The sun shown brightly, clashing with the moods of about 1000 teenagers from Newcastle, Merewether and Swansea. Today, although a Friday, and anyone would find it hard to be a bad day, was the most dreaded day of the entire year: the first day back from vacation.
All around those towns, teens were being ripped from their peaceful slumber, moaning and groaning about having to return to their ugly uniforms and their equally matching ugly school...except one lone household.
"Mum!!! Where's my skirt?" an unusually cheerful voice called down the stairs from behind the bathroom door where the girl had been since 6:30 am. Usually she dreaded going back to school, but today was different.
The door opened and out walked a semi-frantic girl. Her long brown hair was still up in a wet messy ponytail from her shower, and all she was wearing was a baby blue bathrobe. "Mum? You out there?" she called out and started walking down the stairs, where she ran into her mum, carrying the plaid skirt she had to wear to school. "You called, my lady Sarah?" her mum said, in a English maid's accent. The girl giggled. "Ta mum!" she kissed her on the cheek and raced up into the bathroom.
No more than 20 minutes later, the bathroom door opened and Sarah, who had been a mess before, had transformed into quite the beauty. Her once wet brown hair was now blown dry and flowing down her back. Her once tired eyes were now sparkling like jades. She smiled at her mum as she picked up her backpack from her floor, which was still a mess due to all the boxes. She had been so worried about starting her first day of year 12 at her new school of Newcastle High that she hadn't even bothered to really unpack.
"Bye mum!" she said as she kissed her cheek. Her mum smiled and closed the door behind her. She started her 10 minute walk to her new school.
Ashley stared around the auditorium and sighed. Same boring people as last year...and the year before. She was so sick of everyone at Newie. Not only that, but all her close friends had graduated last year, leaving her with Gaby and Heath. But since Gaby and Heath were as sappy as an old married couple, and that they were year 11's, she didn't count that as too much.
Bored with the assembly before it started, she pulled out her walkman and started flipping through the stations until she hit JJJ. The new Spiderbait song was on and she started grooving along to it. She closed her eyes and started mouthing the words.
"Um...excuse me." a voice said. Ashley looked up, slightly embarassed, into the face of someone not familiar. "Sorry..." she moved her backpack to let the girl go by. The girl walked past her and kept walking until she heard someone calling "Hey you!" she turned around, even though the comment could have been directed toward anyone. She turned to see the girl with the walkman motioning to her to come back. She went back to see what the walkman girl wanted.
Ashley took her backpack out of the empty seat next to her and said, "Sit down." The girl did obediently. "I'm Ashley." the girl smiled warmly as she put her walkman back into her backpack. "I'm Sarah." her green eyes twinkled. "Sarah, are you new here?" Sarah nodded and Ashley's face lit up. "Finally! You don't know how sick of these people I am." Ashley gestured around the auditorium. Sarah smiled, "Nope...they're all new to me." Sarah looked around. "There's so many people to meet." Ashley shook her head. "You'll get sick of them in about..oh..a week." The girls giggled and they both knew that they would be great mates.
The assembly started, and Ashley pulled out her walkman. Fortunately, Sarah had brought her discman, and, not wanting to lose her only friend so far, she decided that any info the principal was giving Ashley could give her, and she slipped Everclear into her CD player and relaxed to "Heartspark Dollarsign".
There was a loud barking noise coming from the backyard. Daniel opened his eyes sleepily and glanced at the clock. The red numbers, which read "9:14 am", told him that it was time to get a silent dog. "Shut up Sweep!" he yelled as he put a pillow over his head, hoping to block out his beloved dog's incessant barking. But his yelling only made Sweep bark louder. He wished that he could ignore the barking, but Sweep meant too much to him to be selfish about his sleep. Reluctanty he dragged himself out of bed, threw on a pair of shorts over his boxers, and went to the back door. By the door was Sweep's leash, and his green pager. Glancing at it, he saw that he already has a page. "Who the fuck in their right mind's paging me at 7:15 am?" he grumbled, checking the time of the page. It was a voice mail, which made him even more upset. Sweep would have to wait for a minute.
