So, I've been writing this for a while, and I hope my latest attempt at a first chapter is an improvement of the, I think, three other versions I have posted on here. Or two. Whatever. But anyway, what do you think? Halp!
Balema Chapter 1 – On Earth
Tousled trees waved their sunstruck branches at the sun in the early morning of the seventeenth of December. Further away, silver glints left pedestrians blinded as the large silver buildings stretched onto their toes to catch their own bit of sun. Colourful mosaics depicting Australian animals were skipped over by tourists or townspeople, framed on one side by the Brisbane River that reflected yellow as the frequent City Cats zoomed over it. Further away still, on the very outskirts of Brisbane, a spacious two-story home was settled on dry farmland where only a patchwork of different shrubbery and grazing cattle kept the grass from failing completely and turning into a rabid monster.
Samantha Stizagailii was sitting with her chin on the laminated wood of a bench on the second floor of said house, picking the white choc-chip circles from a muesli bar and sorting them into a pile on her hand. Her dark blue eyes watched this from behind the dark lashes that they were outfitted with. All through this slow activity, Sam kept up a stony façade. It was only after, when she held uncontaminated muesli in one hand and half-melted chocolate in the other, that this façade cracked to reveal a neutral one. From there, her top lip reluctantly lifted. Finally, she was unable to keep up her mask and she grinned. Devouring the muesli and carefully licking chocolate from skin, Sam pattered down the stairs and checked that all of the decorations, food and activities for the party were in order; the party that was being held, of course, for Sam’s twelfth birthday.
Being her picky self, and having nothing else to do before her friends arrived, Sam took all of the food off the tallest table and bent under it to adjust the height. When she had done so, she stood up to admire her handiwork; now all of the tables were the same height, mainly because Sam had changed the heights of all three several times to ensure that they came up only to her waist. Unfortunately, that meant that they would come up to the lower back of others her age. Sam sighed and decided that a few chips would make her feel better, stuffing her hand into the bowl. With a devilish smile, she looked around and sneaked a few chocolates, laughing at her silliness. Just at that moment, the sound of rubber wheels bumping and careening over dried mud made her snap into attention. Crunch! Sam took her hand from the chip bowl sheepishly and pushed bigger chips over the ones she’d crushed, hissing a word that could have been a swear word but ended up more as a grimace. Licking flavour from her fingers, she rushed to the front door.
Her best friend Hope was already backing out of the car, holding a sparkly gift bag. Hope shook out her black hair, naturally straightened, and held up a caramel hand to shield her eyes from the sun. She was much more fashion-conscious than Sam, though still undoubtedly a tomboy; looking very out-of-place from her layered singlets, grey denims, hair with dyed brown streaks and chequered black-and-white belt were a pair of very expensive, much-used sport joggers covered in mud and looking authentic.
Not a moment had passed before another car came bumping up the drive, an old ute with three boys squished into two seats, talking enthusiastically about whatever game or movie has caught their fancy recently. Since Sam’s birthday was through the Christmas holidays, she was dying to catch up; she spent most of her time helping her mum around the farm after her dad had disappeared three years ago, so no visits to anywhere had been arranged.
Next a modest sedan roared up the drive, sending dust twirling behind it. Sam saw Hope catch her scowl and swallow it as another boy stepped out; wet, untidy hair, blonde, fingers lodged into his bright green skinny jean pockets and overly cocky. Out of the other side came a stocky man. He pushed his silver sunglasses up onto the top of his head and waved at Hope; although she showed no such respect to the boy, she waved back at her soon-to-be stepfather. Sam’s mum walked out and greeted the adults, asking whether they’d like a glass of wine as was customary; as one, the adults walked onto the veranda, and commenced ‘adult talk’.
Sam welcomed her friends animatedly and hurried to crack open the blue esky and chuck cans of soft drink at her friends; most caught it, all except the latest boy to arrive, John, who fumbled it only for the tall blonde guy behind him to catch it. Sam saw Hope give this guy the eye and grinned. Hope caught her eye and Sam wiggled her brows. Hope shoved her once she got close enough. “Shut up,” she argued. She’d gained a slight Shi Lankan accent from her mother.
“Hey, we could play Spin the Bottle later if you want.”
“Ooh, you just want a shot at John!”
They both laughed at this absurdity. The boys, although not knowing what the original joke was, laughed at the girls’ laughs.
“So, Sam,” Ethan threw himself into a chair. “What is this surprise you’ve been talking about all year?” He held his can of Pasito away from him and cracked it open with much show – the others cheered as it didn’t, for once, froth up and spill all over him. He grinned, baring braces.
“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you now, would it?” Sam rebuked. She perched herself on the arm of a three-seated couch and cracked open her own drink. The others, taking this as signal to sit, rushed to catapult themselves onto the couch, the last available seat. After a few seconds of elbowing and shoving, Hope was left scowling and standing away from the guys, fists on her hips. Like a gentleman, her soon-to-be step brother John moved away and bowed mockingly. Her expression was like thunder but Hope took the seat. She blushed as she was squished between the tall and blonde Tom and the sunglass-ed and dark-haired Hudson. Sam was in envy; with her dark skin, Hope’s blush didn’t show up as well as it would on the birthday girl’s own pale skin.
