Chapter 1: Diary of Lenore

I first met Kenneth when I moved into town. We were 15. And freshmen in high school. I have to maintain and insist on my stand that from the moment I set my eyes on him, I knew that I've found a good friend.

How did I know?

Well it might sound silly but I was walking behind him on the 1st day of school when I saw how he deliberately avoided crushing an ignorant snail crawling along right smack in the centre of the pavement.

I always admired individuals who have respect for living things, both big and small. Unfortunately I'm not disciplined enough to declare myself vegetarian. I'd have to admit that if vegetables tasted as good as meat products, I would not hesitate to become one.

About half a year down the road, I realized I was fooled by him. Recalling about this snail-avoiding incident, I asked him directly about it only to find out that it was honestly because he did not want to dirty his brand new shoes.

By then it was too late. We were destined to remain as fast friends having had all of our different classes packed in the same time slot. We were destined to remain stuck together, at least for the rest of the school term in Moontown.

Other than retirees, there were no true blue 'locals' in Moontown because no one stayed for long. Unless you considered Aunt Maggy, who prefers to be called without the 'Aunt' word in front, who owns the biggest supermarket in Moontown. But then again, if you owned the biggest supermarket in town and is currently making profits out of it, there was absolutely no reason for you to pack up and go.

Every year or so, there were bound to be a dozen new faces in town since Moontown was located reasonably near to a bustling city. I say reasonably because it wasn't exactly near or far. It still took an hour and a half to travel there and that was not an ideal situation if you had to travel to and fro every single work day.

Thus, families came and went.

There was Paul, Magdalene, Sam, Adele, Alice, Dexter… the names just goes on about friends who came and went.

The only constant in school for our batch was probably Kenneth and me, and thus we playfully declared ourselves the 'Seniors' of our batch. Not that there were any benefits. We were teenagers who could take care of ourselves, but no child wished to be away from their parents for such a long period of time.

Seeing them once a year and only during the Christmas season was dreadful and uncomfortable. You were happy to see them, but at the same time the relationship was awkward. As they say always say, time can make the heart grow fonder, yet they did not go on to talk about how it makes you feel distant from the other party as well.

But at least there was always Grandma and Grandpa around to diffuse the tension around the dining table at the right moment. It seemed like no matter how long Mum and Dad had been away because when they are back, they were always treated as kids when it came to Grandma and Grandpa. So much so that it sometimes makes me smile. I could still recall the time Grandpa actually gave Dad a thorough dressing-down just because he left the dirty cup in the living room. Dad's face was beetroot red from the scolding he received.

That said, just because it was Christmas doesn't mean I get to spend any time away from Kenneth.

Because his grandma makes the world's most kick-ass soup that I had to admit my own Grandmother's would have to be ranked second best. But it was not just because of the soup. This time, we had Zon.

Like us, Zon was destined to be stuck in Moontown, at least for the next year or so, which mean that the 3 of us were definitely going to graduate together.

Most importantly, all 3 of us lived along Dessling Street, which consisted of a row of 15 houses. It meant that we would walk to each other's house in pyjamas, even if it was 2pm in the day. And further down, at the entrance to Dessling Street was a guard house with an employee stationed 24 hours.

Not that Moontown was dangerous. But what with its geographical location came some ideas that were influenced by the city people.

Which brings me to the topic of lesbians. I always knew that people from the city were more complex. Or sophisticated, as Zon puts it, since she was raised in one. I was shocked when she confessed to us about how she wasn't very sure about her sexuality. Not at her honesty but at the fact that Zon, this lanky and attractive blonde may actually have a 'thing' for girls.

I wished she didn't confessed because thereafter whenever we went to each other's place to crash at one of our living rooms, my mind would always wander and I'd start thinking if the reason she hung out with me and Kenneth was because she wanted to know which 'way' does she swing towards.

But all that flew out the window when she started dating the captain of the football team. Thankfully, due to the proximity of our residences, there was no issue whenever we want to plan a catch-up session.

On the other hand, Kenneth had absolutely no doubts about which gender he prefers.

