Chapter One – First day
It was the first day for the year tens at St Joan's school for the Gifted, a co-ed school on the Sunshine Coast. It was a beautiful blue morning. The sky was clear apart from sparse wisps of cloud and the ocean sparkled and mimicked the sky. Adelaide Myburgh, Lillian Melley and Rowena (Fizzy) Mane walked down the white beach arms linked. There were students from the private school littered all over the beach running along after each other laughing and squealing. The three girls were walking in the ankle deep water looking up at their new school. Emotions bubbled inside. They all felt different things, frightened, excited in one case bored, but all looking forward to senior school. It was a small school compared to the three girls' previous school; only select students who were either rich enough, or won scholarships could attend the seaside school.
It was a very modern school and had all the newest facilities. Despite the modern look the paint on the block of classrooms facing the sea was already fading and looked worn. It appeared that before the paint had faded it would have been a sea green with white windowsills and beams.
The trio stood in front of the school; another wave of anxiousness and fear washed over them soaking them through. It was their first year of high school without all their childhood friends. They were the babies of the school again starting in year ten. Exams, parties, alcohol, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll... or so they had been told. Apparently it was too be easy too, in a school like this? Yea right...
They walked out of the water and rummaged in their bags for towels to dry their feet and ankles. Then they put on their school shoes and walked up the dunes to the steps that led onto the school grounds.
"I can't believe that Don and Anton didn't pass the entrance exams," whined Adelaide.
"Well they weren't exactly 'gifted' as such," chuckled Lily.
"I don't know why you hung around with them Ad, they were really stupid," commented Fizzy. Adelaide shrugged.
"They made good Beyblade practice partners," retorted Adelaide, "and don't call me Ad, it sounds like you're talking about a television advertisement."
"Whatever Ad," giggled Lily.
"HEY!" cried Adelaide, chasing her two friends into the lecture hall for the orientation.
"Alright, these locker rooms, where you store your books, if your text books or writing pads are found anywhere else, you will need to pay me, your year co-coordinator a fine of $5. At the end of the year all the money will go towards a charity," said Mrs. Hillier as she guided the students through the school. They had just passed the year ten-locker area. It was an open space with all the lockers lined up along the brick walls. They were ugly and grey with some of the doors falling off and black marks smeared on them. So much for modern it was all external beauty. PROJECT! Fizzy thought immediately.
"Follow me please," Mrs. Hillier continued and led them to the other side of the locker rooms. In Lily's humble opinion Mrs. Hillier looked like a witch from Macbeth. She defiantly had the hair to go with the role. Put a hat on! She screamed inside.
"Theses are the rubbish bins provided so that you don't have to swim around in your own filth. You place your rubbish inside them." Really I would never have guessed, thought Lily as she looked around at the hallway. The school was very open with concrete floors and white walls. She decided that she would vandalize the school by painting the plain walls in an array of colour. Her train of thought was sadly interrupted when a particularly large man, who clearly resembled a tomato, approached Mrs. Hillier. She looked at her watched and a sparkle of triumph founds its way into her eyes, "Students may I introduce Mr. Gutencoff, the physical education teacher will be taking you for the rest of the orientation while I take my break," with that Mrs. Hillier walked off into the direction of the teachers lounge. What was with this school? Shouldn't the year coordinator stay with the new year ten students? Or were all the teachers like that, just leaving whenever they pleased? This looks like a good school, thought Adelaide happily.
They were walking down the school corridors being shown around by Mr. Gutencoff, who by now had been nicknamed Mr. Tomato. Everyone else was already bored and the guys were mucking up causing Mr. Tomato to go rank. Fizzy however was trying to pay attention, although was having a hard time keeping a straight face as Adelaide mock-imitated Mr. Tomato going off behind his, and everyone else's back. Lily stifled a laugh.
"And this is the Library. You are expected to study for two hours every night and this is where you get you books," concluded Mr. Tomato through gritted teeth.
They rounded a corner, passing the door with the sign marked 'Library' and down some stairs, ugly stairs. They were told that they were to have the proper school bags, labeled books and correct uniform. Fizzy rolled her eyes; she hated uniforms. Adelaide looked inattentive and was letting her eyes wander about the (what she thought to be) hideous, new school interior. Suddenly her face broke out into a mischievous smile.
