Karen Cooper thought
of herself as a plump girl but in reality she was just a couple of dress sizes
bigger than her older sisters.
In every other respect
she was clearly a Cooper, the looks were unmistakable.
All the
Cooper girls had Auburn hair and an abundance of freckle.
And each
one of the sisters thought their siblings were much more attractive than they
were, whereas in reality they were all very pretty.
Karen was
a tall girl like Jane and facially she favoured Kath.
Although she wasn’t
born by the lake she was only two when she moved to Coopers Villa and she had
no memory of living anywhere else.
Karen also took the
credit for being responsible for them being on the lake in the first place.
Because when she was a
baby she contracted meningitis and had to be rushed to hospital, and it was her
illness that brought about the reconciliation between her Dad, Paul, and
Granddad Harry.
Apart from the Auburn
hair and abundant freckles, another trait she shared with her sister was that
they all possessed a propensity towards hard work, clearly inherited from their
parents.
Whatever she wanted
she would get because she was a hard worker, it had helped her through her education
and it would help her in her chosen profession.
But there were
limitation though even for a strong work ethic, for example hard work was not
going to get her anywhere with Chris O’Neil.
She was convinced he
didn’t even know she existed and she had been in love with Chris since she was
12 years old and she was now 18.
The Cooper girls may
have been late comers to Teardrop Lake but the O’Neil boys were all Lakesider’s
born and bred and whereas all the Cooper girls had Auburn hair and freckles all
the O’Neil Boys had black hair and wild gypsy eyes.
Chris was 22 years old
and worked as a paramedic.
He was the best
looking of the O’Neil brothers and was as a result very popular with the girls,
but the sort of girls who kept throwing themselves at him were not the type of
girl he was looking for.
Like his elder brother
Terry, what Chris was looking for was a girl he could settle down with, and a
girl like that hadn’t yet thrown herself at his feet.
However Francis, the
youngest of the O’Neil’s, who was 19 and was in his second year at University,
studying English had other ideas.
Unlike his brothers he
had no interest in a long term relationship, or settling down.
His plan was to get
his degree and then travel the world with no burdens and no responsibilities to
way him down.
Dakota Harris was 17
year old and she was the pretty girl of Teardrop Lake and she lived at Shoe Buckle
House on the northwest side of the Lake, and she was a tall and slender girl with
long dark hair.
She was on the outside
at least ultra-confident and ultra-popular with the boys who she kept dancing
on strings but they were only boys.
She was always
immaculately turned out, painted, perfumed and powdered and ready to impress Mr
Right.
But apparently he was
never looking her way, whoever he might be.
But for all her big
talk and bravado she was fast approaching 18 and hadn’t even been kissed.
Even her tomboy big
sister was engaged to a gorgeous man, and an army Captain at that.
Because she was pretty
and because she knew she was pretty, Dakota always talked big when it came to
the opposite sex, and her friends bought into it.
But it was all
bravado, if one of the men she flirted with actually came on to her she would
have run a mile.
Outside she was sexy
and confident but inside she was a shy and dowdy little mouse.
Karen Cooper’s hard
work took the form of working multiple shifts waitressing at the Brown Windsor
restaurant where her sister Jane was the Sous Chef.
But that was just in
her spare time, the rest of the time she was serving an apprenticeship at the
Purplemere Film Studios where she was training to be a makeup artist.
Peter Lutchford the
renowned film director who also lived on the lake got her the position.
She also help her
sister Jane with her home dining engagements as well as doing makeovers to the
inhabitants.
That was how she first
got to know Dakota Harris and they soon became good friends because of it and Dak
let Karen practice her make up skills on her.
Dakota was convinced
she was never going to be kissed and especially not before she reached her 18th
birthday.
She could quite easily
get a kiss in time if she acted like a tart but she wasn’t a tart and she
wanted her first kiss to be romantic, not desperate.
Meanwhile Karen was
still dreaming of a romantic affair with her prince charming Chris Cooper but
was resigned to the fact it would never happen.
On the Saturday before
Christmas Karen had a rare night off and was around at Dakota’s house,
Dak’s parents were out
to dinner and her older sister, India, was meeting her friend Penny at the
airport.
So they had the house
to themselves and Karen out did herself with Dakota’s makeover.
“Wow” she said “I look
really hot”
“Not bad eh?” Karen
said admiring her handiwork
“I look about 20” Dak
said “Don’t you think?”
“21 maybe” Karen added
“Let’s go to the pub
then” she suggested
Karen thought about it
for a moment and said
“I don’t know” she
said “I look rubbish”
“You can borrow
something of Indie’s and I’ll do your make up” Dakota said
Karen reluctantly
agreed so half an hour later they were laughing and joking and on their way to
The Woodcutters Arms in Shallowfield.
At the same time
Dakota was doing Karen’s makeup Chris and his brother Fran were just leaving
Lakeside Villa bound for the same destination.
It was Chris’s first
weekend off for a month and Francis had only got home from University that day.
The pair of them hadn’t
been out for a beer together for almost a year so they thought a few jars at
the pub might just fit the bill.
There were three pubs
at the Teardrop Lake end of Shallowfield, The Woodman’s Axe, The Woodcutters
Arms and The Foresters.
Ant the names clearly
reflected Shallowfield’s dependence on forestry over the centuries, the pubs at
the other end of town had more of an agricultural flavour in their naming, The
Wheatsheaf, the Plough and the Farmers Tavern.
But all of those were
too far to walk to so they decided very definitely to restrict their choices to
the forest end.
Chris had drunk in all
three at one time or another so he didn’t really have a preference and Fran
didn’t care which one they went to as long as Chris was paying so they went to
the closest the Woodcutters.
