•1737 words•
I don't know what it is with Brooke. It seems as though she's giving off a vibe that she likes me. I'm straight though and I don't know how to tell her that. What do I know though? She might be straight herself. She might not like me- maybe I'm just getting too into-depth with things. She is a pretty girl though. And she's incredibly nice. I like her style. That purple outfit she wore last week was amazing.
Anyway, CRIME CLUB. My first ever best friend and I could be going to New Zealand! That's the other side of the world. You do realise that, right Ash? I think we did amazingly well on Tuesday. It wasn't particularly hard but we made it look like we were thinking extremely carefully when we were given the tasks. In actual fact, no. It all came naturally to us I think. I'm so excited for tomorrow. It's practice day. We have two hours of practising and solving more practice crimes before the big day next week: the auditions. That's quite scary. If we don't get in I have no idea what Brooke and I will do. This is our only dream. After spending the last few weeks with her, I'm understanding that she really wants this. Maybe as much as me.
To think that we could be moving to New Zealand is just incredible. Things at home aren't much better at the minute either. I've been in this stupid house for almost 2 months now, and Sue still hasn't shut up shouting, Mark hasn't stopped smoking every 2 minutes, Jamie hasn't shut up with his rock music and Addi hasn't stopped playing with them stupid, creepy dolls. Ugh. Why can't Brooke and I just mov-
Oh my god. No that would never work. I mean, it could work if we move to New Zealand, and that would be a dream come true. I've said before that I would rather stay in an orphanage than be with that family, but I'd 100% choose New Zealand with my bestie over an orphanage any day.
I've always wanted to study criminology and now that I have an extraordinary chance of doinv it as a career in another COUNTY, I've come to the realisation that anything is possible. As I said, it always seems impossible until it's done. But this maybe doesn't seem so impossible anymore. Hold on, if I move to New Zealand with Brooke, what will happen with school work? Do I have to go to school? Being honest, I am in year 10 so I wouldn't need that much longer doing schooling anyway. If criminology is something I want to pursue as a career, I don't really need any other topics. If Crofley's is actually a crime academy and not just a club, that's a crime school so I'm still gonna be in full-time education. Woah.
Okay, maybe I'm slightly overthinking (again) but if this is legit, this is unbelievable.
I finally nagged Sue enough to let me go out tonight with Brooke so we can talk about Crofley's and the practice tomorrow night. Brooke says she's excited but I can feel the nervousness in her presence. I understand though, I'm also nervous. This could lead to so much and it's an immense amount of pressure on the two of us. Not only are we representing ourselves and our school, we're literally representing everything. We're in this against the best teenage detectives in the whole country. There are around 15 other teams (each consisting of two teens). Crofley's is the biggest crime academy in the UK, third in the world. They have a partner academy in New Zealand called Berkley's. If me and Brooke end up going to New Zealand, we'll be part of Berkley's, which is the second biggest crime academy in the world. Literally everybody knows about them, even if you aren't into criminology. It's like howbeveryone knows Kim Kardashian, even if you're not into reality TV. Everyone knows Taylor Swift, even if you're not into music. Everyone knows Donald Trump even if you're not into politi- Okay we get it, Ash. Everyone knows about Berkley's. They're huge.
It's 6:32 pm and Brooke and I decide we both best be getting off.
"Bye Ash! I love you."
"Love you too babes! See u tomorrow; big day!"
She says I love you and I mean it in a friend way. For some reason, I'm getting an odd suspicion that she means it in more than just a friend way. I don't know her sexuality though, so who am I to judge? Either I'm an over-thinker (which I am) or a detective (which I shall hopefully soon become). Perhaps being an over-thinker will help me being a detective! Omg yes. Gut instinct is what it's all about, Ashlyn.
Ah, Tuesday night. I guess Tuesday nights will just be scary but yet exciting things to talk about from now on. Crime Club night. Honestly, I'm surprised Sue and Mark agreed to this, well they kinda didn't. I just told them I have to go to a club after school on a Tuesday. They don't know what it's for and they have no idea about New Zea-
Shoot.
