Game On – Jenny 13

[For back story go here: Story so far at 12 June 2020 and more recent Jenny episodes]

On Monday Bentley received a notification of an unpaid parking fine. This was something of a surprise to him as he had never owned a car in his life.

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Helen was having a bad day. To be honest every day was pretty horrendous at the moment but this one in particular was shaping up to be truly awful.

Instagram was showing her all kinds of awful, mainly to do with her classmates selfie-ing themselves dressed in their best casual/stylish clothes (school uniform currently being outlawed/so passé) and starting out to go to school. Next they were pictured in groups, no longer alone, sometimes suitably socially distanced but generally, whatever the distance, having a fine old stylish time. They were clearly talking to each other, discussing things, and these discussions were making it onto Instagram too. As if this were just a usual everyday happening rather than a clear attempt to make her feel excluded as she dealt with the impact of a global pandemic – which to be honest was what she thought everyone else was continuing to do although now it looked a bit like they weren’t.

Not only that but some of the casual/stylish clothing choices had clearly been selected to offer approaches on ‘how would a clothes designer interpret the pandemic’ to school clothing, rather than for God’s sake wear what you like because apparently we have to wash EVERYTHING as soon as you get back – which was what Jenny had told her to do, even though she (Helen) had clearly said she had no intention of going to that school again this term at least and then we’d have to wait, OKAY?

Disgruntled, and more than a little worried, Helen tried messaging a couple of people on WhatsApp but got no immediate response which frustrated the situation even more. They’d seen the messages she sent, what the hell was taking them so long?

Downstairs there was no one in the kitchen and nothing to suggest breakfast was being made or had been left for her. She scoured Instagram again to compare her plight with her friends and share some grief, but then she relented and found some cereal instead. She sat at the island table in the middle of the kitchen and ate, listening to the chomp of corn flakes in her head and flicking through a few YouTubers as they greeted the day with new hair and makeup sponsorships.

Back on Instagram she found classmate Graham had posted a picture of himself riding an electric scooter. Judging by the framing it was probably taken by someone else but he'd titled it ‘scooter Selfie' and there was half a chance he had actually achieved this feat (knowing how adept he had been in the past with a telescopic stick).

Outraged by this blatant show of skill and, frankly, money Helen dropped everything to storm into the living room where Peter lay on the sofa with his phone, recovering from his morning's bout of toast. 

“Have you seen this?” she nearly screamed at him, partly through exasperation and partly because Peter had his headphones on.

Peter grunted and raised an eyebrow. Slightly.

“Exactly!” said Helen loudly, “Exactly my point, and what the hell do we get? What are we expected to do?”

And she stormed out again.

She attempted to throw herself down on the kitchen stool in exasperation, but this was impossible given its height. So she looked at the other two pictures of Graham, just to get herself in the right mood before plonking the used cereal bowl in the dishwasher and slamming the machine’s door as hard as she could. 

No one in the house commented on this at all. And then it hit her as to why. There was only her and Peter in the house.

Fuming incandescently, Helen realised there was only one way she could possibly take her parents, Graham and everyone else down a level or two. She went upstairs, threw on the most expensive jeans, top and jacket combination she could find, picked up her school bag and purse and stormed out the house.

It was raining outside and she cursed this too, stuffing her hands in her pockets against the weather. This wasn't particularly effective, however since stylish and weatherproof don't always go together.

In one pocket she found a face mask. Quite a stylish one too – that was fortunate – she might actually wear it. And she remembered a half listened to conversation she’d had with Izzy a week or so ago when Izzy was indicating some masks or other online which they could get and she’d liked them then so…

In the other pocket she found her cashcard and a piece of paper. She looked at the paper. On it in biro, in Jenny’s handwriting, was written:

“Dear Helen, we love you and respect your decision. Please stay safe and we’ll speak later, Phone if you need anything and have a lovely time at school.”

There were several kisses. Helen folded the paper and pressed on.