This time, amazingly, dad is feeling fine the next day. It might be something to do with us all having slept in until half-past ten, or the huge greasy fry up he cooked for brunch though he claims it's his superhuman constitution and having drunk the same wine all night, 'white'.
Whatever it is, he is happy to take me to Charlotte's mainly to escape my mother, who most definitely does have a hangover, according to her it is so overhanging that it eclipses the sun. I don't think she will be good company today.
It just happens to be pouring down outside, not a good start for putting Charlotte's leg through its paces.
"Any suggestions for indoor sports we can do?" I ask dad glumly.
He responds immediately, "Squash, tennis, badminton, five a side, basketball, netball, volleyball, table tennis, judo, bowling… lacrosse...curling?"
I wait for him to peter out with an incredulous look on my face. "I said sports we can do. Preferably things that don't cost a lot."
"I could take you to the trampoline park, you used to like that." He suggests with a straight face. I'm not sure if he is being serious.
"I liked it when I was five or six!" Then I stop and think for a second, "About the age her siblings are. You know, that might be okay."
Feeling much better having at least one viable option I pack some sports clothes and a pair of trainers and dad drives me to Charlotte's house.
"Would you be okay driving us all to the trampoline park? Just in case Charlotte's mum and dad can't?" He smiles at me and tousles my hair, "Hey, eyes on the road!" I complain.
"I have nothing on and it might be nice to give her parents some time alone. If Charlotte is keen I will take you but unlike when you were young, I am not bouncing. And promise me you will avoid the ball pits, they never get the pee out of them."
"Ewe! Yuk, dad!" I laugh and turn on his stereo, the Beatles are playing, Maxwell's silver hammer. He starts singing along and I can't help but join in, it's such an oddball song. All I can think of when I hear it is the animated music video I saw on YouTube, it makes me smile every time.
When we arrive I run up the path and knock on the door, Charlotte answers if and her brother is instantly throwing himself into my arms. "Wow! Hello, Abdo." I say, setting him on my hip. "How are you today?" I step into the porch out of the rain.
"Mum says I have to thank you for the DVDs and to tell you that I am wearing them out and to give you a hug." He leans in and gives me a huge hug. It feels really nice.
"You're welcome, I'm glad you're enjoying them. Is your sister watching them too?" Charlotte gives me a long-suffering smile and invites us in, dad has just made it to the door and is already drenched.
"Yes! We are watching Aladdin just now!" He says excitedly.
"For the five hundredth time." Charlotte tells us.
"Hey, Abdo, how about you go watch the movie for a bit and we will be in there shortly? We need a word with your mum." My dad asks the young boy with a serious tone.
"Okay!" Abdo exclaims loudly and I let him down to run off.
"Wow, he is just a little bundle of energy isn't he?" Dad glances down at Charlotte's leg, "Cool, can I have a look?" He asks pointing at her blade.
She nods and goes to take it off but he holds out his hands, "No need to remove it, I just wanted a closer look. He bends down and peers at the leg, "Does it flex much when you jump up and down?" He is as interested in the technology as I am. Charlotte jumps up and down whilst dad is watching.
"Cool, it looks so much like the limb of a recurve bow. Is it comfortable to use?" He asks as we walk to the kitchen.
He and Charlotte seem to get on really well, that said my dad gets along with everyone. Charlotte's mum is baking something in the kitchen and her dad is sitting at the kitchen table keeping her company.
"Hi Mr Patterson, I'm Kelly and this is my dad Pete." I say, holding out my hand to shake.
He laughs a deep rumbling laugh, "We are not yet married, though I may take Elise's name when we do, it would be nice for people to be able to spell my name. I am Nasif." His hand is strong and warm and he covers my hand in both of his. "I am glad you are such a good friend to Charlotte." He said before turning to shake dad's hand.
"We were wondering if Charlotte would like to take the kids to the trampoline park?" Dad asked quickly, staving off my embarrassment, I had no idea how to answer Nasif and it may have shown.
"Are you even allowed to use blade limbs on the trampolines? They make you take your shoes off." Charlotte asked, "If I'm allowed then I would love to. I'm sure the tykes would love it too."
"I must say I hadn't even considered it, hold on, I'll just call them." Dad said, pulling out his mobile and moving out into the hallway, leaving me slightly uncomfortable with Charlotte and her parents.
"Dad says if you like he can take us all and give you two some time off." Nasif looks hopefully at Charlotte's mum, she nods enthusiastically.
"We would love that if Charlotte is allowed to use the trampolines." He said gratefully.
"If not, I don't mind wearing my old leg, it's okay on the tramps." Charlotte insisted just as my dad returned.
"They say it's fine, apparently they have had a number of people use them there and they have no issues." I could see Charlotte breathe a sigh of relief, she obviously was looking forward to playing with her new toy.
