Seven Years Old
"Catch me!" I squeaked as my little legs pummelling the ground as fast as they could possibly go in order to get away from the big bad wolf that was chasing me. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw my best friend running after me with his mouth open baring his 'fangs'. He wore my mum's fur gloves on his hands in an attempt to look more 'wolfish', but he didn't really look very scary wearing gloves that were far too big for him. He looked more like a harmless teddy bear but I humoured him because the gloves were his idea.
"I'm going to get you Little Red Riding Hood," Seth called after me showing his imaginary fangs as he made a grab for the red table cloth I had wrapped loosely around my shoulders. I screamed and pulled the cape tighter around me as I began to run harder and faster.
"No you're not!" I cried gleefully, narrowly avoiding being caught as we raced around my back garden. I looked back over my shoulder again as I heard Seth panting. I laughed as I saw his red face and his laborious steps. "I'm faster than you!" I taunted, knowing that it get on his nerves to be beaten by a girl.
"This game is stupid," he called after me. "Can't we play something else? What about Jack and the Beanstalk? I could be the giant!" he added gleefully.
"No, Seth! I don't want to play that!" I argued adamant that I wanted to remain as Little Red Riding Hood.
"Fe fi fo fum, I smell the breath of an English Bum!" he chortled with laughter at his hilarious use of the word 'bum' as I continued to run away from him. Even at the age of seven, I had much more maturity than he did.
"I want to play Little Red Riding Hood!" I protested coming to a halt and standing before him with hands on my hips in an attempt to look intimidating. As I was only seven, I didn't really have the patience that I do now, so I was getting rather annoyed at him, especially since he'd called my game stupid! The cheek of it!
"That game is stupid," he reiterated. "I always get pretend killed by the stupid woodcutter," he responded, crossing his arms angrily across his chest. "Why can't you be the wolf for once?"
I shook my head in exasperation. "Because I'm a girl, silly! Little Red Riding Hood was a girl too! Besides, the Giant died when Jack cut down the beanstalk," I replied smugly. Even as a child, I had been a smart arse. Nothing really changes. I also had an obsessive love of books, particularly fairy tales.
"Then I'll be the giant that squashes you!" Seth cried, unfolding his arms and looking hopefully in my direction. "Just let me win once!"
I shook my head defiantly. "No."
"You're mean," he argued. "I just wanted to play something fun!"
"Idiot," I grumbled as I sat down on the grass. I crossed my arms stubbornly refusing to look in his direction – he had deeply offended me with his refusal to play the game properly. "Why can't you just play seriously for once?" I demanded hotly.
Seth, realising that he'd annoyed me, sat down beside me. He mimicked my arms crossed over my chest with his own with a smirk. "Why can't you stop being so grumpy?"
I stifled a laugh at the stupid expression he was wearing; he scrunched it up tightly in an attempt to mirror the disapproval on my own expression. I turned my head away quickly so that he wouldn't see me smiling. I didn't want to let him know that he had almost won me over.
"I know you're smiling, Lily," he said proudly. "I can tell."
"No you can't!" I protested turning further away from him, but my grin broadened.
"Can so!" he argued.
"I am not!" I huffed, but I wasn't angry anymore. Seth had the ability to make me laugh even when I wanted to be mad at him. It was both a blessing and a curse for me.
"Lillllllly!" he groaned flopping back on the grass. "Talk to me! I'm bored!" he moaned. "I'll be your bestest friend in the whole wide world!"
"You already are," I answered with a shake of my head. I didn't want to play with him at all if he wasn't going to take it seriously and play it properly. Looking back, I guess you could say I was horribly used to getting my own way and didn't like it when I didn't.
"Fine," he conceded with a long sigh. "I'll play stupid Little Red Riding Hood with you and I'll be the stupid big bad wolf! Happy now?"
"Very!" I squealed jumping up instantly and pulling him eagerly up with me. "I'll race you to Grandma's house!"
Ten Years Old
"Seth Myers, how many times have I told you not to throw pens in my classroom?" Mrs O'Hara screeched flapping her arms wildly in his direction. "You could hit someone in the eye and then I'd get in trouble. You wouldn't want that now would you?"
I stifled a laugh as Seth rolled his eyes and leant back smugly in his chair, clearly he wasn't bothered about being told off. He never was. In fact he looked rather chuffed with himself as he smirked triumphantly at me. Seth had always had an annoying habit of looking over at me as if he was trying to tempt me to get into trouble too. I never willingly complied, much to his disappointment.
"She looks like a very angry chicken," he whispered in my ear with an evil grin. I shook my head quickly, knowing instantly that he was going to attempt to make me laugh. "Bwak bwak bwak!" he muttered, wiggling his arms by his sides as if flapping his imaginary wings like that of a frazzled chicken.
I snorted before I could stop myself and immediately clutched my hands over my mouth as Mrs O'Hara's beady eyes snapped to me. She had been scolding a girl for pulling another girl's hair, but apparently my spluttering was a much more severe offence. She hadn't sorted out her priorities! "Is there something funny that you'd like to share with us all, Lily?" she demanded crossly as her face tinged a startlingly red shade in annoyance.
Shaking my head quickly, I'm sure to avoid Seth's amused beam in fear of bursting into another uncontrollable fit of giggles. He's always known how to make me laugh, especially at the most inappropriate of times. For ages my dad nicknamed him the 'Devil Child' because of the amount of times Seth used to lead me astray from being the good studious child I naturally was. He had this annoying talent of getting me into trouble and he was really good at it, unluckily for me. Once he'd made me spit my drink out all over a supply teacher by pointing out the hair poking from a wart on the poor guy's nose. Needless to say I'd been in detention for weeks afterwards. My parent's had not been pleased in the slightest, but Seth seemed to think it was the most hilarious thing he'd ever encountered.
