Learning to Breathe (9 page)

She s
miled at me with a knowing look. “A
male
friend?”

I shook my head but my face must have betrayed me since my mother threw me
the
look – the one she used when she knew I was lying. I sighed heavily and gave in.

“Yes, but we’re just friends and nothing more.”

She pursed her lips and didn’t say anything but I could tell that her brain was already concocting up various fantasies about me finally having a friend of the male variety.

I didn’t feel the need to tell her anythin
g else so I changed the subject. “What are your plans for today?”

She s
hrugged. “I don’t know about you but I could do with a lazy day. How about we watch some cheesy films and stuff our faces with junk food?”

I laughed. “Yeah, that sounds good.
” I told her, genuinely looking forward to spending the day doing nothing.

My mother quickly showered and dressed before driving off to the shop, leaving me with the task of making the living room extra cosy. I showered, changed into something comfy and rooted around in some cupboards until I found some fluffy pillows and fleece blankets.

I set them in the living room, grabbed some cans of Diet Coke from the kitchen and flopped down on the sofa again. I was just getting super comfy when my mother arrived back, armed with what looked like the entire sweet shop. She had three bags full of crisps, chocolate, various sweets and even a frozen pizza for dinner later.

“You do realise we’re not suffering from a food shortage, right?”

She laughed.
“I know but I figured we should make the most of it – besides, a girl can never eat too much chocolate.”

I had to laugh at that.
“True. Now, what do you wanna watch first?”

My mother laid out all of the snacks on the floor, took the s
eat beside me and then shrugged. “Anything, I don’t mind.”

I flicked through the channels until I found an 80’s classic – ‘Pretty in Pink’.

My mother grabbed a handful of popcorn and nodded her approval. “Good choice – I just love Duckie!”

I smiled at her, feeling quite happy that we were actually spending some time together and that
she wasn’t worrying about how I was feeling.

The rest of the day passed with us watching more classic films and eating so much junk food that we felt sick. I, however, didn’t care because it meant that I wasn’t thinking about school, Danny or anything else. Instead, it was a simple case of spending some
quality time with my mum and it had been long overdue.

Monday morning arrived with my alarm clock b
leeping loudly. I groaned, rubbed my eyes and forced myself to get up from my cosy bed. After showering and changing, I glanced at my phone and noticed that I had a text message from Harriet.

‘
Nd ride or ru goin wif Danny-boy? ;)’

‘NO! Meet u in 10.’ I replied back, shaking my head at Harriet’s assumption that Danny and I were dating.

I quickly gathered up my bag and phone, locked the front door and met Harriet who was just getting into her car.

“Well,” she began as I
got into the passenger seat. “How’re things between you and Mr Fletcher? You two make it official yet?” she asked with a cheeky wink.

I shook my hea
d exasperatedly. “You’ve an overactive imagination – we’re just friends.”

She rolled her eyes.
“Whatever.”

“What? It’s the truth! I’ve only known the guy a few weeks. Anyway, what about you and Samuel – you guys make up?”

Harriet sighed heavily. “Yeah, he was just being an ass – he gets like that when he’s had too much to drink. He phoned to apologise on Saturday night and then we spent the whole day together yesterday so all is forgiven.”

“That’s good, how long have you guys been going out anyway?”

“Just over a year … but if you ask Samuel he’ll tell you it’s longer.” I watched as Harriet smirked to herself.

“Why would he say that?” I asked, intrigued.

“We were friends first but the timing wasn’t right until last year – I was dating someone else until I realised that I liked Samuel more than I liked my boyfriend! Samuel likes to say that we were dating for years but I just didn’t know it.” She smiled to herself and I wondered if everyone got to be as happy as she was.

I
pulled myself out of my negative thoughts as Harriet parked her car into one of the few spaces left and got out. I followed suit and made my way into the school, idly wondering if my timetable was finally ready.

Once inside the school, I left Harriet with Samuel and made my way to Tutorial Class to ask about my timetable. Mr Fennell was going through some papers when I knocked on the door. He glanced up and recognition flickered in his eyes.

“Darcie Gilmore, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I was just wondering about my timetable …”

I trailed off at the look of recollection on his face.

“Ah, yes, right.” He mumbled distractedly as he rifled through the various piles of sheets on his desk. A few minutes later and he still hadn’t produced a timetable. He frowned and then glanced up at me.

“I can’t seem to find the copy – in fact, I don’t remember them giving me a copy – but you can go to the Main Office and they’ll print you out another one.”

I nodded and set out in search of the office, slightly irritated at the fact that this wasn’t exactly the best start to my first full day at Dover High.

Ten minutes passed and I eventually found a door marked ‘Main Office’. I knocked once and then entered the room to find a pleasant-looking lady seated behind a rather large desk. She was a small, thin woman in her early fifties with short grey hair and little round glasses. She glanced up as I approached her desk.

“Hi, Mr Fennell sent me here. He couldn’t find a copy of my timetable but he said you’d be able to print off another one.” I explained to the woman whose name I now learned was Valerie – there was a tiny little plaque on her desk informing me of this fact.

She shook her head.
“Typical … that Fennell one is always misplacing things! Don’t you worry dear, I’ll get you another one. Now, what’s the name?” she asked, smiling kindly while she waited for me to reply.

“Darcie Gilmore – I just enrolled this year.”

