The Weekly Dormouse. (aka Bike, est. 2007) Part 3275 by Angharad Copyright© 2021 Angharad

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This is a work of fiction any mention of real people, places or institutions is purely coincidental and does not imply that they are as suggested in the story.
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Episode 3.25 thousand (And they said it wouldn't last).
It's amazing what you can do from home, and Diana and I only went into the office every other day, or if I needed to go there. The girls were doing their schoolwork over the internet, which was a copy of lessons and coursework. They actually seemed to have a better idea than we did, so I phoned Sister Maria and asked her who was making their lessons.

My colleague had done one or two programmes but he was too slow and students were complaining, so I made several very basic ones of my own, with Livvie but I wasn't happy with them - they looked somewhat amateurish and students are paying us large amounts of money for tuition fees. However, we'd managed to stay in the news as some of our postgraduate students, from the Department of Geography, Earth Science and geology, had identified a part of a lung which had been sent them, a fossil one, which had been thought to be part of a pterodactyl, was actually from an ancient form of bony fish that was as big as a great white shark a sort of coelocanth, but much bigger than today's fish.

It was also a week when the head of MI6 apologised to all the LGBT people it had either sacked or not appointed. So perhaps some things are improving while others are not, politicians, generally, are becoming more homo and transphobic and this ishappening all over the world.

I was about to call the people who were doing the school webcasts when the phone rang. "Could we speak to Danielle Cameron?"

"She's doing her online school work at the moment and I don't like to disturb her, who's calling?"

"Donna MacFadyen, please ask her to call me back urgently." She gave me a number to call.

"You sound, Scottish, is this to do with the Scottish Ladies team?"

"Not directly, but it is about soccer and bigger than the international side."

"Oh, that sounds intriguing, I'm her mother and I'm Scottish as well, so what's more important than playing for the national side?"

"Look, Mrs Cameron, it's her I want to speak to, so with all due respect, I'll wait until she can call me back, but don't let her take too long, opportunities like this won't be there forever." She then rang off before I could ask anything else, but instead of calling the filmmaker people, I began to puzzle about this phone call. I mean she's only sixteen so can't sign contracts by herself, however, tempting. Much to my disgust, I had no idea who were the best women's teams, except I knew Reading was up there, so I assumed it was someone from there.

Now I was caught in a dilemma, I would let her talk to this woman but I was more concerned about her continuing her schoolwork as she's finally beginning to enjoy it and she is quite a bit cleverer than we originally thought. Another condemnation of me perhaps, but she did admit that when she was at the mixed school, it didn't pay to show you were at all bright, because they'd stop you playing as much sport to concentrate on academic subjects and she didn't want that as she enjoyed her soccer. It's taken us several years for her to develop beyond that persona and she is now seen as clever at sport and school and I am so proud of her. Okay, she'll never catch Trish or Livvie, who are super smart, but she's as clever as I was and I'd like to see her complete her academic development more than playing football. I went off to make myself a cuppa and took all the schoolgirls a drink and a biscuit, they were all seated around the dining table looking at laptops and wearing headsets so they don't disturb each other. By pure coincidence, they all finished their lessons as I walked in with the drinks and they are supposed to stop for ten minutes and move about as a health and safety measure.

They all grabbed a glass of squash, except Danni who now drinks more tea than she used to. "How's it going?" I asked them all almost needing a translator for Meems, bless her. The answers were varied, dismissive from Trish - there's a surprise; interesting from Livvie; struggling a little from Hannah and Danni, but they were all doing maths, except Meems who was murdering English.

"Someone called for you," I told Danni.

"Oh yeah, Chelsea was it?" she was joking but it passed me by.

"She didn't say, so it could be Southampton anatomy school offering you a job as a cadaver."

"A what?" she almost shrieked at me before Livvie informed her it was a body, she didn't seem to find that anymore funny than I did her footie joke

"Anyway, she said to call her back urgently and it's about soccer, she did tell me that."

"Can I use your phone, Mummy?" she asked as we made our way back to my study and the rest of the girls messed about as they do. I told them to behave or I'd get Stella to sort them out. They just laughed and told me I was more frightening than all of them put together. They do wonders for my ego, not.

I handed Danni the notepad I'd scribbled down the number on but sat down alongside her. "Uh, some privacy might be nice, Mummy."

"I'm not having you sign up to play anywhere without my agreement from the outset, young lady and I don't care if that's with Reading, Writing or 'Rithmetic."

"Ha-ha, " she shook her head without laughing at my old joke about the three Rs, they probably have never heard of it these days as everything is so specialised.

"Do it on loudspeaker," I instructed her.

"What?" she gasped, "I will not."

"I'm afraid you will or I'll take the number away and you won't be able to call them back. It was someone MacFadyen, who is she?"

"How do I know, but the woman at Reading is called Sarah Jones, she used to be a Welsh international."

She agreed to use the loudspeaker and she dialled. "Chelsea Football Club," came back the response and she nearly fell off the sofa.

"Could we speak to Donna Mac Fadyen, it's Danielle and Cathy Cameron, her mum."

She transferred us and Danni was still hyperventilating. "Hello Danielle, how are you?"

"Ffff-ine thanks, is that really Chelsea?"

"It is, well the Ladies Team."

"Wow." Danni was speechless for a moment.

"We're doing some tryouts and we'd like to invite you along for one."

"Wow," Danni seems to have this similar ability with words that I do when flustered.

"When are we talking?" I joined the conversation, dates I mean and does she have to self isolate or anything?"

"We've been more or less doing that, Mummy," Danni said quietly.

"Next Saturday, we're looking at meeting at..." and we got details of the venue, Simon or Henry would know where it was, so they could take her. I was more concerned about her having to travel back and fore to London for home games and up to Manchester and places like that. I wasn't sure it was such a good idea.

"Couldn't that involve lots of travelling, she is only sixteen," I declared.

"It'll be worse when she gets picked for Scotland," Ms MacFadyen retorted, "and she will if she's good enough to play for us."

"She was good enough to score goals for England Ladies."

"Yes, I know all about that, and why they dropped her but we take more care of our players."

"So you're aware she was transgender...?"

"Yes, quite honestly, if she can score goals for us, I don't care if she a Martian provides she meets the criteria to play women's sport."

"She does."

"Great, we'll see you on Saturday," she rang off and Danielle looked to be in a semi-trance.

"Right kiddo, let's see if David's got the lunch ready," I said to her and she muttered something like, 'Chelsea.' I doubted it was a reference to the Clinton's daughter.

"You okay, Danielle?" asked David.

"She's just been asked to try out at Chelsea Ladies."

"Aren't they top of the women's league?" he said back and Danni nodded.

"Good for you," he said and hugged her, "show ['em how it's done, girl."

Of course, when Trish and Livvie arrived they'd overheard some of the conversation and discovered that Chelsea Ladies had a few long term injuries, hence the try-outs. "Hey, you won't even have to buy a jersey, you've got all the kit," Trish informed us, and she had because I'd bought it for her.

She sat at the table and wept quietly, it was all too much for her to take on board.

https://www.port.ac.uk/news-events-and-blogs/news/enormous-a...