‘Mum, where are my chucks?’ I shouted out as my mum was on the phone ordering a carpet cleaner machine for after all the furniture and junk had left.

‘In the back of the car,’ she answered as she had just hung up the phone, ‘Now, I can’t send you back to school as we leave in two days and I need help cleaning.’

‘I thought aunty Robin and Aunty Sue was cumin round?’ I asked rather oddly as I grabbed the car keys and headed out the door and to the car, mum followed me just to continue the conversation.

‘Aunty Robin is, but Aunty Sue doesn’t think she can handle seeing the house empty, it just wasn’t right. I don’t blame her, I don’t think I could bear to see this house empty,’ mum sniffled as I smiled and walked over to hug her. This was hard for her, even if it was her decision to leave in the first place.

You see; mum and dad were on the verge of a divorce. Mum couldn’t handle dad coming back from the mine every night or every morning and have him laze around and make the place really dirty. So mum said it was either the family moving or she was leaving with me. So here we are, packing for a trip to a city.

When we get to the city, it’d only be a trip for me as I am going straight into a boarding school. Mum’s going to start working and Dad is going to do fly in, fly out work. Where he works two weeks on a mine site and then has one week at home. Fun huh?

‘Hello?’ mum laughed, waving her hand in front of my face as I smiled.

‘I might head over to the rent house, and…relax,’ I smiled, although I was really meaning to cry.

‘Ok, Hun, if I’m not home tonight, come round here as soon as you wake up in the morning,’ mum smiled as I nodded, gave her a kiss on the cheek and a hug before heading down the alley way to the park.

My two days were up. It was the morning of the day we flew to the big city. It was currently 6:45 am and I was shaking. Dad had already left. He had gone almost a week back to start his job. So it was just mum and I on the flight and I was scared.

Bevan was supposed to come see us off, so I was looking out for him as the airport bus arrived to take us out to Paraburdoo airport. No sign of Bevan anywhere. I sighed before blowing a kiss to the morning wind of my birth town and got onto the bus.

‘Bye,’ I whispered to the empty oval where I had played many games of football with my friends and had many midnight parties.

‘We’ll be back someday,’ mum smiled beside me as the bus doors closed and we took off with a jolting start. I looked out the back window just to see the beauty I was leaving behind and found Bevan huffing and puffing on the step I had stood on not long before. I waved and kissed the back window and saw him smile before the red dust that was Tom Price swallowed him.

‘So I don’t even get to look around first, I have to go straight to the school?’ I exclaimed, as mum and I stepped off of the plane. A few heads turned my way as I did a creepy little fit/dance thing that I do when I get frustrated.

‘They’re sending out a limo for you. I’m getting Scotty to pick me up,’ she smiled as if there was nothing wrong with the fact that they were sending out a limo for one simple student that was being a complete pest by showing up in the middle of the term.

‘Your kidding me?’ was all I was able to say as an alarm sounded in the distance and luggage started coming through a flap at one end of the flat escalator looking thing.

‘There’s ours,’ mum shouted as she rushed forward and picked up her scarlet suitcase. I saw my emerald suitcase and rushed forward, grabbed it and rushed back, bumping into someone on the way.

‘Oh, I’m sorry,’ I said turning around. It was a guy; he had short black messy hair, black slightly baggy jeans and a white shirt with long black sleeves. I smiled softly at him before turning back and heading over to my mum.

‘Hey, wait,’ he called out, making me turn around, he was running after me. ‘Are you Kira?’

‘Uh, Yeah?’ I asked, smiling awkwardly. Mum started to call out my name as I turned around, left my suitcase with the guy, which was a stupid idea and hugged my mum tightly. She waved before leaving and I walked back over to the guy.

‘Yeah, I’m Kira,’ I said, remembering why I had turned back in the first place.

‘I’m meant to be escorting you back to the school,’ he said as I tilted my head to the right and looked at him rather confused.

‘How did you know I was Kira? There is about a thousand chicks and dudes here that are around my age in this airport and you bump into me and ask me if I’m Kira…’ I stopped my rambling and looked at the picture he seemed to be now holding up. It was a picture of me.

‘They gave me a picture to make sure I didn’t pick up the wrong person. It was just a coincidence that I ran into you,’ he smiled and I smiled back.

‘Oh, ok, well, lead the way,’ I said indicating to the doors as he smiled wider and went to take my suitcase.

‘Here, let me take that,’ he smiled as I looked at him hastily.

‘No, I’ll take it, it’s no big deal,’ I nodded as I pulled it away from him. You see in the country we pulled our own weight, we never had anybody do anything for us at all, well not unless we really needed it.

‘Oh, ok, sure,’ he said rather confused, smile disappearing.

‘I’m sorry, I’m so used to looking after myself,’ I smiled as I pulled my hand off of the suitcase and his smiled reappeared. He picked up the handle and wheeled it out of the doors, me in tow as he led me over to the pick up/drop off bay where there was a Limo.

