'THIRTEEN'

‘A positive number squared is positive. A negative number squared is also positive.’ It made no sense to Anna, even as she wrote it at the top of the blank page. She sighed and turned to her left. He was absent, again. She had soon decided that Jonathan Cooper was definitely not a first impressions kind of guy, or second, third or fourth for that matter. Eventually, she had warmed to him. He could be harsh and bitter, but he was also funny and incredibly smart and he was no more blunt and arrogant than Anna was loud and outspoken. He finished maths exercises quicker even than Amy, who was the smartest of Anna’s friends. He should have been moved out of Anna’s class months ago, but for him to be moved out; he would actually have to turn up. He was always evasive when Anna asked him about the school he had moved from, but she was sure it was nothing like Everman’s Middle School, because no-one else she knew dared skipping class. Even after a year of knowing him year, she had made no more progress with finding the answers that she wanted.

Smiling wryly, she waited for his lectures about her inability to learn anything with acceptable speed to come to a familiar exasperated end. Then, she broached the questioning again.

“Alright grumpy guts,” she rolled her eyes, long past being offended by his opinions about her intelligence, “clearly no-one at Everman’s can live up to the standard of your old school. You’re from London, so I’m guessing it was some big posh school near Buckingham palace.” She amused herself for a moment or two describing his fantasy uniform and had begun dreaming up his French teacher when he decided to stop her.

“No, I’m not from anywhere like that. And definitely nowhere near Buckingham Palace. Have even you been to London? It’s quite big you know? It’s not all like Buckingham palace.”

She laughed as she recognised his tone of voice, the one he always used when he thought he was teaching her something. “Yes, I know that London isn’t just rich people. If I’m so wrong, why don’t you tell me? In fact why don’t you educate me?” She was all playfulness, but there was a part of her that was desperate to understand him, how could he be so smart but break so many rules. Maybe he saw through her jokes, maybe he didn’t, he never gave a straight answer either way.

“I lived here when I was a kid you know?” She looked away from her work towards him, with a confused expression spreading across her face. He enjoyed her confusion. “You’re killing me J.T, don’t you remember me at all?”

“JT? Why would I remember you?” Anna had given up square roots for today, “did I know you?”

He smiled “No, not really, we went to the same primary school for a month or so, when I was still living with my Mum.”

“Why, I mean, you don’t live with your parents?” Anna has been so excited to find out about Jonathan that she hadn’t considered it might be a sad story and had no idea how to react.

“Calm down JT, no-one died. I’ve lived with my Dad since then.”

She was momentarily distracted from the traumatic life history she was creating for him in her head, “sorry, but JT?”

His smile spread into a laugh as he seemed to focus on a nondescript point on the wall next to her face, “I took the last jam tart, which you wanted and you kicked up such a fuss. Always been pretty loud, you have.”

Anna had all but forgotten jam tart incident with the Cooper boy, “I remember, but still, why JT?” Her mouth formed a small, round ‘O’ shape as she understood, “jam tart, JT, I get it.” Her head tilted slightly from side to side and she fitted all of this new information into place. “So, JT, is that gonna stick?”

Jonathan didn’t have a chance to answer as Anna’s attention was brought back to maths when she realised that the answers were being read out. She glanced down at the empty page of her maths book. Her face twisted in thought as she flicked through her exercise book, most pages were empty or only contained a couple of answers. She had been sat next to Jonathan for the whole of year eight and she was distinctly aware that sitting next to a smart guy wasn’t making her any smarter.

Mr Barrymore’s bright voice cut through her thoughts, “Well, that’s you done for the year guys – have a good summer!” Anna packed up her bag and turned to Jonathan, her face serious and questioning. As he caught sight of her, he seemed as interested in her as she had always been in him.

“Anna, what is it?,” he ran his fingers through his fringe as dropped his gaze to the floor as he spoke “You look like you want to ask me something?”

“I already did genius,” her amusement was fuelled by his confusion, “is JT going to stick?”

He shrugged as he turned towards the door, “not sure.”

Anna followed him out of the classroom and as she turned out of the door his signature arrogant smirk appeared, “You as bad at French as you are at maths then?”

Anna laughed, “Probably, but lessons are way more fun, all of my friends are in my class, you see.”

“Right. No chance you wanna skip it then?”

Anna continued laughing, “Maths is the only lesson I’d want to skip, Jonathan.”

His expression was unreadable as he turned in a direction that definitely wasn’t the French department, “I’ll remember that for next year then JT!” A smirk returned to his face as he walked out of sight.

Anna frowned, “I guess I won’t be seeing him in the summer then,” aware that she had not considered the possibility at all until she watched him walk away.

Anna and Charlotte worked in silence as they painted soft watercolours on the rough grey paper. Anna had sat doodling in the classes when Charlotte was sketching the outline of the little white cottage, but now there was only painting to be done Anna could help. Charlotte was carefully mixing three different shades of green whilst Anna painted bold patterns on the butterfly that rested on a stone in the foreground. She twisted her body to keep the circle she was filling in as round as possible, her elbow edged around the corner of the table and collided with the old jam jar of murky water. Charlotte’s eyes widened as she reached out to catch the jar before it ruined her work of art, she sighed. Then she glared at Anna, but she couldn’t hold it for long before they both started giggling, a mixture of amusement and relief.