"Well, that's settled, let's go make these kids day!" Mrs Patterson said, drying her hands on her apron.
The reaction from the kids is fairly extreme, ear bursting squealing and lots of running and jumping around. It takes them a few minutes to calm down before they listen to simple requests, get clean socks, put your shoes on and such.
Once we eventually get their booster seats swapped over and the children strapped in I am fairly exhausted. They are a bit of a handful.
Perhaps this suggestion wasn’t the greatest, I am amazed Dad is handling it so well.
“Put on the Aladdin songs!” Abdo insists, his sister agreeing vehemently.
“Sorry guys, we don’t have any Disney songs in the car.” I tell them.
There is a chorus of “Aww!” Dad has all his music on mp3 and it is normally on shuffle. I spend a while trying to find anything that young children might like. I briefly consider the monkeys or yellow submarine but then I find the Shrek theme, ‘Hey now you're an all star’ which is probably leftover from when I was in a booster seat. The kids are appeased for four minutes, which is almost all we need to get to the tramp park.
Corralling the kids when we arrive is the next issue, Abdo was rather close to running into traffic as we unhitched his sister. Charlotte is now standing with a hand clutching the neck of his jumper as he strains to get inside.
“Abdo, I know you’re excited but I’m really close to telling Mr Stevens to take you home and we will go bouncing with Elise.” Charlotte threatens, it is amusing to see him go from uncontrolled bouncing off the walls excitement to timid compliance in a fraction of a second.
He manages all of two minutes being good before the excitement won over again. At least this time we were inside in relative safety. Both he and his sister were running circles around the entryway as we waited in the queue. The nice man at the gate leant past the other adults in the queue and asked “Just the two? Send them in and I will get you shortly.”
“Two plus two teens to look after them.” Dad replies.
“No problem, send them in.” The man said, he obviously had done the same for the other adults as there are no other kids in the queue.
We make our way noisily into the huge warehouse. It’s been years since I was here but not a lot has changed. We have to remind Abdo to take his shoes off as he screams off into the distance.
“This is going to be weird.” Charlotte says as she takes her one shoe and sock off.
“You can hold my hand for a bit.” I tell her, little butterflies forming in my stomach.
We put our shoes and the kid's ones into cubby holes and sedately walk out to catch up with the two children, they obviously did not get dad's safety briefing and are both swimming through the ball pit just now.
I hop onto the trampoline nearest the ball pit and hold out my hand with a little bow, “Milady?” I ask with a serious look on my face.
She smiles and takes my hand, “Why thank you.” she says, mimicking my bow, then she cracks up laughing.
We step out onto the unstable surface and Charlotte gets this shocked look on her face, “Oh wow that is weird. It pushes my leg less than my blade or something, it's all out of balance.” She makes a grab for my other hand and we stand bouncing ever so slightly whilst she stares at her own legs. Every so slowly she starts bouncing slightly higher, her knee sort of wiggling as if she isn't sure about putting pressure on that leg. It takes about a minute before we are bouncing high enough that our feet leave the ground, she gives a little ‘eep’ every time we land and squeezes my hand tighter.
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“Oh god, this feels weird.” She says, taking her eyes off her legs and looking at me for the first time since we started bouncing. “So much weirder than walking or running. It’s like it's pushing that leg harder than my other one but I don't think it is.”
“Okay, should we try moving around?” She nods at my suggestion and I start steering us back and forth with every jump. After a few she lets go of one of my hands and turns so that we are facing the same way. “Bum then up?” I ask, again she only nods, I think she possibly doesn't like this.
We land on our bums and when we come back up she almost falls over and she leans heavily on me. “Are you okay? Got your feet under you now?” I ask, slightly concerned she might just give up.
“I’m okay, I just got my foot in the wrong place, the physio said it might take a little time to gain perio-perception or something.” I give her a confused smile, that's not a word I know. “I might have said it wrong, it’s where you know where your hand or foot or whatever part of your body is. Like you can touch your nose without being able to see it.”
“Ah, right, so you need to re-learn where the ball of your foot would be without looking at it. That makes sense.” I smile at her, “Want to do it again? Practice makes perfect and all.”
“Yeah, this time I’m watching my feet though.” This time when we come up she lands perfectly.
“Knees and up?” I suggest.
This time her foot drags on the fabric of the trampoline and she falls on her face in a fit of giggles, pulling me with her. I join in her laughter, I'm glad she is actually enjoying it and she looks so cute when she laughs.
I get up and help her up and we try that again, this time managing it with only a slight wobble. “Oh shit, where did those little brats go?” Charlotte asks when we get ourselves balanced again.
