life

Chapter 1.
The bus roared up the road, but I couldn't hear a thing. Music blaring in my ears was the only way for me to keep the stress down. A draft for a creative writing piece for English was due the next day, and I still hadn’t started the task, even though it was worth the most part of my final grade for the Semester. I was planning on writing it in a poetic way, but any good topic idea eluded me. It was almost like someone wanted me to fail, but I knew I was just being silly. The bus pulled over at the bottom of my street, as I piled all my school gear into my arms to make the journey of a few hundred metres, then the climb up my driveway. As soon as the other kids, who hopped off the bus at the same time as me, were further enough ahead, I let myself loose. The next song on my play-list was ‘Call Me When You’re Sober’ by Evanescence, one of my favourite songs at the moment.
“Don’t cry to me, if you love me, you would be here with me. If you want me, come find…” I was interrupted by the vibrating of my phone. I’d received a text message. ‘Lucky me!’ I thought. Tara’s name popped up and I knew it couldn’t be good. One of my three best friends in the whole entire world, there was Tara Harris, Emily Coulter and Evan Arvlo. Tara almost never texts me, only because she knew I didn’t have the credit to reply most of the time. I was either getting her out of trouble or trying to stop her from getting in to it, but I still loved her. The text message read,
Hey :) if ur not busy I can stay @ ur place 2moz nite… wat do u think?
I laughed, I had always been kinda like a safe house for her when things got too tough at home, and her mum had gone real funny lately. Like, just a few days ago, Tara told me her mum had decided to send her away to a boarding school in Toowanda. Let’s just say that Tara and her mum don’t get along very often, and I was finally starting to rub off on the country girl, soften her up a bit. I sighed as I reached the bottom of the driveway, and looked up to the top of it. I knew it couldn’t be that bad, but it still seemed a lot worse then what is actually was, especially on Wednesdays. Netball training always seemed to take the energy out of me. I played what everyone thought was the easiest part, Goal Shooter, but I thought it required the most concentration of any position, except my favourite position Goal Attack, which just involved more running. My netball team only had to good shooters so we swapped the painful, but easy job of Goal Shooter. Anyone can throw a ball at the hoop, but it takes great talent to get it in, and even more when your defender is waving their hand in your face. I started humming again, until someone hit me across the back of the head with a book.
“Hey! Do you think you could keep it down? I’m trying to concentrate here.” My brother complained, something he was getting very good at.
“Fine, whatever Justin!” I shook my head, I honestly don’t know how he did it. I took a step aside and watched my little brother walk, while reading and managing not to run into anything. I kind of envied him, but hated his guts at the same time. I still hadn’t forgiven him for the other night. One of the Venturers told me he loved me as a friend and Justin then went and told everyone I had a boyfriend! I guess I deserved it though, but I swear it wasn’t me who mentioned to his best friend that he sleep-talks, but you didn’t hear that from me. It was about then I realised I had walked up the driveway without my own knowledge. Damn! I was getting good at this.

