If They Don't Kill Us... We Will

PART 1 - Chapter 1 - Andrew

If this were a cliché American high school, I’d be the jock. But seriously, it’s not that bad.

I have one hot girlfriend. Her name is Kaitlin Byrnes and she’s the most popular girl at Crosswords High.

If I wasn’t this popular, this handsome or this rich I wouldn’t have her. But I do have all of those things so ha, ha sucks to you.

My stepdad’s the one who’s loaded. My mum had a one-night stand with some dork that couldn’t handle her pregnancy and ran off the next day. And then, nine months later voila! I was born.

Then when she was struggling to keep a roof over our heads, her childhood sweetheart came and swept her off her feet. His name was Michael Stevens and he was the co-founder of some fancy computer program.

So now I live in a huge house complete with flat-screen TVs, two Jacuzzis and a swimming pool with my two little sisters Myra and Lilianne. They’re spoilt but I still love them, I suppose we’re all spoilt.

I have big dreams. My dream is to become the richest footballer in the world, or a famous basketball player, I’m not too fussy.

Some famous manager is friends with Michael and he’s told me I might already have a scholarship for some huge sports university even though it’s two years away.

*

“Good work Stevens!” Harold Edgers, the school coach shouted to me.

I bent over, hands on my knees as the sweat glistened on my forehead. Two hours of non-stop footie training and to say I was exhausted was an understatement.

Coach blew on his whistle. “Into the showers lads! I don’t want your teacher complaining to me again.”

The other guys on the team grumbled about next lessons and I started to jog towards the changing rooms, a light-heart smile on my face.

“C’mon, last one in has to sit with the rejects at lunch!” I shouted and almost immediately everyone started to rush towards me.

Laughing aloud, I grabbed a clean, white towel off the railings and ran it through my damp hair. Untying my trainers one-handed, I kicked them off and started to tug my shirt off.

One of the guys wolf-whistled. “Ooo careful man, you’ll have all the ladies flocking to you!”

I smirked but secretly I was pleased about my hard-earned six-pack and simply-to-die-for tan.

I tugged off my shorts and hopped into the shower, testing it to make sure it was an acceptable temperature before going under the nozzle.

The warm water ran through my bronze hair and I shook it out, the tiny droplets running off my skin. I took time to soap myself down and even put some shampoo on my hair before rinsing off and getting out, wrapping the towel on my waist.

The lads were still getting changed when I enter and I ran a hand through my hair as I listened to their conversation.

“And yeah, I got it on with Danni last night and it was epic!” one of them, James, was saying.

The other guys cheered and took a few minutes to bro-fist.

I began to pull on my school uniform and search for my shoes.

“What about you Andy?”

“Huh?” I asked, looking up.

“How far have you gone with Kaitlin?”

I grinned and dropped my gaze, leaving them to make assumptions. I hadn’t spelt with Kaitlin yet and we’d decided to wait. I wanted to make it real romantic for her, she deserved that. Call me old-fashioned, but I’m a romantic guy who’s favourite movie is the Notebook and who cried at the end of Titanic. But I couldn’t tell any of my friends this; they’d call me sappy and probably disown me as a friend. Even my parents didn’t understand.

I finished tying my shoelaces and left the stadium to make my way to the main school building and to French.