Kirkby In A Nutshell: A Rewritten And Improved Edition.

Chapter 1: Rock The Building

A blistering heat marked the end of one era, and the beginning of another. A year previous, we had nothing on our mind, except alcohol, love, and fun. No more than a teenager's three wishes. Heat caused blood to boil and fury to fire up. The world was heating up, physically and metaphorically. But oh well, we were just young, dumb and bored, laughing at the simplest of things. But I'm not here to tell the story of a teenage romance gone sour. I'm not even here to talk about a family member dying and a man, filled with anger, getting his sweet revenge, by torturing and kidnapping the killer. No. I'm here to give you my story. The tale of the escapees' escapes inevitably going wrong. To tell you about the world we live in implode with a hundred agonies impaled on angry bayonets, about charges made by a group of kids, growing up, still in their prom outfits, in matter of days.

June 26th 2020

Heat ripped open windows all over England. An ultimate heat wave, with temperatures as high as 37°C hitting places where rain usually never stops, boiled England. A group of kids (My group of best friends) were all wandering around, all trying to sing songs that at least one of them had never heard of. First, some queen, after all, they were awesome. Then I tried to start people singing Tiny Dancer. One person joined. Then we found a nice little ballad from a film, called Shallow. I remember the long hours; I would sit and serenade the love of my life with shallow, as she stood behind me, hugging me. We're still together now too. She is called Kayleigh. She is amazing.

The rest of my friends have moved on. They, like me have families of their own. We're all living in separate sanctuaries now. But before all of this began, before war had even erupted, you could never have separated us. We were like peas in pod; socks in a drawer; cutlery in a draw, you get the point. We still talk. There's Isobel, she's a real nice, bubbly girl on good days, but will gouge your eyes out if you wind her up. Then there's Lorien, a small yet feisty girl who'd forgive you if you hit her with a bus. Then you have Kayleigh, my girlfriend, a girl who isn't afraid to kill you if you attempt to go near her with bad intentions. Mason can be evil, but he is always ready to fight for his friends. Elijah is always in the wrong place at the wrong time, and we are all worried what he's going to do. James is an amazing friend and is always there when you need him. Emma is the extremely smart girl, wears glasses, and has braces. She always knows how to prevent an accident. Amelia is a queen bee. She challenges every single person who we come across. Ava is down to earth. She knows what to do, and always has an idea up her sleeve. However, she doesn't talk much, and we have to ask her for her input.

We were all on the way to our prom, with two weeks previously; we were all panicking over exams. But they weren't too bad. Anyway, we had all had a bit of alcohol, and we all were happy. We were free. We were un-trapped by the burden of school. Now, it was work. The real world. But before we can live our lives, we were all going to be saying goodbye to each other. Goodbye to the arses who are going to go straight into the arm of the law. Goodbye to the ones who you didn't even know. Goodbye to the rest of the year. Goodbye to the teachers but before all of that, we party. Now, beers aren't allowed in the hall, but fizzy drinks are. No-one will notice if you slip a couple of shots in before you enter. So, we're all stood, dancing to songs by an artist nobody knows and we're all having a great time. Shortly after a small fight broke out between two of the 'cool kids' about Ava, a slow song came on.

"Don't get any ideas," said Kayleigh as I gestured for her to stand up.

"Come on! It'll be fun." I said, dragging her to her feet.

"Ugh fine," she replied, "But no photos!" she added as she saw James and Elijah pull out their phones. We stepped in time to the song and laughed almost the entire time. When the song came to the end, we went and sat down, after sharing an intimate moment. We went in for the kiss, when suddenly, Mason slammed down between us.

"Sup, fuckers?" He said, taking off his out of fashion sunglasses. We were all in suits and dresses, and he rocked up in a t-shirt and joggers. "So I heard a group of these guys all had some vodka, so I bought-"

"And what the hell is that Mason," said Mrs Thistle. She snatched the bottle of Smirnoff that Mason was showing us and said: "Mason, you know the rules."

"But miss it's our last day. I'm going to upstate new York as soon as I get out of here. These guys will be seeing my name on TV, the new head of NASA."

Just as he claimed that, the music stopped, and everybody heard his drunken boasts.

"Mason, you need to have a degree in astrology to get anywhere in NASA." Said a random member of the crowd.

"Fuck You!" He said.

"OUT! NOW!" yelled Mrs Thistle. "I'm retiring this year goddamnit."

"Fine, Mrs Prick." Said Mason, just before throwing up. "Merry birthday and a happy new Hanukkah." He added, passing out into the vomit. After a long half hour of cleaning up sick, we returned to our seats. The hotel we were in was about to close the room for the night, when I went in to repay the kiss that Mason ruined. Before we came close, an explosion roared next door, at the petrol station, setting the whole street ablaze with petrol ignited flames. Screams broke out in a range of pitches, grown men, women, teenagers all yelled in unison as many parts of the building blew apart. The flames luckily never caught anyone, however the building threw shrapnel around. A teacher was on the trajectory line. May he rest in peace. Kayleigh and I ran down the stairs, avoiding people begging for help. We made it outside, just in time to see the top floor of the twenty story building fly through the top few floors.

"EVERYBODY RUN!" I screamed, as I ran towards the building. I heard a ringing noise in my ear as everyone's voices began to echo as I tried to escort everyone out of the room. I used my blazer to put over my mouth as I yelled to people the building to get out. As I ran back into the building for the last time, I saw a beam collapse and the ringing in my ear got louder and my vision went darker...

A/N: Special Mention To kaymania123