KIARA
School year stats and I'm always the one to start the 'Hi my name is speches'. I have the perfect speech this year, I worked on it all Christmas Break.
"Kiara Harmonie," Mrs Broad calls my name. I'm excited to have Mrs Broad as my grade 8 teacher, all my older brothers had her and now she gets me too.
I walk up to the front of the room, all eyes on me. I have a tendency to trip and fail in front of everyone, I have tripped twice in the past hour so i didn't really expect to be standing at the front of the room in one piece like i am.
i start my speech, "Hi everyone. My name is Kiara Harmonie. I have 3 older brothers and 3 younger ones. I live with my dad in Toowoomba and I spent Primary School at a boarding school called 'The Academy'. I am smart but I love sport and in my spare time I like to write stories or play soccer with my brother Samuel, when he is home that is. So yeah i am me."
I return to my seat before they ask me questions or judge where I went to Primary School. Let’s just say that 'The Academy' is a place for kids like me. Kids like me who could figure out Pythagoras theorem in Preschool. I guess it was a gene that ran through my family because all my brothers either have been or go to ‘The Academy’. But like Dad and my three older brothers you come home for High School which is why I am now at Toowoomba State.
“Thank-you Kiara,” Mrs Broad says kind of bored. This kind of stuff never happened at the Academy, all the teachers encouraged us to talk to them. To get to know them better. “Mark Wilson.”
Mark has really short blond hair, and a great body. He was buff and you could tell that through his neat school uniform. From all this together, you’d be surprized he wasn’t part of the Army or something. I have always wondered what Mark was like.
“Good morning class. I’m Mark-Anthony Wilson and I have two younger sisters and two younger ones as well as four older brothers and three younger ones. My family is large but I wouldn’t swap it for anything in the world. I live with my mum and dad in Toowoomba near Kiara and I also went to ‘The Academy’ for Primary School,” he finishes he speech and makes his way back to his chair.
I knew who Mark was, but I just didn’t know him that well. The most I knew was that my older brother Liam and his older sister went to school together and were friends, but Mark and I we never hung out. Just drifted off into a different social group.
Mrs Broad asks some more people to come up and do their speeches, sit and listen to the speeches but I find myself keep glancing at Mark. I had a crush on him once back in Grade 3 at ‘The Academy’ but that was before he teased the crap out of my little brother for doing gymnastics.
The rest of the students take their turn to introduce themselves. And once finished Mrs Broad announces, “I’m so glad that there are so many students that have the same likes and dislikes as each other. I want you to find someone who has the same interests as you and sit in a seat. This will be your new seating arrangement.”
Everyone in the room starts to run around to find someone who has the same interests as them. But as I though people still hate ‘The Academy’ and are judging me where I went to school so there aren’t many people running towards me to sit with me. Mark wasn’t getting anyone running to him either. I think I just saw to people check to see what colour underwear they were wearing so they could say they had “something” in common.
No one else in the room was left so I start to make my way towards the table where Mark was sitting, he smiled at me but I just kept walking without giving off any emotion. I’m not happy that I have to sit next to him for the next year!
“Okay get to know your new partner because in the next 10 minutes you ‘ll leave my class to go to your first class as grade 8’s,” Mrs Broad announces.
Mark and I take our seats and there is a bit of awkward silence, “So how does it feel to be an uncle….again?”
Mark’s eldest brother Max just had he second child, “pretty good, and I’m the best damn uncle around…..How’s Colin? Has he proposed to Samantha yet?”
Colin is my eldest brother and we are all waiting for him to propose to his girlfriend who he has been dating since grade 8.
“No not yet, but soon I hope….” And once again there e was silence. When I said I had a crush on him, I might have lied a little bit. I will always have a crush on him.
“How’s little Samuel doing starting at ‘The Academy’?” he asks.
“Yeah good I think, no tears yet but I think there will be soon.”
“Yeah Kobe was crying last night but I think he’ll be fine it’s his send year, he’ll have to get over it sooner rather than later.”
“Yeah I guess. So what subjects you doing?”
“Year 10 English, Math and French, and year 8 Sport, Art and History,” he says so confidently.
He was doing all the same subjects as me, except for History. I love History and was top of the class so I’m doing Year 12 History.
“What are you doing?” he asks when I don’t answer him.
“The same as you but not History, I’m doing year 12 History. Are we in the same classes?” I answer.
“Maybe, where is your schedule?”
I pull out my schedule and hand it to him.
“Yeah we’re in the same classes. Looks like they just put us together because of the different class schedules, and because they didn’t want to cause trouble,” he says, “I guess they thought we might have been close friends.”
He looks a little hurt by the last comment. He can’t be angry at me though, it wasn’t me who said anything.
The bell sounds, “That’s the bell, have fun at your first grade 8 class,” Mrs Broad starts talking again.
She didn’t even want to talk to us; it was completely different to ‘The Academy’. At ‘The Academy’ the teachers asked how you were and if you were anxious at all about what everything that was happening. Here they just sent you along the way expecting that you can cope with everything that is happening with starting a new school and all.
“It’s weird isn’t it,” Mark says as I stand.
“Yeah, it’s odd,” I reply.
Mark and I walk and talk about really nothing, and I realised just how nice it was to talk to him. It was good to know that even on my first day, I had made a new friend, but I don’t see us staying friends as I have had a crush on his blonde hair blue eyes forever now.
