18 Years Later
1368 Words
The sun streamed in through Helena’s window. She yawned and stretched, she had forgotten to close her curtains. She was so tired!
Her dream from last night was slipping away, but she was sure it was similar to all the other dreams she had been having recently,
Standing in a forest clearing she saw a large black wolf, looking at her with deep yellow eyes.
Why would she be dreaming about a wolf all the time? There are no wolves in Wales.
Beeping disturbed her thoughts, she rolled over and stopped her alarm.
‘I am Not ready to get up yet!’
And she tried to snuggle further down under the covers.
“Helena!”
Helena groaned. “Not now Mum!”
"HELENA!"
Helena sighed and swung her feet out of bed onto the rug. There was no escaping her mother, no matter how warm her bed was.
She looked back at the clock, an hour before the school bus. She had time.
She grabbed some clean clothes and headed to the bathroom for a quick shower.
Her dad was on the narrow landing. He kissed the top of her head.
“Morning Love”.
“Morning Dad.” She gave him a warm smile. He was dressed in his working coat, trousers and woolly socks, he would have been up hours before her.
Her friends made fun of her, but she was definitely a Daddies girl.
Growing up on the farm meant she had spent a lot of time with her dad, working hard, bringing in the cows each evening, and in the school holidays taking care of the other animals too.
He never let her during school term time though, said her studies and exams were more important than sheep and pigs.
Unlike her dad, she couldn’t cope with early mornings though, she just couldn’t force herself awake at 5am. How he did it she didn’t understand.
He was proud of her, she was doing well in school and both her parents were really happy with how well her grades were coming along for her A-Levels.
Not much longer and we’ll have a long summer.
“I’m just having a quick shower.”
“Ok Love, just don’t miss your bus.” And he carried on down the stairs.
Helena had so many Summer plans with her best friend Lucy, as she washed her hair in the shower her phone beeped. That will be Lucy now checking I’m going to be at school on time. She rinsed her hair and stepped out, tying a towel around her before wrapping another one around her hair.
She swiped open her phone. Yep. A message from Lucy flashed on the screen
“Hey Hel, you had better be awake!”
Lucy knew that Helena loved the snooze button.
Helena tousled her hair with the towel before dragging a comb through it, it would dry straight on the way to school. She hadn’t been given the lovely curls her mother had.
At least it’s a nice colour, Helena thought to herself, she looked in the mirror, long blonde hair hung around her face, complimenting her lightly tanned skin and bright blue eyes.
She pulled out a blue top and a pair of grey jeans. These will look nice.
Her phone beeped again.
“HEL! Answer me!”
She typed a quick reply to Lucy, and grabbed her schoolbag. Checking she had todays books she pulled the comb through her hair one last time and gave herself a quick lick of mascara. She didn’t actually have blonde eyelashes, which was a surprise to everyone, but she liked having a lick of something extra.
In the kitchen, her mother was boiling the kettle.
“Morning darling, not late today then?”
Helena rolled her eyes, "Mum!”
Laughing, Marianne turned and looked at her daughter. “Maybe if you didn’t love that snooze button so much, you wouldn’t be late all the time.”
Helena filled up a mug with coffee, “I need this, my dreams are making me tired. Do you ever get tired from dreams?”
Marianne looked at her thoughtfully, “What sort of dreams?”
Helena took a big gulp of coffee, “oh, random movie style dreams. Nothing real.”
She gave her mum a quick hug and slipped her sandals on. “See you later!”
“You’ll have to tell me later what you’ve been dreaming about.” Marianne called.
“Sure Mum.”
She closed the door behind her, squinting up at the morning sunlight, the bus would be here soon, and Lucy on it, she lived further up the road at the next farm.
She walked down the cart track towards where the bus would stop.
Phone in hand.
“Let’s see what google has to say”. As she typed ‘What does dreaming of a black wolf mean?’
‘The colour black usually symbolises bad omens, death or oppression.’
Oh charming, what else?
‘A Wolf though, represents protection, family, and transformation.’
Oh that’s better I guess.
‘A combination may mean that a family member is not acting as they appear.’
Helena sighed and shoved her phone in her pocket. I guess a dream is just a dream, no one in my family are hiding anything. Everyone is too boring. She thought of her quiet mother Marianne, a sweet lady who had always been a hands on mother, but shied away from being too social, she didn’t ever leave the village, she was happy with just her fathers company.
She swished her long hair back over her shoulder as the bus appeared around the corner.
Ok, English first lesson, Lucy is in that class, and Adam.
She shuffled as she thought of Adam, tall and handsome Adam, He was sweet on her, and had hinted a few times that he would love to go out with her, but something always held her back. She had never had a boyfriend actually, it made people question if she even liked boys, she did, but she just always had a feeling that any boy interested wasn’t really the one for her.
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Lucy watched out the window of the bus as it trundled down the country road towards Helena’s farm, shielding her eyes from the sunshine, she saw her leggy blonde friend leaning against her gate.
Grinning she chucked her bag on the floor as Helena got on.
“Hel! Hurry up!”
Helena swung herself into the seat next to Lucy.
“Hey Luce, what’s occurring?”
Luce grinned at Helena, “Hel, you’ll never guess what!”
Helena tucked her hair behind her ears. “No, I won’t, you’re always so random.”
Luce pulled a letter out of her bag.
“I got accepted into Cardiff uni!”
Helena gasped!
“Luce that’s great!”
As the girls hugged, Helena looked over Lucy’s shoulder at the green fields rolling past.
She hadn’t heard back from any universities yet. And it was beginning to worry her.
Helena pulled back and took a look at her gorgeous friend, Lucy was grinning with her cheeky dimpled smile, shoulder length wavy brunette hair, and sea green eyes. She was just the sort of person that always made you happy to be around, and Helena felt a pang that they might be separated when they left their village to go to university.
“Have you told Paul yet?”
Lucy shook her head, “No, I wanted to tell you first, my parents know obviously, my mum saw the letter arrive yesterday and I opened it last night.”
Lucy’s parents were so excited for Lucy to go to university, not many kids moved far from the village to pursue their education. So they were really proud of how Lucy had been doing in school too.
Helena put her head on Lucys shoulder as they carried on travelling to school.
“I’m going to miss you Luce.”
“Don’t be stupid, you’ll get yours any day now”
But Helena couldn’t shake the feeling that she was going to end up miles away from her friend, and maybe her family too.
- Writer
