School friends

When I was at boarding school, I had two best friends, Stacey and Beverley. Stacey had red hair and was rather stout, but Beverley was skinny and had long blond hair, which she swished around a lot. My boarding school was in the Midlands but as I lived in London, I didn’t see my parents very much during term time. They usually managed to take me out for one weekend during term, which used to be a real treat. They usually stayed in the local hotel and always treated me to a slap-up dinner. One weekend, they even brought our two whippets, Honey and Sophie, but unfortunately the dogs managed to get into a private field and chased a sheep. The farmer was furious and wanted to shoot our pets on the spot, which would have made me very sad, but Mum and Dad talked them out of it, I don’t know how. My parents said they would never live in the country, as you couldn't take your dogs for a walk without somebody threatening to kill them.

Unfortunately, Mum and Dad were unable to take me out often, as it was inconvenient for them. It was a long drive up from London, so I had to rely on my friends to take me out on exiats, which was no hardship. Beverley lived next door to the Morgan car family, and if only I had been interested in cars then, I would have been impressed to see the handsome young Morgan heir tinkering underneath his Morgan sports car. She also used to live in Stratford, and knew everyone when we went for walks through the town, and that included the Shakespearean actors, which I found terribly exciting even though Beverley didn’t seem to think so. She just swished her long hair and furiously chewed gum. Stacey’s parents were ‘nouveau riche' as Mum described them, but I had no idea what it meant as they had an indoor swimming pool and always took us out to expensive restaurants.

My other best friend at school was an American girl called Laurel. She lived with her parents and older brother in Knightsbridge. In the holidays, I once stayed at her family’s penthouse flat which was really glamorous, especially as her brother was dating a pop singer called Twinkle. Her mum even took us out to Harrods for lunch, and I had a Knickerbocker Glory, my favourite meal in those days. It was a bit embarrassing though, because when I invited Laurel back to stay at our house, I was desperate to give her a good time. But, David, the ‘clever dick’ round the corner refused to invite us to his fifteenth birthday party. He said we were too young , even though we were only one year younger than him. I suspect Laurel got rather fed up with walking round Regents Park and feeding the ducks with Mum’s stale Cordon Bleu chicken pie. After all, she used to walk round her local Hyde Park a lot. Also, Mum and Dad didn’t take us out to a restaurant, but made us eat Mum’s French muck at home. Laurel must have been bored stiff staying at my place, as she never invited me to stay in Knightsbridge again, and even stopped sitting next to me in Maths at school.

Copyright: Frances Lynn, 2006