We look around and can't see them anywhere. “I guess we need to go and find them.” I suggest and we dismount from the trampoline. We walk the length of the room before finding them, there are sectioned off individual trampolines with basketball hoops and balls which the kids have found and are now comically trying to throw a ball through the hoop whilst bouncing as high as they can.
Since it just involves jumping up without any acrobatics, Charlotte insists we play with them for a little while. It may not involve acrobatics but four people, even small ones jumping at different times make the trampoline really unpredictable. The fourth time she falls over I call a time out and we leave the kids playing on their own.
"Oh wow that was hard to stand up, I wasn't even jumping at the end and I still fell over." Charlotte was a little dejected.
"How about I buy you a coffee?" I suggest.
"I would prefer a coke." She admits, philistine.
We find dad sitting drinking coffee in the little coffee shop and reading a book, an actual physical dead tree book. I haven't seen him do that in years.
“All bounced out already?” He asks us, hardly glancing up.
"Just taking a break. Charlotte's new leg broke her periscope and it makes it hard to stand up." I explain. Dad suddenly looks like he is trying not to sneeze.
"Perioperception." Charlotte stage whispers to me.
"Yeah, that's what I said." I don't care if it wasn't and I am certain I have already forgotten that word.
"Right. Want to buy yourselves a drink?" Dad hands me a fist full of change, still engrossed in his book but now with a stupid smirk on his face.
"Back soon." I tell Charlotte and go to the counter. The bored waitress is happy to serve me, I don't like the look of the coffee machine but I order a long black anyway. Perhaps she will surprise me, if not I can act all coffee snob and go back for a cold drink.
When I return with Charlotte's coke, still in the can unopened which doesn't bode well for my coffee, dad has put down his book and is animatedly discussing my stinky feet with my friend. God, why is everything so damned embarrassing just now? I decide I can't be part of the conversation and return to the counter to watch the waitress work.
She at least knows how to work the machine, she tamps the coffee properly, does all the heating up palaver with the machine, running water through and wiping it down. Perhaps it won't be so bad. A few seconds later and my coffee is ready, in a huge white mug and no saucer. Hmm.
Blissfully aware that they are now discussing my previous love of glittery princess dresses, I return to my seat, "Tell me you didn't go through a dress-up phase?" I ask Charlotte accusingly.
"You couldn't get me out of my unicorn onesie when I was three apparently. I was never a princess though." She says with a smirk.
"Damnit dad, you couldn't have told her all of Anne's embarrassing stories instead?" I complain he doesn't look chagrined at all.
"Oh, I have to tell you about the time she found a 'stray' cat." He uses air quotes, damn it. "It turns out old Mrs Thackeray down the road saw her remove the cat's collar before carrying it home." I bury my head in my arms and wish he had been hungover this morning.
"How old was she?" Charlotte asks.
"Oh, this was last year." I hear him claim.
"I was five!" I exclaim, he isn't getting away with that! "And it was only because you had promised me a cat for Christmas and actually bought me Lego!" I hide my anger by taking a long sip of my coffee. It's okay, nothing special but then nothing I wouldn't be happy to drink.
"I think that's sweet." Charlotte says, still smiling at my expense.
"Perhaps if you come around some time I can show you some baby photos, really embarrass her!" Dad says.
I down my almost scalding coffee and get up, "I think I might go play with the kids, at least they are too small to pick on me." I leave them laughing at the table and go to find the little terrors.
I love my dad, normally. Today though… why? Why is he making fun of me in front of the girl I like. The children are obviously finished with basketball, they now appear to be trying to bounce the furthest off of one of the angled trampolines in a competition with another couple of young children. I wish I had brought my phone, it would make for a cool photo, the little kids sailing through the air, arms waving comically. To hell with it, when in Rome. I get up on the tramp and join in. It is a weird feeling, bouncing backwards, I really want to twist midair and land face down. After a few attempts I try to do a backflip and fail spectacularly, I land in a handstand and get brutally slammed into the trampoline by my momentum. The kids laugh uproariously. "Perhaps don't try that. It felt fairly dangerous." I tell them. Of course, that makes them both want to try more than ever.
Fortunately, their sister returns and saves me from their rebellion. She tells them in no uncertain terms and amazingly they listen, even the two strangers.
"How about we see how high we can bounce?" She suggests, "You can see if you can beat Kelly and me." She then takes my hands and starts bouncing. I can't help imagining what other embarrassing tales my dad has been telling and I am sure my cheeks are burning. Before long the feeling of my ponytail flying through the air distracts me from my brooding, it whips down at the bottom of every bounce and floats up around my face when we turn. Charlotte's does the same and it looks cool, like a dark halo at the top of every bounce.
We eventually get back to trying more acrobatic bounces and she manages to get the hang of it. Well enough at least that she is leading a 'follow the leader' game for the children.
