Chapter Text
Everyone was absorbed in their work. A frieze of blotches and scribbles that made up the children's artwork ran around the walls, while colourful streamers of red and green crisscrossed the ceiling to commemorate the festive season. John knew he was being watched as he carefully affixed yellow felt stars on his cardboard crown. When he had finished, he looked up and met the steady gray eyes of his classmate Jenny Garth. She flashed him a toothy grin.
“s’nice” she told him.
John beamed.
Neither knew it at the time but they were going to be best friends.
Some crowns were already crumpling under the mass of glue with felt dripping off the ends, while others were devoid of felt stars having attached themselves to their owner’s fingers or clothing. The children wandered around the classroom, giggling together while Jenny pointed out particularly comic specimens for John's benefit. A merry time was being had by all when the authorities swooped in on them.
Against the sunlit silhouette of the classroom door, Mrs Paul cut an eight foot ungainly figure. Standing there with curling lip and tinted lenses of an ominous nature, she struck terror into every child's heart.
“John!”
“m-miss.”
“Why haven’t you finished your crown?”
“..miss?”
“If you finished then you shouldn’t be teasing the other children.”
“..miss!”
“Stand in the corner.”
“..mi-“
“Stand. In. the .Corner. Now”
John glanced back at Jenny who looked as terrified as him. Mrs Paul hadn’t noticed her or perhaps liked sweet little girls compared to horrible little boys.
None of the other children spoke up, unlike maverick Watson.
Straightening his shoulders, John stood in the corner ignoring the giggles from the rear while feeling thoroughly miserable. He thought of his mother and wished she would come and rescue him, unlikely as it seemed. As the class resumed, a shadow crossed his line of vision. To his enormous surprise, Jenny had joined his side. They shared a small smile and studied the wall together.
“is she your girlfriend?” asked Tommy Wendell while they were on the swings the next day.
“Piss off” replied Jenny, to John’s astonishment and admiration.
She was his best friend who happened to be a girl.
It puzzled John that anyone would think of Jenny as girlfriend material. She didn’t kiss boys or bat her eyelashes or swan around in frilly dresses like the ones on telly. Jenny had three doting elder brothers with the oldest training to be a doctor which made John green with envy. All he had was silly ol’ Harriet “call me Harry” who didn’t have Jenny’s impressive vocabulary (he had a few more visits to the corner over that one) or climbed monkey bars or turned cartwheels and she always traded her packet of crisps for his corn beef sandwich (dietary staple of the Watson household).
Neither knew at the time that their first fight would be their last.
“Why are you moving away?” asked Jenny growing pink in the face. She was swinging upside down from the monkey bars.
“I can see your underwear you know” said John in his best grown up voice.
Jenny made a rude gesture.
John sighed and explained.
His parents were divorcing. As part of the new arrangement, John would be moving in with his dad and shifting to a new house in a new town 70 miles away. Nana would be staying behind with Mum and Harry to ‘help around the house’ while mum attended her AAA classes.
Jenny fell silent. John felt anxious.
Perhaps she was going to pass out like Jeremy Benton who turned blue in the face last month because he held his breath for too long during a tantrum. Jenny righted herself and landed on her feet, leaving John feeling slightly relieved.
She stuck out her hand instead. “Well good bye then.”
John blinked and fidgeted. “We could phone.”
“Well I don’t want to phone you.”
“Why not?”, he asked bewildered.
“Because you’re an idiot.” she said turning on her heel.
On moving day, John waved goodbye to his nana and his sister from the doorstep of their house and tried not to cry.
He thought he saw a figure hanging around the corner of his house.
He couldn’t tell who it was because they were facing the wall.