THE DAILY GLOBE

The morning rain had properly cleared off yesterday, leaving the pavements damp and the air fresh. After a breakfast of beetroot soup and a cuppa, one local pupil set off on a quiet mission to the secondary school. With the English teacher out of town, they'd been tasked with watering her plants over the holiday. The building was, in their words, "dead quiet," with only the caretaker about. All the festive trimmings had been taken down, and the Christmas tree stood forlorn in the dark corridor, stripped of its lovely glow from just days before—a melancholy sign that the break was winding down.

Duty done, the pupil returned home to take their little cream Chihuahua out for a stroll, bundling the pet into its winter coat to keep the chill off. While ambling along, they were stopped by a smiling woman who pointed out an amusing coincidence: the dog's coat and the owner's own jacket were both navy and grey and "dead sporty," as if they'd shopped at the same place. A brief, friendly exchange and a smile followed before both parties continued on their way—a small, bright moment of community connection.

Further along the route, amid the soft ground imprinted with paw prints and footprints, the dog walker got chatting to a lad named Wilhelm. Conversation turned to gaming, revealing Wilhelm as a "right massive fan of Minecraft," while the local pupil declared themselves "more of a Roblox lad." A proposal was made for Minecraft tutorials, but refused on grounds of an overstuffed laptop. Instead, a compromise was offered: playing something on Roblox together, like Counter Blox or the paintball game. Wilhelm agreed, and usernames were swapped—though not before both lads accidentally stepped into a "massive muddy puddle," which the dog had cleverly skirted. The mishap was met with a "right good laugh," cementing the new digital alliance.