Making my bag fly across my room, I’m pretty sure, isn’t what mum had in mind when she said I needed to clean my room. I saw my laptop sitting on my un-made bed and opened it. I wanted to at least attempt my English assignment before the due date. As usual, I started looking for it and forgot what I was doing, and my friends immediately came to mind. We were all so different, but everyone one of us had something in common with the rest. Tara and Emily were both tall, and Emily and I both had long blonde hair. I was a Venturer, just the same as Evan. Evan and Nathan both loved trains. Nathan and Tara were learning ballroom dancing. Tara and I were horse fanatics. Emily and Nathan were twins so they had the most in common. Nathan and I, well, we didn’t have much in common but we still managed to have a conversation without getting bored, it does get kinda awkward though. Last but not forgotten, Evan and Tara dated for a couple of months last year.
I lifted myself up off the floor and opened my desk drawer so I could look at the photo frame of Evan, Nathan, Emily, Tara and I. Luckily, I remembered what I was doing by noticing the task sheet underneath the picture and read it over. It had to be creative, original, and dramatic, plus something that effected me personally.  I chuckled to myself as my mobile rang. I contemplated whether to answer it or not, but when I saw who was calling I knew I better answer it unless I wanted to be bored to death.
“Hey Elmo!” I said to my other best friend, Emily Coulter.
“Oh my god! Thank god you answered. I need your help. Something terrible has happened!”
“Did Nate cut his finger off again?” I replied rather sarcastically. Emily’s twin brother, Nathan had cut the top of his finger off only a few weeks ago, and he tried to do it again today in Engineering class. He says it is accidental but we are all wondering if it is on purpose and he is doing it to appear tough, which none of us would put past him.
“Stop it! This is serious.” It immediately worried me, the normally bubbly girl never spoke like this.
“I can’t think of an idea for English and the draft is due tomorrow and if I don’t hand it in then I might not pass junior English and then Mojo will be taken away from me.” Her new pony had only just arrived and her parents were already threatening to take him back to the original owner.
“Ok, calm down! I’ll help you if you help me.” I didn’t need to wait for her to answer, she loved that horse and would do anything to keep him. “How about making your dreams come true?”
“Wow! I never thought of that. Maybe you should have overprotective parents as your topic?” I forced my laughter away. Everyone knew how strict my parents were. For example, Mum informed me that I am allowed to leave home whenever I want, as long as it is only a few minutes down the road, and dating is out of the question in Dad’s eyes. I could almost see the hurt in them when I told him about me and Evan, my former boyfriend and current best ‘guy’ friend.
“Kayla!” Mum called from what seemed the kitchen, but I couldn’t tell with out getting up and looking, something which I really couldn’t have been bothered to do.
“Coming!” I called back before I answered Emily. “Speak of the devil. Sorry, but gotta go. Talk more soon, ok?” I could hear Emily nod her head and I couldn’t contain my laughter anymore.
“Bye bye!” I then heard the click and the dial tone beeped at me. I heaved myself up off the bed, not to mention that I had almost fallen off it while on the phone and started to skip down the hall.
“Mum, where are you?”
“Don’t yell at me in that tone, young lady!” I hadn’t even realised that I had attitude in my voice, but I guess it was just one of the skills that disappeared when you became a teenager. I was going to start off by saying sorry, but was interrupted by Mum, once again.
“Evan was just on the phone. Something about Venturers Friday night being a normal night.” I replied that I knew that, with the least amount of attitude I could possibly have. The rest I could just hide, before I skipped back to my room and closed the door. Opening up a new Word document, I typed the title ‘Overprotective Parents’ at the top and started brainstorming. Words like trapped, prison and trouble came instantly to mind. Closing my eyes always helped, so that’s what I did. I imagined things that my parents would say to me, protective things or what their expectations of me are.
“You believe I must be perfect…” I mumbled to myself as Justin came crashing into my room. I sighed in outrage, but I manage to keep my anger hidden from him, it would keep the peace for a little while at least.
“Dinner’s ready.” He stated and then ran back out of my room and made car noises as he went. For a really smart 10 year old, he was pretty immature sometimes. I saved the little work I got done and turned the laptop off. There was no way I would be getting more work done now. Flicking the light switch off, I left the room and walked with a slight bounce in my step towards the kitchen.

Tara came straight over to me when she arrived for school the next day. The expression on her face was a sort of scary smile, so it didn’t talk long for Nathan and Emily to be grinning as well. The smile never left our faces all day, even though it was a very miserable day, and the number of weird looks our group was getting grew by the minute, half of them from Evan, but it wasn’t unusual for his disconcerting glance to visit us at least once every lesson. English was the worst lesson though, with our assignment draft due, no one was in the mood for the amount of sugar consumed by Emily and Tara. I finished the first verse of my poem and the second was coming along nicely, well at least I thought it was, though it was starting to become more song lyrics than a poem. The second verse was going to be the chorus, but my rhyming pattern was strange at best. I hope that Mr Craig wouldn’t mind, ‘strange’ apparently was my middle name so he should be used to me by now since he’d been my English teacher for the past 2 and a half years.
“Hey, show me what you’ve got so I can get some inspiration, pretty please?” Tara used her soft blue eyes to try and persuade me, but I caught her bluff.
“Um… how is you reading my lyrics about overprotective parents going to help you with conformity?” She huffed a reply and positioned the computer screen so that she could easily read what I had written. I wouldn’t have minded if she hadn’t read it out aloud while reading it.
“You believe I must be perfect. An angel in everyone’s view. It feels like a prison effect. With all the pain you put me through. Don’t wanna break free, I have to.” Tara’s voice trailed off towards the end of the first verse and I saw a tear trying to escape from her eye.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Nathan must have notice the same thing that I did, or maybe the almost confused expression painted clearly on my face.
“It is really good.” Her voice, normally so booming and outlandish, was so sullen and quiet. It kinda scared me to think that I had rubbed off on her that much, but I felt a sense of accomplishment. Mr Craig shushed us and we all put our heads down and got to work once again, realising that the draft was due in five minutes. But, all I could think about was our next class.
Chapter 2.
I felt the smile creep on my face as I looked over at Dylan and saw a grin on his face. I never knew it was possible to hate and be not sure if you like someone at the same time. Dylan Clarkson, my ex boyfriend, had somehow managed to win my heart again, and no one was happy about it. I wasn’t entirely thrilled about it either, but what my heart wants was what my heart wanted, I guess. I hate to think that I might like him again, but he always seemed pretty nice and his bright blue eyes always got to me.
“He’s only being nice because you are really pretty and he thinks you like him. You don’t anymore, do you?” I shrugged as Tara tried to lecture me. I was looking right over her shoulder, Dylan was making signs and signals at me and I had no idea what they meant, but I kept smiling at him. Tara sighed and walked straight up to Dylan. I wish I had her confidence, I can barely talk to some family members, and she strolls right on up to people she hasn’t even had a proper conversation with and gives them a piece of her mind.
"You leave my best friend alone, alright? You've hurt her once already, please stay away from her." That seemed to make Dylan even more interested in me, well more interested than normal. I felt his eyes scan me from head to toe and I shivered. Taking a deep breath, I walked past Tara and leant towards Dylan,
"Two can play at this game." I said as I continued to walk past them. My heart raced and I was scared it was preparing to take off or something. Tara stared at me in confusion. I could hear her footsteps following me, and I knew I was in for it, bad!
"Look, don't worry about me." I said.
"Oh no! I won't worry about you. I'll just let you make like the biggest mistake of your life."
"Stop being so dramatic! And I thought it was my job to be the one to worry?"
"Not this time it's not." She huffed away, probably to go kill Dylan. I may have liked him, but I just had to see this.

