Monday 24th March 2004
I woke up by the sound of someone scrabbling outside the tent. I pretended to be asleep as I knew that it was time to get up for school. Someone undid the zip of the tent and then to my surprise they jumped on me, bouncing up and down and screaming in my ear,
"WAKE UP KAYLEIGH! IT'S SCHOOL NOW!" It was Screaming Lord Thomas. I pushed him away before sitting up. He started to kick Liam.
"You awake?" Thomas yelled in Liam's ear.
"No." I mumbled and laid back down. I covered my face with my pillow as Thomas started to sing.
"Wake up children, welcome the morning, wake up children have a cup of tea." However, Liam and I ignored him and didn't move. Thomas then started jumping on me and kicking me again.
"Alright, I'm awake!" I snapped, pushing him off. Thomas smiled as I climbed out of my sleeping bag and out the tent to find it was tipping it down with rain outside. I sprinted across the muddy grass and into the conservatory where Tracie was sat in her pink fluffy dressing gown, drinking coffee. I completely blanked her and walked straight into the kitchen. Mum was cooking pancakes.
"There's my little cupcake." Mum said cheerfully. She came up to me and gave me a tight hug and a kiss on the forehead. "Pancakes?"
"Erm, yeah, sure." I said and sat down at the table. I heard the radio in the background but I was too tired to pay any attention to what was being played.
"Hey, isn't this the band Lisa and Angie want you to see?" Mum asked turning up the radio. The DJ started to talk about McFly and he said that he was just about to have an interview with them. I groaned and turned the radio off, not wanting to listen to them.
It was half eight in the morning. I escaped out of the house safely and started to walk down the road, taking bites out of an apple. I tried to steal another bottle of Sunny D but mum caught me and pushed me out of the house. It had stopped raining and the sun tried to creep out from behind the clouds.
Every morning, I would walk over to Angie's house to walk to school while my dad gave my siblings a lift into school.
"So, what did your parents think about the idea of us starting a band then?" I asked Angie after meeting her at the end of her road.
"They liked the idea. They thought that now is a good time to start thinking about my career." Angie said happily. "I was thinking about working in a recording studio for work experience or something." I said nothing as we got closer to school.
"Did your parents think it was a good idea to start a band?" Angie asked.
I sighed. "They all laughed at the idea. Except Liam"
Angie frowned. "How do you mean?"
"Mum said that she prefers me backing out on everything. She seemed a little annoyed by the idea and said how I should be more concerned about my exams." I mumbled.
"That's just silly," Angie hissed. "Your parents can't stop you from doing something you want to do. Just remember what they always say Kayleigh: 'When one door closes…'"
"'Two others open'." I said, finishing off the sentence.
Angie smiled. "Good."
I then remembered about James. "What am I going to do about James?"
"What about him?"
"The word about our split has probably been spread across the school and everyone would want to know what's going on. No doubt half of the year will be on James' side as no one knows who I am." I mumbled.
"Negativity, that's the problem with you," Angie said, tapping me on the shoulder. "You're always negative and that is why everything gets you down all of the time."
I sighed loudly. "I suppose you're right."
"I am right." Angie laughed.
We eventually arrived at school. We stopped by the school gates, looking at the open field and the school building in front of us. All the pupils were running around playing games. Some were stood in circles, talking to one another and some were sat down on the grass. I did not like school at all. It felt like I was being held in prison. The school building was like a castle because it was so big. We had an indoor swimming pool and gym and outside we had a large football, rugby and rounders field. You'd find most of the boys in my year working out at the gym and Tracie and her 'girlfriends' would sit and watch them.
Angie and I met up with Lisa by the tree in the corner of the football field. That was where we met up every school morning. Lisa was casually leaning against the tree, texting on her phone.
"Hang on a moment." Lisa said and carried on texting as we reached her. I glanced at Angie and she rolled her eyes. Lisa then finally looked up and smiled.
"Like it?" She asked, holding up her brand new mobile. "Daddy brought it yesterday."
"Brilliant." I said and leaned against the tree with her.
"So, what did your parents think about the band idea …" Angie paused. "Well, your mum …" Lisa's face looked a little pinched but then smiled. Her parents had a divorce a few months back.
"Well my mum thought that it was a brilliant idea and now, I'm pretty thankful that you made me do this," Lisa said and then she looked at me. "So you'll be coming to see McFly with us on Saturday?"
