Living My Best Life

by Claire Frost

  Bell stared at her, not comprehending the words that her hearing nerve had transmitted but her brain had failed to translate into sense. ‘You want me to take some photos for our campaigns?’ she asked slowly, aware she was doing a great impression of a lobotomy patient. Marian nodded and looked encouraging. ‘But I’ve only ever taken pictures for fun, not for proper things like work,’ she said. ‘I’m not sure I’d be any good at it, to be honest.’

  ‘Well, I like to think I’m a good judge of someone’s character, and if anyone can turn their mind and the skills they already possess to something like this, then it’s you,’ Marian said with a steely gaze. ‘You wouldn’t be the only photographer involved on the project, as I want to mix it up with different styles so it’s quite Instagrammy and feels very real for our customers.’

  Bell opened her mouth, and shut it again, still not able to form a proper sentence.

  ‘Of course, you don’t have to do it, and you certainly don’t have to give me an answer now,’ Marian continued with the same intense look at her. ‘But if you could let me know either way by the beginning of next week, I can start briefing the teams. Right, well, thank you, Bell.’ She stood up and strode back to her desk, leaving Bell to scramble out of the sofa, which of course she’d sunk straight into when she leaned back to try to take in her boss’s request.

  ‘I will, I’ll have a think,’ she stumbled, before adding, ‘And thanks, Marian. Thanks for the opportunity and for your belief in me.’ She backed out of the room and practically ran back to her desk.

  Chapter Twenty

  Millie

  Wolf was excited to be going to the community centre again.

  ‘Can we go splashing? Will Bell Bell be there? Can we have hot chocolate?’ he’d asked Millie when she’d told him that was the plan for Saturday.

  ‘Yes, Bell will be there, but we will have to see about hot chocolate as you can’t have it every time you go, you know, and I’m not sure if we’ll have time for swimming, but we can always go back on Sunday,’ she’d replied, much to Wolf’s glee.

  They were late leaving the house, thanks to a fraught ten-minute hunt for Wolf’s right trainer that had mysteriously ended up in his bedroom instead of in the hallway with the left one. But, thankfully, neither grown-up nor small person had a meltdown and the crisis was averted without too much fuss.

  ‘Wolfie, there’s going to be quite a lot of adult talking today, so you’ll have to play a bit quietly sometimes. Is that going to be okay?’

  ‘You mean people are going to say naughty words?’ Her son looked up at her, his eyes wide and excited.

  ‘No, darling, I don’t think there’ll be any swearing,’ Millie smiled. ‘But you will find some of the talking a bit boring so it’s fine for you to go off to the play mat and build Lego. Or I’ve brought your headphones with us so you can even watch a couple of things on my phone if you get really bored.’

  ‘I fink I might get really bored, Mummy, yes!’ he replied, gazing up at her with a serious expression on his face, but a naughty glint in his eyes.

  ‘Funny that, eh, Wolfie!’ Millie said. ‘But first we’re going to have a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake with Bell.’

  ‘Yummy! I like cake. And I do like Bell, Mummy. Though maybe not as much as cake,’ he added thoughtfully.

  ‘Don’t tell Bell that!’ Millie laughed. ‘Here we are, can you see Bell through the window at all?’

  ‘There she is, Mummy, look, she’s waving at us!’

  Wolf ran on into the café ahead of Millie and shouted, ‘Bell Bell, we’re here! We’re having tea and cake with you and Mummy said I shouldn’t tell you I said I like cake better than I like you, but I think maybe I like you both the same.’

  ‘Well, cake is lovely, so I’m not surprised it was a close call, Wolf,’ Bell grinned at the little boy. He clambered on to her lap, his shoes leaving scuff marks all over her jeans, and she kissed the top of his head. ‘You seem a happy chappy today. Is it because it’s nice and sunny outside? Or maybe it’s the thought of cake?’

  ‘Mummy said I might be allowed hot chocolate as well as cake. I hope she lets me,’ he whispered to her at a volume that Millie was well able to hear as she walked into the busy café area.

