‘Wow. Sorry, how’d I not get to asking you about this?’
‘No, it’s OK, anyway, I love cold, cosy Christmas vibes and they hate the winters here so they try to get away as much as possible. We’re kind of opposites on pretty much everything.’
I nodded; it wasn’t the same as my parents but the feeling of distance felt familiar.
‘And then there’s all this pressure on me to follow in the footsteps of them and my sister and go to the law school they all went to and it’s all like, “Ooh, Jennifer, you’re next” type of vibe, but … oh doesn’t matter, I’m not talking about all this when there’s more important stuff, like Ronan …’
‘No, it’s all good.’
‘No, it feels stupid.’
‘What does?’
‘Well … I don’t want to go to law school. I want to go to drama school.’
She put her head down looking embarrassed.
‘Jennifer, you totally should, you were amazing in the school play.Allthe school plays!’
‘My parents had major problems with me doing Drama GCSE so I don’t think a drama school application is going to go down too well.’
‘I don’t know,’ I said, ‘I could totally see you on the West End stage!’
‘Or in the unemployment line!’
‘Or busking on the street. We could do it together! My career plans are non-existent so I could really do with something to tell the parents so they can stop asking all the time.’
‘They’d be so proud – “Mum, Dad, I’m going to be a busker!”’
‘Hey, better than nothing!’ I said.
As we were both laughing, Leanne Newell, Kevin Sherry’s girlfriend, came up to us with a flyer for the school formal.
‘School prom, save the date,’ she said in her strange accent; a kind of American twang on top of her Northern Irish one as ifshe was trying to be a character from an American high school film; she even used the word ‘prom’ even though the flyer said ‘formal’. Then she strolled off up the corridor as if she were on a catwalk, distributing the flyers as she went.
‘Oh geez,’ said Jennifer, ‘I cannot believe that is next month. This year is just flying by, it’s so scary; it’ll be over before we know it.’
I looked at the flyer. It had cupids and love hearts all over it.
‘It’s on Valentine’s night. I wonder whose bright idea that was?’ I said, as we both turned to gaze at Leanne retreating up the corridor.
‘Well, student council being run by Mrs Prom Queen Leanne and Mr Prom King Kevin seems to have sway.’
‘The perks of being popular, I guess.’
‘I don’t know,’ Jennifer said, ‘I bet that when they leave here they’ll be right back to square one.’
‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘I wonder what beyond square one feels like. I’d love to move past it myself one of these days.’
We smiled at each other and Jennifer started to fiddle with her hair.
‘So I take it you’re not going to this then?’ she said, holding the flyer out between her finger and thumb and letting it flop over. I looked down at mine and folded over one of the corners.
‘Nah,’ I said, ‘I mean, who would askme?’
‘Yeah, me too. I can’t imagine anyone asking me either.’ She started rolling her flyer into a tube. ‘It’s so cheesy, Valentine’s night and everything, so much of a cliche.’
‘Yeah exactly,’ I said, folding my flyer into a square.
