Sex, drugs and rock and roll was the phrase of the 60's. Greed is good was that of the 80's, but this generation's youth have taken it to a new extreme. Sex is a competitive sport, drugs are effortlessly accessed and rock and roll is a thing of the past. It's safe to say we're more than greedy.

I grew up, being told on a daily basis, how beautiful and intelligent I was. But my perfect life underwent immense alterations in year seven. Being a kid is easy. All they do is pretend; pretend to be older, pretend to be in a relationship, pretend to be pregnant, pretend to smoke, go to parties and whatever else they know as rebellion. As a child, life is a game. But if someone told me then that all the pretending becomes a merciless reality, I don't think I would've been so eager to grow up after all. I started high-school with plans. I planned to get through the next six years of schooling. I planned to keep to myself. I planned to not get involved in the politics, bitchiness and dramas. I planned to stay a virgin until true love came along. What I've learnt is that plans change.

I went home on the Friday of my first week in high school feeling superior; at last, all the compliments my mother fed me were proving to be correct. As I sprinted to my front door I heard a shrill scream. I jammed my key into the slot and impatiently manipulated it to unlock. The house was unusually silent, and given I have two older brothers, whose friends come and use our house as a halfway home, I really mean, unusually silent. So, of course, I was curious to see what was going on. Maybe Aunt Tess was engaged, finally. I walked down the hallway to the lounge. I saw my big brother Billy first; he was lying up against the wall. His face was swollen and blood poured from above his left eyebrow. Tears rolled off his cheeks onto his jeans, but he smiled when he saw me. I should have known things were too good to be true. Panic filled my mind, but was vastly interrupted by a whimper on the opposite side of the room. My eyes dared to turn, tracking the sound. Tears welled up in my eyes, blurring out the image of my father standing over my mother, with a counter stool in arm. Most teenagers lose their way at some stage. All our reasons differ. My father was mine.

The next day I woke early, threw on my new uniform and bolted out the door. I walked to school. When I arrived, Tegan, one of the 'cool' kids, approached me.
"You know G, you're hot, and you really shouldn't hang out with the nerds you hung out with yesterday." She then glanced around the corridor before continuing,
"People are already talking".
"Well, who should I hang out with?" I demanded.
"Us, derrrr." She emphasised the 'R' as though it would make a huge difference to my decision.
"Errrrm, sure OK." I imitated her sound.
Tegan was mistake number one. Befriending her meant I was automatically boosted up in teen society. I was instantly showered with opportunities to have what I wanted, whenever I wanted it.

Tegan invited me to a party two weeks after we became 'friends'. I recall spending no more than 15 minutes getting ready. I was blessed with good looks and I knew I didn't have to put in an effort to be noticed. I was wearing a strapless red dress that covered no more than a quarter of my thighs. I didn't need make up so I didn't bother. I couldn't find shoes so I went looking through my mum's collection. There was a pair of black heels that went perfectly with the rest of my outfit, so I claimed them. Tegan's boyfriend's older brother picked me up outside my house at 10.30pm. I jumped out the window, leaving my older brothers home to themselves. I couldn't tell them where I was off to, they had status too, and they'd have stopped me from going. They knew what happened at these parties, and I knew that no older brother would want their baby sister doing any of it. So what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them.

I raced down the street in the chill of the night and pounced in the back seat of the car with Tegan. There were four bottles of vodka and a couple of six packs for the guys sitting in the middle seat. Tegan had already started drinking from one of the bottles and I knew this would be the first of many times I'd get completely wasted. I grabbed the bottle out of Tegan's loose grip and took a sip. The water-like liquid burned as it fell down my throat. I didn't like the taste but I didn't care. I wanted to escape the image that had filled my mind over the last couple of weeks. So I took another, and another, and soon enough I'd downed half the bottle. The alcohol didn't take long to influence me. We drove down a street and I heard music blaring from one of the houses. I started giggling uncontrollably at the conflict of beats, in the car there was some crappy rap and from the street I could hear equally crappy techno. The car stopped and I saw some kids on the lawn behind a picket-fenced home drinking from cans, bottles, screaming, laughing and rubbing up against each other. I walked past a couple who were making out against the wall and noticed the guy had his hand up his girlfriend's, or hook up's, or whatever's top. I cringed at the thought of doing such a thing so publically, so instead of making my disapproval obvious I looked to the other side of the yard, where worse things we're happening behind the bushes. I obviously looked shocked because Tegan laughed at me and told me I'd get used to it. So I told her I just thought the girl was pretty unfortunate looking and that it didn't actually bother me. Then as I heard a new song come on from inside I changed the topic to music. We entered the house and were immediately swarmed around by a pack of Tegan's friends. There were only two girls; there were at least fifteen guys.

