I awoke the next morning before the sun had even risen.

The sky was painted in a pale yellow and pink colour with clouds dotted about and the sun just started to peek over the top of the trees. Birds tweeted in the trees and the soft sound of snoring from the other girls filled the room. I pushed the blankets off my legs and grabbed my running stuff, changing in the bathroom and shoving my pyjamas under the pillow. After slipping my shoes on, I crept across the dormitory and down the stairs.

A table had been left in the entranceway overnight and a banner had been half-pinned in front of the stairs. It dangled down beside the phone and had been draped over the bannister, so I had to push it out of my way to walk down. The clock in the entranceway ticked but I didn't look at it, I didn't know how early I had woken up and how much time I had before spending the entire day with Katie's family.

Outside, there was a cold chill in the air, but it seemed to get warmer as the sun popped up from behind the trees. With everyone still in bed, including Katie and Jo, I returned to the two trees in front of the school and stretched. Once stretched, I started to jog between the trees but got faster as time went on. Within a few minutes, I was sprinting as fast as my body would let me.

Although I appreciated Katie's offer and somewhat glad that I wouldn't be spending the entire day on my own, I was still nervous. People had never been my strong suit and I often favoured being alone if I could help it. I didn't want to go into this first introduction and end up saying or doing the wrong thing so that they would dislike me. That was the dear I had lived with my entire life. Victoria had hated me from the moment she laid eyes on me, I didn't want this to be the same.

I came to a stop beside one of the trees, bending over and placing my hands on my thighs to try and catch my breath. My heart pounded in my chest and breath was heavy, causing my chest to squeeze a little. The run did very little to help clear the thoughts that clouded my head and they only seemed to get faster once I had stopped running.

After spending a little bit of time catching my breath, I stood up. The sun had peeked its way over the trees and the air had grown warmer in the sunlight. Sweat dribbled down the side of my face and onto the top of my blouse, causing me to wipe my hand over the back of my forehead and heading back into school.

The school had started to come alive during my time outside with some of the teachers already walking around and setting up for the parent's arrival later in the day. None of them paid me any mind as I made my way back up the stairs and into the dormitory. Most of the girls were still asleep, with one or two of them milling around and deciding which outfit to wear for the parent's arrival.

"Ew, you're all sweaty," Emma said, watching me walk past her to my own bed.

"Running can do that to a person," I replied.

"Are your parents coming today?"

"Mum has to work so I'm spending the day with Katie's family."

"Oh. That's a shame." She paused. "That they can't come, I mean."

"It can't be helped. Mum said she'd try and make it to the presentations. What about your parents?" I looked at her as I pulled out a red and white chequered dress from my trunk.

"I live with my Grandmother. She arrived yesterday and stayed in the village."

I nodded my head, trying not to show the look of surprise that threatened to appear on my face. Emma had never mentioned her parents, now I knew why.

Emma returned to thumbing through her trunk for something to wear whilst I walked to the bathroom to change. I wiped a damp cloth over my face to remove any lingering swear and dropped my running clothes into the laundry basket. After returning to the dormitory, Perched on the edge of the bed.

My eyes were drawn to the photograph on my nightstand. The image of my family which had been the only part of them I had seen since I left home over three months ago stared back at me. Mum had promised she would be here and although I knew the chances of her being here had always been in jeopardy, I wasn't ready to be told she wouldn't be here. If that promise meant nothing, then my hopes of them attending the project presentations had started to fade.

"Come on girls, your parents will be arriving soon. I have your examination results for you to hand to your parents," Miss Jones said.

"My parents aren't coming," I said.

"No matter, I shall make sure they receive a copy in the post, Felicity. Mrs Maddox told me she would like you to have your results regardless of whether your parents are here."

"Oh, alright."

"Here you go." She handed me a small envelope which I tucked into my pocket whilst she scribbled something down on the clipboard she was holding. "You may go down to the entranceway if you are spending the day with someone."

I nodded and heard the paper rustle as I left the dormitory and jogged down the stairs, along the hallway and down to the entranceway. Students hung around in groups, some moving tables and placing paperwork on top and others just standing around without a care in the world. The front door had been propped open which allowed a breeze to fill the entranceway. Some of the students were already out on the grass with their families.

Mrs Maddox stood by the door, smiling and waving at the families as they arrived. The table I had seen that morning seemed to contain a register and people were being tricked off by Mrs Clarington when they stepped outside to sit on the grass. I could see Jo through the open door sitting on a blanket with a man, a woman, and two rather young children. Part of me wanted to turn around and go back upstairs before Katie even noticed I was there.

Despite not wanting to spend the day alone, I didn't want to get in the way of Katie spending time with her family. Today was supposed to be about her spending time with her family, not for me to get in the way and be the awkward stranger in the corner. Still, Katie had been kind enough to offer and I didn't want to come across as rude by not accepting.

"There you are! Mum and Dad should be here soon, they had to stop off at the Reed Academy for my brother," Katie said, shuffling over.

"Have you opened your results yet?" I asked.

"Not yet, Mum and Dad will want to see them, so I'll open them when they're here. Are yours being posted now?"

"Miss Jones gave me a copy, apparently Mrs Maddox wants me to open them myself. No idea why."

