Stranded

"I am never going to forgive you for this," were my friend's words of greeting to me when she returned home, which was to say the golden-haired girl's house, at half past four the following afternoon.

For her sake I resisted the urge to laugh, even though she did look a picture. She was wearing a white short-sleeved school blouse belonging to our little hostess, and one of her navy-blue pleated skirts.

Best of all were the stockings to match. I'd never seen my friend in ones that colour, and something told me she didn't want to make a habit of wearing them! The golden-haired girl was with her.

Getting her home had turned out not to be a problem. The problem was how my friend and I were going to get back. Since stepping off that bus, the only timetables we'd found were paper ones from twenty years ago.

My friend threw herself onto the sofa beside me and put her feet up. She'd even borrowed a pair of the golden-haired girl's red silky knickers, which looked oddly discoloured under her blue stockings.

Those had been documented in the back of my French vocabulary book a time or two! I remembered how I'd liked those red ones. No confusion there over whether they were white or pale blue ones!

What had made it annoying was I'd known she had both kinds. "Can't stand these stockings," grumbled my friend. "I know, they're a massive pain," I agreed wholeheartedly, before I realised she'd meant something different.

"So, been having a nice time while I've been smelling it up at the school time forgot, trying to find a way out of the trouble you landed us in?" my friend continued pleasantly.

"Look, it's not like I could pass for a pupil these days, even if I used to go there," I reminded her. "Only if I wanted to get arrested! You still can, and right now we need answers."

She still looked like she was apt to murder me if I asked her how was school, so instead I went for: "So, how did it go?" The golden-haired girl joined us on the sofa, prettily smoothing her pleats under her.

My friend rolled her eyes. "First, I'll be in the gym the rest of my life from one day in your canteen," she declared. "Nothing but chips, crisps, chocolate, jam sponge and custard...OMG!"

"You keep saying that, are they your initials?" asked the golden-haired girl, but my friend was barely even getting started. I truly pitied her. I'd have given anything not to have had to plunge her into a day without wi-fi.

That turned out to not have even been the biggest trauma though. We moved onto the subject of her PE lesson. "What, so they made you take your nose-ring out?" I ventured.

My friend merely shot daggers at me from out of her black eyelashes. So it couldn't be that. I thought very carefully...oh! Yes, my bad, and I was kicking myself. Really should have warned her about gym knickers!

"If it's any comfort, you were probably the first to ever wear that particular pair," I told my friend. "How do you know I don't like having to wear mine?" cried the golden-haired girl.

"Anyway, I don't know why you're complaining about PE," she continued to my friend. "I thought I was good, but wow! You're unbelievably awesome at it," and her blue eyes were wide with the memory.

"No, I'm not," my friend insisted. "I just don't stuff myself with the kind of junk they serve in your canteen, and I go to the gym, and I run every day. Name a girl who doesn't!"

"You keep saying that too," said our small hostess. "But I don't know any girl who does those things. What's more, you don't want to be too good at gym at our school, if you know what I mean by that?"

"OMG!" cried my friend again. "Look, I know we've gone back in time. But you're not telling me it's still the days a girl can't respect her own health, and needs a big strong boy in case she breaks a nail?"

"Um, not so much," replied the tactful one. "It's more, well, you saw the girls who are good at gym. Big hefty ones. Good friends of the girls' PE teacher," she finished significantly.

At which my friend said to me: "Did I mention I was never going to forgive you for this? Oh, yes, and one more thing. I did find a way for us to get back. We can go tomorrow afternoon."

TO BE CONCLUDED