Fizzy gave her a sideways look and tugged Lily's standard uniform sleeve and inclined her head towards Adelaide. They both tugged her sleeve.
"Do not, I repeat DO NOT do that," Fizzy quoted in a shocked whisper. Adelaide looked evilly at the switch on the wall. Well, as evilly as she could.
She shook her head so much it looked as if it would fall off. Of course, it didn't but still...
"No Adelaide! You can't" hissed Lily.
Adelaide edged casually towards the wall. Lets say she previously had much practice at these sorts of things. Fizzy panicked and fumbled a bit, glancing between Mr. Tomato and the fire alarm and eventually decided to stand still and look like she knew nothing was going on, even though she did glance sideways every so often. Lily just rolled her eyes.
Suddenly a bell rang. A piercing screeching ring that echoed through the corridor. Adelaide was standing next to Fizzy and Lily like she'd done nothing, even though she was smirking slightly, even though she was trying not to. Lily just shook her head standing in the middle of her friend's Fizzy looked to the sky, well the roof, for inspiration.
The trio saw Mr. Tomato cut though the crowd of 14 and 15 yr olds and turned off the fire alarm. Suddenly a thought hit Adelaide, what if she was caught – on her first day? Oh she would be in trouble. Her eyes started to shift from side to side and she watched eyes widening with fear as the teacher walked towards them. He then walked past the girls and towards a passing grade eleven boy. Adelaide breathed a sigh of relief as he passed them and went onto the boy who must have been let back a year because he certainly wasn't in year ten.
He screwed up his already red face and shouted, "JOHNNY MCGREGOR!" he shouted into the now dull silence, "WHAT have I TOLD you about USING THE fire ALARM in an INAPPROPRIATE MANNER? THREE STRIKES YOU'RE OUT!"
By this moment Mr. Tomato was purple instead of his healthy red. Johnny's face showed no sign of fear. In fact he looked pissed off and over it. He opened his mouth to retort, but Mr. Tomato was already carting him off to the principal's office.
Lily and Fizzy looked in the direction of Adelaide who was attempting to hide an evil laugh. The two other girls the looked at the tall red head adolescent, Johnny who was now at the end of the hall being shouted at by Mr. Tomato, no spat at.
Lily and Fizzy walked away seeing as the orientation had finished and they were to proceed out to recess. Adelaide noticed that her two friends had moved away and were checking out where their lockers were.
"Hey! Wait for me!" she cried as she ran over to the pair, "what are you doing anyway?"
"Checking out our lockers, you dolt," said Lily as she brought over her bag, quite heavy.
"They have our names on a sticky label on them and everything," said Fizzy as she opened the locker with her name on the sticky label, "they have locks and timetables inside as well." Adelaide and Lily opened their lockers revealing their timetables and locks the three compared their timetables and found that their first lesson after recess was science and that they only lesson that was different between them was Adelaide was in the extension math.
Each of their lockers was close together. Fizzy and Lily's lockers were on the top right next to each other as they were always next to each other on the roll and Adelaide's was on the bottom, below the locker beside Lily's.
Before she packed away her books and accessories Lily looked down at her light brown school dress. The design was small and sheik with a white collar and six brown buttons. The sleeves and hem were trimmed with a white line. All the students wore shiny brown shoes and white socks.
After looking at her uniform Lily soon unpacked her books and put them neatly on the shelf provided. She looked down at Adelaide's locker to see her shoving her books into her locker with no care at all.
"Why don't you pack your locker neatly like everybody else?" questioned Lily.
"I know that it's going to get messy anyway so why bother," replied Adelaide brightly. As Adelaide looked up at her friends she noticed that they were sticking mirrors to the doors of their lockers.
"Why do you bother putting mirrors in your lockers? They are such a waste of space and time," she whined and she placed a small photo of the three girls lying on a beach.
"I wouldn't talk, anyway why bother going to the bathroom when you can just look at yourself in the locker" said Fizzy noticing the collage of CSI and Law and Order pictures that completely covered Adelaide's locker door, "I see you still have a crush on Gorren..."
"My friends this is a work of art," sneered Adelaide shooting Fizzy a dirty look as she stepped back to show it off.
"Yes darling Michelangelo couldn't have done better," Lily laughed as she placed the last photo on her door. Like Adelaide's it was completely covered, but instead her pictures were of the girls throughout the years they had known each other. They had all their firsts together, first time they shaved their legs, first summer job, first time they boogie boarded, they were there for each other the first time they kissed or had their heart broken. They were inseparable.