Grace glared over at the sound of their laughter, her glare didn’t thaw. Amy looked up to see what had caught Grace’s eye and her expression fell. Anna and Amy had been struggling to keep the peace since Charlotte had declared her interest in Grace’s old boyfriend Adam. Amy and Anna shared a look of concern, but also of frustration with their two best friends. Their attention was drawn away from their own discomfort by their art teacher announcing that it was time to start packing away.

They walked out of the school entrance as a four, Charlotte and Grace making an effort not to notice each other. As they reached the school gates they awkwardly turned towards each other and leaned in for their signature four-way hug.

“So, we’ll do loads together over the summer then?” Amy’s brightness was forced as eyebrows were raised around her. Half-hearted goodbyes were muttered as Charlotte and Grace walked away towards their lifts home. Amy let out an exasperated sigh, “I am so sick of this!”

“I don’t even know whose side I’m on, it’s just ridiculous!” Anna shook her head slightly, “Do you want to come over to mine for a bit, it might be nice to spend some time with a friend without it being unbearably awkward?”

Amy let out a bitter laugh, “Yes, that would be nice,” but then something behind Anna’s head caught her eye, “although, it’s looks as though there’s someone waiting for you.” She raised her eyebrows in the direction Anna should look. Anna frowned as she turned, she lived within a ten minute walk of school so hadn’t been picked up by a parent in years. He was leaning against the old brick wall at the edge of the school car park. A book was bent double at the spine in his hands and his attention was concentrated on reading. “Call me later Anna?”

Anna glanced back at her friend, “Yeah, sure – I’ll talk to you later.” She walked towards Jonathan, he was still focussed on his book, so she called out, “Hey, I’m no pro, but if you’re going to skip class isn’t it best not to hang out near school. It makes it kind of obvious don’t you think?”

He turned over the corner of the page he was on and looked up at Anna, “I was hoping I might catch you.”

She frowned, “You were?”

“Yeah, I asked you to get my mark for the English test, didn’t I?”

“Oh, yeah, of course,” Anna fiddled with her watch as she answered, “like you even need to ask though, you got full marks.”

“Sweet, how did you do?” He stood up straight, his eyes playful but challenging.

“Less than full marks.” Anna spoke slowly.

Jonathan laughed and rolled his eyes, “What are your plans for the summer the JT? Adventures with the Famous Four?”

Anna laughed bitterly, “What famous four? With Charlotte and Grace acting the way they are? No thanks.”

“Oh dear, if only Adam knew the trouble he’s caused.” Jonathan hadn’t made many friends since starting at Everman’s, his poor attendance didn’t help with that cause, but Anna had noticed him spending time with Adam in the past few months.

“Still no idea if he even fancies Charlotte then? She’s convinced he does!”

“He’s not mentioned it and I’m not about to start asking questions.” Ever since Anna had told him about the Grace-Adam-Charlotte predicament, Jonathan had insisted he wasn’t going to pry for her.

“Thanks, you sure do help make my life easier!”

“Well, I don’t exist to make your life easier JT.” He smirked as she pulled a face at him; not impressed with the nickname or his attitude towards helping out her friends.

They’d starting walking in the wrong direction for Anna’s home, “Um, are we going somewhere, because I’m kinda just following you.”

“You’ll see.”

“So, we are going somewhere though?”

“That’s what was implied.”

“So,” Anna supressed a smile and raised an eyebrow, “you were hoping to catch me for more than just your English results then?”

'TWELVE'

The removal truck pulled away. Anna was sat on the ageing green sofa in her living room watching the Davidson family as they left the street. They had only lived in the house for 18 months. Anna’s mum had said that it had never suited the them, something about it not being fashionable enough. To Anna, that house was all kinds of beautiful. It was beautiful because the red brickwork matched her house exactly, it was beautiful because she remembered when she was six or seven watching Lewis Drake painting the dark blue front door. It was beautiful because somewhere in the slightly overgrown garden was a shoe box that herself and Matthew Drake had buried with toy spades the summer he had gone on holiday to Spain. Anna had not thought about Matthew and his family for a while now, she was young and the young often move on quickly. With Matthew gone, Anna had made friends with a group of girls at school, they had not understood her humour or inquisitive nature two years ago, but now she was nearly a teenager she liked having friends that she could talk to about make-up and hair. She had not thought about Matthew Drake for a while now. But then, with the red removal truck pulling away, Anna closed her eyes and that day nearly two years ago came flooding back.

Anna had spent a lot of time with Matthew sorting out his things since the day the ‘For Sale’ sign went up. She knew that she wasn’t a great help, but it was an excuse to sit together in Matthew’s room for an hour or so at a time. For Anna and Matthew, it felt like they were approaching some great tragedy that no-one else knew about, like in the films that they weren’t supposed to watch but had. It felt like the end of the world was coming.