"My family doesn't seem to like the idea." I said. Lisa looked disappointed. "As soon as yours and Angie's parents like it, my family just laughs at me and say that they'd prefer it if I back out on everything."
"Well it doesn't stop you form starting a band does it? You're going to be sixteen in about seven weeks time, it's best to start your career now instead of regretting it in your future life."
"But the problem is, Lisa, is that my parents won't let me. They'd rather me back out on everything and keep my singing and guitar playing to myself," I snapped and then I sighed. "Maybe I should just carry on sending my song to other singers and wait for another rejection."
Lisa smiled in a comforting way and put her arm round me. I let her hug me and then hugged her back.
"Anyway, I know something that'll cheer you up," Lisa said cheerfully. "Apparently James isn't going to be in today."
I pulled away from Lisa. "Really?"
"Yup."
"Why isn't he?" Angie asked.
Lisa shrugged. "God knows why."
The bell rang. The three of us walked toward the locker room to put our bags away before going into the hall for a twenty minute assembly with our openly gay Headmaster: Mr Hobbs.
I opened my locker and shoved my bag inside before looking at my reflection in the cracked mirror, hanging on the inside of the locker door. I cracked it a week ago. Seven years bad luck. I was ready for it.
I noticed four photos of James and I in the photo booth on Eastbourne pier, pulling silly faces. I sighed as I ripped the photos off the door and put them in the bin next to me. As I did that, a girl and a boy walked passed me. The girl said,
"Did you hear that James is no longer going out with that ginger girl?"
"She probably was rubbish at sex." The boy said before they both laughed and walked out the locker rooms. I frowned and gave them two fingers. Angie slightly giggled but stopped abruptly when I heard my English teacher, Mrs Wragg say,
"That's not the type of behaviour I would like to see on a new day of a brand new week at school, Miss Slovenia."
I turned round to face her; everyone around me was sniggering as they walked past.
"Sorry, Miss." I mumbled.
"I should jolly well hope so too young lady. Now give me your homework planner and I'll give you a warning." I opened my locker, got out my bag and gave Mrs Wragg my homework planner. She snatched it out of my hands and started to write something in it.
"Okay, I've given you a warning and if you get another one today, you'll be getting a detention after school on Friday." She hissed, shoved it in my hands and strutted off.
"A perfect start to a perfect day." I said as Angie and Lisa stood next to me, giggling. I then hit them both on the head with my homework planner.
"Hey, what was that for?" Angie said, still laughing.
"It's not funny that I got a warning." I snapped and then I started to laugh with them.
We were sat towards the back of the hall during assembly. It was the worst part of the day. We had to sit on the hard floorboards for twenty minutes while Mr Hobbs talked. I used to listen to my ipod but I got caught three times and was given a Friday detention.
"I would like to welcome you back to school for a brand new week. There are quite a few things I need to point out to you because these next three weeks are going to be a little bit different and extremely busy.
"As we all know, the year nines are all having their end of year exams this week so we want to remind you that you must be silent when walking through the corridors as it is unfair on the ones sitting the exams if you make too much noise." Mr Hobbs paused as he looked at all of us. He started to look somewhat uncomfortable and nervous all of a sudden. He started to play with his shirt collar and went a little red in the face. "Err, then next week, we erm …" He paused again, feeling rather intimidated by his own pupils. "We have the, err … the err, music week, like we ...um, have every year and err, the week after we, erm, have the, err, the er, the sports week …" The hall fell silent. We were all sat there looking at him oddly. Someone started to cough and we could tell that Mr Hobbs was getting irritated and embarrassed at the same time. He cleared his throat and said loud and clearly. "Yes, next week is the music week and the week following that is sports week," There was another long silence. "And now I want to hand you over to Mr Humble, our new Religious Studies teacher." Mr Hobbs looked behind him and nodded at a man who was sitting on one of the chairs, next to the other teachers, cross-legged with his hands in his lap. The man stood up and took Mr Hobbs' place. Our new RS teacher looked rather sweet and innocent. He had a yellow shirt on, a blue and white spotted tie with a red and black jumper with a diamond pattern on it. His hair was brown and was gelled over to one side and he wore very large, thick, black round glasses, similar to the ones my dad wore, only rounder. He walked forward, with pieces of paper in his hands. He cleared his throat and started to speak.
