London Calling

Chapter one

Chapter one

           It was a warm Sunday morning, I could feel the day was going to get hot, it was only the first week into spring and the weather was out of control.

“Now to you Rebecca, thanks Sam, the weather isn’t looking any cooler for the coming week, Monday 25, Tuesday 24, Wednesday a high of 28 degrees, Thursday following with 29, Friday 28 and Saturday back down to 25 degrees, now back to you Sam”

           I turned the TV off and slumped back down into the couch, could this weather get any more depressing. So majority of the world loved the sun, the hot weather, the beach and all those summery things, I hated it all, my fair skin burned, my long dark brown hair went fuzzy, and the hot weather, well it was just gross. Leah walked into the lounge room and looked at me, she then shut the curtains, turned on the Xbox and threw a remote control at me, Harry Potter Lego popped up onto the screen and there wasn’t much left to say, there was nothing else to do, and to hell with doing home work in this weather.

           School that week was a disaster, the heating and cooling system throughout the school had over heated and shut down, and so the school was without cooling over the coming weeks. That Thursday afternoon I had a double study period and sat outside on the grass with my friends. It felt much hotter than 29 degrees and we were all dripping with sweat.

          “Hey lets go to the pool after school” Jess said, “Nah, I think I’ll go for a swim in the river across the road, so come over to mine” Tori looked at me, “I cant, I have to catch the bus home so no one could come a pick me up afterwards” Tori and jess agreed. “This heat is ridiculous” I said “how on earth are we going to be able to handle summer”, I lied back onto the grass and shut my eyes, Jess sat up, “why don’t we go on a holiday”, I laughed, “Where would we go Jess?” “We could go to Bali or America” I laughed again “Jess I don’t want to go to Bali or America, I’d much rather go somewhere where I could escape the heat, like England”, Tori then sat up and joined in on the conversation, “yeah, lets plan a trip and go to England, could you imagine how much fun it would be”, I then sat up to, Tori was serious, and by the look on Jess’s face, she was serious too. “alright, say we did plan a trip overseas, we would have to go to Ireland as well” “and France, I really would love to do some serious shopping in France” Jess said, “well say if we did, how on earth would we afford it?” Tori and jess looked a little puzzled, “we’ll just save really hard for the next few months and then go over the summer holidays”  “I guess that could work, but it’s me, mum and dad wouldn’t let me go overseas by myself” “you won’t be by yourself Kady, you’ll be with us” I smiled, “are you both serious about this” “yes” they both said. “When we all get home, get online and look at flights overseas, we have to book them soon otherwise they will be too expensive, so we will aim at booking them within the next week or so”, I looked at jess “that soon, don’t you want to think about it first” “nope, let’s just do it” “alright then, I guess its settled”.

          I got on the bus after school and sat next to Leah, the whole bus trip home I could think of nothing more then what mum and dad would say, and how I would get the money and the fact that we were all 17 years old, were we even legal to travel.

          Once I had gotten home, I chucked my bag on the ground and headed straight for the computer. “What’s the rush to get to the computer Kady?” said Leah following me, I didn’t say anything. I turned on the computer and googled the weather forecast for England and Ireland, a top of 13 degrees for London, York, and Brighton in the United Kingdom and a top of 10 degrees for Cork, Dublin and Swords in Ireland. I thought about googling flights to Europe but I couldn’t do it whilst Leah was watching. I knew she would tell mum and dad, and there was no way in hell id be allowed to fly to Europe, especially by myself, and plus, I wouldn’t have nowhere near as much money as I would need to take a trip overseas. I shut the computer and disappointedly I went into my room and stared my homework. 

          That night I couldn’t sleep, I just kept tossing and turning, it was so hot, so I just got up. I grabbed my laptop and googled flights to Europe; I opened a few links and looked through at the prices. There were flight ranging from $1600 to $3500, ‘there’s no way I could afford this trip’ I said to myself, ‘I just don’t have that money’. I checked my bank balance, and it read $1055. I guess I better start saving.

          School the next day, I caught up with Tori and Jess at lunch time and we discussed the air flights. Jess and Tori didn’t realize how expensive they were, and on top of that we would still have to pay for accommodation. Tori said her dad was happy to pay for all of her expenses because he wanted her to travel, Jess and I was as jealous as hell and we made sure we let her know it too.

          Jess was going to pick up a few more shifts a week at Stoney’s and I knew that I would have to do the same thing at the Plough. I thought I better call Mark my boss after school and check if that was alright with him.

           I made it through the day and the heat and called Mark after work, he was happy for me to pick up some extra shifts for him as he needed the staff. Mark asked if I wanted to come in that night a do a six till ten shift, I couldn’t turn it down, and that would be an extra $60 towards my trip.

          I arrived at work early, so I went and sat with mark whilst he sorted through the pay cheques. I told him about the plan I had about going overseas and he thought it was brilliant. “I’ve been all over Europe Kady, London is spectacular, and France isn’t too bad either” I admitted that I knew nothing about Europe and until I looked it up yesterday I didn’t even know where on the map it was, Mark thought that was quite funny, I then told him how I had always wanted to go to Ireland because I thought the scenery was beautiful, Mark’s reply to that was “yeah, people say that the scenery is breathtaking, me, I say it’s okay, the beer though... the beer is breathtaking” I laughed at him, I couldn’t think of anything worse than being in a beautiful county and drink beer.

          Soon service started and it was a busy night, I didn’t end up finishing until 11:30pm, which wasn’t too bad because now that $60 had gone to $82.50.

          I worked that Saturday day and night both being six hour shifts. I was pretty happy with that because that earned me $90 per shift, and the Sunday I worked from 11am till 5pm earning me another $90, so I was quite happy and very excited to see what my pay cheque that following Tuesday would be.

          Monday morning I was buggered, I didn’t want to get up and go to school, nor didn’t I want to work another full on weekend. I made my way to the kitchen and asked Leah to turn on the TV so that I could hear the weather forecast whist I ate my breakfast.

“Now to you Rebecca, thanks Sam, for the coming week the weather is proving to keep up its constant heat Sam, Monday being 26, Tuesday 26 also, Wednesday getting into the high 20s with 28 degrees, Thursday reaching 31, Friday 28 and Saturday back down to 25 degrees, I hope everyone is getting their togs ready, back to you Sam”

          I let a long dreary sigh and  slammed my head on the table “Leah, turn the TV off” I said mumbling into the table “what was that” Leah asked, I looked up and spun around to look at her, she dropped to the ground and started laughing, “what, what’s so funny, why are you laughing” Leah managing to squeeze out “look in the mirror behind you” I turned around and there on my head was the piece of toast I was eating, I turned back to Leah but couldn’t fight the urge to start laughing too.

          By the time lunch had come around that day I was feeling pretty good. Jess, Tori and I all sat on the benches under the trees to eat lunch. “Hey Kady, I hear your feeling a little toasty” laughed Tori “shut up, how do you know that happened” Jess and Tori both started laughing and I joined in. After a laughing fit we talked about the trip we had started planning, Jess said she worked a total of 24 hours and that she have earned a total of $372, “that’s fantastic Jess, I think I only worked about 20 hours and I don’t get my pay till tomorrow”.

          That Tuesday night I checked my bank balance, “Yes, I’ve been paid” I said out loud to myself, my bank balance had gone from $1055 up to $1407.50. Maybe we’ll make it to England after all.