Handprints ( #2 BOOK IN SERIES )

April (Part One)

Noise echoes around the food court, from babies screaming to a couple yelling at each other just over my shoulder. Laura sits in front of me, staring at her phone while I feed Erin the last of her lunch.

"So Maddie said she should be here in about hour. Adam finishes at two today so he should hopefully get here about half past. What time does Cory finish?" Laura asks me as she puts her phone back into her bag.

"Four?" I reply back yet my answer sound more like a question.

"You don't sound too sure,"

"I'm not. This one started crying as he was telling," I indicate to Erin who is sitting in her highchair happily staring around the room. "Anyway I probably won't be here at four as it is. She will need to go back home for a nap," I explain to Laura.

The two of us are at a shopping centre, luckily not the one where I gave birth in, hoping to meet up with our friends later in the day. The original plan was to try and revise but I doubt that will happen with all the noise surrounding us. The behind me are still yelling.

As soon as Erin has finished eating I pack her things up and place her back in her pushchair. I finish off the last few bites of my own lunch off before standing up, ready to go.

"What is it you want again?" I ask Laura as we walk away from our table.

"Clothes for the fashion show. Obviously nothing expensive but I do want some nice things. I went through the drama's department costumes hoping to find some stuff in there and it was a right mess," she tells me while flailing her arms everywhere to emphasise her statement.

I follow her into some shops and then follow her out again after only a few minutes. Her tactic seems to be check the price of the first item of clothing you see, then run out.

"Why is everything so expensive?" she asks after the third shop we have walked into and then straight back out of again.

"Because you're going into the expensive shops," I tell her. "Why don't you just look through some of your old clothes at home and bring some of them in? At least you're not spending your own money that way. I'm sure we can all find the time to look through our own wardrobes and help out that way," I suggest to her.

She thinks about it for a minute before finally saying, "that is a good idea. I just didn't really want this show to include second hand clothes though."

"It's a school fashion show honey. Even if you bought ten new outfits today, they'd be using those ten outfits in ten years' time, maybe even longer. It's hardly London Fashion Week. Use your own clothes and save money," I tell her.

"That does sound sensible. Can we look in one more shop though?" Laura practically pleads with me.

Once again I follow her into a shop, one much larger than the previous ones. I weave the pushchair down the thin aisles, being careful to avoid bumping into people. Erin's eyes have begun to close as the notion of the pushchair makes her sleepy. I keep walking back and forth, hoping to rock her asleep. After a while it begins to work.

Briefly I browse around the store but don't see anything that takes my fancy. Instead I move over to the section where the baby clothes are displayed and browse through there knowing that Erin will soon grow out of the clothes she has. I purchase a few outfits for before finding Laura again.

"Did you get something nice?" I ask, noticing the two large shopping bags she now has in her hands.

"Let's sit down here and I'll show you," she points in the direction of bench which is currently occupied by only one person whose back of their head is facing us.