Short Stories by Hope/The Doll/The Doll Chapter 4
You left Stevie, wearing shorts and a shirt, but it's no big surprise to find him in your bed wearing a nightie. You pick her up and put her firmly in her own cot. "I don't know how you do it Stevie, but that's my bed and there's only room for one.
In the morning, you are almost disappointed that the doll is still where you left her. It's still early, so you lay under the covers thinking about new homes, new schools, and all the other stuff. "I wish you could talk Stevie," you whisper as your hand inevitably strays down between your legs. Usually, it takes a while to get the juices flowing, but you find that you are already wet and slippery down there. You almost jump when your finger finds the magic bump, it seems extra sensitive and you stop thinking and just enjoy the sensation, as you lay back stroking it. The feeling soon grows until it's almost too much and you have to stop.
When you finally climb out of bed, you look at Stevie and you could swear that she winks, but when you look again, she's just a doll and because she's laying down, her eyes are shut. "I'm on to you," you say, wagging a finger before you head for the horrible pink bathroom. By the time you finish brushing your teeth, and checking the new one growing in the gap, you hear Mum in the kitchen, so you go down for breakfast.
The school looks like something out of a Dickens book. "It hasn't changed since I went there. We used to call it Dotheboys Hall," she says, confirming your Dickens idea.
Inside, it is much nicer. Bright colours and lots of paintings on the walls. Big windows and high ceilings make it a big improvement on the modern school you went to before, where the roof leaked and there was always a funny smell. The receptionist takes us to the headmaster's room and then an older girl takes us on a tour. The front is much as Mum remembered it, but at the back there is a new science block with a lot of equipment. "Someone gave us a load of money last year to finish the new part and buy all this equipment," the girl says. Although there's only a couple of weeks to go until the summer break, they say you can start next day, so you can get to know people.
"What do you think," Mum asks.
You shrug. "It's okay," you say. Actually, it looks pretty good but you don't want to sound too enthusiastic. "Has it changed much since you were there," you ask. She says that while the outside looks the same, It looks like a totally different place inside.
"I doubt that Wackford Squeers was ever headmaster there, but I did have a friend called Nicholas," she says with a laugh. The next few hours are spent buying all the assorted bits of uniform on the list they handed Mum. She refuses to set foot in a fast-food restaurant, so we had lunch in a department store. Later on, we visited a car showroom and looked at new cars. She said that Aunty Jean's legacy was enough to pay for it, but we didn't buy one because she wanted Uncle Bob's advice.
Finally, you go home on the bus. It's one of those where the seats are sideways on at the back, and you notice that the old man opposite is trying to peek up your skirt. Mum is looking at car brochures, so you spread your legs apart, just to tease him and he drops something on the floor to get a good look. It's only recently that you became aware that some men like to look up your skirt. It seems pretty harmless and you can't help wondering what would have happened if you'd left your knickers off.
This is weird. Before you moved here, it never occurred to you to tease people like this. At your old school, you'd had a talk about how some men want to do "bad things" with kids and you are supposed to scream and run off if a man peeks up your skirt, not open your legs so he can see better.