New Girl

Chapter 1- The Crash

"Can I have a kiss?" Jason, my boyfriend of two years asks.

I laugh and give him what he wants "I'll see you tomorrow at the barbecue?" I ask.

"Of course, I wouldn't miss it, it's a town event"

"Yea, mayor Julie would probably drag your ass down there anyway"

He laughs, my favourite sound, it always makes me smile.

"Okay, go walk home now, I'll text you after football practice"

"Ok, I love you"

"I love you too" he kisses me again before shooing me off with his hands with a smile on his face.

As I turn to leave, I see Mary, my best friend, run up to me.

"Awww, you guys are just too cute" I smile at her, but as she always does, she gets straight to the point. "You won't believe what I just found out! Tyler is going to be at the barbecue" she squeals.

She has had a crush on Tyler since preschool, and that's a long time considering we are 16. It all started when he said she looked cute in pigtails. Since then he has become the player at our high school, but that hasn't put Mary off.

"You have to be careful with him" I once again warn her but I know that it falls onto deaf ears.

"Mmhmm whatever, anyway this is my chance" she has a mischievous glint in her eye.

"Oh no, what are you going to do?" I ask, amusement lacing my tone.

"Hmm, you'll see" she checks the time on her phone "crap, your parents are gonna kill me"

She turns the phone screen so that I can see the time.

"Damn, I'll call you tonight okay?" We kiss each other's cheeks.

"Okay, cya"

I head towards the gates of Greenhill State High School, greeting people on my way past. Sometimes I wish I wasn't in the popular group at school, with it came certain expectations and the rumours spread like crazy.

My dirty blond hair blew across my face as soon as I stepped out the gates. I flicked it over my shoulder and pulled my denim jacket closer to me. Another sucky thing about being popular, you had to dress fashionably and, most of the time, that didn't mean warm.

I fiddled absentmindedly with the strap of my messenger bag as I walked the short distance from school to home. I think about the various assignments and tests coming up soon.

As I see my house, I start to walk faster, eager to get home and relax. I see the red car in the driveway and I practically run to the door. I open it and throw my bag to the side as I frantically survey the lounge room.

"MUM? DAD?" I call out excitedly.

"WE'RE IN THE KITCHEN!" I hear mum's voice call back.

I run into the kitchen and straight into the arms of my mum. I stay in her arms, relishing in the comfort that I've missed over the past couple of weeks. I hear a throat clear,

"Where's my hug?" My dad says as he holds his arms out. He pouts his lip jokingly and I wriggle out of mum's grasp to run into dad's.

I suddenly get an idea,

"We should go to Sizzler!!" I say excitedly "just like old times!"

Mum looks at dad over my head and I see her smile, "yea, I think that we can do that"

"Yay!!!"

"Since you got home so late, you have to go get ready now if we want a table"

"Okay, oh and that was Mary's fault btw" Mary was going to kill me.

"Yeah, yeah" Mum said, a faint smile on her lips.

I vaguely hear dad say something like "teenagers and their acronyms these days" with a laugh. I giggle before closing the door to my bedroom. I take a quick shower in my ensuite, a perk of owning the house and having money.

I pull my wavy hair up into a high pony tail and apply some mascara to my green eyes. I added some lip gloss to my lips before I walked into my cupboard. I grabbed out a pair of black ripped skinny jeans and a gold sparkly halter neck shirt. I finally pull on some black and white converse and walk out to the kitchen again where mum and dad are ready and waiting.

"Took you long enough" dad says while we walk out to the car, a joking glint in his eye.

"A girl never takes a long time, everyone else just simply gets ready too quickly" I changed the words of the famous quote that relates to me a whole lot.

Mum and dad laughed as we got in the car and buckled our seat belts. Dad pulled out and we started driving down our street. I leaned forward,

"How was it to be back in Australia? How are Grandma and Grandpa?"

"Well Australia is the same and so are the parents"

"Do they still disapprove of dad?"

"That's an understatement"

I can hear dad grunt in agreement at that statement as he drove past the shopping complex,

"One day they'll approve, although I don't care, I love you either way"

"I love you too honey" he smiled then glanced back to me "you know what face I make every time they don't look?"

He turned back to me slightly and pulled a face.

Big mistake.

It seemed to go in slow motion. I could hear mum scream as dad turned back to the wheel to try to gain control of the car, but it was to late, we had driven straight into the red light of one of the busiest intersections in the town. I was thrown to the side and could feel the seatbelt lock as I sat up again. The impact was  a car, it had smashed into the passenger side of the car, killing mum on impact. The car flipped onto its roof and dad was knocked unconscious.

I could see fire and I knew that the car could blow up at any second. I shook dad trying to get him to wake up, I knew I wouldn't be able to drag him. The car shifted so that I was falling out of my seat, so I carefully undid my seatbelt, falling onto the roof and opened my door. I started to scream at dad, trying to get him to wake up. Someone came up to the side of the car and pulled me out, I was still screaming at dad. I knew I couldn't go back, it was too dangerous now, but if dad just woke up I wouldn't have to lose two parents at once. The thought made me more frantic.

I could see a couple of people trying to get his door open but it was crushed so it was refusing to budge. The flames were getting higher so the people nodded grimly at each other before running from the car. Suddenly the car blew up in a shower of metal. I could hear a high pitched scream fill the air. It took a few seconds before I realised it was me. My body shook with sobs and my saviour put an arm around me in sympathy.

The adrenaline slowly started to wear off and I could feel the physical pain as well as the emotional pain. It was suddenly all too much. I whispered a weak "thank you" before surrendering myself to the darkness that had been threatening to take me since I got out of the car.

They're gone.