Miss Hartwell's School Daze

Chapter 3 - We reap what we sow

It took a few days for Ceira to move her things into the flat. She got Jim to drive her over at the weekend with most of her belongings. She took the other bits and pieces a few days prior to that, on her way into work.

Her dad and nan both looked on as she drove off on that final Saturday.  She managed to stifle a sob as she watched her nan waving her hanky and walking off quickly.  Her dad just stood there with his hands in his pockets, looking lost. Jim must have noticed how upset she was because he turned on the cd player.

"What we need is a bit of the Red Hot Chili Peppers !" The cd player sprung to life with the familiar heavy guitar chords. Ceira loved this band, as Jim well knew.  She couldn't help smiling. 

"How are you getting on with the photocopying for the assembly by the way?" Jim asked wanting to help Ceira forget all about leaving her dad's.

"Yeah it's going really well thanks. I have managed to print and photocopy all the scripts and songs and we just need to have a proper rehearsal with Mr Roberts then we can see how it all fits together. " Ceira was beaming now.  Since the harvest assembly meeting with Jim at the pub, she had been like a little tornado.  She had asked Mrs Dixon if they could rehearse with the children at playtimes and some lunchtimes, and found that she was more than happy to get the children out of her hair.  

4D and 5P got on quite well, really.  There were a couple of older brothers and sisters in 5P, so there was already a camaraderie between them.  The children had gotten really enthusiastic about the assembly, realising they were quite good and wanting to show off a bit.  When they sang it sounded brilliant!

Things had been a whole lot easier now she had moved, too. The girls were so supportive in her new home.  They had sat up till 3 am the night Ceira moved in. Jim had left long before, moaning about marking that he had put off too long.  They had ordered in pizza and shared a bottle of wine.  Ceira was so glad her new flatmates were so likeable. They gasped and ooohed and aahed in all the right places when Ceira told them about her job. 

Jodie had looked at Briony and winked when Ceira mentioned how talented Jim was. She was too busy bigging him up to notice however. 

She had been in touch with her dad and nan every day by telephone and had even received lots of text messages from her nan.  She was rubbish at texting and the messages were something like : 

"hello drear"

"did you get that ?"

"hello it's me - your nan"

"hello dear hwareyou? "

"i think thatws splleld wrong that last massage "

"oh i willlll riiign you latter"

It made Ceira want to jump on the first train back and give her nan a big hug.  She waited for the next weekend to do that though.  She went round to her dad's that Sunday and had a lovely roast dinner. For as long as she could remember, her nan had cooked a Sunday roast and Ceira had eaten it.  That was one tradition that was not going to change ! 

It was good to see her dad though.  He looked so relieved that she hadn't been robbed, murdered, joined a cult or dropped out on life that he even leant her £20.00 to get something nice for herself. She immediately thought of a lovely dress she had seen that would be just right for the harvest assembly.

She told them all about it and both her dad and nan beamed with pride at their little girl looking so grown up.  Her dad knew then that it was the right thing for her, moving out and moving on. He sighed as he dropped her off that evening and watched her smile and wave as she entered her new home.