Now and then

WHEN I think of Betty and Pauline, I always smile. They had been the most unlikely school friends for a girl who was regarded by most of the class as being studious and rather boring.

Betty and Pauline were the epitome of Sixties teenagers.

Whilst I spent most evenings practising the cello, they were out having a good time to the sounds of the Merseybeat.

I envied them in a way, having all that fun, and sometimes I would look at myself in the mirror, tussle my hair, and wish I was a bit more like them.

One lunchtime I was wandering past the school’s art block when someone grabbed at my cardigan.

“Eh, Margaret, do you want to try one of these?” Betty said, waving a packet of Woodbines in my face.

Pauline blew out a cloud of cigarette smoke.

“No, I don’t,” I replied, full of self-righteous indignation. “Let me go before one of the teachers sees us.”

“I don’t care if we do get caught,” Betty said, drawing on her cigarette.

“The teachers all smoke like factory chimneys,” Pauline said. “Have you seen old Benedict’s fingers?

“They’re as yellow as an egg yolk. That’s why they call him ‘Eggs’ Benedict. Get it?”

I wafted the cigarette smoke away from my face.

“Anyway, we’ve got a proposition for you,” Betty added.

“Have you?” I asked, feeling decidedly anxious as to what was coming.

“Your old man’s a newsagent, isn’t he?” Betty continued.

I gave her a cautious nod.

“We thought you might be able to get some ciggies for us in exchange for us keeping the bullies off your back,” Pauline said.

I pointed out that we were only fifteen and that I wasn’t interested in becoming the victim of a protection racket.

“Come on, Margaret, we’re not asking you to nick them,” Betty said. “We’ll pay for them.

“It’s just that, like you say, we are only fifteen.”

I weighed up Betty and Pauline’s offer.

One girl in particular had been making my life awful for weeks.

“I’ll think about it,” I replied.

“Go on, try one,” Betty said, handing me her half-smoked cigarette.

I took it from her and held it to my lips, just to seem a little less boring.

“Look out!” Pauline exclaimed. “Eggs is coming.”

I dropped the cigarette and crunched it into the gravel under my shoe.

“Right, you three!” Mr Benedict shouted. ��