The amount of shouts and cheers coming from students when the final bell went would have been unbelievable if Tara and I weren’t feeling the same way. Luckily for Dylan, Tara just punched his shoulder and then ignored him for the rest of the day. Mum was there on time to pick us up and I thought to myself, ‘Tara should come over more often’. I was normally the last student here, waiting to be collected, except when I caught the bus home.  Tara sat in the back with Justin, leaving me the front seat beside Mum. The trip home was rather quiet to what I expected but I watched as my friend let loose once we were safely inside the confides of my bedroom.
"So, are we starting with movies now? Or do you wanna do something outside to get rid of my energy?" I laughed as she immediately started walking out towards the back door, knowing which one would be my choice. I grabbed a hair- tie and threw my long hair into a messy ponytail and headed out to follow Tara. She had totally disappeared from my backyard, and I was starting to feel doubtful that I would find her, until I heard the scream.
“Arghhhh! Stop it, please Tara!” I couldn’t help but laugh at sight of Justin and Tara fighting each other. Tara, the solid one who grew up with a brother, so she knew how to hit, was trying to be pushed away by my scrawny brother. If only they were actually fighting.
“Tara, put him down and stop trying to kiss him. You never know where he has been, and trust me, you probably don’t wanna know!” She laughed as Justin struggled free from her grasp and run away in the other direction, puffed. I turned to get my netball, knowing exactly what Tara had in mind, when a ball came flying and hit me in the back of the head.
“Ouch!”
“Whoops!” Tara and I almost called out in unison. I picked up the ball and pegged it back, still rubbing the back of my head.
“Are you trying to knock me out?” She laughed and gently threw it in my general direction.
“Possibly…” I joined in her laughing and shot the ball into the hoop. I made sure that when it was her turn to shoot, that my hand would come in contact with her face while defending, totally on accident of course!

A tear escaped from my eye as the movie played. After dinner, Tara noticed the horse on the front of a DVD case and almost demanded that we watch it. Dreamer was one of my favourite movies, plus one of the saddest, but it ended happy which is why I continued to watch it. I used the remote to turn  the television off and Tara continued to stare at the screen.

“Kayla!” Alison Jackson waved frantically from the back of the bus the next morning. I heard Tara laugh from behind me and a cheeky grin crept onto my face. Ally jumped up and ran to hug me, it made me feel special until the bus driver stepped in.
“Sit down and shut up!” Tara threw me a slightly worried look as Ally poked out her tongue. I giggled as we went to sit back down and the bus started back along its route. Ally felt like my little sister, even though she was so much more mature than Tara, Emily and I put together. The bus came to a crashing halt and a few primary school children hopped on. As the last stop before we got to school, the bus lurched forward, and somehow missing the piece of road that washed away during the storm a few weeks back.
“How you been?” Alison sang.
“Oh, yeah. Haven’t been that bad, have I?” Tara answered calmly, something unusual for her and the normal amount of energy that explodes from her.
“And who are you?” You could see the confusion and anger started to rise in Alison’s voice.
“I’m Tara, what’s your name?”
“I’m Ally!” The newly formed friends shook hands and starting chatting. I didn’t really listen until I heard my name.
“What are you guys talking about me for? Pretty sure there is so many more interesting topics.” Alison slapped me across the back, that with the glare that seemed to be coming from the daydreaming Tara, I guessed that I was in trouble.
“You are interesting!” Ally called out.
“And in trouble!” Tara continued. I sat with a confused expression on my face the rest of the way to school as neither of them would budge and tell me what was going on. As Kilson High came into our views, the chatting slowed down as people picked up their bags and the music was turned off. The bus driver must be relieved when we all piled off and left him with the quiet primary school kids. I ruffled Justin’s hair as I went past and then hopped down the bus stairs before he could complain.
“So how’s Venturers?” Ally spoke up as if nothing had happened and like she still wasn’t going to tell me what her and Tara were on about.
“How’s Brendan?” Tara laughed and I blushed immediately.

