Ever After ☯ Luke Brooks

“Ava, Charlotte! Time to wake up my dears,” I heard my mother shriek from down the hallway. 

I groggily sat up in my bed, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. I glanced in the mirror across from my bed and looked at my reflection. My long brown hair sat on a nest atop my head and I had dry drool on the side of my face. What a sight to see. I rolled my eyes and got up to get ready.

It was the first day of my last year of secondary school and I was anything but thrilled. The summer was over and I had to get up at the crack of dawn almost everyday for the next nine months of my life. My school was also the smallest of any secondary school in all of Australia, so everybody knew everybody and, to me, they were all the same: cocky attitudes, no sense of humor, and everything fake. With the exception of my friends and I, of course.

I got lucky to get the friends I had. They were the best people you’d meet in all of Adelaide. Scarlett and Zara were my two best friends ever since kindergarten; they understood me better than anybody. There was also Ryan and Max, boys that we’d met in year six and have grown to love like brothers.

I finished getting ready about an hour later. I curled my hair in loose waves, put on a bit of make up, and put on my favorite dress and nude flats. This was mostly the only time of the year I tried to dress nicely.

I grabbed my purse and books and dashed down the stairs. I grabbed an apple and called out to my little sister.

“Oi, Lottie, don’t make us late on the first day! Hurry!”

I heard a heavy sigh and footsteps come down the stairs. Charlotte was just entering year eight, her first year of secondary school, which meant I had to drive her everyday. She was a bugger when she wanted to be, but mostly one of my best friends. She looked nothing like me: blonde hair, blue eyes, the whole lot.

“I’m ready Ava, jeez,” she huffed, walking out the front door before me.

I climbed into my white Range Rover and started the ignition. You could say my family had a bit of money, but we certainly weren’t the wealthiest people in the city.

“So, your first year of the big leagues, nervous?” I teased to my moody little sister. She rolled her eyes and flipped her hair over her shoulder.

“I’m not a baby, Ava, I can handle myself,” she sassed back.

I laughed at her sudden mature attitude as we pulled into the school parking lot. We hopped out of my car and walked towards the front entrance. Charlotte and I said our good lucks to one another then headed our separate ways.

I realized the bell would ring any minute and decided to jog to my first class. Wouldn’t want to start my first day on a bad note.

I quickly reached my English classroom before the bell rang and examined who was in my class. I saw Zara in the back, texting. I breathed a sigh of relief and went to sit next to her.

“Ava! Ah, I haven’t seen you in all of two days, how’ve you been? You look gorgeous!” She complimented quickly in a posh accent.

“Oh, I’ve been great Zar. Life’s been treating me well, thank you very much,” I gushed, playing along with her act. She giggled and rolled her eyes.

The bell rang suddenly and our new teacher took his place in front of the class, starting his speech of how this class would be run. I leaned my head on my hand and began to zone out when I felt my phone vibrate in my purse. I quickly took it out and held it underneath my desk.

From: Zara

have you heard about the new guys?

I shot her a confused look and went to reply.

To: Zara

no, who are they?

From: Zara

apparently these brothers, twins, who make youtube videos; supposed to be some funny lads

To: Zara

hm, i’d love to meet them they sound like a laugh

Sounds like a nice change from the boring people in Adelaide, finally.

Classes slowly ticked by and I was off to my fourth class of the day, history. I was particularly dreading this class because I hated history with a passion. It’s in the past, so why should we care about it now? Scarlett told me in advance she was in my class, so I was looking forward to seeing her for the first time all day.

I walked in, scanning the other kids who were in the classroom. Everyone looked familiar except for one boy sitting in the corner, by himself.

His hair was curly, with a blue streak on a front section. He had both a lip ring and nose piercing, which suited him very well. His lips were plump and pouty and his eyes were a light caramel color. He had tattoos on his arms that were undeniably sexy. He was everything good you could think of. Hot, cute, sexy, gorgeous, everything in the book.

I didn’t realize I was staring until the teacher cleared her throat behind me.

“Ms. Taylor, would you care to take a seat?” She questioned, glaring at me behind her glasses.

“Oh! Um, yes, yes, of course miss. Sorry,” I stumbled over my words, finding the closest open seat, which happened to be next to the hot new guy.

Scarlett was seated at the desk across from mine. She turned to laugh at me about what had just happened.

“You looked like you were almost drooling,” she whispered quickly before turning back to face the front.

To be quite honest, I’m surprised I wasn’t.