Page 2 of Try Hard
Mum smiled at me. “Have fun and try not to freeze.”
“It’s not that cold, Mum,” I said with a wry grin.
“You say that now, but just you wait. Standing out there in the cold, nothing to protect you from the elements, and you just might freeze.”
I laughed. “Well, I will endeavour not to.”
“Good.”
She pulled me into a hug and I tried not to wince. Five years. I’d had those piercings for five whole years and she’d never once felt them in a hug.
We pulled apart and nothing about her expression had changed, nothing suggested she knew.
I needed to get a grip.
She swept us out of the house and into the dark morning. Saturday, this early, few others in the street were stirring, but Dad liked to get an early start. Apparently, lots of UK viewers liked to tune in over their Saturday breakfast, so he had to be in position and streaming before they got up.
I shivered in the cold car. Probably not a great sign after just telling my mum it wasn’t that bad out. It would warm up as the sun finished rising.
When we’d joined the motorway, Dad glanced my way. “You know who’s part of the crew these days?”
I breathed a laugh. “The plane crew?”
“Well,ourplane crew. Bit different than actual plane crews, I suppose.”
“Just a bit. But, I don’t know. Who?”
“Big Jezzer.”
I blinked and stared at the side of his head. “I have no idea who that is.”
He grinned widely as he drove. “Big Jezzer.”
“Dad, you can say it as many times as you like, it’s not going to suddenly tell me who Big Jezzer is.”
He laughed. “Jeremy.”
“Yes, thank you. I’d guessed that much.Whois Jeremy?”
“Jeremy Archer.”
I raised an eyebrow. Ididknow that name.
Dad shot a surprised look my way, interpreting my silence as obliviousness rather than… whatever it actually was. “You know the Archers. You went to school with the daughters.”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“Ah,” he said, satisfied. “I knew you would.”
“How, exactly, did Jeremy Archer get involved?”
“Oh, we put out a call on the library notice board.”
“Of course you did.”
“He saw it, got in touch, and voila.”
I nodded. I suppose it made sense that the Archers were still in the area. My parents were, Kim’s were, most people’s were. But the idea that JeremyArcherroutinely hung out with my dad was… interesting.