"I think it's time to go guys." She says at the end of the game. "Kelly's dad will want to go home." There was a chorus of "Aww!" From all four little children but I could tell our two were getting fairly knackered by now.
"Come on, we can see if dad might buy you an ice cream." I suggest, trying to ease the disappointment. That does seem to make them more enthusiastic.
We make it home with another round of Shrek. I'm glad the place is so close, I may need to get a kids CD if we are going to take them anywhere in the future. After waving goodbye to Charlotte I turn on dad.
"Did you have to tell her embarrassing stories about me? I was mortified." I tell him sternly.
"She loved it. Don't worry, I'm sure you will get some about her when you spend time with her parents." He is still smiling, he obviously doesn't realize how embarrassed I am, I don't know if I'm going to be comfortable facing her tomorrow at swimming.
I turn my back with a huff and he laughs and turns up the volume on the stereo, obviously less affected by the silent treatment than mum, damn him.
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Swimming is as bad as I expected. Perhaps worse. Not only is Becky flirting with what’s his name but Charlotte is too. To top it all off, I’m losing. What an absolute waste of a Sunday.
I half-heartedly cheer my team on. I feel so stupid. I had let myself think that there was a chance Charlotte might be into me. As soon as a scantily dressed boy enters the picture I’m dropped like last week's news.
The competition goes on way too long and I hardly get to swim because I lost all the early heats. I eventually get cold enough that I grab my clothes from mum and change. Whilst I’m there I just sit down, there’s no point returning to my old seat.
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> So, my hopes are dashed. Charlotte is interested in boys. I knew I shouldn't get my hopes up but I guess it just kind of happened. It makes me sad.
>
> In other news, Susan is dating Jo, god she's lucky, Jo is just so funny and clever and drop-dead gorgeous, in a butch way that I never thought I would be attracted to. Perhaps I should have made a move last month when I met her. I'm probably a little too young for her though.
>
> I’m feeling very lethargic, I can't be bothered doing things just now. Even dad’s electronics projects aren't catching my interest. All I want to do is sleep.
I think everyone is a bit down, school has been an absolute drag recently and mum has been short with me most of the week, I think she believes I didn't try hard enough at swimming. Anne has been giving me updates on the bullying campaign some girl is carrying out on her and all of her friends due to befriending Jo. Lucia hasn’t been allowed to hang out with the girls at school because her mum is some kind of religious zealot and the mood at Anne's movie night is sombre. It feels like someone has died. I guess they are feeling her absence especially poignantly tonight. The choice of film doesn't help. I can't believe it's actually my fault, this movie is dull. I know modern movies are all action-driven and us young'uns can't go two minutes without a car chase or gunfight but I thought old movies were meant to be dialogue-driven. This one feels like it's pandering to the cameraman, all artful shots and nothing happening. I'm pretty sure I dozed off for a minute near the end and I don't think I missed anything!
At the blessed end of the movie, during which nothing really gets resolved, unless I'm missing something, everyone looks bored. Susan even apologises for her choice, well, I take it as an apology.
"How about we watch another Bowie classic?" Susan asks, obviously having come prepared, "Labyrinth!" She is holding up the DVD for us to see.
"You know, apparently there's a drinking game people do whilst watching this? You drink every time you see Bowie's … package, as it were. I think we should do that, cheer and take a slug of our drinks, it's symbolic!" Jenny suggests. I would certainly be up for some alcohol, even that yucky wine but apparently no. Soft drinks only.
It still made the film amusing, not that it wasn't funny already. I wish she had led with this one, then I could have just properly fallen asleep during the main movie.
When it comes time to draw the next movie Jo's choice comes out. When Susan admits her paper wasn't the one pulled last time I see Jo glance in my direction. I give a little head shake and she gladly claims the blame again and somehow picks her own movie from the bag. I really hope it isn't as dull as tonight's one.
I keep quiet as they discuss Anne not being old enough to join them at the pub next year. I won't be old enough for another five. Hell, the way I'm craving a drink just now I might become an alcoholic before then. I guess craving is too strong a word, I just fancy drowning my sorrows.
I enjoy the banter they have going, it's so relaxed and natural. They discuss getting flats together next year and I can imagine that being really nice. I can't imagine having enough close friends to even host one of these parties, let alone needing multiple flats to house them. It probably doesn't help that I am really jealous that the boys actually might get to date one of my two best friends. Oh god, I just realised I have more friends that are boys than girls just now, even if I never hang out with them outside of school. Is that odd? Even before meeting Charlotte's friends, a huge chunk of the people I speak to at school are boys. I think Anne said something about all Jo's friends being boys too. Is it just easier? Less stressful since I don't feel I need to impress them?
I fall asleep doubting myself. It doesn't make for a good night. The hard ground doesn't help either.