“’K, kids!” Sam’s mum marched out, her dirty blonde hair flyaway and identical except in length to her daughter’s, worn Akubra pushed low over her face. She smiled, and the whole room seemed to brighten – and remember, heaps of sunlight was still streaming in from the east. All of Sam’s friends loved this woman, aged in her early forties but looking only about thirty. She just had that lovable, easy-going air about her. Even John, who had only joined the others’ school in the last term and had never met her, seemed made happier by her presence. “Sam’s surprise is almost ready to go,” Sam’s mum winked, tipped her hat and made to stride out of the room.
“What is the surprise?” asked Ethan, persistent as ever. To Ethan, news or secrets were like oxygen. He needed to have them. But once he had them, they never left him; not until the day he died, which thankfully hadn’t come yet.
Sam’s mum paused. “A rock-climb wall.” she said. The kids’ faces, if possible, brightened further. Sam swelled with pride and gratitude.
Hudson tugged on Sam’s long, blonde braid, demanding attention. Sam tugged his hair in turn, annoyed, to show him he’d gotten it.
“A rock climb wall,” he said. Although it was phrased like a sentence, his tone suggested that it was a question.
“Why not,” Sam shrugged. “I love climbing.” Catching the stricken expression on John’s face, Sam looked at him with askance.
“John is afraid of heights,” Hope drawled. John seemed to slump, but didn’t glare as any other would; instead he sighed and looked up with apologetic eyes.
“Don’t worry,” Sam enthused. “I’ve got hundreds of water balloons filled up…so being a belayer will be just as fun.” She winked. John grinned.
“Oh no,” Hope mock stressed. “Stop giving my step-brother ideas!”
“He’s not your step-brother yet,” Tom pointed out.
“Yes, but we all know how annoying youngsters are, so he will annoy me to he-”
“I’m only younger by a few hours!” John snapped.
“Down, children!” Sam barked. They all looked up at her. “I’m younger than you all except Ethan, how do you think I feel?”
“Oh thanks, just because my feelings don’t matter…” Ethan held up his hands and shook his head.
“Don’t worry, mate, Sam still beats all on the ‘short’ front,” said Tom.
Sam glared.
“Don’t give me the stare of death!” he yelped. He grabbed Hope’s arm and used it to shield his eyes from Sam. Hope shrieked with surprised laughter and elbowed him.
“Stop flirting, I’ve got a rock wall I’m dying to go on,” Sam pleaded.
“Tell me it’s of the bell ringing kind,” Hudson said, leaning forward and pointing an eager finger.
“Of course!” Sam said. Hudson exclaimed in approval and the two slapped hands, showing off their secret handshake. Hope rolled her eyes.
“Following me, kiddies,” Sam said. She walked around the house and stopped, beaming, at the rock wall set up from the back of a truck. The instructor jingled the harnesses.
“Sam, this is by far the coolest thing you’ve ever done, with maybe the exception of the pie fight.” Hudson stated. The others laughed and sighed blissfully at the memories. John grinned awkwardly.
“Don’t worry, Johnny, we’ll do it next year. We’ll gang up on Hope,” Sam grinned evilly at her best friend. Hope stuck her tongue out and flashed a rude gesture across at Sam.
“Okay, kids, take your shoes off and line up. Two people are allowed on at a time, but the rest of you will be holding them up. We’ve got a great number today, awesome.” said the instructor, clapping his hands together. As they stood to the side of the Hessian sacks set up under the rock wall and did as they were told, the instructor explained how they were to tie their harnesses up and demonstrated the belayer movements. He went through safety measures, explained to them about the differently coloured artificial rocks and about the ‘fat cow, healthy cow and skinny cow’ – meaning how slack the rope was between the two belayers and likening the curve to a cow’s belly. Soon, they were raring and ready to go. Sam and Hope lined up, helmeted and harnessed. Sam’s mum had fetched the camera and was ready to click away, one hand tilting her hat to shade her face and the other holding the camera at arms length.
“Okay… go!” said the instructor. He was still bewildered over Sam’s determination to climb on the hardest level of rock colour, but he let it be. She was such a little thing, and she had hardly any chance to get to the top, so he told her they could cheat if they wanted. It was her birthday, after all.
Seconds later, though, the instructor was eating his thoughts. Boys were whooping from below, and the little birthday girl was a meter above her friend, without cheating. He shook his head, astounded, but nevertheless impressed.
The artificial rocks were rough against her palms, but in a firm way that boasted security. Sam was just half a meter from the top, and she searched for the rocks in her colour as she reached up, her toes pressed onto the rocks below. She would only just be unable to reach them – damn this shortness! she thought. She hoisted herself up, calculating, and then made a leap for it. She gripped the rock with one hand, and heard an appreciative gasp below her. She blushed furiously, happy for the rock wall as an excuse to hide her face. She scrabbled up, legs working to push her higher. At last, she reached the top, and looked down again to find Hope. She was coming, slowly but surely – Sam decided to wait for her, the roughness of the rocks biting into her hand, leaving indents. She was up so high… but with an uncanny head for heights, Sam waited there, ready to press the button for the bell when Hope was.
Then, Hope was beside her and cheers went up from below. They hi-fived.
“On three?” Sam said. Hope nodded.
“One…”
They poised, ready to slam the red button.
“Two…”
They grinned at each other.
“Three!”
CRACK.
And Sam was gone.
Thanks all! I hope my self-induced internet fast worked!