Dakota hadn’t been to
the pub before and although she looked old enough to be in there after the
makeover she had no ID so Dak went and found a table and Karen bought the
drinks.
The girls were sat at
a corner table facing back towards the bar.
“Look who’s just come
in” Dakota said and Karen looked up and saw the O’Neil brothers standing at the
bar.
As soon as she saw
them Karen got all flustered and her cheeks flushed.
“What’s wrong with
you?” Dakota asked
“Nothing” she said
trying to look anywhere but at the bar.
“You fancy one of them
don’t you?” Dakota probed “Which one?”
“Chris” she
reluctantly replied
“How long have you
fancied him?” Dak quizzed
“Since I was 12” she
replied
“Why didn’t you tell
me?” she asked
“Because nothing will
ever come of it” Karen said definitively and took a drink then she glanced at
the bar just as Chris looked across at them and smiled
“He’s looking over
here” Dakota whispered
They both smiled back
at him and then Karen said
“Well he’s not looking
at me is he?”
“Well he’s too old for
me” she said “I like Fran”
Karen spent the next
20 minutes sneaking glances at Chris as he laughed and joked with his brother,
every now and then he would throw a glance at her and she would look away.
There were a number of
girls who approached them but whatever they were after they left without it.
Dakota suddenly got up
and announced she was going to the loo and almost as soon as she left there was
movement at the bar at Chris started walking towards her.
“Hi Karen” he said
“Hello” she replied
“Dakota’s gone to the loo”
“I know I saw her go”
he said “it was you I wanted to talk to”
“Me?” she said
incredulously
“Yes you” he replied
“Why?” she asked
“Blimey you don’t make
it easy for a bloke” he said
“I don’t understand”
she said
“I wanted to ask you
something while Dakota was in the ladies” he explained
“Oh I see” Karen said
with a sigh “you want her phone number I suppose”
“No” Chris replied
with surprise “Why would I want her number?”
“Sorry”
“I wanted to ask you out”
he explained
“Me?” she said
incredulously
“Oh no not again, yes
you” he replied
“I’ve been wanting to
ask you out for ages but you’re always working somewhere or other and I never
get a look in”
“Seriously?” she
asked
“Yes” he replied “So?”
“Yes” she said
“Now was that a
question or an answer?”
“Definitely an answer”
she said and grinned like a Cheshire cat.
“Good” he said “now
can I get you a drink?”
Chris walked to the bar
just as Dakota returned from the toilet and Fran joined his brother at the bar.
When he first walked
to the bar and saw Karen sitting at the corner table he congratulated himself
on his choice of venue and hoped Christmas had arrived early and seemed he was
not to be disappointed.
“Well?” Dakota asked
when she returned to the table.
“Well what?” she
replied
“Did he ask you?”
Dakota asked
“Yes” she said
excitedly and they hugged
“But how did you
know?”
“Fran told me” she
replied
“But how did he know?”
“Chris told him?”
Dakota said
“Oh”
“Anyway Fran told me”
she said “and then he kissed me”
“Where?” asked Karen,
wide eyed with curiosity
“On the lips stupid”
“No I mean, Where?”
she explained “Where were you when he kissed you”
“Oh outside” Dakota
clarified
“What were you doing
outside?” Karen asked “Apart from being kissed”
“Well I went to the
loo” Dakota explained “and when I came out Fran was there waiting for me and he
told me no to go back to the table because Chris was asking you out”
She paused for breath
“Which was taking
forever by the way, and we were blocking the door so he suggested we went
outside and that was when he kissed me, in the moonlight, it was very romantic”
“Wow” Karen responded
“And did he ask you out as well?
“Yes” she said
excitedly and they hugged again
“Who’d of thought it,
I have a date with an O’Neil”
Karen said
“Me too” Dakota
squealed just as the boys and the drinks arrived.
As they reached the
Shallowfield Lodge Hotel on the way home from the pub they split up.
Fran took the left
fork so he could walk Dakota home and romantically kiss her in the moonlight
once more.
Chris and Karen took
the right fork and walked slowly hand in hand in the moonlight, they were in no
rush to get home.
“Fancy that, Chubby
Karen is walking hand in hand with Chris O’Neil” she said inside her head
While Chris was
thinking to himself how lucky he was.
“Was that romantic
enough for you?” Fran asked moments after his lips left hers
“It was acceptable”
she said
“Perhaps I should have
another go” he suggested
“Definitely worth a
try” Dakota said obligingly
Francis O’Neil felt
ten feet tall as he headed for home despite the fact that the evening had not
gone as planned.
It was just supposed
to be a few pints with his brother Romantic kissing was certainly not part of
his plan at all but as soon as he saw Dakota Harris sitting in the bar trying
to look all grown up, he was smitten.
Hook, line and sinker,
smitten.
And this from the man
who had no interest in a long term relationship.
His plan to get his
degree and travel the world with no burdens and no responsibilities to weight
him down was in tatters.
But then maybe he
could take her around the world with him, she wouldn’t be too burdensome.
Chris and Karen still
hadn’t reached either of the Villa’s by the time Fran came running along the
road
“Don’t mind me” he
shouted as he sprinted past.
When they got to the
top of the path that led down to her house they came to a halt and he turned to
face her and he kissed her soft lips, in a long and sensual kiss.
“I’ve been waiting a
long time to do that” Karen said
“Me too” he concurred
“How long?” she asked
“A couple of years,
almost three to be precise” he confessed
“I was 12” she
admitted “when I first noticed you like that”
“Was it worth the
wait?” he asked
“It was for me” she
said
And then her kissed
her again which she took to mean “me too”
