The Girl Who Was Buried In Her Ball Gown

Chapter One: The first few days

It all changed then – my life that is – behind those trees between the gym and the cul–de–sac. The cul–de–sac is where the school buses drop the kids off in the morning and then collect them at the end of the day after school.

I heard it first, before I felt it; that menacing roar of an engine. I don't know how, but some of the boys had managed to get a bit of booze into the ball, or maybe it was their older brothers, coming to pick their younger siblings up, who knows. Whoever they were, they were stupid-drunk.

They were spinning the tyres up on our school tennis courts. Boy, if they had been caught, they would have definitely been expelled. Suddenly the roar was pitched louder and then it was nearly upon us, tearing between the gym and the bush, right at us. So much for hiding! At least it worked, no one even knew we were there. But perhaps it might have been good if they had known.

Boom! Suddenly we were flying through the air and pain shot through my body like an explosion. My limbs were out of control and then they were snapped out of shape against the ground, into a twisted mess. It was the headlights that I noticed next, blinding me, before I was forced face down into the dirt. After that, it all became a blur. However, I do remember some of the things that went on during those moments... it was becoming cold and I was sure I could see blood over my own eyes. I wiped it away and just lay there for a moment until the ambulance came. It seemed to arrive incredibly quickly, and the police came too.

The paramedics picked Martin up and lifted him into the back of the ambulance on one of those folding stretchers. I jumped into the ambulance and plonked myself down, next to him. He was the one I yearned for and I hoped he was all right.

Before I got in the ambulance, I remember looking around at the scene of carnage and confused teenagers, all swapping their various stories of what they had seen. I thought I was looking at another girl, lying on the ground near the bushes, where me and Martin had been. I thought it might have been Elizabeth, but I couldn't tell, as her back was towards us and the boys were surrounding the car, trying to pull it off her.

Elizabeth had got on my goat that evening as she had worn almost the same ball gown as I had. It was a peacock-style, in green waffle fabric, and sleeveless. What an incredible dress it was, with six buttons in a row holding in all of my 8AA boobs! Now that was embarrassing! Not the dress, it was amazing; no, my non-existent boobs.

The difference though between my dress and Elizabeth's, was that she had something behind those six buttons! Actually, she had too much. We had always teased her about her huge breasts. We called her Elizabreast! Nasty eh? I wished that we hadn't. She was a nice girl, just – well – too endowed. I felt awful, once I figured out that it might have been her lying there under that car, and not me. It was all so sudden and confusing, hard to imagine.

The ambulance officer checked her vitals over and then I realised something, they did not put her into the ambulance for some reason. Was she dead? Maybe another ambulance was on its way, I didn't know. All I could think of was how badly Martin had been hurt.

I sat next to him and saw how bloodied his head was. He looked a mess with dirt and blood running down his bronzed, broad nose and tracing round his gorgeous full cheek bones. Some bones in his body would have been broken, for sure. However, I didn't seem to be broken. In fact, I didn't feel much at all, just cold, really cold. Martin must have swung himself around to bear most of the impact, protecting me. My knight in shining armour, well in this case a longer tailed – gorgeous deep green, perfectly matched with my ball gown – tuxedo.

I kept talking to him, with tear filled eyes, "You're going to be okay. The paramedics are doing a great job. Don't give up. I don't want to lose you!" I felt tears stinging my eyes. I was shivering, I couldn't keep warm; it was like heat was seeping out of me and dripping away, along with my tears.