i'm not the best with spelling and grammer (tried my best). I dont usually share my writing, but i found this site and thought id just see what you guys thought! I personally think i string things out so they become uninteresting. This is just the start of the story, when i write i write for a long time so i just put the first bit in for you's to look at! I don't write because i think i'm any good, i write because i love it!
Thanks for reading!!
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They say once a liar, always a liar. I’ve never believed in that. I don’t know anyone who does, so when Mr. Von looked at me with the expression, ‘well come on Elizabeth, give it your best shot.’ I didn’t hesitate with making a false story.
“Sir, I know what it may look like, but it’s not what you think. I came running in, when I smelt smoke and I found this cigarette.” I still had the cigarette in my hand and I held it up to him as if to say, look here it is. I looked at his face and realized I was in deep this time. I’d been on a tightrope this whole term, but some how managed to get my way got of things. For some reason though, It felt different this time. Like I was playing a game and I think I just used up my last life.
“So you’re trying to tell me you smelt some smoke and ran in and picked up the cigarette then I came in and caught you holding it?” Mr. Von was really starting to get angry, because I was getting a shower of spit as he yelled at me now. That was just one of the many indications that he was starting to get angry. Another is how big his eye’s get and his hand gestures.
“Sir, come on. I swear it’s true. You’ve got to believe me.” I knew I sounded desperate, but truth be told, I wasn’t that interested in putting up a fight.
“No Elizabeth, I think your time at this school is over. I’ll call your mother to pick you up, and I’ll escort you to your locker so you can empty it.”
I didn’t feel the need to say anything. I dropped the cigarette and put it out with my foot. I looked up at Mr. Von, smiled and gestured for him to lead the way. He looked at me with a look of disbelief and disgust. As if I should be crying that I’m being kicked out of school. I mean, sure I was upset. It was only 4 weeks until I finished year 11.
As we walked down the hallway the bell for end of class rang. It was kind of like a walk of shame, except as people came out of class they didn’t even bother to take notice of me. I could guess what they were thinking or whispering to there friends, “oh there’s Elizabeth; I can’t believe she’s in trouble again. What’s her problem?”
As we got to my locker the little office lady came running up to Mr. Von with a cardboard box in one hand and a note pad and pen in the other. She quickly handed him the cardboard box and looked straight down at her notepad, within a second Mr. Von starting giving orders.
“Please contact Elizabeth Stratton’s mother. Tell her that she is needed here immediately, to collect her daughter.” As soon as he finished his sentence she turned and pushed her way through the crowd of people that had now gathered in the hallways. Mr. Von turned to me and gestured towards my locker. I turned to it, put in my key and unlocked it. He handed me the cardboard box and stood back a bit as I started throwing things into the box. There wasn’t much in there, a few textbooks, a couple of novels, a lighter, which when I pulled out I heard Mr. Von give a little grunt. Once I’d finished I left my locker wide open to prove it was empty then I slammed it shut and without a word we were on our way to his office.
When we got there I sat down in the chair. Time goes so slow when you’re waiting for punishment and for your poor mother to come in and collect you.
After what seemed like an eternity, my mum came into the office. But to my surprise she didn’t even glance at me. I felt like jumping up and yelling ‘hey mum, right here. Over here’. When I realized how hurt she was. Whenever my mum is really angry she ignores you and gives you the cold shoulder, it’s almost like when parents say ‘I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed’. I hate that, I would much rather it if she came crashing in and screaming her head off. Then you know the worst is over, but with this kind of treatment, you never know when you’re over the worst.
When mum sat down in the chair next to me she looked straight ahead, like she had something interesting to look at. I looked at the wall ahead, searching for the thing she was looking at but saw nothing. This office was pretty cold and boring. The walls were painted an off white; there was a book shelf in the corner over flowing with books. The desk was covered with papers, all of them very official looking. The computer looked to be the oldest model still available on the market; I doubt it worked very well. I looked back up at the clock and realized I had wasted 5 minutes discovering the room I had been in so many times, but the last time I would be here, I seemed to notice everything. My mum was still staring at the same spot, for a moment I actually thought she wasn’t alive, but she let out a big sigh which gave me instant relief.
“Mum, I’m sorry to do this to you again, but I really think that this is it for me.”
She didn’t even move her head to look at me she just sighed and said “So do I Lizzie, so do I.”
