She always looked so beautiful

Dear Lorraine,

My name is Christine and I am Abigail's friend and schoolgirl chum. Abigail has written quite a lot to you so I thought that I would like to let you know how I feel about our schoolgirl relationship.

I first remember Abigail as a sixth former who, rather than wear the alternative anorak and fashion boots for her daily wear, always dressed in her school gabardine raincoat and always when wet and on many dry days wore her shiny black Wellington boots. She always had her top button fastened on her gabardine and I was always impressed by Abigail's appearance that I decided that I would dress like Abigail when I became a sixth former. It was because of Abigail, that I started to wear my top button fastened on my gabardine all the time even on hot days when most girls did not wear a coat, and I also started to wear my Wellingtons a lot, much to the amusement and comments from my fellow pupils.

Abigail was also a prefect who was extremely strict about our school uniform regulations and I noticed that on many occasions, she made the girls button up their blazers correctly when out of school. She did have a reputation for being over zealous, but I must admit that I was really impressed by how keen she was to make sure that the good name of the school was maintained and I knew that I would be like Abigail when I entered the 2nd year sixth and became a prefect. I just simply thought that she always looked so beautiful.

My mother was and still is a fashion conscious lady, and she was so surprised when buying my sixth form uniform that I said that I wanted to continue wearing my school gabardine and Wellirigtons. Indeed she used to be quite annoyed that I wore my full school uniform at the weekends as well as holidays. She did accept my love of girls school wear, but was quite adamant on one nice sunny day that I changed my Wellington boots for a pair of shoes. We had quite a row, and I stormed out of the house and I know that she was very annoyed when we met at lunch time, because when I passed a shoe shop in town, I saw a pair of black shiny Wellington boots, and I simply had to buy them and wear them. I think Mother was horrified that I had disobeyed her. We were due to go the theatre that evening and I am sure that my mother wanted to punish me by making me wear my full school uniform, complete with Wellingtons. To this day, I don't think that she realised how thrilled I was to go out dressed in this way, it was just so wonderful.

At University, I continued to wear my full correctly buttoned school uniform and more often than not Wellingtons, and although I have not acquired as many gabardines as Abigail, I have bought a sufficient number over the years to ensure that I could always go out in the evenings and for best wearing gabardines. At work I normally wore a wool coat which many schools use for their school uniform coats, but always with my top button fastened. Like Abigail I have a large number of school blazers which I always keep fully buttoned.

Abigail has told you that we met up at our school reunion. Just before the date, I twice recognised Abigail walking through town, on quite a nice day when I unfortunately was on the bus so I didn't get a chance to speak to her, but it was thrilling to see that she was wearing her fully buttoned schoolgirl gabardine raincoat and her Wellington boots. This prompted me to wear one of my old school blazers, my gabardine and Wellingtons for the reunion, as I knew that Abigail would attend dressed in her school uniform and Wellingtons. I checked and rechecked that my 3 blazer buttons were fastened and my top gabardine button before I got out of the car and there was Abigail dressed in the same way. We were both so absolutely thrilled and we have become the very best of schoolgirl chums and as Abigail has written, that correctly worn school uniform is essential for our life together. I find it so thrilling to be buttoned up fully into my uniform and also to button up Abigail into hers, and we wear full uniform whenever we are together. Just one final comment, to say that even I was amazed when I met Abigail one Friday night after work, when not only did she have her top button fastened on her gabardine, but she also had her face cover buttoned across from three buttons on either side of her hood. I could not keep my eyes off her, she looked so beautiful. I couldn't wait to get back to her house to be dressed in one of Abigail's gabardines with the face cover. We spent the whole weekend dressed in this way both indoors and out. We have a truly remarkable and wonderful schoolgirl friendship, long may it flourish.

Christine