winter's weather ~fransykes~

1992

I was bored out of my mind, we had been in this stupid car for ages! Mummy and daddy said this was going to be a fun trip but I wasn't really having much fun. I pouted as I leant back in my booster seat. Elissa was next to me, listening to the spice girls on that stupid pink iPod of hers. I wish I had an iPod, but mummy said I had to wait until I'm 8 like Elissa to get one, which is so stupid!

"Joshua stop fidgeting." My mum scolds from the front seat. "We've only got half and hour to go until we got to grandmas house."

I waited until she had turned around before I stuck my tongue out at her. I hated it when we visited grandmas house, it was all the way in France, which was a really really long trip from our house in London. Also, everyone spoke really weirdly here so I never knew what anyone was saying.

Every year we spend two weeks at grandmas house for Christmas, which I think is stupid but mummy says that grandmas will get lonely if we don't come see her. I liked my grandma but I didn't like spending ages in a car; hungry and bored.

I felt my eyes start to well up with tears as the hunger and tiredness started to get to me. We had set off at 3 o'clock in the morning and now it was mid afternoon, so I was pretty shattered. I didn't help that Elissa was now poking me with her finger, stopping me from taking a nap.

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After a very long car journey, we finally arrived at grandmas house. It was in a small village of big houses just outside of a place called Lille. Behind the houses was this big lake that me and my sister would swim in during the summer. When I was a baby my grandad use to take me and Elissa out on the lake in his speed boat, but I was pretty young so I don't really remember that now.

My grandma still owns that boat, but it never goes out of the lake anymore. In the summer I asked her she still has it and she said she just couldn't bare to get rid of it now that grandads gone. I'm not sure where grandad went but I hope he comes back soon so that me and Elissa can go on the boat again.

Grandma comes rushing out of her house, along with her dog that is even bigger than me. I stay in my booster seat, afraid of the big dog that is now jumping up at my mummy. Grandma comes over to me and lifts me out the car and happily wrap my arms around her neck, breathing in the smell of bread that always hung around my grandma.

"Wow Joshua you've gotten so big! I can't believe my little boy is almost 7 already." She said, making me happy. I can't wait to be all grown up like her and mummy and daddy.

"I think Josh needs a nap, Hetty." Said mummy to grandma. Grandma laughed before taking me into the house and up the stairs to the room that me and Elissa shared. She placed me down onto the bed near the window, kissing my forehead before pulling the curtains shut, instantly making the room dark.

"Get some sleep honey, later the new neighbours are coming round for tea and they are bringing their son round who is about your age so that you can play together." She smiled.

I nodded sleepily before shutting my eyes.

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I held my toy car close to my chest as I hid in the bathroom, scared to talk to the adults that I could hear talking to my family downstairs. They were speaking in that funny language again, meaning I couldn't hear anything they were saying.

"Joshua, Joshua! Come downstairs now." My mummy yelled up at me, I didn't budge an inch, instead staying where I was hidden in the bathroom. I closed my eyes tightly, imagining I was back at home in my room with my friends and my pet cat and not here hiding from people I didn't know.

I never really liked strangers, they scared me. At home the only adults I ever talk to are my parents and some of the teachers. Whenever my parents invite their friends over I always just hide in my bedroom with my cat and hope they don't ask me to say hello to anyone.

I hear footsteps coming up the stairs before the bathroom door swings open. My mummy looks down at me  sitting on tepee bathroom floor with my truck. She sighs, instantly telling me she's annoyed.

"Josh, you need to come and play with the neighbours little boy." She demanded.

"Can't Elissa just play with him?" I whined.

"No because she's helping grandma bake, besides he's only a couple months older then you, so you two will get on really well." She snapped. I could tell she was getting cross with me.

"Fineee." I whined. I really didn't want to play with this boy but whatever. I got up off the floor and reluctantly made my way downstairs with my mummy, bringing my toy car with me.

When I got downstairs, I peaked my head around the doorway of the living room. There was a man and a women I didn't know along with a little boy who looked around my age. He was sat on his mummy's lap with a toy dinosaur in his hand, ignoring everything around him as he played with it silently. I guess he didn't look that scary.

I crept into the living room, hoping no one would notice me but unfortunately my daddy did.

"Ah Joshua, come and say bonjour to our guests." He said. I had no idea what this "bonjour" meant but I guess it was another one of those adult things.

"Burn jaws." I said nervously, hoping that was what my daddy's wanted me to say, it sounded pretty stupid when I said it. The adults laughed at me, making my cheeks turn red.

"Aww isn't he a cutie." The women said. Her voice sounded strange, like she had a really bad cold or something. She had shoulder length brown hair like my mummy, and big brown eyes that looked really dark against her snow coloured skin. The man she was with was tall looking, with big muscles and brown hair.

"Josh why didn't you go show Oliver your room." My mummy said, pointing towards the boy I had never seen before. I nodded nervously and the boy got off his mummy's lap, walking over to me. I assumed he was Oliver.

"Follow me." I said before running off up the stairs. I hoped that if I ran off quickly, he wouldn't see where I went and then we wouldn't have to hang out. Unfortunately, he did see me and followed me up the stairs equally as fast.

I opened the door to my room and left the door open for him. He stepped inside after me, staring at me with his big brown eyes. He was slightly taller then me, with curly brown hair and a sad looking face.

"Hello, I am Oliver." He said.

"Your voice sounds funny." I said to him.

"No yours does." He said. I stuck my tongue out at him, how dare he say I sounded funny! He took the toy car out of my hands, looking at it for a couple of seconds before scrunching up his nose.

"Cars are stupid, dinosaurs are so much better." He said, handing me his dinosaur toy. I shook my head at him, throwing the dinosaur on the ground.

"No, cars are way better."

We needed up having a very long conversation about cars and dinosaurs, which turned into a fully on battle between my car and his dinosaur. I was showing him the car race track I got for Christmas last year, when my mummy came into the room and said that Oliver had to go.

I was a little bit sad to be honest, I really liked him in the end, even if he did speak weirdly. He handed me his dinosaur toy.

"You can keep this."