Monday, May 19th 2008
Fred Hollows High School, Brisbane
3:00 PM
Junie Bennett had a baby brother. Isaiah. It still felt odd to say it. Isaiah. She had a brother. Someone to split her lonely nights with, someone who could understand the hardship that came with being a Bennett.
Her mother had wanted to name him after her favourite celebrity or the latest baby name trends that listed all the fruits and colours. Junie had, of course, strongly opposed. She would not have her little brother named after a fruit or some sleazy celebrity. It was a week before the baby's birth that Dylan had suggested they name him after Audrey's eldest brother.
Junie's uncle -- Isaiah Bennett, along with Fiona Bennett -- was one of the two of Audrey's siblings that she actually liked. The other two, Johnny and Poppy, had been ghost figures she'd only heard about through snide comments from her mother. Uncle Zee lived just an hour outside Brisbane where he owned a small pub with his girlfriend of four years. He dropped by every now and then, took Junie to some fair or quirky restaurant in Greenslopes. Sometimes she could getaway with staying at his place for a couple of days (two weeks last summer) as Audrey pranced off with her own friends. He told the best stories, most of them wild tales about his youth and adventures he had on his holidays. Junie would listen with wide sparkling eyes and a wider smile.
Like every story, Uncle Zee's came to an end one night in a drunken brawl on cold, January night. Junie had cried for weeks, shut herself away and hid in the darkness to mourn his loss. Dylan - stupid, brilliant Dylan - had sought her out each time, followed her into the darkness and pulled her back before she fell into the abyss.
So, when he'd brought up the idea to name her new brother after her mad and magnificent uncle, Junie couldn't say no. Audrey had had a rather strained relationship with her brother but she, thankfully, had agreed with the name choice if only as a homage to him.
Of course life was difficult at the moment, Isaiah cried in the middle of the night, making it incredibly hard to gain even a minute of sleep. Audrey had managed to hold a job at the local shopping centre but the hours were long and the pay was low, and so Junie was often left with caring for Isaiah.During school, Audrey was able to drop Isaiah off at her Aunt Fiona's house for a while and pick him up at around five.
"Junie," Ms. Hammersmith said, wrenching her out of her contemplative thoughts.
She looked up, blinked, "Yeah?"
Ms. Hammersmith stared at her expectantly, "Well, answer the question."
Junie blinked again. She had zoned out again. Although, it wasn't her fault. Ms. Hammersmith had this unique ability to turn even the most exciting subjects into utter boring drivel. Which was ridiculous because to Junie, astronomy, was the most fascinating thing in existence yet Ms Hammersmith succeeded in painting it a thousand shades of grey.
She remembered the exact moment her fascination with the stars had first ignited in her. Junie had been in the back yard, stood in the shed searching for something to hold the hefty spider that inhabited her bedroom. Not to kill it. It had done no harm to her, so why kill it?
No, Junie wanted to examine it. Spiders were beautiful but deadly little things, she wanted a closer look. Five minutes into her search and she had been close to giving up when she came across a telescope.
It was quite large, coloured a dark gold and plastered in a layer of dust. Quickly forgetting the spider, Junie had grabbed the telescope and dragged it out of the shed and onto the grassy ground in the back yard.
Later that night when the sun had gone and the sky turned black, Junie had returned. She had looked through the telescope and saw an ocean of inky blackness had overtaken the once bright sky. It was that moment, that instant that Junie Bennett had fallen in love with the vast and endless blackness above. She had never seen anything so enchanting.
"Sorry, what was the question again?" Junie asked.
"At least ninety-five per cent of the celestial information we receive is in the form of light," Ms. Hammersmith said, "What information can scientist gain from the light?"
Junie pondered the question for a few moments before opening her mouth to speak.
"Well, the light information can be about the object's temperature, chemical surface gravity, shape, and structure," she began, "roughly eight-five per cent of the information in light is uncovered by using spectroscopy."