“Do you want this Anna?” Matthew was holding up a doll that he had owned for years. It was a clown wearing dungarees and it was made to be drawn on with special pens. Then it could be put in the wash and would come out clean, ready to be drawn on again. This clown had been through the washing machine one time too many and faint graffiti was still visible. “I don’t really like it anymore; I find it a bit creepy.”

“Oooh, really Matty? Are you sure you don’t want it?” Anna reached for the doll, acknowledging to herself that there was something unsettling about it. The black bin bag that Matthew’s mum had given them lay on the floor nearly empty. Anna had not had the heart to throw away most of what he considered junk; to her if something had belonged to Matthew it was classified as a sacred object that must be kept and adored. “Hey! Matty, look at this etchy-sketchy!” The two children began doodling all over the strangely pink coloured plastic sheet. This was how they passed their time for a little over a month, until the date that was set arrived. The men in navy overalls had let Anna and Matthew carry the last box into the van; it was small and full of soft toys. They had cried, hugged and promised to always be best friends. Then Matthew had gotten in the car with his parents and driven away, to the other side of town. For a while they had dedicated themselves to seeing each other once a fortnight, when they would go swimming or to the zoo, but it wasn’t long before Matthew met new friends in his new school and Anna spent more and more time with Charlotte, Grace and Amy.

Anna felt a tear run down her cheek, which she quickly wiped away with gritted teeth. She hadn’t known the Davidson family at all, and she hadn’t thought about Matty in ages, so she had no right to be crying about anything. She turned away and walked out of the room. The removal truck was gone and the new family were moving in a week’s time. There was nothing more to see.

A week later, it was the first day back at school after the summer holidays. Anna was starting year eight at her middle school. She was sat on the floor in front of the full length mirror in her bedroom waiting for her hair straighteners to start flashing red, letting her know they were hot enough to use. A compilation CD was drifting quietly out of her Hi-Fi system, she decided to take a risk and knocked the volume dial up a bit and started singing along. She tied most of her hair into a strange bun on the top of her hair, leaving just a single bottom layer, ready to straighten. As she began running the hot irons over her light brown hair, she glanced over to the timetable she had stuck on her mirror. Maths first. She did not like the idea of having maths first. In the last three days of the summer term they had been sorted into their new sets for year eight. Amy and Grace were much smarter than she was and so had been put into top set, whilst Charlotte was dyslexic and went to the special support room to get one to one tuition for most Maths and English lessons. Charlotte tended to understand things much quicker than Anna because even though she found it more difficult, she got more help and Anna was only average with numbers at the best of times. Anna let out a sigh, looking down to see that she had French in block two. She was looking forward to French. In French they were not sorted into ability sets until year nine, which meant that she would be with all three of her friends for that lesson. The rest of the day looked acceptable as well; Anna was pretty good in English and double Art was the kind of lesson the girls could just sit and chat in, as long as they were careful not to draw too much attention to themselves. Fifteen or twenty minutes later Anna smiled at herself in the mirror, finally her navy V-neck school jumper was not too big for her and her hair hung straight and sleek over her shoulders. She let out a small noise as she looked at her watch, five minutes until the bus arrives! She galloped downstairs.

“Mum, I’m sorry, going to be late, have a good day, yeah?” she spoke three words a second as she skidded into the kitchen and grabbed the reddest looking apple in the bowl.

“Anna, dear, can you please not play your music so loud in the morning, you know your dad works late and don’t you think we might as well let him have some extra sleep, if we can?” Anna’s mum did that. She could phrase a telling-off as if it were a question. It made it feel like she had a choice whether to agree to behave or not. She was sure she did not.

“What? Oh, yeah, sure Mum. I didn’t realise. Bye!” She jogged out of the door and up the road.

“What room are you in then, Anna?” Amy and Grace were walking either side of Anna as they made their way up the maths stairs. Grace was lost in the screen of her mobile phone.

“Maths 4, I think, what about you guys?”

Grace made no response. “We’re in 3.” They pushed through the double doors into the maths corridor and headed for their rooms, two maroon doors were opposite each other in the dull grey hallway.

“See you later Amy.” Anna turned a knowing eye to her still silent friend, “Hey, Grace!” She caught her attention “Try not to get caught texting Adam in class again.” Grace rolled her eyes, grinning at the shared memory of the number of times she had been told off for texting in class. Anna never bothered to bring her phone to school, she had about seven contacts and any that were not relations were her three best friends, who she saw all day anyway. And Matty, he was one of her contacts too.

