Young Writers Society

10am

Emily had vowed to get the class as a whole, she had survived the holidays living off the idea that soon she would strip an entire class of their hopes and dreams, steal away their soles, just like hers had been.

The problem with this was Zachary was now a classmate, he was a walking buffet of dreams and hopes, he wanted to be normal, Emily could crush that, Emily could make his life so abnormal, so different, so out there that he could never use the word ‘normal’ again, he was tempting Emily, tempting fait.

Emily snatched up her books and shoved them into the dark blue backpack, she was the last one to leave the classroom, she looked around nervously, now the Class had left the place seemed so large, so uninviting, Miss Attwood was sitting, cross legged on the floor collecting up the papers and folders that had sat, where she had thrown them for the lesson.

As Emily brushed past the bundle of Red hair and teeth that was stuffing green sheets into a manila folder, just as she passed Emily heard the teachers harsh and booming voice, this time sounding slightly watery and concerned.

“Watch that Zachary, he’ll reel you in and spit you out”. Emily spun around, her face bright red and her eyes large with fright. What was Miss Attwood talking about? What did she know that Emily didn’t? Does she know him from somewhere else? Emily was suddenly very confused.

“I’m, I’m Sorry, what, what was that?” Emily faltered, her voice dripping with fear. Miss Attwood looked up from the four neat piles on the floor, a puzzled expression spreading across her face.

“I didn’t say a word” she smiled, as she looked Emily up and down and noticed how ridged and realised how up tight Emily seemed, Emily herself was looking Miss Attwood up and down, suddenly the teacher seemed softer, nicer and extremely concerned.

“Are you ok? You look rather Pale” Miss Attwood coughed. Emily just jerked her head in what she hoped resembled a nod and raced from the classroom, her mind running with her, thoughts buzzing through her head.

Confusion is a distracting thing, in her rush to leave Miss Attwood, to leave her dark thoughts of Zachary behind her, Emily forgot that she knew nothing of her new school, she had no idea where she was or where she was meant to be.

Moon Creek High was a confusing collection of hallways and classrooms, buildings dropped randomly across half an hectare, No order, no design, no point. This made finding Her Math class a lot more difficult than it should have been and if there was one thing Emily hated more than life itself it was difficulty.

Emily slowly made her way through the English block and was relieved to finally reach an exit and the warm morning sunlight. Emily looked at her watch, 10.15, only 45 minutes till morning break, What was the point in working her way through the labyrinth known as Moon Creek High when she could wander down to the shops and have an extended break?

Emily stopped, she knew exactly why, the complication, Zachary, he was already stopping her from doing what she would normally do, he was already having a say in her world, almost controlling her world.

So Emily kept moving through the school grounds in search of ‘Dolittle’ building, she almost missed the small brick structure, mistaking it for the school canteen maybe, or even a first aid building but never, never a math building.

She climbed the three steps to the main door and noticed a plaque, green with age fastened to the brick red wall at eye level, she had never been to a school that named its buildings before, she had never been to a school were there were stories about the buildings.

“This building was funded and Erected in 1947 with the aid and support of Principal Dolittle, an example to both the students and staff and a friend to us all. 1900-1983” Emily laughed equally as loud as she had read, “friend to us all” No Principal Emily had ever come across was a friend, nobody Emily came across was a friend.

She stepped through the door and turned left, watching the small metallic numbers climb, Emily realised she was heading in the wrong direction, but something was drawing her to the last door at the end of the corridor, she reached D6 and ripped the door open.

She let her eyes wander the walls, nothing, not even a scrap of paper, not even a lonely staple glinting in the dusty air. The class was empty, there was nothing to see apart from the stack of rusty chairs against one wall, the plastic warped and melted after years of neglect.

Emily stole a quick glance at her watch, 10.25, not surprising really. It was actually the hushed cough coming from inside the room that surprised Emily, she looked around nervously, this time noticing a shadow hunched in a corner.

“You really like corners don’t you?” she called, making Zachary jump. His whole body turning towards Emily who was leaning on the door frame, her eyes locked on his frame, his position. He said nothing, just turned away again, the way you would when things disappeared before your eyes, the way you did when you didn’t want to see what you could see.

“What are” Emily fell silent, her body was bubbling with excitement, her fingers tingling, it felt as if she had gone on auto pilot, she couldn’t speak, couldn’t utter a word.

She turned and shut the door behind her, dropping her bag at her feet and walking the length of the classroom, her stride large and meaningful, her body steering towards Zachary.

Her heart had taken Emily’s body hostage, her heart drove her towards him, it made her collapse on the floor beside Zachary, he turned slightly, shifting his weight till their eyes locked.

Emily leaned forward slightly, her hands holder her up and her nose touching Zachary’s. Little bubbles of excitement raced through her body and before she could speak Emily was entangled in a passionate kiss.

She lost complete control of her being, everything that ever felt wrong melted away, and everything felt so normal, so simple and blissful. Emily could have lived the rest of her life in the moment, she could have dropped dead right then and died more contented than she had ever felt.

