June, 2003
Nadine flipped her mobile phone, shut and the grin on her face became wider. Stella looked at her, expectantly.
“I passed.”
“Told you so.”
“No, I mean, I really really passed,” she said excitedly, throwing her arms around Stella. “I’m at the top of my class.” Now, tears of relief rolled down her cheeks.
“Congratulations,” said Stella, pleased for her friend. Any other outcome would have been unjust … a travesty, even. Stella expected Nadine to pass, as she knew how hard the latter had worked. So much so that they’d made a bet.
“And now you owe me twenty quid.”
“What?! Why?”
“Yeah … you know, you pass moderately or fail outright, I pay you twenty pounds … you pass in flying colours, top of your class and all that, you owe me.”
“Oh, that!”
“Yes, that!”
“You’re really going to take twenty pounds from me.”
“Without apology or remorse. And you’d better believe it.”
“What … I …”
“A bet’s a bet, pay up,” Stella replied, her right palm extended.
Half a minute and a knock later, Melinda entered the room, just as a grumbling Nadine handed over the money. “Everything alright in here?”
“Oh, yes,” Stella replied, as she pocketed the twenty pound note that Nadine had given her.
“It’s just I could hear you from downstairs.”
“As should you, mum,” Stella replied, “Nadine made it to the top of her class.”
“That’s fantastic, darling,” an obviously happy Melinda said, as she hugged Nadine.
“Mum, we need to celebrate.”
“Sure …”
“On our own first. Then you and dad may knock yourselves out, trying to reward us later, for jobs well done.”
“Jobs well done … I’d have thought passing in itself, would be reward enough.”
“Please, tell me you’re joking,” begged Stella.
“You get to go to university. That’s a great reward for hard work.”
Stella groaned. “Mum, university is more hard work. How is that a reward for passing our exams?”
“Because some of your classmates won’t get to attend uni, because they didn’t work hard enough? Or some did work hard, yet didn’t make the required grades because of …”
“Mum, we just need some cash.”
“I thought you got paid, three days ago.”
“Yes, so?” Stella wondered.
“So, what do you need more money for?”
“We need to hit the shops.”
“Why?”
“Retail therapy,” Stella replied, simply.
“I thought retail therapy worked differently. You go shopping when you’re feeling down, to make yourself feel better.”
“Well, yeah, but this is a happy time.”
“Exactly.”
“So, those rules don’t apply,” Stella reasoned.
“You’ve lost me.”
Nadine blinked. She felt lost, too. A part of her felt that Stella was too, but she looked like she was on a roll.
“Well, it’s as good an excuse as any, to go shopping,” Stella argued, unconvincingly.
“You’re not the one going to study Law, are you?” Melinda teased, affectionately.
“Mum. There are summer sales and everything’s going at half price or less.”
“That’s more your language,” Melinda stated.
“Thank you.”
“But, back in the day …”
“Mum, please?” Stella begged, afraid that her mother was about to launch into a history lesson about her own days as a frugalista… this story would be told in painstaking detail. She had heard it many times before. As had Nadine.
“Oh, OK. You both deserve it anyway.”
As her mother left the room, Stella turned to her friend.
“What are you smiling about?”
“You’re so lucky that your mum is a soft touch.”
Nadine couldn’t imagine getting any money out of her mother, if she employed Stella’s dodgy arguments.
“Oh, yeah? You should see me with my dad.”
“I can imagine. But, do me a favour. Remind me not to hire you as my lawyer if I get arrested … for something as insignificant as dropping chewing gum on the carpet. You’ll get me the death penalty.”
“England has no death penalty.”
“Exactly. You’re rubbish at arguments.”
“Very funny,” Stella remarked sarcastically.
“Hilarious, I know.”
“Whatever. How much do you reckon we’ll get?”
“Maybe a hundred, a hundred and fifty, max?”
“Yeah, I think a hundred and fifty,” Stella confirmed.
The door to Stella’s bedroom re-opened as Melinda returned. “Here,” she said, handing them each a wad of notes.
“How much is this?” a slightly bewildered Nadine managed to ask.
“Seven hundred pounds. That’s three hundred and fifty each,” she replied, coolly.
“Three hundred and fifty …” Nadine repeated.
“Did you get hit on the head?” Stella asked. She wasn’t trying to be cheeky; she was just truly stunned.
“Is that what I get for trying to show my daughter and her friend, a good time?” her mother asked, good-naturedly.
“I’m sure she didn’t mean it like that. Did she?” Nadine said, subtly pinching Stella.
“Ow! No, she … I didn’t,” Stella replied, shooting her friend an evil look.
“And?” prompted Nadine.
“And we’ll take it and go, before you return to your senses?” Stella asked, cheekily.
Another pinch.
“Ouch! Before you change your mind,” Stella corrected herself, loudly before adding under her breath, “I might be bruised permanently, otherwise.”
“Thank you so much, Mrs. Matthews,” Nadine said.
But Melinda shrugged it off.
“Thanks, mum.”
“You girls, just go and have a good time. I want you back by 8pm.”
Both girls groaned.
