No-one on MSN

So I have nothing more interesting to do than write on this - no offence. I also have time which is a miracle.

So, I am now 19. Had an awesome birthday. I got a Mr. Flibble, a Terry Pratchett calender, DVDs, a bag of change, a book by Rob Grant and a lot of money.

Had three nights out. Writers, Terry Pratchett and the Forensic Biologists. They were all totally awesome. I'm not going to go into it much, cause it's too much to talk about. Did go see Avatar 3D last night. It was a pretty awesome film! Loved it! :D

I'm getting distracted by the news here; something on about drugs.

I'm waiting for Have I Got News For You? to come on. Was wanting to see Live at the Apollo but my mum was watching Victorian Farm and my sister was out. It has been taped, though. As has Wednesday's Never Mind the Buzzcocks presented by DAVID TENNANT! :D

Speaking of him, David Tennant is in Hamlet which will be on BBC1 on Boxing Day at 5:05 pm. So want to see it! But I think my gran is coming over or I'm going to hers.

Anyways, I have nothing else to add, except I am gutted I have to do an essay over the holidays! :(

Going to totally ignore the work I have to do tomorrow and write stories for the sheer hell of it. Actually, need to text Lisa to arrange a meeting tomorrow so I can give her her present and card! :)

Bill Bailey on Have I Got News For You! :D

Just... Everything

I feel like I never get a moment's peace around here! If it's not one thing it's another!

As you could probably tell, what with Fusion, Writers, the Guild and Beavers plus all then coursework I should probably do instead of being on this, I haven't had much time to "blog". Mainly cause I "blog" on Bebo. But also cause, when I do get on the computer I end up on Facebook doing things for the Guild. Unnecessary they may be, but I like to make sure everyone is updated.

Although, I do e-mail them, so...

Ah, yes. I have Facebook. I blame Tom. I only created a page so I could create a page for the Guild and I have ended up on there more than Bebo. Which is actually rather more slow seeing as everyone concentrates on Facebook.

In fact, only a few hours ago did someone point out that I should put pictures up on Bebo. And I really should. I mean, I do have a camera and, crappy though it may be, my mum and dad payed for it and so I should use it. It's just a question of batteries and uploading the pictures I have on it to the computer.

God, I am tired! I think my sleep equalled close to nil last night. I don't know why. I just feel worse than usual. Maybe it was the running around last night.

There was a reason for this. I didn't want the money. I could explain or fall asleep at this point, but, seeing as I am not quite sure if I should be in here any more, I'll do the explanation.

I bought a muffin last night in the Union. As I unwrapped it, Stewart gave an exclamation (I can't remember what of, but he wanted a bit, that's all I remember). So I gave him a bit which he shared with Dave. So I thought, I should share this with everyone else, cause it's not fair if I just give Stewart et al. a bit and only Stewart et al. So I asked people if they wanted any and I split it up, leaving me with the top of it (the best bit!). It was a rather small piece compared to the muffin. Stewart then berated me for giving it away and decided he would give me money to buy another one. I started dodging him by walking round and round the pool table. (Incidentally, by the way, I never got to finish that muffin, cause, as I walked past Tom, he held out his hand as if he wanted something, so I automatically gave him it. Damn my generosity!)

Running away from Stewart was necessary as he began to catch me up so I ran off to the girls' toilet. He followed me and tried to get Hazel to give me it, but she walked past me without giving it to me. I waited till Stewart was sitting, looking the other way outside the toilet and then ran back to the table. He didn't follow and later he and Pete walked back with a muffin and tried to force it on me. I dodged out of it again. Then Pete told me it was a very, very belated 18th birthday present.

So I took the muffin and ate it.

I should go get something to eat, actually: it might wake me up a bit.

And the only reason I am in uni in the first place is for a damned tutorial you could do at home! Not happy. But I used this extra hour to do nothing and sort my presentation out - a bit. Really do not want to do it. The presentation looks awful and I need to figure out what I'm saying. And I need to look at people! Awooga, awooga! OK, so I do look at people, but not people I don't know. And I don't know my class yet. Well, most of them. I need to wait till the week after the presentation to do that.

You see, the Forensic Biologists are organising a Christmas night out on the 17th. We're gonna go to Frankenstein's and then the Garage. The night before this will be the Guild's night in, as we'll be in the Union dressed up (yes, Tom: dressed up!), playing pool. And the night before that will be the Writers night out... somewhere... So a whole week of staying at Hazel's cause she said I could! Which is lucky, cause then I can stay out later and get up later.

But that fun week is the week after I need to get all my work in. Get this: I have a Microbiology Assessment for BM204 to be handed in on Monday which we got told what we're doing yesterday; a Web Exam for BM201 (agh!) the day after my birthday (grr...); oral presentations the day after that, mine sometime between then and the Friday; and on the Friday I've got a Genetics Assignment to hand in for BM203.

Luckily, the stuff for BM204 and BM203 don't look that hard. I think...

Anyways, some class is coming in (in 2 minutes for a couple of hours apparently) and I should really get out of the way. And I need food...

(Happy now, Tom?)

At the weekend....

So at the weekend I went to a camp with the Cubs and Scouts. I didn't want to go cause I thought the kids would annoy me and my wee sister never does anything I say. However, I had to go cause I was getting the first part of my adult training at this camp.

(The following is an extract from my blog on Bebo cause I am being lazy...)

It was actually pretty fun. Friday night we had hot dogs when we got there. Then all the kids went out and played "hidey" in the dark. Of course, the Scouts slept in tents, so they had to put them up first. You should have seen the stars! It was beautiful! I don't think I've ever seen so many stars.

On Saturday, the Scouts went for a hike up a hill while the Cubs stayed behind and made paper boats. At first they didn't work and a couple of them disappeared. Then, the only one to stay upright second time round was Ian's.

Then they got some "Hot Shots" planes before preparing for the puppet show they were planning to do.

The puppet show was about "Dodgy Sheep", a sheep which continously dies in various ways. They then went on to tell horror stories. My dad (Scout Leader) then told them about the Grey Men of the Mist which scared the hell out of them. Iain (another leader) opened the curtains to show them a hand... which was my dad's, but you should have heard the screams!

Afterwards, a couple of Scouts had to fill up the buckets from the burn (for flushing the toilets) and Iain decided to scare them. One of them saw a movement and freaked out, announcing "It's happening!" We had a bit of a laugh about that!

I've decided I would love to take my friends there for a weekend. I just have doubts they will want to come...

Got a show to do tomorrow morning for Fusion from half 9. I should have asked for a later time. Too late now.

On Wednesday, it's the Freshers Fair and I have to do a stall for the Guild of Fanatical Terry Pratchett Fans. I'm worrying about it and I hope it goes well.

I've got another show on Thursday morning but with Hazel. Should be fun. Will probably be cold as both times we will be outside.

Looking forward to all of it (although not so much, the Freshers' Fair). Especially looking forward to going back to uni. It'll give me something to do.

This is Confusing

So I've just been in SPIDER where the new timetables are now up. You can apparently print it off as well. Well, I say apparently but I have a copy sitting next to me right now.

I'm a bit worried about it with regards to the Monday which is when my new radio show should be. Unfortunately, we already knew we would be having to forfeit the radio show one Monday due to some sort of thing which would be only one week. However, on this timetable it says in black-and-white the following:

BM204 R443-9

Practical Bio & Skills Dev

(Wk 8 - Refectory)

So I'm now worried that it means that we will have our labs on Monday just to spite me or if they mean just that week. What's even worse is, the hour beforehand, it says:

BM204 Col 330

Wks 4 - 7 & 11 - 12

Seeing as the next three hours have the same class (with the actual title, though), I'm worried this is when my labs will be. Which means we need to change it. Which is a bit of a problem....

Hang about; just looking at this has made me realise that on a Tuesday, from 14.00 till 17.00 there is the same class. Oh, my God, relief!

I suppose I just hope that I either get assigned the Tuesday or that I can change it...

Would being on a radio show be a good excuse to change it do you think, or will I have to lie and say I'm busy and not specify what...

This timetable makes a lot more sense if you stare at it worried for a while... That 1 o'clock thing for BM204 must be the lectures we are apparently getting this time round...

Wait this timetable says we have a class test for BM201 on Week 5 instead of Week 6. God, I'd wish they'd make their minds up.

Can't wait to find out what Forensic Natural History and Microscopy will be like! I'm getting rather excited about going back. And about next week: Freshers' Week!

The only time I don't get excited is if I think about the Guild of Fanatical Terry Pratchett Fans. Particularly since Tom doesn't seem to have finished the poster (which isn't his fault I suppose) and I'm beginning to panic about that. And about what I will say to people on the day. And, if there is an afterwards, what the hell we will actually do. And what bloody night it will be, seeing as tom can't make up his mind when he wants to do it. OK, that's an injustice; he only said he didn't think he'd be able to make it on a Thursday.

Wanted to record an advert for it today but I didn't know what day it'll be. Hazel suggested calling him. I did but he didn't answer. So the mystery continues...

Moving On...

Well, now that I have a timetable written out on paper, with a pen (in a mess - I managed to miss out "12-13". How I managed that, I don't know...), I have been able to discuss with Hazel when exactly we should have our radio show.

Which reminds me... about the Bebo page...

So we discussed the best time to have our show, so we asked for Monday afternoon for two hours. And we got it: two till four. I now need to tell her how to get onto the Bebo page so that she can help me out with that...

Recording the adverts was fun. Although I may have laughed too much. I don't think acting would be a wise career move.

More of the same tomorrow morning.

Speaking of Bebo pages, I was practically forced to start a Facebook page for The Guild of Fanatical Terry Pratchett Fans. There is now a profile for me and a group for is. I can hardly work the thing.

But now is not the time to complain: my gran is here to visit...

Hey, Lookie Here!

Dave helped me find my timetables last night although, apparently, they'll be on SPIDER on the next week. I should have just e-mailed my Advisor of Studies in the first place!

Anyways, I have absolutely no 9 o'clock starts in Semester 1! Apart from one Friday when I have a tutorial which lasts two hours. I am so pleased!

No getting up at half 6. No needing to sit hungry on the train. No buying my breakfast at the Union. No being extremely tired and falling asleep in lectures.

Semester 2 is another story, though. I haven't really looked, but my mum noticed that there are 9 o'clock starts - on a Monday... Nooooo! However, I only have four different classes, one of them being labs and a couple of lectures for Practical Bioscience and Development. Or whatever it's called.

I'm all excited to go back - I can't wait! My first Forensic lecture will be on the Wednesday we go back! Yay!

The only downside is that my first lecture of second year is Bio-Organic Chemistry. And I think we're getting the same guy we got for first year organic chemistry again...

Cue Hangman. I've got a few new things to do, but it's been that long that I can now do the same ones again.

I've had a thought: playing Hangman and writing notes to Hazel is the naughtiest I've ever been in education. I would never have done that in school! In fact, the only punishment I ever had to do was in Primary School. I got a Red Dot for forgetting my gym kit. And I only forgot it the once.

In fact, my Higher Chemistry teacher said it was scary teaching me and Lisa cause we never spoke. That's cause I understood most of it and I didn't need to ask a question. Oh, and he managed to spot me doodling on my school diary...

If the belt had still been in use when I was in school, I wouldn't have got it once.

My dad got it once, though. His teacher thought he was speaking when it was the boy next to him. My mum was like me; never got the belt in her life.

Speaking of my mum, I found out something a few weeks ago which mortified my wee sister and inspired me. Apparently my mum used to wear a cap with those fluffy things for sticking to windows attached to it. Do you know what I mean by "those fluffy things"? Cause I'm not sure I've explained myself right. I have no idea what they're actually called. I thought that was an awesome idea and I now want one. Just like I want Rimmer's hat from Season 3!

When in Rome...

Or Coatbridge, at least.

On Friday, the Beavers seemed to enjoy the experiments I had them do. The one with the celery changing colour if you put it in water plus dye. And I did one which was meant to demonstrate forces by making a balloon rocket.

When my wee cousins turned up to pick up my wee cousin who's a Scout, the youngest one (three) did an impersonation of Lister by doing the Rimmer salute before hitting himself (lightly) on the head and saying, "Ow."

The party last night was fun - even though only three people was there.

I had to teach Stewart and Dave how to play Trumps and Chase the Lady. I couldn't believe they didn't know how to play them! I mean, I've been playing them since I was tiny! With my mum, dad and wee sister when we went on our camping holidays. I miss them. The sound of rain on canvas as you sit inside, warm, playing cards or reading a book... The fun we had at Aberdeen and Inverness and other places... The butteries!

Ah, well, sometimes the Romans don't know things...

Outrage!

They have painted the TARDIS black and gold!

Well, the one in Buchannan Street, anyway. It's awful. It looked so much like the TARDIS and also sold food but now it does neither; I'm quite upset. Even though I never bought anything from it.

There are other ones in Glasgow, but I can't remember where exactly they are.

But there is a Master's TARDIS across from the Barony Hall. So that slightly makes up for it.

