Emmeline McBride was very happy today.

She had made it to school on time, the canteen had those giant biscuits with hundreds and thousands in them, she'd gotten an eighty seven on her maths test, and her history teacher had forgotten that she had given them homework yesterday. Those were good things, yes, but there was something even better. Something that blew everything, even biscuits with hundreds and thousands in them, right out of the bloody water. Something so brilliant that she didn't even have words to say how brilliant it was.

Her boyfriend had come back to England.

Sho Suzuki, or Suzuki Sho since names were backwards in his country, was the daft booger she called her boyfriend. Her actual boyfriend. A boy who actually liked her. A boy who didn't think that she was odd. A boy who liked the same things she liked. A boy who had kissed her more times than she could count. She had never thought that a boy would want to kiss her but he did…and it had been brilliant…and it would be brilliant again…

If she could make time go faster.

School was out. She was waiting for him in the park between her school and her house. Sho had said that he would meet her there and then they would play and go to the sweet shop and whatever else she wanted to do. That was what she had said, whatever she wanted to do, and she just…well she really just wanted to see him. She hadn't seen him since last spring. Now it was almost winter. She hadn't seen him in so long….but they still talked. It was a long distance relationship. A really long distance relationship….but she could do this.

Because Sho was brilliant.

He was a daft booger sometimes but he was brilliant too. He never once told her that she was odd or that he wanted her to leave him alone…and also he was always sending her gifts. Gifts from far away places that she had only read about. She pulled her helmet down over her eyes. This was the first one that she had gotten from him. This one came from Russia. This was a Soviet era helmet and it was brilliant. It had a dent in it so maybe it had come from a dead soldier. Like maybe someone had pulled it off of a man just as he was dying and his skull split apart when it came off like how they split watermelons open with bats in Japan…or something.

This helmet was brilliant and Sho was brilliant.

And she was brilliant too. He made her feel brilliant. He was always making her feel good even if she was far away. She checked her phone. Nothing from him…but he must have been on his way. This felt…she focused on the brilliant feeling. She focused on how good it would feel when she finally saw him. She tried not to think about how cold it was, how she could feel the wind through the tights she had to wear because her school was daft and wouldn't let the girls wear trousers, how she had been waiting for almost ten minutes and he hadn't shown up…but he had promised that he would. He had told her that he would meet her when her school let out and then they would have fun together….and he may have been a daft booger sometimes but he was not a liar.

He was her boyfriend and he would never lie to her.

"Oi! McBride, what are you doing out here ya mick? Waiting for the fairies to come back for you?" Emmy pulled her helmet up and glared. School was over. Didn't people have anything better to do than bother her?

"Step off and feck ya too, ya daft booger. It's a public park and I'm the public." Said Emmy talking in that way that mum had told her never to talk. Not just the cursing, even though she almost eleven and could cure at whoever she wanted to, but that voice she put on sometimes. The way mum talked to people when she was cross with them. Emmy was plenty cross right now and mum was at work anyway. Besides, it wasn't as though she was just going off on some random person.

This was Isabelle and she was a right bitch.

Not that Emmy would ever say that out loud. It was one thing to tell someone to feck off it was another to call them a bitch. Feck off was worth getting her mouth scrubbed out with that ghastly carbolic soap gran liked, but bitch was worth ten rosaries, and she did not have time to say ten raises. She had a boyfriend to spend time with now. She had better things to do than say rosaries or get her mouth washed out or deal with people who had nothing better to do than tease her for no good reason.

Because, really, she hadn't done anything.

"Sure you are. What are you waitin' for? Fairies this time? Or aliens? Or secret agents maybe?" asked Isabelle. Emmy turned around and stuck her tongue out.

"Feck off ya daft mog, I'm waiting for me boyfriend." Said Emmy. Mog was something that she wasn't supposed to say either. It wasn't a bad word but mum hated it when she talked like that. Like dad. Dad didn't mind, he liked it, and really it was daft mum and being…well mum and dad. But she didn't care. She didn't care what mum and dad were like and she didn't care if she was being a right bitch to Isabelle either. She'd been a right bitch and that wasn't brilliant at all.

