How To Be 15

10

To say that I was happy with the work that I had just produced would be a lie.

Describe the way Poets express terror in 'Bayonet Charge' and one other poem from the Conflict cluster.

I had done the whole thing completely wrong. I was the only person in the whole of our year who had done 'The right word' as the second poem. Everyone else had done the poems about wars and terrorist attacks, so why was it that I chose to compare a poem about someone charging with a bayonet with one about someone letting a child into their house without knowing if they are a terrorist or a freedom fighter? Whatever possessed me to make such a stupid choice is something I will never know.

"Jo?" Sam emerged into my room.

"Yeah?"

"I have a question."

"Do elaborate."

"Be serious please." He frowned, and sat on my bed.

"What do you want?"

"Do you think I would have a chance with Jackie?"

I swear my jaw hit the floor.

Sam and Jackie had always shamelessly flirted with each other, but I didn't know that Sam liked her in a way that meant he might want a relationship.

Then I realised.

"Oh my God!" I shrieked, throwing my face into my hands.

"What?" Sam stood up, looking ready to make a quick exit.

"No!" I rolled off my desk chair and onto the floor, completely not okay with this revelation.

"Jo?"

"Sam, no!"

"Don't tell anyone."

"Get out!" I threw an arm in the direction of the door.

Sam made a mad dash for the door, and I proceeded to groan on the floor, processing what my life had become. I grabbed the laptop, logged into Skype, and made a call on the first chat I saw that had Jackie in it. It turned out to be the call between me, her, Haden, and Jay.

Jackie picked up immediately, but Haden and Jay didn't.

"What?" She asked.

"I shit you not, my life has just shattered before my eyes." I rubbed a hand over my face and moved to lie on the bed with the laptop on my lap.

"What's cracked?" She took a large gulp of what looked to be orange juice.

"My brother is deeply in love with my best friend and I am not okay with it. I cannot begin to comprehend what I will become when they get together."

"When who gets together?" Jay joined the call.

He looked to be sat on a garden chair, with the laptop presumably on a garden table. He looked gorgeous, as per usual.

"Recent developments have given me reason to believe that my brother is head over heels for Jackie."

"Shit a brick." She looked wide-eyed into the camera, wiping her drink from her chin.

"What's this?" Haden appeared in a chair next to Jay.

"My brother is besotted with my best friend and I'm not sure how it will pan out when I know for a fact she likes someone else." I grinned to myself.

"Jo?" Jackie said.

"Yeah?"

"Hallway meeting, real quick."