Mr. Von walked in with a very confident stride. Mum stood up to greet him and he shook her hand. He said down in his big leather chair and glanced at me. I didn’t show any emotions, and I stared straight back. I think that put him off a bit.
“Mrs. Stratton, I’m afraid Elizabeth has broken her last straw here at this school. I know the unfortunate timing, what with her just weeks away from starting her final year of school. But we’ve let her off time and time again, only to be let down by her behavior.”
Mum was kind of just looking at him, her body was a bit limp and I think he expected her to put up a fight for me. I was sure Mr. Von looked down on my family a bit. Well, me and mum were my family. Maybe he thought I lacked a father to discipline me, or a big sister or brother to show me the right things to do. Whatever he thought I couldn’t have cared less. What I did care about though was how much I’d hurt my mother.
“Mrs. Stratton, you do understand that we are kicking Elizabeth out of this school?”
Mum looked up, she seemed a little pale, but her voice was still strong. “Yes, yes, very well. Is there anything I need to sign or organize?”
Mr. Von again with shock and disbelief all over his face seemed to be searching mum’s face for an explanation for her very unemotional responses. I gather he found nothing because he simply reached down into his draw and pulled out a bunch of papers. After the odd ‘sign here’ and ‘please read this statement’ we were finished and I was officially out of school, for what I thought would have been forever.
When we pulled into our driveway of our small, but beautiful home, mum finally turned to me and spoke.
“Lizzie, you know that Mark isn’t going to be happy?”
Oh Mark, I don’t think I mentioned Mark. Well I usually just tell everyone that my family is just me and my mum. That’s the way I see it, but Mark, well after my dad died mum was seriously depressed. She was crying her eyes out while driving home from work one night. This was a year after dad had died. And because of all those tears, she ran into the back of Marks car. Sure, he’s a gentle man, he’s nice to her but when he tries to tell me what to do I hate him for it. Plus it’s not like there that serious, he’s just her boyfriend, he still has his own house. He just stays sometimes, that’s all.
“Mum, Mark has nothing to do with me, or with the things I do. It’s none of his business anyone.”
“Lizzie, He does matter. There’s something I need to tell you and I hope that you understand that this is what I want.” She was gazing at me with a lot of force, it sometimes scares me how passionate she gets when she talks about things she wants. But, what exactly did she want?
“Mark is moving in.”
Funny how four simple little words can make such a big impact on someone?
“WHAT? When were u going to tell me? Hey, why not just invite some guy I hardly know to come live in our house. Do you know how uncomfortable this will make me? It will never be the same again mum.”
“Liz, you won’t have to deal with it. I’m sending you to boarding school.”
BAM, she did it again. She made me feel like I was just hit over the head with a shovel twice in less that one minute.
“Boarding School! Mum, where the hell are you getting the money for this?”
“Lizzie, speak to me again like that and you will be grounded for the rest of you’re……”
Ah, saved by the familiar ring of my trusty mobile phone. I jumped out of the car and slammed the door. I started to walk down the street towards the shops while reading a text message. It was from my boyfriend Byron. We’ve been dating for a year now, although we don’t have the best relationship. Actually, it’s rather horrible; I don’t quite know why we were together.
We meet at a mutual friends eighteenth birthday bash. I was, to put it nicely off my face when he came and sat with me. After a quick introduction of names and location of where we lived I found myself making out with him all night. A week after the party he got a hold of my number and asked me on a date, but to be honest I didn’t really remember much about the first time we meet, so at least I got a chance to get to know him whilst I was sober. And that was probably the last time we really did get to know each other while we were sober. Byron’s a bit more than three years older than me and is nearly twenty one.
Our time spent together was usually under the influence of alcohol, he brought me whatever I wanted. At first I thought it was great then, I got sick of it and ended up only spending every second weekend. I’m not saying that Byron is a horrible person. In fact I think he’s anything but horrible. Somehow through out the weekends of wild partying I managed to lose my virginity, a lot of money, some price less jewelry, a whole lot of clothes and I also managed to gain a hell of a reputation as a bad girl. I didn’t mind that though, it had its useful times. Like when someone was annoying me I would threaten to bash them and they would go and cry in the corner. But really, I wasn’t anything like that. Hell, I wouldn’t hurt a fly. But I’m not much of a people person; I don’t have any real close friends.
The girls I hang out with at school wouldn’t be what you call friends. There the girls who everyone is nice to because there scared of them. The ones that are backstabbing and would do anything to get what they want. I just hung with them because I had no one else. No one had the courage to talk to me.
