The Daily Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 2286 by Angharad Copyright© 2014 Angharad All Rights Reserved.

After our confessional I slept very well. I suspect I may well have been exhausted and succumbed to tiredness. Simon had gone again by the time I woke, as had Sammi. I noticed when she came home most nights she was wearing skirt suits, of which she had several, so the tight trouser experience had been a learning one.

Breakfast over, I took the girls to school, Danni holding her sports bag with her football kit in it. I’d got caught for a new pair of boots—their feet keep growing—though until I knew she was going to be playing regularly again, which would be next season, I only bought her some average ones. We’d also considered that flash kit would attract attention from any of the girls who were into sport, so agreed to keep it at a low key.

The day dragged by as I waited to hear how she’d got on. Trish as an established pupil and top goal scorer was accepted and even held in some esteem because she was also the one child the teachers were afraid of—if they made mistakes, she’d tell them and without mercy, despite my trying to teach her to do so. Trish, as a Leo, could be obstinate to the nth degree. That sounds as if I believe in things astrological, I don’t but occasionally there are coincidences and that’s one. Leo is fixed fire, Trish is obstinate, she’s also a showman beyond that I’m not sure about the rest.

I’m a Sagittarian and I like bows and arrows, I tend to be honest to the point of painfulness—until I saw there were times when being economical with the truth was either a better strategy or likely save someone’s feelings. Adults tell lies to survive in their world you have to play the same game. Oh, and while I like the open air and nature, horses don’t do anything for me. So much for astrology, except I’m a twelfth house sun, which gives me some sort of link with things unseen—yeah sure; um—okay, the blue energy stuff is a bit weird.

I did housework, fed Lizzie and amused Cate and worried. I hadn’t been called to the hospital, so at least there’d been no casualties during the soccer training. I ate a lunch which deserved much more enthusiasm than I gave it. David picked up on my tension but said nothing—he’s a bloke, they don’t, they just keep out of the way.

After lunch, I managed two hours work on the survey while Jacquie looked after the babies. Julie texted to ask if there was anything from school and wrote back telling her no. Phoebe was back in college with exams in May. She should pass easily, she’s quite a bright spark, perhaps not in Trish’s league but then who is?

Finally it was time to go and get the girls and my heart raced all the way on the drive over to the school. It was raining, so they dashed over to the car and jumped in. “How’d it go?”I asked Danielle.

“Yeah, okay.” That was it and the rest of the way she and the other three on the back seat chattered about things scholastic—school yard might be more apposite, as they were mainly pulling other girls apart for reasons which varied from dress sense to haircuts. I thought I’d wait until we got home and the chatter was less before I’d ask for more detail on Danni’s soccer debut.

They all went off to change into old clothes and do their homework. I made them drinks and put out a hobnob biscuit for each as well while David worked on the dinner—it smelled divine. What a stupid description, there is no god so how can he smell? I know the one about the dog with no nose smelling terrible, but the sky fairies—they don’t smell at all—this dinner did and it was making my tummy rumble.

David had made us steak and kidney pud. Simon will go absolutely crazy—he adores it. He probably loves it more than he does me. Knowing this, David made him one of his own, then I discovered he’d made one for everyone—individual ones. No wonder I couldn’t see across the kitchen—they are boiled for hours.

Eventually, I cornered Danni and demanded to know how the game had gone. “It was okay.”

“What does that mean exactly?”

“They knew I’d played before—I told ’em I’d used to play for a team that included boys and we were quite good.”

“What if they asked about it—the team, I mean.”

“There’s a couple of good mixed ones around, I’d have said those.”

“Be careful, they can check things on the net if they have a name to go on.”

“I kept it vague. Most of them were rubbish—including the coach.”

I felt my tummy flip—I’d deliberately asked her to keep it low key.

“So did you actually play?”

“Oh yeah, we had three games altogether.”

“And you won all of them?”

“I could have done, but after scoring twice in one I pretended I’d twisted my ankle and sat the rest out. We lost three two. They asked me to be available for Saturday morning to play for the school.”

“Okay, I’ll try and take you there.”

“Thanks, Trish will be playing in the under elevens match at the same place.”

“Okay, with two of you going I suspect we’ll have a good turn out—I know Gramps will want to come, and Daddy if he’s not working.”

“Oh good. Oh I asked them about starting a cricket team...” Is this good, I wondered and avoided commenting on it. I knew I was likely to be buttonholed by Sister Maria when I next showed my face near the place.

“What about school generally, are you settling in?” I asked her.

“Oh that, yeah; it’s more fun than my old school—the girls are much nicer. There’s the odd one—who seems to have permanent PMT or wasps up their fanny, but otherwise it’s bearable.”

“What about the teachers?”

“That was the teachers—the girls so far seem fine, some are really nice.”

“See much of Cindy?”

“Now and again, she’s got different friends and seeing as I seem to be doing okay on my own, we do our own thing. We meet up at lunch time.” This was after two or three days—is she adapting better than I thought she would? Just a bit though it’s good that Cindy is able to keep an eye on her as do her younger sisters. It will be interesting to see if she feels the same in a few weeks time, I do hope so, she deserves some good times in school even if it is a convent one.

As predicted, Simon nearly swooned when he found out what we had for dinner. To say he ate himself silly would be an exaggeration because arguably he was silly before dinner, but he certainly stuffed fit to burst. Once the meal was over he went off to sit on the sofa in the lounge and was asleep about ten minutes later with the television showing a soap he wouldn’t watch if you paid him. I turned it off and he didn’t stir.

So ended day two of Danni’s academic career and when I looked at her, she and Trish were conferring over their homework and talking about Chelsea football club.