As Anna walked into the classroom, she realised that she was the first one in. There had been a new boy in her registration class; she hadn’t heard his name, too busy catching up with friends after the summer break. But it had meant that they were let out of registration early, because their teacher had to sort out this new boy’s timetable. She headed straight for a one of the double tables, 3 rows from the front and took the seat next to the wall. She opened her bag, taking out a brand new pencil case, orange with flowers spiralling across it. Other students began filing into the room, Anna knew most of them and waved and exchanged quick questions about holidays, but as people sat down no-one took the seat next to her. Anna let out her second sigh of the day as Mr Barrymore wrote his name on the board for those who had not had him in years six or seven. Anna had him in both.

            There was a knock on the door five minutes into Mr Barrymore’s revision of brackets.

“Late on the first day, eh? I suppose you’d better come in.”

The door opened slowly and the new boy walked in, he was tall with blond hair that hung over his face and flicked to the side. “I’m sorry, er” he glanced at the board “Mr Barrymore, I’m new, you see, and had to get my timetable sorted out.”

“Oh, I see, find a seat. It looks like there’s an empty one next to Anna.”

The boy looked around the room, Anna realised that he would have no idea who she was, so gave him a little wave. A dorky little wave. He raised an eyebrow, maybe two, it was hard to tell because of his hair, and made his way to the empty seat next to Anna. He sat down in silence.

A few minutes later, Mr Barrymore’s back was to the class as he wrote on the board and Anna turned her head to whisper, “what’s your name?”

“Jonathan Cooper,”

Anna realised he already knew her name, so tried a different question, “where have you come from?”

“London,” that was all he said.

Anna decided he probably just wanted to pay attention to brackets, but asked one final question just to be sure “did you get your timetable sorted out then?”

He turned his head towards her this time, “yeah, I did. I’m quite smart, but top set maths was full, so they stuck me in middle for now.”

Anna’s gaze snapped back towards the board. She decided that she would have preferred the empty seat, thank you very much.

'TEN'

Matthew was sat on the tired green sofa, hugging his legs to his chest. There were damp patches on the knees of his trousers. Brightly dressed presenters were bouncing around on the television screen in front of him; he had turned the TV on in open protest to his mother’s pleas for him to get ready for his cello lesson. He decided that watching a programme would make his disobedience more blatant, but he had not the smallest idea of what was happening because of his determined desire to sulk. He did not want to go. It wasn’t because he didn’t like playing; he had practised his scales really hard, because they had been so much worse than Anna’s the week before. It was Anna. He didn’t want to see Anna.

There were three small knocks at the door. They were followed quickly by four louder ones. Sarah, Matthew’s mother, sped through the hallway, “Gosh! I’m coming, there in a tick!... Oh, Anna, hello.” She was surprised to see Anna at the door, not only because Anna and Matthew had their lessons at Anna’s house, but Sarah had also expected Anna to be as upset as Matthew. She was almost hurt to see Anna stood so boldly and happily on her front doorstep, when her best friend was sat in tears on the sofa, when the two of them had argued so loudly that morning.

Anna sensed that she was not as welcome as usual, and shifted nervously. “Um, Mrs… Mrs Drake, I am v-very sorry for shouting at Matty earlier. I, well I never meant to. It was silly of me really, to get so… so wound up over a broken toy. I mean, I know Matty would never mean to break it.” She stopped dead as she sensed that any more words would cause her to break into tears. Sarah softened, aware that both children were missing each other very much even though it had only been a matter of hours. She also noticed that Anna was clutching something behind her back.

“Oh Anna dear, I know, I’m sorry if I wasn’t very kind just now. Do come in, Matthew is in the lounge, I’m sure he wants to see you really.” Anna raced past her throwing back a ‘Thank you Mrs Drake!’ as she went.

“C’mon Matty! You’re never going to make our lesson if you sit there sulking so much! And I know that you don’t want to miss it. I heard you practising really hard… oh don’t look at me like that you let the window open yesterday! I think you’ll be better than me this week.”

“Leave me alone!” Matthew scowled, but the tone of his voice lacked the impact he had intended. He tried again. “You were really horrible earlier Anna. I know that you loved that rabbit toy, but I said I was sorry about a hundred times.” His voice was just a soft whimper now “You were really horrible.”

Anna was crying now as she slowly produced a large piece of card from behind her back. She stood in silence holding it in front of her body like a sign. She waited patiently for Matthew to turn around when he could no longer bear not knowing why she wouldn’t reply to him. He did turn around, she knew he would. It was a large white piece of card, creased and ripped from an extended storage period; he guessed it had been under Anna’s bed, everything under Anna’s bed emerged a little worse for wear. On the card was a drawing of a large green bear with an orange sun on its stomach and with its arms stretched out wide. Beside the bear was an explosion of red glitter, red glitter that had been arranged into the word ‘Sorry’, except one of the ‘R’s was backwards. Matthew smiled and ran towards Anna, with his arms just as wide, if not wider, than the slightly odd looking green bear.

Matthew and Anna arrived late for their lesson. Anna’s cheeks were slightly blotchy and red, but she wore a wide smile. Matthew entered the room more slowly, with still wet knees and patches off red glitter covering his woollen jumper. The two friends had not been having lessons for very long, but they both loved it. It was possible that Anna loved the instrument more than Matthew, whilst Matthew simply loved spending time with Anna, as he always had. However, this week Matthew had been so afraid of falling behind Anna, that he had practised his way through all of the scales they had ever learned and had given the next page a shot.

