Viaje

Queso

We finally got to Melbourne and I swear to god I slept for 6 hours straight. Ella lived in a penthouse and had a classy, chanel type of style. She was extremely talented and did heaps of things. She even knew Cara Delevingne and had been friends with her since she started modelling. Cara said that she was born for greatness and that's when Ella left JCCA. "Holy shit" were the first words pretty much all of us said when we got there. I loved her house and was really glad that she'd let us stay there. We even met up with Tyroe and Jelena who were in Melbourne at the time. Jelena was Tyroe's best friend and they were goals. Tyroe was the most confident, outgoing person I'd ever met. He was a year younger than us and caught the train with us in the morning and afternoons. He was really short in year 7 but was extremely tall in year 10. He looked pretty much exactly the same as his older brother, Tobi when he was that age. Jelena worked for Ella and she was around pretty much all the time. It was really good to just hang out with everyone for the first two couple of days. We did some sightseeing, even though there wasn't much to see other than the shops. Ella smith lived in Melbourne until year 7 when she moved over to Perth to go to JCCA. She was super excited to go there with all of us. We did a lot of shopping. Like a lot.
Ella showed us all of her favourite shops- including the clothes, bathers, makeup and tea shops. By the end of it we were all so friggin tired.

In the second week of being in Melbourne, school had started again back in Perth so we had to go back. Oscar, Tom and James were out of high school so they didn't really have to go back straight away but the rest of us did. Staying with Ella was amazing and we thanked her many times. Unfortunately we had to leave Melbourne and go back to Perth. I missed Ella. Also we left El there because Ronny offered for them to stay with him and they couldn't refuse. We left Melbourne with less, and different people than what we came with. We had gotten rid of Noah, added El and Jenny. It was crazy how out of hand that trip had gotten. I loved it and I'm pretty sure everyone else did as well. I know for sure that Tom was super pleased that he didn't die, and his parents were very glad to have him home safe and sound. Now I'll spare you the details of the trip home as it was almost as crazy as the trip there. Gene and I broke up, which was going to happen anyway. I had seen it coming, neither of us made an effort to see each other while I was in Melbourne so we just ended it. Ella smith found a new love interest, hopefully better than the last one. Jude and Cade started dating!!! I know, I didn't see it coming. We all thought Jude was straight as fuck but apparently not.
They made out a lot.
Ella Brown called a few times to check in and see how we were which was really nice, we also got some sort of scream/farewell from Tyroe in the background. Oscar had planned to move to Spain to be closer to his family. So we said our farewells when we got back to Perth, he was leaving the next day. "Face time me all the time" I said to him before he drove off down the driveway, to the airport. "I will" he replied. Dang I remember being so miserable in that moment. He had a good flight, slept through most of it and we all got heaps of pictures over the first few months. Harriet ended up getting an extremely high ATAR mark and moved to Sydney to go to that drama school. It was a really big opportunity for her and I was so proud. She was my best fucking friend so I made her swear to text me every day and I didn't want our friendship to drift so I made an effort to keep it going. The twins ended up going to different Uni's. Both different athletic universities. I don't remember the names of them but James and Chanelle went to the same one so thank god for that. Ana ended up being a ballerina. I watched quite a few of her shows as she toured the whole world with Aus ballet. She then moved to New York and got in to whatever the fancy ballet school was called. It was major though, she got paid heaps. She trained her arse off though so I was so proud of her when I heard about her successful career. Ella Smith- beauty guru. She basically became the new face of this organisation which spreads awareness of skin conditions and how to treat them and yeah, she was an inspiration. Her skin condition ended up going away, and that was because of the amount of effort she put in to it. I loved her so much and my god was she a stunner. Jenny went to the Olympics and won a silver medal in track. I was so proud of her and Tom for everything they'd accomplished. She was so incredible and put effort into everything she did.

Now this, this sounds like a sad sappy ending to a story. But I wrote this because I needed to relive those moments, they were the best moments of my life. And now I am 36 years old. After 2027 I couldn't even think about these memories because it just hurt. It stung my mind and my eyes to think about those people. Those people who died for nothing.
All except one.

I see Ana often, she comes over and we have coffee together. I lost my husband. Ana lost her long time boyfriend. We lost our friends. Tom lost James. James lost Tom. I lost Harriet. Ella Smith. Jude. Cadeyrn. Jenny. Frances. Ella brown. Tyroe survived but became mentally ill and now suffers with PTSD. Oscar is planning on moving back to Australia to see us, and some family who stayed here, and survived. The war was the most horrific time of my life. I never thought I'd live to experience a war. I missed them. I missed Harriet, the twins, my gossip girls, my best friends. I missed them all and I needed this. I needed this to talk about the times I had with them and the amount of happiness they brought me while they could. I wish I'd been able to say goodbye. Most of them died because their universities were bombed. And then I never saw them again. I still think about it every night. How my life could've been, who I would be having coffee with. How my best friend could've been the god mother to my first child. How my first child was born without a father. How I have to sit down almost every day with Ana, and see the pain on her face when she looks at me and still sees everyone else. She looks at me and sees Harriet, Ella, Jude, Cade, Frankie. She can't bare to remember everything we did together and how close we were.
Time passes, I need to be okay with this. I need to be okay with the fact that they are gone. They can't come back.
Well.
One day I'll tell my daughter stories about my life as a teenager and the amazing people I spent those years with.
This is a book about my favourite adventure with my favourite people on this earth. I wrote it for my daughter,
Ella Una-Grace Jordan