"Good morning all pupils," He said in a very posh accent. "My name is Mr Humble and I will be your new Religious Studies teacher for the rest of this academic year as Mrs Falwer is on maternity leave. I will expect you to be on your best behaviour in my classes because I will be taking notes on how you are and how fantastic this school is. I will be looking out for children messing around and bad behaviour. And if I do see any of this, then I'll put down bad notes and then this school maybe closed down … for good."
Some of the pupils started to whisper to each other. Mr Humble then took out a mini black book out of his back trouser pocket and started to read what was in it.
"Yes, not only am I a teacher qualified in Religious Studies, I am also a school journalist for the local newspapers," He then gestured to his little book. "Here is a list of rules that I will want in my class. They will be up on the wall so you can read it every lesson you have with me and you can know what to do and what not to do." He cleared his throat once more and was about to speak but then the bell rang. Everyone quickly stood up and started to run off to their lessons.
"Saved by the bell," I said to Angie as we walked to over to the science blocks where we had our first lesson. "I don't think that anyone would have wanted to hear his pathetic list out loud."
"But if you are bad in his lessons, Kayleigh, then our school will have to be closed down." Lisa said as the wind started to blow in our faces.
"He's dramatising it!" I groaned.
"Kayleigh, I really do think he was being serious." Angie said. I rolled my eyes.
"Well I'm not afraid of any strict teachers. I'll just get on with what I do best." I said proudly.
Lisa laughed. "What, getting into arguments with your teachers every day?" I stopped walking and frowned, but Lisa and Angie carried on. I sighed and started walking again.
Once we reached the science blocks, we all sat down in our seats and took out our books. Ms Meyers, our science teacher, was sat by her desk with her feet up, reading a copy of Heat magazine and chewing gum. The lab smelled heavily of her perfume.
The room fell silent and all we could hear was the sound of Ms Meyers chewing her gum. Everyone was looking at each other and trying not to giggle. Ms Meyers looked up over her Heat magazine.
"Oh, err turn to page 167 in your GCSE's text books." She said and looked down at her magazine again.
"But Miss," Lisa spoke out. "You haven't handed us the GCSE text books yet."
Ms Meyers looked slightly irritated by the fact that she had to move out of her seat. She groaned loudly, took her feet off the table, put the magazine on the desk and took her reading glasses off. She hesitated for a moment then said, "Kayleigh, can you go and hand out the GCSE text books since you're closest."
I rolled my eyes and stood up. "Where are they?" I asked. Ms Meyers pointed to a stack of thick text books over by the window which was on the other side of the class. I didn't understand why she had to pick me to hand out the books when there were five other girls who were sat closer to them.
Without a word, I walked to where the books were and started to hand them out to the class. No one was kind enough to say 'thank you' but Lisa and Angie. Instead, I got glares and whispers behind my back. I ignored them and sat back down in my seat. Lisa and Angie were already noting down notes about Physics and answering the textbook questions. I saw that everyone else was writing something down and I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Silence filled the air as I put my hand up.
"What do you want now, Miss Slovenia?" Ms Meyers snapped, slamming the magazine on the desk.
"Erm, what are we meant to be doing?" I asked. Lisa rolled her eyes. I looked round and everyone was just watching me.
"You turn to page 167 in the text book." Ms Meyers said sternly.
"Yes, I've done that."
"Well you should be noting it down then."
"Noting what down?" I asked rudely. I didn't understand. Ms Meyers was a terrible teacher who never explained herself properly.
"I told you what to note down five minutes ago." She hissed narrowing her eyes.
"But I was too busy handing out the text books." I snapped.
"Are you trying to tell me that you weren't listening?" Ms Meyers shouted, standing up. I stood up to. Lisa was pulling on the sleeve of my school jumper as if to tell me to sit back down.
"Well I'm sorry miss but I can't do two things at the same time."
"Don't be cheeky with me, Miss Slovenia!"
"Cheeky? How the fuck am I being cheeky you silly cow?" It was too late. The words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop them. I could see Lisa shaking her head in disappointment in the corner on my eye.
"Give me your homework planner. You'll be staying in detention after school on Friday." Ms Meyers said calmly. I paused, unable to move. "Now!"
I quickly picked up my planner and walked across the classroom and placed it on her desk. She then pointed to the door. She wanted me to leave. I did so.