When Zachary pulled away his crocked smile hung on his face, Emily felt so connected to him in that second, nothing could dampen her mood, in just one period she had fallen for Zachary.

“Emily” he whispered, his voice soft and sweet. He looked deep into her eyes, this time instead of looking through them and instead of looking at them he was searching for something, she could feel him searching, could feel him changing his mind.

“How did you find me?” he asked, his smile forming a straight line, Emily leaned forward, her lips seeking his, her lips touched his but he pulled away, Emily’s stomach fell.

“What?” she chocked, this was weird, she had fallen so hard so fast, Emily was so confused, wasn’t Zachary just a complication? Wasn’t that what she had decided? She realised then that if he was just a complication the complication just got worse.

“I, I, I’m going to Math, you coming?” he asked nervously, pushing himself upward and walking away, Emily watched as the shadow disappeared and it was only when the door snapped shut behind him that Emily cried, great sobs racked her body, everything that had washed away in that kiss came flooding back, the room started spinning and Emily felt faint.

She’d let her guard down, she’d let somebody trample on her, just as she did to others. Now she understood the path of destruction she left behind her, Emily never realised how much it hurt, she thought back to the last school she was at, it was a small rural school just outside of Moon Creek, James Scott College.

Emily’s first victim was Maria Gale, well really all her focus was on Maria, it was through Maria that she got to everybody else, Maria was her only real victim, everybody else just got caught in the after shocks.

There was nothing personal about her selection. Maria just stood out as the most loved student, what was it Emily had done to drive her to the limit? What forced those 23, or was it 24 sleeping pills down Maria’s throat?

Emily smiled as she remembered, when she started at James Scott Maria Tait was class captain, captain of the A netball team, the A Volley ball team and even the A girls softball team, the whole thing, and blonde, blue-eyed beauty.

Maria had one weakness, one place where Emily could hit her and hit her hard; one soft spot that Emily noticed immediately, Maria had a boyfriend, Chad Sanders, The coolest guy in school, they were the typical, hot-to-trot couple, the sort you see in movies, except, Emily came to realise Chad was in the market, Maria was boring him.

Emily started listening to the rumours about the starry eyed pair and started plotting, Every morning she would squeeze into a crop-top and mini skirt and every day she would wave whatever she could in Chad’s face.

When the plan went wrong and Jake Daniels, Chad’s best friend asked Emily out she turned it all around, now she got to flirt with Chad and let him know she existed every day of the week.

She might have liked Jake, If she wasn’t using him and if she wasn’t being scammed by every guy in school, Maybe she could have liked him, someday maybe even fallen in love with him.

Finally Jake fell in love with Emily, Chad fell in love with Emily and Maria was shoved out of the picture, Chad officially broke it off with Maria in real style, at the end of term social, then the pair spend every day for the last term of year sucking each others faces off.

When rumours of Emily and Chad started flying Maria tail spined, so did Jake, most people would think they would fall into each others arms and live happily ever after but Maria was to depressed for savour, for a little while Chad backed off, That was until they got the news, Maria had overdosed on sleeping pills.

Emily went to the funeral in a black mini skirt and pink go-go boots, she stood up in front of the hundreds of students and friends who had turned out to farewell the most popular girl in school, most people talked about the girl she used to be, not Emily.

Emily’s speech sent gasps of shock and tears of anger flowing through the crowds, in that one speech she crushed Chad, pushed Jake over the edge and cut a community so deep they are still licking their wounds.

Emily could still recite those words effortlessly, she had spent days writing it, a whole week to memorise everything.

“Hello, for those of you who don’t know me and even those who think they do, I am Emily Slate, Maria’s best friend and also the girl who slept with Maria’s boyfriend, the girl who single handily wrecked her life, I guess you could say, the girl who killed her.

Let me explain, Chad was bored with Maria, yes she was pretty but she was a self respecting girl, what he wanted was somebody like me who would throw themselves at him, that’s why he fell so in love with me.

That’s what pushed Maria over the edge, she loved you Chad, with all of her heart, I didn’t, and she wanted to be with you forever, she needed you and you just left her because of me, that pushed her, that’s what forced every pill down her throat.

Oh before I go, Jake, I’m sorry I used you, it’s just, your not Chad. And Chad, I want at least $60 child support a week, this baby isn’t going to live it hard. See you, that’s me, peace out.”

And with that Emily was out the door and out of their lives, Emily wasn’t pregnant, she wasn’t that stupid but what was the harm in adding a little spice? It wouldn’t hurt anybody that much.

Well, Emily found out later it did a lot of harm, Jake was drinking his life away, he was in trouble with the police, school, his parents, he was losing it and Chas was much worse, Chad was living a life worse than death, he spent every day wondering, Emily would never leave his thoughts, Maria would never leave his thoughts, the Baby, His baby, would never leave his thoughts, he was haunted. Emily loved her life.

