Oh the Places we will go

“Damien! For god’s sake Damien can you just wake up or you missed the bus again.” His mum shrieked at him from down stairs.

His eyes flicked open. Crap, late for school again. He ran his hand through his blonde hair, put on his Greenday shirt and ripped jeans, washed his face and ran out the door yelling goodbyes to his mum. Damien was halfway running down the block when his best mate, Josh, pulled up in his beat up Holden commodore, Damien jumped in.

“Thanks for the lift.” He said

“Hey no problems, first day of school I figured you would be late.”

“So are you pumped about school?” Damien asked turning to look his fried in the eye. Josh, with his chopped black hair and large chin, the macho of the pair. He just let out a laugh.

“Damien my man, you have to loosen up, find a girl. Your know before me and Cindy got together –“

“Cindy again, what happened to Kate?” He cut in before Josh could start another recount about “last night”, which he does a lot.

“Man, Kate was so clingy, any way my point is that you worry about school too much, like, I know your mum is dead set about you getting into University and all that but hey, were in the prime of our youth.” He yelled the last bit out the car window, causing an elderly couple to give us the stare of the century.

As they neared the school gates Josh pointed out a girl in a wheelchair heading to school, Damien found himself staring at her.

“Nice wheels!” Josh yelled out the window. Damien punched him in the arm, this was getting annoying. Josh turned to him.

“Nice face too.” He said with a wink.

Damien had English first up, he found his usual seat at the back of the class and prepared for, what he liked to call, the procrastination period. This was a time where you had to think and do as many things as you could before actually starting you work, to make time faster. As the other students came into the class room the girl in the wheelchair came in and parked her wheelchair at the desk with no seat, the one next to him.

“Fancy seeing you here” she said with a touch of ice in her smooth voice.

 Damien knew she had heard what josh had called out. He could now see what Josh meant, she did have a pretty face, her skin was a light olive and she had deep green eyes, her dark brown pixie hair suited her heart shaped face. She wore a black singlet that revealed her smooth neck and cleavage and tight jeans. She had a tattoo of a thorny rose vine that started on her left shoulder, went across and bloomed a flower on her right collarbone.  Damien then realised why she was in a wheelchair, her left leg was missing from, what would have been, just above her knee, and the rest of her jeans had been tucked under her thigh and at the end on her elegant right leg was a second-hand army boot.

“Hey, imp sorry about what my friend, Josh, called out to you, he can be full of himself sometimes.” He apologised. She turned to him and smiled, her soft pink lips making her face light up.

“It’s no big deal, I’ve herd worse. By the way, my names Keeli.” She put out her hand for him to shake, long elegant fingers yet her hand was callused from turning the wheels to move herself around. They shook hands, grinning at each other.

After school Josh had a date with Cindy so Damien was forced to walk his way around town. As he was leaving the school grounds he saw Keeli ahead of him.

“Hey Keeli, wait up.” He said, jogging to catch up to her.

“Hey Damibaby, I was just heading off to go to band practise, me and some friends of mine get together and rock out every once in a while.” She said with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, and Damien couldn’t help but notice how the bad girl theme turned him on.