You can plan a conversation as much as you like – it doesn’t make any difference. Her planned conversation went along the lines of: Cat says she’s going to try to get a job; brother makes some sarky comment about no one employing her; Cat keeps her cool; parent tells Angus not to be a pain; parents express initial scepticism; parents ask, “What about your training?”; Cat says she wants to take a break from it, just cut back a bit as she’s worried that she’s overdoing it, maybe needs to cool it for a while till she’s older; parents look impressed that she has thought so maturely about it; one parent – probably her father – says it seems reasonable, that it would be bad for her to overdo it; mother disagrees but father talks her round; they agree to compromise in some way – or, more likely, talk about it later. Meanwhile, Cat is not specifically told she can’t look for a job so she silently takes it that she can. She smiles secretly and looks forward to Saturday, when she will note down all the vacancy signs on her way to athletics and then deliberately not impress the selectors at the competition.
