cover your tracks

Her house in the New Forest. They had a pool and hot tub, a pool house, and I think 4 or 5 bedrooms and 2 reception rooms. I say "I think" because we weren't actually allowed to stay in the house. Our coach and 2 male members stayed in the pool house, which had a very small room, plus a bathroom which all of us were to share. The rest of us had to sleep in a big tent gazebo thing in the garden. In May in England. When none of us were prepared for camping. It was about 10°c in the night, not comfortable at all.

I very briefly saw the inside of the house when I asked her mother if there was another bathroom because we were running late and i needed to put my contact lenses in, and she shooed me into a cupboard under the stairs. The living room I caught a glimpse of had enough space for all of us to sleep there.

The next day when we got back from the competition, we were given a BBQ dinner! Which consisted of 1 chicken leg and 1 potato each.

For the privilege of staying at her house, we all had to give Nadine £5.

Her place? It was her family's home. She lived there with her parents, grandma, and two older brothers. It was a mansion with over 100 acres around it, with a big ass stable full of horses, a swimming pool, pool house, tennis court, eight bedrooms, ten full bathrooms, a section of the house was set aside for employees (two cooks, four housekeepers, two gardeners, and a couple others), two kitchens, several living rooms, and it was MASSIVE. It took two hours of her driving us to get there.

We went up to her rooms. Yes, as in plural. She had technically moved put and into the dorms so she wouldn't be driving several hours for school. Her rooms were larger than any house I had lived in growing up (military brat, two parents, two sisters, a dog, all our stiff), and she had a big ass balcony. We set things up for the portrait and got to work. It was going really well...until her grandma came in. No knocking, just came in, and immediately started tearing into the portrait.

Then she insisted I pay her for her daughter driving me out there. Her grandma insisted on $100 minimum because I was taking up so much time. We ended up hauling ass outta there, and I paid nothing.

The ride back? My classmate told me her grandma is upset about her being tainted by us low class folks. Tainted how? Generosity, kindness, and not demanding everyone pay her back every damn penny spent. This was 20 years ago, gas was significantly cheaper, and not the $100 that rich cunt assumed. She explained her grandma has never once handled money and has no idea what things actually cost, like those rich folks in comedies who think a banana is $15.

The portrait was scrapped, and I never went over to that house again. During a group project, she had suggested her place because it was large enough and we could stay over if it went on all night. I asked her what her grandma would say about that, and we ended up using the school library because it was open 24 hours a day.

are some of the worst people

I have ever met.

Koloman Moser, 1901