What?

Years ago, until I was in my mid-teens, my parents owned a holiday home down by the coast. That's where I first met D. To justify the rather high cost of the holiday home, my parents would take us down there every chance they got - weekends, school holidays (in season). It's where I was lucky enough to meet a young lady called Sharon - my first real girlfriend.

I always had mixed feelings about the holiday home. It was nice to get away for a change of scenery, but I was always worried about leaving my "proper" friends behind for prolonged periods. Ultimately, it never worked out negatively and I consider myself lucky to have two groups of friends - my school friends and my holiday friends. In fact, my relationship with the holiday friends was different. There was less pressure to conform, less judgement. The age ranges were wider as well, often hanging out with people several years older or younger.

There was a family who owned the house opposite with two daughters, both around my age. I was friendly with them, but they were rarely at their holiday home at the same time as we were. The youngest, for the sake of this story, was called Adrienne.

Inexplicably one year, despite not having seen Adrienne in months, near the end of the summer I got it into my head that a) she would join my school at the start of term and b) I was attracted to her.

I was absolutely convinced of the first part, so much so that I was disappointed when the first day of school rolled round and she wasn't introduced to the class.

I have zero idea why that popped into my head this afternoon.