Michael is the first person I see when we get there along with a cloud of smoke. Is there a fire? Did they set it? “Jem, if they started a fire, we are not getting involved. Agreed?”It's not anything far fetched for these guys to be into arson, so I'm going to admit, it made me feel a little nauseous.
“Agreed” He replies. Jeremy really has gotten himself together in the past week. He's not always afraid, he tries new things. I suppose it's because if we're in with these guys, we can't afford to say no to things. That's like the equivalent to punching them in the face. We would be out of the group just like that. It's nice to know though, that I'm not the only one who's actually changed personalities. Jeremy has too. We are officially no longer Stanley and Jeremy, the nerds, but we are Jem and Stan, the cool kids. It shows because we have girls around us constantly, - and not the ugly kind either, I'm talking the gorgeous kind. We have Kirk, Michael and Scotty on our backs so that if we do anything stupid – which has happened a few times, not going to lie. And they're there to kick anyone's butt who tries to kick our butt. We've told them we're not ones for fighting, although Jem and I had a massive debate about it. We couldn't be sure if fighting was a necessary thing for being in the popular group. Whether they'd call us cowards and stuff. We had finally agreed that no, not fighting was perfectly ok and Scotty told us when we told him, he said “I get that, yeah. It's something you grow into, like big ears.”He had smiled. And we smiled back with relief. If we had to fight, all we knew was lightsabers and wizardry. Yeah, we were proper nerds. Not just smartical particle type of nerds, but like, Big Bang Theory type of nerds.
We were in and we had to do whatever we could to stay in.
“Ayyyyy! Whassup!”Scotty yells at us and I realise what the smoke cloud is. They're smoking pot! With a look to Jem, I know what he's thinking and with the flight, fight or flee response, we were both sort of going with the flee. They all start to laugh and I'm wondering whether they're laughing at us or if it's the crack talking. We make it to the park bench and find not only the guys, but Kirsty, Naomi and Catalina. Catalina had definitely taken a better liking to me, but I always find myself wondering whether it's because of my mum or whether it's me. All that matters though is that she can actually speak more than a single sentence to me at a time.
“Hey, hows it going,”I've also learnt that 'how's it going' isn't really a question but more of a greeting. The girls nod a hello to us and we sit down.
“You want some pop?”Asks Michael. Michael! Of all people to ask us if we want some drugs, it's the leader. If it was Kirk or Scotty, I think we could've gotten away with saying we're ok. They're all smoking it, taking turns from the same pipe. If we say no, we will be known as cowards, but they'd call us a curse word for that. I look at them all for confirmation and they're all smiling and nodding. Some of them are even laughing at us. Already! And we haven't said yes or no to it yet! I then look at Jeremy and he just shrugs his shoulders and they all cheer. Jem grabs the pipe first and smokes a little in first with the instructions of everybody. Then it's my turn. Jem already looks like it's taken effect on him and I wonder how long it takes for the effect to disappear. If I go home to mum and she sees be baked I'd be well done for. I'll only take a little bit in. Yeah, I'll be fine. A once off. I grab the pipe and smoke it in.
Being baked is kind of like eating too much sugar and drinking too much sugar and I realise why it's called being high. It's like being off with the fairies as my mum would say and we stay at the park for a few hours. They said that they need to let the effect run off of them too because if their parent's knew they were taking drugs they'd be grounded, and beaten. It's weird because I'd always thought that the people who did this, their parents knew and they were open about it but apparently not. The rest of the afternoon is filled with brownies, alcohol and swearing. We swear a little but only enough to make them think we do it all the time.
Naomi of course is the one who swears the most, drinks the most and smokes the most. You could assume all that just from the way she dresses and acts. Kirsty doesn't do much, she only does about the same as Jem I do and we're happy about that. Catalina stays perfectly clean. She pretends to smoke it in and drink but she doesn't really and I wonder why we didn't think of that. All I can hope for now is that I don't get addicted to this stuff because then I wouldn't only be damaged for life but I'd be broke! Michael was telling us about the dealer who gives it to him and told us it sells for $200 each time you want a few grams. He told us not to worry though, that it wasn't just some stuff made by some dodgy chem students, that it was legit stuff. I wanted to ask him whether the dealer told him that because it was probably a load of rubbish but I kept my mouth shut.
We all stop at about four o'clock because we all need to be home by six and we want to be sober walking through the doors.
“So, what do you think?”Asked Kirk, thank God it was Kirk and not Michael. I tell him the truth.
“It was trippy man! Maybe a bit too trippy for me though. Never again I think.”I laugh and they all laugh with me. They then ask Jem what he thought and he says the same thing with different words. They laugh with him too. We look at each other with relief.
“What about the drinking?”Naomi asks me. I have to admit I did like the sweet bitter taste of beer. It was nice, I would definitely do that again.
“I liked it, it was good to let go for once”I reply. They all nod in approval. It's a bit confusing to me how accepting they are of us considering we didn't like the drugs and we don't like fighting. It seems to me that they're cutting us a lot of slack and I don't know why. They form a little huddle thing and are whispering and nodding and shaking their heads all in unison. Jeremy and I look at each other confused. Maybe they're about to kick us out, they've found out who we really are from our grades and our voices.
“Ok, the vote is unanimous,”Catalina states, “You two, are coming with us to the city on Australia Day. We think you guys will be a ton of fun,”The girls all smile and I wonder what they mean by 'fun'.
“So you'll come right?”Asks Scotty. Their faces are all the same expression. They seem to legitimately want us to go.
“Sure,”I say.
“Why not”says Jem.
And as soon as they start to cheer I wonder if we've made the right decision.