‘Here,’ he laughed at me as he opened the door. My mouth dropped wider as I stepped inside the limo. It was all lined in emerald cotton, and I smiled, that was before I was pushed over the other side so that the guy could get in.

‘I don’t know your name,’ I realized as I pointed at him before standing up slightly as I switched my seat to the other side of the limo, just across from him. He chuckled like an old man and he shook his head.

‘It’s Milo,’ he laughed as yet again for the second time that day, I tilted my head to the right and looked confused.

‘You can drop the polite act, you know,’ I jeered, as it was his turn to look confused.

‘What do you mean?’ he asked as I laughed and couldn’t stop. Anybody who couldn’t notice that they were acting like a tool must be slightly odd.

‘Well…’ I started as I finished laughing, ‘you sit with your legs together, your back is straight, your nose is in the air like a snob and you carried my suitcase. Now, if I know guys like I do, none that I have known do that,’ I started before I remembered something, ‘Now, I take that back, nerds and losers do it.’

I smiled as he slouched down on the seat; he flung his legs apart and brought his head down to a normal height. ‘Thank god,’ he sighed, obviously relaxing as I cracked up laughing.

‘Better?’ I asked as he nodded.

‘You are the only girl I have ever met that has no problem with “relaxation”,’ he said as I smiled. I leant over and buried my fingers in his hair before messing it up, ‘Hey!’

‘Keep it in your pants,’ I laughed, as did he, as I sat back down, ‘There.’

‘So why did you move here and apply to Draco Invadus?’ Milo asked me as I smiled.

‘My mum was having problems with my father. He came home every night and acted like he owned the place and that we were only there to serve him. So mum gave him a rather rude awakening and it made him think. We then moved up to Perth and here I am,’ I smiled as he chuckled awkwardly and shrugged. ‘Sorry if I made you uncomfortable.’

‘It’s fine, just didn’t expect you to be so open with a stranger,’ he said simply as I laughed.

‘Didn’t your parents teach you anything?’ I laughed as he just looked at me confused. ‘We’re only strangers if we don’t know each other’s name. Didn’t you read story books as a kid?’ I asked incredulously.

‘I was given college books,’ he muttered, looking from my face to his feet then out the window.

‘I’m sorry,’ I mumbled, feeling slightly awkward that I had upset him in anyway. Everybody I grew up with had read at least one fairytale book, even if they did have a tough ass for a father.

‘Don’t be, some family’s are just more involved with future than present,’ he said with a kind of lopsided smile as I nodded, a small smile apparent on my features. I had seen my next-door neighbors push future rather than present onto their child and their child ended coming out of it a snobbish, ten-foot-pole-up-ass kind of child.

The rest of the ride was rather awkward. Every now and then I would risk taking my eyes away from the contents outside of the window to look at him, only to find him sneaking a look at me too.

‘And do you understand, Miss Torreto,’ the principal groaned, going cross eyed, looking at the dirt on his glasses, ‘That any… fracture of the rules will result in suspension, possibly even expulsion.’

‘I do understand, sir,’ I sighed.

Mr. Daedalus, the principal, had already made it clear that it was highly unusual for a student to show up to school on their first day without their parent’s and that was highly frowned upon. Yet, the rules were bent, less to my knowledge – or so he thought – due to my starting half way through the term.

‘Very well then, there is a nice young lady waiting outside, ready to take you to your dormitory,’ the old man smiled toothily before shooing me outside with my bag.

‘Are you Kira?’ said someone to my right.

‘Uh, yeah…’ I started as I turned to face a rather…snobbish looking girl?

‘I’m Natasha, I’ll be your dormitory leader this year, well what’s left of it anyway,’ she said haughtily.

‘Nice to…’ I started, trying to be polite, but she turned her back on my outstretched hand and lead the way to the dormitory. ‘This will be a great year,’ I mumbled to myself as we passed the door out to the courtyard in the centre of the school. Or so I thought at least.

‘Hey…’ came a voice to my left as I was pushed into a room.

‘Hey, sorry, I got told this was my room…’ I said, turning to face where the voice had come from in the first place.

‘No, this is your room; you’re Kira, right?’ came the voice that I couldn’t seem to put a face too.

‘Uh, yeah, where are you?’ I asked, looking all around me now.

‘Look up,’ came the voice as I looked up, there was nothing. I looked all around the ceiling and to the left, the side I had originally heard the voice from, there was a pull up bar, and wrapped around it was a rather fit looking girl.

‘What are you doing up there?’ I questioned, dumping my bag by the empty looking bed before walking over.

‘What does it look like?’ she snapped.

‘It looks like your stuck,’ I commented, looking up at her with my arms crossed.

‘I am not, how could you even suggest such…oh who am I kidding, roll that bed back over here so I can drop onto it,’ she sighed as I just smirked and shook my head before pushing her bed underneath her. I watched her loosen the grip of her legs from the pole and slowly, very slowly, the rest of her body did as well.

‘How did you even get up there to start with?’ I laughed.

