where irises grow + c.h

one

I

Calum Hood

If someone asked Calum hood what first comes into his mind when they mention New Zealand, it was cow dung.

It wasn't a matter of hating the culture and country itself, he actually adored New Zealand as a child. He was watching National Geographic (full courtesy Mali-Koa's pretentious seven year old self) when a documentary of Malborough Sounds came on. After which, he forever claimed that it was his only experience of love at first sight.

Stepping foot on the country granted a place in his conservative bucket list when he turned eight before he learned that he was actually part Kiwi, and since then, he began a collection of store-bought New Zealand post cards plastered along with his My Chemical Romance posters.

By the time he was fifteen, their family visited his grandparents home in New Zealand and it was the first time Calum would've considered that a dream of his came true. He assumed they'd visit Auckland or Wellington but it surprised him when the town car they rode in parked beside a farm house south of Christchurch.

Calum was the kind of sentimental person to consider his first step in a country monumental but when he stepped down only to have his shoe sole flat against animal feces, it was traumatizing enough that his entire upholding imagery of New Zealand fell.

For the fifteenth summer he's lived to see in his lifetime, he spent the entirety of it working in his grandparent's farm. His grandparents may have been warm people but they didn't take Calum's shit when he whined about back aches. Soon enough, he hated New Zealand when his only perception of it was somewhere between massive cow poo and manual labor.

Three years after, when Calum freshly graduated high school, his parents informed him that they'd be spending another summer in New Zealand. Calum basically spent the night cuddling with his older sister, trying to get her to convince their parents to let both of them stay in Australia.

But even Mali-Koa wanted him to go so somehow, Calum was back in the place he's dreaded as an adolescent, acting like he's never aged. He didn't enjoy a second since he's set foot on the loamy fields he'll call home for another three months.

"How's school son?" His grandfather, Peter, asked while they walked across the footpath leading to their house with Calum making sure he didn't step on anything he didn't want to. His grandfather had wrinkles and crow's feet but Calum could hardly count him as aged. He was the liveliest out of the five of them walking to the house since Calum's parents were jetlagged, his grandmother who was with them couldn't be more timid, and Calum just couldn't care less. He really wished Mali-Koa was there.

Calum gave a tightlipped smile, making sure his mom knew that he was showing an attitude, slightly guilty because it was for his loving grandfather, "I just graduated."

"Oh, yeah, you're eighteen already!" Peter chuckled admiringly, "Are you planning to go to college?"

"Of course he is, Peter," His grandmother interrupted with a laugh, finally acknowledging Calum since he arrived (she didn't even greet him),"Why waste a smart kid's genes?"

Calum awkwardly brought a hand to the back of his neck, "Uh, I'm actually not going to."

He didn't expect an interrogation as early as the minute he came down from the car but when he decided on his lifestyle, he was aware that he'd receive shit for it.

He looked at his grandmother and internally questioned himself if he was mad or annoyed at the expression she gave him; a look of disapproval.

"What are you planning to do with your life then?" His grandmother asked condescendingly, being the kind of person to not consider that maybe, just maybe, Calum didn't even want to be in New Zealand in the first place and the least his grandparents could do for a bribe was hospitality.