"And I'll be phoning your parents too!" She called after me as I opened the door and slammed it shut. I sat on the rail outside the science block. I wasn't meant to swear or call Ms Meyers a cow; it just slipped out because she made me so angry. I didn't get on well with any of the teachers at school because of the arguments we had. My dad had a short temper too, but mine seemed to be worse than his.
I looked up and saw some year sevens peeking out of one of the other science block windows to look at me. They probably heard me shouting.
The wind started to blow hard again and Mr Humble came round the corner. He had three black folders wedged under his arm. He was walking in a sort of way which made him look like he's in a hurry, but his legs weren't long enough to carry him at a fast speed. I lifted my arm to wave at him, smiling and said,
"Hello, Mr Humble." He stopped walking abruptly and looked. He stood there for a moment, examining me. He frowned and then walked up to me.
"Why are you standing out here?" He asked.
"Ohhh, Ms Meyers sent me out here. She wants to have a little word with me about, erm … my GCSE's." I lied and then grinned.
He grunted and asked, "What's your name?"
"Kayleigh. Kayleigh Slovenia."
"Ahhhh," He sounded like he was really interested in my name. "I've heard a great deal about you Miss Slovenia." He said, waggling his pen at me.
"Like what?"
He laughed under his breath and said in my ear, "You're a trouble maker."
I looked at him in the eye. I smiled weakly.
"I'm looking forward to our RS lesson this afternoon, to see how bad you really are." He walked off, his shoes clomping away.
The last lesson arrived and Angie and I walked down the school corridors towards the RS department to have our first RS lesson with Mr Humble. We both tried to get the back seats but two of Tracie's 'girlfriends' got there before us. We took the seats in front of them. The two girls who we had in our RS class were Chloe Bell and Jenny Freewood. The other two of Tracie's 'girlfriends' were called Jess Wells and Katy Thompson.
They all looked similar to one another with their beach blonde hair, orange faces and short, tight clothes that didn't fit them. However, Jenny was the only one in the group who had black hair.
We were all sat down by the time Mr Humble came into the classroom.
"And I expect all of you to be standing up when I walk in." Mr Humble hissed, not even looking at us. The whole class stood up slowly, looking at one another. I glanced at Angie who was looking down at the table, too scared of eye contact. Mr Humble put his folders gingerly onto the desk at the front and turned round to face us, smiling.
"You may now sit down."
We all sat down in silence. Mr Humble stood there with his hands behind his back, watching us. He was mostly looking at me but I never took my eyes off him. He turned round and wrote in capital letters on the board 'RELIGIOUS STUDIES'. He started to mumble something under his breathe and then he said in an annoyed tone,
"And you'd better find a better place to hide your chewing gum, Mr Michaels!" We all looked at Sam Michaels who was sat in the corner of the room, sticking chewing gum under the desk. Sam, who had dirty blonde hair and broad shoulders, looked up at everyone in alarm.
"Argh, you're joking!" He groaned. "He didn't even look at me, twat."
"AND DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT ME BEHIND MY BACK WHEN I CAN STILL HEAR YOU!" Mr Humble shouted, chucking a pen at Sam. Sam dodged out of the way and the pen hit the wall behind him. "And you can stand outside of the classroom, young man."
Sam raised his eyebrows but obeyed Mr Humble's command. He walked behind our table, flicked me on the back of the head and walked out of the room.
Sam Michaels and I used to best friends, until James dumped me that was. Sam was one of James' best friends.
The lesson went by quickly and it was only five minutes till the last bell. Mr Humble had written a whole paragraph on the board about Buddhism and he expected us to copy it all down, word-by-word and memorise it off by heart. The paragraph took up the whole whiteboard. I was about halfway through writing it until I got a note from Jenny. I put my hands under the table and sneakily opened up the note and read it. It read,
"Why the hell did you dump James on Saturday?" I looked up at Jenny and frowned. I shook my head and then started to write down,
"He was the one who dumped me!" But as I wrote 'He' I heard Mr Humble's voice say next to me,
"I hope that's not a note you have got there, Miss Slovenia." I looked up and Mr Humble was stood side-on next to me, his hands behind his back.
"Erm no sir. It's a note to remind me to revise History this evening." I lied but then Mr Humble cupped his hand in front of me. I guessed he wanted me to hand him the note but I didn't.
