Confessions of a Teenage Romance
Day 1
It's May 2008; the weather's fairly good for the time of year and everyone is panicking about the exams that are starting next week.
I'm fifteen and cannot wait to be sixteen. Fifteen is such a horrible age to be, stuck in the middle, too young to do most things, although that's never really stopped anyone, but too old to do some things as well. It's an awkward age that I will be glad to see the back of. But before I even start to plan a birthday party I have to get through these exams.
May seems to be an odd day to start a diary or a journal, whatever you want to call it. For now, i'm going to call it Paige. Excuse the pun but it suits this book I think. So here goes.
Dear Paige,
So this is your first entry, you've come a long way really. All the way from some grotty little market in India to rainy old Wales only to be used as a diary. God knows how long you'll take me to finish, I don't even know if I’ll fill all of the pages before I get bored of this. I've never kept a diary before but then, I’ve never felt the need to.
So it's the first of May and all the teachers are going on and on about how we have to really revise now, it's all we're doing in school, revising for our exams, and I understand why, they are really important. I don't expect brilliant grades, especially not in science and maths but as long as I get a C grade it'll be fine. Although a top grade in drama and English would be amazing and textiles. But I’m not even bothered about Spanish and frankly, I don't think my teacher is either. But right now we're just revising and practicing. The Spanish oral and drama practical exams are first, but they don't start until next week, just before leavers day.
It's going to be so odd to think that we only have to come into school for exams and rehearsals and then we're free to lounge about at home for an extra few weeks. Although I’m already roped into stuff so I’m not lounging about all summer. Instead I’m acting and working with the local amateur dramatics. I live in a fairly tourist-y town so the annual summer shows are performed pretty much all the way through the holidays, three plays that differ in genre and what age of audience we get in, it's a massive amount of stress on my part to be acting and working in the costume department while doing my exams but I’ve managed to work it into my coursework. Although everyone's given the scripts for the summer shows and you basically say which ones you want to act in and which ones you'll help out in. I'm a prompt for several others though I will be getting a new script on the night with all the changes when that show comes around.
It's just so hectic right now I don't really have much time to myself anymore, I’m either revising, rehearsing or going through costumes for the summer shows. Today for instance was amazingly hectic.
School seemed to go past in a blur, then it was an hour and a half after school for drama rehearsal and accumulation of our costumes then back home for some revision, tea, a little bit more revision before going to check over the costumes for the summer shows and then coming back before more revision and finally bed.
Well okay, it's more writing in this and then bed. But something quite odd happened today. For the summer shows we're doing Honk, for a young family audience, Anything Goes, for a family audience of a slightly older age and a venture show. I'm only acting in the Venture show because of my exams, being a prompt for Anything Goes and helping out backstage in Honk. It was a rehearsal of the venture show and they'd just done a short rehearsal of Anything Goes and because they didn't need the main character until the time of the venture rehearsal nobody thought anything of it when he didn't turn up, until Anything Goes finished and we were about to start the first number in the venture show, a large number with every actor, singer and dancer on stage. Ellen and Dave were getting everyone into place, Ellen's the director and Dave's her assistant, when Dave asked somebody if they knew where Lloyd was, that's our main guy for Anything Goes, at eighteen it's his last chance at the summer shows before he goes off to the Royal Welsh college to study music and drama so everyone's quite sad to see him go and personally I’m quite good friends with him, I had to measure him for all his costumes this year and some measurements were in awkward places, but we laughed it off and I managed to get the measurements I needed.
He always comes to all of the rehearsals no matter what, so it was odd not to see him there. People tried ringing him but his phone was off. It was then that Ellen received a call from his mother. Someone had gone into him and sent him off the road. He was conscious but had broken two ribs, his right leg in three places and fractured his pelvis. She didn't think that he'd be able to do the shows. Ellen relayed the news to us and we remained in a shocked silence for a good five minutes before Ellen snapped us all out of our reverie, no matter what, the shows must go on.
There would be a quick meeting between the members of the committee to see who would replace our star talent. I was in the committee but didn't really have any clue as to who could fill in Lloyd's shoes. I remained silent and added my opinion of the suggestions but one name I didn't expect to come up was that name.
After a short discussion and much deliberation it was decided. The boy to fill in for Lloyd was going to be Rhys Larren, he'd put himself in the chorus of Anything Goes because they needed as many guys as they could get and was also in the venture show. Then I realised something possibly even worse, Lloyd and I had a duet in the venture show, we were dance partners in most of the dances because I was one of the only people in the whole society that had had dance lessons and could keep up with the more professional choreography. Would Rhys also have to do those parts as well? He was taller than me, we weren't such a bad pairing but he'd been given another girl, what would happen to her as well?
After I raised these points more thought was put into it before it was decided that Rhys would be taking over all of Lloyd's parts if he agreed apart from in Honk because of his exams. They had another boy in mind for Lloyd's part in Honk.
It was decided, if Rhys agreed, I would be singing, acting and dancing with the one boy that I’ve never gotten close to within the society.
The one boy who makes butterflies flutter in my stomach.
