A/N: Thank you for choosing Erased, I hope you all enjoy. I'll try and update as much as possible. Feel free to comment on everything you hate/love about it. Also, I know this chapter is going to suck since I'm introducing characters—which I suck at.
Chapter 1
"Addison Rivera, if you disrupt my class one more time I swear I will send you to the front office!" My math teacher, Mrs. Brown, yelled. She glared at me from across the room where she stood by the board.
"Mrs. Brown," I said sweetly. "I haven't disturbed your class, today anyways. Josh simply sneezed and I politely said 'gesundheit' which is German for bless you. You can look it up if you would like."
She flushed red, turning back to the board while my friends Josh and Hayes bumped fists with me. I leaned back in the plastic chair, doodling in my notebook, when a paper landed on my desk.
Catching waves tonight—8ish. You in? I considered it. It's been awhile since I went out with the guys.
Sure, I just need to get my gear.
Josh leaned over and whispered the plan to Hayes. He nodded, flashing a quick smile at me, before the bell rang.
"Aye, mate, I thought that class would never end!" Josh exclaimed, running towards his locker. I felt a hand cover my eyes.
"Guess who?" Said a familiar, angelic voice.
"The Easter Bunny?" I asked, slowing my pace down so I didn't slam into anything. She giggled.
"No, silly!"
"Mina! Why are you covering Adi's eyes?" Josh asked, and I felt her hand pull away.
"Josh, you ruined it!" Mina folder her arms and pouted. I laughed at her expression and pulled the books I would need for my classes after lunch. "So Adi, you're surfing tonight?"
"How the hell can you know that? Josh just asked." I said, shoving my book into my black messenger bag that had headphones attached to an iPod printed on it.
"You've been here for almost 2 years, you should know that word spreads fast around here." She said, lacing her fingers through mine as we walked outside to eat lunch.
"Point taken."
"So, after school wanna hang by the beach? I'm not thinking swimming, just sightseeing. If you know what I mean." I thought about it, I'd been so wrapped up in my English project that I've been completely neglecting my friends.
"Absolutely." I said. I sat down in a patch of grass with my back against a tree, watching the rest of our group of friends walk over. All my friends, minus Mina, were guys. The surfer guys: Josh, Hayes, Kai, Spencer, and Rip and the pranksters/ jokesters: Mica, Chase, and Bubo. Mina and I are the only girls, though Mina has her own group of friends separate from us. And most of them are girls who are loud, obnoxious and of course kinda sluttish.
They get away with their sluttish ways though. Here at Albany High located in Western Australia, the dress code—well basically there is one. Short shorts and low cut tops are okay. Jeans with holes, okay. See through shirts: okay. Mesh tops with your bathing suit underneath, that's fine too. Cropped shirts that hit your ribs and dresses that are higher than mid-thigh —definitely okay.
I told you they were no dress codes.
They don't care, because it's Australia and the school is right on the beach. There were some people who had some modestly. I was one of them, Mina was another.
Today I was dressed in light, ripped flare jeans that dragged in the sand a light grey shirt that rested on my ribs (that's as slutty as I get, besides shorts—just not booty shorts), short purple converse, my black stud belly ring and the two rings I wear every day. On my left hand a ring with wings wrapping around my finger and on my right hand two rings connected by a chain on my pointer and middle finger and black nail polish. And Mina was wearing a ruffled blue dress with black Gladiators and subtle make-up (where I go without any) including black mascara and eye-shadow and lip gloss. (.com/cgi/set?id=32398520).
Someone wolf whistled, pulling me from my thoughts. I mimicked the guy's actions, turning my head to find the source. Johnny Long, the Rugby star and biggest player in Albany, he smiled cockily and started walking towards us with the rest of the Rugby team trailing behind. He stopped at the edge of our group, staring at Mina and me.
"So Adi," I cut him off.
"Only my friends call me Adi. Sorry." I watched Kai attempt to cover his laughter.
Johnny's smiled slid from his face for a second. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about. How about me and you start to get to know each other?"
Sexist pig.
I pretended to think about it by taping my finger against my chin. "I pretty sure I would rather the sharks finish me off."
"Adi, sooner or later you're going to want me." He said, starting to walk away.
"I pick later, like 'I'm in my grave' later!" I yelled after him. I glanced over at Mina. "Why are you frowning?"
"I've changed my mind." She announced. I raised my eyebrows waiting for an answer. "We're ditching and going to Melbourne."
"It's not exactly an overnight trip, Mi. It'll take at least three days to get there."
"We've done it before." She argued.
"Over break, when we had two week off from school." She started to pout again.
"Well when is our next break?"
"In two weeks."
"Alright, well in two weeks we're going to Melbourne. Even if I have to fucking kidnap you Addison." I shrugged.
"Okay."
"YAY! Okay, but I still want to ditch so can we go get my hair done?"
"What do you want done now, mate?" Josh asked joining our conversation.
"I want to get some highlights in, and Adi I think you should get some too."
"I'm not highlighting my hair." I turned my head away from her, knowing she would pull out the Bambi eyes.
"? I swear it won't be anything too drastic!" She paused and I could see her hands fidgeting. "Plus, uh, I already made the appointments."
I groaned, turning my head back to meet her blue eyes with my chocolate brown ones. The boys were laughing around us as I sighed and stood up. Mina did the same before she told Hayes to cover for us and literally dragged me to her car. I opened the door, throwing my bag in the back and bucking up.
"Thank you so much, Adi! I swear you won't regret this."
"Maaaax! Please, I really want to change my hair!" The mocha colored girl pleaded. "I already talked to the hair salon and everything. They told me they have special stuff that will help control my hair once I straighten it, and they'll color it if I want. , Max?"
