A few weeks later | Dear Diary,

I'm quite bad at keeping track of the dates in here. One would think I'd like to keep an organized account but to be honest, I'm really bad at telling time. I can read a clock, yes. But agendas throw me for a loop.

Sylvia offered to teach me in exchange for help with other random chores and I agreed. I'd like to be smart. Smarter than Tommy, smarter than Ada. I'm already smarter than Arthur and almost more than John. I just have to get good at maths then I'm set.

But Johnny's really good at it. I don't quite understand it. He can read about as well as Finn can which is not a compliment but his mental math is astounding. He understands money so well. It's another thing for me to be envious about.

Either way, I'm excited to be learning about how to take note of time and how to read agendas. Maybe I'll learn how to date this better soon enough!

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I don't usually write more than once in a day or multiple times a week but I'm so damned perplexed. That's my word of the week. Means something along the lines of confused and that means you don't really understand something. May it be a person, a thing, etcetera. I think I'd like to be a Literature teacher.

It'd be far easier to go to school for teaching than business like I want. I just want to help out the family as much as possible. But it's hard to find a business school that'd accept a woman. Let alone a girl from a gang. Maybe I could change my name.

Winifred Miriam Wright...

God, I can't think like that. If someone were to see this, they'd surely think I was a diagnosed hysteric.

Tuesday Afternoon | Dear Diary,

I really quite like that barmaid, whenever I go by to visit she's always so sweet and attentive. Her questions are a bit...far fetched but I've always liked talking about what interests me. Grace always makes sure to ask how my current story is going and it makes me very happy.

She brought me that novel she mentioned and I'm going to treasure it forever. I hugged her from across the bar which hurt my stomach but I was so thankful. Then I kissed her on the cheek and blushed from my own boldness. Grace laughed it off and called me "A darling." I like her.

I spent today's classes getting ready for exams. We still haven't taken them. The teacher is being very hard on all of us who are 16. We're to go to college next year if our family can afford it. Most of us cannot. This is Small Heath afterall. My family might be the richest on Water Lane and even we cannot afford college.

I hope that we can afford to put Fawnie through school when she turns 16. I can't even imagine her all grown up. She's too little to ever be grown. I don't think I'd like being 21. At least then my smoking of f*gs wouldn't be in secret. Polly would skin me alive if she knew I was the one stealing them from her cartons.

She's very particular about her things. But I make up for it by slipping coins in her purse now and then. It's not like I'm an addict. I only do it once and a while. When I'm very stressed. Like now... I've gone up to three a day. She's surely going to notice if I don't replace them.

I should ask Andy if he could get some for me.