by Zac Moore
“Nice planning, Lizzy, but I’m thinking we should have a drill just to practice” I suggest.
“Yeah, we were planning on doing one tomorrow” says Lizzy.
When we get back, Lizzy and I have a quick meeting with Mrs Waltz (the second-in-charge of the Support Unit, though I call her Evil Overlord and Queen of the Unit) and Mrs Brush (an aide in the Support Unit, I like to call her “School Mum” even though she isn’t one of my guardians) discussing the drill.
“OK, so here’s how it’s all going to work: Alex, at 12:07 PM you fake a drop attack, Eve will respond and follow through with her part of the procedure and page Elizabeth over the PA system, Elizabeth, our emergency staff will be expecting you and will dispatch Mrs Brush, Alex, when you hear Mrs Brush ask, “where is he?” you wake up” says Mrs Waltz.
“Understood” both Lizzy and I say.
So tomorrow comes, and like Mrs Waltz said, I fake a drop attack. I see Eve running in.
“Alex, Alex, are you OK? Alex can you hear me?” asks Eve, who then heads to the PA phone.
“Urgent call for Elizabeth” says Eve.
I can sort of make out what Elizabeth is saying.
“This is Elizabeth Gotthold of class 7W, Alexander Moore is having an epileptic seizure” I hear Elizabeth say.
About a minute later I hear Mrs Brush entering.
“Where is he?” I hear Mrs Brush ask.
There’s my cue to wake up! Eve stops the timer.
“Right through here, miss” I hear Cal say.
Cal escorts Mrs Brush to Eve’s bedroom, where I faked my seizure, Elizabeth follows. Eve hands the timer to Mrs Brush.
“1 minute, 45 seconds. Well done 7W, in a real scenario Alex wouldn’t be out this long, but if this were real we wouldn’t need to call an ambulance, just remember to stay on the phone with our emergency staff until somebody from the Support Unit arrives and if the timer exceeds two minutes before then, tell them so they can call an ambulance” says Mrs Brush.
“Good job everyone, you can all go back to whatever you were doing before the PA announcement” says Elizabeth.
“Actually Elizabeth, might I suggest lunch” I say.
“Yes, actually, let’s go and have some lunch!” says Elizabeth.
We all jump in the class bus (yeah, we have one of those, it can also drive itself within the school) and drive to the canteen for lunch
Chapter 6
Where’s Eve?
Author’s note: The rest of the book will take place from Elizabeth’s perspective.
It’s about 6am on the 17th of July, we agreed during the initial class meeting that this would be our regular wakeup time on school days, this was also reaffirmed at our start-of-semester meeting yesterday. As usual, Alex is a very heavy sleeper, so I have to wake him up.
“Al, it’s 6am” I say to him.
“Ugh, why so early?” questions Alex
Geez, such a high maintenance little boy.
“Alex, you yourself suggested this time because it takes you at least an hour to get ready in the morning. Now get your butt out of bed and go wake the boys” I say.
“Alright” says Alex, tiredly.
He goes to wake up the guys, and I head the other way to wake up the girls. I’m slightly less forgiving when it comes to waking people up other than Alex.
“Everybody up!” I exclaim, opening the blinds.
“Geez Lizzy, that’s quite blinding you know!” says Nela.
Oh, cry me a river.
“Is everybody ready for another fantastic semester?” says Tracy, excitedly.
“Hell yeah!” says Bianca.
“Let’s be extra productive this semester, and maybe consider a later wakeup time!” says Elva, excitedly.
“Hey, guys, shot in the dark but isn’t somebody missing?” asks Bailey.
“Yeah, Eve has moved to the Hunter Valley so she left with her family last night, Alex is really upset about it” I say.
“I can imagine he would be, he loved her” says Cydney.
“Oh well, he’ll always have you, Lizzy” says Hayley.
“Hols! Alex and I aren’t involved in that way, we’re just friends!” I exclaim.
I’ll admit though, Alex sure is sweet enough to be boyfriend material. No, Elizabeth, put the thought from your mind, you and Alex are both in year 7 and far too young to be dating!
“Well I’ll leave you ladies to get dressed” I say, quickly leaving the room to escape their oh-so-suggestive comments!
