Day of Firsts

Day of Firsts
By Christopher Barker
August 2003


So I'm stood in the hallway of my house, all hunched over buttoning up my sister's coat, and helping her put on her gloves for school.
My back's hurting but it was a big thing, my sister starting school and all, granted its infant school or 'Little School' as she called it but still its was important and up until now I'd barely even let it cross my mind.

So I'm trying to button her up all nice to make up for it; I tighten the bow on her pigtails as it started to come loose and all the time her eyes are darting this way and that and she's rocking back and forth on her heals. She barely ate breakfast she was that excited, I told her straight about fifty times that she should eat something I even once shouted at her all of a sudden and order her to eat something but then I felt all guilty and bigoted, I'd tried eating earlier myself but it came up again ... the new school year always did this to me.
I don't know why I just can't help it.
Anyway she just looked at me and carried on playing with her dolly or something... she was a brave kid. Even though mum wasn't here to dress her and see her off she was acting like she wasn't bothered. She was even wearing odd socks which she'd put on her self, when I had pointed them out she giggled and blushed a bit and told me that she had meant to do it and that they were staying that way. I wasn't even going to bother arguing; today was going to be one big adventure for her. it should have helped me stop worrying but it didn't.

We ran through our little checklist once more:

Coat - *Check*
Gloves - *Check*
Packed Lunch - *Check*
Kitchen Sink - I threw that one in casually as a joke. My sister kind of laughed shortly and then called me 'Silly'.

She called lots of people 'Silly', it was kind of her word and she was crazy at using it.
I remember one time we (My mum, my sister and I) went to the supermarket for our weekly shop. Cherys (that's my sisters name), Cherys had only just learnt the word and repeated it like a million times while we pushed her around in a trolley. She'd randomly point at people and call them "Silly" and we'd be forever pushing the trolley quickly trying to get away. That was her to a 'T', fearless.

I opened the door and stood to the side of it gesturing like a mute doorman for her to lead the way. She just stood there, patted both hands on the side of her hips and asked;

'How do I look?'

I told her she looked pretty and I meant it and she smiled a big smile for me. I asked her how I looked and her exact words were 'Like a big silly-head', told you it was her word.

So the walk to school was pretty much the same as it had been last term only this time I spent most of it nervously watching Cherys. She kept running ahead, and then she'd turn to see me as she was running and my heart would leap into my mouth incase she fell but she never did. Every so often I'd shout 'Watch the road" and immediately felt embarrassed, not because of all the other kids and their mums that might be walking the same route as us but mainly because Cherys is a smart kid, I just couldn't help blurting out all these warnings.

For the whole of the walk to Saint John Fisher (that's the name of our school), all I could think about was what Cherys' first day was going to be like, I kept imagining that she'd get bullied and that scared the hell out of me. Kids always keep quiet about that stuff when they should tell people. Then I'd imagine her getting bullied and all of a sudden I'd be wading in and saving the day and I'd become Cherys' hero and the hero of her whole class and then when we got home and mum asked her about her first day she'd say it was nice and she'd wink at me and it'd be our secret. It was all really noble.

Confession time... when I said I'd thought about that for the whole of the walk their I kinda fibbed, you see when we were almost there I looked up and across the road was Michelle Press, a girl in my year who I really liked and I knew liked me probably only as a friend but on some days it'd feel like more than that. She looked over at me and smiled, damn did she have a nice smile, I smiled back and began to cross the road. I knew Michelle probably was still half watching me so I made sure to take Cherys' hand as we crossed and very deliberately I made her look left and right, even though there was no traffic,  and made sure to avoid looking at Michelle. I was trying to play it very mature and cool, Cherys just looked at me and said 'I'm not a baby you big silly' she had a million and one variations on the theme. Then she let go of my hand and dashed through the school gates to join her friends, leaving me to walk in a little ways behind Michelle looking nervous and embarrassed.

So break time comes around I was standing on the Junior playground just talking to some classmates and we could see across to the infant playground. I looked over and Cherys was speaking to another girl who was slightly bigger... lemme just say it how it was, she was a bit of a fatty and it looked to be getting a bit heated. All of a sudden the fatty pushed Cherys who stumbled back and was stopped by a wall. My mind was racing, I wanted to go over and just push the fatty over to see how she liked it, once again I had visions again of being Cherys' hero.

As it actually happened; before I'd had chance to even move Cherys had stepped forward and with two hands pushed the fat girl who stumbled back, warbled for a second before crashing down and landing on her bum.
I smiled, at the time my friends didn't know what came over me. All of a sudden I was grinning like a cheshire cat; Cherys' friends (she makes friends quickly) all surrounded her and were congratulating her.
I had wanted to be Cherys' hero but now she had become my hero and that of her class.

After school we met at the gates for the walk home, Cherys seemed a bit surprised when I leant down and hugged her but she hugged back and asked;

'What was that silly hug for?'

I smiled and told her;
'No reason.'

I looked up and noticed Michelle had just seen me hug Cherys, I would have blushed but I just didn't feel like it. Michelle smiled and waved to me before turning to go home. It was crazy, most of our communication seemed to be in waves and smiles but none of that mattered to me at the moment.
As Cherys and I were walking home (here's the kicker), I asked Cherys if anything had happened that day at school.

'No' she said 'Not really', humbleness she had it in spades.

'No?' I asked.

'Well...' she said looking sheepish '... I think this boy in my class likes me.'

My feet stopped instinctively and I damn near tripped over as my body was still going forward.

'WHAT?'

'This boy in my class, his name's Jason...'

And that's all I really heard, I started to think about my sister with boys and what I'd do to them.
She'd managed to find one thing that is scarier for me than her being bullied... her and boys.
But that's a story for another time.

THE END