Saturday Morning at the McLaughlin house was a usual Saturday morning from Tom’s point of view. He had got up and had his breakfast, then left to meet up with his friends as he did every Saturday morning. His mum had said nothing after last night about the uniform thing; he was not going to remind her of it until he needed to. That way, she wouldn’t let him take part, he thought.
Over at the Ellis house, Joss was wondering if her mum would sign the permission slip or not. She would never be able to get her own back at Tom for what he had done to her hair. She decided not to push her mum as she looked tired that Saturday morning. Joss knew her mum had the end-of-the-month meeting yesterday and that always put her in a bad mood, so she waited for her mum to tell her what she had decided. So she too met up with her friends as arranged.
What neither Joss nor Tom knew was that Alexandria Ellis had called Patricia McLaughlin earlier that morning. She still had the number after they had organized things after the stunt that Tom had pulled with Joss’ hair. They had arranged to meet up with each other that morning so that they could discuss the experiment that their children had told them of the night before. Patricia had suggested they meet up for a coffee around lunchtime, and Alexandria agreed. She had discussed things over with her husband the night before, and he had agreed to leave things up to her. After all, this was more to do with things she knew about than he did. She had never made a wrong decision about Joss so far, and he knew that she would not start now if she could avoid it.
With that, both women got back to their normal Saturday morning routine. Alexandria had her breakfast and looked over the notes of yesterday afternoon’s meeting. Patricia, on the other hand, had sorted out the washing and took Kathy to her friend's house. She knew that Kathy was old enough, but she was still her little girl, well, at least for the moment anyway.
Both Alexandria and Patricia started their journey towards the café just before twelve. Patricia arrived first and ordered herself a coffee and sat down at a table near the window so that she was able to spot Alexandria when she arrived, which she did a few minutes later.
“Alex over here,” Patricia called when she saw Alexandria arrive.
“Pat, I told you not to call me that,” Alexandria said when she arrived at the table with her cup in hand.
“Sorry, I couldn’t resist,” Patricia said as Alexandria sat down.
“I will let you away with it this time,” Alexandria said with a smile on her face.
“Who would have thought that it would take some chewing gum for us to get to know each other?” Patricia said, smiling back.
“Well, that and a haircut,” Alexandria replied.
“Yeah, I am still deducting that from Tom’s allowance. He should be back up to full allowance by the time he leaves high school.” Patricia said, taking a mouthful of coffee..
“It didn’t cost that much,” Alexandria said in return..
“I know, but I saw a dress I wanted to buy and I thought it would be nice if Tom bought it for me,” Patricia said.
Alexandria tried not to laugh. “It's always nice to get a gift from your child, isn’t it?”
“It is indeed. I take it your Joss brought home one of those project letters yesterday?” Patricia asked.
“She did indeed. She told me that she and Tom volunteered to take part in it,” Alexandria told Patricia.
“Well, well, Tom said he had been drafted into taking part. He didn’t say anything about volunteering.” Patricia said.
“From what Joan Fitzpatrick tells me, I get the feeling that Joss pushed him into taking part,” Alexandria said.
“She called you last night?” Patricia asked.
“Yes, she had some silly idea that Joss would not tell me about it for some reason,” Alexandria said.
“Strange she didn’t call me,” Patricia said.
“Oh, that’s my fault. I told her that I would let you know. She knew we had kept in touch after what happened with the chewing gum.” Alexandria told Patricia.
“That explains it then. So are you going to let Joss take part in it?” Patricia asked..
“I was thinking about it. Sounds like it could be interesting from an academic point of view. What about you? Are you letting Tom take part?” Alexandria asked.
“I hadn’t given it much thought, but it might teach Tom a thing or two. I was still thinking about it. I will call you tonight with my answer.” Patricia said.
“Well, all the costs are covered by the school, so it wouldn’t cost a penny, and I asked for a look at their daily diaries. I thought it might help with some of the children I teach as well. I was told that with everyone involved, permission wouldn’t be a problem.” Alexandria said.
“Good enough for me. We still have a day or so before the permission slips need to be back in. So, tell me, did you see that new show on channel five last night?” Patricia asked
“Which one?” Alexandria asked in return, and with that, the accidental friends began catching up on what had been going on in their lives since they had last seen each other. This conversation lasted until they parted that afternoon.