Add convo about Brendan

"Oh, you're just jealous because I'm God's gift to women." Nathan smiled proudly. The day so far had been pretty quite. No fights, no large amount of sugar, and Heidi wasn’t here today so I was extremely happy. Well, I guess that I wouldn’t have put it past someone in the group to start a commotion. All Emily could do was shake her head in embarrassment. Evan stared at him in disbelief as Tara and I burst out laughing. You could have seen the smoke coming out of his ears, and his cheeks turned a shade of crimson. Trying to be the tough guy, Nathan made me scream as his tightening grip held my waist. Emily screamed at her brother to let me go as I raised my hand to lash out at him. I could have hit him, I would have too if Tara hadn't tripped him in his tracks. He let go of me as gravity pulled his body to the ground. Nathan moaned and groaned as he lifted himself up, his cheeks burning a bright red now. Charging at Tara made Evan stepped in and try to keep the little peace that was left. Seeing the only easy way to get back at Tara was to hurt me, he once again grabbed me, but by my shoulders this time. I saw Dylan nearby and I knew my ticket to survival was with him. I opened my mouth to scream but he was already on his way, running at what I guessed wasn't even full pace, but still quick enough to make sure I would be alright. I closed my eyes and soon felt a rush of cold air blast my shoulders as Nathan let go of me. I stumbled forward and, of course, Dylan was there to catch me.
"Kayla! Are you ok?" I nodded to answer Evan's question as I caught my breath. I didn't realise I was still clinging to Dylan's strong arms until he spoke.
"Did I just happen to save you again, beautiful?"
"I honestly don't know who you are talking about. 'cause it couldn't possibly be me." He laughed like I was joking and then whispered in my ear,
“I love you.” I felt myself blush and I hoped it wasn’t that noticeable, but as his hand caressed my face and his fingers traced my cheek, I couldn’t stop myself. Lifting up my head, his eyes locked onto mine, but Dylan’s blue eyes weren’t the only ones that were on me. I saw Tara out of the corner of my eye, she was shaking her head at me in disappointment. I almost sighed as Dylan leaned in closer to me, I suspected for a kiss. I tried to lean into his chest, but I wasn’t quite strong enough or fast enough. His lips came gently onto mine, only for a second, but it was enough to get the attention of a few onlookers. Tara scoffed and I broke away from him and tried to wiggle my way to outside of his grasp. I looked around at the faces of my friends, the now not so innocent bystanders. The twins both had jealous expressions, Emily had a thing for Dylan for the past month, and Nathan would not stop flirting with me! Evan was looking in the other direction, and Sabrina was using that as an excuse to, once again, check him out. Tara glared, I knew what was coming next. She tried to, what she called, telepathically, talk to me. Then right on cue…
“Will you go out with me?” His smile dared me to say yes, but Tara’s eyes threatened me that if I did, all hell would break loose.
“Maybe!” I teased both of them, Dylan groaned and Tara sighed. Evan turned back around, noticing that the mushy stuff had ended. The colour of Sabrina’s cheek was moving towards the colour of her recently dyed hair. We all were surprised when normally quiet and reserved Sabrina took her plain brown hair and transformed it into an almost burnt red, only brighter. The bell rang while I was in mid-thought, and the teacher continued to usher us off to class. It took me longer than I cared to admit to realise what class I had, History. So that must have meant the today was Thursday.