Adelaide laughed with the other girls, her bright brown eyes lighting up. She had a pageboy hairstyle bob that hugged her ears. It seemed as if she hadn't even looked in her mirror that morning. Her hair was a messy mop of brown curls mixed with very thin blonde streaks. Her uniform fitted loosely over her undeveloped figure. She was the youngest of the three and certainly the most immature. Her cheeks were always rosy and she always had a mischievous sparkle in her eye. She slammed her locker door and fiddled with her leather band around her wrist.
Lily continued to giggle as she closed her locker door. She was a tall girl with a slim, developing figure. She had long, thick, brown/blond hair that reached her mid-back. Some people though she looked like Mishca Barton, she thought otherwise. She pulled her hair out of her face letting her side fringe fall into her blue eyes. Her brown uniform was tight on her chest and rose halfway up her thighs. She gleamed a pearly white smile that made the guys swoon. She wore little studs in her ears, one in her left two in her right and on her fingers she wore a simple white gold ring given to her by her first boyfriend. She also wore a faded coral necklace that hugged her neck. Adelaide and Lily stood side by side and waited for Fizzy to get ready.
Fizzy had long waist length blonde hair and baby blue eyes. She was the most developed of the groups and very petite. She was paler than the others and wore many beaded bracelets and rings and a silver cross, hung around her neck. She let her hair hang loose and flicked it over her shoulder as they headed away from the lockers. In her hand was a small musli bar that she was eating for recess.
The three girls walked through the courtyard oblivious to the fact that a large black limousine had pulled up outside of the school. Out of it stepped two tall boys who were both also in the tenth grade. One had spiky dark and light blue hair. The blue haired one was muscular and wore a Beyblade console around a chain attached to his pants. He was Kai Hiwatari. Many of the girls who saw him fawned over his striking good looks, however with a heart of steal he brushed them off. The boy next to him, Bryan South was well built as well with jet-black spiky hair and a coral necklace. He was definitely the ladies man and well frankly they loved him too. Simultaneously the boys flung their bags over their shoulders and Kai signaled for the driver to leave.
Without noticing the two boys arrive Adelaide was running to get something from her locker when someone called for her attention.
"AD WATCH OUT!" cried Fizzy.
"HUH?" replied Adelaide turning to look at Fizzy, keeping on running sideways. Suddenly she banged into. She fell backwards...hard.
"Ow, my arse," complained Adelaide, "What did I do? Hit a brick wall...again?"
She then looked up to find a tall blue-haired teen brushing off his brown blazer. She scrambled backwards and could only pipe up a small, "eeeeee," whilst turning three shades of red, even darker than Mr. Tomato. Kai looked down at her and turned away shaking his head, his companion following suit.
Lily and Fizzy then ran over to Adelaide picking up her books then headed down a flight of stairs to the science labs under the school.
"Are you alright?" asked a concerned Fizzy.
"If I ever see that guy ever again I think I will die," groaned Adelaide, still shaken from her encounter with brick-wall man Kai, "whoever the hell he is."
"I think he's Kai Hiwatari. He's this really rich dude from one of the 'old families'; saw him at a party once. The other guy Bryan is his second cousin twice removed or something. He was in primary school with us; remember? But them he transferred to god knows where. Remember?" concluded Lily, as they stood outside the lab waiting for their teacher.
"I remember him, he was such a weasel, I wonder what happened," giggled Adelaide.
"From bitch to bull I guess," answered Fizzy as their teacher brushed past her.
"Class, class!" said the teacher raising his voice and spitting over the chatter of the excited year ten students from the front of the gathering outside the lab. "Before we enter that laboratory I'd like to point out that there shall be no talking when I speak and no food or drink in the laboratory. You must stay in you seats at all times and no one is to enter without a teacher supervising. Is that clear?" He asked rubbing his hands together enthusiastically and leaving a trail of spit around his mouth. In reply he got a dull yes. "Right then proceed in, four to a desk now, no running," he said and banged the door shut and strode up to the front of the class, "Now open you books..."
"What's his name again," asked Adelaide as our three heroines sat at a desk of their own at the back of the class.
