“Your time is up!” The examiner rang a small bell on the lectern.
Matilda dropped her pen and tucked her hands into her lap under the desk, shivering excitedly. That bell marked her last HSC examination, the end of her high school education.
Slowly the hall began to empty, the teenagers holding exam condition silence behind trembling lips and flashed smiles.
She stepped outside into the light, stretching her arms above her head and grinning in the warm midday sun. Groups of teenagers shrieked in joy and jumped in circles.
“Can you believe it? We’re done! All done! It’s over!” Abbey whooped and clung to Matilda’s arm.
“It’s all ogre now.” A low voice whispered from behind Matilda. She giggled and turn around to hug her twin brother, an amazingly rare occurrence.
“I’ll see you at home.” She told him.
Matilda swung her handbag onto her shoulder and made her way across the car park and unlocked her little blue Volkswagen. She climbed in and swung the creaking door shut behind her with a click.
Sighing, Matilda pulled the band from her hair and freed her brunette curls. She reached to the passenger side and drew her phone out of the glove box. One missed message.
(1) Message Received from: Jack
To Seth, Garland, Matilda and Kyle.
As you might have already heard, I’ve gotten myself cancer somehow. Knew that Chernobyl holiday would come back to bite me one day. Anyways, you’re almost done with school and obviously I won’t be needing to finish my HSC so I want to invite you all to my uncle’s place up the coast. It’s right on the beach and a five minute drive from the hospital and only ten minutes from the local cemetery. Yay! I’ve been given two months because I declined treatment to keep these luscious locks. In all seriousness, I want to spend the last weeks of my life with my best friends. RSVP to my pre- death festivities in a week because this party bus is leaving in a fortnight from today with or without you losers.
P.S. Kyle you can bring your new girl if you think she’s got what it takes to be one of the cool kids. xoxoxo
Matilda stared at the message uncomprehendingly, brow furrowed as she read it over and over again.
Cancer? Jack?
A sick feeling swirled in her stomach, twisting anxiously like a snake in a bag.
Message To: Jack
I’m there.
She sat back in the vinyl seat.
YOU ARE READING
Jack's Last Summer
Teen Fiction"I guess that's the thing about time. It might not heal wounds; but it does smooth them over." When Jack Summers is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he chooses quality over quantity and refuses therapy. He instead decides to invite four of his best f...
