*Chapter 32*

Normality

 
 
Frau Boxberg and Mr Woods, you remember, he’s the Head teacher at Warsop College, are cut from the same cloth, it’s probably an EU law or something. Why is that relevant I hear you ask, well read on and all will become clear.

“She must use the same script every year,” Nena whispered from behind me.

I could believe it; we’ve already sat through nearly half an hour of welcoming and inspirational speech and my bum’s numb from the uncushioned chair I’m perched on. Some time ago I tuned out The Boxberg’s voice and moved my attention to looking out over the gathered masses. It’s quite a big school, drawing pupils from a wide area but even so I realised that I knew, at least by sight, a lot of those sat below, were they having similar thoughts as they looked up at the stage? I was of course a little taken aback when I heard my name mentioned.

“…won the prestigious Helvetia Jungere Cup event over five days just last week and will be representing her country at the Weltmeister series in Denmark later this week, Gaby?”

Sugar! I did a quick straighten of my attire before standing to receive the applause that the Head was leading, of course the blood rushed to my face. I gave a little finger wave, you have to do something don’t you, the worst thing though were the cat calls and whistles. They weren’t hostile, the opposite in fact but such innuendo and comments directed at me only added further colour to my face before I returned to my seat.

“I hope Gaby and her friends in the senior class will inspire at least some of you to make a difference in the community and encourage you to push your personal envelope a little wider. That’s enough from me; I’ll turn you over to Herr Müttermann who has some important notices for you.”

“Talk about embarrassing,” I observed as we headed back to our form room.

“Good job she doesn’t know all the other stuff eh Gab?” Brid supplied.

“Other stuff?” Mart queried.

“Bernie? The baby?” Nena offered.

“What about them?”

“Gab was there.” Brid mentioned.

“Yeah, so?” Mart asked.

“Who do you think delivered the baby?” Pia put in.

“Dunno, who?”

“Gaby did dumkopf.” Brid stated.

“It wasn’t just me,” I told them.

“S’not how Bern tells it.” Steff added.

“She never said anything to me,” Mart told us.

“Well she’s hardly gonna talk about child birth with her BF is she now?” Brid noted.

At least it was someone else colouring up this time.
 
 

There’s no rest for the ambitious, after lunch when I became the subject of much pointing and whispering, we had Herr Viessner for English before Phys Ed. I’m excused that on the grounds I do enough out of school which essentially gives me a free period, as long as I sign out I can go home. So today as the others play volleyball or whatever you find me donning lycra to get a couple of hours steady riding in.

I did one of my usual circuits – up to the telescope then back across to the river before returning up the valley to home. I hadn’t really been looking at the time so when I heard my name being called as I came off the bypass I nearly fell off in surprise.

“Hold up Gabs!”

I looked over my shoulder to identify the caller or more correctly callers. Over the road the girls were urging their assorted beasts into a little speed, what the heck, I’ve done my training. There was a ramp onto the cycle track fifty metres ahead so I made the decision and by the time I’d waited to cross the road the others were just approaching.

“I don’t know how you do that.” Pia gasped.

“What?”

“Speed up like that, one second you are cruising along, the next you are off like a Porsche.”

“Practice?” I offered as I fell in next to Con.

“So how come you guys are so late?”

“We’re hardly late, well maybe ten minutes,” Steff advised.

“So where’ve you been?” Brid enquired.

“Effelsberg and round.”

“But that’s towards Bad Munster, how come you’re coming this way?” Steff asked.

“I just said, I went round to Remagen.”

“But it’s only just after four.” Con noted.

Not bad, thirty five average. I shrugged, “I got held up with a tractor going out of Altenahr.”

“Geez Gab,” Pia sighed, “oh I nearly forgot, Hannah wanted me to remind you that Garde restarts next week.”

Garde, bum, I sort of volunteered to help with the cheering didn’t I.

“I hadn’t forgotten.”
 
 

We reached Dernau and split up, well me an’ Con go the same way.

“Wanna come round later?”

