Bailey Madison

Agnes Lake

"Miss Madison! This is the fifth time this term I've had to pull you up on your behaviour toward other students and its only week three!"

"Mrs Turner, I didn't have another option! Bradley was picking on my baby sister, what did you expect me to do?"

As I expected, I don't even get an answer from her pursed lips before she points her scrawny finger directly out of the classroom door toward the principal's office. At this point, I know the drill. I'll go to the principal's office; he'll have a go at me for my behaviour and he'll send me home. My parents don't like that I get into so much trouble at school, but they never seem to be surprised or even that upset with me. My mum is always the first one to sit me down and ask for the whole story, listening intently to what I have to say and nodding along. I am really grateful that my parents are willing to hear me out and try to understand my perspective. They know I've never hurt anyone for the purpose of bullying or for no reason whatsoever, it's normally because my little sister is being bullied or someone's just being an outright prick.

I have definitely walked down these school hallways more times than anyone else in this place. My mum likes to say that I get my bravery and strength from my dad, while my dad thinks that it is really just my protective instincts and love for my baby sister Aurora that puts me in this very position. My school is nothing like the ones you see on those corny American movies. It is small, with an oval big enough for a good football game and a classroom for each grade, so whatever you get up to, it is in front of your entire year level, no room for the imagination. I used to be scared every time I would be sent to the principal's office but at this stage it just feels like a routine incursion with a brief stroll through the small building of my school. I always believed that it would have made more sense to make the school more than one level, then they could separate the primary school kids from the older kids and then at least it wouldn't feel like one big, blended world all the time. But much to my hatred, my school is one big long building with no stairs and if you stood at the entrance you could easily see the door out to the oval.

Of course, I'm right about what happens with the principal. He gave me an absolutely gob full before telling me to go home for the rest of the day with another week-long suspension under my belt.

It doesn't take me long to make my way out of the building and start up the dirt road home. As I'm walking, I can hear a familiar deep voice yelling at me from behind, "hey Bails, wait up!" I would recognise that raspy voice from anywhere, It's Parker my neighbour and family appointed future husband, as they like to say. Parker is your typically muscly, brown-haired, blue-eyed country boy with a personality that could melt anyone's heart. He has every girl in our town absolutely drooling over him but for some reason won't get his massive hip detached from mine long enough to snatch one of them up. If I had to guess, he would probably be about 6foot 4 which is massive compared to every girl within the town boarders, except for me who's just about an inch shorter. As much as I love Parker, I could never see him as more than a best friend. Don't get me wrong, he's the picture of a girl's perfect man, but I just don't feel that way about him and don't think I ever will.

"Hey loser, you wagging school for me? Seeing me across the field at home isn't enough for you anymore?" I say with a wink, digging my elbow into his side.

"Shut up, it's our free period and saw you walking along the path by yourself, so I thought I'd join. What did you do this time?"

He knows me too well at this point and that the only reason I walk home early from school is because I've gotten myself into some kind of trouble. "Oh, it's nothing, Bradley was just picking on Aurora, so I kicked his ass."

As soon as the words leave my mouth Parker shakes his head and lets out a soft, low chuckle that has always felt so comforting to me. "I bet he was left off in a state! You're the only girl I know that can beat me in an arm wrestle and stack more bales of hay in one day than anyone I have ever met."