Jenny's Drama Camp Misery

Friday, 4th August

Jenny was home with her parents that Friday evening when there was a knock at the door. She hadn't been to drama camp for two days, having successfully convinced her parents that she was ill. Jenny's mum Paula answered the door. It was Eliza.

"I'm a friend of Jenny's from the drama camp, I just wondered is she at home?"

Paula's first reaction was that this girl seemed a bit small to be a friend of her daughter who was nearly 15, however Jenny was small for her age so that wasn't impossible. 

"Oh, a friend of Jenny's?," Paula began enthusiastically, "you must come in."

"Maybe you can convince Jenny to go back to the camp. She's not been well the past couple of days," Paula continued as she escorted Eliza up the stairs and pointed to Jenny's bedroom door. 

Eliza knew exactly what that meant. While Paula watched her, she knocked on Jenny's door and entered. Jenny was surprised but also pleased to see her.

"Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have joined in with bullying you," the younger girl began. "It was just like, too easy, I suppose."

"It was easy," Jenny admitted. "So what do you want, to be friends again?"

"Yes please!"

"But like, are you going to pick on me again?"

"I don't know. I mean, maybe."

"Oh my god but why?"

"Well I don't know any girls as weak as you, not even my own age. Plus you're older and picking on you is just, well..."

"What?"

"A lot of fun, to be honest."

"I suppose I can understand. But wait, do you hate me or something?"

"Nooo Jenny, I promise, I really like you," Eliza assured her. "I think you're cute and nice and I want us to be friends and go to each other's houses and stuff."

That part was music to Jenny's ears. The two girls hugged, emerged from Jenny's room like the best of pals and skipped downstairs where Jenny demanded that her mum make them a snack.

"I notice that your illness has magically disappeared," Paula pointed out.

"I'm feeling a lot better, mum," Jenny replied.

"So you'll be going back to that £1,000-a-month drama camp on Monday, then?"

"Yes, I suppose I will."

Back up in Jenny's room later, she talked more with Eliza, who was now probing her a little and quite enjoying being able to do so, now that their "friendship" was back on track. 

"What ever happened to those trousers of yours?"

After Jenny pointed Eliza to the back of her cupboard, Eliza took out the trousers and inspected them. "Oh wow, they really are ruined," Eliza exclaimed, secretly feeling proud of her crush Jacob's handiwork.

It had also been Eliza's own suggestion to drag Jenny's trousers through mud (she had whispered the very suggestion into Jacob's ear), so she felt pleased with herself as well. 

"Will you have to throw these out?", Eliza enquired, trying to sound either neutral or sympathetic and not managing either of those. 

"I think so. I didn't want to think about it for a while, so I just hid them back there."

The idea of Jenny's trousers being so ruined they had to be thrown out was somehow exciting to Eliza. She wanted to know more.

"Do your parents know? About your clothes, I mean."