“Good grief Matthew! I can tell you practised hard this week!” Mrs Maloney, the children’s cello teacher exclaimed after Matthew had finished the entire duet having made no mistakes, whilst Anna had sat beside him. She had played with as much confidence as ever, but, as always, had missed a handful of notes here and there and had made some others up. “Anna, you should take a leaf out of Matthew’s book, you can’t expect to be better than him forever, not when he’s working this hard!” This comment made both children frown, Anna knew that Matthew deserved the praise this week after he had worked so hard, but she did not like him being better than her, she had gotten used to her position as the more competent of the two. At the same time Matthew’s mood plummeted again, he knew that Anna was better than him, but it had never been said out loud, not so he could hear anyway.

“Right,” Mrs Maloney continued, unaware of the decreased spirits of both of her pupils “let’s hear your solos then. Matthew, you first. Why don’t we be nice at let Anna have a chance to buck her ideas up, hey?”

Sarah Drake, and her husband Lewis stood in the kitchen as they waited for the microwave lasagne to finish heating up. Her face was furrowed into a deep frown and his mouth was twisted with thought, after a short silence Sarah spoke.

“That was unexpected.” Matthew had just returned from his cello lesson and had walked into the kitchen and declared that even Mrs Maloney said Anna was better than him and he didn’t see why he should bother with lessons anymore. “I didn’t expect him to come back in such a bad mood, when Anna came over with that card I thought he’d cheer up.”

“Hmmm…” her husband offered.

“The thing that rattles me the most though, is that Judy Maloney would say such a thing, to actually say that Anna was better than our Matthew. And to think how hard he practised this week, we didn’t have to remind him once! It makes me so angry!”

“Sarah, dear, we don’t know that Judy actually said those words. Matthew is a child, he could easily have exaggerated it for the sake of having a bit of a tantrum?”

“I’m not so sure. Maybe moving away from the Drakes won’t be such a bad thing for him.” Lewis raised an eyebrow, “yes, I know, Anna and Matthew are inseparable and they will both shout and scream, but I think today has proved something about their friendship. Matthew is devoted to Anna, and she is used to being the leader.”

Lewis nearly laughed, but his wife’s facial expression warned him not to. He reached a hand out to squeeze her arm, “They’re just children, I wouldn’t analyse their friendship too much. Anna is devoted to Matthew too, look at that crazy apology collage of hers!”

“Oh, I know, I know. Anna is a lovely girl and it is really sweet that they’ve grown up together for seven years. But maybe this relocation of your firm has come at the right time. Matthew’s so shy, and spending so much time with Anna is hardly going to help that!”

“Look, we need to tell Matthew about the move tonight anyway, the ‘For Sale’ sign is going up tomorrow. As well as that, we need to ring Judy to see if she can recommend a teacher for us on the other side of town, so I can ask about this ‘Anna is better’ comment too. Does that sound like an okay plan of action sweetie?”

Sarah rubbed her head and sighed, then slowly nodded. Lewis walked into the hallway and lifted the phone from the receiver.

Matthew and Anna, were walking home from school a couple of paces ahead of their chatting mothers.

“Matty, please let me read the story you wrote in English! They’re always so good!”

“No, please don’t,” Matthew was struggling to keep his exercise book out of Anna’s reach, “It’s silly, and I’ve made loads of spelling mistakes…”

Anna giggled “No, YOU’RE being silly. Mr Anderson described mine as the silliest little story he’s ever read!”

“NO!” Matthew shouted, and Anna was shocked at his anger. But slowly a smile crept onto his face and he turned abruptly, “You’re going to have to race me for it!” With no further warning he darted around the corner, racing down their road. Anna quickly followed.

Matthew stopped dead as his house came into view, he had not managed to tell Anna about the ‘For Sale’ sign yet. Anna caught up with him, out of breath and conceded that he won and she wouldn’t read his story. Then she followed his gaze towards the cardboard sign that had sprouted out of his front lawn.

“Matty, what is? Why? Are you?” Anna failed to put a sentence together, as Matthew turned to face her.

“Mum and Dad only told me last night. Sorry I didn’t tell you straight away, I just didn’t know how!”

Anna reached out and took Matthew’s hand, “Oh, that’s okay, you only just found out. How far?”

“Um, just the other side of town, something about my Dad’s job moving…” Matthew was mumbling now, aware that both mothers were quickly making up the distance gained from the exercise book race.

“But, I mean, you’ll still be at school right?”

“No.” He couldn’t bring himself to say any more than one word.

“Cello lessons?” Anna could feel tears welling up in her eyes

“My parents rang Mrs Maloney to find a new teacher, but I don’t think I will carry on, you know? I only really enjoy it because it’s something we to together.”

