The LBD Project
- Cover
- 1 - Moving Day
- 2 - Dear Diary
- 3 - Out Clubbing
- 4 - Bad Timing
- 5 - Unexpected Repercussions
- 6 - Just Good Friends?
- 7 - Surprises In The Night
- 8 - Caveat Emptor
- 9 - Hugs And Kisses
- 10 - Helpful Advice
- 11 - Shortcut Home
- 12 - More Helpful Advice
- 13 - Frogs And Princes
- 14 - Shooting Stars
- 15 - Acceptance
- 16 - 0 to 60 in 5.8 Seconds
- 17 - Epilogue
- Cast
- Comments
5 - Unexpected Repercussions
Helen surfaced from her dream, a replay of the previous night's events ... but with a much, much better ending. She snuggled back under the duvet, hatching plans, and dozed off with a warm fuzzy feeling ...
"Wake up sleepy-head! Don't forget you promised Kit-Kat to help stock the shop for opening day", her Mum's voiced sliced into her sub-consciousness, "Cuppa tea on the side".
Helen still couldn't get the hang of everyone calling her grandmother by her pet name - okay, her name was Katheryn, but, to Helen's knowledge, she'd never owned a cat, or, come to think of it, any pet of any description.
Nathan was so busted.
He'd thought he'd got home without being found out, but his mother's frosty reception over breakfast told him otherwise.
His ripped shirt was hanging menacingly over the sewing basket.
Things would probably have been OK if he'd managed to quietly do his chores and lay low for the rest of the day, but then his Dad came in, playfully cuffed him on the shoulder, and said "That's my boy!"
Mum went ballistic - the astronauts in the ISS probably waved as she passed.
Helen wandered down to her grandparent's shop - they were opening an ice-cream parlour.
Kit-Kat loved kids (she'd had ten of her own) and wanted somewhere in the old town where they'd feel welcome and could hang-out after school - without their parents worrying where they were ... or getting up to.
Helen was distracted and day-dreaming ...
... so much so that, the normally un-flappable, Kit-Kat finally threw her hands up in defeat and sent her across the road for coffee.
Sipping coffee with Kit-Kat on the front porch, Helen recounted the previous night's events - omitting the finer details, like Nathan's name.
(Ed: Just what is Kit-Kat asking Helen about?)
Natasha and Natalie called by the ice-cream parlour, on their way back from their Saturday morning shopping, to see if Helen wanted to go swimming in the afternoon.
"Where's Nathan", enquired Kit-Kat, "I thought he could help me set up a web page and a Twitterbook account for the shop."
"Duh!", mocked Natasha, "It's Facebook and Twitter."
"He's grounded for like a year", Natalie said gleefully, "he got caught sneaking back in at four this morning. Mum's practically got him chained to the scrubbing-brush!"
"See you after lunch", Natalie called down the shop to Helen, "don't forget a towel for sun-bathing."
"L8RZ Gran", quipped Natasha, bolting for the door to avoid the inevitable clip around the ear - you took your life in your hands using text-speak around Kit-Kat!
Something at the back of Helen's brain was desperately trying to get her attention.
Kit-Kat looked at Helen, her left eye-brow rising, "Looks like you got young Nathan in trouble last night."
Then the bomb-dropped; if Kit-Kat was also Natasha's grandmother ... Nathan - was - her - cousin.
Oh, god! She'd almost kissed her cousin!
"Are you alright dear?"
"Ummm ... yeah ... fine, fine".
And he'd been staring down her cleavage all night! (But he has such dreamy blue eyes her treacherous heart chimed in.)
"You've gone very pale. Do you want to sit down?"
And she'd been tracing the stitching on his jean's back pockets just before the raid! (Her fingers gave an involuntary twitch and her fickle stomach flip-flopped.)
"Eh? What? Ummm ... yes, I'm fine ... really ... fine."
"You look sick ... you might want to inform your face that you're 'fine'."
Kit-Kat felt Helen's forehead, her left eye-brow raised, "Ah. I see. But nothing a trip to the doctor's going to cure."
"Go home", Kit-Kat declared, "you're no use here. It'll all look better in the morning."
But it didn't.
Helen had played the 'time-of-the-month' card to skip swimming with the two N's and then spent all Sunday moping in her room; listening to music played loudly and picked specially to irritate her parents.
The LBD hung accusingly on the back of the door - she was in two minds to shred it or hug it.
And just how was she going to cope on the school bus on Monday?
4 - Bad Timing
