Girl meets boy by Derek Strange

Donna’s story:

It’s July 21, a hot day. Donna, her parents and her sister, Louise, are on a boat in Portsmouth.
It’s the first day of their holiday. When Donna and Louise are standing at the deck, they see
some boys talking together. One of the boys is wearing a blue and white shirt. He is good-
looking. She also sees another boy who looks just like him, he must be his brother. The
lovely boy was tall and quiet and has shy blue eyes. She is looking at him over Louise’s head.
Then he looks at Donna and he gives a lovely smile. She feels one with the boat, the sun, the
sea, the birds, the noise, time … It all stopped. Only the two of them were there.
It will take the boat a day and a night to sail to Santander, Spain. She hopes that she’ll see
him again before they arrive in Spain.

The large boat has cafés, shops, a cinema and a disco. That evening Donna and Louise went
to the disco. In the beginning, he wasn’t there. Then suddenly a tall boy walked in … It was
him! He and his friend stood and looked at the people in the dark. When he sees Donna, he
smiles to her with a big, open, friendly smile. He comes up to her and asks her to dance. He
doesn’t look shy anymore. They danced for a long time.
Then she looked up and saw a second tall boy standing at the door of the disco. He has a nice,
quiet, shy face. She knows at once that she had been dancing with the wrong brother. He
looked sad and went out quickly. Donna wanted to go to him and say sorry, but instead she
sits down at the table and her dancing partner starts to dance with Louise.
Donna has not slept all night. The next day she and her sister go to the café on the ship at
08.00. She wanted to say sorry to him. He wasn’t there. At 11.00, they arrived at Santander.

Mark’s story:

Mark is going to start Spanish at school in September. His Spanish teacher is Mr Webb, old
Webb they call him. He always takes some pupils from the school with him to a place in
Spain, the first 2 weeks in July. There were six of them, with the Webb’s: Harry Pots, his
sister Sonia, Nick Atkins (a good friend), Sue Bellamy (she’s clever), his brother Dave and
Mark himself, both 14 and good friends).
When Mark and his group are on the boat, he sees Donna for the first time. He falls in love
with her. He feels shy. His brother Dave laughs at him when he sees Mark looking at Donna.
Mark’s face turns red.

That night Dave and Harry went to the disco early. Mark doesn’t go to the disco early
because he doesn’t really like dancing. When he finally does go, he sees Donna dancing with
his brother Dave. He leaves, feeling sad.

The next day he is out of bed early, around 6 0’clock. He went to the café to drink a cup of
coffee. He wants to see her. She doesn’t come. At eight o’ clock, he went to find Nick and
Dave. Later the boat arrived at Santander.

The town’s story:

Comillas is a small town, 50 km from Santander, near the sea. There was a disco the first
night after they had arrived In Comillas. Donna was there with her family too.
Mr Webb and his wife wanted to go to Comillas. So the whole group goes to Comillas. They
sit down under the trees. Mark looked around and he saw Donna sitting there. Their eyes met
and they both smiled. He walked up to her. She gets on her feet and their hands met. She
wanted to dance with him, only with him!

Dave had planned everything. That night at the disco he danced with Donna on purpose, he
knew his brother was shy, so he wanted his brother to move. He arranged the meeting in
Comillas. He knew Donna would be there, that’s why his group went there. Dave was happy
and Mark and Donna too.