I mean, I told my social workers and they said it's fine as long as I'm supervised by responsible adults. Which I will be, if I do go to New Zealand. Ah well, I'm sure Sue and Mark don't care anyway. They aren't my real parents, so they shouldn't care. I'm sure Jamie and Addi won't miss me either, they haven't spoken to me much in the 2 months that I've been living there. I need this. I need to go to New Zealand. It's my only chance at starting a new life. An opportunity like this is never going to pop up again so despite the pressure, I need to put all of my time and effort into this. It's 4th period. Only 2 hours or so to go until the practice for the auditions next week at Crofley's. Truthfully, I'm very excited. I'm so nervous though because if Brooke and I mess this up, it's over. I don't mean our friendship, I mean our career. Our opportunity. The whole thing with New Zealand. Come on Ashlyn, you can't just waste this. Nothing like this has ever come up before, therefore you have to put everything you have into it.
Okay, enough prep talk.
*Briiingg*
Dinner time. I run over to Brooke and we both give each other a huge hug, pouncing into each other's arms.
"Ash, I'm so nervous!"
"Me too Brooke! But try not to worry. Think about how good we were last week- amazing! This is just practice anyway, so if we mess up this week, it's not the end of the world. I'm genuinely more excited than nervous!"
We both free ourselves from each other's warm touch and walk towards the canteen. We talk about it all dinner and all the way through 5th period (which we are in the same class for).
The final bell rings so we get changed and go to the hall. I'm nervous. Like last week, there are multiple tasks set out around the hall, but this time it's just me and Brooke. It's quite good honestly, with just the two of us. There are Crofley's workers there to help us out, even though next week they'll be assessing us. There's the same police officer from last week, I don't know what she's doing but she does make this all seem so professional. We complete about half the tasks in around 40 minutes, finding them all quite easy. We go over to the ones that took us maybe a bit longer or were a bit harder to solve. I'm not nervous anymore, this is actually incredibly fun.
The next half an hour or so go quickly and we're left with one last task. It involves having numerous suspects line up (in which many teachers got involved in) and we have to look at many clues, find evidence and try to narrow the suspects down to just one person. We didn't think this would be too hard at first but turns out it is. We thought it was gonna take ages at first, which it does. We have to take fingerprint samples from everyone and ask what they were doing at the time of the crime. This also seems very real. Wait, if we go to New Zealand, do you think that we'll have to go into prisons to help solve crimes? Maybe. Woah, that would be cool. I've never been to prison before (ha, clearly) so it would be a remarkable experience. Especially a New Zealand prison! I'm getting a bit off topic here though.
The police officer goes out of the room for a minute and we hear all of the suspect's stories. The Chief Detective of Crofley's tells us a bit of background information about the crime beforehand, so any information the suspects gave, we could check against the background information to see what was suspicious and what wasn't. The police officer walks back in and she's holding real handcuffs. What? We have to pull all of the evidence together and put our logic and memory to the test. Eventually, we conclude one suspect and they are 'arrested.'
"AND YOU ARE.."
It's the same loudspeaker from last week.
"CORRECT! CONGRATULATIONS! YOU MANAGED TO SOLVE EVERY SINGLE CRIME IN THE PRACTICE SESSION!"
Omg-
Wow.
"ASH!! Ahhhh we did it, thank God!"
"Oh my God, Brooke! We did do it!"
"YOU MAY LEAVE WHEN YOU ARE READY, GIRLS. ENJOY YOUR EVENING AND GOOD LUCK AT CROFLEY'S NEXT WEEK!"
We shake everyone's hand on the way out and we both start buzzing up and down. We aren't in shock anymore. We're just excited. One more week to go until we're gonna find out if we're possibly going to New Zealand. Wow, Ash, love, we've come so far as a person. I'm so proud of you and I don't think I've ever said that, truly meaning it. At first, I think I saw this whole crime thing as a game, but now I've realised that this stuff is serious and if Brooke and I take this as seriously as it is, we could be going places, literally.
Ash x
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Chance✔️
Teen FictionAshlyn is a teenage girl who has been in foster care for over half of her life. She's sick of it- and she waits helplessly to either be adopted, or to become an adult so she doesn't have to be in foster care anymore. At school, she gets the chance...