The one boy I've ever thought that I could have a relationship with in the whole town
I'm fifteen and cannot wait to be sixteen. Fifteen is such a horrible age to be, stuck in the middle, too young to do most things, although that's never really stopped anyone, but too old to do some things as well. It's an awkward age that I will be glad to see the back of. But before I even start to plan a birthday party I have to get through these exams.
May seems to be an odd day to start a diary or a journal, whatever you want to call it. For now, i'm going to call it Paige. Excuse the pun but it suits this book I think. So here goes.
Dear Paige,
So this is your first entry, you've come a long way really. All the way from some grotty little market in India to rainy old Wales only to be used as a diary. God knows how long you'll take me to finish, I don't even know if I’ll fill all of the pages before I get bored of this. I've never kept a diary before but then, I’ve never felt the need to.
So it's the first of May and all the teachers are going on and on about how we have to really revise now, it's all we're doing in school, revising for our exams, and I understand why, they are really important. I don't expect brilliant grades, especially not in science and maths but as long as I get a C grade it'll be fine. Although a top grade in drama and English would be amazing and textiles. But I’m not even bothered about Spanish and frankly, I don't think my teacher is either. But right now we're just revising and practicing. The Spanish oral and drama practical exams are first, but they don't start until next week, just before leavers day.
It's going to be so odd to think that we only have to come into school for exams and rehearsals and then we're free to lounge about at home for an extra few weeks. Although I’m already roped into stuff so I’m not lounging about all summer. Instead I’m acting and working with the local amateur dramatics. I live in a fairly tourist-y town so the annual summer shows are performed pretty much all the way through the holidays, three plays that differ in genre and what age of audience we get in, it's a massive amount of stress on my part to be acting and working in the costume department while doing my exams but I’ve managed to work it into my coursework. Although everyone's given the scripts for the summer shows and you basically say which ones you want to act in and which ones you'll help out in. I'm a prompt for several others though I will be getting a new script on the night with all the changes when that show comes around.
It's just so hectic right now I don't really have much time to myself anymore, I’m either revising, rehearsing or going through costumes for the summer shows. Today for instance was amazingly hectic.
School seemed to go past in a blur, then it was an hour and a half after school for drama rehearsal and accumulation of our costumes then back home for some revision, tea, a little bit more revision before going to check over the costumes for the summer shows and then coming back before more revision and finally bed.
Well okay, it's more writing in this and then bed. But something quite odd happened today. For the summer shows we're doing Honk, for a young family audience, Anything Goes, for a family audience of a slightly older age and a venture show. I'm only acting in the Venture show because of my exams, being a prompt for Anything Goes and helping out backstage in Honk. It was a rehearsal of the venture show and they'd just done a short rehearsal of Anything Goes and because they didn't need the main character until the time of the venture rehearsal nobody thought anything of it when he didn't turn up, until Anything Goes finished and we were about to start the first number in the venture show, a large number with every actor, singer and dancer on stage. Ellen and Dave were getting everyone into place, Ellen's the director and Dave's her assistant, when Dave asked somebody if they knew where Lloyd was, that's our main guy for Anything Goes, at eighteen it's his last chance at the summer shows before he goes off to the Royal Welsh college to study music and drama so everyone's quite sad to see him go and personally I’m quite good friends with him, I had to measure him for all his costumes this year and some measurements were in awkward places, but we laughed it off and I managed to get the measurements I needed.
He always comes to all of the rehearsals no matter what, so it was odd not to see him there. People tried ringing him but his phone was off. It was then that Ellen received a call from his mother. Someone had gone into him and sent him off the road. He was conscious but had broken two ribs, his right leg in three places and fractured his pelvis. She didn't think that he'd be able to do the shows. Ellen relayed the news to us and we remained in a shocked silence for a good five minutes before Ellen snapped us all out of our reverie, no matter what, the shows must go on.
There would be a quick meeting between the members of the committee to see who would replace our star talent. I was in the committee but didn't really have any clue as to who could fill in Lloyd's shoes. I remained silent and added my opinion of the suggestions but one name I didn't expect to come up was that name.
After a short discussion and much deliberation it was decided. The boy to fill in for Lloyd was going to be Rhys Larren, he'd put himself in the chorus of Anything Goes because they needed as many guys as they could get and was also in the venture show. Then I realised something possibly even worse, Lloyd and I had a duet in the venture show, we were dance partners in most of the dances because I was one of the only people in the whole society that had had dance lessons and could keep up with the more professional choreography. Would Rhys also have to do those parts as well? He was taller than me, we weren't such a bad pairing but he'd been given another girl, what would happen to her as well?
After I raised these points more thought was put into it before it was decided that Rhys would be taking over all of Lloyd's parts if he agreed apart from in Honk because of his exams. They had another boy in mind for Lloyd's part in Honk.
It was decided, if Rhys agreed, I would be singing, acting and dancing with the one boy that I’ve never gotten close to within the society.
The one boy who makes butterflies flutter in my stomach.
The one boy I've ever thought that I could have a relationship with in the whole town