Summer of '99 - H.S.

Prologue | 00

Lean on me - Bill Withers

Lean on me
When you're not strong
I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
Till I'm gonna need somebody to lean on

You just call on me brother
When you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on

October 1989

It was a dull and rainy afternoon in Manchester, the skies were a dark grey and they twisted along the horizon for as far as the eye could see them. The school hall was loud with laughter and teachers chatting in the corner, everyone was awfully cheery for a crappy Tuesday afternoon.

Alone at a table made for 6, sat Josephine (or Joey) Miller. Her hair sat in wild unruly curls, the shade a deep orange. She always hated her hair, but there was nothing she could do about it other than accept it for what it was until she was old enough to change it. Her uniform was becoming too small for her body, and her peers had noticed this, using it as good reason to add to their list of never ending points to bully her about.

The smell of the school dinner hall filtered through the air, a warm sickly smell that made Joey turn her nose up at her plate.

It was rice pudding day, and Joey hated rice pudding.

A few years ago when she was staying over at her nan's house, her cousin had consumed far too much rice pudding and had thrown up all over the floor of the spare bedroom. Ever since, even the thought of rice pudding made Joey wretch and twist in disgust.

Joey sat alone at lunch, much like all of her primary school life. She always felt like she didn't fit in anywhere, the girls didn't like her because she was loud and sporty, the boys didn't like her for the same reasons. She had no friends, but she preferred it that way, she believed she didn't need any friends and was quite content in her own company, even for a ten year old.

She spent the whole of dinnertime pushing the food around her plate and ignoring the bowl of pudding that was sitting at the corner of the blue plastic tray that held her dinner. Joey sat staring out the window, longing for the day that she didn't have to go to school anymore, when she was grown up she would have lots of friends and no one else here would matter. She tucked a strand of her bright red curls behind her ear, they always refused to stay where she wanted them, creating another target for the other kids to bully her for.

"There she is, big fat orangutan." One of the boys, Jason, called out behind her. Jason was a tubby boy with a short cut hair do, his two front teeth stuck out far past the others and scuffed shoes lay on his feet, but he thought he was better than everyone else, especially better than Joey.

"Leave me alone, Jason." Joey pleaded as she rolled her eyes but didn't turn around to face him instead she pushed her tray out further in front of her, completely put off her food.

"I'm just talking, what's wrong with your dinner? Scared you will put on more weight and be as fat as your mum?" Jason and the other boys roared with laughter at her expense. It made her want to curl up into a corner and cry, but she never did. Her face remained like stone and her back remained perfectly straight, refusing to let him get to her.

"We have p.e this afternoon ginge, careful you don't get pantsed again, no one wants to see your fat arse." He snorted but before anyone else could laugh a sudden loud crash and clatter of plates caused Joey to turn around abruptly in her seat.