Last Shout

My friend Diane said, “Christmas doesn’t seem as Christmassy this year.” 

Eventually we worked out that it was because we no longer had the usual school events marking the countdown to December 25^th – the seasonal fair and concert and charity fancy dress day hadn’t happened for us.

But last week there was one last shout – the annual school prize-giving. Ex-students returned to pick up their A level /B-tech certificates.   Not all of them were there – not everybody had returned their reply; not everybody was back from university  (including Perran).

But Carenza took us along.  It was lovely to see both old friends and former teachers again.  Hard not to feel nostalgic for us, but for Carenza even more so.  Before we set off, she took a peek at her old head girl badge, then sighed and put it back in its box.  She wouldn’t be wearing it this year. 

“I’m going to have to ask the people on either side of me to hold me down so I don’t get up, grab a bunch of flowers and make a speech,” she said.