Went to see District 9 last night. I won't spoil it for you, but it's actually pretty good. And a good style of telling the story as well!

Had to stay over at Hazel's last night on account of not being able to get any trains home at half 11 at night. When we got back, however (Dave was with us), we ended up watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the film). It. Was. Awesome! Takes you way back to when you were a kid... Doesn't seem so long ago for me, though!

Oh, found out that I have not done anything interesting over the holidays since Skye. I already knew this, but apparently Joe, Stewart and Dave haven't had it any more interesting as we struggled to think of things to say about what we did.

Then we got onto the topic of Red Dwarf and Being Human and we were home and dry!

Actually, speaking of Red Dwarf, my wee cousin (aged 5) did this very cute thing on Friday when he came to pick up his brother from Scouts. He did the Rimmer salute. It was so cute! I saluted him back, of course, as is only proper.

Lots of things to say

So I went to Skye. It was lovely. Lovely views, lovely peace and quiet and lovely food.

We went up the Quairaing. It was a relatively easy walk which surprised me - I thought I would be exhausted by the time I got to the top. When we did get to the top it had an amazing view. Howevre, it was rather like a cliff-edge and rather windy, so I didn't get too near the edge.

We went to the south of Skye this time, going to a beach. There was a bit of a walk in, but it was a nice enough day. However, the frisbee we had bought that day was lost to the sea, thanks to Rachel's inability to swim for it! Later, our missile, toy thing broke apart and when we took that to Staffin Bay we ended up losing the main body of it to the sea. Rachel could have got it if it wasn't for the fact that she wanted to keep her legs dry. She had shorter shorts and could have got in further to retrieve this thing, whereas, when I tried, I got so far before realising I was going to get my own shorts totally soaked. And it was still out of my reach.

We went to the Caledonian Hotel's Café for dinner once and I got half a roast chicken with honey and mustard sauce. It was the most delicious thing I have ever tasted! Aside from my mum's lasagne (which we're having tonight for dinner, coincidentally).

My wee sister's birthday has come and gone. That's her fourteen now! It's rather shocking that we're all growing up so fast... I still feel like I'm about eight years old. And I act it, to tell you the truth!

She got a joint laptop for her birthday, meaning it's mine as well. The downside is that we don't have the internet sorted on it yet, so she's just been using it to play The Sims 3.

Bagrock got cancelled. Me, Mum, Dad and Rachel were all going to go, as was Dave, who had won a ticket for it at Lanimers. The Red Hot Chilli Pipers were going to be in Castlebank Park, but they didn't have licence and the cancelled decided they couldn't play there. Shame, really - we were all looking forward to it.

I have tried to apply for a Christmas job at Boots in Hamilton. By tried, I mean it's a stupid online apllication for it. However, I gave in my CV at the shop when I went in to look at it. When I tried to apply online, I got redirected to the general jobs apllications, which said that Boots in Hamilton were not looking for jobs.

I cut some of the grass yesterday; Mum did the rest. It was long and wet, so the lawnmower kept on getting jammed, which irritated me. But the worst thing is that I accidentally killed a beetle. I was wearing my mum's Crocs, you see, and somehow it got on it under my heel. I felt something jagging into my heel so I took my foot out of the Croc and swept something black off my sock. When I looked at the Croc, there were the beetle's back legs. I felt quite sorry for it. And all the other insects and arachnids who had set up home in the long grass, undisturbed...

Fusion says it's going to be recording adverts for the radio shows, so I'm going to be quite busy in the weeks leading up to the Freshers' Week. And that in itself has a bit to organise for the Guild of Fanatical Terry Pratchett Fans. And I have Beaver programmes to sort out.

That seems like quite a lot now I think about it... Oh, dear...

Oh, I also managed to finish the next part of the stories featuring Fire Bear, etc.

Ah, another thing, I went to Hazel's Movie Day, which wasn't as scary as I had been expecting it. Just rather gruesome.

And me and Lisa went to see A Perfect Getaway. It has a clever twist to it which I did not see coming!

And I've started watching something called Being Human. It's about a vampire, a werewolf and a ghost living together in the same house. It's amazing. I believe it is better than Twilight. Mainly 'cause the vampire and the werewolf get along quite well.

It has Russell Tovey in it who was in Doctor Who (I knew I'd seen him somewhere before!). He was Midshipman Frame in Voyage of the Damned. Or, "Alons-y Alonso", if you'd prefer...

Lenora Crichlow is in it too. She was in Doctor Who as well, as Cheen in Gridlock.

And Aidan Turner is Mitchell and he's Irish! The most awesome accent in the world. Well, maybe...

Back from holiday!

It was great fun.

I got to use my camcorder. I have a cracking bit in the video where my wee cousin dances like Michael Jackson. Hilarious.

It was my wee cousins birthday on the Tuesday. He was three. He's very cute and rather excited by his presents, particularly the sand table. And the crazy golf.

We went to Port Logan on the Thursday. It was flaming freezing! At a beach in the cold...

That night we went for the delayed meal in celebration of Stewart's three years of living. It was lovely. The only real problem was that my gran decided she wasn't coming. She went into a huff when she tried to give Jacob and Stewart a row and my aunt sighed. She'd already given them a row.

My gran has dementia.

It's not nice.

We went to the pub three nights that week. The first night we were down "Ballieston Billy" kept on buying me drinks, even though I was fed up with it and didn't want any more alcohol. Aunty Hazel ended up drinking it for me. Even she, not in the mood for dark rum that night, ended up pouring hers into my grandpa's glass.

On the Friday night, I tried my first cocktail: Fat Frogs. They were really nice. But I was glad I was not as drunk as Jon (my aunt's fianceé). It was quite funny. Especially when, the next night in the pub, he asked me the same question.

That Saturday, there was music provided by Jim and Meryle, who were local farmers who sang. It was OK, but I didn't know most of the songs. Even more so with the fact that they were slow songs. Dancing couples.

I tried the Crazy Vimtos that night. Not as good as the Fat Frogs.

I think I have drunk more alcohol in that week than in a month of going to uni!

Joanne came down on the Tuesday. She seemed to be in a wee world of her own. And she was slower than me at getting ready. And that is saying something! I've always been the slowest.

Rachel said that when Joanne came in muddy and was told to get changed, she stood on her bed to get her suitcase out - with her muddy shoes on...

Learned something new about members of my family too. Such as how my mum got my gran and grandpa to marry. (My grandpa is not my biological grandpa - he's a step-grandpa. And my Aunty Hazel is a half-aunt, etc.) She popped up behind the couch while they were watching TV one day and asked him if he was going to marry my gran cause everyone else had a daddy in her class. Aww... sweet!

Then I found out that my Uncle Martin became distant from our family cause he didn't like my dad. Very stupid of him.

Also found out that Mairaed was a right little madam. (Right enough, I kinda already knew this.) When Kirsty had her electronic baby home, Mairaed pushed back the head to "break its neck" deliberately cause she knew it would be recorded. And at that time poor Kirsty had no form to fill in to tell the teachers why this had happened.

She sounds really vicious, doesn't she. Right little bossy boots, an' all.

I seem to get bossed about by younger folk a lot... and older folk, for that matter...

It's raining

... and I hate it.

I don't mind it when it rains during the day, right enough. It's just the fact it rains during the night and the water comes through the very, very small hole in the roof and dripping onto my bed. Creating wet patches.

Saturday night, I got woken up by the dripping. So deciding to be clever about this I went to get some kitchen roll. You see, I've already used kitchen roll to save myself from nights on the too small for anyone couch, and it's worked quite well, considering it's not actually stuck on the bit of wood. (There's a hole where dad found the drip and put his hand through it. It was rather damp and the ceiling came away. It was originally found to be above Rachel's top bunk. Which is strange. She's been getting really annoying lately ever since watching a whole load of Red Dwarf, so I've christened her Lister. She even cracks her knuckles. Particularly in the middle of the night. So there was Lister on the top and Rimmer on the bottom. Now we've changed the beds so there's no bunks and I am directly under the damn drip.)

Actually, I blame everyone who talked about Red Dwarf so much from the Writers and who wore damn Ace Rimmer t-shirts for turning Rachel into an annoying... grr!

Anyways, the drip had kind of stopped but then it started up again in a slightly different place.

Smart little me decided to stick the kitchen roll up with cellotape. It worked for a few seconds till it fell down. And it was totally soaked, so I binned that bit and went and got some more, waking up Lister - sorry, Rachel - in the process.

This didn't last long; it got soaked through. So I just got a basin and tried to sleep on my bed with a basin next to me.

Of course the noise managed to keep me awake. *Drip - drip - drip.*

Finally the rain, and thus the dripping, stopped and I could take the basin off my bed and go back to tossing and turning.

As the birds started their early morning sing-song...

Things Have Been Happening away from the world of Red Dwarf!

We did the rest of the Clyde Walkway from the Garrion Bridge to Hamilton.

It was rather fun; I got to watch Rachel and dad fighting with each other, while I got left alone! Result! (By fighting, I mean carrying on.)

We had to pass through a field at one point which contained cows, calves - and bulls. Rachel was terrified - she kept on jumping a mile whenever a cow mooed. She wouldn't let us speak either, incase the noise made the cows charge at us! It was quite funny!

We went to lunch at Frankie and Benny's. I had those gigantic meatballs again! I managed to eat it all this time.

Going back a bit, me and my wee sister tried to go see Year One in Glasgow on Thursday, but had to give it a pass cause it was going to take forever till the next showing.

I was also invited twice to go to Burger Thursday, whcih I thought wouldn't be happening since we're on holiday. Although I was still in Glasgow at this point, I couldn't be assed, to cut a long story short. Also, I thought it would be kinda harsh to leave my sister in the middle of Glasgow, saying, "I'm away to the pub, bye!" and leaving her to find her own way to Glasgow Central.

That's about it. The rest of my days has been spent watching Red Dwarf and the extras of Red Dwarf. Now I'm away to watch the rest of "Blue".

A Red Heron

It wasn't really red, but I thought it would be a good title for a post.

Heron's are black and white.

Anyway, me and my sister went along the Clyde Walkway today, starting from my house. We intended to go all the way to Hamilton, but we gave up at the Garrion Bridge. We managed to catch a bus back; which was lucky!

We managed to frighten a heron as we walked along, what with our rustling of the grass. It took off and flew upriver, out of the way of danger. It was a pretty impressive sight!

At Crossford, we came across a huge spider. My wee sister was stepping over it when she noticed it. She is very scared of them. She gave a skip and a scream and scared the hell out of me. When I looked for the spider, I thought, that looks rather plasticky. So I bravely touched it with my foot. It moved. Rachel nearly jumped out of her skin!

"It's plastic," I said. "It only moved cause I moved it with my foot."

That was the funniest thing ever!

Can't wait till Thursday - more Red Dwarf will be bought!

You should see my Bebo page... I have eventually changed the skin...

Party time!

It's not really a party, but I do have a box of alcohol I haven't opened yet. 24 bottles of Blue WKD in a box. I don't quite know why I presauded my parents to buy it from Costco.

I got my results for my exams in. I passed them all, even one I was exempt from. Odd really. The other odd thing was that I got 45% in Physics in the Open Air - and I still passed. I thought you had to get 50% to pass in these uni exams. I was obviously wrong.

My wee sister is at her last day of school just now. She phoned Mum and asked if she could dog a class, cause no-one else was going and she'd be "nigel-ed". I don't know why she's complaining, she's only got one hour and twenty minutes to go.

Then we can have lunch. In the Woodpecker. Mum's started this thing where we go to the Woodpecker for a cheap three course meal at the end of every term. It's a tradition, apparently. Since last year.

Just like it's apparently tradition to go to China Sea at Christmas time. Which I was unaware of till I had missed it, thanks to Hazel's party I went to.

Things I have done from my to do list

1. I "fixed" my CV.
2. I printed off ten copies, but one was used by me in an attempt to usher a buzzing bee out of the room and it got a bit crushed. I wasn't very successful; I would jab at the bee then run away before it had moved. I must have screamed more than I have done in my entire life. My dad eventually had to come and save us.
3. I did go on the WiiFit. On Monday and Tuesday. And I walked up and down the brae yesterday. My legs were in agony. I tried to do the push-up and thingy rep; I can't do push-ups, so I was more falling over than exercising. But I still managed to get more points than Rachel...
4. I did begin to figure out some kind of programme for the Beavers; not done very much of it, though.
5. I went "job-hunting". Kind of. Lisa had told me about a job going in Peacocks. It's for four hours in the weekend. I only went there for a job, cause I had a list of things to buy for my mum, and I thought I'd better do that and get the stuff down the road.
6. I haven't actually started panicking about re-sitting an exam yet, cause the results aren't up on PEGASUS yet and this is annoying me more and more, shoving any panicky thoughts out of my head. Also, I've been watching a lot of Red Dwarf and I think it's fried my worrying parts of my brain.
7. I have completely forgotten about the other club; I have had other things to think about and it's driven all thoughts of it out of my head.

