Writing for Fun
January 2020
Envy - Sue Barker
Lola Jones, aged 13 years and 3 months, is the envy of all her school friends. She’s petite and very pretty; long blonde hair. She has many friends but her BFF is Jody James. Jody is a kind and friendly girl, a little scruffy with hair that is untameable. They make an unlikely pair but Jody is a little in awe of Lola, and Lola likes that. Jody is often round Lola’s house as it’s large and Lola’s bedroom is to die for. All that space just for herself. The complete opposite is true of Jody’s tiny terraced house, crammed to the roof with arms, legs, stuff and noise. You can’t hear yourself think in all the bustle and din.
At 43 Sycamore Grove, the Jones family were tired, getting up at 6 o’clock as their only daughter Lola couldn’t wait any longer for her gifts. The lounge was strewn with piles of paper, all ripped off with no thought or time to appreciate the actual gift carefully chosen, and beautifully wrapped.
Christmas has started, breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, served on the best china, with a glass of bucks fizz to help it down and Lola has just opened all her Christmas presents. The tree had been laden with presents wrapped in shiny silver paper and adorned with glittery red bows and nearly every gift had been for Lola. As an only child Lola was thoroughly spoiled; anything and everything she wanted she received.
They had all dressed in new clothes; Lola had several outfits to choose from and had settled for an outfit of a cropped top and skinny jeans with Ugg boots; she’d wanted them for weeks and she felt a million dollars; all dressed up. She thought she looked at least 15.
Her mother and father were well off compared to most of Lola’s friends and considerably richer than the Jody James family. Lola’s mother had unwrapped her present of a lovely diamond ring and her father had opened his voucher for flying lessons. So everyone should be very happy. Lola took her new laptop upstairs to her bedroom, while her parents sat quietly reading before going out for Christmas lunch at a fancy hotel.
Typically for a teenager, Lola’s bedroom was a mix of childhood favourite cuddly toys and early teen’s glamour; strings of lights and pink feathers adorned her dressing table mirror. Posters of Little Mix covered the wall.
Slumping on her bed she waited impatiently for her new laptop to load. Finally she could log onto Facebook, wouldn’t her friends be jealous when she told them about all her fantastic Christmas presents. She hoped Jody would be green with envy; her family were ‘hard up’ so Jody said, Lola wasn’t sure what that actually meant but it didn’t sound fun. She only knew she’d never been to Jody’s house; and Jody wore clothes from Primark.
Yes Jody was online, just as Lola was starting to type up the never ending list of presents; she noticed that Jody hadn’t said anything about what presents she’d received. Instead she’d put on ten photographs; in each and every photo was Jody with her two brothers and her two sisters. They were all laughing and playing around. A couple showed Jody’s parents too, they all were dressed in silly Christmas jumpers and had Santa hats on. Everyone looked so happy.
Lola started to message Jody an itinerary of all her gifts but after the first couple of items she stopped, her heart just wasn’t in it. She should feel so happy today of all days; she wanted Jody to be envious of all her presents but instead she felt very sad.
Lola would have loved to have had a sister to share things with, to tell her secrets to; a teddy bear was no comparison. She couldn’t even get a dog as they made a mess, so her mother said.
She slowly dragged herself off the bed to go downstairs. All she could feel was the silence waiting for her. The silence that dragged her down; that surrounded her; made her want to scream. Her house was always so quiet; not much laughter; no loud music, it wasn’t allowed. For once in her young life she really envied Jody Jones. Not that she’d ever admit it to anyone else.