Stargirl of the Edge

Ch 12 - Hot Chocolate and Spilt Water

In this chapter we see what happens on Olivia's first encounter with a boy!  It's the guy from the supermarket, Ben, who noticed her before. They go to a coffee bar but it ends in disaster. It seems like she'll never see him again, but Ben and his desire for Olivia will become an important theme of the story. If you make a mess of things at the beginning, should you just give up, or should you hold on to your dream. He does, and in the end... you'll have to read the story to find out!

At around 6.30pm on Wednesday 1st of February Dennis and Olivia set off for the Astronomy Society. It was always held on the first Wednesday of the month.

There was no Astronomical Society in Alderley Edge and so they needed to drive past the airport, up the motorway and into the suburbs to the community centre where the meetings were held.They went in his old Jaguar.

Though her dad was often busy, nothing could stand in the way of going to the meetings if he was at home. They were attended mostly by older men and one or two women. Olivia was the youngest by several decades. Going to the Astronomical Society with her dad wasn’t something she talked about very much at school. She went because she was interested in astronomy and enjoyed the time spent with her father. First there would be the business matters of the society, that was always boring, but then they would move on to some subject of more interest. There would usually be a talk, and they would discuss the interesting things that could be seen in the night sky. They had telescopes and other equipment which members could borrow.

That evening’s talk was on the subject of extra-terrestrial life. It was given by a researcher from London University. Olivia found it quite interesting. Her dad chatted with the other members during the break while Olivia listened, enjoying a soft drink and a biscuit. He had been a member for many years, since long before they had moved to Alderley Edge, in fact. Olivia was open-minded about the possibility of aliens visiting the Earth. And if they were to arrive, they would probably choose somewhere like Alderley Edge.

After the meeting, they made the 20 minute drive home in the dark. On the way home they chatted about the talk and about the possibility of extra-terrestrial life. She didn’t mention her studies, and he didn’t mention his work.

The remainder of the week was a similar story to the previous one. Olivia concentrated on all her lessons as hard as she could. She spent more time on her homework, and spent some time looking again at the basics she had covered with Alan in the private lesson, but there was still no improvement in her performance.

Esther’s words had been encouraging, the rapid thoughts had been inspiring, but she was not improving. Maybe there was something else that could help her?

Tuesday 7th of February was a cold day, the coldest so far in the year. After her last class on that day, Olivia walked out of school and down into the village.  Her mum was due to pick her up but had been delayed.

She continued down the main street. It was cold and she needed to go somewhere warm. She didn’t have any money left, so she decided to go into the library, located about half way along the village. She walked around, picking books off the shelf on random subjects. One of them caught her eye. It was about the power of stones and crystals. She opened it up and flicked through the pages, impressed by the brightly coloured photographs and illustrations. She read that each stone could be used to achieve a particular effect.

She took the book to the counter, borrowed it and walked to the door, still reading it.

As she walked out onto the pavement, someone bumped into her.

“Oh, hello, what are you doing here?” he asked.

She looked up to see the tall guy with the long hair from the supermarket