Premier Deception (2 page)

Charlotte stifled a
laugh as she took it all in. She couldn
’
t
be annoyed with her mother as she had become accustomed to her
strange ways over the years. Mary Jane Dawson, or Maisie, as she
was known by her friends, was a dynamic woman. She moved in the
surrey mum
’
s circle of Pilates, coffee
mornings and voluntary work. When employed by a bank she had met
Charlotte
’
s father Michael and they had
married and moved to the surrey hills, as her mother called it. She
didn
’
t work as her father earned a good
salary so spent her time busily running the home and selling items
on eBay.

She was a very organised person. Her father joked
that she had lists for her lists and folders for her folders. The
sense of satisfaction that she obviously felt on striking things
from her to do list was second to none. Books on organising and
planning littered the bookcase and nothing was left unplanned or
unorganised.

They had got used to
her ways and never batted an eyelid when she was on one of her
missions. It had its uses, such as the time that Charlotte had
forgotten that her science project was due in the next day. She
remembered at 9pm the night before and had a complete breakdown
over it. She was to build an erupting volcano by first period the
next day. Her mother stayed up until it was finished whilst
Charlotte had to have an early night to get over the stress.
Unfortunately all she had at her disposal was a bottle of her
grandfather
’
s elderflower wine. Undaunted
she painted it black and attached orange tissue paper, sellotaped
on in ribbons to signify lava.

Charlotte
’
s instructions were to
uncork the bottle and watch the lava, or in this case the wine,
flow out. The only trouble was that it was a bumpy ride to school
on the bus and when the time came to unleash the volcano the cork
decided to uncork itself and flew out of the bottle like a bullet
from a gun and got lodged in the suspended ceiling.

Cameron Mcpartlin
thought that he had been shot and dived for cover and the rest of
the class got covered in elderflower lava. The school had written a
letter home stating that it had been irresponsible to give a 13
year old alcohol, which really wound her mother up. She wrote them
a stiffly worded letter back saying that if they had carried out a
proper risk assessment on the project they would have seen it
coming, and as they had not specified the materials to use they
couldn
’
t then complain after the event.
In future she would recommend they do so otherwise Ofsted may have
to become involved. Needless to say volcano projects were suitably
controlled after that.

It
wasn
’
t only her mother who was good at
her projects she thought remembering the time that she had to make
a sword for RE. Her Dad had got quite into it and spent the weekend
fashioning an incredible sword out of wood and tin foil. It looked
fantastic and when she drew the sword out from her bag - It was
like the pulling out of the sword in the stone - there was an
audible gasp of reverence from all of the boys. The only way the
girls would have been impressed was if she had pulled it out from
the latest Michael Kor
’
s handbag, she
thought smiling to herself. Charlotte sat on the side of her bed
and thought about what her mother had said. A job at the local
football club may not be such a bad idea. It was nearby and there
would be lots going on. Having studied sports science she would
find it interesting to see how life worked at a football club and
it may, as her mother had suggested, lead onto other
things.

Getting out of bed she went and duly did as her
mother had asked. She then went into the spare room and surveyed
the outfit that her mother had laid out for her.

The Chanel jacket had
been a charity shop find that her mother never tired of speaking
about. She regularly shopped in the local charity shops near the
training ground as that was where the footballers wives and
girlfriends lived, or WAGs as the press called them. There was many
a bargain to be found, mainly to sell on eBay but the jacket was a
particular find and had been worn many times for special occasions.
The Louboutin heels were possibly not the real deal but had the
trademark red sole so were referred to as such. Alongside these
couture gems was a white shirt and black skirt with some natural
tights. Typical Interview wear but as Charlotte suspected not the
usual attire worn to apply for a summer bar job. Most girls her age
and even considerably younger would never entertain their
mother
’
s interference on this scale, but
Charlotte was an easy going girl who loved and respected her
parents. She knew when to go with it and when to fight her corner
and this was not worth the aggravation that it would cause if she
went against her mother this time. Quickly she got dressed and
applied a conservative amount of make up. She pulled her long blond
hair into a ponytail and grabbed her large bucket bag to house the
necessary interview tools. Oh my God, thought Charlotte, as she
spied a list placed carefully beside the bag. Her mother had even
written an interview checklist like she did for holiday packing. It
read:

1: Notebook
2: Pencil
3: CV
4: Mobile Phone (switch to silent/ meeting mode)
5: Mouth spray/ mints
6: Hairbrush
7: Tissues
8: Make up
9: Folder with research - to study on journey
10: Change for drinks - suggest bottled water (avoid water
fountains, who knows what germs they may harbour)

Charlotte smirked. Picking up the bag she went about
gathering the relevant articles, then grabbing the jacket she
headed off downstairs.

As she opened the
door she could smell the bacon cooking under the grill and hear the
radio playing in the background. Her father was sitting in his
usual place at the table reading the Financial Times, or at least
pretending to. Charlotte knew that he would be more interested in
the racing pages as little did her mother know he always had a
sneaky bet on the horses every Saturday morning. Looking up he
caught her eye and gave her a conspiratorial wink.
“
Looking good gorgeous,
”
he said jovially,
“
off to conquer
the world I see.
”
They both
laughed.
“
Not before she has a good
breakfast and goes over the background information, you know
it
’
s not just a case of turning up these
days, you have to stand out from the crowd,
”
interrupted her mother who was frying eggs and keeping an
eye on the toast.
“
Help yourself to
cereal and there is some home made compote on the table,
”
she said. Charlotte and her dad grinned at each
other. Her mother always prided herself on her weekend breakfasts,
they were to rival any B&B and like everything she did were
planned down to the very last freshly squeezed orange juice,
courtesy of the juicer that she had to have after seeing a simply
must have deal on the shopping channel.