“Because your dad and I are going to take you young ladies to dinner.”
More simultaneous groans.
“Can’t we all do dinner tomorrow? By then, Nadine and I will be sufficiently broke,” Stella said.
But Melinda pretended not to hear. Nadine, on the other hand, wondered about Stella’s cognitive skills.
“Nadine?”
“Yes, Mrs. Matthews?”
“Before you make all the shops on Oxford Street happy, call your parents.”
“Will do.”
As Melinda left the room a second time, Nadine turned to Stella. “We’ve each got three hundred and fifty pounds, to burn in one afternoon. You sure your mum’s OK?”
“I don’t know, but I’m going to as many shops as I can, before she demands a refund.”
Nadine laughed. “Shame though, that we have to be back by 8.”
Stella shook her head.
“Was hoping to go to that new club on Edgware Road,” Nadine said.
“Don’t you have to be at least eighteen to get in?”
Nadine stared. “Who are you, and what have you done with my friend?”
“What? What’s the matter?”
“Now, look who’s coming over all shy and reserved. This is you, who normally thinks that a club isn’t cool enough if we don’t have to resort to some kind of trickery, to get in.”
Stella shrugged. “Oxford is a different town. London is … something else. Screw America or even finishing school in Switzerland. If my mum thought that we’d been to any of those clubs, she’d shoot me. And make your mum ground you for life!”
Nadine laughed. “But she must know, though. Or at least, suspect. I mean, she can’t really think that the only places we know, are our classrooms and shopping centres in Oxford and London.”
“Do you really think so?”
Nadine nodded. Then she started to smile mischievously.
“What is it?”
“What do you say; we go for lunch at The Blue Hut, when we take a break from shopping?”
“The Blue Hut? As in, the place where you have to be at least 18 to enter? The same place that’s twenty minutes away from my father’s office? That Blue Hut?”
“One and the same,” Nadine replied, with a smile.
“Are you crazy? You just love to court danger.”
Nadine shrugged. “I did learn from the best.”
“Anyone could see us,” Stella squirmed.
“Well, as shopping is to be done in broad daylight, I should hope so.”
“No, idiot. I meant anyone from either my dad’s or mum’s office, could see us. Do you know how embarrassing that would be?”
“Nope.”
“They would kill us both.”
“Now, you’re just overreacting.”
“You think?” Stella asked, wondering if Nadine had gone crazy.
“I say, we do it. Just to see if we can get away with it. I mean, we already can’t go clubbing, tonight.”
Stella looked at Nadine, partly amused, partly mortified.
“Come on, don’t be such a scaredy-cat. Your mum is home, and your father is stuck at court all day. They are not going to find out.”
“And if someone they know, sees us?”
“We’ll … sorry I … will charm our way out of that situation, if it arises.”
“And I’m the tear-away, but you’re the one who’s sweetness and light? Why would anyone come to that conclusion?”
“Beats me. We should do something unexpected. We have earned the right to do so. We passed; that’s what our parents want. Now, we get to do something totally self-serving and self-centred.”
“You forgot ‘self-destructive’,” muttered Stella.
“If anyone sees us, I promise I won’t say we’re on a cultural trip.”
Stella thought she would faint, when she looked up and saw her mother’s head stuck in her room. The rest of her body was outside the room, and she was holding a wireless phone. Neither girl knew how long Melinda had been there.
“Your dad's on the phone.” She handed it to Nadine.
Then she disappeared again. Stella breathed a sigh of relief. Melinda had obviously not heard anything significant, or else she would have called them up on their planned deception.
As Nadine spoke to her parents, starting with relaying the news of her fantastic Foundation results to her father, Stella walked into the en-suite bathroom. When she emerged a few minutes later, she had changed her clothes, and Nadine silently nodded, giving her friend the thumbs up. Stella smiled. She trusted Nadine’s judgement in many areas, including fashion. She could hardly wait to be unleashed on Oxford Street. It was one of the best things about being in London, in her estimation. While Nadine thought Oxford seemed deserted during the holidays, Stella was of the opinion that the city had the ability to impose a claustrophobic feel on a person.
The beauty and diversity of London notwithstanding, Stella and Nadine were keen to expand their geographical knowledge of England, beyond what they had gleaned in reading material and through BBC news. Bristol was as far as they both wanted to go, without compromising all the other things that were important to them. They would both be attending university in Bristol – Stella was going to study Business Enterprise at the Bristol Business School of the University of the West of England, and Nadine had bagged one of the few coveted places on the four-year Joint Honours LLB Law and French degree programme at the University of Bristol.
Life had been a blast since their friendship began, nearly a year ago. Both girls had done all kinds of things together – from going shopping, to having their first illegal, alcoholic drink. Smoking their first fag – Nadine hated it, but Stella smoked now and then. Gaining entry into nightclubs, where the entry age was supposed to be 18. Travelling to Blackpool – without the knowledge, or permission of any of their parents – to attend a come-back concert, put on by a reforming band. Majority of the audience at the concert, appeared to be stoned, actually. There was no doubt in Stella’s mind, that the good times were set to continue.