Anna nodded. She dropped Matthew’s hand and forced a smile onto her face. “Well, I promised mum I would help to cook dinner, so I had better get inside!” She gave her best friend a little wave and hurried inside.

Matthew had been shocked by Anna’s sudden cheeriness, but had also been sure that he had spotted the beginnings of tears emerging in her eyes. He stood for a while, gazing at Anna’s back as she ran through her front door, all the time aware of the large ‘For Sale’ sign stood only a few feet away from him.

'NINE'

“Carrots? In a cake? Mum you must be wrong” Anna seized the aging recipe book from her mother’s grip. “We have carrots with our meat. How can they be in a cake?” Anna was amazed at her mother’s silliness.
“Well, Anna, this is a carrot cake, so it has carrots in.” Anna’s mum rearranged her facial expression; shifting from her wide smile to mock sternness, “Now are you going to weigh that grated carrot or shall I?” Anna, who did not notice the corner of her mother’s mouth curl up into a whisper of a grin, reached for the bowl of grated carrot in silence and carefully, though shaking, weighed it on the scales.
Laura Taylor watched the weighing ceremony conducted by her daughter with a deep affection. Her thoughts cast back a small handful of decades to when she had been stood on the same cold brown tiles in the same kitchen. Her feet had been bare because her socks were all full of holes. Her own mother had taught her to make carrot cake, though she could not remember protesting to the concept of carrot cake in the same way that Anna did now. She supposed that Anna’s stubborn manner must be inherited from the other side of the family. Even then, in her bare footed memories, the grated carrots in question had been freshly picked from her mother’s allotment. Anna was beaming up at her mother.
“In this bowl, I have 250 grams and in this one I have the rest.”
“Very good!” Anna relaxed at her mother’s praise. “Anna, do you remember a few years ago, when you would go down to the allotment with your Nana and pick carrots?”
Anna, now released from her mother’s phantom anger, was dancing around the kitchen, always careful not to put even one little toe on one of the cracks between the tiles. “Um, yes, I think so. It was on Thursdays I think. We had art last on Thursdays then. You have my butterfly painting on the fridge.” As she made this statement, Anna stole a quick glance at her pink butterfly, which was held on the fridge by a magnet, before she was again a blurred image of a nine year old girl twirling about her kitchen. The magnet had once been a sunflower, but had been hit by autumn and then winter and had failed to flower again the following spring. Years of Anna related chaos meant that the sunflower magnet was now just a stem. Anna stopped spinning. She collapsed on a chair and giggled as she watched the world around her grind to a halt as her dizziness faded. “Mum?” Her voice had been absent when recalling carrot picking with her Nana, but was now direct and strangely businesslike, given her age. “If we’re having carrot for pudding, what on earth are we going to have for dinner?” To Anna, a more significant answer had never been required.

Twenty minutes later Anna was on her tiptoes peering into the oven. “Oh, goodness me Anna! Get back! That will be hot!” Laura had left the oven half open as she searched from the oven gloves. As she swung around, oven gloves in hand, Anna had stepped back obediently. With an ease only achieved through experience she swung the cake out of the oven and turned it out onto a deep red plate with yellow polka dots, Anna had picked it out.
The lock of the front door clicked and in no time at all Anna’s Dad was peering around the kitchen door. “Oh, Laura, that looks lovely!”
“Daddy, Daddy. Dad!” Anna circled her father for attention.
“Yes?”
“I helped.” Satisfied that her involvement had been acknowledged Anna returned to pirouetting around the kitchen.
“Simon, did you ring the Drakes to check they were still coming?” Laura’s gaze did not leave the mixing bowl in which she was stirring the butter cream for the cake.
“Oh yes,” Simon slyly dipped his finger into the mixture, it went unpunished, but not unnoticed, “They said that they were of course still looking forward to coming this evening. They also said that Matthew has perked up today, and so they asked if it was still okay to bring him to?”
Anna’s attention was guaranteed at the mention of her best friend’s name. “Matty’s better? Oh yey! I haven’t seen him in weeks! And I haven’t even been allowed to go and visit him. Not once!” Anna screwed her face in to an exaggerated frown.
Her mum laughed, “Don’t be silly Anna, Matthew has only been ill for a few days, he was in school on Monday!” Anna didn’t respond, she did not like being corrected.
“So, I told them that was fine. I mean, it is isn’t it?”
“Of course Simon, only one extra little mouth to feed.”
“One little mouth, eh? Don’t remember the last time he came then, he and Anna ate their way threw that entire bowl of jelly!” He turned to the fridge, “I’ll get going on the lamb then.”
Anna had wandered out of the room. She was sat on the floor in the living room, cross legged and reaching deep into her purple school rucksack. With a feeling of great responsibility she sorted out her work, completed, from the work that she had promised all of her teachers she would give to Matthew. He lived next door and she had planned to go and visit him on Monday, when he had not turned up to school, but she was told that he was too tired to see her. He had been too tired on Tuesday as well and Wednesday too. She had not bothered asking on Thursday. She was looking forward to seeing him when he came over for dinner with his parents.