  ‘If you promise to play quietly later then I’m sure that can be arranged,’ Millie said as she dumped her bags next to the table and bent down to give Bell a hug. ‘I’ll go and order now, so, Wolfie, why don’t you tell Bell what you’ve been doing at school this week.’ She gave her friend a meaningful look and went off to choose between chocolate cake and lemon drizzle, before deciding to get one of each for the three of them to share.

  Bell looked down at the five-year-old squirming on her knee. ‘Scored any good goals this week, Ronaldo?’

  Wolf turned round to face her, kicking her painfully on the kneecap in his haste. ‘I did this really cool move where Jordan passed it to me in the middle of the pitch and I passed it back then ran really really fast up to the goal and he passed it again and I put it in the back of the net. Me and Jordan did a high five after we did some cheering and Miss Foster said we were like something out of the Premiership and me and Jordan kept high-fiving each other all day after. So maybe I am a tiny weeny bit like Ronaldo, but as I’m only five now maybe when I grow up I’ll be like a superhero Ronaldo and even better than him.’

  ‘That sounds amazing, Wolf! I hope when you become superhero Ronaldo and play in the Premiership you’ll let me and Mummy come to see you play and score goals like that.’

  ‘Of course, Bell Bell. You and Mummy can cheer me on, even when it’s all rainy and cold. Daddy says if you can play really well in the rain, which is really hard, then you’re a proper footie player. So I have to practise very very hard.’ He suddenly looked very serious. ‘Although Zach says . . . Ooh, hot chocolate and marshmallows!’

  ‘What do you say, Wolf,’ prompted Millie as she placed the tray down on the table, unaware of the tail-end of his conversation.

  ‘Fank you, Mummy, and I’ll be very good.’

  ‘What were you saying about Zach, Wolfie?’ Bell prompted.

  ‘I can’t remember,’ the little boy replied as he spooned marshmallows into his mouth.

  The adults exchanged a glance, but Millie kept the chat light, focusing on TV shows she and Bell had seen that week and how gorgeous the weather had been recently, before Wolf went off to the play area where Millie could see him, and talk inevitably turned to the centre’s fundraising efforts.

  ‘We’ve had almost three thousand pounds pledged in just a couple of days, which is amazing,’ Bell said. ‘But I can’t see how we’re going to get to twenty-five thousand without doing something big. The more I think about it, the more I realise we need to put on a massive event of some kind and get literally everyone who lives within a ten-mile radius to come.’

  ‘That sounds, erm, ambitious,’ Millie said, raising her eyebrows.

  ‘I know,’ Bell groaned. ‘But we’ve got to aim high, haven’t we? Otherwise in just a few months we won’t be able to come here for hot choc and cake.’

  ‘Don’t say that, we’re going to make this happen,’ Millie reassured her. ‘Okay, so we need a big event. What about a summer fair? We can charge people a couple of quid to come in and then have loads of stalls selling cakes and sweets and a bouncy castle for the kids.’

  ‘Yep, it sounds great.’ Bell sighed. ‘And it will make a couple of grand maybe, but nowhere near what we need.’

  ‘Well it all adds up. But I see what you mean. We need a big draw, though it’s not as if the town has any local celebrities to speak of, does it?’

  ‘Well, I’m certainly hoping one of the others has some connection up their sleeve because I definitely don’t! Oh well, let’s see. How’s Wolf been since you were called into the school? Actually, I think he was about to say something before you came over with the drinks. He mentioned Zach – wasn’t he the boy he talked about before?’

  ‘Yes! Oh god, that’s
so annoying that I came back at just the wrong point.’

  ‘I wouldn’t worry. At least it sounded like he might want to talk about it, which is the main thing.’

  ‘God, I hope so. He was so much happier today when he woke up because he knew it was Saturday and he didn’t have school. I hate the thought of anything making him miserable, let alone something at school that’s so much harder for me to fix. Not that Louis is being much help. I finally got hold of him last night, but he barely let me get a word in edgeways as he told me about his amazing holiday with the bimbo – see, I told you I was going to bring that word back!’ she laughed as she saw Bell’s face crease up. ‘But let’s not go there now as I can’t deal with another stomach ache like the other day!’

  The pair both made an effort to pull themselves together, before Bell asked, ‘What was wrong with KL then – I’d have thought he’d be all happy and relaxed after his holiday with the b—, I mean in Marbella,’ she said, managing not to giggle.

