The concert started at eleven.

In the time before Jo and the other members of the choir took to the small wooden stage that had been built, Katie played most of the games at the fair. She managed to win me the teddy bear she promised along with several other small toys and a plant. I had spent the change from my dress on a handmade beaded necklace that I planned to give Mum when I next saw her. Once again, Katie had far too much for her school bag and ended up sharing mine. The one thing she didn't hide, however, was the coconut.

For whatever reason, she decided to carry it around the fair and smile at anyone who pulled a face or looked at her funny. She seemed to be enjoying the attention that came with walking around holding a coconut. Not many people appeared all that successful at winning on the coconut shy, so it was almost a way for Katie to brag about her throwing skills. I didn't blame her, if I could win a coconut on my first try, I'd probably brag too.

When the clock struck eleven, Katie and I joined the crowd of people to watch the choir perform. A few students were scattered among the adults and I even spotted Mrs Maddox and Miss Jones lurking nearby. Jo took to the stage with the rest of the choir and Katie and I clapped extra loudly so she knew we were nearby.

"Today, we welcome the choir of Maddox Academy School for Girls who will be performing in order to raise money for a Veteran charity! Dig deep, people!" The man on stage spread his arms out and it looked as though his blazer was about to rip.

"One of these days, the Mayor's jacket is going to rip and I'm going to have my camera," Katie muttered. She dropped a few coins into a bucket that was going around.

"What if you don't have your camera?"

"Then I'll cry."

"Without further ago, the Maddox Academy School for Girls choir!"

The Mayor stepped to the side and the soft tune of a Vera Lynn song filed the silence. An orchestra consisting of members of both Maddox and the Reed Boy's school sat off to the side of the stage and three microphones had been placed in front of the choir. After a few opening notes, the choir started to sing to one of the most famous songs during the war. We'll Meet Again.

A thousand different memories came flooding back, none of them good.

One of my earliest memories was Mum playing that song every morning on the record player at her cousin's house. She would walk around the kitchen humming it to herself and gazing out of the window as though expecting Dad to come over the crest of the hill. The song had been playing when the telegram from the War Office arrived about Dad's injuries. Since then, the song had never been played in the house it Mum could help it. She would turn the radio off when it came on.

Jo stood at the back of the choir, her eyes scanning the crowd until they found Katie and I standing between two older couples. Both couples were swaying to the music with their eyes partially closed as though reminiscing about old times. Katie offered Jo a little wave and Jo's confidence seemed to explode ten-fold, she put a lot more passion into her singing. Even from the back row, she seemed to shine.

They moved from Vera Lynn to Doris Day's Bewitched and through a reel of other popular songs before the concert came to an end. We broke out into applause and the Mayor once again took to the stage, his blazer ever tighter against his shoulders. Beside me, Katie collapsed in a fit of silent giggles.

"A big round of applause to the Maddox Academy choir. There will be fundraising buckets around the square so give what you can. We have plenty of stalls around the village so make sure you try your luck at hook a duck or guess the lollies in the jar!"

The choir stepped down from the stage and Jo made her way through the crowd of people to join us. She untied her plait and let her blonde hair fall down her back

"Are you giggling about the Mayor's shirt again?" she asked.

"It's just too funny! He could get a bigger one around the corner!" Katie continued to giggle.

"You girls seem to be having fun," Mrs Maddox said, creeping up behind us and scaring the wits out of Katie.

"I won a coconut," Katie said through stifled giggles.

"An impressive achievement. Have you tried to guess the lollies in the jar? Miss Jones and I have."

"I'm really good at those," I said.

"Then we have to try it. I want a jar of lollies."

"Enjoy the rest of your day."

Mrs Maddox smiled and tried to blend back into the crowd, but she failed. The way she carried herself made her impossible to lose in the crowd no matter how hard we tried. She could probably see us just by craning her neck a little. I expect the only reason she attended the fair was to keep an eye on the students who went to make sure we weren't doing anything to shame the school. After everything that happened, I couldn't shake the feeling that she was watching me as she hadn't spoken to any of the other girls.

Katie grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to one of the stalls with Jo following close behind. The girls from the choir were the only ones in school uniform so they were easy to spot in a crowd, the rest of us blended in. On the stall, Katie dragged me to a stall with a large jar of lollies on the table and a small note in front of the jar. Several names and numbers were written down but none of them seemed that close to the number that popped into my head upon seeing the jar.

I had been told that being able to accurately guess that number of objects in a jar was my superpower. Some superheroes had speed; I had the ability to guess the number of items in a jar. It certainly wasn't useful in everyday life, but it was good fun. Michael used to make me win prizes at street parties with it and we would always leave with a jar full of sweets.

"How certain are you on your guess?" Katie asked.

"I've never been wrong."

"Ooh. Confident, are we?"

"Time will tell." I laughed.

"Can we go somewhere to eat? I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry," Jo said. She rolled her eyes but still smiled. "We can go to the tea house, on me. It can be a thank you for you both agreeing to come today. It's the least I can do."

"I wanted to come anyway; I really wanted a coconut."

Katie grinned and held up the coconut, balancing it on the palm of her hand. Jo shook her head and the three of us weaved through the stalls and down a side path that led to a small, pale pink cottage. On our trip for my birthday, we had stopped to have lunch of small sandwiches, cake and tea, none of which really equated to a lunch for me. Still, it was nice and quiet inside.

