Gaby Book 17 - Seasons

 
 
Boy, was I glad to get home and get de-gothed. The boots have been a pain all day, I’m sure I mentioned they weigh a ton, my legs were more than a bit sore by the time I got them off. Oh and of course, they’re indelibly patterned by the fishnets – how come they need help staying up but are tight enough to do that?

“You should do your hair like that more often, it suits you,” Mand opined as we got started on our turbo session.
“What, all different colours?”
“The braids dumbo.”
“They’re a pain to do,” I noted.
“So what happened at school then?”
“Got some funny looks.”
“I bet.”
“Frau Dürst gave me a bit of a lecture about what I was wearing.”
“I didn’t think you had a uniform code.”
“We don’t as such but those shorts were erm, pushing the limits a bit.”
“I wish I’d seen you,” she chuckled. “What did Max think?”
“No idea, he didn’t exactly say much.”
“Right, are you two ready?” Dad asked joining us in the bike zone – you can’t call it a garage, it’s never had a car in it!

I had to wash my hair twice before it came close to being colour free and even then it still had a pinkish hint – guess I can live with that. The ‘temporary’ tattoo however was being more stubborn and refused to shift, guess I’m stuck with it until it wears off. It felt a bit weird to be in ordinary clothes after a day Gothed up but I’m sure I’ll get used to it!

Dad took us up to Cheer, collecting Pia on the way as it’s our turn for ‘Dad taxi’, I half expected no one to turn up after Saturday but everyone was in attendance. Whilst we didn’t have a competition to prepare for we still have to practice of course and I’ve no doubt the All Stars will make some non competitive appearances in the coming weeks. One thing I did notice, Mand seemed to be more into things, until the weekend she was good technically but maybe a little outside of things, now she’s very much one of the squad.

Of course everyone was on a bit of a buzz after Saturday, our success might only be a placing in a minor category but we weren’t that far away in the main event. The big thing we did learn is where the competition are, well locally at least – I can’t imagine we’ll be straying far from the north Eifel for competitions anytime soon. Han added our trophy to the Garde cabinet – well there isn’t much in there and it’s a bit premature to get our own trophy cabinet.

“Can everyone come in uniform next week please,” Han requested.
“What for?” Lisse asked.
“Photographs, Lisse, the committee are suddenly keen to publicise our existence.”
“Fame at last!” Kristin declared.
“And…” Hannah waited for the ensuing conversation to die down, “and we’ll be performing at the Brohler Kirmes in three weeks time, Saturday and Sunday so if you have any issues with that let me or Gabs know as soon as. Okay?”
There were mumbled confirmations from the now animated group of teens.
“Okay then, I’ll see most of you next week then.”

“You never said about Brohl?” I mentioned to Han as we waited for the girls to variously change, dress, collect bags.
“I only sorted it out this afternoon, why, is there a problem?”
I sighed, it’s gonna be a busy weekend, “me and Mand’ll be working and we’re racing on Sunday too.”
“Damn, well I guess it’s not the end of the world.”
“I guess you don’t actually need me there and we’ve enough to cover for Mand if need be.”
“We’ll work something out, it’s a couple of weeks yet,” Han agreed.

Maybe I’ve got too many eggs in the basket, racing, cheer coach and two part time jobs.

“Aw, I thought you’d at least have green hair or something today,” Steff suggested with a chuckle.
It was back to standard Gaby today, yesterday was maybe an error of judgement – especially those shorts, no, jeans and a woolly for me today.
“You guys ready for the exam?” Pia queried changing the subject.
“Never,” Brid allowed, I’m terrible at spelling.”
“Tell me about it,” I agreed, “there’s no rules in German.”
“Course there are,” Con put in.
“Yeah, I before e unless there’s a y in the month and the winds blowing from the south,” I submitted.
“It’s not that bad, Gab,” Nena suggested.

Okay you’ve guessed, it’s German grammar today, Herr Praxmeier has been giving us spelling tests twice a week since New Year, I still can’t spell leistungsfähigkeit , it comes out different every time I write it, I had to look it up for this. Not that I’m much better at English and I’ve been doing that a lot longer. To say I’m not looking forward to today’s exam would be putting it mildly.

My brain was in turmoil, the spellings in part one hadn’t been as bad as I had thought they’d be, I’m pretty sure I got most of them. But part two, well correcting a badly written passage wasn’t too onerous but the final short essay question… to make it worse I know its worth 25% of the marks and I can’t think what to write. The minutes ticked by, I wasted ten minutes before setting pen to paper, ‘It’s not always the big things which can change your life.’

“Urgh, I need coffee!”
“Everyone up to mine?” Pia suggested.
It had been a long exam running through lunch so we get to go home early as compensation.
“Sounds like a plan,” Con agreed.