"Dunno never told us," answered Fizzy with a disgusted look on her face as she saw a dissected rat on display.
"Well looks like a Mr. I-spit-cause-I-have-a-lisp," retorted Lily opening her notebook and getting out a pen to start drawing. Adelaide and Fizzy smothered a laugh from Lily's comment just as a tall blue haired boy walked into the classroom. Adelaide went as pale as a ghost and dropped under her desk pretending to look for something.
"What is she doing?" asked Fizzy.
"Obviously looking for her pen," said Lily not looking up just as Kai was about to speak.
"Sorry that I was late, but I have a note," he said in his warm husky voice. He handed the note to Mr. I-spit-cause-I-have-a-lisp and stood there looking around the room, smirking and thinking that he was going to have a lot of fun ruling this lot. Evil disturbed child.
"Very well, sit over there where those two...GET UP OFF THE FLOOR!" he shouted spitting all over Kai. Adelaide slowly emerged from the safety of under her desk and sat trembling making Lily and Fizzy look slightly worried. Kai wiped off the spit and looked at the desk that the teacher was pointing at and rolled his eyes at the site of the trembling wreck that was Adelaide. He slowly walked over and sat down next to Lily on the far left. She smiled at him.
"I'm Lily," she said softly, "And this is Fizzy and Adelaide," Fizzy softly smiled then went back to trying to comfort Adelaide.
"I'm Kai," he grunted and the girls didn't speak to him for the rest of the lesson. He made no effort to start conversation either.
The bell rang at the end of the boring science lesson and the students made a quick escape to get out including Adelaide. Fizzy ran after her and as Lily was about to leave she dropped her folder and it broke making papers fly everywhere. Most of the students just looked down at her and walked on by but one with large brown hands helped her out. It was Kai; Lily was astonished to see him being so generous of spirit.
"Thanks," she said a little softer than intended. She looked up at his firm face and saw that he had blue-grey eyes with a striking blue ring around them. "You have really pretty eyes." She said lightly. He smiled in the corner of his mouth.
"They're my mum's," he said standing up. Lily followed and snapped her folder shut then tucked it behind her art book which was already half full on the first day. She smiled and made an attempt to exit but Kai called her name, she turned around as she reached the door. "I'll see you round?" he asked. She nodded and walked out of the lab.
Finally when Lily caught up with her companions outside the art studio, Adelaide started to whine: "What the hell is with that teacher? I mean couldn't he see that Kai wasn't wanted at our table? Grrrrr," she grumbled as they stood in the line outside the art studio, obviously she had forgotten the fact that Lily had spoken to him.
"Come on Adelaide, admit it he is cute," said Lily and really sweet she thought to herself.
"Yeah, look at his build, whoa!" said Fizzy fanning her face with her hand.
"You two are such fools can't you see that her is really a self absorbed- "just as she was about to finish two tall boys, one Kai and one Bryan walked toward them. Adelaide gritted her teeth at the sight of him and stooped her head in her shoulders giving her an angry affect that made Lily and Fizzy giggle. Bryan thinking they were giggle at him like any other girl gave them a wink and kept walking. Fizzy seeing this straightened up and scowled him as he walked past joining the end of the line; Lily rudely turned her back to him.
The room was full of canvases with acrylic paint tubes at the front and an airy- fairy teacher dancing around the room to the soft music that played, Lily's dreams had come true! "Hello class welcome to art. I am Mrs. Straight. Please do sit at a canvas. I want to do an initial project so I can understand you level of technical ability. Please paint a picture expressing emotion with the subject matter of a mythical creature," concluded the teacher who danced to her own canvas.
"Wow, what you call her Lily?" asked Fizzy seeing as Adelaide was still furious.
"Mrs. Spirit because she has such an imagination and she is free," answered Lily as she started to sketch on the canvas lightly.
"Look, there is that despicable good for nothing low life Kai," gritted Adelaide, "He seems to be following us,"
"Maybe he likes you," suggested Fizzy as she drew an outline of an elf, Lily smiled to herself. "Ridiculous," Adelaide muttered. Secretly she thought that he was indeed quite cute, but she never dare say that out loud. There was silence for a good ten minutes when; "Oh Lily! What an exquisite idea!" she exclaimed happily.