Other Things I have to do

• Phone SAAS and find out how to do this stupid application thing. There is no option for what I need to get (apparently) and I have no idea what to do. I e-mailed them but those smegheads haven't replied yet. Even though it's been more than 15 working days.
• I am definitely too much Red Dwarf.
• I should probably write more stories.

So I have 7 things to do during the holiday. And after that, I will have nothing to do for weeks on end. It will probably be a good idea to read some of the backlog of books I have yet to read.

The End of the Beginning

The wall of pain hit Rick so suddenly that he nearly passed out from the shock alone. He had never felt anything like it; he had been quite fortunate in his life to not have any major injuries.
He fell to the ground, his ineffective ice receding back to his hand. He heard Angie scream hazily as though she was screaming into a pillow at the other end of the street.
Rick couldn’t quite believe he had been shot; he couldn’t quite believe he was going to die. He looked down at his shirt. It was soaked in blood. He remembered the letter. He really wished he had the strength to read it. He could feel his life flowing out of him.
He closed his eyes, welcoming the darkness.
Rick died.

***

Angie screamed.
“Oh my God! They’ve killed Rick!” she shouted at Roger who was white with shock. Today, he thought, is not going well. He tuned back to the present in time to hear Angie’s shriek of desperation.
“Go back in time and stop him from being killed!” She was near to tears, wringing her hands and looking at Roger.
“I can’t!” gasped Roger. “Something terrible might happen if I see myself!”
Ignoring the men with guns who were hurrying towards them, Angie strode towards Roger and slapped him. Then she began to kick and punch him while shouting at him to do something.
But Roger had seen the men coming. He pushed Angie away and tried to lift Kitty. But he wasn’t strong enough. He had never been strong enough.
He had to drag her instead.
A shocked and grieving Angie grabbed Rick by the shoulders and dragged him away.
Roger stopped out of sight of the corner, behind a low wall of someone’s spotless garden. There was a pond surrounded by different gnomes.
Roger placed Kitty gently down on the well-kept lawn before running back to help Angie with Rick’s body. When he thought of Rick like this, he nearly let loose a sob. However, Angie looked as though she was on the brink of tears and even as though she might faint, so he swallowed it and helped her place Rick beside Kitty.
Angie looked at Rick and Kitty. “Oh, what are we going to do, Roger?” she wailed.
Suddenly, the sound of boots coming closer put a stop to Angie’s grief and anguish. Roger grabbed her and pulled her to the ground. He put his hand over her mouth and he held his breath. They both went utterly still.
The footsteps came closer. They sounded in front of them before becoming quieter. Angie made to get up, but Roger held her down.
A light swept the lawn. Then they heard a voice try to whisper, “They can’t have gone that far. If they’re not in these two gardens, then that kid must have teleported them away.”
“The boss won’t like this,” a second voice replied.
Footsteps approached then two sets of footsteps faded away into the distance.
The two friends stayed absolutely still for a minute before Roger let Angie go. She sat up, white as a sheet and looking terrified.
“Are you ok?” asked Roger as he sat up himself. She nodded, then shook her head and put her head in her hands. She began to sob as silently as she could.
Roger watched her, concerned but not knowing what to do.
Behind him someone gave a gasp.
Roger spun round in fright, though his brain was already telling him that it was probably Kitty.
He watched in complete shock as the gasp became a cough.
“Angie…” he whispered. “You have to see this.”
Angie looked up through her tears and gasped.
“Rick!” she exclaimed.
Rick was coughing and spluttering. Suddenly, he leaned sideways and threw up. When he finally looked up at his surroundings, he was surprised to see them in a garden. He saw Roger and Angie and smiled at them. They knelt there with their mouths open in shock.
“How did you- How did you- How did you do that!” stuttered Angie in surprise.
Rick looked around again. Then he shrugged. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “Maybe I have more than one power like Kitty has! Where is Kitty, anyhow?”
“You knocked her out!” hissed Roger, trying to keep his voice down. “She’s over there.” He gestured at Kitty’s motionless body.
“Do you think she’ll be alright?” asked Angie, beginning to wring her hands with worry.
“I don’t know,” sighed Roger. “Why don’t you pray for her?”
Angie looked at him blankly for a moment before putting her hands together. “Dear Father. Please help Kitty…”


***

Kitty woke up.
She immediately realised that she had been sitting up when she had fallen asleep; her neck was extremely sore and her head was hanging.
She groaned as she lifted her head and opened her eyes. She was expecting to be on her couch in front of the TV where she had probably fallen asleep. She was expecting to find that her adventure had all been a dream. A nightmare.
But that is not what she found.
She was in a room with brown walls and no other features bar the chair she was sitting on. It was dimly lit by a hanging bulb.
She tried to stand up and found she was actually tied to the chair. When she looked down, she saw that it was the classic rope and wooden chair combo. She was slightly reassured by this fact.
“Hello!” Kitty called out. “Any particular reason why I’m here?”
A door opened. A man stepped into the room.
He was balding and wearing a fading suit. His eyes were dark and narrowed, squinting in the dull light. His hands were slightly occupied by the black gloves he was putting on.
“Ah,” he said, softly. “You have rejoined us at last!”
Kitty felt a shiver of fear down her spine as he spoke. This man was evil, she thought. He could kill me. I have to be really, really careful.
“What do you want from me?” Kitty bravely asked.
“We want you to tell us where your little friends are going,” he replied, his evil expression not changing.
“No way!” exclaimed Kitty. “I would never give up their hiding place! Not even if you were to torture me!”
Straight away, Kitty knew she had said the wrong thing. When you’re dealing with someone as evil-looking as this guy, he could be capable of anything, even torture. Besides the fact that she had read too many books and watched too many films to know it was not a good idea to claim this fact to anyone who has gone slightly psycho.
The man grinned. He flexed his fingers. He swung his arm back as Kitty watched, alarmed and frightened.
He hit her.
It was a back-hander and she had never felt pain quite like it. She could taste something like iron in her mouth and knew she was bleeding. She could feel tears in her eyes but she didn’t want to show this man her pain. She bit back the tears.
Kitty turned to the guy, her hair covering her face, anger written across her hidden visage. “I will never tell you what you want to know. You will never find them. Kill me if you want, but it won’t help you find them.”
“Talk, bitch!” shouted the guy. He appeared to have lost control. He raised his hand to slap her again.
Kitty flinched.


***

Kitty felt no pain. She was rather confused. She couldn’t taste the blood. What was going on?
She opened her eyes to find herself lying on her back, staring at a starry sky.
She sat bolt upright. She opened her mouth to scream but a hand came out of nowhere and covered her mouth. She panicked slightly and struggled against the hand. She tried to scream, but it came out muffled.
“Ssh!” whispered a voice she recognised. “It’s OK.”
The hand came away from Kitty’s mouth and she turned towards Rick. “What happened?” she asked as she took in her surroundings. She appeared to be in a garden with a well-kept lawn. In the middle of the lawn was a small pond. Surrounding the pond was three or four different gnomes, each with a small fishing rod. Behind this pond, the lawn was home to several different gnomes. One wheeled a miniature wheelbarrow, another held aloft his bounty of carrots he had proudly grown. A path travelled from the gate set in the wall she was lying behind to the steps of the front door. On either side of this path were flowers. It was too dark to name these flowers, but the wind blew a beautiful smell to Kitty’s nose.
“Sorry,” said Rick, sheepishly. “I knocked you out.”
“I kinda meant, why are we here?” she elaborated.
Roger crawled over to her, Angie following him. “Rick was shot and we had to get you out of there. We wouldn’t have got very far, so we hid here.”
“What?!” exclaimed Kitty. She turned to Rick. “You were shot?!”
“Yeah, it’s OK. I managed to heal myself somehow.”
“What?!” exclaimed Kitty. “How?”
Rick shrugged. “Must be a secondary power, or something.”
“Come on,” said Roger. “We need to get out of here.”
Kitty nodded and they all stood up. They had lost their bikes and skateboards, so they began to walk along the street. They walked in silence, each worrying about different things. Finally, Angie broke the silence.
“Where are we going to go?”
Everyone stopped. Kitty and Rick glanced at each other, then they looked at Roger. He stared back, wide-eyed, not used to being made the leader. He thought about it for a minute, then said, “Do we have money?”
“Yeah, a bit,” answered Kitty. “Why?”
“We should get to a hotel,” was Roger’s reply. “Stay the night before figuring out what we are going to do.”
They nodded and continued to walk into the unknown.


***

Rick gratefully sank onto the bed. He was still in pain from the bullet. He had realised pretty quickly that although he could heal, he could still feel the pain. He needed to catch his breath.
Suddenly, the door to the room banged open. Opening his tired eyes, Rick glanced towards the door and saw Roger backing in, his arms full with “supplies”. He dumped these assorted food and items on the other bed.
“What’ve you got?” Rick asked.
Roger glanced up at him. “Torches, batteries, rope, pen-knives, sleeping bags and food. I still need to get a couple of tents, but I’ll get that after some sleep. I’m exhausted!”
“How are the girls?” asked Rick.
“I knocked on the door. No answer. I’m presuming they’re asleep. They’ve both had an exhausting night. And they’ve both had bad knocks to the head.”
As Roger busied himself with the sorting of the pile, Rick laboriously pushed himself onto one elbow to look at him.
“So…” he began.
Roger glanced at him again as he put the individual piles on the floor. “So what?” he asked, puzzled.
“Do you like Kitty?” blurted Rick.
Roger stared at him for a moment before saying really slowly, “Well… That is why she is my friend, Rick. I think you may need some sleep.”
Rick snorted. “That’s not what I meant and you know it!”
Roger raised an eyebrow. “No. Not like that. She’s a great friend, and a brilliant leader, but to be perfectly honest, I like someone else.”
“Ooh!” Rick brightened up. “Who?”
Roger reddened. “It doesn’t matter,” he muttered. “It’s not as if we’ll be going to see them ever again, if this carries on.”
Rick decided not to comment. Roger already had a lot on his mind; there was no point in pressing the matter. It would only make him more upset.
Rick lay back on the bed. He listened to the strange noises coming from Roger’s side of the room as he drifted off to sleep.


