by Ella Ivey

Created on: March 02, 2011

I've only been in love once. 
I was on a dirty mini bus on the way to Fowey in Cornwall, sitting on the second row in a seat which contained a seat belt held together by selotape.  If we crash, I will die in waterproof clothing from Millets and the world will never know that I own a pair of Marc Jacobs shoes.
    I can hear the faint mumblings of the two girls next to me, but I'm not interested in hearing the universities that they're planning to go to, or the cheesy quotes they've selected for their personal statements. "I am that second mouse!" - as if no lecturer will have watched Catch Me If You Can?!

    I should probably socialise - after all, I have 3 more days of searching the coast line for sea anemones and limpets.  But for now I'm content with drinking my service station coffee and watching the countryside roll on by.  It's a proud moment for me.  This time around I only required 4 sugars instead of the usual 8.  This, and the fact that tomorrow I will be exactly 17 and 4 months, means that I must now be an adult.
   
    We arrive in Wadebridge, in some grotty car park with crude graffiti surrounding it.  I turn to Phil and ask him what some of the rude words mean.  I've deduced that he's definitely the best person to ask since last night his vocabulary consisted entirely of "I'm Phil Meak. Check out my 9 inch freak."
    But he just laughs. 
    "Get out of Surrey once in a while," he tells me.  "It'll do you a world of good," 
    I have.  I'm in Cornwall!

    We're only in Wadebridge because the teachers promised to buy us a drink at a pub.
    I'm perched on a corner seat drinking my Diet Coke because I'm the only one under 18.  I'm gazing at the other girls as they sip their vodka limes with ease.  The thought of it makes me feel sick, but little do I know that less than a year later I'd be barricading myself under the kitchen table finishing a whole bottle of JD while my housemates throw soggy toilet paper at the 3rd years. 
    "Are you cold?" the male teacher asks me. 
    "I'm always cold," I tell him.
    He nods with a smile and turns away.
    Lilly leans in.  Her alcoholic breath tickling my ear.  "He fancies you," she tells me.
    I

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