One of the guys in the pack caught my eye. He had coffee coloured skin and big dark eyes. He smiled at me and asked if I wanted a drink. I looked at Tegan, who nudged me toward him. We went off to the lounge where the source of the outside noise grew louder.
"You a dancer?" he asked.
"I am if you want me to be" I shocked myself; the flirting came so easily. He took my hand and led me to the dance floor. Mistake number two.

We started off bouncing around, I shimmied a little, held onto his hand and spun and laughed and eventually we were like every other couple dancing in that room, rubbing against each other, dancing close. Now I couldn't blame the couples outside, everyone else was doing it anyway, so what did it matter? Having his body close to mine was better than getting drunk. Track after track we laughed and screaming out facts about ourselves and edged closer to each other.
"What's your name?" he yelled into my ear.
"Georgina" I shrieked back over the noise around us.
"Georgina" He repeated then looked as though he had to think about it "Cute name" he finished and smiled.
"Thanks, what's yours?"
"Zed, like the last letter of the alphabet" he smiled again and every time he did I found my own face lit up.
"Want a drink or something?" He asked me.
"Yeah thanks" I replied. So we dodged through the other dancers to the kitchen were all the drinks were sitting.
"What do you drink?" he asked.
"Whatever's going" I replied, my ears re-adjusted to the more quiet setting and I felt confident, I fit perfectly into this scene.
Zed handed me a glass of water after swallowing half himself. I was shocked. Water? I thought, OK, waters good. I gulped down the remainder of the glass and smiled.
"So Zed, how old are you?"
"Fourteen, you?"
"Thirteen..."
"You have a phone number?" he asked.
As I recited it, he typed the number into his phone and assured me he'd call me sometime. Then we had one of those awkward stare into each other's eyes moments that was interrupted by some stupid tosser who fell over in the door way and his body weight caused the ground to thud which completely ruined the moment. So we just went and found a corner where we sat and talked about this n' that for a while. Then out of no were Zed announced that he should take me back to Tegan and them (whoever 'them' were) before they flipped. So he stood up, grabbed my hands to help me up and led me to the door.

We walked back to the lounge but couldn't see the others so we checked outside and found Tegan sitting on the steps clearly waiting for me. She smiled and hugged me
"You ready to bail?"
"Sure" I replied. She leant over and kissed Zed on the cheek; he then did the same to me and reassured me he'd call. We got into the car and drove back in the direction we came from. I looked at the time on my phone. 4.28am. I was astounded, how the hell was I still awake? Tegan babbled on the whole way home, she was in high spirits. I zoned in and out. We got to the bottom of my street; I thanked Tegan for the invite and jumped out of the car. I climbed back in the window I left from. Billy was waiting for me.

"Where were you?" I stood frozen. Suddenly I started trembling and bawling. My big brother came closer and embraced me.
"Georgia, I'm sorry about the other week, no one wanted you to see that" I began bawling harder. I couldn't help but stare at what was now a scab above his eyebrow.
"How longs it been happening for?" I managed to ask in gasps.
"Years...like since you were a baby."
I don't know what else he said but I spent the last of my conscious moments holding on to my brother. I didn't ever want to let him get hurt again. That conversation brought us closer together than ever. Even if we were years apart in age, and hardly saw each other due to leading our own separate lives and all that whatever. But we knew we could turn to each other if need be and all that. He became one of my best friends.