The Chain (A Catherine Diary) - Stamfield. Complete

Chapter 3

3

'He keeps looking over here', Gemma said, the lingering amusement in her voice from Carla's previous statement.

'Well he can look all he want', Carla said, putting a Jamaican twang on the words, 'but my girl already moved on. In fact we should get the girls together and go watch the match, show him you ain't intimidated by him'.

'I'm not sure about that', I shot back, feeling a twinge of panic.

'Gal, don't you worry yourself, Carla take care of you'.

We reached the changing block, we were the last to arrive, all the other girls had already gone in. The changing block had eight changing rooms in it. Two small ones and the rest were large, each room had to be booked out. As you entered, there was a sign indicating boys to the right and girls to the left. The smaller rooms were the closest and were used by the referees, mostly the visiting ones.

The changing room itself was a hive of activity, the two long benches at the walls were strewn with clothes, mud and dirty boots. Girls were peeling off their clothes and the steam from the showers was already misting up the room, the air was already claustrophobic from the myriad of scented shower gel and hair spray.

Gemma and I had left our bags in the corner where the benches met. Lisa, had already stripped off and the caked mud from her shorts had dropped on my bag. It wasn't an issue, just an annoyance, I liked to keep my things clean. Lisa grabbed her towel and headed past us towards the showers.

'Rubbish game wasn't it?', she said to me as she passed. I nodded. 'You played well Gemma', she stated, with a slight hint of jealousy in her voice. Who could blame her, even I was jealous of Gemma's sporting prowess.

I think this is a good time to tell you about Gemma. Gemma is one of the sweetest girls you could hope to meet, quiet, hard working and sporty. She's not very good looking, yet amazingly attractive, she has freckles, ginger hair and a body to die for. Hollywood women would pay millions to get the kind of body Gemma has. So, when they tell you a girl can't have it all, remember Gemma. She does.

'Lisa's right, you were amazing', I said as we sat next to each other, to take off our boots.

'Thanks', she said with modesty.

I forgot to add, when I turned up at college on the first day. Gemma spotted me and came straight up to me to introduce herself. So, don't be fooled into thinking she's always shy and coy, that tends to only be in large groups, or around Carla. When she's with her family or around just a couple of us, she's different. Not like Carla different, but her confidence grows, enough to hold you in a conversation.

I started to undress. It amazed me how much easier it was to get naked in front of people then. At school I hated it, I always felt as though everyone was looking at my brown skin, trying to work out what I was, because I'm sure none of them believed I was English.

That's another thing I'd like to state, just because I have some black blood in me and I look a little Asian, I still think of myself as white and most definitely English. Carla sees me different. She keeps telling me I'm a white women caught up in a black body. "Bounty bar", is the term she uses, although it's with some strange affection, which only she has the ability to convey.

I looked over to Carla, she had joined Pat, Sherry and Monica, in ridiculing Jane, our team keeper, about the nineteen goals she had conceded. Jane never took offense, she was the only one on the team brave enough to go in goal and surprisingly enough she had saved more than she conceded. It was the defense who were the issue, unfortunately that included me.

Jane picked up her towel and walked past her antagonists with a smile, towards the showers, Pat smacked her on her bare bottom as she walked past. Not an aggressive action, more an indication that they were only teasing. Jane just pushed her bottom further out, wiggled it, 'oh Pat, you're such a tease', she said and walked off.

Pat looked slightly embarrassed, but it wasn't the first time they had put on that performance and it definitely wouldn't be the last.

I followed Jane into the showers, with Gemma in tow.