Gaby Book 16 - Sweet Sixteen

“So?” Con enquired when we convened to eat lunch.
“I’m wondering whether to go get a frikadel,” it’s cold out and my usual Thesing’s lunch wasn’t cutting it for me.
“Ooo! Gaby Bond, sometimes!” Pia huffed.
“What?”
“Max?” Steff suggested.
“Do you know, I think I will get a frikadel,” I told them quickly slipping from my seat.

It’s not like I hadn’t been thinking about this morning, well all morning it had been on my mind. After some internal debate I realised that it wasn’t the act itself or even who did it, no it was that I wasn’t expecting it. Yeah, yeah I know, I was the one instigating things on Saturday but well, I’m not ready for things to go public.
“Brotchen?”
Eh, my mind snapped back to the present, the woman serving looked at me expectantly.
“Er no, frites and mayo please,” and?

She shrugged before filling my order, you’d think girls don’t need to eat or something. By the time I got back to the others they were talking make up, a safe enough subject even for me. I tucked into my warm lunch with enthusiasm, whoever came up with mayo and chips; well I’m forever in their debt.

“So come on, Gab,” Bridget changed the subject again.
“What?”
“Your boyfriend? This morning?” Nena prompted.
“He’s not my b..”
“Boyfriend, we know,” Pia interrupted, “so spill, what’d he do?”
“Nothing.”
“Oh come on, Gab, you were stood there like you’d been slapped with a herring,” Steff put in.
They’re like flippin’ terriers!
“He kissed me, okay,” I admitted.
“And?” Con pressed.
“Well I wasn’t expecting it.”
“Says the future Baroness,” Pia chuckled.
“I wasn’t, I mean I’m not, I er.”
“She’s teasing, Gab,” Steff told me.
“Hmmph!”

“Hi, Gaby,” Claudia greeted, “what can I do for you?”
“Er Frau Boxberg, she wanted to see me?”
Max assaulting my lips this morning hasn’t been the only thing on my mind today, I’ve no idea what the Head wants, but it’s rarely good to be summonsed.
“Take a seat, Gaby, she’s got someone in at the moment.”
“’Kay,” I allowed.
I sat myself down for an indeterminate wait.

“Gaby, sit yourself down,” Frau Boxberg instructed.
Well at least the chair is more comfortable in the Head’s office.
“So how are you now?”
Now there’s a leading question if ever there was one.
“Er okay, Miss, the clinic discharged me last week so I can train again now.”
“Everything else in your world, okay?”
Well I’m not telling her about Max am I? Everything is a big word though.
I shrugged, “Pretty much.”
“School work?”
“Think so, the extra classes have caught me up.”
“Hmm,” she shuffled some papers, “I’ve been talking to your teachers, they seem to agree with you.”
“Does that mean I can stop the classes, Miss?”
“Caught up, Gaby, I and the others think you could do better though. Oh you’ll pass the certificate, somewhere in the middle of the results but we think you could get a much better grade, with a little effort on your part. I’m sure your parents would agree, a better pass mark will open more doors when you leave us, whatever career path you decide on.”
Dang! “Yes, Miss,” it seemed appropriate to say something.
“What we propose, if you want to, is to continue the sessions up to half term.”
“Okay.”
I so want to say no but the rents would go ballistic.
“So how does that sound?”
“Great, I mean yes I’d like to do that.”
“You don’t have to, you can discuss it with your parents if you want.”
“No, Miss, I’ll do it please.”
“Okay, I’ll let your tutors know. So have you given life after Silverberg any thought?”

Life after Silverberg, now there’s an open book. Well I’m still keen on becoming a pro bike rider but as Mum keeps pointing out, I should have a backup plan. Jules is the academic one, despite appearances she’s expected to get A’s in all her A levels this summer, she already has a place at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Boris is going there too. Me, well I’ve always been towards the top of the class but much more of a plodder.