"Thanks," said Lily shyly. She was self conscious of her art really. Lily had finished her sketch and was starting to paint when Kai walked passed her canvas to get some paint and noticed her sketch that she was painting. It was to be a painting of an angel. However she looked sad and was not going to be white but grey with a tatty cloak and battered wings. The expression on her face was truly depressing. It was a sad picture. Kai thought it was amazing and stood there for a couple of seconds staring at it. Lily noticed him and said nothing just looked up at him with her ocean blue eyes, slightly unnerving.
"Oh sorry to disturb you keep going but that is amazing," Kai retorted.
"Well get lost you ain't welcome," snapped Adelaide.
"Sorry," he said and walked away shaking his head.
"So you finally made contact," said Fizzy as she got out some paints to paint her happy elf.
"Shut up," said Adelaide.
"Oh Mr..." Mrs. Spirit looked at down the register for Kai's name, "Kai. What are you doing? That is not worth painting my dear. Oh Miss…." she took another look," Lillian yes that is lovely work maybe you can help Mr. Kai over here," she said as she danced over to her canvas again.
"But Mrs..." Lily trailed off, once she started on something she didn't like to be disturbed, yet moved slowly over to the disaster that was Kai's canvas. She looked at him waiting for him to tell her what he wanted.
"Draw to your hearts content," he grunted and sat back, crossing his arms. Lily thought and thought but nothing came to her.
"It's your painting," she said "When you figure something out I will help you," she said looking at him again then walking back to her canvas. Kai watched her walk away then turned to his canvas, nothing coming to his head. He sat there for the entire lesson, students around him chatting and painting.
The bell suddenly shrieked wrecking Adelaide's concentration, she grumbled as she threw her paints back onto the trolley and placed her canvas onto the drying rack, she was also a little angry that Lily talked to Kai and said she would help him so when she asked to wait just walked straight ahead out of the room Fizzy in close pursuit. Lily ran after the two and said something,
"Please don't be angry at me I had to and if it makes you feel better actually didn't help him at all,"
"Oh ok we forgive you," said Fizzy and Adelaide nodded in agreement after a thoughtful pause.
"Mmm, lunch," said Adelaide as they reached their lockers. They all were thinking the same thing and headed out to the courtyard and sat down at one of the tables. Adelaide dug furiously into her food and didn't look up making Lily and Fizzy laugh.
"You know what we should do?" said Fizzy as she unpacked her lunch. "We should try out surf boarding."
"Yeah we have got so good at boogie boarding," said Lily as she took a bite into her apple.
"I dunno guys, you know how un-co I am," said Adelaide worried.
"Come on you are the one who snow boards," stated Fizzy.
"Well..." she whined.
"Please," pleaded Fizzy and Lily at the same time.
"Ok" said Adelaide finally.
"Yes!" and the hall gave each other one big 'High Five' and laughed getting a collection of very weird looks.
Meanwhile in a corridor over looking the courtyard stood a very surly looking boy and his friend who was secretly checking out girls.
"So Kai man what do you think of those three chicks," said Bryan motioning to the three girls
"They are too young to be in this school," he said thoughtfully, not really feeling his words but trying to make a convincing his excuse for looking at the group, or just one.
"Nah mate, I heard one of them say that she was turning sixteen this year," Bryan pointed out.
"Hmmm, well they certainly act too young," Kai concluded and walked away from the railing Bryan in pursuit.
"I don't think that is the real reason, I am thinking you like one of them," said Bryan as the two walked down the stairs into the courtyard area. Kai rolled his eyes.
"Yeah right, if you haven't noticed I don't want a girlfriend and I am defiantly not gay," he said sensing Bryan's next question.
"Whatever. I said I would meet up with some people from science class at lunch so I will catch you round," he said as the guys locked hands, knuckle up, knuckle down then punched each other in the knuckles and walked away.
"Oh my god! Look at those losers," Adelaide seethed as she saw the two boys did their handshake. Lily laughed.
"We used to do that," said Fizzy smiling.
"But this is different, they are doing it," she said in a matter-of-factly tone taking a large bite out of her sandwich. "Hey, Lily can I come back to yours tonight?" asked Adelaide. The girls were always at each other's houses especially Lily and Adelaide; the two of them had known each other since before they could remember.
"You know you don't have to ask," said Lily walking over to the rubbish bin. She found herself face to face with Kai again – was he following her? She just grinned at him and walked back to Fizzy and Adelaide.