Learning to Breathe Read Online Free PDF Page A

him sitting in the café.
     
    Once I had returned home, I instantly felt remorse about the way I had treated Danny yet again. It wasn’t his fault that I was so mistrustful of people but it wasn’t fair to drag him down with me either. I sighed and tried to think about something else. Thankfully, my mother chose that precise moment to come home.
    “Hey honey, what did you get up to?” She smiled at me, a hopeful look on her face – I guessed that she was probably wishing that this would be my chance to open up to her … no such luck.
    “Not much,” I replied. “Did you do everything you needed to then?”
    My mother sighed. “I was just sorting out a few things for when I start work. They want me to start next week.”
    I smiled. “That’s great. I’ll be fine on my own anyway.”
    “I know you will.” M y mother smiled but I couldn’t help but notice that it was a little strained.
    “Is everything okay?” I enquired, wondering if she was about to drop some sort of bombshell.
    She shook her head. “It’s nothing but … I thought you might like to get a part-time job or something. It would get you out of the house while I’m at work. What do you think?”
    I nodded. “Yeah, sounds good. A bit of extra cash wouldn’t hurt either. I’ll start looking this weekend.”
    I noticed that my mother looked suddenly uncomfortable at that so I threw her a questioning look. “What? What is it?”
    She smiled slyly. “I kind of already set something up for you … I hope you don’t mind.”
    I sighed. “What is it?”
    “Helping out with activities at the Yout h Club in the leisure centre.” she told me hesitantly.
    I eyed her warily. “What kind of activities?”
    She grinned, obviously satisfied that I wasn’t about to fly off the handle. “Just games and arts and crafts – that sort of thing.”
    I nodded. “Sounds fine – when do I start?”
    “Not until Monday. They want you from nine to three, Mondays and Thursdays. Is that okay?”
    I nodded. “At least I get weekends off.”
    I threw her a wide smile and she beamed at me before adding, “Although, when you start school they’ll change it to three-thirty to five.”
    I nodded. “Sounds good. Thanks Mum.”
    She flashed me a small smile and then headed off into the kitchen to make some lunch.
    It looked like I would have something to distract me from my own dark thoughts for a while and for that I was glad. However, what I didn’ t count on was that this ‘distraction’ would turn out to be something so much more than I could ever have imagined.

Chapter Four
     
    Monday morning came rather quickly but I was relieved to have something to keep me busy. I decided to dress quite casual in my navy jeans, Converse sneakers and an old t-shirt. Once I had consumed some much-needed caffeine, I wished my mother good luck for her new job and then I headed out to the bus stop.
    I arrived into town just after 8.45am. I made my way to the leisure centre where I told the receptionist that I was due to start today. She handed me a white t-shirt and then directed me to the person in charge of the Youth Club – a Mr Deacon.
    Mr Deacon was a rather tall man with dark hair and a large moustache – my first thought was that he reminded me of Tom Selleck. He warmly welcomed me and then took a note of my details before taking me on a tour of the centre.
    He told me that there were three separate groups and that I was g oing to be in charge of the 8-9 year olds. I didn’t think that it was going to be too bad since he told me that the majority of them were girls. I was starting to warm up to the idea of looking after a few kids when Mr Deacon dropped a bombshell.
    “Oh, by the way, the first activity for them is swimming …” He trailed off at the look of horror on my face.
    I instantly found it very hard to breathe but I managed to choke out a som ewhat coherent question. “Is – I – do – I – do I have to – to get in the – the pool