"No sir it's fine. I'll put it safely away …" I said and tried to put the note in my pencil case but he snatched it out of my hand and started to read it. I could hear Jenny and Chloe sniggering behind me. I rested my elbows on the table and put my chin in my hands. Mr Humble grunted, screwed up the note and started to walk to the front of the class.
"And you too can stay behind at the end of the lesson with Mr Michaels." He said. I leaned back into my chair, looking at my pen and tapping it on the desk.
"Is that clear?" He asked.
"Mmmm hhmmm." I mumbled as the last bell rang. Mr Humble told us to pack up all of our books and equipment and to stand behind our chairs. When we were packing up, Angie asked if she should wait for me but I said no.
The class left and Sam and I walked up to the front of the classroom and stood by the desk where Mr Humble was sat eating an apple. I sighed, blowing my fringe out of my face while Sam leaned back and ignored me. After I got that note from Jenny, I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that James had lied to everyone. I watched the clock that was hanging up on the wall above the whiteboard but didn't realise that Mr Humble had already started to talk to us. He then clicked his fingers in front of my face which made me jump.
"Thank you very much. You need to pay attention a bit more, Miss Slovenia." Mr Humble said, tapping his head with his pen. I just nodded and looked at Sam who was looking at me up and down. I rolled my eyes. It took Mr Humble awhile to explain that we were both given a detention Friday after school.
"But sir," I said. "I've already got one with Ms Meyers."
"Well you'll have to come Saturday morning then." Mr Humble said.
"But then I'm going to Brighton with my family."
"Then it'll have to be Saturday evening then."
"I'm going to see McFly in the evening with my friends." I said. I was just about to say something else but Mr Humble slammed his fist on the desk.
"Well you'll just have to miss out on the concert. Now I'm setting a detention for both of you Saturday evening and you WILL come. No excuses."
I frowned and stormed out of the room. Mr Humble started shouting after me but I took no notice. I found myself running all the way out of the building and the school gates.
I didn't want to go home straight away. I took a detour around Eastbourne on purpose. I took a walk along the promenade and the stony beach. The beach wasthe only place where I got time to be alone and think things through. No one ever found me there.
I walked slowly along the pier and then stopped when I saw some poster on a lamppost. I walked up to it and read it. It had a photo of McFly on it and it was advertising their concert. All my anger rushed though me again as I ripped the poster off the lamppost and shoved it in the bin. I didn't even care about the people who walked past me and gave me dirty looks.
I turned to my right to see an old couple sat on a bench. The old woman was pointing at me and shaking her head. I ignored them and walked to the beach. The wind was blowing hard in my face as I walked down the hill of the beach. I put my hands in my school blazer pockets and walked up to the sea. I took off my shoes, dropped them on the stones and put my feat into the water. The water was freezing and made my feet feel a little numb after a while but I found it to be quite relaxing and it put all of my worries to the back of my mind. However, the moment was spoilt when I heard someone calling my name. I turned round to see Headband Dan.
"Kayleigh, what are you doing?" He asked, looking at me, his head cocked to one side.
I picked up my shoes and stormed up to him. "Did you follow me here?" I hissed.
Dan nodded. "Yep. And I even took the poster of McFly that you ripped off the lamppost." He then laughed and passed me the remains of the poster. I groaned, snatched it out of his hand and shoved it in my pocket.
"Why were you following me?" I asked slipping my wet feet back into my shoes.
Dan shrugged. "Well I saw you walking up the pier after I brought myself some chips and then I decided to follow you because you were there." I sat down on the stones and Dan did the same. Dan offered me a chip but I pushed him away.
"Just go home Dan, I'm really not in the mood at the moment." I sighed.
"What's the problem with you then? James wasn't even in today."
"It's none of your business so just leave me alone."
"C'mon, you can tell me." Dan said nudging me on the arm.
"No I can't because whatever I tell you, it somehow gets out of your mouth round the school. I can never trust you, Dan."
"Ahh, you have a point there." Dan mumbled and then chucked a stone into the sea. He then stood up and said, "Well I'm not going to spend my whole evening sitting here on the beach with my sister who looks like she's sucking on a lemon. I'm going home," There was a bit of silence and then he said, "Coming?"
I sighed and stood up. We walked back home along the main road. The walk back was in silent, but Dan kicked every stone that we passed which hit me on the back of my heels.
As we got to the town centre, Dan suddenly gasped and pushed me into a thorn bush.
"Dan! What are you doing?" I snapped as the thorns cut my skin.
