2
As a teenager, Helen was very much a loner, never finding it easy to make friends or mix with classmates. Helen was the quiet mouse in the corner of the class. If she knew the answer she would hope that somebody else would offer an answer before the teacher started to call out names to prompt a response.
Helen was one of the ‘packed lunch’ girls and her lunch was essentially the same as the one she was eating with David today.
She would find a table alone and systematically work her way through her healthy choice menu while reading one of the classics. Helen didn’t bother with magazines finding them frivolous and she didn’t do her homework at lunch times because if it was meant to be done at lunchtimes it would be called lunchtime work and also because to do homework in school would draw unwelcome attention.
It was during one of these lunch times that she first noticed David. He was with another boy and they were having a heated argument about sport. Not the usual boys type of argument about who made what play or who scored which goal in a specific game in an obscure year. No, they were arguing about the speed at which the ball passed the batsman-comparing cricket with baseball.
Helen had never been interested in sport before but this question touched a nerve somewhere. Her interest piqued, Helen listened as the argument ranged back and forth between the two boys until a bell sounded the call, ‘return to classes’.
It was the first lunchtime ever, in which Helen didn’t read her book.