Chapter 3.
I waited just outside the school gate for Mum, like I had done of the last two and a half years, except for when I had to catch the bus. I saw the dusty maroon car, flying down the street and a sick feeling entered my stomach.
"Great! Dad’s driving.”  I mumbled to no one in particular as he pulled up. I threw my bag through the open door and jumped in after it. Justin's beaming face peered from the front passenger’s seat, what looked like chocolate smeared from one end of his face to the other.
“How was your day?” Dad’s deep voice sounded like he was hiding something. If there were two things I’ve learnt in all my fifteen years of life, it was that Dad wasn’t very good, ok he was hopeless at keeping secrets and that he was stubborn. I somehow managed to get my stubbornness and quick temper from him, but my tendency to think everything is my fault, from Mum. Trust me, not an entirely good mix. My attitude is something that I acquired all by myself, apparently.
“Not too bad, yours?” I answered, realising how long it had taken me. He grunted a reply as I turned to face out of the window. I smiled as Dylan came into view, probably walking home. Kylie Sampson was with him. I knew her vaguely from my English and History classes, but I’ve never really had a conversation with her. She turned around and gave Dylan as hug and he kissed her forehead. I wanted to cringe away! It hurt me to see him with someone else, and I was getting use to him and the major player he was, but I wasn’t there yet. I had to show no emotion in front of Dad, I didn’t have a choice.
“Someone’s jealous!” Justin sang, still looking at me. How does he know? I asked myself, but before I could answer, Dad spoke.
“Who is?”
“Kayla.” He answered calmly.
“What?!?” I shrieked, my voice rising pitch. Justin’s head shook and then poked back around the corner.
“I got three chocolates and I’m not sharing so you get none!” He once again sang. I laughed in relief but tried to make it more subtle.
“Well then, I guess someone doesn’t want to use my laptop.” He groaned which made me laugh a silent giggle. I knew that he would try and grovel his way into using it. The rest of the drive home was pretty much silent, except for Dad’s rock music playing, I think it was the Eagles. I divulged myself into the book I was currently reading, the ‘Demon Princess’ and left the current world for the fairytale.

Maybe add something here!!!

"Kay? Kayla!" I felt my headphones be ripped from my ears. I groaned as I glanced up towards the shadowy body standing over me. I should have guessed.
"Hey, headphone thief. Can I have those back?" Her smile told me I would have to work for it, "Please Tara. Emily would give them back." I tried to get up and grab them but my leg was somehow caught in the chair, and I found out that the carpeted floor wasn't softer than my head. Once she finished laughing, she spoke,
"Well too bad she isn't here today." I used the desks around me to lift myself up, trying to hide my flushed cheeks with my blonde hair as I waited for the gales of laughter to be heard from the students in my 10maths class. When I heard nothing, I opened my eyes and glanced around the empty classroom. Tara's eyes watched my every move, not wanting to miss a clue that I might give away. This was the last day of her second last week at Kilson High, I didn’t wish for her to spend it trying to figure out what was wrong with me. I tried to fake a yawn, hoping she would fall for it, but instead she hit me fair across the face.
“Oh, stop it!” The tone in her voice was unmistakably the same one she used on Impulse, her mischievous horse.
“Stop what?” I asked innocently, but anger started to rise inside.
“You know perfectly well what I mean!” Her voice reaching a pitch that hurt my ears. The tough country girl was showing her softer side, the side I tried to find all those years ago, with no luck I might add. Then now, in a middle of a fight, it creeps in, I scoffed and she groaned in response.
“Oh, do I? If you are so sure about that maybe you might know what’s going on.”
“How could I possibly know what’s happening in your life at the moment? You won’t tell me anything anymore!”
“How about you are meant to be my best friend and you sat there that whole entire lesson without mentioning you having a problem with my current state of well-being?”
“What? You and I both know that I care about you and if I asked in class time I would have gotten the same response.” I caught her glance over my shoulder; I turned around and noticed the onlookers watching the ‘show’ before she spoke again. “Do you really want me to get into this?” My green-blue eyes dared her to continue, and I started to realize that I wasn’t in control of my body. I felt the anger and hatred boil underneath my skin, and I knew there was no stopping this fight now.
“Well, come on. These people want to hear what you have to say.” I flew my hand in the direction of the door, the number of onlookers had grown and Evan had made his way to the front, he looked slightly frightened.
“Best friends are meant to tell each other when something is wrong so they can figure out how to fix it!” She answered.
“Oh, so now you feel like caring!” I couldn’t believe that I was screaming,  “What about yesterday when I was crying in Computer Studies? You left me there without saying anything.”
“So now you feel like telling the truth. If you hadn’t lied to Evan and Emily and I about being tired then we never would have left you there alone!” I turned around and stormed away from Tara as she finished her speech. Just before I pushed past the now large group of guilty bystanders, I shot her a dirty look.
“You don’t understand.” I whispered loud enough for her to hear, I didn’t want to yell anymore. I turned and ran, I wasn’t sure where I was going, but I had to get away from it all. I didn’t normally lose it like this and I wanted to know what was happening to me. It is scary! Emotions swelled inside me and I broke into tears. I closed my eyes and Evan’s face was the first picture that came. This was going to be especially hard on him, Tara and I are practically his best friends, and when everything was fine, he was treated like a little brother. I would never swap him for Justin though, but he’d be welcome into my family anytime. I remember Mum saying once that she would leave me on the side of the road and take Evan instead. We laughed about in then, but my mind was fill with doubt now, was it true?
“Kayla?” A mild voice whispered. I nearly jump out of my skin and I screamed as a hand came on my shoulder. Nathan’s evil laugh echoed into my ears.
"What do you want?"
"Um... Hey, what happened?" He must have seen the silent tears trickling down my cheeks. Nathan opened his arms and beckoned me forward, I shook my head, refusing his offer.
"I'm sorry! I just wanna be alone." I let my hair fall in front of my face to let the continuous stream of tears flow.
"Do you want me to get Tara?" If he had seen the argument, I would have tried to kill him, but I just shook my head. I don’t know what changed, but all of a sudden, I felt the awkwardness of the situation. Everyone thought Nathan liked Tara, but I always had that sinking feeling that he liked me more than what he told everyone. I lifted my head as I heard footsteps, and saw that Nathan was leaving.
"Thanks though." The words barely came out and I thought he wouldn’t hear it, but he turned and looked at me, and a smile slowly crept across his face. He nodded his head in reply and the Bronco’s cap fell off his head, I couldn’t help but laugh as he walked away. How was I going to survive Ventures tonight with Evan probably hating me? I buried my head into my knees until the bell rang.