***

Rick woke to hear voices. Two girls, one guy. Slightly disorientated, it took him a while to realise that it was Roger, Kitty and Angie.
He focussed on their voice, trying to decipher what they were saying.
Roger was saying, “… may not help us.”
“We should ask him to read it out to us,” came Kitty’s voice. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if we asked politely.”
“But we can’t wait for too long. They’ll find us,” said Angie.
Rick opened his eyes and looked over to the other bed. Kitty and Angie were both sitting on the bed. Angie was picking at a loose thread on the quilt. Roger was pacing up and down. He looked rather harassed; his hair had a ruffled look, as if he had been running his hand through it.
On the bed beside Kitty was the letter his father had given him.
“Hey!” protested Rick, sitting up. “What are you doing with my letter?”
Roger jumped and turned towards him. Kitty and Angie turned their heads towards him.
“We were wondering if there would be anything in the letter to help us,” explained Kitty. “Here,” she continued as she handed him the letter, “read it out to us.”
Rick reluctantly took the letter as his anger dissipated. He slipped his finger under the flap and opened the envelope. He took out several sheets of paper.
“Dear, Richard,” he read. “Please do not be alarmed, but if you are reading this I am either dead or taken. Taken by the monsters who created you. Not that I am saying you are a monster or something equally unnatural; you are still and forever will be my son. But I must explain everything. You see, you and your three friends are the results of some risky experiments. Experiments that I was actively involved in.”
“You’re dad’s a scientist?!” exclaimed the other three.
Rick nodded. “Until my mum left him. Then he quit and took up a ‘respectable’, boring job. Anyway…
“I worked with an organisation called Sdaehgems; this stands for Scientific Development and Experiments on Heroes who are Great and Extraordinary Movement and Society. They couldn’t decide whether it was a ‘movement’ or a ‘society’ so they decided to adopt both words.
“This organisation specialised in studying superheroes who had been outlawed in the 1960s. In this country, they had been rounded up and imprisoned, simply for being alive. The government granted us access to these people to see if we could ‘cure’ them, but there was never going to be any way for us to eradicate them. Instead we decided to see if we could control who received the super powers.
“After lengthy experiments, we decided to see if children of two superhero parents could acquire super powers, having already established that one such person as a parent could give birth to a super powered child. The government would not allow the superheroes themselves to bear the child so we started searching for a couple who were already trying for a baby. However, these children would die in a miscarriage when born by the people we had captured.”
“You mean that your dad was kidnapping people?!” exclaimed Angie.
“That’s awful!” gasped Kitty.
Rick looked sadly at the shocked faces of his three companions before continuing with the letter. “Yes, son. I am afraid we resorted to kidnapping. But our experiments did not work, and we left many people distraught.
“One of our excellent scientists concluded that our experiments had not worked due to the women’s body rejecting the ‘foreign body’. We needed someone who was willing to have someone else’s baby, he decided.
“So we set up shop outside hospitals and doctor’s surgeries. Listening in to find people who were having trouble bearing children. That is how we found Kitty, Roger and Angie’s parents. They agreed to the experiment readily. I also volunteered, along with your mother, for this experiment. Of course, no-one but me knew the origin of the sperm and eggs…
“You were created and you were born. In the hospital, people inserted chips to ensure that your uncontrollable powers would not manifest when you were too young to control them. This chip was inserted into your intestines. It excreted chemicals into the blood which had a negative effect on the manifestation of your powers. They were all programmed to ‘detach’ from your intestines at the exact same time, thus controlling when you were to manifest. The scientists could come and observe you all secretly until that point in time when you would be asked to come in for scientific observation.
“However, none of the parents were told this, apart from me as I already knew what was happening. Nonetheless, one of the parents noticed that one of the children had blue eyes while both parents and their immediate family had brown eyes. Little Angie didn’t belong with them.”
Angie gave a gasp and Rick glanced up to see her beginning to tear up. Kitty put her arm around her and nodded at Rick to carry on.
“They were rather confused to say the least. They asked at the company’s office.
“When they were told they spread it round the other families. To say your mother was a bit annoyed with this arrangement would be an understatement. She left me.
“And as you already know, I gave up on that life.
“However, when the four of you were aged four and were all innocent about the world, something happened which drew me back into that world, if only for a few months.
“Angie’s powers manifested.
“You see, her mother was having an affair with her boss’ son and Angie heard her thoughts as she covered it up from her husband. She told her father about it and he was rather surprised to say the least. They brought her to the lab and I was there when they inserted a chip into her brain. This chip would prevent her reading the parents thoughts and would prevent the other chip from leaving her body at the allotted time. Thus, every one of you shall not be able to use our powers till an operation is undertaken to remove the chip.”
“And that’s what game me those fucking headaches!” exclaimed Angie.
Rick nodded and continued. “It gave the poor girl headaches and her mother made her religious by blaming Angie. Angie’s father, however, left them, disgusted that-”
Rick looked up at Angie who appeared to be listening intently. She stared at him miserably as he glanced up. “I think I’ll skip this part,” he muttered before continuing.
“A year ago, the scientist who had been heading the operation died in a tragic car accident and the attitude of the operation has changed with the change of head scientist. I have infiltrated the society to find out what day they will be taking you, for they will no longer ask permission. I will find this out and warn everyone’s parents. We have to make sure you are all out of the house on this day.
“You have a cousin in Glasgow. I have inserted her address into this envelope. Go to her; she will make sure you are safe and continue your education. Hide yourself away from the world.
“Save yourself.
“Lots of love, your Father.”
Rick glanced up at the silent room. “There’s a postscript.
“P.S. They’ve changed the day; Kitty and Roger’s parents won’t have time to escape!”
There was silence for a moment. Then Roger said, “We should go to Scotland.”
“What? Why?” exclaimed Angie.
“Well, his dad seems to have known what he was talking about…”
“But we can’t just go! We wouldn’t be able to go to school unless we told them where we came from and they would ask our school to confirm it. They’d find us!”
“Well, we’ll just not go to school, then.”
“We can’t not go to school! How will we get into university?”
“I don’t think it quite matters any more…”
While this argument was happening over her head, Kitty was watching Rick. After reading the letter, he had looked absolutely miserable. But while Angie and Roger argued, his expression had changed to anger and now it was set in determination.
“No,” he suddenly whispered. He looked up at Kitty, who nodded, knowing what he was going to say.
“No,” he repeated loud enough for the other two to hear.
“No what?” asked Roger, confused.
“We’re not going to Scotland,” said Rick.
Angie was quicker on the uptake than Roger. “Oh, no. We can’t! I may not want to go to Scotland, but we just can’t! I mean, we don’t even know where they are!”
“Where who are?” asked Roger.
“We can ask Google,” said Kitty, smiling. “And we’ve got all our powers, so it’ll be easy enough to break in.”
“Oh,” said Roger, as he caught up. “But your dad wants you to go away! He doesn’t want you to rescue him!”
“I don’t care!” snapped Rick. “We’re going to get our parents out, and that’s the end of it! All we need to do now is find a computer…”
Roger sighed. “The library?” he suggested.
Kitty and Rick glanced at each other. “Excellent!” they grinned at a disapproving Roger.

I lied

Well, I didn't really. My dad changed his mind about what we were doing on Saturday, so instead of going to Fingland Bothy, we ended up shopping in Glasgow.

Which meant I bought more Red Dwarf. Series 2, 3 and 4. I've already managed to watch the whole of series 2. However, there are some bonus features and I love to watch them.

They have these featurettes such as the "Drunk" one in the first series DVD and the "Alternate Personalities" one on the second series DVD. Basically, they put small clips together from all the serieses with music. It's made me really want to do nothing but watch them.

But I know I have more important things I should be doing, such as finding a job, making up a programme for the Beavers, getting some exercise.

Things to do

1. Fix CVs
2. Print them off.
3. Go on the Wii Fit before mum comes home and demands her TV.
4. Begin to figure out some kind of plan for the programme for Beavers.
5. Tomorrow, I shall attempt to go job-hunting. It will quite probably end in disaster or embarrassment for me where I won't get a job, anyway.
6. I should perhaps start panicking about the possibility of having to re-sit an exam or two. I don't care if this sounds negative; I'm a Scout and I have to be prepared. True, I'm preparing for the worst, but I worry about everything. No need to stop now.
7. Then I shall stare into space and wonder what the hell I'm going to do about the club I am now president of. I think what will end up happening is that I will have no idea what to do with them and come up with really horrible "fun" ideas which would be best suited for kids. And the Beavers will end up with "fun" things more suitable for older people. I keep forgetting their so young. I said to them, "Read this," and they replied, "We can't read."
8. Then I will do something else.... I don't know what, cause I haven't thought that far ahead yet.

I finished that story yesterday. It's the next chapter/sequel/call it what you will for the one I put on here earlier. You know, Exciting Life.

I think there is something wrong with me - I'm tired all the time. It's rather annoying.

Anyway, forgetting that comment, I'm going to have something to do tomorrow. My dad is going to Fingland Bothy tomorrow to chop wood for the fires which will be had in the future. It's actually really fascinating watching the fire lat at night in bothies. It's kind of hypnotic. And makes you sleepier than you actually were when the fire was first put on.

Me and my sister are going to help. I'm not going to be much help; I'm not very good at chopping wood. I'm OK at the sawing, but the chopping scares me: Gavin put an axe in his foot when he was but a Scout in a camping competition I was helping out at.

Actually, that scares me as well. He was a Scout when I was in the Explorers! He seems older than me, but he is actually two years younger!

However, many people seem older than me, cause I am very childish!

I haven't seen Dumbo in ages. I am actually listening to a CD of Disney songs.

I have never seen Song of the South. I wonder what it's about...

A line from the song "You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!": It's easier than pie! I would think so; pi being 3.14... whatever.

I uploaded a whole load of Lanimer pictures for my Bebo page.

One of them is of me and I don't look half bad. The only problem is I look like I'm blind due to my glasses under the eye mask - they shine so it makes my eyes look white.

All credit goes to my sister who took the pictures, which, if any of them are squinty, is the reason they are; she always takes them at a weird angle.

For some reason she can't spell Dalek. She spells it Dalect. That would be rather confusing:

"Doctor, what is it?!"

"It's a Dalect!"

"A Dalek?"

"No, a Dalect. Something quite different, my dear."

For some reason, my Doctor has become the Tom Baker version.

I wonder what Matt Smith's Doctor will be like. they all have different personalities. i hope he's as fun-loving as David Tennant's Doctor and not grumpy like... one of the older ones... There is one described as being grumpy; it said so in the exhibition in Kelvingrove.

It's very, very windy here. My door has banged shut a couple of times but I've shut it now so I won't be jumping out my skin any time soon.

Talking of Lanimers, they've decided that next year's theme for the Kirkfieldbank Community will be the circus. Which basically means clowns. But Kirkfieldbank Primary did that ages ago! And I was in it! I don't want to be a clown again! No offence to clowns or anything, but I just don't want to repeat myself... Although i do that all the time anyway, so I'm being rather hypocritical with that comment. And can't think of a way to get out of being onr of the clowns. What else do they have at the circus? All I can think of is what my mum said, which is the strongman. That and elephants and horses and acrobats. I do not want to be any of them. Hey! Wait! Maybe they'll let me be the ringmaster!

I highly doubt it, though...

I really wish they would do Star Trek...

Or Star Wars, even.

I need to stop taking new paragraphs every five seconds...

I actually found my journal which I started last summer the other day. I'd written the last two entries in code as my friend had written something in it and I was worried about Rachel reading it. Unfortunately, my memory decided not to grant me permission to know what I've actually written and I will need to decode it. It says it's a need to know basis. It did hint that whatever it is, I am now embarrassed by the entry and I don't want to decode it...

I could get it out right now, but I want to finish a story I've started. It's a second chapter of one I've written, but every time I start it, or come on here to start it, I get distracted by something. Mainly the Internet. For instance, I found something on YouTube called "Bill and Ted's Excellent Hallowe'en Adventure". I had only just started watching it when I had to come off the computer. Now I want to know what it's all about. It actually looks like a school put on a play of some sort, but I'm gonna check it out anyway.

Then I'll do this damn story.

Party on, Dudes!

The movie day, in brief was excellent! Definitely not bogus!

Terminator Salvation is awesome!

And my verdict on the third Terminator, whatever it's called, is that it's rather weird... It's a good concept in the killing the generals part - damn, I mean lieutenants - but it's not as exciting as the first two.

I'm talking to a friend of mine on MSN. The last time we were on MSN, we had a... discussion... on psychics. Apparently she had been at a seance or palm reading or whatever with her cousin and the woman was telling them a lot of things people apparently didn't know. I tried to defend knowledge by saying she had investigated thoroughly beforehand, but Kirsty wasn't convinced. And she started convincing me...

I'm actually a hypocrite on several levels. On the subject of ghost, etc. I know there is usually a perfectly logical explanation but at the same time the could be real and it would be really cool if they were. However, I'd be rather scared if they decided to turn round and kill me.

I don't know why me, as I've never done anything to the ghosts, but you never know...

There's a funny story about Peebles, as I remembered while I was replying to a comment.

We were on our way to Auchope bothy, it was dark and we were driving through Peebles. I was absolutley bursting so I asked my dad if we could stop in Peebles. He conceded and we went to the car park of the public park where there are public toilets. He told me to be quick and, not realizing the car hadn't completely stopped yet, I threw open the door and put my foot out.

It got dragged along the ground.

I was lucky that I didn't break my leg. My dad thought I had but all I broke were the eyes down one side of my boot. (Full name: eyelets. Just in case there was some confusion...)

The irony though, was that the public toilets were closed there and at the other public toilets and I ended up having to go into a pub.

I have realised that my title has no significance whatsoever to this post.

Except for the movie day. We watched Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

It was a most excellent film...

Not where I was expecting...

So, we got up late and eventually went out. We were heading for Linlithgow, but drove straight through it and ended up in - Bo'ness.

I'd never heard of it.

My dad wanted to see what it was like.

It was quiet. And nowhere was open. This may have been due to the fundraising going on for a fun day which is next Saturday or something. Anyways, we walked to the harbour which is obviously not being used. How do you know that? says someone. Because of the half-buried in the mud trolleys and half bicycles.

We did see the pretty cool steam train. We were on the footbridge above it when it went underneath. Boy, did it shake that bridge! I was clinging on for dear life! But both me and mum want to go back to go on the steam train! That'll be fun!

Stopped in Linlithgow for a toilet stop before going to Torphicen to see a campsite. Which turned out to be the one we went to when I was in the Brownies! So I saw Andrew and watched the cubs trying to fire catapults. Some of them didn't work.

But it was a lovely day out nonetheless.

Lanimers and Beavers and going away!

I haven't told anyone about the excitement of having two new Beaver Scouts in my care! (Mwahahaha: my plan to create a new army of miniature Fire Bears is in progress!) I was all excited when I was told. They've now been coming for a few weeks... and I'm sick of them. Well, only one of them: she talks too much! (She is a girl; this explains it.)

Lanimers was great fun! It always is. I was Zorro this year. My sister got a picture of me and it actually looks pretty cool!

Hazel and Dave were there. They seemed to like it and even said that they would be in next years one - if it is a Star Trek theme! I bought Silly String and sprayed Hazel and Dave with it. I actually missed and got it in some kids pram. The woman pushing it was not happy! I did apologise, but I'm not sure if she heard me. I hope she did. I feel quite bad about it... Hazel certainly didn't appreciate it, though! Oh, dear!

I am such a big kid.

There were birds of prey there as well. We got our pictures taken with some. I say "we", but it was mainly Hazel. She got hers taken with Edward the European Eagle Owl, Kenny the Scottish Kestrel and Percy the Peregrine Falcon. My bird of choice was a barn owl (again!) called Vanessa. She was lovely!