Ms. Hammersmith nodded and turning away from Junie she continued her long lecture on electromagnetic radiation. It was then that a piece of crumpled paper was flung onto her desk. Junie picked it up and evenly spread the paper out.
You're such a geek, Junebug, the note read.
Junie instantly recognised the messy handwriting and glanced back to look at the blue-eyed boy sat two rows behind her. Dylan grinned mischievously at her and he mouthed Dork, in return Junie mouthed Loser.
3:30 PM
"Are you coming to the skate park?" Dylan asked as the two friends headed out of the classroom. That lesson had dragged. It was as if time literally slowed down as soon you entered it.
Junie nodded, "definitely."
They turned a corner and entered a narrow corridor that was lined with orange lockers. It was filled with dozens of students, all milling about chatting and squawking away at whatever dilute matters that concerned their daily lives. Junie stopped before her locker and turning the dial, she yanked the door open.
She reached in and pulled out the skateboard Dylan had given her for her fourteenth birthday. It was much better than her last one; the old one had rickety wheels and chipped wood. This one was much lighter and easier to control and move when performing tricks.
A few lockers to her right, Dylan pulled out his skateboard. As they trudged out of the hallway, Junie dropped her skateboard onto the floor, and hopping on, she grinned and cried, "Race you! Last one to the skate park buys the milkshakes!"
Dylan immediately accepted her challenge and the two friends began their avid race. Teachers and students scolded them as they skated through the corridors and out of the school gates onto the hot afternoon streets of Brisbane. The cool wind whipped her flaming hair from eyes, the rush of the ride cooling and energising her.
She was grinning, pushing forward and jumping over obstacles, solely focused on winning. Dylan was laughing and it was such a lovely sound that she almost crashed into an elderly woman. At one point, it looked like Dylan was going to win but Junie managed regain her momentum and swerving a lamppost, she was able to pick up her speed and beat him.
"Another win for Bennett!" She announced, hands in the air as they rolled into the skate park.
"Whatever," he said rolling his eyes but he was grinning brightly.
Junie laughed. In the beginning, she had bought a skateboard because it was only five dollars at the local market, but then as the years went on, she found just how exhilarating skateboarding was and just how much she loved it. Every week, she and Dylan would travel down to the local skate park, where they would spend a few hours practising some tricks and joking around with the other skateboarders.
"Hey guys!" someone shouted.
Junie and Dylan glanced up. A tall and skinny blonde-haired boy was sat one of the elevated slopes.
"Hey Benja," Junie said with a smile.
Pushing himself up, he hopped onto his skateboard and slid down the slope to join the two friends on the ground. He fell into step with them as they made their way to the centre of the skate park. If you asked Junie, she really couldn't be sure of when or how she and Dylan had become friends with Benja Pasternak.
It may have been to do with the fact that Jake Ramsay had moved thousands of miles away to Perth almost a year ago today. In his absence Benja had changed. For better of course, he wasn't as vindictive and violent as he used to be. Without Jake around, Benja was quite an entertaining boy.
"So," Benja said, "are you guys going to the bonfire party tonight on Pandanus Beach?"
Junie glanced at her best friend, "are you going?"
Dylan lifted the cap from his head, and lazily raking a hand through his short dark locks, he placed cap back to front and shrugged. "I am, if you are."
As the familiar warmth swirled into her stomach, Junie found herself annoyed at how just simple words like that could cause just a reaction in her. Junie ignored the feelings of course, she had always been good at hiding how she truly felt. It was then that Sid Unwin decided to challenge Junie to some matches, she eagerly accepted and once again proved that even though she may have been one of the few girl skaters here but she was definitely not one to be messed with.
7:28 PM
The annual bonfire party on Pandanus Beach was in full swing.
