The John Hughes Club

Chapter Eight

"The sea air is obviously agreeing with you, Mindy." Sam says, his one hand holding his milkshake while eyeing me with his fixated blue spheres that are honestly not doing anything for me and my teenage endorphins.

"Is it?" Comes my stifled response, not knowing whether sea air really can agree with someone? What does that term even mean? Do I have a sea coloured glow on my face or something?

"Tell us all about your new school, Min? Have you made any amaziiiiiiiiing new friends that are filling the friendship hole of the irreplaceable us?" Senna's digging with that wonderfully curious mind of hers. With her really short hair that she sometimes dyes to whatever colour she fancies, and her often stern expression, she can outwardly appear to be someone who's unapproachable and unfriendly; but Sen's the deepest of thinkers, she's constantly thinking, constantly curious. It's those very things that have cemented our friendship.

"Archleigh is about the same size as Restcombe Secondary. As expected, there's been a lot of staring and whispering going on, but things are beginning to settle down." I casually explain.

"I expect they don't see many goth's down there, all that salty sea air must wreak complete havoc on the hair and makeup!" Ash jokes, gazing across at my perfectly applied eyeshadow, liner, mascara and my soot-stained lips.

"Says cutester over there, who's not exactly knowledgable about makeup, but knows a little about hair!" Senna's teasing Ash, boisterously nudging against his shoulder as she's staring at his longish layers of bleached blond growing-out hair. "With that film star face of his, he'll never need anything to enhance his boyish beauty."

Getting red-faced, Ash bites back. "I'm fifteen, Sen. I'm not exactly a boy."

"You're not exactly a man, either."

"You're not exactly a woman."

"I never said I was."

Huffing with his lips tautly pursed, Ash is quick with his comeback. "For someone who's named after a laxative, you've got some balls, I'll give you that."

With much sarcasm, Senna's laughing. "I've definitely got more balls than you, that's for sure."

"For crying out loud you two, put the bitchy banter to one side, will you?" Just like she always does, Maisy puts a sensible stop to the game of Petty Ping Pong being played between Ash and Senna.

"Are you really named after a laxative?" Sam pipes up, looking rather confused with his dark eyebrows being pulled in closely together.

Giggling, Senna's heavily shaking her head. "No! I'm named after my dad's favourite Formula One racing driver – Ayrton Senna."

Smiling, Sam's eyes then wander to where I am. "You didn't say whether you've made any new friends, Mindy?"

Excited, Maisy's eagerly nodding in agreement. "No, you haven't. We want names, gender, height and fave milkshake flavour."

Thinking of the friends I have made, a smile begins blossoming across my lips. "Well, I first met Ella. She's really nice. Has crazy hair like mine, probably crazier. She's really into art, as well. She introduced me to her friend, Zigs. Not exactly the academic type, he's more into PE and drama. Seriously sarcastic, you'd like him a lot, Sen." Grinning her way, I happily carry on. "Then there's Chas. He's a go-against-the-grain type. Interestingly intelligent. Different, he thinks outside the box...funny as hell, too."

Intrigued, Maisy's eyes have began to narrow on me. "Sounds like you're fitting right in, then?"

"I wouldn't exactly say that, but it's certainly getting easier." I freely admit, because it really is.