Connections

“She won’t cope with year eight, will she?” Louise suggested, in the playground, just before the bell was due to sound for the start of our fourth term at Deepdene. We were standing near the main door to Miss Cooper’s classroom, our year seven classroom, after saying goodbye to Caroline and Auntie Jenny. Next to us, we could see the year eight girls congregating outside the entrance to their own classroom, and mum was there, fussing over Kelly/Olivia. She was in the full Deepdene uniform, hat, chinstrap and all, of course, like everyone else, but unlike everyone else, she seemed to be getting a right old telling off. “I mean, if I had to drop down two years, just to be able to keep up, she is never going to cope, one year down?”

“I think our parents wanted us to be together, and with the twins?” I replied, offering her my best rueful smile. “I think you would have been fine dropping one year…but I wouldn’t have coped, so you got stuffed down with me?”