Awakening

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Why do I have to start on Friday? It’s stupid; I’ll have one day, and then the weekend. I may as well just start on Monday. That would make much more sense. Then I’d have the whole week, instead of just the one day and then the weekend. You should really just turn the car around and take me home. Really.”

Laura Brooks was nervous. She was nervous about a number of things. Number one was the obvious; new school, new people, new home, new town. Number two was the fact that the ‘new town’ was actually a ‘new city’, and that ‘new city’ just happened to be Sydney, one of the largest cities in the world.

Number three, which possibly paled in comparison to the two prior reasons, was that Laura was being driven to her new school, on Friday, in a very chaotic style through very busy roads by her elder brother, Lucas, who only just got his licence the past week. Her knuckles had turned white from gripping the sides of her chair.

“Lozz, seriously, just calm down. You’ll be fine. It’s not like you haven’t done the whole ‘new school’ routine before, huh?”

“Um, yeah, sure. Can we please stop now?”

He sighed. “Seriously, we’re almost there. It’s a waste of petrol to go home now.” He turned to face her. “You’ll be fi-“

“EYES ON THE ROAD!” she shrieked, as the car began to drift out of the lane.

“Shit.” he yelped, and quickly swerved beck between the lines, before they were hit by an oncoming car. “Oops...” he gave her a guilty smile, and she shot him a withering glare in return. They would be safer if she was driving.

“Well, anyway... Oh look, we’re here.” He pulled over to the curb. Laura looked at the school with a small yet prominent frown upon her lips. It looked like a giant concrete tissue box with windows.

 “Ok sis, I’ll pick you up at quarter past 3, got it?”

“Yeah, I know. Ok, bye.” She leaned over and gave him a hug. She popped open her seatbelt and grabbed her bag, throwing a quick “Love ya!” over her shoulder. As she approached the massive grey block, she made a mental note to catch the bus from now on.

***

Turns out that the tissue box was split in 3; primary and infants kids, high-schoolers, and a main reception building. Laura realised this when she accidently walked in on a kindergarten class reciting the alphabet, while searching for the main office. The teacher had been really nice about it, and explained this to Laura, but that didn’t stop her cheeks from turning bright red. She backed out of the classroom, and followed the teacher’s directions to the reception.

The receptionist was an old girl with salt-and-pepper hair pulled into a very loose bun. Strands escaped and framed her heart-shaped face. She looked nice enough. When she noticed Laura, she smiled straight away. “Miss Brooks?” she asked.

Laura just nodded. “Welcome to Southwood Public. I’m sure you’ll love it here.”

“Thanks.” Laura smiled.

“I’m Mrs Sergeant by the way. Hang on, two seconds.” She turned around and began rifling through a stack of assorted sheets on her desk. She eventually retrieved a manila folder with a hot pink sticky note on it reading ‘Laura Brooks’. “That’s your time table and a little map to help you find your way around. There’ll be someone in here in a moment to take you to class. If you have a problem of need some help, feel free to pop in here. I’ll be glad to help.” Laura nodded.

“Thanks.” She said again, feeling kind of stupid since she had absolutely no other response.

“No worries. Lovely to meet you!”