Valerie typed something into her computer and nodded. “Ah yes, found it. I’ll just print it off and you can be on your way.”

She got up and scooted over to the massive printer that was sitting in the far corner of the room. A few seconds later and a sheet came spitting out with a loud noise.

She inspected the sheet of paper and nodded to herself before sitting back down behind her desk. She typed something else into the computer and then handed me the sheet.

“Take a wee look at that dear and tell me if everything’s right.”

I quickly scanned the list of subjects to check that it had all
of the choices I had opted for – English Literature, Psychology, Sociology and Business Studies – yes, they were all there. It was then that my gaze flickered down the page to the last subject listed – P.E. –
what
? I hadn’t signed up for that!

I lowered
the page and addressed Valerie. “Yeah, everything’s correct apart from P.E. – I didn’t sign up for that.” I explained to her, wondering if my day could get any worse – I loathed nearly all forms of exercise.

She shook her head.
“No, that’s right. P.E. is mandatory here ever since Ms Greenly caught pupils sneaking out to go up town instead of going to their study periods.”

She allowed herself a small laugh
at my bewildered expression before she continued. “Anyway, to cut a long story short, there was a debate about how to keep them in school. Eventually the Education Board decided on making it mandatory that they participated in P.E. for three hours each week. In exchange for that they were allowed to go home early one day a week but if they didn’t co-operate, they had to stay in Study or face suspension.”

I let out a low whistle.
“Ms Greenly sure doesn’t mess about.”

Valerie chuckled.
“Indeed. Now, I’ve checked what classes are left for P.E. but I’m afraid the only one with a space available is Ms Mahon’s swimming class.”

I literally felt faint as she uttered the word ‘swimming’. I couldn’t believe how much bad luck I had endured since movi
ng – I had thought that it was all behind me. I found it hard to breathe and I dimly noticed that Valerie was looking at me in concern.

“Darcie dear, are you okay? You look rather pale.”

I began to gasp for air and quickly flopped down in an empty chair opposite Valerie’s desk. She threw me a worried look and went to get a cup of water from the water dispenser near the door. After filling a cup, she handed it to me and I gulped down the cold liquid to try to calm myself down.

“Thanks.
” I told her a few minutes later when I thought I could manage to speak again.

She nodded.
“It’s no problem dear. Now, tell me what that was all about?”

I took a few dee
p breaths and glanced up at her. “I – I can’t swim.”

There was silence for a few seconds while I watched Valerie piece together my reaction and this new-found information. Finally, she sat down in her chair and looked across at me.

“Now
, there’s no need to worry dear.” She told me in a gentle tone.

I remained sil
ent but gave her a half nod to let her know that I was okay.

She smiled at me.
“Well then dear, I’ll see what I can do.” I watched as she typed something into her computer again.

She
shook her head. “There really are no other classes available, but I’m sure that I could set up a meeting with Ms Greenly and you could explain the whole situation to her. Would that be okay?”

I nodded my head silently and
she set about organising an appointment for later that afternoon. Finally, Valerie handed me a little card with the time on it – 3.15pm. I nodded at her gratefully and quickly left the office; making a mental note to call the leisure centre to tell them that I’d be late.

I felt incredibly stupid when I thought about how I had reacted. It appeared that my fear of swimming was
steadily getting worse and that was not a good sign. I sighed heavily and glanced at my watch – 9.35am. I took a fleeting glance at my timetable and discovered that my first class – English Literature – had started five minutes ago.
Great, there went my chance to make a good first impression!

Just over an hour later and I had managed to survive my first class. My new English teacher – Mr Samson – had been pretty easy-going about my lateness and for that I was relieved. My first lesson turned out to be quite enjoyable as he informed us of what would be studying first – Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’. I was actually quite happy about this as it was a favourite of mine.

It was now break-time and I found Harriet waiting for me at the locker area.

“Hey, you disappeared on me earlier. Where’d you go?”

“Oh I just had to go to the office to get my timetable,” I explained while I packed my bag for my next classes, “Why? Did I miss anything important?”

She shook her head. “Nah. So what’s your timetable like?”

I handed the sheet to her and she scanned it intently.

“Aw, we don’t have any classes together – that sucks!” She shot me a disappointed look before looking at the sheet again. “Ooh but we do have the same lunch Mondays and Thursdays!” she added excitedly.

I laughed and took back
the sheet. “Hey, what class you in for P.E.?”

Harriet rolled her eyes.
“Badminton. It’s the only thing I’m good at that fits in with my timetable. Why? What are you in?”

“Oh just swimming.
” I said casually, trying my best to hide how terrified I actually was.

“Jeez, you
’re lucky … not! Ms Mahon scares the crap outta everyone and she’s
really
tough on you when it comes to swimming.” She threw me a sympathetic look.

Great, can this day possibly get any worse?

Thankfully,
the rest of the day passed without any further nasty surprises. I spent my study periods reading up on material for English and lunch was fairly uneventful. Sociology went by quite quickly and I even managed not to run into Danny all day.

However,
it was soon time for my meeting with Ms Greenly. I had become increasingly anxious about the meeting throughout the day and now I was as nervous as hell. What if I couldn’t change it? Could Ms Greenly force me to do it? A lot of questions kept running through my mind but I tried not to think about it too much as I made my way to her office.