"Fibber. You've not got a boyfriend. Who'd want to go out with you?" asked Isabelle

"Shut ya gob! It's none of ya business who me boyfriend is ya thick booger. So feck off already." Said Emmy

"I'll tell your mum that you told me to fuck off." Said Isabelle

"I did not!" said Emmy

"You did too! I just heard you!" said Isabelle

"No, I said 'feck off' and that's a different word but you wouldn't know that because you're thick. You're the thickest and daftest person in the world. You're so thick and so daft that you've nothing; better to do than bother me while I'm waitin' for me boyfriend. Least I have somethin' productive to do with me time. Now feck off before I tell your mum that you called me a mick and that you said the f-word." Said Emmy

"Tell me mum, then, she won't care. She says that you're a mick too and that your whole family should go back where you came from." Said Isabelle

"Me family's from here now feck off before I smack ya good and proper…and I don't care if me mum knows or not." Said Emmy

"You wouldn't." said Isabelle

"Wouldn't I?" asked Emmy. She made a fist and raised it high. She wasn't supposed to fight, mum had said that if she got into even a single fight she'd take her phone right back to the bleedin' shop, but mum also said that she had defend herself if she had to…and this was the sort of time when it was alright to give someone a right good smack if they needed it…and nobody needed it more than Isabelle.

Well maybe Lydia.

And Lacey. And Janie. And Rhoda. And Francine. And girl Jordan. And Beatrice. And Danielle. And Naomi. And Willow. And…well pretty much everyone in her class…and grade. Well the girls. The boys didn't talk to her at all. Girls were the worst. Mum said so too. Boys beat each other up and it was the end of it. Girls went out of their way to bother you…

"I'm telling your mum!" said Isabelle as she ran off.

"I've not done anything to you….daft bitch…." Muttered Emmy. She pulled her helmet down over her face again. It was cold, well because it was made of metal, and now the top of her head was cold. She could feel the wind through her hair. She felt it and she knew that she should have put her helmet back on or put her hood up before she caught cold…even though the cold didn't make you ill. The damp did. The damp did but there wasn't any damp outside…and she wasn't crying either. She was fine.

She didn't care what people said or thought…and certainly not about what people with nothing happening in their lives said or thought.

She had someone who liked her and that was what mattered. She was the only girl in her whole grade with a proper boyfriend. She wasn't allowed to have any kind of a boyfriend, proper or otherwise, but she still had one and he liked her a lot. They were in a proper long distance relationship like proper adults. She lived in London and he lived…well he lived wherever he had to because he came from a yakuza family, but they were still together and they would be for…well she didn't know how long but he liked her. He liked her for who she was and she liked him and…and that was enough for her.

That was more than enough for her.

She wiped her eyes and then took off her helmet…and had help. She was about to smack whoever thought that they could touch her helmet…but she was glad that she had held back. She almost didn't believe her eyes. There he was. Taller now, and he had on a new coat, and his hair was a little longer, but that was him. That was Sho Suzuki, Suzuki Sho, standing right in front of her pulling her helmet up from her eyes….

And she sort of wanted to smack him.

"Sho! You daft booger!" said Emmy. She took a step back from him. She was cross…and she was maybe cross with him. He was late. She hadn't seen him since last spring and…and he knew how long it had ben…and he had gone on and on and on about how he missed her just as much as she missed him…and then that daft mog of a booger was late! He had left her to stand outside in the cold and freeze to death…just like…like nothing!

"I'm late, I'm sorry. I had to sneak away from my dad. He was all 'where are you going' and then I told him that I was going out and I didn't know why he gave a fuck, and I still don't know why he gives a fuck, and then he was all 'don't talk to me like that' and then my sister got all freaked out since me and my dad were fighting…and it's been a long day…and I'm sorry." said Sho. Emmy….well she had wanted to smack him, to deck him right in the head, but she didn't anymore. Right. His dad. His dad was mean and hit him, he had said so, and Emmy hadn't been spanked in ages…but his dad did more than that…and she couldn't smack him now…

And also that might have counted as domestic violence too and she didn't want to be the sort of person who did things like that.

"Sorry, no, you're fine….I'm just cross right now. Not at you…I'm just cross….and I won't take it out on you. I'm happy to see you too, Sho, really happy." Said Emmy. She didn't care what people said to her or thought about her. She had a boyfriend who liked her…and he was right there…and she liked him right back. So what if she didn't have any friends? She had a boyfriend and that was better than even having a hundred friends.

"Cross means mad, right?" asked Sho after a moment…and that was Emmy's fault. She'd been daft again. He was Japanese, he wasn't used to English, and the English that he did speak was downright odd sometimes.