A loud sigh escaped Junie Bennett's lips as she slumped down onto the soft bed of sand. Junie drew her knees in against her and wrapping her arms around them around them, she placed her chin between. Why had she even turned up? Not even five minutes after they had arrived and Dylan had rushed off to talk to Helen Torres and to think she had tried to look girly for this stupid thing. She had freed her hair from its ponytail; it framed her heart shaped face and flowed loosely down her back in fiery waves.
She wanted to make Dylan stop seeing her as just a friend; she needed Dylan to start noticing she was a bloody girl. That's why she was wearing this skirt. A skirt for God's sake and Dylan hadn't even blinked when he'd seen her.
Junie watched as Helen flirted with her best friend. She smiled up at him, batting her eyelashes and nodded at something he said. Junie wasn't sure whether she was going to threw up or scream. She wanted to take Dylan as far away from Helen as possible. That idiot. That stupid idiot. What did he see in her anyway?
God. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. Things were changing too fast for to stop them. The popular kids like Helen Torres, Perry Han and CJ Leggero were circling around Dylan. They watched him, his fluid movements, the way his brought a room to life and his easy smiles. They watched Junie too and they didn't understand what he saw in her. He was stuck in the dirt when he could be running with the stars.
Junie tore her eyes away from the pair and looked over at the large bonfire circled by rings of stone and fed by broken branches. A dozen or more teenagers were crowded around the fire with drinks in their hands and laughter sparking between them. Maybe it would be better if she just went home. She wanted to see her little brother. She liked to watch him sleep, hear his soft breaths and that cute little face he made every now and then.
"Junie."
Junie looked up to find dressed in a plaid shirt, ripped jeans and converses.
"What? Did Helen get bored of you?" She asked, trying to keep her voice as steady as possible.
"No. She was just saying hi," he said, one corner of his mouth rose into one of his awkward but oddly endearing smiles.
He stepped closer and into the light of the fire. His blue eyes seemed to shine in the firelight and her heart skipped in response.
Dylan had sprung up last winter, now standing just an inch taller than Junie at five foot eight and probably still growing. Now that they were in high school, he had joined the school's swimming team and unsurprisingly become star member. Swimming had removed the softness from his body, it had grown hard and broad and she didn't know what to think of it. On top of that, after first term he came back with a deeper, huskier voice and she'd been so surprised to hear it she'd tripped over her own shoes. Dylan had laughed and his laugh hadn't changed per say it wasn't a little deeper but it still sounded like sunlight. Well, how she imagined sunlight to sound.
The evening breeze swam by, causing his black hair to flutter for a moment, before it fell in messy waves back over his forehead. As he stood there, gazing into her eyes and making her heart drum violently against her chest, she couldn't help thinking how he was gorgeous.
Junie looked away and cleared her throat and begged her heart to calm down. She looked up at the dimming purple sky. Dylan sighed softly and knelt down before her, closer than she expected but as not close as she wanted him to be.
"Here," he said.
When Junie looked over at him, he was holding a scarf in his hands. He chuckled at her confusion."It's your birthday present."
"Thank you," she said. Junie stared at Dylan, captured by his too-blue eyes as he leaned forward and slowly placed the scarf around her neck.
And then he did something to set her whole body alight.
Dylan pressed his lips onto her forehead and ripped her breath from her lungs. The army of frenzied butterflies was unleashed in her stomach as they travelled upward, coursing through her body and leaving lightheaded and jittery. His soft lips lingered for a few seconds before he pulled away.
"Happy birthday Junie," he smiled and it reminded her of a supernova.
For the longest moment all she could do was stare at him with a slack jaw and reddened cheeks.
"Dylan, I–I need to tell you s-something," she stammered.
"Yeah?"
She had to tell him. She had to tell him how crazy she was about him. She had to tell him that she didn't want to be just his friend anymore.
She had to tell him how badly she wanted to hold him and never let him go. She had to tell him how she would do anything just hold his hand.
She had to.
"Thanks for the scarf," she said, "I love it."