"I guess we can check it out."
"Yes! Thank you Max! I swear you won't regret this!"
"Adi, Adi wake up. We're here. You okay?" Mina asked.
"Yeah, sorry. Just a dream." She nodded and led the way into the salon. "Promise this won't be a drastic change?"
She didn't answer because a woman stood in front of us. "Addison Rivera? Mina Watts? Please follow us."
I was separated from Mina, and pushed into a chair. The lady turned the chair so I was facing away from the mirror. "I must say, Miss Rivera, you are truly beautiful. I know just what to do with your hair to highlight your face and tan perfectly!" And then she started cutting and putting tin foil in my hair. I closed my eyes and relaxed. This was going to be a long day.
About an hour later—it could have been longer—the stylist turned my chair around and let me just tell you what I didn't see. I did not see my dirty blonde semi curly hair with a simple haircut that reached my mid-back. Instead I saw a lot of different colors; I wasn't really a blonde anymore. There was a dark brown as the main color with blonde highlights and light brown lowlights. And she cut my hair a few inches so it curled around my bra strap, and had bangs sweeping over my right eye. It was definitely drastic since I barely recognized myself—but I liked it.
Mina walked over, smiling guiltily. I took in her new style. Her usual white/blonde shoulder length hair was cut, wrapping perfectly around her chin and collarbone with layers. And had bangs covering the eye opposite to mine, and had a tint of dark brown starting from the roots. Hers looked just as good.
(Mina's hair highlights: .com/imgres?imgurl=./-gOgXN9FKew4/TVwqN5qKkMI/AAAAAAAAAD4/DXSgEPq1GWU/s400/cute%252525252Bshort%252525252Bhair%&imgrefurl=.&usg=_k7XXfJXjXmVCJjL6ej0yGxPisXY=&h=400&w=320&sz=39&hl=en&start=197&zoom=1&tbnid=rsdAgSTg3FwX-M:&tbnh=141&tbnw=107&ei=hd3vTZfKGsyEtgf3-82SCQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcute%2Bshort%2Bhaircuts%2Bwith%2Bhighlights%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1R2DKUS_enUS395%26biw%3D1419%26bih%3D632%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=203&page=8&ndsp=30&ved=1t:429,r:18,s:197&tx=40&ty=65
Adi's hair highlights: .com/imgres?imgurl=.&imgrefurl=.&usg=_A3ODe_Sm7NsD9k57yFE5zTX7cHQ=&h=392&w=280&sz=20&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=56594RaxBqCLXM:&tbnh=157&tbnw=110&ei=-KrvTdiSBIfY0QHKi4GmCg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dblonde%2Bhair%2Bblack%2Bhighlights%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26rlz%3D1R2GGLL_en%26biw%3D1259%26bih%3D845%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=375&page=1&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:0&tx=52&ty=98)
"You're off the hook—this time. And this time only." I said as we paid.
"But you like it right? I thought it suited you and your tall, athletic toned body with the whole sarcastic total BA attitude."
"Yeah I like it."
"Good because next week I'm thinking we get tattoos." I turned to stare at her, stopping dead in the parking lot. She took one look at me, and sprinted to the car with me going chasing after her.
7:45pm
"YO ADI! MINA! OVER HERE!" We followed the sounds of Spencer's yells from the car all the way down to the best surf spot in Albany. Josh greeted us half way, throwing my surf bag at me and telling me to go change before escorting Mina down to the spot like a gentlemen. (Which by the way he is not, he just has it bad for Mina.)
I walked to the changing section, a long three wall hut thing separated by curtains that you closed when you were changing. It didn't have great privacy, but it did the job. I closed the curtain and pulled out the bathing suit and black long sleeve rash guard. My bathing suit was a simple black halter top and tight black and white stripped bottoms that didn't fall off if you fell off your board.
Kai spotted me as I made my way over to them. Throwing my hair up, I walked to where he was resting on the wave runner that was waiting on the wet sand. "You're not surfing tonight?"
"Nah, brah, I'm on runner duty since I twisted my ankle last week when we were screwing around with Rugby."
"It still isn't better?"
"Nope, but it's all good. Next week I'll be out there kicking ass. I waxed you're board for you."
"Thanks man."
"Yeah, and Adi, please just be careful out there. It'll be dark out there, so don't pull any of your usual stunts, yeah? And don't forget 'bout the sharks."
"Don't worry about it, Kai." He nodded, turning his head to focus on the waves. I grabbed my board, simple and black, and waded into the water with Rip.
"Dude, this is going to be wicked." He commented as I swung my leg over my board and sat up on my ass nice and tall. I watched as Hayes, Josh, and Spencer pulled their cars to the shore line and switched their headlights to the brightest setting and positioned them towards the water. Mina watched from the hood of Hayes yellow hummer as the 5 of us paddled further into the water. I plunged under an oncoming wave, popping back up with a deep breath and sloshing my bangs from my eyes. I turned my board around aiming the tip of it towards the beach and waited for the right time to go. We formed a line in the water, Josh then Hayes, me, Spencer, and then Rip.
"I thought Mi promised nothing drastic." Hayes said, breaking the silence. "Not that it doesn't look good." He reassured quickly.
"Yeah, I thought so too."
"YO!" Spencer yelled, ruining our conversation. "First wave of the night, coming up! I call running with Adi!"
"Oooh yeah, suck it Hayes!" I said as I lay down on the board and started paddling. I felt the wave under me and rose to my knees, held my balance, and then got on my feet spread my arms out and followed the wave.
It felt like I was flying.
And flying felt amazing.