It was during one of these catch-up sessions that he admitted to us.

I could clearly recall it was at the end of the first day of school, in our senior year.

"Who is it?!" Zon squeaked out in a high-pitch tone while jumping in her seat excitedly as I made sure I was nowhere near her while trying my best to balance the 3 cups of hot chocolate.

It was my turn to host the sleepover tonight and having just returned from the kitchen, I had lost track of the conversation. Having ensured that the cups were not going to be kicked off the table by Zon, I breathed out a sigh of relief and sat down quickly to catch up.

Kenneth hesitated to answer her. It was obvious, the way that he was avoiding eye contact with either of us.

"Well?" Zon demanded again.

"Sophie." Kenneth said, quietly, as if fulfilling an obligation of saying the name, but yet wishing that we would not have heard it.

I knew who Sophie was. She was (another) new girl in one of my class. I was trying hard to recall which subject it was when Zon said, "That new girl?"

Kenneth nodded.

"What is it about her that you like? That eye-catching white trench coat jacket?" She asked, with her eyeball rolled upwards so that they seemed to be looking at the ceiling. It is very dramatic but that was Zon's way of recalling something.

"It kinda hurts to look at her." I recalled aloud. Not that I mean to be rude, but really, I could almost feel my eye pupils shrink when I happened to look at her general direction.

"So what about Sophie?" I asked, having not caught on yet.

"He LIKES her!" Zon exclaimed.

Now, other than the time he fell on his butt when we just got to know each other, I have never seen Kenneth so flustered and embarrassed before.

If he had anything else in his hand, I'm sure he would have tried to stuff it down Zon's throat to make her shut up. Fortunately, all that was within range was a mug of hot chocolate which he thrust towards her face a little forcefully.

I did not even have time to feel thankful that not a drip spilt onto Grandma's precious sofa.

In fact, I did not even know why was I feeling this way.

Sophie was definitely not the first girl Kenneth liked. There was always some girl at some point in time. But because this is Moontown, said girl always ends up leaving sooner or later.

In fact, being quite the looker himself, Kenneth has also received his fair share of attention from the opposite sex. The ones worth remembering are probably those that he got to go out on a few dates together. Not like there was much to do. In fact the longest girlfriend he had was for a record-breaking 8 months.

8 months was a long time to me, mind you. 8 months with no Kenneth bugging me. And when he was, it was usually because he could not figure her out. Come to think of it, I could not even recall her name. All I do remember of her was that she was a brunette.

So was Sophie.

I felt a slight wave of nausea hit me as it started to sink in that Kenneth had set his sights on some new girl.

I've always had this weird impression that I was the 'unofficial' girlfriend. Was it because he had been hardly dating anyone else for the past year, and that with Zon attached, we were spending more and more time alone together just like when we were back in freshmen year?

Just the other night before the end of the holidays, Kenneth and I had driven to Bloomsberg, the closest city to Moontown, just to look for Zon who was attending a party thrown in honour of Rick's buddy.

Zon had convinced us that we needed to attend at least one party in their high school life that wasn't held at Moontown.

Seeing no reason to object, we agreed. Kenneth sacrificed by abstaining from alcohol since he offered to be the driver for the trip home.

By the end of the night, Zon and Kenneth had to help me out of the pub. I was certainly not drunk. But I still remembered that somehow the floor below my feet was moving, causing me to sway from side to side.

Zon made up some lame excuse about having to go back in to retrieve some stuff when I knew she actually wanted to kiss Rick goodbye. Apparently, Kenneth told me the next day that I was actually shouting out my thoughts back then.

However, there was one definite thing I could remember about that night. That was when he held my hand.

No matter what drunken stupor I was in, I was immediately awakened when I felt his hand around mine.

His other free hand protectively reached out around my shoulders to guide me back towards the vehicle.

For the moment, I did not know whether to continue stumbling on and pretend to be in a daze, or should I just conduct myself in a more appropriate manner and politely decline his help.

Then I realized I could not care about dignity then. It felt too good to be held like that.