“I’ve been thinking something in catering?” I offered.
“Not a Barista I hope,” she smiled.
Well it sort of had crossed my mind.
“Of course not, Miss, some sort of manager?”
Sounds a bit more ambitious at least.
“Hmm, they do a course at the college in Koblenz, might be worth checking out.”
“Erm yes, Miss.”
“I’ll ask Claudia to get the details for you.”
“Thank you, Miss.”
“Off you go then, I’m sure you’ve places to go and I’ve got someone else to see.”
I gathered my stuff and got as far as the door before Frau Boxberg spoke again.
“And, Gaby.”
“Yes, Miss?”
“You and your friend looked very nice on Saturday.”
I started to colour up, “Er thanks, Miss, um bye, Miss.”
“Bye, Gaby, can you let Claudia know I’m free please?”
“Yes, Miss,” I finally made good my escape, well it could’ve been worse I guess.

“What do you reckon, up or down?”
“Up,” Mand told me, I repositioned the handful of hair I was gripping. “So what did she want?”
“Nothing much,” I paused to check my ponytail was at least half decent, “just school stuff, oh she said we looked nice on Saturday.”
I didn’t really want to discuss my interrogation; we have important stuff to sort at Cheer tonight.
“Thought you were going to get toasted.”
So did I, “Nah, it was more like a careers thing really.”
“You gonna be a rocket scientist then?”
“Brain surgeon.”
“Phew, for a moment I thought you were going to say something difficult like bike racer.”
“Ha de ha.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“Something in catering I think.”
“Dish washer,” she chuckled.
“Hey don’t mock, it’s a step up from floor sweeper. So what about you?”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you doing Uni or anything?”
“Dunno, probably, depends on my grades I guess.”
“We’ll have to look for rich boyfriends,” I suggested in jest.
“You already have one.”
“He’s not rich and he’s not my boyfriend,” I stated firmly.
“If you say so.”
Dad’s voice reached us from below, “You two going tonight?”
“Coming!” I called down.

I’d put together a routine that was reminiscent of that which the Foresters performed in Fairfax, okay there wasn’t the first bit in the long dresses but the rest was fairly similar from what I could remember. Hannah did a sort of storyboard as I went through a demonstration run, then it was time to get the other girls to give it a try. Yeah, we need to practice – technically they were okay on the individual moves but doing them as a set, well wooden would be polite.

I’m not exactly on top of the game but I was at least transitioning the moves better, even Mand had got the idea. I say even, Mand is actually quite a mover on the dance floor.

“Look guys, I’ll do it with Manda, watch how we go between the pieces.”
“You want the music, Gaby?” Hannah queried.
“Please.”
Mand joined me facing the troupe and the music started up, and one and two…

In the end Hannah suggested we break it into smaller parts we could then work it up as the girls improved. It seemed like a good idea so we spent the rest of the session doing just that. I’d sort of co-opted Mand as deputy coach, she wasn’t in the squad as such and it kind of legitimised her presence at the sessions.

When we got home I thought I’d bring Miss C, Fran up to date so I set about sending her an email.

Now let’s see,
Hi Fran,
I’ve put together a routine – the stuff you sent was invaluable! We started working on it tonight; the difficult bit is getting it to flow together. The girls are quite good at individual moves but a bit robotic going from one to another! I’ll have to send you another film in a couple of weeks so you can see my progress as a coach!
Thanks again
Gaby Bond

That should do it; I added the address and hit send.

While I had the email programme open I did a bit of housekeeping, binning the spam, where does it all come from, how do they get your email address? One looked interesting, it was that lingerie shop in Koblenz inviting me to go see the new Playtex™ range – as if! But it did remind me about that other item, I quickly composed another mail asking them to order it for me.

Another mail had come in; I was surprised to see it was a reply from Fran;
Hi Gaby,
Glad you are finding the information useful, I look forward to seeing how you are getting on.
It looks like I might be able to do that in person, Geoff, Mr Wood, has asked me to fill in for Karen James on the first years’ trip next month, her baby’s arrived a bit early. Guess where they are going? Cologne, not far from you I think. Once I have all the details I’ll let you know and we can see if we can arrange something.
Bye for now
Fran

Cool! Maybe I can catch the train up or something, wonder what they are coming over for? It’ll certainly be good to see Miss C again, she was always one of my favourite teachers at Warsop and she was pretty cool with Gaby from day one. Yeah, something to look forward to.

Maddy Bell 07.05.16