"Just shut up a second!" He hissed. I had no idea what this was on about until I saw a gang of boys come up to him. I couldn't quite catch what they were saying but I could see that Dan was trying to act cool as if he was impressing them. At first, I thought he was trying to impress the boys, until I heard a girl's voice.
"God, that was a close one." Dan said as he pulled me out of the bush once they had gone. I looked at my uniform and I had blood all over it.
"Why the hell did you push me into the bush, Dan? Look at me. I'm a mess!" I snapped.
"They're the popular boys in my year and they asked me to play football with them sometime … and, uhhm … it would be a bit uncool if they saw me hanging round with you," Dan said. I looked at him blankly. "No offence." Dan then said quickly.
"None taken." I mumbled and walked on.
We got home round about six o'clock and mum, Tracie, Thomas and Liam were all stood in the hallway putting on their coats and shoes.
"Oh there you are," Mum said as soon as we got in. "Go upstairs, get changed into something normal and put decent some shoes on."
"Where are we going?" Dan asked.
"There's a little funfair at the Links Golf Club and I thought that it would be nice if we went there tonight. Also McFly will be there and they are going to sing their new single. So maybe you could come and watch this, Kayleigh, and then come to Brighton with us on Saturday." Mum said, doing her pink coat up.
I groaned and walked halfway to the kitchen door to get to the stairs but then Tracie said,
"Kayleigh, why have you got blood on your school shirt?"
"She fell over and landed in a thorn bush." Dan said quickly. Mum laughed as I walked up the stairs ignoring them.
I got changed into a black jumper and some blue baggy jeans. I put on some white trainers and walked back down the stairs.
"Do you mind your father not coming with us?" Mum asked. "He's gone down to the pub with Joe and his other friends."
"Whatever." I mumbled.
Mum smiled at me and they all walked out of the house. I trailed behind slowly. All of my sibling were walking next to mum and laughing with her. I was just walked behind them with my hands in my jean pockets, not wanting to go to this funfair.
It wasn't long till we arrived at the Links Golf Club. It was a wide open field which had carnival-like rides and games and stands around. The sky was dark but the field had lit up from the carnival lights.
"So, what ride do you wanna go on first?" Mum asked, rubbing her hands together.
"Slammer!" Tracie shouted with excitement. "Apparently it's meant to be the best ride of the season!"
Mum just shrugged her shoulders and said, "Slammer it is then."
We walked to the ride and there was a massive queue to it.
"Are you making me spend most of the evening lining up for this ride?" I groaned.
"Oh, is someone a little desperate to see her McFly boys?" Trace said, imitating a baby's voice before laughing out loud.
"I am not desperate to see them," I said in reply. "You know I don't like boy bands and I never will!" Everyone in the queue looked at me. I froze, not realising that I had started to shout.
"Don't shout!" Mum muttered under her breath. "You're embarrassing me."
I sighed and decided that it was best to stay quiet for the whole evening.
The queue got shorter and shorter till we were finally allowed on the ride. The safety guards were checking if our belts were fitted on properly when we were in the seats and then one of them pressed a button and our seats moved back slowly.
"Actually …" Liam started to whinge, "I WANNA GET OFF!" There were some other people sat next to us who started to scream as the ride started to spin us round and round. It got faster and faster.
"Try and keep and straight face!" Dan shouted to Thomas. I looked at them and then they were pulling faces. On the other hand, mum, Tracie and Liam, and some other people were screaming uncontrollably. I started to feel really sick as all I could see was the world turning round and around.
When the ride stopped, I quickly took the seatbelt off and stood up, as well as Thomas and Dan. Mum, Liam and Tracie were sat in the seats, dead still. I laughed at them. They all stood up slowly and then mum said,
"Remind me to never go on a ride … again."
Once we had all gotten over the ride, mum gave us all some money and let us go off on our own. My three brothers ran off together over to the trampolines while Tracie found her 'girlfriends' and ran off together with them. I started to walk around for a bit on my own. It wasn't until I brought myself some candy floss that I saw Lisa and Angie.
We started walking around the funfair together, all eating my candy floss.
"Did you know that McFly are here and they are going to sing their song?" Angie asked as she started jumping up and down on the balls of her feet.
"You don't say." I said sarcastically. Angie linked arms with me as we walked on.
