The last day of school had been loud and exciting, full of cheering and emptied-out trays and a teacher saying “have a wonderful summer!” about four times.
The first day of the holidays was supposed to feel like that too.
But it didn’t.
Scarlett woke up and lay in bed for a moment, waiting for the excited feeling to arrive.
It didn’t come.
Instead there was just... a strange quietness. No uniform to find. No timetable. No bell about to ring.
She wandered downstairs in her pyjamas at half past nine, which felt scandalous and also slightly uncomfortable.
“What do you want to do today?” her mum asked.
Scarlett opened her mouth to answer and discovered she had absolutely no idea.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Nothing, I think.”
The whole morning stretched out in front of her, completely empty, and instead of feeling exciting it felt a bit like standing at the edge of a very big, very quiet field with no path through it.
She found Lenny on her bed and flopped down next to him.
“The holidays feel weird,” she said.
“Weird how?” asked Lenny.
“I thought I’d feel excited. Instead I feel sort of... wobbly. Like I don’t know what I’m meant to be doing.”
Lenny nodded slowly. “That makes sense.”
“It does?”
“You’ve had school telling you where to be and what to do for months and months,” said Lenny. “And now suddenly nobody’s telling you anything. That’s a big change, even though it’s a good one.”
“But I wanted the holidays.”
“You can want something and still feel strange when it arrives,” said Lenny. “Big changes feel like that sometimes — even the ones we’re looking forward to.”
Scarlett thought about that. It did feel true. She had wanted the holidays for weeks. And she also felt oddly unmoored now they were here.
“What do I do about the wobbly feeling?”
“Nothing, really,” said Lenny. “Just let it be there for a day or two. It usually settles once you find your own rhythm again — just a different one than school.”
That afternoon, Scarlett still didn’t do anything particularly exciting. She drew for a bit. She lay on the grass and watched clouds. She helped make lunch.
It wasn’t thrilling.
But the wobbly feeling got a little smaller.
And somewhere in the quiet of the afternoon, she noticed something else creeping in.
Something that felt a bit like ease.
🫶 Dream big dreams.