Beavers (and Cubs and Scouts) were on tonight. We had a "mad night" and a BBQ. (I am not entirely sure how to spell it, so, to save hassle, I am putting the shortened version down!) The BBQ ended up being cooked mainly on the grill as the BBQ wouldn't stay lit for very long.

The "mad night" consisted of the messiest games ever. Firstly, the two groups had to race to get the most water from one bucket to the other using only a sponge - and passing it over their heads. They got rather soaked! Next, came the bowls filled with beans and spaghetti. Mixed into this concoction (which hadn't been cooked, by the way!) were different coloured wine gums. They were almost invisible in there. Both teams had to come forward one by one to find one. Afterwards, they had to eat the tomato-sauced wine gums, without spitting them out! Moving on, and they had to make trifles using custard, scooshy cream (Which ain't how you spell it, but if anyone can, they're welcome to comment and actually tell me.) and rice crispies - on their faces! Photos were taken and a mess made. Finally, balloons were placed on a chair for each team, and each individual had to sit on them to pop them! However, these balloons could be innocently filled with air, filled with water or with flour! At one point someone burst a water balloon and the water squirted sideways into someones face. Afterwards, someone sat on a flour-filled balloon and exploded it in my face! My glasses got it full on!

Tomorrow, I may be going somewhere for a day trip with my family. My wee sister wants to Moffat. I suggested Peebles, but someone said no, so I suggested going to Fingland or Auchope Bothies. When these were turned down I suggested Glentress Forest for a walk. Mum agreed, cause they have gentle walks there and she could probably manage these. I think that's where they have that giant squirrel... it might actually be somewhere else, now I come to think about it... Hmm, yeah, it is. No, wait... hmm. Yeah, it is somewhere else.

However, Dad's the driver and he mentioned going to look at a campsite near Linlithgow. When I heard that, I got rather excited - we could go to Linlithgow Palace! Perhaps we could even get to see the fountain when it was turned on this time!

However, if we don't go out, I'll have to force myself to dust the top of the chest of drawers and the windowsill. Perhaps wash the windows. Then I'll have to sort out what clothes I don't need and throw them out...

Then I shall throw myself on a bed somewhere, probably my room, and die of exhaustion. Failing that I'll sleep.

There's a "Terminator Day" at Hazel's on Sunday where we'll watch all the original Terminators before going to the cinema to watch the latest one.

I will then sleep over for "Movie Day Tres" (or Movie Day the Third as I like to call it, as it is a reference to Shrek the Third). I'm a very busy girl by the looks of things!

For Every Complaint I ever made!

I complain an awful lot! Like today, I could have gone to the Movie Day, but my dad wanted me to stay in for the Autoglass man to come; he came early, so I could have gone! :(

And I complained when I couldn't get home a week ago!

But here's a sweet little poem that has been used at Scouts' Own for years!

God Forgive Me When I Whine

Today, upon a bus,
I saw a girl with golden hir,
I envied her, she seemed so gay
When she rose to leave,
I saw her hobble down the aisle.
She had one leg, and used a crutch,
But as she passes, she smiled.

Oh God, forgive me when I whine,
I have two legs, the world is mine.

I stopped to buy some candy,
The lad who sold it had such charm,
I talked with him, he seemed so glad,
and as I left he said to me,
"I thank you. You have been so kind,
it's nice to talk to folks like you,
you see," he said, "I'm blind."

Oh God, forgive me when I whine,
I have two eyes, the world is mine.

Later, when walking down the street,
I saw a child with eyes of blue.
He stood and watched the others play,
I stopped a moment, then said,
"Why don't you join the others dear?"
He looked ahead without a word
and then I knew he couldn't hear.

Oh God, forgive me when I whine,
I have two ears, the worl is mine.

With feet to take me where I want to go
with eyes to see the sunset's glow,
with ears to hear what I would know,
Oh God, forgive me when I whine,
I'm blessed indeed.
The world is mine.
You gave me eyes to see and I see,
but yet I see so little.
You gave me ears to hear,
and I listen not enough.
You gave me a mind to think
but so many times I don't.
You gave me hands to reach out to others,
but so many times I don't reach out far enough.
You gave me a heart to be filled with love,
but so many times it doesn't show.
Help me Lord to use to the fullest,
the things You have given me.

Character notes for "The Back Up Crew"

Yorkie: an Explorer Scout who once hefted up this huge mallet to hammer in gigantic pegs for the marquee.

Dyson and Henry: two really thin boys who eat a lot.

Ice Bear: my wee sister, though she prefers "Owl": tough!

Invisible Banshee: a friend of mine I have seen little of since coming to uni! :(

The Back Up Crew

It is very disconcerting, losing your memory.
Perhaps some people have experienced the feeling, even in normal circumstances. Such as, coming across someone you have no memory of ever meeting, but who could tell you the date and time of when they saw you last.
Now take that feeling it and multiply it by having, say, several different people coming up to you all through the day, all of whom you don’t remember. A whole day of feeling like that.
Well, I woke feeling like that on the Tuesday morning, luckily in my own room. I silently got ready and my dad gave me a lift to the train station. In the relative privacy of the train, I read my texts.
The memories came flooding back. But only half a day’s worth. Up to getting ready for a night’s superheroing.
The rest was blank.
So, rather worried that none of my allies were texting back, I texted my back-up crew and asked me to come and help me find them later that night.
By the time I was coming to Writers, I was also rather worried about Hazel, who hadn’t turned up for any of the lectures in the morning and hadn’t answered her texts. I walked slowly up the stairs, feeling like it was still Monday.
Only Emma was there when I turned up. I sat down and we chatted a bit. We fell into silence as Emma, worried about Jenna, texted her once again.
Pete turned up. He sat down, asking the obvious question, “Where is everyone?” I shrugged in reply.
We waited a while longer. Finally, at five, James joined us, and, a couple of minutes later, Ross joined us. Five minutes late, but obviously not by his clock, Tom walked in.
Rather embarrassed by the hospital antics, I glanced away from him, just as Emma clicked her fingers. Not expecting this, I started, my heart hammering as she exclaimed, “Have you seen the paper?”
The previous conversation with Hazel popped into my head. Pleased I could remember something, I replied with, “No.”
Emma went into her bag as the others shook their heads. She handed us the Metro. The headline bore the affirmation: HEROES IN TROUBLE!
On the front cover was a picture of a large warehouse. In the middle of the floor were several chairs. These chairs each held a person; my allies. My team.
At the far end of the room, in the distance stood, from what I could make out, Curly Emma, McBain and the Overlord. A figure lay on the ground; another superhero.
They were wearing the same red as I usually do.
It took me a while to realise that it was me.
This realization came with an influx of memories. The previous night’s events came back to me.
Something also came to me in a flash. Most of the regular Writers were missing and most of the superheroes were tied up in a warehouse. The same number.
And three super-villains, one of which was Tom. The other two could equate to the only other two regular Writers who were here.
I tried desperately not to think about it, instead focussing on the few pieces which were there.
Afterwards, we separated; no point taking a trip to the Union tonight, said Pete, who could also be known as McBain.
I rushed along the streets of Glasgow, making for Argyle Street station. Halfway there, I slipped into a phone box to change into my costume.
Someone hammered on the door. Startled, I wondered if Tom had heard I could remember Monday again. Hesitantly, I opened the door.
I was immediately assaulted with several different greetings. For there stood Ice Bear, looking chilly. There was Yorkie, raring to go with her super strength. There was Dyson and Henry with their power over air.
I assured them all that I would be with them in a minute and turned back to the problem of my bag.
I had quickly learned, back when I started out, that I would need a safe place for my bag; I couldn’t leave it hanging around. Luckily, Doctor Zaze invented something for all of us – a device which sent our bags home. A mini-teleporter in essence. I asked her once if she could build a bigger version, but she said no in that squeaky voice she does.
I pressed the button and my bag disappeared. It would reappear in the hall back home.
I turned back to my crew. There was someone missing.
“Where’s the Invisible Banshee?” I asked.
“I’m here!” said a voice reproachfully from behind me.
I jumped and span round. No-one was there.
“Show yourself, IB!” I said, exasperatedly.
A tall, slim girl my own age appeared before me. She had long, straight, white hair. Her grey eyes surveyed her white nails which poked through her fingerless white gloves. These matched her white dress and her white heels. (Sorry for this description being so detailed. It’s just that I hardly ever see her and she’s been prompting me to be specific.)
“Sorry to scare you, Fire Bear!” she grinned, flicking her gaze to me, before disappearing again.
I rolled my eyes and led them towards the bus stop.

When we reached the warehouse, it had been put back to normal.
“What the-?” I gasped. I had spent the whole bus journey debriefing my troops about the plan of attack and it had been largely based on the fact that the grille would be off.
It was, in fact, on.
Extremely peeved, I turned to my colleagues. “They’re obviously expecting us to be going in that way. We’d better find another way in…”
“Do you want me to break down the door?” asked Yorkie, flexing her muscles.
“No!” I snapped. “Don’t be stupid! They’ll hear that!”
“Well, do you think Ice Bear will make a lot of noise?” asked Dyson.
“What on Earth are you talking about?! Don’t be daft!” I paused. “Unless, of course, she was to freeze the door before smashing it in.”
“You’d better stop her, then,” said Henry, simply.
I frowned at him before spinning round. Ice Bear had her hand against the garage door. I called out to her: “Wait!”
I was too late. The ice spread from Ice Bear’s hand until the whole door was covered in icicles. Then she drew back her hand. She balled up her fists, preparing to strike.
Her hand tapped the door lightly.
The door crumpled delicately.
Ice Bear turned to me. “What?” she asked my stunned expression.

