Boys and Brownies

Sadly, I am talking about the Junior Guides here, not the edible kind…

Thursday was very interesting. Ari and I, along with two of our close friends at school met up with a couple of guys we met a few weeks ago at a school day. We go to a girls’ school, and the teachers think it wise to introduce us to the opposite sex, therefore providing the need for days with neighbouring boy’s schools. So, after our day with one of these schools, we had been chatting to a couple of the guys we met on msn, and decided we’d meet up for ice cream. However there was a slight miscommunication problem...okay, it was more than slight...we’d organized to meet them at the ice cream shop on a very long road, which goes through two (or possibly more) suburbs, and we hadn’t exactly explained which end we were on, and they went to the wrong end, which would have been a very long walk for them, so they had to get off the tram they were on, catch a train back to closer to our school and catch yet another tram. Thankfully, they made it eventually, and we had a great time talking over ice cream. Then, Ari and I had to leave, as we wanted to get to my Guide unit. I am a Junior Leader at Guides, so as part of working towards an award, so I help the leaders and run activities for the girls (ranging from the ages of 8-11). I had told my leaders that I probably wouldn’t be coming, because at that time we were going to get ice cream as it was Ari’s second last day before she leaves (she shall explain where she is going herself), and the leaders suggested I bring her along, as it would be a fun Halloween night, complete with dress-ups, for the girls. Ari jumped at the chance (I’m not sure why...I go to a lot of these things and I don’t particularly enjoy them, but we figured it would be a bit of fun, and she could see what I do at Guides, and why I complain about it at times!).
So, we got home and got dressed, Ari as a witch, and me as a devil (though apparently I didn’t look very sinister), and headed off to Guides. Our tasks for the evening were simple - we took the girls out for five minutes while the leader was preparing an activity, which involved me leading a game of ‘follow the leader’, decorating the back room with really bad decorations which were not remotely scary, making the ‘Dragon’s Blood punch’ (Lemonade, with frozen ‘hands’ – food dyed water frozen inside latex gloves) and making ‘trick or treat’ bags for the girls.
It was a very hot night, and Ari and I decided to take our shoes off (her in leather boots which would have been really horrible, and me in leather sandals). We went into the back room to decorate, and there were some little wooden toothpicks on the floor where we were walking. I had the misfortune to step on one, which obviously hurt. I lifted my foot to rub it, and saw that the toothpick had imbedded itself in the ball of my foot, and was sticking out at a very bad angle. I looked at it, and showed Ari, whose jaw dropped looking at it. I hobbled over to the couch, and attempted to pull it out, as I didn’t think it could have been in there very far, but it hurt, a lot, and I winced. “Are you okay?” asked Ari. She squeezed my hand, and somehow kept a very clear head throughout the entire thing. She carefully packed up the remaining toothpicks, and went do get a leader, hiding her panic to prevent the younger girls from becoming aware of the predicament.
As soon as the leader saw what had happened she was like ‘Oh...’ and went to get paper towel and an ice pack. Ari held my hand and started chatting to me to try and take my mind off the fact that my leader was trying to remove the skewer from my foot. It came out, and fortunately didn’t bleed much, but it still hurts; now I just have a little bruise where it went in. I’m really hoping there’s none of it still in there, but I don’t think there would be. I’m okay now, but I’m definitely going to remember this event at Guides!
xoxo Di