"Mrs Annie, I have been here for 7 years and have gotten every badge apart from one. Why can I not quit guides?" I desperately pleaded to my group leader showing her my full-to-the-brim sash, apart from One of course. It was that damn kindness one with a single heart in the middle.

"Agnes I have told you thousands of times that the point of coming here is to learn about life and the importance of it. And I can see that you- Miss Evans have not learnt anything in the past 4 years of joining guides. I'm sorry Agnes but I will not let you leave and I will not sign the form until I think you know the lesson." Mrs Annie looked up at me and pushed back my sash.

"So, what you're saying," I pulled the sash through my hands and stopped at the missing place," that if I get this last badge . I can quit this place and say goodbye?"

"Essentially, yes. But I have to think you have learnt the final lesson." Mrs Annie pushed up her glasses and then said, "then, I will sign your release form."

Yes, I can do that. Then I can leave this darn place.

"Okay, can I have the brief?" Mrs Annie opened her briefcase and fished out a wad of paper.

"Let me see where it is...," I fiddled with my fingers as she throroughly checked through every single sheet of paper.

I know that wad of paper like the back of my hand. Kindness begins with a K, meaning in that alphabetically ordered pile it would be near the beginning of the middle.

In case you needed that.

"AH HA! Here it is!" Mrs Annie sung about, quickly flinging her arm out with the double sided sheet of paper in her hand then she looked up and her frizzy red hair bobbled back and forth. Her glasses perched lopsided on the bridge of her nose. With an over-the-top grin plastered on her face she then said, "um, Lucy Myles spilt my tea over that sheet and it is the last surviving one so some of the words are messed up but I'm sure you will be fine."

"Okay" I said slowly as I looked down at the crumpled sheet of paper. Smoothing it out, I scanned across it and read absolutely nothing because all of it was smudged out by tea stains (apart from the title which said Kindness Badge). I turned it over and spotted a few legible words

BIRTHDAY

PERSONAL

NOT TOO

I assumed it meant not too personal.

Well I guess I'm surprising some random stranger with a birthday party, I just need to find one. In this tiny town everyone knows everyone and when you move in everyone knows everything about you.

Well, rumour has it a guy is transferring so I might as well snoop around and try to find him.

I subconsciously peered down at the brief to see how I could approach a random stranger, apparently I should- there was nothing to read.

Useless piece of fluff.

Then I remembered that Mrs Annie should have a master copy, every group leader has master copies of every single badge.

"Miss, can I see your master copy?" I asked her.

"Well, Agnes that," she gestures at the completely ruined sheet of paper in my hand, " is my master copy."

Seriously, I have no brief and this badge is my ticket out of this boring hole.

Worst. Group Leader. Ever.

"Aren't they meant to laminated and shiny and all that wonderful stuff? So you CAN'T completely and absolutely destroy them?" I retorted back and stormed to the nearest bin bag that was attached to a pole.

See, we can't even afford plastic buckets that hold rubbish. And people still join this organisation.

We meet in a hall that we have to rent because we can't afford to create one, we have had the same uniforms for over a century and it is guaranteed that we will be colouring every time we arrive.

In fact I'm not even pissed at the fact we can't afford stuff. I don't care but I just get terribly bored every time I come here. In the lower age group of Rainbows for ages 5-7 we ate fruit and sang songs and everything fun, I wouldn't even mind eating fruit every time we came because I love that stuff.

Rainbows introduced the wonderful, spectacular and absolutely amazing fruit: The Kiwi.

Yes, that furry brown round ugly thing is absolutely delicious. To me of course, I refuse to eat the furry stuff but the inside is heavenly.

Anyhow, at the bin bag I pulled out my notebook and pen from my backpack and slowly looked over all the smudges on the paper to see if anything could help me. After jotting the words down I threw the piece of paper in the bin.

I had added

ALLOWED

NOT

HELP

ASSIST

I assumed again that this meant you are not allowed assistance or help while planning for your badge and you know all of that jazz about independence.

Well, nothing can help me now that I disposed of the useless brief and I have no information on anything.

As soon as this session of guides is over I can go home and start planning how to get this badge. Checking my watch I saw it was 5 minutes until the end so I started packing some stuff that was not being used like extra rubbers and pens and destroyed pieces of colouring books.

Us older ones didn't really care about colouring so we just randomly scribbled across the paper and did doodles around the edges. I personally enjoyed the classic game of noughts and crosses across a princess' face

I checked my watch again and saw it was over so I walked over to the pegs and took my navy blue jacket off the peg and walked out of the hall saying farewell to Mrs Annie on the way.

Time to go home and plan how to get my last badge.

Ok um. Hi, new book yay. You might think it isnt right to force Agnes to stay but her mum can always pull her out. The form is just a sort of way of achievement, somehow you would have finished guides...that is cool i guess. Also i imagine once Agnes is presented with a challenge she would totally take it