'Look, I'm sorry. I know how hard this is for you.' I scribbled on the torn piece of paper and threw it go Evan's direction. I watched his cautious movements as he picked it up and opened it to see what was inside. It landed on my desk not a minute later. Unfolded, the chicken scratch leapt of the page to me. 'it's ok but please stop fighting with her. it would make life a lot easier for everyone'. Typical Evan! Trying to make life as easy and fight-free as possible. 'I promise I’ll try' I threw the note to him, and he caught it with his freaky reflexes and large hands. I watched his grey eyes scan the paper and turn and smile. I forced myself to at least grin back. I pulled another piece of paper out of my book and started writing again. It read;

Dear Elmo... I am so sorry, but I’ve done it again. Tara and I had a screaming comp after maths today. I lied to you, about everything. Tara and Evan know now, so I thought you should too. I didn’t mean it, I just didn’t want you guys to worry about me though I should know by now that I’m the one who is most likely to worry. I really need to talk to you… Kay

I almost scrunched it up, but I couldn't have been bothered to walk to the rubbish bin. Lucky Emily wasn't here today, or all hell really would have been let loose. I took me a while to it figure out, but I eventually wrote Emily's name on the front and when the bell went, I walked over to Nathan.
"Be a good boy and give this to Emily, will you?" Shrugging his shoulder, the letter was taken out of my hand as he ran to catch his bus. I hoped he was going to give it to his sister. At that moment, Tara walked past me, her shoulder came into contact with mine. Heidi and Jess snickered. I probably done something I'd regret if Mum hadn't pulled up in the car, beeping the horn for me to hurry up. Running over there, the tears started flowing unevenly down from my eyes. I opened the boot and threw my bag into it. It released a little bit of my anger, but not enough for me to be calm down enough to not quickly shove my headphones in and ignoring the rest of the world. Before I could, the music coming from the car stopped abruptly.
"Hey! Darling, what's wrong?" I had never heard Mum's voice with so much worry and concern.
"Don't worry, please! I don't wanna talk about it." Mum nodded in reply but I could tell that she wasn't happy with my secretiveness. I made sure my iPod was playing as loud as my ears would allow and I turned and looked out up at the clouds. Once we were home, I ran straight to my room and closed my door. All I wanted to do was curled up in a ball. Tara probably thought I hated her, and all I was trying to do was protect her. I didn’t want her to leave the school next week and be worrying about me. I did the right thing, didn’t I?

Chapter 4.
(Something with venturers and Brendan & JOTA)
The Arvlo's family car pulled up at the scout den and Evan and I jumped out. Catherine, who was standing near Brendan, Bella and Steph, started skipping her way over towards me. She dragged me into a hug and I squeezed her back. Brendan disappeared from my sight as I broke away, and immediately my freak-out mode had kicked in. A finger poked me on either side, just underneath my ribs and I squealed in fright, but couldn’t help but laugh along with him. I turned around and he embraced me in a bear hug before I had the chance to escape. Brendan was one of those people that 
Chapter 5.
“Where’s my bag? Justin!”  I wasn’t in a good mood the next week, even with the weekend to help cool my attitude down. To make matters worse, Justin was in my room, shooting me with his Nerf gun , which would probably leave bruises, and my school bag had mysteriously disappeared. Mum called Justin and I found my  homework book at least, the one that I didn’t know was missing.
“Perfect!” I mumbled to myself. I heard the buzz and dived on my bed towards my phone. The screen showed 1 message and I almost choose to ignore it. Opening up my inbox, Brendan’s name leapt up at me, and I changed my mind. I turned off my phone and put it in my pocket, I didn’t want or need to deal with this at the moment, even though he was probably the only one who could cool my head and help me see things straight again, even if for only a few minutes. It also didn't help that I didn't have any credit. Mum called out that she

