Behind The Uniform

Surprises

On the last day of term, I was holding a piece of paper with my options for year ten. They had only given us today because they wanted it to be a decision that people would have had to thought about. It had been a long process but I had finally chosen French, History and Health and Social for my main option. My school didn't really have many courses but as I was probably the only boy going to do Health and Social, I was in for a right ride. 

I handed it into the teacher as she came around. We were in our forms until the final bell rang. They had decided to let us do whatever we wanted for the last hour. She had put a film on that nobody was paying attention to. They were all talking in their friendship groups. I was just looking at my phone when she wasn't looking. No-one was texting me but we only had two minutes before the bell rang.

Those two minutes dragged but once the bell rang, I grabbed my bag and was the first one out of the door. I met Ross by the bike shed and we started to head out of the school. We had six glorious weeks of summer to do whatever we liked. 

"So did you chose your options?" I asked.

"Yeap! I chose History, Spanish and Triple Science." Ross said climbing onto his bike.

"Of course you would pick Spanish-," I stopped speaking as I saw who was standing at the front gate of the school. It was Annabelle.

She had her school uniform on which consisted of a shirt with the school logo on and a short black school shirt. She scanned people as they went past but she looked disappointed. People in return gave her odd looks. This was the first occasion I had seen her with her hair down. It was thin and limp only reaching to her shoulders and her original colour of what looked like ginger was showing. Soon she saw us and starting to run towards us.

She hugged me first picking me up off my feet. There were a few wolf whistles from a few of the other students. "Get in there, Jamie Rowland!" Someone shouted but I just ignored them. 

She then hugged Ross but it was just a quick gesture. Ross just shrugged as she pulled out of it.

"You're a horrible texter." Was the first thing she said to me. No hello or why on earth she was here. 

"Thanks." I muttered.

"Well I haven't spoken you to since your birthday. I was waiting for a text of you! It's the last day of term and I might have text you a few times but I don't think they sent."

"They mustn't have sent but how did you know where my school was?"

Ross looked sheepish. "I told her because today we're actually going on holiday."

"Yeap so come on let's get home! I really want to see you house."

I was baffled. "On holiday? When was all this organised?"

"Over the past couple of weeks, Ross has been talking to your mum about it and Teal as well. We decided to give you a late birthday present. We're only going for a week though."

I didn't deserve this girl. I didn't deserve to know her. I had never known anyone to do this for me. "You didn't have to do this. Both of you didn't have too."

"But we did, your mum and Teal have paid for it all so come on, let's go to your house like I said."  Annabelle smiled and I got onto the pegs on Ross's bike. Ross let Annabelle sit on the handlebars on his bike and it must have looked a sight. He did wobble a few times but we managed to make it home quite unscathed.

Annabelle climbed off the seat stretching her legs. "My bum has gone so sore, you should invest in some seating on those handlebars. It would serve the world a good service."