The cottage had vines tangled up the side and small hanging baskets with an assortment of flowers dangling down by the door. There was a small, stone path and a metal gate that was also decorated with vines and had an archway covered in pick flowers twisted over the wire of the arch. Inside were several small tables with long, white tablecloths that had lace edges. The chairs had soft seats and backrests. None of them had a scratch or mark on them. Each table was adorned with a vase of flowers in the middle.

We took a seat at a table in the far corner of the room. Few of the tables were occupied, but those that were the couples on them talking sweetly over the vase of flowers. We were the only students in the tea house, so we stood out a little bit compared to those already seated. A girl, the same as Michael, brought over a cake stand with small, thin rectangular cucumber sandwiches and several slices of cake. She also brought over a silver tray with a teapot and three small teacups.

Everything about the tea house was small and quaint. Everything had a place, and nothing was disturbed. They even had a large stone fireplace on the back wall that hadn't been lit due to the rising temperature. It was everything I had imagined a cottage to be on the inside, but I still didn't think finger sandwiches and a slice of cake could be considered lunch. I knew the small box of chocolates from Katie would come in handy if I couldn't make it to supper without my stomach rumbling.

"What's the plan after lunch?" Jo asked, wiping her fingers on a napkin.

"One, we find out if super brain over here was right." Katie nodded towards me. "Two, I have no idea."

"They don't announce the winners of that until at least four and it's coming up to half twelve. That gives us about three hours."

"I need a new ink bottle so we can hang around the village, maybe get an ice-cream or something."

"Sounds like a plan. Flick?"

"Fine with me." I shrugged.

We finished eating the sandwiches and cake, during the tea and then Jo paid for lunch and we headed out of the cottage. With mid-day having only just passed, the sun was high in the sky, its heat bearing down on us as we moved through the village towards one of the other shops so Katie could buy a new bottle of ink.

I stood in front of a collection of notebooks in the shop, looking at the different patterns on the front of each one whilst Katie brought her bottle. Some of the covers were blank, just a singular colour whilst others were decorated with swirls, similar to the one Michael had bought me, or they were chequered. I wished I hadn't spent the last of my money on a necklace for Mum, but there was nothing to be done about it.

Sometimes, I hated not having the extra money that others had to spend on sweets or even for myself. Most of my saved money had gone on school supplies for Maddox which left me with nothing to spend on trips to the village. It was something I had gotten used to, but it still made me feel a little left out when the others were able to buy things and I just had to look.

With a little while to go until they announced the winner of the lolly competition, we moved through the shops, looking through the windows and eventually stopping at an ice-cream parlour.

"Do you want one, Flick?" Katie asked as she accepted her vanilla ice-cream cone.

"No thank you, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? It's quite warm."

"Yes, I'm fine."

She pulled a face but said no more. Katie had already done a lot for me, including winning the teddy bear and I wasn't going to let her spend any more money on me if I could help it. The bracelet had been enough, the teddy bear was a step too far. By that point, I didn't even feel like accepting a single lemon sweet from her because it would have cost money. I wasn't going to let our entire friendship be centred around not being able to pay for something myself.

We walked slowly back to the village with the two of them eating their ice-cream and me spinning the bracelet around my wrist. When we arrived back, the bell had just started to chime for four and we joined the crowd of people waiting to find out who had won the lolly jar. A woman stood behind the stall with the jar on the table and a white envelope in hand containing the correct number and another envelope with the winning name.

"Many of you have made a guess, but we can only have one winner!" she said. Katie gripped my arm. "The correct number of lollies in the jar was in face-" She paused and opened the envelope. "-One-hundred-and-forty-three!"

"Now, there were many good guesses some were close, but there was one person who hit the nail on the head with the exact number of lollies!" the man beside her said. He slowly opened the envelope and pulled out a slip of paper. "Congratulations to Miss Felicity Grieves! She guessed the number of lollies! Come on up here, Felicity!"

Katie shoved me in the back. I moved through the crowd and approached the stall where the man handed me the jar of lollies and I was directed to look at a camera to have any photograph taken for the local newspaper. Once the photograph had been taken, I went back to Katie and Jo with Katie looked as though she was about to explode.

"How did you do that?" she asked.

"I don't know. I just did." I shrugged.

"You're amazing, you know that?"

"Josephine! All choir members are expected to be on the minibus within five minutes," Mrs Lemmon said through the crowd.

"I'll see you two back at school. You're walking back, right?"

"Yes, we'll leave in a bit."

"Alright, see you then."

Jo made her way over to Mrs Lemmon and the rest of the choir girls who were herded onto the minibus before it eventually left the village square. After figuring out how we were going to get everything home, Katie and I started the walk back to the school. We followed the river in silence, just the sound of running water filling the space between us. When we got to the bottom of the hill, Katie held out her hand and smiled at me. I accepted it, lacing my fingers with hers.

"I had fun today," she said, breaking the silence.

"Me too," I said.

"We should do it again. Maybe after the presentations, we could go down to the lake? Just the two of us?"

"I'd like that."

She smiled at me, the sun hitting her at just the right time to light up her whole face and give her an almost angelic look. My stomach fluttered. I hoped by that point I would have figured out just what I wanted, and more importantly, how Katie felt about me.

~~~

First Published - August 2nd, 2020