"How long have you got until you leave?" Christopher's mother asked.
"Literally five minutes." Christopher replied, wiggling in his seat.
It was the third week of the course and half-term was only a couple of weeks away. He and Winnie had become fast friends and Christopher had found out quite a lot about the blonde.
He likes honey. That one was an immediate realisation; he had honey sandwiches every day for lunch.
He was an extremely good poet. That had been discovered when there course tutor asked them to write a poem, Christopher had struggled a bit, but Winnie spent about thirty seconds writing the best bit of poetry Cristopher had ever heard. He'd also been ridiculously modest about it.
He lived in the 'Hundred-Acre House' which was sheltered accommodation for disabled people sixteen and over.
Winnie was 19.
Quite a lot of the people there had weird-sounding names, the weirdest ones being jointly Tigger and Eeyore.
There were three carers, Owl, Kanga and A.A.
He couldn't visit the house without a DBS check, which Christopher was currently waiting for as there was no way he was going to miss meeting the rest of Poohs 'family' as he reffered to them. It was well worth £40.
That was all he'd found out for now, but today he was going to meet Winnies best friend, 'Piglet'. Apparently he couldn't visit them, but they could visit him 'out of site' I.E. not at his house and not at theirs but anywhere else.
So his mum had dropped him off at a café called 'scrumptious' and he was waiting for the pair of them. He remembered what he had been told about Piglet via Winnie.
"He's very nervous. Have you heard of GAD? No? That's okay; it stands for 'General Anxiety Disorder.' Basically it means he worried quite a lot…about everything. He's usually all right; you just need to be patient." Piglet's disorder was the reason Christopher was meeting him before everyone else; Pooh had thought it would be a good idea.
"Piglet does better in small gatherings; he gets a little…over-whelmed in big ones. And one thing you'll learn about my family is that they are VERY over-whelming."
It was as Christopher was reviewing those wise words the door opened and there stood Winnie with another much smaller boy.
"Christopher Robin, this is Piglet, Piglet this is Christopher Robin." That was another thing, Pooh always reffered to him by his full name, despite Christopher telling him the shortened version was fine, after the first week he gave up.
The brown-headed boy smiled and he and Piglet had a sort of observing match, each scrutinizing the other. Well for one thing Christopher could see why he was called 'Piglet', him and Pooh were average height for their age and Piglet only came up to their waists. He was 16, as well.
Piglet had brown hair, much like his own; he also wore a green stripy top, pink jeans and pink trainers. He also had brown eyes.
"H-H-Hello, C-Ch-Christopher R-Robin." Piglet stuttered.
"Hello Piglet." Christopher replied, politely. "Do you two want to sit down and we'll get some lunch?"
The duo did so thankfully and Piglet carried on talking, with slight prompting from Pooh.
His actual name was Peter Brown, and he was still at his special school. The same one Pooh used to go to, from the sound of it. Haycorns Hill.
"Great. So, what do you two want?" Christopher asked, after examining the menu.
"What are you having?" Winnie asked.
"Omelette, I think. With Coke."
"I'll have that then." Pooh said, putting the menu down.
"M-m-me to." Piglet laid his menu next to Pooh's.
Christopher frowned at that and looked over at Winnie. "I thought you didn't like mushrooms?"
"I don't." He said, looking as if he thought Christopher was the one going mad.
"Then why are you ordering omelette?"
"Do they have mushrooms in?"
"Not all do, but this one does. Look – it literally says it there. It's a mushroom omelette. I mean, can you not…" He trailed of. "You can't read can you?"
"N-n-neither c-can i." Piglet said, twiddling his hands. "N-none of us c-can, except for R-rabbit, K-kanga, Roo and Owl."
Christopher frowned a little at that. "Hold on minute, if you can't read, then how have you been doing the work?"
"I copy." Pooh answered simply. "I was taught at my school to copy letters, when I get home I get one of the lot who can read to read it back to me."
Wow. CR thought. Credit where credits due, that really is ingenious. "Do you do that to?" He asked piglet, who nodded silently.
"They try to get it taught to you by the end of primary." Pooh explained. "Makes it easier to do the secondary school work. So, can you reed us the menu, seeing as you can read?"
Eventually they settled down to one omelette and coke, one honey sandwich and chocolate milkshake and burger, chips and strawberry milkshake.