"But Lisa and I have spotted them. They're lurking around by the side of the funfair by the cake stall." I looked at Angie and raised my eyebrows.
"C'mon, we'll show you." Lisa said, grabbing onto my hand and dragging me away. Before I got the chance to say no, I was whisked away to the end of the field. It was deserted and all that was there were a picnic bench and a cake stall. We hid behind someone's car and looked at four boys who were stood by the stall, talking to the cook. They didn't look that old, maybe a couple of years older than us.
"Do you think we should go to the stall and start talking to them?" Angie whispered.
I just looked at her. "You can. I'm not going." But as soon as I said that I found myself walking towards the cake stall; Lisa pushing me slightly.
The four McFly boys fell silent as we reached the stall.
"Can we have three chocolate muffins please?" Lisa said sweetly, putting a ten pound note on the table in front of us. The owner of the cake stall started humming to himself cheerfully as he got out three chocolate muffins. As he did this, I looked over to McFly. One of them who had blown floppy hair that went over his eyes a little was looking at me. I smiled and winked at him. He went slightly red in the face and instantly looked away.
As we paid for the muffins we started to walk away. Both Lisa and Angie started giggling quietly but I walked quicker, wanting to get as far away from McFly as possible.
"Are you that new boy band who'll be playing this evening?" I heard Lisa's voice call out to them.
"Jesus Christ!" I grumbled and reluctantly turned on my heel to face them.
The four boys looked at us. I wanted to run away.
The blonde one said, "Erm yeah we are." And then smiled.
"Well good luck, boys. I'm sure you'll be great out there!" Angie said. The boys smiled broadly.
"Wow, thanks love!" One of them said. There was a bit of a silence until the same one said, "Hey, what are your names?"
Angie flushed a little and said, "I'm Angie Gibson and these are my two best friends, Lisa Levett and Kayleigh Slovenia."
The one who asked the question nodded and smiled. "Well, see you around, Angie." They then walked off.
For a second I thought Angie was going to faint but she didn't. Instead she looked at me and dragged me to the picnic bench.
"I want the drummer!" She announced as we sat down.
"What, the one that seemed interested in you?" I asked, picking all the chocolate flakes off the muffin and putting it in my mouth.
"His name is Harry."
I rolled my eyes. We fell silent as we munched on our muffins until we heard some girls screaming in the distance and music playing.
"Oh my God, is that McFly?" Lisa said, jerking up.
I groaned. "Please can it not be."
"I think it is!"
Lisa then started running off in the direction of where the music was coming from. Angie grabbed onto my hand and we ended up running after Lisa. There were loads of girls screaming and dancing about in the centre where the stage was.
Lisa and Angie dragged me through the busy crowd, wanting to get to the front. However they were unsuccessful so we had to stay put in the middle.
McFly were playing their single 5 Colours In Her Hair and everyone around me was dancing along. I didn't start dancing till Angie had grabbed hold of my hand and started spinning me around.
Once the song ended, the crowd roared. I had to cover my ears.
"Thank you guys!" The blonde one who was one of the lead singers and played guitar, shouted down the microphone and everyone started to cheer louder. "We'll be seeing you on Saturday!"
All of the girls screamed even more and then everyone eventually calmed down when McFly walked off the stage. I sighed until Angie said to me,
"Are you coming Kayleigh?"
I looked at her. "What?"
"We're going to the pier, do you wanna come?" Lisa asked.
"Erm, yeah. I'll catch up with you in a minute …" And then before I knew it, they had run off. I walked round the field looking for mum to tell her that I was going to the pier with Angie and Lisa. It was quite hard to find her as it was so busy, so I started to walk on a bit quicker until I accidentally walked into someone.
"Oh, sorry!" I apologised feeling guilty but when I looked up, I noticed that it was the floppy hair boy from McFly, the one who went red in the face when I winked at him. He was one of the other lead singers who also played guitar. I looked at him and smiled. I muttered sorry again, feeling quite embarrassed.
"No problem." He said, his northern accent coming through. He then smiled back at me before holding my arms, gently moving me to the side and then walking off.
"Kayleigh, what are doing standing about? I gave you money to spend on rides!"
I turned round and saw mum.
"Oh I was looking for you." I said and walked towards her.
"Please don't tell me you want to go home." Mum said sounding annoyed.
"No, it's just that …"
"Did you enjoy watching McFly?" Mum asked in the middle of my sentence. "They weren't too bad, weren't they?"
