“He is back.”
“oh!”
“Sorry, guess I should have said.” Carol typed. “Do you want him?”
“Er… nah… I’ll catch up when we come down at mid-term. Please keep this to yourselves. The only good thing about going to a petticoating school is the fact it’s 90 miles away from all my mates… the last thing I want is them all to know.”
“Sure mate… sounds horrendous!”
“That you Noel?”
“Yeah.” he typed. “Can’t believe you have to shave your legs too.”
“Me neither.
“When’s half term for you?”
“Mid-term… in a few weeks.” Peter typed before double checking the dates. “20th – 24th.”
“Same as us.” Noel replied.
“Cool. See you then… and please… keep it quiet otherwise I’ll never be able to show my face.”
“Will do mate.” Noel typed. “See ya.”
A message popped up on Noel’s screen saying ‘Peter J has logged out of this chat’. He turned to his sister. “Blimey I can’t believe it!”
“Me neither!” Carol said. “You’re not going to tell anyone are you?”
“Nah… he’s a mate.” Noel replied. “You?”
Carol shook her head. “No… he asked us not to.” she said as she took hold of the mouse and scrolled back up the chat. “You’ve gotta let me have a copy of this picture though.”
“Why?” Noel quizzed. “To put by your bed?”
“No.” she defensively retorted. “To put under my pillow.” she grinned as she right clicked, selected ‘send to’, typed her email address in the box and clicked ‘send’.
“It must be horrible having to wear that for school.” Noel gasped as he peered at the photo of his old friend; bottle green tights, a mostly green pleated plaid skirt, a green V neck tank top over a white short sleeved shirt.
“Apart from those tights it’s quite nice… for a school uniform anyway.” Carol replied. “I wonder what shoes he’s wearing?” she said. The photo cuts off just below the knee. “I wonder if he wears a girl’s PE kit too?”
“I dunno… he did say they don’t do footy, rugby or cricket though.”
“Maybe we could find out online… what’s the name of his school?” Carol asked. She typed it into a search engine and clicked on the top result. “Blimey… how old is this website?” she exclaimed.
“Old enough not to mention that it’s now an EP school.” Noel replied. “Pete and I checked before they moved up there.”
“Hmm…” she said as she followed the information link to the uniform page. “It does list both uniforms.” she said, scrolling down. “Oh, here… look.” she said, tapping the screen. In small letters it states that the boy’s uniform is being phased out from September 2013. “Was that there last summer?” she asked.
“Dunno… maybe we didn’t look hard enough.” Noel shrugged as Carol followed the breadcrumbs back to the information page and onto the curriculum page. “PE.” she said, clicking the link. “Netball, hockey, tennis, track & field, CCR, gym, dance, swimming.” she read. “You’re right, no football, rugby, cricket.”
“What’s CCR?”
“Cross country running.”
“Oh yeah.” Noel said. “Dance… is that even a sport?”
“No but it’s physical.” Carol said as she clicked on it.