  ‘Oh, he’s annoyed at his agent as he’d promised him a transfer to a club in the Championship, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Which is hardly a surprise as he’s been injured for most of the season – hence why he was able to spend a week sunning himself in Marbella! But he doesn’t see it that way and now he’s sulking. What, why are you looking at me like that?’

  ‘King Louis! He could work.’

  ‘What do you mean, he could work? Work as what?’

  ‘He could be the big draw we need at the summer fair.’

  ‘Louis? No one’s going to pay good money to see Louis at a fair.’

  ‘Don’t be so sure.’ Bell nodded, warming to her theme. ‘We could organise a five-a-side tournament that Louis could be part of. Who wouldn’t want the opportunity to play football with a famous Premiership player?’

  ‘Ex-Premiership, now League One. Really? You think people would care that much? God, I can’t think of anything worse than playing football with Louis!’

  ‘That’s because you’re not very good at it, Mummy,’ Wolf said matter-of-factly as he presented her with an unidentifiable model of stuck-together Lego. ‘When Daddy does dribbling it’s like he’s on fast-forward cos he’s so quick. And if Daddy came and played football in front of everyone then Zach would have to believe me and stop being so horrible.’

  Millie glanced at Bell and then hauled her son onto her lap and stroked his hair. ‘Darling, is Zach being mean to you at school?’

  ‘A bit,’ Wolf mumbled.

  ‘Is he saying horrible things to you or hurting you in the playground?’ she probed gently.

  ‘He says that Daddy is a rubbish footballer and that I am too. And then he sometimes trips me up in the playground on purpose and laughs when I fall over.’

  ‘You know the other day when you were told off for fighting, was that to do with Zach?’ Millie couldn’t help the edge that had crept into her voice; she couldn’t bear the thought of some little scrotty kid hurting Wolfie.

  ‘Yes,’ Wolf said, fiddling with his Lego. ‘He pushed me over and I got angry and said something horrible to him, so he punched me on the arm and pushed me over again and then everyone came and started shouting and then Mrs Boyle came and shouted louder and then I had to see Mrs Spencer. But, Mummy, I never hurted Zach, I swear. I did say nasty things but only cos he had and Daddy told me to say nasty things back when someone sayed them to me.’

  ‘It’s okay, Wolfie,’ Millie said, hugging him to her and feeling the warmth of his little body lean into hers. She swiped her arm across her eyes, her anger building about the way her son had been treated both by Zach and by the school. ‘I’ll come in and see your teachers on Monday and we’ll sort this all out.’

  ‘I don’t want Mrs Boyle and Mrs Spencer to be all cross.’ Wolf looked at his mum, alarmed.

  ‘They won’t be cross with you, Wolfie, I promise. Now that you’ve told me what’s been happening, I can make it all better.’ Well, she hoped she could anyway. She hugged Wolf even tighter, until he started protesting.

  ‘Mills, I’d better go and set up the room ready for the action committee. It’s absolutely fine if you don’t feel up to it and want to take Wolf home now.’

  ‘I want to play with the Lego a bit longer. Pleeeeeease, Mummy.’

  Millie looked at Wolf and then Bell and eventually nodded. ‘Okay, Wolf, you can bring a small box of the Lego from here into the special room where we’re having our meeting. But when we’re finished, you have to promise to tidy everything up quickly and quietly. And when we give Daddy a call tomorrow, I need you to tell him exactly what you told me about Zach. Is that okay?’

  ‘Yes, Mummy,’ Wolf replied, but Millie could see he was less than happy at telling Louis about Zach bullying him. Because that’s what it was: bullying. Millie felt bubbles of anger rising up inside her chest again, but thankfully Bell placed a reassuring hand on her arm.

  ‘It will be okay, Mills, he’s a tough cookie. See you in a few minutes, yeah?’

  *

  Everyone arrived promptly for the meeting and the eleven of them sat round in a circle, with Wolf playing happily a little way away. Millie glanced at the five-year-old proudly as he stared intently at the Lego pieces, concentration etched on his face while he decided which ones to add to his creation.