“Sure,” Con agreed, “not seen this trophy thing yet.”

“Bout an hour?”

“’kay.”

 
 
“That you Drew?” Dad enquired.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Nothing, you’re sister’s supposed to be back today.”

Oh of course you don’t know do you? Jules has been in Warsop while I’ve been gallivanting around Europe, I think she was staying at Aunt Carol’s – it hadn’t been fixed when I left.

“How come you aren’t picking her up?” I asked as I divested myself of my sweaty shirt.

“She didn’t want me to and to be fair the coach drops off next to Koln railway station.”

“That’s right, down by Maccy D’s.”

Why anyone would want to spend hours on a coach when you can fly in an hour is beyond me.

“Gaby!”

“What?”

“Cover yourself up young lady!” Mum instructed.

“eh?” oh sugar, not again, my hands shot to cover my bare chest, the jersey is one thing but my damp sports bra was a step too far in the kitchen. “Sorree!”

 
 
I returned downstairs, showered and dressed with the remainder of my cycling kit for the washer.

“Still no Jules?”

“She rang, there’s a problem on the line, she’s waiting for a bus to bring her down to Remagen.” Dad advised.

“Um, sorry about earlier, I didn’t mean to er expose my thingies.”

“You need to think about what you’re doing a bit more kiddo, your Dad told me about Josh in Switzerland.” Mum told me.

“Yes Mum.” I sighed.

“So what are you up to tonight?” Dad asked.

“Con’s coming over in a bit.”

“You remember that it’s your cooking night?” Mum mentioned.
Sugar, “er no, I thought we could get pizza?” I offered.

“Hmm, I guess we can,” Mum agreed, “Alright you’re let off, we’ll order when your sister gets back.”

Yes! It’s not like I hate cooking but it cramps what you can do sometimes.

"Geez Gab, that’s huge!"

"Yeah, I could hardly lift it at the presentation."

"Only thing I’ve ever won is a fish at the fair." she lamented.

"It’s not like you do sports or anything is it? I pointed out.

"There is that," she grinned.

"Come on, there’s some stuff I want to show you upstairs."

we clomped and clattered up to my eyrie, even I get out of breath making the climb, no wonder the olds very rarely get this far.

"Phew, glad I don't have to do that every night."

"You get used to it."

"Still, so what did we have to come all the way up here for?"

"Hang on a sec, there's some pop in the fridge." you think I’m going all the way down to the kitchen when I want a drink or get the munchies? Dad let me buy this mini fridge before the summer, you can get like six cans in it so at least it’s cool, my room can get pretty warm which doesn't make for good pop drinking.

"You want one?"

"Er Sprite please."

"So?"

"Hang on, I’ll get it out."

I haven't got the biggest wardrobe in the world so everything is packed in quite tightly - I really should dump some of this stuff, old cheer costumes, that damned Chii costume from way back, ah, here we go no idea how it got this far back.

"What’ve you been buying now?"

"Buying? Nothing, ta da!" I brandished the Swiss landeskostum at her.

"What the heck is that?"

"Payment for a job." I gloated.

"Job? Well get it out, let’s have a look?"

"Hang on."

"Sheesh Gab, what did you do, this must be like two, three hundred euros!"

"I told you about the photo shoot yeah? This is what I had to wear, hang on there's some earrings and stuff too."

"Not just a pretty face are you?"

"Here, they match the dress."

Con shook her head, "you are unbelievable mädchen, I’d get a bar of chocolate you get an expensive dress and jewellery."

"But you're a much better cook than me."

"If you say so,” Con sighed. "So when do we see these pictures then?"

"They’re supposed to be posting some prints soon; I did pinch some of the race posters though."

"Whatever for?"

I unfurled one of the tubes and held it in front of me.

"Who, hang on, that’s you."

"In the print."

"But that’s not this dress and you've got some fancy lace thing on."

"Well spotted Sherlock, this was from the first shoot."

"You only mentioned one."

"Oops!"

She shook her head, "Gaby Bond!"

Maddy Bell © 16.04.2014