#1: Just another day without you Author: pim, Location: Helmel HampsterPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 11:32 am What happens when I get bored at work... and songs stuck in my head *adopts innocent expression*
Len Maynard stood outside Freudesheim for the last time until the Christmas holidays, her eyes fixed on a spot nowhere in particular. She knew she would miss living in the Bernese Oberland that had been her home since the age of ten. She would miss her family as well, and the Chalet School that had been such a huge part of her life. And then there was Reg.
“Len! Len!”
She smiled as she caught his cry just as her thoughts had turned to him.
“I’m glad I caught you before you left,” he said. “I wanted to give you this.” He held out an envelope to her. “Don’t open it until you get to Oxford, darling.”
Len took the envelope from his outstretched hand and pushed it into her overflowing handbag. Reg gently kissed her cheek and then disappeared.
“Len, come on, it’s time to go!”
She looked up and into her sister Con’s laughing face as she grabbed her by the arm and pulled her over to where the family minibus was waiting.
***
With a sigh, Len Maynard emptied the last of her trunk and looked around the tiny room in St Hilda’s college that she would be calling home for the year. Sinking to her bed she wondered quite how she was going to cope with everything being so different and new. Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of her handbag hanging on the back of her chair and remembered the envelope Reg had pushed into her hand that morning.
A single photograph fluttered from the envelope to the floor and she picked it up, recognising it instantly as one her father had taken of her and Reg that summer. Then, for no reason, she turned it over and on the back was written a list of numbers.
Read them whichever way you like, my darling. Count down the days until we see each other again or count up the days that you have in Oxford.
***
Helena Maynard checked over her tiny room in St Hilda’s for the final time to make sure that she had absolutely everything. It didn’t seem as though three years had passed since her first day but now she was closing the door on her time in Oxford. Her farewells had been said and with a glance at her watch she realised she only had a few minutes to do the one final thing. Carefully she took down the series of nine photographs on her wall, each of her and Reg, one taken every holiday with the number of days in the term scribbled on the back. With a smile she pushed them into her overflowing handbag, checked under her bed one last time and then slipped from her room.
Standing outside the college she glanced up and down the road, straining to catch the first glimpse of a car she knew so well. The grumpy old porter watched her with an air of amusement as she gave a wild shriek as a car pulled up outside.
“Ready to go, darling?” Reg asked, kissing her lightly on the cheek.
Helena nodded. “I just need a hand bringing my trunk down.”
He laughed. “I thought you might.”
“Nothing else you need to do?” he asked as they finished loading her trunk into the car. Helena shook her head. “Sure?”
“Yes. I’m ready to come home now.”
#2: Author: Alison H, Location: ManchesterPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 11:45 am Aah, that's really sweet .
#3: Author: Katie, Location: A Yorkshire lass in LondonPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 11:51 am So sweet! Such a nice idea, too.
#4: Author: Mia, Location: LondonPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 11:52 am Awww that's really luffly!
Thanks Pim
#5: Author: Ally, Location: Jack Maynard's Dressing Room!!Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 11:58 am Vair luffly and shiny pimmy, thank you
#9: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, EnglandPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 1:35 pm Thanks, Pim, for starting this drabble. I'm really enjoying it so far. I look forward to seeing more of Len and Reg!
#10: Author: Róisín, Location: Vancouver for nowPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 1:53 pm Thanks Pim! *swoon for romantic Reg* I myself have never been furnished with photos and countydown things when I go to college
#11: Author: Rosy, Location: Gloucestershire-London-AberystwythPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 5:40 pm Awww.
Bless. That's such a lovely idea. Thankyou Pim
#12: Author: Chalet_school_lover, Location: GloucesterPosted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 7:23 pm Awww Lovely!! How sweet! Very nice idea! Thank you Pim!
#13: Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeriesPosted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 5:03 pm That's so sweet of him!
*feels warm and sparkly inside*
Thank you pimmy
#14: Author: Vikki, Location: Sitting on an iceberg, freezing to death!!!Posted: Wed Nov 23, 2005 7:10 pm That was LOVELY Pim! You should get bored at work more often!!!
#15: Author: Amanda M, Location: WakefieldPosted: Thu Nov 24, 2005 3:54 pm That was lovely.