Mary loved nothing more than wiling away the time
glued to the shopping channel. There were always boxes of
incredible bargains being delivered containing various things, the
latest being the new super steam cleaner, guaranteed to rid your
home of perilous dust and germs that were lurking in every crevice
harbouring deadly diseases.

There was also the new workout craze DVD with added
bonus features that would extend your life through fitness, that
one had lasted an hour before she decided that the man was a total
bully and control freak and obviously knew nothing about how to
handle women, in fact a total misogynist - although it was worth
watching it with a cup of coffee and a cream cake just to see him
work out!

She called it her research, after all she did have a
business on eBay, and every time her father complained when another
purchase arrived she would argue that as it was such a steal she
could sell it on eBay for more money.

In fact come to think of it her father tolerated
rather a lot living with her mother. Charlotte adored her father,
he was always good humoured and ready to listen to her opinions on
life and the universe. Her mother was always coming up with new
schemes, which invariably he funded, as well as arranging for him
to carry out endless jobs around the house and garden. He never
complained, and just appeared resigned to it and took it all in his
stride. He obviously adored her mother and they had a very happy
marriage.

Suddenly a furry
tornado entered the room and hurled itself at her. Scruffy!
”
she cried delightedly, always pleased to see her
little westie, who provided them with a continuous source of
amusement. Scruffy certainly lived up to her name, in fact the only
time that she didn
‘
t was when her mother
took her for her 8 weekly hair cut at
“
Barking Babes Doggy Spa,
”
apparently they adopt a holistic approach to canine
grooming. Her father was always complaining that the dog was
treated better than he was, largely due to the fact that he had to
endure his wife
’
s efforts with the
clippers- another steal from the shopping channel- whilst the dog
was styled by professionals!
“
Down
Scruffy!
”
cried her mother,
“
she
’
s got muddy paws
and if she gets them on the Chanel, we don
‘
t have a back up?
”

“Where
’
s Jake?
”
Charlotte asked. Jake was her younger brother,
completely barmy and into football in a big way. He played for the
school and was Captain of the district team. Mary was always
writing to various clubs and scouts to come and watch him play.
There had been a few trials with various clubs but nothing had come
of them yet. Still he was only twelve so there was still plenty of
time.

“
He has already
been picked up by Josh
’
s dad as they have
an early game over in Staines, so they have had to leave early. I
can
’
t go as I have to help out at the
church. We are doing the flowers for a christening tomorrow and
they want more flowers there than at the Chelsea Flower
show.
”
She sniffed
disapprovingly.

“
Do you know
that everyone is out to do one better than their friends these
days. Next thing you know they
’
ll be
kayaking up the Congo to christen their children courtesy of a
reality TV programme called, Extreme Christenings, or something
like that!
”

Mary was on the
church
’
s flower arranging roster and took
her duties very seriously.
“
Dad will take
you to your interview before golf, but you will have to make your
own way home as I have several jobs lined up for him this afternoon
that must be done today.
”
Her Dad raised
his eyes to the heavens and gave her a wink, which made Charlotte
giggle. Just then her mother silenced them as a news report on the
radio caught her attention. She held up her hand,
“
Listen
”
she
said.
“
Ssh, they
’
re talking about the club.
”

“Today is
an important day at Kingsbridge United, as the grand unveiling of
the new manager will be taking place. His identity has been kept
completely under wraps but the owners promise that it will be the
saving grace of the club who have been battling at the bottom of
the table all season. Bobby Sullivan the last manager was sacked
last month after consistently bad results and the coach, Luke
Sandor, has been the caretaker manager ever since. Fans of the club
had been hoping that he would take over but the owners have said
that a lot is riding on the success of the next season as they
could be relegated and would therefore lose a lot of money. It is
rumoured that a new European manager has been recruited, who will
bring with him his own team of professionals and greatly raise the
profile of the club and try to save it from falling down any
further. The new manager is expected to arrive later today amid a
huge press launch.
”

“Well well,
”
Mick said.
“
Apparently
they need all the help they can get. The results have been terrible
and the fans are getting fed up with losing. Dave says that morale
at the club is at an all time low and many are looking for new jobs
already.
”

Dave was
Dad
’
s best friend whose brother was a
steward at the club. They were always getting little snippets of
insider information about life there.
“
Well it looks like it
’
s going to
be really busy at the club today so I think that you had better be
going.
”
said Mary.
“
Mick finish up and get the car out, Charlotte start looking
at the background information that I have printed off for you to
look at on your way. Barbara MacTravers daughter is also going so
you must get in there first and make a good impression. She has
done the gold D of E you know which could work in her
favour.
”
Charlotte raised her eyes up and
retorted,
“
I think that a
sport
’
s science degree trumps a DofE
don
’
t you?
”
Her
mother looked at her steadily and replied,
“
never underestimate the influence of the Crown.
”