BEFORE

During the entire pre-excursion lecture from her mother, Eden was looking hopelessly out the window searching for Andy, her only friend. It was a lost cause, most likely his family had pulled the "allergies" card on him again and he got to stay home, lucky bastard. But she couldn't face this challenge alone. Eden couldn't face a fucking maths exam without Andy, she would have no hope with a bushwalk. The car park of her high school, Bremin High, was bustling with activity and it made her nervous. Her frantic eyes landed on a black haired goth in skinny jeans and quickly looked away like they had been burned.

Not today, I can't handle this today.

"Water bottle?"

"Check"
"First aid kit?"

"Check"

"Sunscreen?"

"Check"

"Insect repellant?"
"Check"

"Stingoes?"
"Mum! I have everything! I haven't taken anything out of my bag since you last gave me a checklist twenty minutes ago! I am okay!" Eden exclaimed with her hands up, her mother just chuckled and grabbed her daughter and kissed her on the head. "Be safe, see you this afternoon kiddo."

As soon as she exited the car she got a glimpse of andy walking towards the bus. "Hey! Hey!" She called out running towards him, her school bag bobbing on her back. "What's with the gear? Did you decide you're gonna stay in the woods for six months instead of the mandatory six hours?"

"Hilarious, as usual, E." He replied, rolling his eyes at his friend, who curtseyed in response with an equally sarcastic expression.

"But for real though," She persisted.
"Did you want to bring this up with my Nai Nai? Because I'm perfectly willing for you to get beaten up by her instead of me."

"You know she loves me, is that a yoga mat?"

Andy couldn't respond before he was approached by Mr. Bates "Andy you made it, hand me your permission slip please," He said, "before you get on the bus," Eden bypassed her friend to get on the bus, as she didn't feel the need to listen to a conversation she wasn't included in with her science teacher. She knocked on the glass sliding doors of the bus and the driver opened them with a sympathetic smile. My Bates didn't notice her getting on, she doubted anyone would. It hurt, most of the time, being a nobody. But sometimes it had its perks.

Strolling down the empty bus aisle, she found a seat about halfway down the bus and stuffed her backpack into the shelf above her seat. It was about thirty seconds before her classmates began to file in and she waved her hand up for Andy to find her.

Upsettingly, she found herself sitting behind Felix Ferne, goth freak extraordinaire, and, in her eyes, perfection incarnate. She's felt this way since year seven and it looked as if her little crush wasn't going away anytime soon, so she felt compelled to repress it and tell noone, aside from Andy, of course. The reason the repression of this crush was so necessary was because of the simple class system at Bremin high. Felix may have been unpopular, but he was a different type of unpopular to Eden, and therefore their types may not mix. And what would he want with her anyway? He was a goth that listened to metal music and she was a blonde-haired dux recipient of the last three years, who on top of that , had both glasses AND braces (a lethal combination). It just wouldn't work. And besides, Felix had Ellen, and she guessed she had Andy.

Eden plugged in her earphones and listened to Francoise Hardy for the whole bus ride, it made her feel better, as if she wasn't sitting behind the unattainable thing that she wanted more than anything in the whole world.

(A/N: first chapter, I found it hard to start off so forgive me if this isn't too great, but I hope that I'll be able to gain momentum and improve my writing as the series continues. Constructive criticism very welcome and thanks for reading!)