“Kayla! You are going to be late if you don’t hurry up.” Mum called down the hallway. I looked at the clock, 5:47pm. Our netball game started at 6:15pm, which gave me more than twenty minutes, well just over ten minutes that included the drive into town, all I had to do was warm up and duct-tape my nails.
“I’m coming!” I yelled back. I grabbed the netball bibs and skipped towards the door.
“Have you eaten?” Mum’s eyes questioned me and shook my head.
“Nah! I’ll eat when I get home.” She shrugged her shoulders, as if to say 'don’t blame me when you're starving' and we walked out to the car. Mum put the keys into the ignition and the car sprang to life. My black cat ran out from underneath the now moving vehicle. The car almost skidded to a halt on the wet grass and I open the car door for me to get out.
“Nite!” I crooned for him to get out of the way. He turned to shine his yellow-green eyes at me and a shiver went down my spine. I wasn’t superstitious, but having a black cat walk in front of you as you pass underneath a ladder, will definitely do something to you. As Nite pranced away, Mum started to slowly move down the driveway.

We made it with just seconds to spare, as I threw the appropriate bibs to my team mates. The umpire blew her whistle , which shrilled in everyone’s ears to signal the beginning of the first half. We had one the coin toss, so our captain, Sammy, opted to talk to centre pass and the opposition ha the choice of which end they wanted to shot at first. Emma jumped into the centre circle, she was ready to play, we all were! Sammy called out to us to at least try and keep it together. The umpire’s whistled signalled the game to start. I tried to break free from my opposition, but she was a really good defender!
“Obstruction Wing Attack, blue ball!” Our Wing Defence jumped for joy as her attacking player had to stand beside her. I wish I had my camera, Ariel’s face was priceless , and extremely infectious. I had to take a breath as the ball came for me. I checked my feet, yes I was in the shooting circle, but on the very edge. I brought my feet together and bent my knees ever so slightly. Pushing the ball up, it flew through the air and went straight into the hoop. Julia, my shooting partner, patted my back and everyone smiled. I only needed one thing to make this night perfect, being friends with Tara.

We ended up losing the game, but it didn’t stop us from celebrating the next day at school. When Tara arrived, she thought we were celebrating her last day at school with us.
“Hey! Kayla, remind me that I have to leave at one-thirty today. I’m sorry!” She spoke so fast that I barely understood, but I nodded anyway. As her last day, I couldn’t have cared less, as long as I was with her. She started to walk away, expecting me to follow. I stood there awhile until she answered my unasked question, with her hand on her hip.
“Well, hurry up! I don’t have all day.”
“Literally.” I said and she stormed off. I had to run to catch up with her. Tara’s long legs carried her across the courtroom, rather ungracefully I might add.
“You’d think that all that horse riding would make you more graceful, Elephant!” Twisting on her heel, she turned to face me. I walked past her, trying not to smile, but when she said, “You are so gonna die!” , we both burst out laughing. Evan, who was walking towards us, gave us his usual ‘I so don’t know you two fruit-loops’ kinda look and continued walking. I started to blush and Tara fell into another fit of hysteria. My mum and Evan were like best friends and they talked about me like old women. It annoyed me sometimes, the embarrassing stories they told each other, but I guess it was the price I had to pay. I turned around to walk towards the classrooms, when Heidi bumped into me, as she held her head high.
“Hey!” I shouted. I found myself marching towards her. Beforehand, all I needed was a little bump and In would have been over the edge and no longer in control, and of course Heidi just happened to decided to shove me wide into the open.
“Kayla Jasmine Ball! Please don’t do this again.” She pleaded and grabbed me hand. I tried to keep walking, so she yanked on my arm, forcing me to look at her before she continued to speak, “Don’t do this. Think of Emily! ” I closed my eyes and the cute face Emily was wearing only a few days ago came to mind, right when I needed to keep my cool. I almost giggled, like we all had when she pulled the expression.  I inhaled deeply and let it all out. it felt like all my problems had been released from my mind for a few seconds until I re-opened my eyes. Tara’s face was filled with remorse, but her smile was ecstatic.
“Ok! Now I’m confused. ” I stated as her laugher was drowned out by the bell. Tara and I immediately starting scanning the are for someone in our class. Luckily for us, Evan came right up behind me and tapped my shoulder. The squeal that seeped through my lips made my cheeks blush in embarrassment. Evan’s face had cheeky written all over kit.
“Come on, this way. Oh, and Emily is here today, she just had something to do first.” Tara and I glanced at each other, were we really that easy to read? He was walking towards, what Tara and I hoped, was our classroom.