She stirred from her position, skipping the second period of the first day sounded just as good on a permeant record than skipping first. Could she still remember where she was going? Yes, she could, there was no denying it, how can you forget where your going when you could feel somebody calling to you, their heart searching for yours, trying to repair the damage they had done.

Was Zachary calling to her? Or was Emily only hoping it? Was she desperately seeking him out? Emily felt a single tear fall down her cheek, since her Fathers death Emily had never left another person come into her life, she was a lone star, she had no part of her wanting human interaction, now in almost two hours, she had fallen for Zachary, she had forced him into her life, she had cried over him, smiled at him, she had even kissed him, not in the way she had kissed Chad or Jake, this time it had meant something, this time she felt the tingles in her body, she had lost control of her body, and she knew deep inside that she had enjoyed every tantalising second, every delicious heartbeat.

She decided to believe he was calling to her, she let herself believe he was sitting in math feeling guilty, his lips still tingling, his tough brushing over them, savouring Emily’s flavour, his body crying for more.

She pushed herself away from the floor and brushed the dust off her uniform, school uniforms made school a prison, it crated a likeness between each student, it made Emily common, the same.

She staggered across the room, scooped up her bag and pulled open the door. Outside of that classroom, standing in the hall Emily breathed out, she hadn’t realised that she had been holding her breath for a while now; Zachary had taken her breath away.

Emily slowly turned and started the short walk to math, her heart felt numb and heavy, she felt so violated, she stumbled into the Math class and felt 27 pairs of eyes fall on her, a rather skinny and frail looking Man snapped in Emily’s direction, his thin beard flicking as he spoke.

“Where have you been missy? I take it you must be one of the new students but 40 minutes late for class, that, that is inexcusable” Emily suddenly felt very small, it didn’t mater how haunted she is, how angry she can be, having a teacher yell is the most belittling thing imaginable.

“I, I got lost” Emily stuttered, moving towards the back of the classroom, trying to shrink as small as possible, trying to completely evaporate and leave nothing behind but a shadow and her clumpy black school shoes.

“Get back here, I did not say you could leave, I don’t care if you ‘got lost’ you wasted 40 minutes of my class” He boomed, why did all the teachers at Moon Creek seem to boom?

“You will make up for it during your morning break, Now can somebody lend our late arrival their Math book so she can catch up?” He asked, turning his attention on the class, 27 hands shot up.

“Splendid, We’ll use your’s Jessica, I hope you got down all the extra notes” with that he smiled and turned back to the board, Emily sulkily sat down at the back of the class and watched him scribble homework on the board.

“Here, Sorry, hey Mr Madders doesn’t know I write the extra notes at the back, so your pretty good, I didn’t write much at the front” a tall red haired girl smiled down at Emily, Emily realised she must be Jessica, probably a teachers pet, one of the good girls who never lets her teachers down, Emily smiled politely but really she felt nothing warm towards this girl, she was just another sole, the only difference was she would be harder to hurt.

Emily watched Jessica walk back to her seat, somebody stuck their foot out but Jessica instinctively stepped over it, somebody else pushed their bag into the isle but Jessica went around it, Emily smiled, Jessica was defiantly the good girl.

“Excuse me Miss Slate, would you like to explain what is so amusing?” Mr Madders spat across the class, Emily looked around nervously, she had only been in his class two minutes and Mr Madders had yelled at her twice, not a good sign.

“No, drill Sargent Madders” Emily barked, a few people around her started to crack smiles and as Mr Madders face reddened a few giggles escaped and soon the class was doubling over with laughter, Emily looked to the front of the class and even Jessica was having trouble suppressing her giggles.

“Alright, everybody’s had a giggle, yes, yes it was very funny, now shush!” Mr Madders screeched, his face reddening even more with the effort, The class suddenly fell silent and Emily could feel the eyes of every student in her class on her and Mr Madders, she was in deep trouble now.

“Miss Slate, I think it would be rather appropriate if you join me at lunch today and we can discuss this issue” he coughed, Emily could feel the pressure on her, she had never been a bad student but there’s always one teacher who pushed her buttons, at Moon Creek it was her Art teacher, Mrs Crystin, she was so suspicious.

“Mr Madders, I don’t think it’s rather appropriate for teachers to date students so I think we should discuss this issue in a school setting” Emily replied before she realised what she was saying, this time Mr Madders couldn’t control the class, nobody could stop laughing.

“Class, it is the first day of the year, if you do not settle now I will have you in detention till the day you leave school” Mr Madders threatened, Emily watched him counting on his fingers, she wasn’t sure if he was counting upwards or down.

The bell sounded and everybody stood to leave, scrapping back chairs and chatting excitedly, Mr Madders was eyeing the class angrily, he had lost control of them.

Emily looked up at the clock with a gulp, it was 11am, morning break, she was in for it now, Mr Madders was slowly making his way towards her desk, a frown set upon his face and a thick math book in one hand.