We entered the compound cautiously. A few moments later, we came across a junction. We could go first left, second left, straight on, second right, or first right.
I decided to take charge. “Right. Yorkie; you go straight on. Dyson; second left. Henry; second right. Ice Bear; you take the right. I’ll go this way,” I indicated the left passageway. “IB…” I paused as I looked round for her. “You can go anywhere you want. If anyone finds anything, give us a bell and don’t do anything! We all need each other to take them all down…”
They all acknowledged my orders and hurried off.
My passageway was devoid of open doors. None of them budged as I pushed and pulled at them. The silence and emptiness of the warehouse began to creep me out.
Suddenly, after rounding a corner, I saw a door at the end of the corridor. Hurrying towards it, I saw that another corridor joined to my current one in front of the door.
Upon reaching the door, I noticed that the door was slightly open. I peered through it.
On the other side was my team. They seemed to be unconscious, tied to the chairs. McBain and Curly Emma were arguing.
“But I still don’t understand why we can’t just kill them all!” Curly Emma was exclaiming.
“I think the Overlord wants to get as much information out of them as he can,” was McBain’s reply.
“What information?” I muttered as Curly Emma asked the same question of McBain. He just shrugged.
Suddenly he glanced at the door I was behind and I ducked away. “Just keep watching the doors,” he said.
I couldn’t see how I was going to get in the room. If they were watching the doors, they weren’t just going to let me untie all my allies. Torn between just calling everyone and rushing in or making a plan, I didn’t notice the ice forming around my feet.
Suddenly, an arm grabbed mine and Ice Bear brought herself to a halt. She nearly banged into the wall, but I caught her before she did so.
“What the hell are you doing?” I snapped.
She looked at me reproachfully. “Going around quickly. What’s going on? What have you found?”
“The heroes are in there. We just need a distraction to get-”
I was interrupted by a yelling down the intersecting corridor. We both turned to look and watched as Yorkie ran past our small field of vision, followed closely by Dyson and Henry. While we gaped at the space where we had just seen them. A distant crashing told us what they were up to. I rushed to the door and peered through.
On the other side, Yorkie was shaking rubble off herself, while Henry and Dyson were clambering through the hole that had been created.
“I reckon that’s our distraction…” muttered Ice Bear. I glanced at her smiling face before pushing the door open and walking quietly through it.
Unfortunately, the movement caught Curly Emma’s eye and she turned towards us. “Ah, so we have the whole gang now!”
“Let them go,” I simply said, joining the rest of my back-up team. I muttered to them, “Yorkie, Ice Bear. Untie them, please. Dyson, Henry. Help me out, please.”
Yorkie and Ice Bear moved off among my allies as the rest of us confronted the two bad guys.
Curly Emma cracked her whip threateningly. McBain drew his gun. He glanced at Curly Emma and she struck.
I dodged the whip and caught it on its way back up. Gripping it tightly, I willed it to go on fire. It did.
Beside me, unfortunately, Dyson and Henry were taking deep breaths, sucking in the air around them. I was unwittingly close. They sucked in all the gases in the room, even the oxygen.
McBain lifted his gun.
I tried to fire a fireball at him but it never reached him. There was no oxygen left in my vicinity and my fire was going out. Curly Emma snatched her whip back. The fire went out. My breath caught in my throat.
“Guys?” I said, hoarsely. “This is not cool!”
A sudden crashing distracted me. I looked round at the other heroes. Ice Bear was strategically freezing the team’s bonds and waking them up by melting ice over their heads. Yorkie, however, was taking a less subtle approach.
Obviously, she had tried to untie Time Travelling Hero and Captain Formal whose chairs were tied together for some reason. Giving up on that, she had ripped the chairs apart, but had left the heroes tied to the backs of them. She then left them to wake up, stand up and wobble around, before landing in the remains of the chairs.
I tried to sigh but realised I couldn’t. I turned to Henry and Dyson at the same moment as McBain pulled the trigger twice. That was when they released the air they had stolen from me. I could breathe again! (Idiots.)
The bullets flew backwards and McBain ducked just in time. Unfortunately for him, he hadn’t reckoned on the table being behind him and, as he twisted round and simultaneously ducked; he hit his head off the table and knocked himself out.
Curly Emma had been surveying her hands, not getting involved. Now she looked up and sighed. Before she could move, I knelt up and threw a fireball at her hand. She dropped the whip.
Sighing, she brought something from behind her back. It appeared to be a whip’s handle. I frowned as she moved her hand around in quick circles. Then she flicked her hand.
Suddenly, something struck me in the face so hard I was sent skidding sideways.
I swore and looked up, my face raw.[*]
Curly Emma grinned and flicked her wrist. A crack sounded above me.
“She has an invisible whip!” I exclaimed. How did she make one of those? I thought.
“What should we do?” asked Dyson, looking worried and backing away.
I stood up and looked at the revived heroes; they looked a bit dazed, certainly not ready to fight.
“I could help,” said a voice by my ear.
“How?” I asked the Invisible Banshee.
“I can see the whip. I can dodge it and knock her out; she can’t see me or the whip.”
“How can she use a whip she can’t see?” I queried, exasperatedly.
There was silence for a moment before IB answered. “I dunno.”
I felt a small rush of wind and the Invisible Banshee was gone. We stood and watched. Curly Emma seemed to sense something was wrong, slowing down with her whip cracks, which really weren’t doing anything.
Suddenly, Curly Emma seemed to fall violently to one side, smacking her head off the desk. She crumpled to the floor, unconscious. The Invisible Banshee reappeared standing over her, grinning in triumph.
“Well, done, IB!” I grinned at her before she disappeared.
“What should we do with them?” asked Dr. Zaze. She had come up behind me and seemed to be back to her usual alert state.
“I don’t know…” I mumbled. I hadn’t thought we would ever defeat them, so I never planned this far. “Take them to the police station?”
“We should just kill them!” cried Floppy. I frowned at his suggestion.
“How about asking them where the Overlord is?” asked Miss Jen. “He is the most dangerous, after all.”
“That’s a brilliant idea!” exclaimed Ice Bear. We turned to look at her and she added, “Oh, sorry. Got a little over-excited…”
“That’s a brilliant idea!” repeated Zaze. I nodded.
We had a bit of difficulty waking the two evil-doers and when we finally did, they seemed rather confused.
“Where am I?” asked Curly Emma. “What’s going on?”
We looked at each other. “Do you mean you can’t remember anything?”
“No…” replied Curly Emma, hesitantly. “Who are you all you people?”
We got the same disconcerting questions from McBain.
“What’s going on?” I muttered to Zaze. “One bump to the head surely can’t make them forget that much!”
Zaze shrugged.
I turned to Ice Bear who was tugging at my cape. “Yes?”
“Doesn’t the Overlord do that mind thingy?” she asked me. I frowned. “Like read minds?” she continued. I nodded. “Can he do what Matt Parkman does, then?”
I stared at her for several seconds. Beside me, Zaze blinked in disbelief.
“You have got to be kidding me!” I finally exclaimed. “He’s got enough flaming powers without being able to control people as well! That is just totally unfair!”
“Why didn’t he just control the rest of us, then?” asked Zaze. “Maybe he can’t!”
I looked at the two confused villains. “Maybe we could just recruit them, instead of taking them to the police…”
“Are you kidding me?!” exclaimed Floppy, who had been listening in. “After everything they’ve put us through?!”
I looked at him, my expression blank.
“They could be spies,” added Spiky.
I sighed. What was I supposed to do with them? If they truly were innocent, then I would hate for them to be in jail. If they were spies they couldn’t come to our headquarters.
“How about, we let them join, but they aren’t allowed to come to our private places until they have proven themselves to us?” I suggested.
The heroes who were listening looked at each other before inclining their heads in agreement.
“Okay. Time, Formal; help McBain and Curly Emma out of here. Dr. Zaze; go with them and make sure that they’re alright and that they aren’t spies.” I ordered, adding as Zaze seemed about to protest, “Please don’t argue.”
Once they were gone, I told the others that it would probably be a good idea to try to find the Overlord before raising the place to the ground.
“You won’t have to look far,” said a voice from the door.
We all turned to find the Overlord standing there, McBain and Curly Emma standing either side of him.
“What have you done with our friends?” I snapped.
“None of your business,” he said in a sickly sweet tone.
Irritated, I clenched my fists, fire surrounding them.
The Overlord gestured to McBain and Curly Emma. “Take them alive where you can,” he muttered. The two hench-people jerked forward.
“Is he having a power trip, or what?!” called out IB from beside me, making me start.
I gave a small “ha!” before replying. “Power trip?” More like tripping over his own cloak!” This was followed, rather satisfactorily, by the Overlord, indeed, tripping over his own cloak as he tried to take a step forward.
“So what are we going to do about McBain and Curly Emma?” asked Kitty. In answer, I shrugged.
An idea suddenly occurred to me. I called out to the two advancing, bamboozled super-people. “Hey! You don’t have to do what he says! Fight him!”
They stopped and frowned at me before continuing.
“Well, that didn’t work,” said Mojojojoe.
I tried to think of something that would save McBain and Curly Emma while protecting ourselves. I was distracted by several of my allies readying themselves for battle.
Then I realised I probably shouldn’t be thinking.
I gave up at that point and strode forward. Stopping in front of McBain, I clenched my fist – and punched him right on the nose. I then turned to Curly Emma who looked mildly shocked and did the same.
They both fell to the floor again, looking extremely shocked.
“What the hell?!” cried McBain. “What was that for?!”
I looked up at the Overlord, hoping against hope that this meant he was no longer controlling them.
Damn it, said a familiar voice in my head. You may win this time, but I have other plans…
Before I could move, the Overlord disappeared.
“Quick! Search everywhere!” I called to them and they sprang into action. I stayed behind and helped McBain and Curly Emma to their feet.
I led them to the door, asking them which way they had went and where Zaze, Time and Formal had been ambushed. We met them halfway.
I looked around at the old warehouse. “Zaze…?” I said to her. “Could you put a demolition order in for this warehouse?”
“Um, no!” she cried. “I’m a scientist, not a hacker!”
I sighed. “Never mind. I’ll just ask Dyson. He’ll be able to; he’s hacked into a council’s computer before.”
“You mean you are working with a criminal?!” exclaimed Formal, indignantly.
I didn’t argue; the others had come back and confirmed what I feared. The Overlord was nowhere to be found.
“Right, let’s go home. No doubt the Overlord will show his ugly face again,” I told them, wearily. “Come on Ice Bear,” I added to my sister.
“That was a bit of an anti-climax…” muttered Floppy.
“That’s what she said!” exclaimed Bob. Everyone groaned.
As we exited the warehouse and Dyson assured me that the warehouse would be demolished by morning, I slowed and asked, “Has anyone seen the Banshee?”
“When have we ever seen her?” asked Yorkie, raising an eyebrow.
“You don’t think she’s been knocked out or kidnapped do you?” I was becoming concerned; usually when you talked about her as though she wasn’t there, she would let everyone know she was by speaking in someone’s ear! “Maybe we should go back and look for her…”
“Nah,” said Dyson. “She’ll be fine! No-one can see her, so she can’t have been caught! She’s probably away home!”
I frowned, doubting this. I glanced over my shoulder. No-one was there.
My wee sister started to enthuse how “amazingly fun” our adventure had been. This was repeated all the way home.
[*] My mask is now only a half face mask, i.e. covers my eyes and nose, but my mouth and cheeks are exposed. Hence my stinging face!

Lack of Commitment

I haven't posted anything on here in a while. Been rather busy and my blog on Bebo has been sufficient to keep me going. Anyways, there's probably been a lot that's happened.

There was the end of the year party for the Writers; that was great fun, though Hazel had to leave early. We ended up singing karoake - including the dirty version of Summer Nights! I can tell you, we laughed.

Exams have come and gone. I don't think I've done very well in my Biology of Organisms, but I think I was OK for Statistics and Physics in the Open Air.

On Tuesday was the AGM for the Guild of Fanatical Terry Pratchett Fans. It was very, very quickly decided that I would be the new president as there was only two other people who turned up. We went down to play pool with Stewart, Andy and Dave. This was all fandabidozi, till Tom, for some bizarre reason, decided to try to find out who I fancy. This apparently required a lot of drink.

I still haven't told him, though, so haha! :D

End of an Essay, Start of an Era

Yahey! I have now finished my Physics in the Open Air essay. Just need to add a reference, then I can print it off!

So haven't been on in a while. Been mainly doing said essay. Went to Writers, etc. Went to the AGM for Writers. I got nominated to be Webmaster! (That is actually a pretty kick-ass title!) However, with little knowledge of computers, I wouldn't be very good at it, so I awkwardly declined. Then I awkwardly, reluctantly put myself forward for the position of Moderator. I got two votes! (I did not vote for myself!)

Anyways, I also wanted to say, that I also love Belle because she wasn't afraid to be different. That and she's like me; I kinda don't go in for the "hot" guys. I prefer the geeky, cute guys. God I hope no future boyfriend reads this! :D

The Next Bit

“Have you seen the paper this morning?”
I looked at Hazel, startled. “Say what?” I asked.
“Have you seen the paper? The Metro?” she asked me again to my astonishment.
“I thought you didn’t read the papers?” I inquired, frowning. I’ve been doing that a lot lately; frowning I mean, not inquiring. There are an awful lot of things going on in my life that I’m getting quite confused about.
“Yeah, well, I saw it on the bus this morning and the headline caught my eye. I picked it up. Here,” she said as she rifled through her bag looking for the Metro. “Didn’t you see it on the train this morning?” she added.
“No,” I said simply as I gazed round the noisy lecture theatre. There wasn’t much to see; the entire place was in darkness, the light from outside filtering in to prevent an awful lot of accidents.
This morning I had got a text from Hazel to the effects of “In the dark dark lecture theatre, ther was a dark dark student with dark dark intentions…” Assuming the lecture theatre was in darkness and that Hazel was on her own I hurried to get there only to find that she was sitting with Kirsty and Nicola. I was going to sit beside her but my way was now blocked. I performed a daring feat to get to the chair further in and impossible to get to unless people moved. I found out that the benches we write on are actually quite comfy to sit on.
That had been the extent of my excitement this morning.
“I had been reading a book and not paying much attention to the world around me,” I continued. “Except for the occasional, where are we? I better not have missed Argyle Street. Then I looked out of the window.”
“Well, look!” exclaimed Hazel. “We’ve had superheroes fighting in our Union!”
I looked at the headline on the cover. HEROES FIGHTING FOR THE UNION!
The article then went on to talk about the small skirmish the team and I had had last night. It told how I had arrived in time for the start of the fight for once and even had an “interview” with Floppy afterwards.
I looked up at Hazel, who was obviously waiting for me to be surprised. I was happy to oblige; how had Floppy been interviewed. We had left at the exact same time.
“How the hell did they get in the Union on a Sunday?”
Hazel gave me a Look. “I’m pretty sure the Union is open on a Sunday,” she said, slowly. “Besides, I think that’s where their headquarters is. It’s where that light’s kept. You know, that one.”
She pointed to the cover where there was a picture of a cloudy sky with the Fire Bear sign lighting up the sky.
“Oh, yeah,” I said in a monotone. “You mean the light which Fire Bear came personally to me to ask for the picture ‘cause she had just happened to see it, God knows how?”
“Ye-es.” Hazel was talking slowly again, the way most people do when they are worried for people’s sanity or when they don’t understand you. “Why do you always do that?”
“Anyway,” I continued, avoiding the question, “I hope they didn’t mess up the pool tables; what are we meant to do tomorrow night if they have?”
“Oh, don’t worry about it!” grinned Hazel.
“Why not?” I asked, puzzled again.
Hazel quickly changed the subject. Hmm, I thought. I wonder if there’s something she’s not telling me… After thinking for a minute (while ignoring what Hazel was saying, blanking her out like I do whenever she’s talking about bands or films I’ve never heard of), I decided that she was either the one who had wrote into the Metro under an assumed name or she was secretly going out with one of the superheroes.
“Hmm?” I asked her, zoning back into the conversation to hear her say something about a supermarket.
She repeated what she had said. Basically, she had just given me a list of places she needed to go to. I told her where I needed to go.
Later, halfway through the lecture when we were writing notes to each other, she asked me where the Scout Shop was, that being one of the places I needed to go to. ’21 Elmbank Street,’ was my reply.[*]

Later, as we wandered round Glasgow, highly probably attracting the attention of people talking about things which happened to mentioned sex and so forth in bank queues and the like, I suddenly noticed that Hazel kept on checking her phone.
“What’s up?” I asked, concerned.
She looked up guiltily. “Nothing,” was her answer. “Laura just said she might need my help and she’d text me if she did.”
“What does she need help with?” was my next question.
After a brief hesitation, Hazel said, “Tidying the flat!” She grinned, still looking guilty.
I frowned for a minute, then concentrated on walking up the Goddamn hill. This distracted me from what I was thinking about. Instead I started planning how to get people to come up a real hill with me.

