Toast

  Chapter 6

  P.E. is not my friend.

  I do seven subjects. I chose six of them. The one I didn't choose, you have to do anyway. I don't exactly like doing PE, but it's nice to know you have the choice of doing it at most schools. Here at Albert Secondary College, there is no choice. You have to do it. People today are so focused on obesity. It's good in a way, but those poor, unfortunate people who just don't have the co-ordination to play sports find this obsession bites for them. They are the people who get teased: the poor little nerds who just can't catch the ball. They can't manage to play basketball and I feel really sorry for them because it's putting their teenage lives on the line. We are more likely going to kill them making them play sport than making the obese teenagers lose weight by playing! I feel for them even though I am the sporty type. I play basketball on Thursday nights and nearly twice a week I go for a run around the block.

  My first subject for today is PE! The boys get changed in the male locker room and the girls get changed in the female locker room, both of which are in the gym. Albert Secondary College has an indoor gym. Basically, it's an all-purpose court with a bunch of benches beside it so we can watch people play. Albert Secondary College also has an outdoor basketball/tennis court and a swimming pool. They tell us a week beforehand if we're going to use the pool.

  Today, Ms Power has arranged for us to play a Badminton round robin. We have to pair up with a guy so that the teams are all of the same strength. Not really. It’s so the guys can't gang up on the girls, or so that the ex-boyfriends can’t try to get payback on ex-girlfriends. Either way, it’s to stop ganging up.

  The girls get to choose the guys, a pretty anxious thing for them, and even worse for me! I'm not sure I have someone in this class that I actually know. But just as I'm scanning the class for familiar faces, I see Josh wave at me! Oh thank god he's here. Now it won't be as bad as hell, although it might get that bad soon. I decided at my last school that girls can be extremely competitive. They can also become very scary when they want to win really badly.

  Like there was this one girl, Vanessa, from one of my old schools. I took the PE class because I thought it was fun! That was before we played Dodge Ball. That was the worst PE class in my life. Vanessa threw the balls at you really hard. So hard, in fact, that it left bruises. No one could catch her out and she was too fast to hit with the ball. We ended up almost crying with pain and I've never looked at her the same way since. She looked so calm and collected, almost nerdy, but if you give her a ball and someone to throw it at, she turns into a monster!

  So my experiences have taught me not to make assumptions about my opposition. They may look sweet on the outside, but inside they might be monsters!

  In the end, Josh and I win as many as we lose. There was one team that was particularly scary. The girl with the bracelets from the bus, well, her name is Kaitlyn and one of her guy friends is Will. They're the American kind of Jock and Cheerleader match up. Well, they're the best Badminton team in our class and they win every game. It's pretty scary. She looks like she's going to murder you every time she hits the shuttlecock! You feel about as big as an ant and she's standing over the top of you getting ready to pound you into the ground with her shoe. They creamed us so badly!

  After PE is over and we're both changed, Josh and I walk across the oval towards the main buildings. I can't help thinking he's my sweet saviour. What am I saying? He's probably got some hot girlfriend who goes to another school. Nice guys like him usually do. It's so hard to find a guy who is really nice and caring and muscular and handsome and looks like Josh and has good fashion sense and…oh no! I think I'm falling for him! I try my hardest not to let this happen and here I am letting it creep up on me!

  "You do not like Josh, Kaila, you can't like Josh. He's your friend. You can't stuff this up!" I repeat this in my head like a mantra, I know I'm being silly but I really like this bunch of friends and I don't want to ruin this!

  "Kaila, Kaila! What're you muttering about? What aren't you going to ruin?" he looks at me inquisitively.

  Oh no, I must have been muttering it too! What could I possibly ruin?

  "I was just thinking about my art project, I really don't want to ruin it!" hopefully he buys this! It would be so strange admitting the truth.

  "Me too, I'm so worried about it, what describes me? I can't come up with any good ideas!" he looks like he's thinking really hard about this.

  "Me neither, what's Nathan doing? Maybe he can help you?"

  "Yeah maybe, he said he's going to do the design that is under his favourite skateboard." He turns to me thoughtfully.

  "Cool, I've never been on a skateboard before. Is it fun?"

  "Yeah, heaps of fun, you should try it sometime. I'll teach you if you like." I like that idea a lot!

  "Yeah, maybe sometime you could. It depends on whether or not I'm with my mum that weekend," I put on my best posh voice and mimic my mum, "She's all about, ‘Safety first, Darling!’ and ‘Don't touch the couch, it's just been cleaned!’ I guess that's where I get my tidiness from. She's kind of scary. I don't let any of my friends meet her." I would be friendless if I did.

  "Is your dad that bad? Mums usually rub off on dads."

  "Oh, my parents are divorced, mainly because my mum had an affair with our lawyer. He's reasonably young for a lawyer; about thirty-five by my reckoning. The other reason was because she went all posh and clean freakish on us. That's why we're not living with her, but every second week I have to go stay with her for the weekend. It totally sucks and she doesn't want to advertise the fact that she has children so she pretends I'm her niece!"

  "Wow that sucks! Can Ash and I rescue you sometime?"

  "Sure. Don't tell anybody this, but I'm sentenced to cleanliness not this weekend but next weekend!"

  "Ok, I'll get Ash to set up a sleepover then, will your dad let you come?"

  "Sure. He hates me going to stay with mum. He thinks she's going to hijack me and fly me to Florida or somewhere overseas!"

  "Cool! Well, you'll have fun at Ash's. Plus, this weekend you're coming to the movies with us! Are you ok with scary films?"

  "You mean scary as in Gothica scary or scary as in aliens and zombies scary?"

  "Aliens and zombies, we found a cinema which is playing the old scary classics. Most of them are in black and white!"

  "Awesome, I got a few out the other week at the video shop! I work there on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Oh! That's tonight!"

  "Which place?" he seems eager to know.

  "I work at the New Heights Video Ezy." I don't mind working there. Actually, it’s not too bad. I get to rent movies for free. The owners are really nice people too.

  "You work there?" Josh asks incredulously.

  "Yeah, what's the problem, big guy?"

  "I live in the next street! I go there all the time. On Saturdays, though. Not the days you work!"

  "Cool, there's pretty good service on Saturday, I live close to it. It's two bus stops away from my street actually."

  "WOW, that's kind of strange!" he looks really surprised now.

  "You're not wrong there!" I'm going to be late for Biology if I don't run to my locker now! "Look, I have to get to Biology, I'll see you later!"

  "Yeah, I better get going to mechanics. Otherwise Nathan will kill me for ditching him!"