Daniel picked up the black phone, dialed his pager mumber, entered the access code, and waited to see who he was going to inform that they needed a life.
"Hey, Blondie, it's Ben. Call me when you get this, gotta talk bout last night." Daniel rolled his eyes. So often Ben forgot that, although he got up at 5:30 am in the morning to go surfing, the other 99% of Merewether still slept. He might as well call the wanker because if he didn't, he'd get paged again...and again... and again. He dialed the all too familiar number and Ben picked up.
" 'lo?" Ben said. "What are you doing paging me at 7 fucking 15 in the morning?" Daniel said, skipping the hello in the conversation. "Hey, you give Sweep her walk yet?" Ben said, ignoring Daniel's comment. "No..why, you wanna come with?" Daniel said sarcastically. "Yeah, actually. I'll be right over." Ben hung up. Daniel was about to go outside, but he caught a glimpse of his face in the toaster and figured he might as well at least make his hair look semi-normal.
"And so we welcome you, the graduating class this year, to Newcastle High." the principal finished his speech, and was given a standing ovation, basicially because he was done droning on. Ashley put away her walkman and lightly tapped Sarah, who had dozed off to Everclear.
"Sar?" Sarah woke up and smiled as Ashley. She took of her headphones and put her discman in her bag and stood up. "I'll take you to class. What do you have first?" Sarah pulled out her schedule. "Creative writing." Ashley's face lit up. "Whoa, me too! This kicks ass. Let's go." The girls started weaving through the crowd of excited year 12's and into the drab halls of Newcastle High.
"Anyway, what are you doing tonight?" Ashley asked. Sarah shrugged her shoulders. "Well...I'm not sure. Seeing as it's a Friday, I'd like to go out, but I'm not sure where to go really around here. I'm used to the Sydney scene. What's there to do?" Sarah looked at Ash, who was smiling. "What's funny?" she wanted to know. Ash put her arm around her. "There's nothing to do here. You want fun, you go to Sydney." Sarah smiled. "But...we make it fun. Go to the beach, throw parties, things like that." Sarah nodded. "So what's on the agenda for tonight?" Ashley smiled. "You're in luck. My rents are out of town, so the fiesta's at my place. You just want to come home with me after school?" Sarah smiled. "Sure..but one thing." Ash looked at her questioningly. "Can I ditch the skirt?" They laughed and walked into their class.
"So, anyway, what are you doing today?" Kayt asked. Nic glanced at her pager again. 10:47 am... that damn story had taken over an hour! She would go back to sleep, but it was getting time to head into work. Underworld, the music store, needed to be organized for the sale for the weekend and she said she would come in. "I have to go to Underworld in about a half hour...but I get off at 3. Want to chill then?" 'Sure thing!" Kayt said enthusiastically. "Page me after work then. Hooroo!" The phone clicked and Nic reached over to hang up the phone. "Arrrrrrgh!" she said, dragging herself out of bed. Sometimes Kayt's cheerfulness was a bad start to a morning.
Ben glanced over at his silent friend, who wore a face of confusion. "Kari, the one that works with Nic at Underworld?" "Ohhhhhh!" Daniel now knew who Kari was. "Okay, I remember now.. it's just that.." Ben cut him off. "There's been so many girls in the past few weeks. I know, I know." Ben sighed and stopped walking. He sat down in the sand, his feet being lapped by the cool ocean water. Daniel sat down next to him and whistled to Sweep, who had run off in search of an adventure. Sweep came and licked his face.
"Ben, you know I've told you this before, but I'm going to say it again. You're so picky. Stop looking for the perfect girl and just find someone you can at least tolerate." Ben ignored Daniel, and stared out into the sun.
"It's not that easy. I want what you and Nic have. You guys are so perfect, and you really like each other a lot. I want that." Daniel pet Sweep. "I see what you're saying. But don't look for it. It'll just come to you...maybe on the street, maybe at a party...maybe a blind date...who knows?" Daniel stood up and stretched. "But I have to get Sweep back. She hasn't been fed today. I'll call you later today." Ben nodded, still staring out into the sun. Daniel started walking, and Sweep quickly followed. Ben sat, watching the sun's intense light reflect off the ocean, and he sighed.