"Yes, sorry. I forget sometimes that you don't speak proper English." Said Emmy

"Hey! I speak English!" said Sho. Emmy smiled and tried not to laugh. He said it like Engrish….and she knew, from all of the YouTube that she had watched, that it was a language thing. She also knew, from just being a person who lived in the world with other people, that it was mean to make fun of the way someone talked. It hurt. She knew that she hated it when people made fun of the way she talked. She had come back from dad's that summer holiday talking like him…and even mum had said something…

That was the good thing about having a boyfriend who was a foreigner, a proper foreigner, he had no idea that she talked like she was proper Irish sometimes.

"You speak like you're from the states…and you have an accent sort of…but I don't mind. I've got one too when I try to speak Japanese I bet." Said Emmy

"Yeah, you kind of do…but I don't mind. I like you." Said Sho. Emmy felt all the blood in her body rush to her heart and face. That daft…brilliant…she didn't even know what. Why did he have to just go and say it like it was nothing? That was…that was a lot and…and now she had to say it too…and she liked to say it…but it was a lot and…and she wanted to say it back to him.

"Um….I like you too." Said Emmy. She said it in Japanese, that was easier, because in English…well it was a lot. Maybe it just felt like a lot since she hadn't seen him in a while, she didn't really know, all she did know was that he was a daft booger and she liked him and now she wanted to hold his hand and she couldn't even remember what she had been so cross about a second ago.

"You look pretty today." Said Sho. Well now she couldn't even remember her own name. Emmy was short for something….she couldn't think. All she could think about was how he had said that she was pretty. She wasn't. Her face was all red and her hair was so frizzy that people at school called her Merida like the princess and she was short and even mum said that she was getting kind of chubby and she was in her school uniform and about a million other reasons why she wasn't pretty. She didn't understand him at all sometimes. She knew that he was supposed to say things like that but…well they weren't true!

"No I don't." said Emmy

"Yes you do. You look nice in that…um…dress." Said Sho

"It's a skirt." Said Emmy

"You look pretty in that skirt then, I mean you make it look pretty." Said Sho

"No I don't. This is just me-my uniform." Said Emmy. She pulled her skirt down even though it was already below her knees like the headmaster said that it had to be. She knew how boys were. They were always talking about who was fit and who wasn't and she knew that she wasn't fit….but she also knew that Sho liked her…so maybe he thought that she was fit…but he had been all over the world. He had probably met a million girls before her and a million girls after her. What did he even want with her?

She really didn't understand him sometimes…but that didn't matter.

"You still look really petty." Said Sho. He took her hand when he said that…and she knew that he was telling the truth. He thought that she was pretty. She didn't even know why she thought that he thought that she was fit. Pretty…maybe she could be pretty…but not fit. The fit girls were tall and their hair didn't look like they stuck their finger in an electrical socket and they didn't wear white tights and stuff. Sho thought that she was pretty…and he was her boyfriend so he was supposed to think that about her…and she believed that he was telling the truth.

He liked her and when you liked someone then you never lied to them.

"Th-thanks…um…do you want to…do…something?" asked Emmy. He was still holding her hand…and she was never washing that hand again. She was glad that she lost her other glove. If she had been wearing gloves then he wouldn't have been able to feel him holding her hand…and his hand was warm and kind of rough….but it was nice. A little sticky too but nice. This was nice…he was nice…

He was brilliant.

"Yeah. I brought binoculars if you want to climb trees and look at birds or dogs or people or in their windows or whatever." Said Sho

"That would be brilliant…really brilliant. You're really brilliant I mean." Said Emmy. She wanted to go and do something before she melted into a puddle and she wanted to stand there and hold his hand until they lost their fingers and toes to frost bite and then they had to go to the hospital and get them amputated. That would have been so cool…and their hands would have survived because they were touching…and also because she was really, REALLY warm.

"You are too. Want me to kiss you? I mean we don't have to. It's just been a long time and I know that you like that kind of stuff. Couple stuff." Said Sho. If she had thought that she had been warm before now she felt like a kettle that had been on the fire for too long. If this had been an old timey cartoon there would have been steam coming out of her ears. He wanted….he wanted to kiss her…and they'd kissed before. She'd lost count of the times that they had kissed…and now he was asking to do it again….

It was good having a boyfriend.

"That…would be brilliant too." Said Emmy. She said that and then he kissed her. He kissed her and she kissed him back and it was…well it was always great but this time it was really great. Maybe because they had been apart for so long, or maybe because she had been so cross before, or maybe because it had been a good day before she had gotten cross. She didn't know. The only thing that she knew, besides the fact that they both needed chap stick, was that she had a boyfriend and he was a daft booger…but he was her daft booger.

And he made her happy.