"Sit forward in your chair, Seth! I want all four feet planted firmly on the floor!" Mrs O'Hara squawked, a blue vein almost popping from her forehead. "Did I ever tell you the story of a boy I once had in my class?" Only a thousand times! "No? Well, there once was a boy who fell off his chair because he was leaning back and smacked his head on the corner of another table. He had to be rushed to hospital with a concussion and almost died! You don't want that to happen to you now do you?"
Seth merely rolled his eyes. "I have four feet on the ground," he protested. He started counting the two chair legs and then pointed at his own two feet that were just about touching the carpet.
"I don't want any cheek from you, Seth. Sit properly on your chair or I'll take it off you and you'll have to stand!" she warned.
"Bwak bwak bwak!" Seth once again murmured in my ear as Mrs O'Hara droned on and on about how it was dangerous to lean back on chairs and how health and safety would sue her if one of her class was to hit their head and how she didn't have the money to pay for any grievances that came. She whined on and on about how the school had eventually been sued for the boy with the almost fatal concussion and that she was not looking for a repeat of the hassle anytime soon.
It was meant to be a seriously conversation – and I was listening with rapt attention – with a powerful mortal to the story, but it was hard to remain straight-faced and impassive when Seth was sat beside me making chicken noises in my ear. I was ten!
I burst into fits of uncontrollable laughter, much to the amusement of the rest of the class – in particular to Seth, whose eyes glittered with delight. Mrs O'Hara, however, didn't seem to find my outburst at all humorous. In fact the very blue and very prominent vein that was sticking out of her forehead said exactly the opposite; she was angry.
"Lily Waters stop laughing this instant! I find it incredibly disrespectful that you are laughing at such a serious matter!" she shouted, still red in the face and fuming. The class, however, continued to get louder with laughter as Seth made loud chicken noises, not even attempting to hide who it was directed at. Mrs O'Hara looked exasperated and I did feel very sorry for her. "Will you please all be quiet? I have an awful headache!"Aah, the old tell the class I've got a headache trick to try and get the class to shut up – a classic teacher trick.
"You're getting better at not crying when you're being told off," Seth noted as he turned to me with an amused smirk. "Mrs O'Hara looks like she's about to explode! I've never seen her so angry!"
"I didn't mean to!" I whispered fearfully glancing at my teacher who was running rather madly around the classroom in an attempt to regain some control. "You're a bad influence!" I hissed pointing angrily at him.
Seth laughed as his gaze flickered to where Mrs O'Hara was still flapping around. I still feel sorry for her to this day; she really was trying to shut the class up. However, even I couldn't not admit that she did look remarkably chicken-like by the way she waddled frantically around, the arm movements she made didn't seem to fit with being a human. All she needed was a beak and then the resemblance would have been striking.
There was a sudden knock on the classroom door and the Head Teacher, Mr Higgs, strode into the room. Almost immediately the class fell silent and even Mrs O'Hara froze mid-flight. She looked flushed as he peered around the room, his eyes scanning us all from behind his thick-rimmed glasses. "Lily Waters?" he questioned.
My breath caught in my chest and fear subsequently followed. I looked up with wide eyes. Was I in trouble? Slowly I stood from my seat and Mr Higgs' attention was on me. I ignored Seth's panicked expression and made my way shamefully towards the Head. He motioned for me to follow him and I did silently, scuffing my feet along the ground in my reluctance to follow him. I didn't bother turn back to look at Seth to know that he was slumped in his chair undoubtedly feeling bad about me being hauled from the classroom.
I followed after Mr Higgs in silence all the way to his office, my brain whirring in an attempt to think of what I could possibly have done to be pulled out of lesson. Perhaps Mrs O'Hara had called him about me laughing inappropriately? Perhaps I had seemed like I was being intentionally rude, although I didn't think it a serious enough offence to get the Head Teacher involved.
As it turns out, it wasn't.
He pushed open the door to reveal my mum sat on a chair by his desk, dabbing her eyes with a tissue. I stared at her in shock for a moment as she stood up and rushed towards me. She captured me in her arms and stroked my hair softly as her tears began to fall freely. I didn't have a clue what was going on.
"What's wrong, Mummy?" I asked nervously. Mum never cried, but if she did it was only in serious circumstances. The only other time I'd seen her crying before was to my dad when my Grandad had died and even then she wasn't crying so uncontrollably as this. With Grandad she had known that he had been in a lot of pain before he'd died, so him drifting off to sleep had been a blessing in disguise.
Nothing could have possibly prepared me for what she said next.
"Daddy's in the hospital, sweetie," she whispered, her voice breaking as her grip tightened around me. It was almost as if she was scared to let me go in fear of crumbling completely.
I didn't know what to say or do. The news that my dad was in hospital scared me, I couldn't breathe and my lungs felt as if they were being squashed inside my chest. Being ten years old, I had no idea how to form coherent sentences to try and comfort her – I could only think of my own pain. My eyes filled with tears and I too began to cry uncontrollably.
"He will get better, won't he Mummy?" I cried as hot tears rolled down my cheeks.
Mum let out another sob and clutched me tighter; she hadn't answered my question. I looked over at Mr Higgs who was watching us solemnly. His expression was one of sympathy as he lightly patted mum on the shoulder as if to wordlessly offer his support. "I'll go and fetch Lily's things," he said quietly as he backed out of the room, leaving us to grieve quietly together.