Toast
By TJ McKinnon
Copyright 2013 TJ McKinnon.
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Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organisations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.
Toast
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: What is school good for?
Chapter 2: New friends, new beginning...
Chapter 3: What are brothers really for?
Chapter 4: Cool hair spells out cool person.
Chapter 5: Roll Call will never be gloomy.
Chapter 6: P.E. is not my friend.
Chapter 7: Boys, are they human?
Chapter 8: WRX, express to success, or is it?
Chapter 9: Cinema kissing
Chapter 10: What is wrong with this scene?
Chapter 11: Rumours…
Chapter 12: Is this a scene from a chick flick?
Chapter 13: Blast from the past
Chapter 14: Waking up in someone else’s arms
Chapter 15: Party the night away
Chapter 16: What did you do with your ex?
Chapter 17: A chance for redemption
Chapter 18: Til the end
About the Author
Chapter 1
What is school good for?
I hate changing schools. You have absolutely no friends and you don't know what the majority of the school thinks is cool. I can never find any of my classes and the teachers are way too nice.
This is my eighth school in the past four years. On average, that's two schools a year. My brother Mitchel isn't the best student on earth. He doesn't get along with the teachers, mainly because he doesn't do any of the set work. It really doesn't help that he is almost always in some sort of trouble, either for vandalising or starting fights. But it's not just because of my older brother that we frequently change school.
My Dad! Four years ago my dad, John, and my mum, Katie, got divorced. I guess that's why Mitch went off the rails in the first place.
My dad wanted to move away from all the memories and places involving Mum. We moved into a large town house. It has three large bedrooms, a study, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a lounge room and a swimming pool. My room has a walk in wardrobe – it's cool as! Although the house is awesome, it's a big change from a small house. I get where my dad is coming from and all, but every time Mitch gets in trouble, Dad changes the school we go to, just in case Mum tries to get involved, which I seriously doubt!
So here I am at 5:50 am waiting for my stupid alarm to go off so that I can start getting ready for school. It’s the first day of my eighth school and I can't help hoping, just like the other seven first days throughout the last four years, that this school will be the last school that I have to go to.
Albert Secondary College! It starts at nine in the morning and it finishes at three in the afternoon. It's got a really good sports program: soccer, basketball, volleyball, tennis and swimming. The subject choices are also quite good. You’ve got the home economics classes like wood works, mechanics and cooking – you know all that sort of typical high school stuff. Then you have the art subjects and the subject we all wish our parents would let us drop. Maths! Need I say more about that one? Biology – for the people who are actually smart, they're the ‘don't try this at home because you just don't have the intellect’ kinds of people. Music, which all the cool kids take, personally I don't mind music classes that much. English – most people prefer to be asleep in this class. Then there’s PE: physical education – if you like being hit with foam balls, this is the subject for you!
Don't get me wrong. The school is awesome. I'm not afraid of my electives. Actually, I'm looking forward to my choices. It's the other students that I'm afraid of. I don't make friends that easily. I'm kind of shy, but once I'm in a group, I can pretend that I'm not. However, I'm too shy to go up and introduce myself to people. So I earn the title ‘Loner’, it's so unfair!!
My friend Nat used to tell me that the other students felt threatened by my looks. I'm quite tall: about 170cm. I have short, dark brown hair. I get it cut differently, but it's always the same length: cut a little bit lower than my chin. Nat once told me that I have almond shaped eyes. Add to that they are bright green and it creates a foreign look. At least that's what she told me. So if I don't straighten my hair, I end up with waves and ringlets, both hair styles look good on me. I'm quite skinny, but it’s not like you can see my bones I'm more on the healthy side. Mitch tells me all the time, "Seriously, Kaila. You have the body of a seriously hot beach chick. Just use it and you can seriously be hot!"
I slide out of bed, making my way over to my walk-in wardrobe. At the very front is my new school uniform. It's actually quite nice. It consists of a white shirt with a navy blue V-neck jumper and a blue, grey and black chequered skirt. It looks kind of like a tartan skirt, really. Because it's a winter term, we have the choice to wear long navy blue socks and black T-bars. I like this uniform. It's better than some of the other schools’ uniforms. One school I went to had a green and yellow dress and it was absolutely hideous. The only problem with this uniform is that my dad got me a short skirt. It comes halfway up my thighs, I know he wanted me to fit into the in crowd but this is just too weird. I can't wear something like this, it is way too short! What if the wind blows and it flicks up? Everyone will be able to see my underwear.
Once I'm dressed in my new uniform, I wander down the hallway and into the kitchen. Dad has gotten used to me getting up so early to go to school since I don't like going on crowded buses. I put the bread into the toaster, and I walk into the lounge room. Every morning I play a CD to wake Mitch up; he doesn't wake up unless there's some guitar playing going on. He gets up really quickly when there is a guitar solo on. He's a guitarist and he likes to air guitar along to the music. Although he would never admit to it at school, he can play the piano. Once, when we were little, he learned to play the clarinet. Mitch taught me how to play the guitar, but I like the drums best.
Today I choose something different. I usually play something by Linkin Park or Green Day, but I feel like a change so I put my AC/DC CD on, I love the songs on this particular CD. They have a really good atmosphere. Plus, I love the whole rock sound!
I eat my breakfast (toast as per usual), and then I brush my teeth and grab my schoolbag. I put only six folders in my bag so that it isn't too heavy to carry, then I make my way out of the house.
I lock the door behind me before walking down the driveway, next to my dad's black BMW. Parked out front is my brother's car. It's an electric blue Holden Sports. Mum bought it for him last year when he got his P Plate.
I walk down to the bus stop and I wait for the bus to come. There is no one else at the bus stop, and it's quite cold, considering it is winter it's hardly surprising. I really hate having to wait a long time for a bus and when it finally comes, after forty-five minutes of me standing here waiting, I feel really annoyed. There is hardly anyone on the bus. Just some guys wearing the same uniform as the one my brother has for Albert Secondary College. There are two other girls sitting on the bus. One’s sitting up the back of the bus with a guy who has light brown hair. Both of them are chatting quietly. The other girl, who has several brightly coloured bracelets on, is gesturing very animatedly and talking to the rest of the guys, who are sitting across the aisle from her. After two stops, there a
re five more people chatting noisily with the girl. She is even more excited now, squealing every now and then about something someone has said to her. She really needs to stop doing that; it's absolutely annoying.
The next stop is the one we get off at. Everyone who is wearing the Albert Secondary College uniform gets off. I make my way down the bus. I discover that most of the people from the bus are walking across a very green looking park. I basically jump down the steps and follow the girl with the bracelets. She's talking more quietly now, giving people around her these horrid looks. I quickly glance around. To my left is the group of people who were sitting up the back of the bus. I notice how the girl has her longish dark brown hair out now. She's wearing these cute black fingerless gloves and listening to her iPod. The two guys with her are quite good looking too. One has light brown hair and skater shoes while the other has blond surfy hair. He also has skater shoes, but what I didn't notice before is that he also has a skateboard. Both guys have their shirts hanging out and have done their ties very sloppily, hanging outside of their jumpers.
I notice as I’m glancing around that everyone is giving this little group strange looks. It’s like they're infectious. I have to smile to myself; this is just like every other school I've been to.