So here goes...
Bridesmaid #1: Pippy
I first met Pippy (not her real name) when I started St Augustine's RC Secondary School, Scarborough. she was a quiet and shy girl, who wore tracky bottoms and airtex t-shirts. She had a lovely mum and dance crazy sister who were so proud of their academically successful Pippy.
Then she started hanging around with me....
I was also a quiet and retiring pre teen who was in the top sets of all her classes and had a very good relationship with my family and teachers.... Then I hit 13 and that rebellion switch in my head became active and here is the exact moment where the madness started.
Pippy and myself had a budding friendship from the early years of Secondary School but in summer 2000 age 14, it became better than ever!... Even now over 10 years later, this is the best and most actively entertaining summer I have ever had.... and I know Pip thinks the same!
We had a group of friends who were all soooo different it just worked! There was me, the out going thought she knew everything one (nothings changed). Pippy, the shy one just waiting to be corrupted by us. Laura, the crazy alternative one. Amy, the misunderstood one. Amber, the giggly one. Stef, the aggressive in your face one... and to be honest their were many more to come and go but these were the main folks.
We used to have a lovely time having sleepovers and sitting on the field at school chatting about boys and stuff as teenage girls do.... But I think that we got bored with that quite quickly and in between the girly squabbles and snogging of boys we found... BOOZE! Vodka, Cider, Lambrini... whatever we got our hands on really! This soon became our weekend routine, whether we were in Scarborough or Bridlington we would be certain to have a bottle of something attached to our mouths!
This particular summer was to be my last for a few years in Yorkshire as I was moving to live with my dad in Cambridgeshire to start a new school and life... an attempt to fix my outlandish behaviour.... this didn't work as I'll explain in the Bridesmaid #2 post... But I had to make this time count, WE had to make this time count!... and we did just that!
We drank every night we could, We found new 'older' boys to take advantage of and make buy us booze, we watched Big Brother, went on MSN (which was very new then), listened to crap music and spent most of the time on the seafront at the arcades and the fair.... So much happened in such a short time... It would be too much for you all to take in but I'll give you my fave Pippy moment...
Pippy was new to the rebellion scene, She was so sweet and innocent that we almost saw it our mission to make her one of us. We managed to pry her from her beloved airtex t-shirts and trackies and put her in more girly jeans and vest tops. We even managed to get her to swear... sorry Mummy C... We used to go out and Pip would laugh at us all drinking so much but she was always quite refrained and sensible... BUT this one night was different! We were all on the seafront having a laugh as usual. We had conned some poor bloke in to going in the shop and buying a few bottles of vodka by fluttering our eyelashes. We were all supposed to be at each others houses, we had mislead our parents and not for the first time.... again sorry Mummy C.... It was such a good night, but we were all so drunk we had started to get a bit too rowdy. We were laughing and joking around as we always did, until Stef started getting into her angry drunk mode and chasing Amber around the pier which resulted in a few grazed knees... but lots of laughs. Pippy was slowly getting more and more drunk, we had hardened to drink by this point, Pippy on the other hand was a newbie to vodka, meaning she had been getting more and more giggly whilst slurring and falling over. After a lot more laughing we realised Pip really needed to go home. It wasn't that far away but due to the fact she was falling all over the place I remember it took us ages. We had a bit of a squabble as to who was going to take her to the door as Mummy C was quite stern with us and we had got her darling daughter drunk... very, very drunk. I decided that we would leave her at the end of the road, keys in hand, watch her go in and then.... RUUUUUNNNNN! This lead to my favourite Pippy moment!.... She started walking... dropped her keys... struggled to pick them up... took 2 steps and dropped them again.... this went on the whole way to her door, giggling each time she did it. We were stood at the end of the road rolling around laughing at her. She got to the door she tried to open it and when she did we ran....
Turns out Pippy spent the night being sick, the next day being even more sick and Mummy C having to deal with a daughter with slight alcohol poisoning.... WHOOOOOPSY...
This wasn't the last time we got drunk but it was the best memory that I have... and I haven't even told you the half of it... because I don't remember much more of it and I don't want Mummy C to kill me before I get married!
Pippy went on to be sensible, with the element of fun that that summer had injected, she realised she could have both in her life and still achieve... she's not silly! She went on to pass her GCSE's (so she has 1 up on me there!) and go to uni to become a Primary School Teacher. She had a beautiful baby boy and married a lovely Punny man who she is overly and quite sickly happy with! I am looking forward to hearing more happy stories about her new family as we get old.
