A Cornish Affair

Half Term Escape

Rosie sat staring at the clock at the end of the hall. End of term assemblies seemed to drag on and on and... What was that? A bit of entertainment at last!  Nathan Briggs pulled out of his line for talking.  He was probably just as bored as the teachers, except being only 6 years old he couldn't hide it.

Another load of certificates, really?  Didn't the head teacher know they got stuffed into school bags, crumpled and soaked by leaking water bottles before being discovered at the end of July by parents finally emptying the contents shouting 'Why didn't you tell me about this?'

Rosie gazed out of the hall window across the playground. Parents were gathering by the gate, eager to collect their little darlings. Good. They could put up with them for a week. Try having 30 of them all day, everyday.  Teachers really don't get paid enough. 

She forced her attention back to the line of children at the front and joined in with the clapping for...actually Rosie had no idea what for, but joined in anyway as a pair of year 6 children began preparing for the song to end the assembly. She glanced at her watch.  Ten minutes to the bell. Fifteen until she was out of the school gate herself. There was a holiday to begin, a girlie one at that.

Chairs were up on the tables and the children were lined up by the door. The time had come. "Well children, have a lovely week and come back fresh and ready to work hard. And don't forget to do your homework. Good afternoon children."

A groan was followed by the drawn out chorus of "Good afternoon Miss Cooper."

Rosie Cooper. A primary school teacher for 12 years now and everyday she still wondered why she did it. Oh yes, the satisfaction of seeing children succeed, that was it. And the thirteen weeks holiday were rather useful too. The only problem being they couldn't be taken in term time. Many times Rosie had become very angry with people who told her how lucky she was to get so much time off. Yes, time off where you had to work for nearly half of it and if you weren't working you could pay three times more for a holiday than your none-teaching friends would pay at any other time of the year. She was so lucky!

But she'd stayed up late every night this past week to do everything she would normally have to do during her week off and now she'd seen the last of her class off the premises, she was free for a whole week.

The suggestion of a week away with the girls had been talked about since they'd all been together at a New Years party. Having been friends since university, they had been away before,  but that had been a while ago. They had made a pact as a New Year's resolution that this would be the year they'd do something about it. But Hannah had insisted that she couldn't afford anywhere abroad as she was saving for a deposit with her husband for a house, being so desperate to get away from rented accommodation.  Tina was also saving for a road trip she was taking in the summer with her boyfriend across America,  but she was still up for a girls holiday, as long as it was cheap. Claire hadn’t minded what it cost or where it was just as long as there was the promise of the odd single man or two. She'd worked her way through the whole of Bethnal Green and thought it was now time to look further afield. And Rosie,  what had she thought about the holiday? Well she'd been engaged to her boyfriend Lee for six years now. There still seemed like no sign of a wedding on the horizon to save money for. As for a house to buy, well she had one. She had two infact.  Lee was a plumber and a bit of a dab hand at DIY. They had bought a house that needed renovating just outside Lewisham in South East London for a bargain price a few years ago. They'd had dreams of doing it up together, making it there own. The furthest they'd got was fitting a new bathroom suite. Each evening and weekend when Rosie had suggested they go to B&Q and look for tiles or start choosing paint colours for the rest of the house, Lee would always say that he was tired or there was a football match at The Valley or on the television. Always another excuse. In the end she had given up. Lee continued to live was his mother who willingly washed his work overalls and his five aside team's football kit. He spent weekend nights with Rosie in the two bedroom mid-terrace house in the heart of Greenwich which she'd been left by her grandmother. What could she say?  It worked for them. Their house would get finished, one day. The same one day of their wedding maybe.