So the text message that Byron sent me was pretty simple it just said ‘meet me at the river. Need to talk.’ He didn’t usual need to talk to me; he might have needed to go to the pub, or needed me to leave but never needed to talk. So I was a bit unsure as to what exactly he wanted. I was only a minute away from the river and I knew where he would be. There is a table that over looks the water and its really quite nice. You can see the neighboring town over the other side. But it’s just nice to sit there and relax.
I could see his car as I approached, a shiny black Ute, he’s more proud of that thing than he is of me. No one but him can drive it, and if anyone goes to lay a hand on it he threatens to kill them. As I walked up the side of the Ute I slid my hand along the side. I smiled to myself and thought ‘ha, get that up ya Byron’, when I saw Byron who was sitting on the table turn around yell “hey, Lizzie, come one don’t touch it.’
I laughed at him and took my hand off the car. He looked at me and shook his head as if to say geez, it’s lucky I don’t kill you. The first thing I noticed about Byron that day was when I sat next to him I couldn’t smell a drop of alcohol. That was odd, but a great thing. He was wearing his favorite pair of jeans that were getting a bit old and the bottoms of them were all frayed. He had a blue jumper with some surf brand logo on the front and the hood on his head.
Over the past year I’d had some pretty deep conversations with Byron, but I had the feeling that most of the time he was to drunk to remember them. As I got comfortable on the table Bryon gave a cough to clear his throat and looked at me.
“Liz, I um, I don’t think this is really going anywhere.” This was the last thing I expected to hear come out of his mouth. It was kind of a shock. He was still looking at me, like he expected me to start bawling my eyes out and beg him to reconsider.
“You do know I’m talking about us Liz, that this isn’t really going anywhere. I’m going to start to seriously save some money to get out of this place. You know stop the drinking and all, really put in an effort. I’m nearly twenty one and I think its time for me to get serious about life.”
“Wow, words I thought would never come out of your mouth.” Byron gave a little chuckle and then became serious again as quickly as he had relaxed.
“Are you okay, I mean. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“No more free grog?” This got him relaxed and he laughed with a lot more ease.
“You know Byron, I’m glad that you’re doing this. You know really thinking about life. It was all fun and games but I think this is the best for both of us. Start new. I won’t see you around anymore I think I’m getting chucked away to boarding school.”
“Ha! You in boarding school. You’ll go mental in a place like that. Think about all the bitchy girls. Geez! You might even turn lezo on us!” At that comment I turned around and punched him in the arm. He laughed as he rubbed his arm.
“But seriously, it could be good for ya Liz. I hope it all works out.”
“Yeah, same with you. I’m glad I got to know you. Well if that one date counts.” I thought it was funny, but Byron gave me a really odd stare. Like I’d just stabbed him in the heart and was laughing in his face.
“Liz, I’m sorry that I never treated you right and god knows why you ever stayed around with me. But I was horrible, I have a real problem with the grog and I’m sorry you ever got involved with it. I mean you 16 when this all started.”
Hearing Byron say these words made me want to cry. I never even thought he was capable of apologizing or speaking so deeply. I had a feeling that this was from his heart. I wish I got to know this Byron instead of the other one. Maybe that’s why I always stuck with him. I smiled at him and shifted my self off the table. I stood for a minute and looked out to the water. I had a feeling that this was how I was going to always remember Byron. I’m glad it would be like this and not some drunken idiot. As I stood there is started to rain. I moved up under the cover of the table and felt Byron’s hand touch my shoulder.
“Come on, I’ll give ya a lift home.” I turned to him and smiled and he got up. As we got into the car I noticed it was a hell of a lot cleaner than it usual was.
“Oh, done some cleaning have we. It finally doesn’t smell like old socks!”
“Yeah” he said with a big smile. “I figured the inside should be as good as the out side. It took me a good….Lizzie come on, not this crap!” Byron and I always had a thing about which radio station was the best. He preferred the heavy rock station and I liked the station that played new pop music. When I had the right channel and I turned it up loud and yelled “What? I can’t hear you!” Byron laughed at me and shook his head.
He turned it down a fraction and the looked at me “Think of it as a gift. I surrender! But never again will this crap he heard in my car!” We both laughed at that. I wasn’t paying much attention to the road but I noticed that Byron was taking the long route home. That’s what I liked about him; he always seemed to do the right things when they were needed.