"Erm … no." I said in reply.
"What? Didn't you enjoy watching them perform?"
I shrugged "It was a bit boring, but you know me, I hate boy bands."
Mum looked a bit disappointed. "Oh okay then. So does that mean that you will be coming to Brighton with us on Saturday then?"
"Well I'll have to talk to Angie and Lisa about that."
"Where are they then?"
"They've gone down to the pier and I said that I'll meet them down there."
"Oh okay. But I want you to be back home before eleven tonight."
I smiled. Mum then gave me a hug, kissed me on the forehead and walked off over to a karaoke machine.
I walked out of the field and towards the pier. Once I got there I saw the lamppost that I had ripped the McFly poster off. The 'y' of McFly was still on it. I put my hand in my jean pocket and took out the remains of the poster. It was all crumpled up. I heard two people talking next to me; I looked up and saw two old people sitting on a bench, looking at me. It was the same couple as before.
"Returning what you ripped off?" The old woman growled.
I just looked at her and said nothing.
The old man next to her laughed. "Bet you feel bad now, don't you?" They both laughed. I sighed and walked away stuffing the poster back into my pocket.
I stood by the rail of the pier and looked down at the sea. The pier lights were reflecting off the water.
"Kayleigh!" Someone called. I looked up and saw Angie jumping up and down, waving her arms about at me. Lisa was standing on the rail on the far end of the pier and she waved at me.
"Is your mum alright with you coming here with us?" Angie asked as I reached them.
I nodded. "Yeah but I have to be back home before eleven."
Angie smiled. "Same."
I looked at Lisa who was looking at me. I was hoping to God that they both won't ask me about McFly and whether I liked them or not.
"Did you enjoy the funfair then?" Lisa asked. She looked at me as if she wanted me to say something about McFly but I didn't.
"It was alright. Nothing special."
"Are you looking forward to Saturday?"
I scratched the back of my head. "Well … I dunno."
"What?" Angie said, sounding a bit upset. "But you promised us that you'll come with us if we join the band with you."
"Well I'm sorry but my family wants me to go to Brighton for day. It's to do with dad's job, and Mr Humble has given me a detention on Saturday evening," I looked down at the sea. "Besides, the whole band idea isn't going to work."
"I wouldn't bother going to the detention on Saturday. The teacher will forget it by Monday." Lisa said.
I sighed. "I might be going to the concert. I think it depends of what time we get back from Brighton." I remembered mum saying about moving there but I didn't want to mention anything to Lisa or Angie.
Angie walked off to the ice cream stall and brought us three ice creams.
"So, what did you think of McFly then, Kayleigh?" Lisa asked, licking her ice cream after another moment of silence.
I shrugged. "I can't really tell. I'll have to listen to them a bit more too actually judge them."
"No doubt you'll hate them like you did with Busted and Take That."
"I have an idea." Angie said suddenly changing the subject.
Lisa and I looked at her.
"Every Sunday, there's a band night going on in the pub, The Dolphin and any bands are able to sign up for it …"
"And you want us to go and play my song, Too Close for Comfort there?" I said finishing her sentence.
"Exactly!"
Lisa shrugged. "Not a bad idea."
"And anyway, Kayleigh, you don't need to ask your family to do this, do you?"
"Well I suppose." I said trying to suppress a smile.
Angie was nudging me. "Is that a smile I see?"
I laughed. "Okay, I'll do it!"
"Now that's the Kayleigh I want to know, not backing out on everything!" Lisa said. I said nothing.
It was eleven at night and we all agreed to sing Too Close for Comfort on Sunday. Lisa said that we should try and write another song too. I got home to find everyone in bed, asleep. I got into my own bed and had a look through the song and read the lyrics.
It was kind of a rock/slow song. I wrote it sometime before James first asked me out. I wrote it in someone else's point of view, wondering what they did wrong to loose the person they loved. I read through the lyrics, realising that my own song had foreshadowed my broken heart and confusion about my split with James. It then gave me an idea to write another song about James. I named it List of Hatred. The song listed things I hated about him, yet at the very end; I had listed seven things I loved.
I was pleased with the result of my song and I was looking forward to showing it to Lisa and Angie.
It was close to midnight and I climbed into bed. As soon as I was about to switch the light off, I found the crumpled up McFly poster. I quickly picked it up and shoved it under my pillow.