We went back to the Union afterwards to play pool. The side we had had the fight on was cordoned off. I was rather concerned when Hazel pointed it out to me. I didn’t remember any damage. Someone was going to pay: I paid last time.
When Hazel went off to look for something in the Union shop and while she was marvelling over the bank she had never seen before, Dr. Zaze texted me. My heart raced as I double-checked Hazel wasn’t going to appear.
‘Ive found them! Zaze,’ it said.
Startled, I texted back: ‘Shall meet you soon: just hold on!’
After waiting a while, Hazel returned. We played one more game with me continually looking at my watch. I blame this on my sudden lack of success.
Finally, Hazel announced we needed to go to a supermarket. And finally, after we had been, she decided she was going home. I celebrated inside my head and told her that I would go home, too. I waited with her till her bus eventually arrived (I’m pretty sure it was more than one minute!).
I rushed off, found somewhere with a toilet and got changed.

“What’s the situation?” I asked as I appeared by Zaze’s side five minutes later.
“I’ve tracked them down!” cried Zaze. I glanced round at the Union packed full of gawping students and placed my finger on my lips. “Sorry,” said Zaze. “It took me all bloody day to find them, but the Tracker did it! They’re in a warehouse on the bank of the Clyde!”
“Amazing,” I said, sarcastically. “A warehouse on the Clyde. There’s not a lot of them about.”
My brain decided to alert me to something I had completely overlooked.
“Wait! What ‘tracker’?”
“Oh,” replied Zaze, breezily. “I invented this tracker thing that goes straight to my phone, which I can control from my normal phone. You know, like the special identical, but not identical SIM I gave you so that if there was an emergency you would know about it, even during the day. I called it the Almost Identical SIM for All Heroes.”
“Yes, but how can you track the three of them?” I asked, ignoring the last few seconds of conversation.
“I chipped them with this!” she exclaimed, pulling out a large metal thing that looked like something out of Futurama.
“Let’s see?” I said, holding out my hand to take it.
Suddenly, she leaned forward and closed it over my hand. I felt something puncture my skin. I lost control of my fire for a second and it flared up, melting the device slightly.
“Yes!” Zaze cried, celebrating. “I’ve finally got you! I’ve been trying to get you for months!” She turned to me. “Every time I would try to surreptitiously inject you, something would happen and you would move.”
My eyebrows formed a ‘V’ on my forehead as I rubbed my sore hand. Before I could flame her, the team walked in and I decided it was better just to get to the warehouse to save our three friends and, thus, the day. Again.
“So have we got transport?” I asked the assembled troops after Zaze had filled them in. Their silence said it all.
“Bus it is, then!” I said, cheerily, trying not to laugh.

By the time we arrived at the warehouse, it was beginning to get dark.
There was just enough light left to make out the yard which was strewn with rubbish. Leftover boxes of junk lay any old way all over the mucky place. A spare tyre for lorries was propped up forlornly against the wall. A perfectly good ladder had been left to rust.
“So how are we going to get in?” asked Floppy after we had made an inspection of the locked and bolted doors. “Are we gonna kick the door down and go in, all guns blazing?”
I looked at him. “We don’t have any guns.”
“That’s what you think!” exclaimed Bob, grinning.
Spiky sniggered. I thought about it for two minutes before I understood what the hell he had been talking about.
I rolled my eyes to the heavens and that was when I saw it. The way in. A ventilation shaft. Clichéd, yet effective.
I looked round at the ladder. “Help me with this,” I said.

Two minutes later, I realised why it was not a good idea to want to be able to fly via fire as I shuddered at the distance between me on the top of the ladder and the ground.
I placed my hand on the grill and began to heat my hand, then my whole body. I was attempting to melt the grill.
From the ground came the whispered conversation of the others.
“I could have gone back in time, if you really wanted me to, and stopped them from putting the grill back on,” said Time Travelling Hero, glumly.
“I’ve got plenty of contraptions for this sort of thing with me!” moaned Dr. Zaze.
“I could have got that off in one blow!” Spiky was saying to Captain Formal. Formal shrugged an agreement. There was probably some kind of answer, but I became rather preoccupied with a certain problem that was just starting.
I heat up really quickly and, even though I was concentrating all my heat into the grill, my entire body was heating up. This heat was transferring to the ladder via conduction. The ladder was becoming red hot which was going to be difficult for Floppy and Bob who were silently holding the ladder up.
Hmm, I thought. I am the worst leader of a group of superheroes in the history of superheroes.

Five minutes later, I was halfway up the ladder following Floppy and Spiky, who had broken down the grill.
I was about to crawl into the opening when there was a distant mechanical whirring. I looked down to see the garage door opening. Oh, brilliant, I thought. That was a waste of time and effort.
As I watched, several small, but vicious (we had encountered them before) robots filed out. They turned to Zaze, Bob, Formal and Time who were waiting for me to get off the ladder before they embarked on it. The robots began shooting lasers, throwing spikes and other general things that Curly Emma, Mcbain and the Overlord thought was necessary to make a robot truly evil at my trusty team.
“Quick!” I called down to them. “Get up here!”
But Formal didn’t listen. He’s the master of not listening. (Actually, that’s a lie. Dr. Zaze is the master of not listening, but at that moment she had developed super hearing and was already on the ladder.) He drew his rapier and challenged the robots by flinging down one of his gloves.
Time sighed and let go of the ladder, said something to Bob and turned, drawing a futuristic gun from nowhere.
“Get up!” cried Zaze, suddenly just below me. I worriedly looked at her then looked at Formal trying to fight metal with a very thin bit of metal. I looked at Time who was trying to wind up the gun. “Move!” shouted Zaze. “They can take care of themselves!”
I turned and hurried up the ladder. At the last step, I felt it move. I hung on to the edge of the shaft and pulled myself up. Turning, I saw the ladder move again with Zaze and Bob still on it, clinging on for dear life. Below them I could see two robots trying to dislodge them.
I grabbed the ladder. A second pair of hands, Floppy’s, also grabbed it. We tried to hold it steady. Below us all, a fierce battle was taking place.
Time had by now successfully wound the gun up and was shooting at the robots. Whenever he got one, it would freeze and tremble before either disintegrating into a million tiny pieces of metal, exploding into a million tiny pieces of metal, or disappearing altogether, never to be seen again. Not even as a million tiny pieces of metal. Unfortunately, he was missing a lot more robots than he was actually hitting and was thus responsible for the demolition of several boxes of junk, the spare tyre and most of the perimeter fence.
Formal, meanwhile, had managed to find the supervising robot and was tackling it with his rapier. Occasionally, he would find a gap between the robots joints and would thrust it in before wiggling it about a bit, breaking a small amount of the robots circuits. The robot, while being attacked, was casually waving its arms like a football coach shouting at his team.
My view was suddenly blocked by Zaze’s head; she had reached the top of the ladder. I tried to back up to give her room but bumped into Floppy who was crouching right behind me.
Extremely stressed out, trying to think of when I was going to get time to study for the two class tests on the Friday what with all this ‘superheroing’, worrying about Formal and Time, my eyes began to burn brightly. I could see this only in the reflection in the metal of ventilation shaft and Zaze’s goggles.
“Move!” I growled at Floppy. He backed off, allowing me to back up and Zaze was then pulled into the ventilation shaft. Once she had got in, Bob’s hand suddenly appeared, and he pulled himself up.
I awkwardly turned and crawled forward.
“It’s rather cramped in here,” observed Zaze. “I’m gonna be rubbing up against people!”
“That’s what sh-” began Bob. I interrupted him, growling at him, my eyes still glowing and lighting up the dark tunnel.
“Not now!” I tried to calm myself down, as I could feel my cheeks glowing red hot; my body would soon follow.
I took a few deep breaths and imagined ice. Ice in drinks. Icebergs. Ice Bear.
My cheeks soon stopped burning. My mask, however, felt like it had melted again.
We crawled along silently until we came to a junction.
“Which way do we go?” asked Spiky over his shoulder.
“Try right,” Zaze replied. “We want to go into the warehouse, not round the outside.
Again we crawled in silence. Suddenly, this silence was broken by Spiky breathing, “Watch out! There’s a grill here over a room!”
There was a very quiet rattling noise from ahead. “And it rattles!” came Spiky’s increasingly quiet voice.
In front of me, Floppy very carefully lifted himself off the floor of the shaft and awkwardly crawled across with his hands and feet at the edges so he wasn’t putting pressure on the grill.
Next it was me. I do not have super strength. I tried very, very hard to keep myself off the grill but my arms suddenly buckled, as did the grill. I fell through into the room below.