  ‘Thanks for coming, everyone,’ Bell began. ‘So today is all about coming up with some amazing ideas of how we can raise the full twenty-five thousand pounds and keep this centre open.’

  ‘So no pressure then,’ Laura said, and they all laughed nervously.

  ‘I know it sounds like a lot of money – and it absolutely is – but we can do this!’ Bell tried to reassure the group, though even she didn’t sound entirely convinced. ‘We’ve already had a total of almost three thousand pledged by various people who came to the council meeting on Wednesday, but I was thinking we need one big push rather than loads of little ones to make this happen. What do you all think?’

  The group were quiet, until Ben spoke up. ‘I think you’re right. We shouldn’t discount all the little bake sales and coffee mornings people have already promised to do, but they can only raise so much. A big event sounds great – what did you have in mind, Bell?’

  Millie glanced at her friend sympathetically, knowing that Bell had rather hoped other people would have some suggestions to share too. But instead she was forced to go straight in with her own idea.

  ‘Erm, well I was thinking a big summer fair, with stalls and fun things for the kids, maybe a bouncy castle and old-school games.’

  ‘We could make it a vintage fair, with a tombola and hoopla and old games like my mum used to tell me about,’ piped up Lisa from the uniform brigade.

  ‘Ooh, I like that idea,’ nodded Laura. ‘We could have a roast pig on a spit and whisky tasting for the adults and things like guess how many sweets in the jar and guess the doll’s name for the kids. And hook-a-duck and splat-the-rat and—’

  ‘Sounds like you’re volunteering for quite a few stalls right there, Laura!’ Bell smiled. ‘I also like the vintage idea, as hopefully it will appeal to both the older members of the community and all the kids and their parents. Well done, Lisa.’

  ‘Me and Sarah would be up for having a stall of some of the cross-stitch and knitting we’ve been doing,’ Di added, and everyone began to buzz with chatter and ideas about what stalls they could include.

  Ben said, ‘What do you think about displaying the photos from our class in the days leading up to the event so people can come and view them when they want and then we’ll sell prints of them on the day? I’m sure Sheila can help us sort that.’

  ‘Och, I’m not sure anyone will want mine, but we should definitely give it a go,’ Laura replied. ‘Well, we seem to have a load of stalls sorted, but what else could we do on the day?’

  There was silence while everyone racked their brains for ideas. Millie watched worry lines form on Bell’s forehead, so with a glance at Wolf, who was preoccupied with whoos
hing his Lego creations above his head like spaceships, she said, ‘Bell and I were saying we needed a celebrity or someone famous as a big-name draw to get people to come from outside of the town.’

  ‘Definitely,’ nodded Lisa, Ian and Matt. ‘But there’s no one even remotely famous round here.’

  ‘Does anyone know anyone?’ Ben asked. Everyone was silent, so Millie eventually cleared her throat.

  ‘I, erm, know Louis Price. He’s a footballer that some people might have heard of maybe?’

  ‘He’s the one who’s seeing that Zoe off of TOWIE, isn’t he?’ Lisa said. ‘He’s properly fit. God, I’m so jealous you know him, Millie – I’d definitely like to be introduced to him!’ Everyone sniggered, though Millie noticed that neither Ian nor Matt was laughing very hard.

  ‘He’s a really good player,’ Marcus said more seriously. ‘Have you seen that goal he scored a couple of seasons ago against Man United? It was awesome.’

  ‘And it definitely doesn’t hurt he’s easy on the eye,’ Lynne grinned.

  ‘Yeah, he’ll be a housewife’s favourite!’ Laura laughed.

  ‘Mummy, what does a housewife’s favourite mean?’ Wolf suddenly piped up. ‘Is Daddy one?’

  ‘Erm, I’ll tell you later, Wolfie. Do you want my phone to watch an episode of Peppa? Let me put your headphones on for you. Okay, you sit in the middle here.’

  ‘He’s so good,’ Sarah smiled at Millie. ‘He’s been sitting there playing with his Lego on his own for ages.’

  ‘He has his moments, but yes, I’m pretty lucky,’ Millie agreed.

  ‘Is Louis Price really his dad?’ Laura said, asking the question many of them had been thinking but had been too polite to say out loud.

  ‘Laura! It’s none of your business,’ Ben admonished her.