She wakes up. Still groggy from the deep sleep she was in. She rubs her eyes then opens them, staring at the white ceiling. She's fully awake now and her heart sinks. It had just dawned on her that she had somewhere to be. She quickly turns over in a fit of panic. She stares at the time with a sigh of relief. She still has 5 minutes until she fully needed to wake up. She closes her eyes.
When she wakes up again, she knows she's late. She pulls on some clothes and runs into the courtyard outside. It's a typical British morning, it's not raining yet but the sky is that dull industrial grey. Oh, look there's Lucy and Tom. She goes over to them, in a fast brisk walk. As she looks at Tom, she has a terrible realisation and runs past him, accidently barging into his right shoulder.
She runs across the courtyard, cuts through the freshly cut lawns and into a dingy looking building. Inside grime can be seen on the walls. A stereotypically dressed builder was sitting on one of the patio furniture-type chairs in the corner reading a newspaper and wearing a badly stained vest. He was fat and showing a builders bum too.
However dirty and distracting this place seemed, it was indeed a canteen. So she looks about and strides over to a grubby counter type thing that has an even grubbier dinner lady behind. She hears heavy footsteps and she turns seeing a rather out of breath Tom with Lucy jogging gracefully behind him. When she catches up, you can see that her cheeks have gone an adorable pink colour. She gently nudges Tom. He looks at her, confused - but only for a moment, her replying looks explains everything. He turns to face the other girl and takes out his wallet.
The boy scratches his head which is sprouting with ridiculously curly blond hair that is in a dire need for a cut. He looks at all the overly greasy food on the counter. After short argument with himself conducted in quiet murmurs, he finally decides and points to something rectangular. No words are passed between the boy and the dinner lady - only money and the food which has been plopped on a cheap paper plate which Tom hands to her.
She takes it, her heart still beating hard from the short run here. Seeing what it is, a rectangular crumpet, made happiness race through her fast beating heart! She looks at Tom with an enormous grin on her face. It feels odd as she smiles, like the muscles on her cheeks are tight and not used to the movement. She doesn't care.
Grabbing the crumpet and throwing the paper plate back at the ugly dinner lady; she takes a huge bite and takes off again. As she runs she feels as though she's in fast forward. It's exhilarating and she loves it. She takes another bite, she knows it is greasy and probably not very good for her but she's been longing for it. It feels as though every bite makes her go faster and after a while all she feels is the taste of the crumpet and the wind whipping against her as she runs.
She doesn't feel the aching in at the back of her throat or the stitch on her side and the pain in her calves, the piercing pain at the back of her head. She knows she won't feel those as long as she doesn't stop running and eating her ambrosia of a crumpet.