"It probably means that you did really well." She nudged me in the side and grinned. "Come on, I think that's them."

She took me by the elbow and steered me towards the front door just as a car pulled up and parked along the gravel a short distance from the front door. It looked as though several of the parents had arrived on the train and opted to get the bus in rather than bring a car and have nowhere to park. I never thought that people who could afford to send their child to a private school would take the bus. Perhaps that was just me making assumptions.

I watched the car, squinting against the sun as the engine was turned off and several people climbed out. The person I noticed first was a young boy, perhaps a year younger than me, dressed in a black blazer, shirt and red tie with a school logo embroidered on the pocket. Out of the opposite car door climbed an older girl with short, dark brown curly hair wearing a yellow blouse and a dark brown pencil skirt.

At the front of the car, an older woman climbed out. She had pinned her hair up on the back of her head and was wearing a white blouse and a dark green skirt along with a pair of high-heeled shoes which looked hard to walk in on gravel. The man slammed his car door shut and turned to face us. His dark curly hair was short and cropped close to his head and he wore a white shirt, blazer but no tie. They all looked similar to Katie.

"Mum, Dad, this is my friend Flick. Her parents can't make it so I said she could spend the day with us if that's alright." She added the last bit quickly, as though waiting for them to say no.

"Flick is an interesting name," Mr Wilson said.

"It's a nickname; the teachers call me Felicity."

"This is my mum and dad. My brother Charlie who has been released from Reed for the day, and my older sister Helen."

"We can get to know one another in a minute, Katie. You two need to sign out and we need to get the picnic basket from the car and find a place to sit."

Mr and Mrs Wilson turned back to the car whilst Katie and I returned to the entranceway to sign out with Mrs Clarington. She crossed our names off the list and sent us on our way, by the time we had signed out, they had gathered the basked from the car and were waiting for us to return. Upon our return, Mrs Wilson nodded his head and we set out across the grounds of the school to find a space for our picnic.

We walked around the back of the school to a place in the shade under a collection of trees. After setting up the blanket, one that looked a little like the dress I was wearing, I took a seat on the far corner of the blanket and fanned my dress out around me. Katie's brother, Charlie, stared at me from across the blanket but said nothing and I wanted to him to look somewhere else. It felt a little uncomfortable to have him staring at me in such a way, especially since there was no reason for it.

"Don't stare, Charlie," Mrs Wilson said, she turned to look at me. "So, Flick, are you in the same year as Katie? I don't think I've seen you before."

"Yeah below, I just started back in January."

"Flick passed the entrance exams, the first person in ten years to do it. Mrs Maddox is putting her into some of our lessons because she's too smart for her own," Katie grinned at me.

"It's not because of that," I said, "I fidget too much and Mrs Maddox thinks being in a harder lesson will help. More challenging work, less chance of fidgeting. That's the theory anyway."

"You don't think it'll help?" Mr Wilson asked.

"Not really, sir. They tried it at my last school and I still ended up fidgeting. I just can't sit still."

"Sounds like Charlie, only without the increased academics. Boy cannot sit still for anything."

"Hey!" Charlie whined.

Mr Wilson smiled at him before deciding it was about time to start to tuck into the picnic they had bought with them. I looked around the grounds at the other families sitting nearby whilst they unpacked the basket. It looked like most of the families had turned up. Some were sitting with both their parents or just one, there were grandparents and siblings and a few babies crying up a storm in the warm March air. Almost everyone seemed to be having fun, but I still felt out of place.

I accepted a plate from Mr Wilson and picked cautiously at the picnic they had bought. They appeared generous enough, but I didn't want to come across as being rude by taking more than my fair share or inserting myself in conversations that didn't concern me. The day was supposed to be about Katie spending the time with her family and not me getting in the way. I was more than happy to sit on the sidelines and let them have their day.

Katie told them about the past three months, from her Lacrosse practise to her ongoing with the Mathematics teacher about not being able to do Pythagoras Theorem. Her parents asked about upcoming Lacrosse matches due to be played at the end of the month and when she was supposed to be sitting the O-Level exams. I picked at the food in front of me, chewing on a stick of cucumber and focusing on one of the trees around us.

Despite it being cold first thing in the morning, the wind had given way to a slight heat that warmed everything. A few clouds dotted the sky, but the sunlight remained as strong as ever and I couldn't look directly at the school because the light bouncing off the windows would temporarily blind me. There was still a small breeze in the air, but it couldn't fight against the heat.

My mind started to wonder. I noticed how similar the logo on Charlie's jacket looked like a goose.

"Are you not very hungry, Flick? You have hardly eaten a thing," Mrs Wilson said, nodding towards my plate.

"Sorry, I was miles away," I said.

"Thinking about?"

"Geese. They have far too many teeth for it to be natural."

"Interesting thing to be thinking about." She smiled warmly at me.

"At least it's not the lifecycle of a butterfly this time. I don't want to revisit that one."

Katie looked at me and smiled, shaking her head slightly but saying no more on the matter. Mrs Wilson gave us an odd look but said nothing, she just chuckled to herself and proceeded to ask Charlie about his past three months at Reed Academy. Perhaps the day wouldn't be as bad as I first thought.

~~~

First Published - July 22nd, 2020