Punctuality, money, and I'm So Glad I'm Not An Epsilon

My mother and I planned to leave this morning at a quarter to eight. I was ready at twenty to, went downstairs, flicked on the television and managed to catch the video for Stop by the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. It's a long song. So is Special Needs, which came next. And so are Time is Running Out (Muse) and the one that was number one last week (can't remember name).

Yeah, punctuality is not my mother's strong point.

So we didn't arrive all that early, but I wasn't late. I found everyone in the upper common room, in earnest discussion about their tails. I managed quite well with mine. Bev, on the other hand, hadn't worn hers yet because she was afraid people would stop her in the street and say, "What the fuck's that?" Becca, on the other hand, had had to tie it around her neck like a tie and then pull it down. Julie was around, and dropped into the conversation to say she'd had to tie a set of tails around her waist, wriggle out of them and then let Jessica step in them and put them on herself.

So, yes. Tails are difficult things to get your head around. For those who really have no idea what I'm talking about, they are long lengths of blue fabric tape, which you wind round your waist and tie a tie-knot in, only horizontally, and then you let them dangle down at the back of your skirt. It sounds a weird and pointless thing to do, but it's amazing how much older I feel when I'm wearing them. For five years, "tails" has been synomynous with "sixth form" and it will be a while before the novelty wears off.

We had a lot of admin this morning, mostly timetables, and while Becca messed about with highlighters and actually tried to make sense of it, I waited until I got the actual timetable they gave me. I have to do Extension and General Studies, neither of which I want to do particularly, but it's compulsory. Half of the year (my class included) does the Extension module in January, so we have to to finish the work before then, and after that, we'll have those lessons as free periods. Which is good. That will take my total frees up to two doubles, which is twice as many as I have at the moment. Becca is aggravated because she has less frees than even me, but it could be worse, as some people, by nature of the subjects they've chosen, have no frees at all. For a few crazy moments, Bev thought she had five free doubles; she later found out they'd missed one of her subjects off her timetable!

Subjects, yes. I am doing Chemistry, Biology, Politics and English language/lit combined, which is apparently an odd combination. Not as odd as replacing Biology with Physics would have been, but still. I won't go into that particular minefield now. After the admin, we had about an hour free, which I used to give my work experience thingit to Mr Donan and go to the library. I got three books - a sequel to Saffy's Angel, called Indigo's Star (nominally a children's book, but so beautifully written I love it), and also a new one called Divide (forget the author) and I Capture The Castle (Dodie Smith) which I have always wanted to read but never got around to.

I put the books on my little shelf, along with my file, before going to assembly. We had it late today to give the thirds time to settle in. They seem as small as ever. The assembly was also as boring as ever, livened up slightly by the fact I was the only one with a hymn book for some bizarre reason and had to share it with about five people. And we were sitting on the right side of the hall. That piece of information will be significant to so few people I don't know why I included it.

I didn't go out for lunch today, but we did go in at twelve and so on the tail end of the thirds. When we were in the (almost non-existent) queue, someone, probably Mrs Butler, mistook me for a third. I was extremely annoyed. I am not a third. I'm sixteen years and eight months old and have ten GCSEs and a set of tails. I'm not a fucking third. Everyone else thought it was hilarious. Huh.

We went out briefly after lunch, only to buy chewy (me) and water (Becca) and fruit gums (Bev). We had to get back in time for registration, because we had lessons in the afternoon. Chemistry and English in my case, and shockingly, I actually enjoyed them. Well, I enjoyed the Chemistry. There are seven people in the class (with Mrs Colvin) and I never thought I would actually enjoy it, but there you go. English was not so good, mainly because they've launched into the lit portion of it, and I hate lit. We're reading Huxley's Brave New World and Utopia by Thomas More. We started by just reading, and I've read Brave New World before and was bored. The good thing was we were let out at twenty to four. I would've got home earlier, but I missed the train. Got in at the usual time, Dadi was annoying (I'm sorry. She was) but Pedar got back soon enough, and he brought in the post.

We have family friends in London who just heard about my results. They've sent me money. Fifty-one pounds, to be precise.

I've never deposited a cheque before.