The Chain (A Catherine Diary) - Stamfield. Complete

Chapter 27

27

I went upstairs, showered, got dressed, brushed my teeth, spent as little time as possible on my hair, tying it behind in a plat, creamed my face and added some mascara to my eyelashes. The minimalist look, "less is more", just right for a budding sports woman like myself.

I came back down, drank my tea, it wasn't strong enough and I threw most of it away in the sink. I had expected to hear Carla usual comment about me having a black girl's butt, but she was preoccupied in thought and worried about the pendant.

'Okay, let's go', I said following her out the door and checking I had my keys in my pocket. I shut the door and as I usually do, I made sure the door was locked.

We decided we'd start our search at the college changing rooms, but on the way I wanted to find out where Carla had been after she vacated the football teams changing room.

She explained that after she left the room with Jack and Gemma, the other two boys were waiting outside for Jack. 'I think their names were Dwayne and Roger. That Dwayne was cute', I looked at her, she had her usual shine on her face, when she spoke about Dwayne, then it disappeared. I tried to remember the two boys, one was black and one was white, I guessed by Carla's reaction Dwayne was the black boy. 'Apparently, they are in the rugby team, Jack needed some extra players for Saturday's game, so they volunteered themselves. I think they were trying to persuade Jack to play rugby for them, in exchange. Anyway, Jack and Dwayne were flirting with us and we started messing around. You know, play fights, they grabbed my bag and had me chasing round after it, that sort of thing. Normally, I would have just hit one of them, but that Dwayne is fine and it was an excuse to get close', Carla had a smile on her face, at the memory, 'that was when Gemma decided she was going home, so I went with her. We walked past the bus stop and guess who was still waiting for the bus?'

I looked at her but didn't answer, it was kind of obvious who she was referring to.

'Yeah, Pat, Monica and Sherry. They had missed the bus and were still waiting for another. Anyway, I stayed there for ten minutes, until their bus came. Gemma left, she wasn't in a great mood for some reason, maybe cause dem buoys was only showing me attention', she said with a giggle.

'Where did you go after that?'

'Well, after their bus came, I went home'

'So, when did you notice it was missing'

'Last night, when I got changed for bed', she thought about it and sucked her teeth,'I didn't even notice it gone when I had my shower, after I got home'

'You had another shower when you got back?', I asked confused, even though I had done the same.

'Yeah, it don't matter if you showered in the block, I still feel dirty unless I shower at home'

I guess that sort of cleared up the confusion. Not that my thoughts were directed at that trivial matter.

'Could it be that you didn't notice the pendant missing at shower time, because you had it on'.

'No, cause that would mean I lost it at home and I search that place from top to bottom'.

I had a thought, but I didn't want to share it. I thought it better to investigate other avenues, before suggesting it might have been her mum who had taken it.