‘The bed, but when I jumped up to the bar, the bed rolled back, the dormitory advisers have put magnets on the bed, to refrain from changing around the rooms,’ she sighed as I just nodded.

‘So, what’s your name?’ I asked, as she shook her head to get her hair out of her face before she looked at me.

‘I…I’m Constance,’ she said, holding out her hand. I reached over and shook it before bringing my arm back and rubbing it on my pants. ‘What classes are you in?’

‘I’m being chucked into whatever classes have free spaces,’ I smiled, walking back over to my bed, trying to picture what classes I’d have.

‘That’d be all the sporting classes, pottery, uh, that nature hike thing, um yeah, nothing to interesting, and of course, you’ve got your majors, such as Maths, English, History, umm…’ Constance explained.

‘I get all that Constance,’ I smiled, holding my hands up to cease the annoying noise that was Constance.

‘But yeah,’ she smiled as I just shook my head smirking again.

‘Hey Constance, these magnets the beds have, they must be attached to other magnets in the floor right?’ I started, as she looked at me funny, not really getting what I was talking about.

‘If we can move the floor magnets to wherever we want the bed, we can arrange the room however we wish,’ I suggested, as Constance looked at me weirdly.

‘You, my friend…’ she started, smiling, holding her arms out… ‘Are out of your mind!’

‘Just watch,’ I said, digging into my pocket and pulling out the one treasure my father had given me that wasn’t going to be wrapped in a box, my pocket knife.

I flicked it open and flopped onto the floor, pushing the bed out of the way; I cut my way through the carpet, just a little, so as not to make it obvious, and picked up the magnet.

‘All we need to do is cut the carpet slightly, rip up the magnets, and move them where ever we want and what do you know, we’ve moved our room around and the Dormitory Advisers, have no one to blame but themselves,’ I smiled, throwing the magnet up and catching it.

‘You are a genius,’ Constance smiled, as I handed her the pocket knife just after I had cut up the rest of the magnets.

‘We could move yours here, and the mine there, and have both our dressers in the middle?’ Constance suggested, drawing it on the back page of her note book. We were currently lounging outside. It was a Sunday and classes don’t run on the weekend.

‘Yeah, but all we’re doing is moving the dressers, how about we move your bed to the corner here, and mine to the corner here, but still keep the dressers where you wanted them, across the room from the door?’ I muttered, making lines and arrows over the picture of our room, to show her where I meant.

‘Excellent,’ she cheered, ‘Dinner finishes early tonight, due to it being a Sunday and studying time.’

‘How much study time do we have, and do we get checked on?’ I questioned, sticking Constance’s pen behind my ear, while biting my thumb nail.

‘We have half an hour before lights out, we get checked on once half way through,’ Constance muttered as I smiled.

‘We can move the beds tonight, but we’ll have to wait for Saturday before we can move the dressers,’ I explained, pointing insistently at the paper.

‘What have we got here?’ a familiar voice questioned behind us, snatching the paper out of our grasps.

‘Never you mind, Milo,’ I snapped, jumping up and standing face to face with the now smiling boy.

‘Oo, it’s something good if you’re on the defensive,’ he smirked, stepping backwards and looking at the page.

‘Give it back,’ I exclaimed, frustrated with is silly antics now.

‘Make me,’ he smirked harder, if that was possible as I stood there with my hands on my hips looking at him.

‘I think he means go after him,’ Constance muttered beside me as I looked at her.

‘Yeah, I think I got that Constance,’ I muttered, stepping forwards.

‘Yeah, I think she got that Constance,’ Milo laughed, waving the paper in my face.

‘If you don’t give me that piece of paper, I swear to god I will sit on you till you do,’ I sneered. I wasn’t in the mood for this.

‘Bring it on, little girl,’ he smiled, blowing me a kiss. That was the last straw. I ran as fast as I could at him, good for me, he didn’t expect it, and when he turned around to run he tripped, falling face first in the dirt. Slowing down, I tried hard not to laugh, but failed miserably as I walked my way over to him.

‘Ouch,’ he groaned, looking up at me. I flung one leg over him and sat square on his stomach.

‘Told you,’ I smirked, as he just groaned some more.

‘Smart ass,’ he grumbled.

‘Language,’ I smiled, leaning forwards and snatching the piece of paper back. I didn’t sit up for a little bit, as he squirmed uncomfortably. I smiled once more and kissed the tip of his nose. ‘Thanks.’

I stood up with ease and made my way back over to Constance who just stood there gaping at me. ‘It’s rude to stare Constance.’

‘Man, you just got your ass kicked by a girl,’ I heard Milo’s friends laugh.

‘That was cool,’ Constance smiled.

‘What was?’ I muttered, going back over the plans.

‘What you just did, you sat on…him,’ she said, almost giddily.

‘It’s just Milo,’ I laughed.

‘That’s not the point, Milo is the most wanted guy on campus,’ Constance smiled, ‘You will be the envy of all girls here at Draco Invadus.’

‘Constance, like I said, it’s just Milo,’ and she just shook her head, as if giving up on trying to explain it to me.