Exchange with New Hope Club

Chapter 9

Jade's POV

Reece and I had a bit of a slow morning. We dropped George off which took a while since he lived quite far away. I spent some time unpacking and making myself at home. Reece and I were about to go to the local park when my mother called.

"G'day mum!" I said, excusing myself to Reece.

"Hi Jade, how are you?" asked mum.

"Pretty good, how about you?"

"Yeah, not bad, we all miss you but I expect you'll be back before we know it! Still, a whole year, and your birthday is coming so soon!"

Reece's eyes widened. I hadn't told him about my birthday it was literally days away.

"Ahh well," I said.

"What's your family like?"

"Lovely! Very friendly, super sweet, very welcoming."

Reece grinned.

"What's your host like? What's her name?"

"Um, yeah, very friendly, carried most of my bags since i kept tripping over them which was nice. I had a competition in the car of who can do the best Aussie accent and my partner won a packet of Caramello Koalas," I said. I was purposely leaving out Reece's gender.

"Oh that's nice! What's her name?" persisted mum.

"Reece," I mumbled.

"That's funny! Isn't that usually a boy's name?" laughed mum.

"Mum, Reece is a boy," I said. The other end of the line went silent. Then finally;

"Don't worry, I will be complaining to the Exchange Society. They shouldn't have exchanges with a boy and a girl," said mum firmly. I groaned.

"Mum, it's fine, honestly, I have my own room, it's fine!" I moaned.

"No, Jade, you should have told me that your host was a boy earlier," said mum sternly.

"Mother! It's fine!" I snapped.

"No it's not, you know what teenage boys are like! They think with their-," said mum. I cut her off.

"Have you even met a teenage boy? They're not all like that!" I snapped again. I gave Reece an apologetic look.

"Jade Meredith Edwards! I do not like your attitude, young lady," said mum, raising her voice.

"Yeah, well I don't like yours either, old woman," I yelled.

"Jade Meredith!" screamed mum so loudly I jerked the phone away from my ear. Reece looked slightly alarmed.

"Well mum, I'm here now, so what are you gonna do? Catch a plane and come take me home?" I sneered.

"Don't test me," said mum warningly.

"Wasn't planning on it," I muttered.

"You let me know the moment your exchange partner even thinks about unzipping-," said mum. I cut her off again before she went too far.

"He's not like that!" I sighed frustratedly, almost pulling my hair out with my hand that wasn't holding the phone.

"You don't know what he's like, you've only known him for a day!"

"Well you haven't met him at all so who are you to judge?" I retorted.

"I've read stories on the news!"

I rolled my eyes, even though she couldn't see me. "Only the really awful things make it to the news. You never hear about the boy who got a puppy for the girl he loved who's collar said 'marry me', you never hear about the boy who took his disabled best female friend to prom because she had no one else, you never hear about the boy walked his best friend down the aisle because she didn't have a father, you never hear about the boy who waited 25 years to marry his best friend who he's loved since primary school. Why? Because these things are too happy, they won't sell. But you do hear about the boy who murders his ex girlfriend because he was jealous that she'd found another lover, you do hear about the boy who rapes the girl he'd been messaging pretending to be someone else, you do hear about-," I ranted, almost in tears. Mum interrupted me.

"One in four women get abused by men. I just don't want you to be one of them," said mum.

"I'm done with this conversation. And if you complain to the Exchange Society, I won't talk to you ever again. Tell Allie and dad I say hi," I said, promptly hanging up before mum could get another word in. I swore under my breath. I looked up at Reece.

"I'm really sorry, Reece. I know you're not like those awful guys that my mum is paranoid about," I apologised, wiping a tear away from my eye.

"It's fine, she just wants her baby to be safe," he said with a small smile.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah but she shouldn't have just been assuming things about you."

"I guess but I can see where she's coming from," said Reece.

"But still!" I said indignantly.

"And when's your birthday?" he asked.

"Late August how bout yours?" I said.

"August 13th. Your birthday is so soon! It's literally a week from now!" exclaimed Reece.

"Wait but that means that your birthday was a few days ago! If I'd known, I would've gotten you something!" I exclaimed.

"Ahh well, guess you'll have to wait til next year," he said with a laugh.

"Wait, no, come, I might be able to sort something out!" I said, beckoning Reece to my room.

I unzipped my suitcase with all the chocolate and lollies and more.

"Do you like chocolate?" I asked. Reece gave me a look that said 'um, duh!'.

"Here, these are tim tams, the double coated ones. These are lolly snakes but they're Australian branded so extra special, haha. This, ooh, this is kangaroo jerky, it's delicious and hard to come by but it lasts for years so you can enjoy it bit by bit," I said, handing Reece the food from my suitcase. "This is,-," I began.

"Jade! It's fine, this is enough! I've already got those koalas!" laughed Reece.

"Oh, ok. If you run out, I have a whole suitcase of this stuff," I said.

"It's fine, I promise. Thank you very much," he said.

I smiled. "Ok."

"So, wanna go to the park?"

"Yeah, sure, let's go."

Hey Readers,

Just a heads up the ages of Blake, Reece and George have been slightly changed to fit the context of this story.

Hope You are enjoying it so far. We have written about 30 chapters but will only update every couple of days otherwise you won't have anything to reader.