Anna sulkily pushed her peas to the side of her plate with her fork; she was mourning the carrots that she had not had the option of eating with her lamb. She knew though, that if she chose to eat no vegetables she would not be allowed to have pudding. Although, she had not yet decided whether she wanted pudding, not when it had so many unpudding-like ingredients in it. Anna and Matthew were hardly listening to the conversation their parents were having, they had been granted a small scrap of paper on which to play a noughts and crosses tournament. As is the norm with noughts and crosses, they were tying. Matthew’s mum, Sarah, was talking at the point when Anna decided she did want pudding, and so stuffed a forkful of peas into her mouth, determined to ignore how repulsive she found them.
“So anyway, there they were in the middle of the jungle, she’s exhausted and sick of all the bugs. I mean, can you blame her? So, he pulls out the ring box. And, well, she was so shocked. Said yes though, right there and then before he even had the chance to ask her. I’m so happy for them!” Sarah seemed the have told the whole story without once feeling the need to take a breath. “Nineteen though, it’s ever so young to be engaged, especially these days!”
“Yes, I suppose it is, have they been together long though? Simon and I might have been in our mid-twenties when we met, but it only took us eight months to get engaged!” She smiled widely at her husband.
Sarah’s husband cut in at this point, “Oh yes, well that’s the thing isn’t it. They met in high school, been together three years now. And since they’ve been travelling now and all that, I doubt either of them will be shocked by the reality of living together.”
“Yes, I suppose that’s true.” Sarah turned her loving gaze towards the two children, “Matthew’s the youngest of all of the cousins on my side, so Helen’s just been lovely and said that Matthew can take a friend if he likes, so he doesn’t get bored during the day. So of course, he’s desperate for Anna to come now! That will be okay, won’t it?”
Laura and Simon were both amused at Sarah’s confidence that Anna would be going, despite her phrasing it as a question, there was no doubt in her tone. Anna and Matthew had been so close for so long that both couples were entirely use to making plans involving the child that was not their own, as if they were.
“I’m sure Anna would love to go!” Anna had reengaged when she realised that her name had been muttered twice. “Anna, would you like to go to the wedding?”
“Um, yes Mummy, but, whose wedding is it?”
All of the adults chuckled at her innocent vacant expression. “Matthew’s cousin Helen is getting married next month, and Matthew would like you to go.”
“Well then, if Matthew’s going, then I will.” With that, the matter was decided.
The children soon zoned out of conversation as the room began to glow orange with the evening sun. Matthew had miraculously found himself enjoying a noughts and crosses winning streak. Anna examined the empty grid, her mind was working like a very complicated clock as she considered and dismissed all kinds of strategies, she landed upon one. She slowly drew a perfect circle in the middle square in the grid, then with a burst of sudden movement drew crosses and circles successively, the formation of the shapes deteriorating as she went. Within seconds, and without Matthew picking up his pencil, Anna, Team Circle, had finally won another game. Matthew looked blankly at the chaos that had appeared before his eyes, before slowly opening is mouth into a toothy smile that soon grew into an hysterical fit of giggles.
Simon was collecting up the plates, “Well, it’s looks as if we’ve lost them now,” he tilted his head playfully towards the children, Anna was now laughing in harmony with Matthew. “It will be a while ‘til we bring out pudding kids, why don’t you go for a play in the garden. It’s still pretty light and I think you could both do with wasting some energy.”
Anna straightened herself up and looked at Matthew with all of the seriousness that she could muster, “Race you to the swing set!” With that, she darted from the room in a flash of red sweater and blonde hair.
By the time Anna reached the swing set, Matthew had overtaken her and was leaning against one of the uprights, gasping for breath. They each collapsed onto a swing.
“I’m glad you’re coming with me, to the wedding. Mum said I would be bored.”
Anna began to push herself backwards and forwards on the swing. “That’s okay, it might be fun it we’re both there.”
“Yes, it will.” Matthew grinned. “I heard Mum saying while we were eating that they were too young to be getting married. But earlier Dad told me that they just knew that they were ready. I wonder how.” Matthew was naturally less curious than Anna, and his wondering has reached its end but the time he reached the end of his sentence.
“I heard my Mum say once that, people get married when they decide they want to spend their whole life together.” Anna was proud that she knew this.
“Oh,” Matthew stood up, looking confused, “is that all? Well, I know that I want to know you forever.”
Anna stood up too, “Well then, I supposed we should get married then?”
“But, Mum said nineteen was too young, we’re only nine!”
Anna shook her head at her best friend, “Yes silly, but we’ve known each other for six years, that’s plenty to get married.”
“Yes. Yes it is. Let’s get married”
The two children ran back up the house, both of them half convinced that they were now married.
It did not take Anna long to decide that carrots in cake was not such a bad thing after all. Her mum observed this as she was finishing off her second slice.
“Well,” Anna prepared to defend herself, “It’s weird. But good weird.”
“I’m so, so glad you approved my love.” Anna beamed, not yet conscious to her mother’s gentle sarcasm, “While you were down in the garden we told were telling Matthew’s parents that you want to learn to play an instrument and Sarah told us that one of the women she used to work with teaches the ‘cello. How would you like to learn to play the ‘cello?”
“What’s it like?”
Matthew chipped in, “It’s a big upside-down violin. Can I learn to play too? Mum? Dad?”
The four adults looked at each other, all of them with the same amused expression. “Looks like we’ve found yet another thing for them to do together!” Matthew’s Dad remarked.
Anna and Matthew returned to their noughts and crosses tournament, both children sure that they were already enjoying being married.

