Taking My Penalty

5: Family Dinner Debriefs

TALIA

I had survived my first day at Leland Darby Private School.

Correction: I had barely survived my first day.

It was eventful, to say the least, but I learned a lot about the school and met new people.

My family connection with Felix came in pretty handy with getting to know the people around. Shocking is an understatement when I realised that Felix had literal fans just for being him.

He had made such a name for the Spences that people even asked me if I knew Francie as much as they asked me if I knew Felix. The 'Spence siblings' was what they were called.

Sometimes, people stopped asking more about me once they heard my surname and confirmed that I was related to Felix. I was apparently the 'Spence cousin' which was a bit awkward sounding but I didn't have much of a problem.

Well, It's not like I could do anything about it.

Turns out word spread quick about me after he had told the very highly praised football team.

Speaking of Felix, I didn't get to see him much after the incident that put us in the Matron's office. I was going to go ask if Reece was holding up okay during lunch but Maeve, Camilla and Delilah had taken me on a full and in-depth tour of the school.

Though I did enjoy the adventure of looking through the excessive departments of Leland, a sense of worry stuck with me.

The moment that Felix came back with Reece's bag, Matron sent me back to my class.

Unsurprisingly, Felix took it as a two-second opportunity to poke at me that he'd be skipping another class but it never mattered to me. With Felix's return, Matron sent me back to my class, obviously without a chance to say bye to the, once again, passed-out Reece.

I didn't tell the girls about the situation yet since lunch was such a rush around. However, I was thinking about letting Maeve know during our only shared class, French. Then I figured that speaking about such a situation in a room of strangers that could talk a lot.

Besides, Mum told me to invite Maeve round for dinner that night, something she'd often do. Not to mention, Mum absolutely loved Maeve.

Other than getting me to invite my best friend, Mum had done her own inviting to Felix and his family.

As much as this dinner was a good gathering after the first day of school, it was a night where close family and friends could come together after Dad, Percy and Max came home. The first night the Spences were all home was like a tradition to have dinner all together again since Dad was often away. Too often.

I was happy he was back; even happier about Percy and Max.

A whole year.

I'd gotten used to not having Dad around but since he had taken Percy and Max too made it so much lonelier.

I was beaming with absolute joy when I found that Percy was picking me up from school. It came as a complete surprise when he stood outside by the car waving at me like it was primary school home time. And to think it wasn't going to get better, Max was waiting at home awake too, hugging the dear life out of me. Dad was there too, with a present from his travels, as always.

He had bought me a camera this time, differing from the collections of bags and perfumes he usually got.

I decided I'd save testing it out with Maeve until she got here, to which I learned the camera was pretty cool.

It was bloody heavy, if I'm being honest, but it was cool and Maeve seemed to enjoy taking a tonne of selfies on it, even with preppy uniforms still on.