“Your exam is tomorrow, so don't forget to study.” I turned around while my science teacher babbled on about a test all about Chemistry.
“So much fun!” I mouthed in Tara’s direction.
“I know right!” she replied, flicking her hair to add a dramatic effect. I stifled a laugh and a hand came down on my desk, hard!
“And what do you think your doing?” Miss Danes asked, and I put my most innocent face on.
“I was going to steal, uh, borrow a pen from either Tara or Emily. So I could do the revision, of course!” Emily shook her head in confusion, but at least Miss believe my story, but she was still watching us. I could understand why she didn’t entirely trust us. Three blondes, best friends , each with the attention span of a nut and always confusing one another, probably weren’t a good mix, but I guess that is why I love them both to bits. It brought back the memory of when I first told Evan I loved him. He couldn’t understand that I love my friends, but only like my boyfriends at the moment. It literally confused the hell out of him. He tried to be smart by saying that I was either being confusing or confused, and he lost me there. I guess I kinda proved his point, but I didn’t care.
“Kay? Do you understand this? Kay?” A few fingers clicked in my ear.
“What?” I hadn’t even heard Emily ask or say my name.
“Do you know what this revision sheet goes on about?” She replied.
“It’s chemistry. What do you think?”
“Have you even looked at the sheet?” Tara butted in.
“No, but that’s not thither point, is it?” Miss Danes cleared her throat, and I guessed a detention was coming. The three of us put our heads down and got to work.

After fifteen minutes in detention, Emily, Tara and I were allowed free reign again. We burst out laughing as soon as our bags were on our backs. Skipping down the walkway, we almost got past Dylan. Emily tried to look uninterested and the smile was wiped clean off Tara’s face in an instant.
“What do you want?!” Tara snapped and I hit her across the back.
“Leave him alone!” I smiled and he did me the best honour, by smiling back.
“I think I can look after myself, beautiful.” I laughed and his English teacher called out for him, something about an assignment. He nodded his head goodbye and started walking off.
“Cya later!” I blurted out while Emily spoke softly,
“Bye Dylan.” Tara, who was in a fit of fury, grabbed Emily and I by the wrists and pulled us to the tree near the basketball court, the place where we normally ate lunch. Evan and Nathan were already there, but so was Heidi, and Jess wasn’t far off. The smile that Dylan put on my face was gone in an instant, and I went to walk in the other direction. This time, I was the only one being forced to follow as both my best friends grabbed me by my arms and tugged.  I gave in eventually, but it took some convincing.
“This is going to end badly.” I tried to warn them, but neither Tara nor Emily was listening to me. Once Heidi caught sight of me I felt her burning eyes start to watch my every single move I made. (rest of book)

"Well, just remember that this isn’t goodbye." The tears started to well up in my eyes as Tara gave her speech, I looked over at Emily who looked just as distraught as what I felt. When she continued, "I’m only a hop, skip and a jump away." I couldn’t help but giggle.
“"Yeah, ‘cause Toowanda is only three and a half hours away."
“"I have always been good at triple jump, haven’t I?"” This caused Evan to chuckle quietly, and Nathan shook his head and embraced Tara in a hug. She punched his shoulder to get him away after a few seconds and turned towards her next victim. Trying to force Evan into a hug was like trying to get a lion to become a vegetarian, so this must have been one of those only times where he relented. Emily skipped over so she must have thought it was her turn. I tried to look happy and wipe the tears away while Emily was playing monkey around Tara’s waist. Tara smiled at me, and opened her arms once she was free of Emily’s death grip. On my way, I tripped and fell towards her. At least it brought the group of about-to-be grieving friends to laughter.
"Hopeless as always." I blushed as soon as the words left my mouth. She gave one last squeeze before Tara picked us her school bag. Emily leant on my shoulder as Nathan put his hand around me. I normally would have shoved him off, but I didn't seem to care. Tara stopped at the gate where her mum was waiting and waved and blew kisses at us. As she turned the corner, I saw someone frantically running towards us. 
"Kayla!" Alison called out, once she made it to less than a few metres away, "I need you for a minute."