go to the same spot and sit down. There was 3 girls and 2 guys. The 2 guys who she knew the names of due to them attending the same college were Claudimar and Luke. Both were very athletic as they studied Dance. One of the girls was Leigh-Anne Pinnock and she knew her because she lived on the same street as Jade did. However the other two she wasn't on name terms with. One was a brunette that just screamed confident. She looked like the glue that held the group together and would often be the one causing the rest of the group to laugh. She looked like she had a great sense of humour and could really have you in stitches. The final girl was the one that Jade always waited to see. She would be trailing behind the group due to her dog dragging her towards something he wanted to sniff. The girl would often shout Hatchi at the top of her voice and "bad boy, don't sniff that" whilst trying to catch up with her friends. The group would pull out their blanket and throw it on the ground along with several cans of beer and cider. The blonde girl would let Hatchi off the lead and play fetch with him whilst casually drinking a can of beer. The group would sit there for a few hours whilst Claudimar and Luke would be doing flips and cartwheels often trying to teach Leigh-Anne who would fail miserably. Jade would find herself laughing at Leigh's clumsiness.
Jade wished she had that type of group around her that she could hang round with. That would support her but at the same time make her laugh. She found herself sketching the group and trying to get each individual right. Previous weeks she'd drawn the blonde girl for the simple reason she was besotted with her. She really liked her. She'd drawn Hatchi too with his ball or chasing after it. She carried on sketching and had a rough drawing down within an hour. The drawing had Claudimar doing a hand stand with Leigh-Anne watching from the side lines. Luke stood with a can of beer in his hands whilst Jesy laughed at them from on the blanket. Perrie often looked separate to the group too interested in Hatchi and what he was doing. So Jade drew her stood at the side throwing the ball for Hatchi. You could tell Jade was studying art and one day would have a degree in the subject. She was super talented.
Jade carried on shading the background until she felt something hit the side of her leg. She looked and saw a ball. Panic hit her as she knew it was the ball that belonged to Hatchi. Before she could even process what to do she looked up to see Hatchi running towards her. She grabbed the ball and was about to throw it in the opposite direction when Hatchi jumped onto her lap and started to lick her face. Jade wasn't overly keen on dogs so having him so close to her made her feel uncomfortable. Jade didn't know what to do so just covered her face with her hands as the dog carried on nuzzling her and trying to get Jade to pat him.
"HATCHI" Jade heard a voice call "come here now!" Jade knew it was the blonde girl and just hoped the dog would listen to his owner. Jade grabbed the ball off her lap and threw it to try and get the dog to follow it. Hatchi wasn't interested and instead sat down on Jade's lap.
"I'm so sorry, he's so naughty sometimes" Jade heard the blonde say. She quickly started to panic and covered up her drawing with her pencil case hoping the blonde wouldn't see her drawing. "Hatchi, come here". The dog carried on not listening and the blonde girl soon was next to Jade grabbing the dog off her lap and putting him on his lead. "I'm so sorry".
"It's fine, don't worry about it" Jade said quietly avoiding eye contact.
"I didn't realise there was anyone here or I wouldn't have thrown the ball in this direction. It didn't hit you did it?" She asked.
"No" Jade replied whilst fiddling with her hands.
"Okay good, are you alone? You can come sit with us if you are its just me and my friends?" Perrie asked.
"I erm, yeah-no. I'm ok" Jade stammered.
"Was that a yes to coming to sit with us or being alone?" Perrie asked bending down to Jade's level and resting her hand on Jade's knee.
"I'm alone, but I'm fine" Jade managed to say without stammering.
"Oh ok, I'm Perrie by the way!" Perrie smiled. Jade instantly thought about how the name suited her so much. Perrie looked like she wanted Jade to reply and Jade again started to panic.
"Oh, Jade. I'm Jade Thirlwall" she said with a small smile. Jade had barely finished her sentence when she heard Leigh-Anne running towards the pair.
"Perrie! There you are, oh hi Jade" Leigh smiled and Jade was surprised she knew her name. Jade smiled whilst letting the two hopefully leave her.
"Sorry, I threw the ball and it came over this way. Hatchi then decided to attack Jade with kisses" Perrie laughed "how do you know Jade?"
"She lives on our street. My Mum sometimes speaks to her Mum when she drops me off at college" Leigh said.
"Still getting dropped off cause you can't pass your driving test" Perrie laughed.
"Oh leave me alone Mrs I passed first time" Leigh said whilst sticking her tongue out at Perrie. Jade was envious of how easily they spoke to each other and how they could make jokes.
"I just invited Jade over for a beer" Perrie said.
"Oh! Yeah come on Jade, there's plenty" Leigh said whilst grabbing Jade's hand and tugging her up. Jade forgot about her sketch pad and pencil case which soon the contents fell to the floor. Jade panicked as these were her best pencils and dropping them damaged the lead. She instantly scrambled to the floor and picked up the contents whilst Leigh helped her. She then went to look for her sketch pad but couldn't see it. She then looked towards Perrie who was scanning the page.
"Shit" Jade cursed.
"Did you just curse" Leigh laughed.
"I erm, I'm sorry. I know this makes me look like a creep. I-er" Jade stuttered.
"A creep? Jade these are great. I mean I would have liked to have known there was a girl sketching my friends and me. But wow these are so good" Perrie said flicking through the pages. Relief seemed to flood through Jade's system as Perrie wasn't scared by Jade's drawings. Luckily Jade had kept them professional and hadn't made the drawings look like love notes.
"Oh my gosh, I love this one of Hatchi" Perrie smiled "come on let's go get a beer and you can show me more". Leigh grabbed Hatchi's lead and ran back over to the blanket whilst Perrie and Jade casually strolled back over.
