the derry girl || james maguire

seventeen

Niamh's pov

I woke up in a good mood, I knew that we had to be out the rooms quite quickly as we were doing actual activities today, great.

-

I was now walking up a hill, and honestly I didn't know who to walk with, James was being a "lad" when really he was just being a dick, Orla wanted Jon to herself, Michelle and Erin were trying to tell Harry and Dee that they wanted to swap, and Clare hasn't spoken to anyone since last night, so I was a bit lost.

-

"I think we all can agree, that for generations there's been a deep lack of trust between your communities. And that's where abseiling comes in." Peter explained. "Abseiling is a great trust-building exercise. Because what you're doing is, you're saying to your buddy, "Lean on me, I'm here for you"."

for fucks sake, am I gonna be stuck with James the "lad" and the Prod now.

"Now, let me see who's first. Ah, Clare, Clare Devlin, there you are."

"I'm not sure about this." Clare stuttered.

"You'll be grand." Michelle said and pushed her forward.

"No, listen, you don't understand."

she did seem a bit shaky today, a bit more than normal.

"Now, where's your buddy? Good man, yourself. Come on, now."

next thing you know Clare's up a cliff with Philip

"Philip will control Clare's descent by feeding her rope through what's know as a belay device. So he'll be the one actually dictating the speed of her drop."

"Jesus! Aaargh!"

"Are you ready, Philip?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Seriously, folks, I'm not feeling entirely comfortable with this!" Clare screams "Stop! Stop it! Get me out of here! He's trying to kill me! He wants to kill us all, all of the Catholics! Look at his eyes, he's a madman! A Fenian-hating madman.
Don't let the Jaffa bastard hurt me! Please!"

"Jesus, Clare!" I say.

"Fuck a doodle do!"

oh Michelle.

"He said he hated us."

"No, I didn't." Philip defends himself.

"Last night, you said you hated Catholics.
Admit it."

"I said I hated athletes. I'm not much of a sports fan."

"But we weren't even talking about athletes!"

"Well, I thought we were!"

"Why would you have thought we were talking about athletes?"

"Because I'm deaf in one ear!"

"Catholics does sound a bit like athletes, to be fair to him, like." Michelle shouts.

aye it does a bit

"They're all arseholes." Dee said.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Erin asked.

"You tried to swap us! Because all protestants are the same? Aren't they, girls?" Dee yelled.

"Yes." Michelle replied.

"NO!" Erin yelled.

"And this guy's really creepy and a bit sort of sexist. And she carries a knife and makes people bury their own excrement. And she-" Jon starts.

"Don't finish that sentence Jon, I've done fuck all." I remind him.

"Fucking Catholics." Someone mumbled.

"Who said that? Who?" Erin yelled.

and that's when it kicked off. Erin shoved Dee who shoved me and then James shoved him back into Orla who tried to get out her knife and then Jon shoved James so I punched him and all in all everybody was hitting everybody, I remember getting a good punch on Harry, and he obviously got one back considering my nose was now bleeding. Just a bit of a shit show so it was.

-

We were now all sitting in chairs in a circle, waiting for our parents, or guardian in myself and James's scenario, Clare had a blanked round her, Michelle was trying to get a cigarette, and I was holding a tissue to my nose.

"Are you sure it's alright Niamh." James asked me again.

"Yeah James, it's just a bit of blood, it doesn't even hurt. Promise." I smiled.

and it did hurt a wee bit, but I wasn't going to let anyone know that.

The the parents started to arrive and ask questions.

"Do you know what this is about, Geraldine?" Gerry asked Clare's mam.

"As far as I can make out, these lads tried to throw my Clare off a cliff. Desperate."

"Are you all right, Mary? How's the bowl working out for you?" Deirdre walked in.

"Great. Great. Thanks very much, Deirdre." Mary replied.

"Is that everyone? Lovely stuff." Peter asked. "Okay, so, there was a bit of a misunderstanding on the expedition today which unfortunately led to a physical altercation. I thought rather than let it fester, we should talk about it, and start to heal and repair. So who'd like to go first?"

"Why were you threatening people with a knife, love?" Sarah asked Orla.

"OK, one at a time, please." Peter called.

"This is all your fault. I knew this would happen." Joe said to Gerry.

"Niamh is that blood" Mary yelled.

"I'm alright Mary, promise."

"Niamh you tell me what one of those bastards did it." Joe said.

"Granda it's fine, I'm fine." I assured him.

I was looking about for Michelle and James, I couldn't see them over the boys. But I could see Erin finally write something on the "similarities" side of the chalk board.

"Parents."

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sorry for the short one x

(864 words)