I landed flat on my back, for some inexplicable reason, on a desk. I lay, there winded, gulping at the air. I looked wildly up at the opening above me where the others were looking through.
In my shocked state, I found their faces hilarious. Bob had a Johnny Depp mask on tonight and, for some reason, Floppy was wearing a green eye mask, making a complete fool of the Zorro-like costume.
I probably look ridiculous, too, I thought.
Finally, I got my breath and looked around the dark room. There was a single door and the walls were lined with filing cabinets of every size and bookcases stuffed with folders and books. On the desk, I had narrowly missed landing on a computer. There was no-one there.
I propped myself up on my elbows and saw that I was on eye level with the Overlord.
I nearly had a flipping heart attack; I rolled off the desk, away from him, landing in a heap on the floor.
He gazed at me in disbelief. I looked at him and willed the others to get away, before remembering that the Overlord could read minds. Damn it! I thought.
“Don’t worry,” said the Overlord in a hoarse voice. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Don’t worry. Your friends have continued along the ventilation shaft – to their ultimate demise!” I could hear the grin in his voice.
He lifted his hand and the grill flew up to the gap and locked into place. A drawer behind me opened and he lifted a thick woolly dressing-gown to the grill and wedged it there. The dressing-gown was pink.
“Mcbain saw you coming!” laughed the Overlord. “He said you would try to alert your friends, so I came prepared.”
I didn’t bother trying to protest that I had been thinking no such thing. I had been thinking such a thing. Instead, I said, “That your own dressing-gown?”
“No!” snapped the Overlord, and I grinned to hear him not so cheery and a lot more defensive. “That’s Curly Emma’s!”
“Sure it is!” I goaded him, playing with fire on my fingertips.
The Overlord was silent and didn’t move. Finally, he said, “I’m giving you a look.”
I blinked at him as more silence followed this statement. “Oh, the horror,” I muttered after a while.
“Your friends are doing well,” said the Overlord, suddenly.
“They’re very good at crawling on their knees,” I said. Nothing else happened. I had been expecting Bob to appear with a sexual innuendo, but obviously it wasn’t good enough.
“No…” said the Overlord, slowly. “I meant your other friends!” He turned the monitor screen round to face me in a dramatic fashion. It showed the scene down in the yard where Formal and Time were obviously in need of some assistance. Bigger robots had appeared, Formal appeared to have lost his rapier and was using a pole he must have found in the yard, and Time appeared to have lost the power for his gun and was winding it up while he kicked at the robots that were attacking him.
“Oh, no!” I breathed.
“Oh, yes!” grinned the Overlord.
I could hear his maliciousness. I could tell we were all in trouble. I knew I would never get a story ready for tomorrow. And I was Goddamn exhausted since the morning.
It was the final straw.
Without thinking about the consequences, without thinking about it at all, I threw a fireball at the Overlord; I was in a fury.
I threw fireball after fireball at him. His initial shock prevented him from diverting them, but the others he could. He teleported away.
“Stand and fight, you bastard!” I screamed at the ceiling.
“I am,” came his voice from behind me. “I’m right behind you!”
I spun round, shooting fire at the floor around him. He teleported away again. I spun back to the desk. He was right in front of me and he was able to punch me in the face.
My mask bended inwards catching me in the eye. My nose was crushed and I could feel blood drip down my face. I could taste the blood in my mouth.
I was so shocked, I fell backwards.
Right, I thought two seconds later. If that’s the way you’re having it!
I kicked out my leg, catching his shin with my foot. There was a sickening crack. He fell over like a footballer from Rangers.
I jumped up. I fired another fireball at his face, but he rolled away at the last second and struggled to his feet.
A mirror was on the wall behind him and the (extremely) small sane part of my brain was shocked at the Fire Bear it could see. The crushed mask made the bear persona look ugly and furious and around my whole body was a red, glowing aura of heat. I was irate.
This only took a couple of seconds to register. It was going to take a couple of hours to calm the rest of me down.
I launched myself at the Overlord in a rugby tackle, thanking my wee sister for demonstrating it on me the other night.[†]
This brought the Overlord onto his back. His hood fell back. I jumped up and summoned up a fireball, ready to shove it in his face.
The fireball shrank and disappeared as I stared at him in shock.
“Oh my God!” I exclaimed. “You!”
“Me?” asked the diminutive man.
“Thomas Fraser!” I exclaimed again, without thinking.
Tom frowned at me. “How do you know who I am?”
“Um,” I thought, quickly, realised that that wasn’t such a good idea and tried not think. “Red hoodie,” I said to cover my tracks. “Name,” I added.
“Oh,” said Tom, looking at me in a calculating way I wasn’t sure if I liked. “So, now you know who I am, it’s only fair to know who my nemesis is!”
He jumped up and lunged at me.
I could have flung a fireball at him, but I didn’t want to hurt him. I could have leapt to the side, but I wasn’t thinking straight and didn’t think about it till afterwards.
He grabbed my mask and pulled, the inflammable string breaking. (Damn cheap stuff!)
“Aha-” he began. He stopped. He stared at me. “Rebecca? Rebecca from Writers?”
I grabbed at my mask, but he held it out of reach. “I prefer my full name when you’re being surprised, thanks,” I snapped at him.
“Oh, right, sorry,” he muttered, then he put on a surprised tone of a voice to say, “Rebecca Elizabeth Ewart?”
I stopped reaching for my mask and stared at him. “Elizabeth? Where did you get Elizabeth from?”
He shrugged and frowned. “Isn’t it Elizabeth?”
Ignoring him, I realised that this was the perfect opportunity to ask him a question which had been bugging me for a while.
“Why are you doing this, Tom?”
Suddenly, Tom’s demeanour changed. He looked despondent and guilty.
“I can’t tell you. There is a reason, but I can’t tell you.”
Not knowing what to say or do, I settled for grabbing my mask back. I glared at the string and proceeded to tie reef knots so that it would fit over my face again; I didn’t care if Overlord, the self-proclaimed leader of the evil gang, had seen who I was. I wasn’t about to let the other two see.
“Maybe you could help me!” exclaimed Tom. “You could help me out of a bit of a sticky situation, then,” he grinned, evilly, “you could join us.”
I stopped what I was doing and thought about it, slowly. Firstly, he could read minds, and the fact I decided not to set him on fire must have set him on the path towards thinking that he could get my sympathy vote. And he nearly damn well did!
Annoyed, I rubbed the blood away from my mouth and put the slightly melted and crushed mask back on.
“Rebecca?” he pressed for my answer.
“When the mask is on,” I snapped, “you will call me Fire Bear!”
He seemed to sense that he had lost the mental battle and he threw up his hood. “And you must call me Overlord!” he commanded.
We stood there looking at each other for a moment. Nothing happened. We watched each other for the slightest movement. I scratched my ear. A couple more minutes past.
Deciding that I had better help my friends, I turned towards the door.
The Overlord stood there. He locked the door and put the key in his pocket. I sighed.
“If you’re going to attack me, then hurry up. I don’t have all day!” I said, exasperatedly.
He appeared to think about it. “No, I can’t,” he said, finally. “The book says that there must be a very slim chance for you to save the day. Since I’ve blocked the exits, the only slim chance you’re getting is if I don’t attack you.”
I looked at him in disbelief. “What book?” I asked. “And who on Earth gave you it?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “It’s the handbook on how to be a successful super villain.”
“I think whoever wrote it didn’t have a successful career as an author,” I sighed at the insanity of it. Beside the Overlord I could see a table lamp. God knows what it was doing on the filing cabinet. And if he wasn’t going to attack me…
I strode forward, grabbed it and swung it at the bewildered Overlord. It clanged against his head in a satisfying way. The Overlord crumpled to the ground, so that he was just a pile of cloak lying on the ground.
I turned to the grille in the ventilation shaft. The only way to know for sure where the others would come out was to follow their progress through the easily accessible shaft.
I burned away the dressing gown, before I stood on the desk to remove the grille. I glanced at the monitor to check on Formal and Time’s progress; they were nowhere to be seen.
Sighing, I reached up to pull myself into the ventilation shaft.
It was out of my reach.
I tried stretching, jumping up and down, anything I could think of. I tried flying as well, but I only started burning the desk so I stopped.
I climbed back of the desk and looked at the room. It looked like it was long enough to take a running jump.
I ran from the Overlord’s prone body, jumped a few feet from the desk, landed lightly and bounced up to the ventilation shaft. I caught the edge and almost choked as I felt the cloak around my neck being pulled backwards.
I twisted round slightly and was able to see the Overlord holding tightly on to my cape.
Ah, I thought to myself. This is why you don’t wear capes.
I reached up, seeking a firmer handhold, as I could feel myself slipping. I found the grille I had been planning to put back, instead. I tried to grab it to use as a weapon, but I slipped as the Overlord pulled the cape harder.
“I know what you’re thinking!” he called up to me.
I threw fireballs in his general direction. I looked down and saw that the desk had caught fire. The Overlord let go of my cape with one hand to shield his eyes, and I was able to grab the grille and throw it at him. It caught him on the side of the head with a crash and he fell to the floor again.
I climbed fully into the ventilation shaft and began to melt it together to stop the villain from following me. I looked down onto the scene below.
He seemed to be genuinely unconscious this time. The fire from the desk was starting to spread onto the floor.
Sighing, I put my hand out, my palm facing downwards. The flames began to rise from the flammable objects below and congregated on my hand. I used the heat from these flames to melt the metal of the ventilation shaft. The fire below ceased to burn.
I pulled the sides of the hole below me together. A small hole remained and I left it at that. God only knew who else could be in the tunnel and the metal would be turning red hot.
I crawled along in silence and darkness. I decided not to light the tunnel; I may then be able to mark my progress along the shaft, but so would others.
Soon the darkness began to be relieved by a small sliver of light up ahead. I realised I was coming to another grille. I would be able to see where I was.
I increased my speed and fell through a hole.

I landed on my back again. As before, I was winded.
I stared up at the hole in the ventilation shaft. I was really beginning to hate that thing. I heaved in big gulps of air. I really hoped I hadn’t broken anything; my fall didn’t seem to have been broken by anything. Not even a handy passing minion.
Finally, I got my breath back and stood up. I glanced around the room.
The occupants had completely frozen.
The three friends we had come to rescue, Kitty, Miss Jen and Mojojojoe were tied to wooden chairs with rope. Everyone else had been tied to chairs as well. Well, apart from Floppy who was in the act of being tied to a chair by one of the robots. He had stopped struggling in surprise and the robot itself was staring at me.
I noticed that he was wearing all green, like a weird cross between Robin Hood and Zorro. Without the arrows or sword.
McBain and Curly Emma were standing at the other end of the room. Curly Emma had a larger whip in her hand than the last time I had seen her. McBain had a small pistol in his hand, like those guns they had in the Second World War. He had been pointing it at Floppy’s head but had lowered it slightly due to my entrance.
Not again, I thought. At least I’m not tied to a chair; it rather hurt the last time.
I stepped forward. “Look!” I called out to the two evil ones. “I don’t want to have to hurt you; I’d much rather let you go!”
“What?!” cried Spiky in disbelief.
I glanced at his surprised face before continuing. “Let you go to the nearest police station,” I finished. “So just let my friends go, and-”
“Never!” cried Curly Emma. McBain lifted the pistol, his finger on the trigger. He wasn’t fast enough, however, as I threw a fireball at his hand. He yelped and dropped the weapon which melted in on itself in the intense heat. There was an awful cracking noise as the heat caused the bullets to try to fire out of the twisted barrel.[‡]
I hurried forward, firing more fireballs at a now weapon-less and perhaps defenceless McBain.
Curly Emma decided to come to his aid and cracked her whip a few inches from my face. I pulled up, annoyed; I wasn’t a bear in a circus. My brain at this point decided to go on a tangent, thinking that I would have to go and release the cruelly treated bears.
I didn’t have long to think about this, though, as Curly Emma drew back her whip to strike. “Ha!” I cried out. “I’ll just burn through it!”
Curly Emma pressed a button on the whip’s handle and spikes suddenly appeared along the length of the whip.
“Oh, no!” I breathed.
As she brought it down I leapt nimbly to the side. Or I would have done, had I not tripped over Dr. Zaze’s chair. I rolled back onto my feet and set fire to the rope binding her to set her free.
I heard a rush of wind behind me. I pushed Zaze out of the way and leapt to the side again.
I looked back at the whip to see it was stuck in the now vacant chair. Seizing my chance, I grabbed the leather part of the whip and heated my hand up. Eventually, it began to burn and Curly Emma gave a yelp and dropped the now useless whip.
I strode up to them. Curly Emma was sucking at her fingers, while McBain cradled his destroyed gun.
“I think you should come with us,” I said to them, putting Curly Emma’s hands behind her back to cuff them.
There was a sudden pain in the back of my head, followed swiftly by darkness.

***

Light filtered through my closed eyelids, so I opened them. I must be late for uni, I thought, panicking.
Instead of my purple-painted room, with the hole in the ceiling, I found myself in a strange white room. I sat up quickly, felt a sharp pain at the back of my head and collapsed back down, which didn’t help matters.
Slowly, I raised myself on my elbows.
The room was long and filled with beds and people in nurses’ uniforms. My brain finally registered a strange beeping noise. I looked round and saw a heart monitor. Looking down at my own body, I could see wires coming from my chest. I was wearing some kind of night shirt.
To my right was a window. I looked right to see where in the world I was, when I noticed someone dozing in the chair beside me.
I was immediately terrified. I knew I was in a hospital and at night by the looks of things, but I didn’t recognise this person. I should know who he is, I panicked. Wait, who am I?
My brain supplied me with an answer. Relieved, I was still disturbed I didn’t know this guy.
He had brown hair. He had a dark t-shirt thing on. On the floor in front of him was a small rucksack sitting beside my own bag. Beside him, thrown over the arm of the chair, was a bright red jumper of some kind. From the folds in the crumpled item of clothing, I could tell there was writing on the back of it.
Thinking of TV and films where the patient is always dressed in that stupid thing with the open back, I attempted to stay in bed while reaching for the jumper so I could read it.
It didn’t quite work.
Untangling myself from the covers, I reached up from the floor and grasped the jumper. Meanwhile, the loud bang seemed to have woken the guy up and he stirred in the chair.
I pulled at the jumper. It came towards me but stopped; it seemed that the guy was sitting on top of the arm.
Panicking that he would wake and talk to me, I tugged at the jumper. It finally fell on to my lap and I could see it was a hoodie.
On the back of the hoodie were the words “CLUBS AND SOCIETIES”. Confused as to what these cryptic words could mean, I turned it round to see the front. On the front, smaller words told me who he was: “CLUBS TREASURER. THOMAS FRASER.”
Memories resurfaced from the depths of my throbbing head. Beginning uni, signing up to Writers, meeting everyone, being scared out of my mind about the sanity of Stewart et al.
Above me, Tom opened his eyes and blinked several times. Not wanting to be found on the floor, I backed up and rose at the same time.
I banged my neck hard on the bed frame.
I yelped in surprise and pain. Tom looked down at me in surprise.
“You’re awake!” he exclaimed. An amused look crossed his face. “What are you doing on the floor with my hoodie?”
Bewildered, with no memory of why I was in hospital, and more importantly, why Tom was here, I shrugged, handing him back his hoodie. He took it and watched me as I struggled back into the bed, without turning my back to him.
“What’s wrong?” Tom asked, looking rather worried.
“What happened? Why are you here? Where am I? Where are my mum and dad?” I croaked, trying to stop myself from crying.
He looked rather relieved as he held up his hands to stop the flow of questions. “Hold on!” He grinned at me. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
I thought back to the previous day. I tried hard to remember, but the last thing I could remember was: “Lying in bed on Sunday night.”
Tom looked worried for a moment before he proceeded to answer my questions in order. “Earlier tonight, we met by chance in the Union and I was going to meet a friend in the City Centre so I walked with you towards the train station. Some guys came out from behind us and whacked you over the head. Luckily, after someone came round the corner, the thugs disappeared and I brought you here to the Royal Infirmary. Your mum and dad are on their way.”
I tried to remember all this but it just wasn’t happening.
At this point, my mum and dad rushed into the room with my wee sister and a nurse in tow.
[*] There was an awful lot more interesting random conversation on this piece of paper. (You can read the full conversation only if you can follow our crazy wanderings with the pen. It’s quite random, writing stuff anywhere it will fit, so conversations tend to run into each other.) I only put this bit in cause I’m being paid to advertise it. It helps me to pay the council for all the damages our fights end up causing.
[†] She is at this very moment doing rugby in P.E.
[‡] There is a proper scientific explanation for this, but I can’t be bothered going into detail.