'SIX'

It was autumn. The faint remains of a summer sky hung like a painted ceiling. The walls were half naked trees, decorated with the orange finger paint smudges of a class full of school children. Anna’s own fingers were pink; she had been working on her butterfly just moments before her Nana picked her up at precisely quarter past three. On Thursdays Anna was picked up from school by her Nana, who took her on the fifteen minute walk down to the allotment. Today they would be picking carrots. Anna stopped stiff.

“Nana? Nana? Nana!” She held her pink fingered hand in the direction of the cars rushing by, “You have to hold my hand when we cross the road.”

“Yes, Anna dear, you’re quite right. It’s far too dangerous for me to cross the road with no-one to look after me.” Her Nana’s eyes twinkled, enjoying the joke to herself. Anna’s eyes were a deep brown, quite different to her Nana’s vibrant blue.  Anna, bemused, wrapped her hand around two of her Nana’s aged fingers, whose attention was wholly engaged now, with spotting a gap in the traffic.

Anna collected herself and skipped across the road, with her Nana in tow and began to inform her of the vital details of her day. First hour on a Thursday was maths, Anna had mastered her ten times, five times and two times tables but an hour later she had struggled enormously with spelling words such as fry, frill, friend and front. Lunch hour had only just begun when Anna and her Nana arrived at the allotment. The situation with the Cooper boy and the last jam tart was forgotten completely when Anna laid her young eyes on the little green fountains that poured out of the ground.

“Are they ready Nana? Are you sure?” her eyes widened with delight.

“Yes Anna my love, quite sure” she turned her own gaze to her small patch on the allotment “why don’t you give that one a tug?” she pointed to the tiniest fan of fresh green leaves in the closest corner of the square of earth. Anna prepared herself like an expert; she placed her feet wide apart and bent low to the ground. She clutched her little hands around the bunch of leaves and took a breath, then pulled. Despite her expertise she lost her grip and fell backwards. For a moment, she sat with her legs spread in front of her and her mouth softly shaped into a round ‘O’. She looked up to her Nana’s warm face and they both chuckled. “Let’s try one of my hands and one of yours shall we?” Nana bent down now, with much less of an air of expertise and wrapped one coarse hand around the green leaves, Anna followed suit and together they pulled. Out of the ground a large, round, vibrant orange carrot was born.

“Nana,”

“Yes dear”

“Don’t you think it’s funny that the carrot grows underground? It’s almost as if they don’t want to be seen and pulled and had for dinner?”

The old lady chuckled and met her granddaughter’s inquisitive eyes with a waterfall of affection. Anna giggled.

“Oh my, would you look at the sky? I’d say that there was a thunderstorm on the way?” Anna, who had been humming to herself absently, turned abruptly to her Nana, all delight empty from her round face.

“Oh no! Really? Can we please get home quickly Nana?”

“My dear,” her voice thick with warmth, “thunderstorms are nothing to be afraid of.”

Anna clapped her hands to her ears. “Yes they are! They’re loud and the sky flashes!” She attached herself to her Nana’s trouser leg and whimpered in a small voice, but her Nana peeled her away and reached for a muddy, little, green stool. Lowering herself carefully to sit on the stool, the grown lady sat like a frog perched with her knees bent as high as her sloping shoulders.

“Shall I tell you a secret about thunderstorms my love?” Anna said nothing, but nodded tentatively. “When the sky roars it’s because the Sun wants to be sunny and the Rain wants to fall and they’re arguing. When they get really angry, the sky flashes because the Sun is furious. It rains because the Rain is crying with frustration. It’s nothing to be scared of little Anna. The sky isn’t going to hurt you, they’re only having a little talk about what weather to make your world the following day.”

Anna considered her Nana’s words for a moment; her face screwed up as she evaluated her Nana’s explanation. It did make sense, it accounted for the roars, the rain and the flashing sky. Her features relaxed, “Oh.” but then she twisted her face up in thought again, “So, what makes the thunderstorm end?”

“One of them wins of course! They argue all night sometimes, but eventually someone will win. If the Sun wins then the following day will be sunny if the Rain wins the following day will be cloudy and wet.” Anna nodded, as if she had always known this and she was confirming her Nana’s suspicions. “Who do you think will win tonight then, Anna?”

Once more, Anna’s brow creased with thought “the Sun, yes, definitely the Sun.”