It’s been a while since we had an Angels get together, you know out of the school day. With exams, work and holidays, our get-togethers have taken a back seat, I can’t remember the last one – I’m sure it was before Weihnachts. Our little flock of bikes headed out of the school under blue skies, the damp of the weekend having finally given way to more clement conditions.

The Sebenschuh Stube and restaurant was of course closed to the public until this evening so we had it to ourselves. We weren’t quite alone, Helmut was sat in corner with a pile of papers and Eva and Ingrid were in and out filling cruets, changing menus and so on ready for the evening. If we wanted anything we’d have to get it ourselves, guess who got Barista duties?

“Here you go,” I slid the tray of coffee onto the table.
“What did you write for the essay, Gab?” Nena enquired.
“A right load of rubbish.”
“Oh come on it can’t’ve been that bad,” Steff suggested.

Oh yes it could, I mean who comes up with these questions? ‘Write a 1000 word essay describing a life changing event and its impact. It may be biographical or fictional but must include a strong narrative.’ No help in the question at all.

Of course I’ve had my share of ‘events’, some are too personal to write about, others, well I didn’t think I could write enough about them. As for making stuff up, well I can remember reading somewhere that the best fiction is based on personal experience.

“What did you do then,” I turned the question back at the others.
“My Oma dying,” Bridg offered.
“Claudia,” Nena added. That must’ve been hard to write about.
“Come on, Gab, spill,” Con encouraged.
“It was about yesterday sort of, you know the whole Goth thing?”
“I’d never have thought of that,” Pia mentioned.
“I was getting desperate,” I admitted.
“Much better than mine,” Steff lamented.
“Which was?”
“Meeting a shy new kid at school.”
“Interesting spin, better than my dressing up.”
“How’d you get all that in a thousand words,” Con asked.
“Well I had to leave out some of the juicier bits.”
“I bet,” Pia put in with a smirk.

I sipped at my coffee, I’m sure I’ve missed something here.

“You girls eating here?” Ing enquired sometime later, well just after five.
“What’s on?” I enquired.
“Geschnetzeltes mit Spätzle unless you’re paying.”
“Suits me, beats my cooking.”
“I doubt that, Gab, we have had your cooking,” Con noted.
“And we survived,” Nena giggled.
“Six then,” Ingrid confirmed, “bout twenty minutes.”

I felt a little guilty abandoning my cooking duties at Schloss Bond tonight but not so’s I’d pass up one of my favourite meals. We were being fed quite early to get us out of the way of course, paying customers could start arriving from about six and – well we can get a bit lively so these days we are fed and evicted from the restaurant, the Stube is far enough into the cellars that we can make what noise we like without disturbing anyone. It wasn’t quite dark outside, in a few weeks it’ll be light enough to go out training in the evenings, now that’s something to look forward to.

The food was universally enjoyed, okay so it’s not exactly complicated to make but even the simplest recipe can go wrong – just ask Mand! The restaurant was open by the time we finished; the first customers were already nursing drinks as we cleared up.

“Gaby, Connie, can I borrow you for a minute?” Herr Sebenschuh requested.
“We’ll meet you in the Stube,” I told the others.
We adjourned into the other half of the restaurant and Helmut indicated we should sit.
“What’s up Mr S?” Con enquired.
“How are your exams going?”
“Going,” I sighed, “I’ll be glad when they’re over.”
“Yeah,” Con agreed.
“It was the same in my day, I’m sure you’ll do well,” Helmut mentioned, “but to business. You remember the broken coach at Christmas?”
“How could we forget,” I chuckled.
“Well it seems our efforts were well appreciated, the Reisebusse company have asked if we can cater on some of their trips across the summer and in the run up to Weihnachts.”
“Cool, that’ll be good for the restaurant,” Con noted.
“So where do we come in?” I added.
“To the point as usual, Gaby, well they want full service, Kostüm the lot.”
“You want us to do it?” Con concluded.
“I thought it only fair to give you first refusal as it’s largely on you that we’ve got this opportunity. It’ll probably be one evening every fortnight from Easter, a special meal, bit of a Heimatsnacht maybe.”
“Count me in,” Con enthused.

I guess some extra euros will come in useful and it won’t be the same chaos we had in December.

“Yeah, alright, just us two, I guess Pia will do it?”
“We might need some extra help, we’ll try the first time with just you three then we can decide, I’m sure we can find more girls, eh?”
“I can think of at least one who’d be up for it.” I agreed.
“Well keep it under your hats for now, as soon as I have dates confirmed I’ll let you know. You’d best get to the Stube, the others will be wondering what’s keeping you – and try to keep out of the reserve bottles, eh?”

As if we would, although that did sound like an invite to liberate a bottle or two of the ordinary Rech vintages.

Maddy Bell 30.07.16