I get dressed myself and Alex and I gather everyone in the lounge room for morning class announcements.
“I am happy to announce effective from today our alliance with 7G is in effect, we’ll be permitted access to their house, and they’ll be permitted access to our house, we’ll also share study sessions and break periods, and occasionally we’ll also merge classes. Any questions regarding this?” says Alex “Yes Marcus, what is your question”.
“Will we also be able to bang the chicks in 7G?” asks Marcus.
Alex sighs and murmurs “I knew he’d ask that”.
“After you both turn 16 and can legally give consent, yes” says Alex, with his face in his palm “Just remember school policy forbids such inappropriate conduct anywhere on campus!”.
Alex, you are a legend. Hey, I wonder if he’s going to announce Eve’s departure.
“One final announcement guys” says Alex
Yep, he is. Somebody get the Kleenex.
“Some of you may have noticed we are missing a certain someone. Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about Eve. She has made what she has described to Elizabeth and myself as “a difficult decision” and left us to move with her family to the Hunter Valley. This happened last night but Elizabeth and myself have known about her intentions since the start of term 2, we wish Eve the best of luck in her new home and at her new school” says Alex.
Wow, he didn’t even shed a tear!
“This concludes this morning’s announcements, now, let us head for the class bus, ready our breakfast and eat hearty!” says Alex, excitedly.
Alex and myself leave the room and while heading to the class bus, he taps my shoulder twice.
“Hey, do you still intend on resigning?” he whispers.
…I completely forgot about that!
“I know I said I was going to when we were first elected, but you know what? I think I’ll last out this term, maybe I’ll even run again in year 9” I say.
We reach the class bus, Alex opens it, everybody gets in, and Alex tries to start it, the engine makes some pretty unhealthy sounding sounds when he turns the key.
“Come on” complains Alex.
He tries to start the bus again. Same result.
“Give me a break” he complains again
Wait a minute, weren’t the bus’s passenger compartment lights on for a moment when we came down here?
“Hey Alex” I say.
“Yes Lizzy?” he replies.
“I think the bus’s battery might be dead and that’s why it isn’t starting” I suggest.
He turns away and gives me that look he always has when he’s angry.
“You’re kidding me, right?” he says, angrily.
“Nope, better call roadside assistance” I suggest.
“Oh, fuck me” says Alex to himself “Bus 2012 Whiskey to base” he says on the backup handheld radio.
“This is base, what’s up Alex?” says the radio operator.
“Our bus isn’t starting, we think our battery might be dead” says Alex.
“Alright, hang tight, I’ll send an engineer out with a spare battery for you” says the radio operator.
“Roger that base, we’re down at the 7W Residence Garage” says Alex.
We spend the next half hour waiting, the engineer arrives, changes the battery, charges Alex for it, and we go off and have a late breakfast, by the time we’re finished it’s already 8.30am, we sign in and quickly run to roll call, where Ms Janson is waiting for
us.
“7W, sleep in did we?” asks Ms Janson.
“No Ms Janson, our bus had a dead battery so we were stuck for half an hour” says Alex.
“Well, lucky for you roll call is just about to start, so get a move on misters and misses!” says Ms Janson.
School happens, at some point during lunch Ms Janson calls myself and Alex into her office, apparently she caught wind of our little conversation on election day and had already prepared the forms for me to resign, we cleared everything up though. We are now on our way back home.
“Hey guys, how about pizza for dinner tonight?” Alex asks the class.
I hear murmurs of agreement, “I could go for pLizzy”, “Been way too long since I had takeaway”, “CAN WE GO PIZZA HUT?!”.
“I think everybody is in agreement, Alex” I say.
“Awesome, pizza it is then!” says Alex.
Shortly after that we arrive home, an announcement comes over the PA system from our home automation system (yeah, we have one of those now, ever since that one time last term where Alex forgot to set the alarm).
“Good afternoon 7W, welcome home, you have 1 new message on your answering machine, also year leader Kana wishes to speak with you at your earliest convenience, class leader Alex” says the announcement.
“Kana wants to talk to me? I wonder what about?” says Alex.
“Whatever it is, it’s probably important, so maybe go attend to that right away” I say.
Alex heads off to the communications room to talk to Kana. I wonder if he knows that he could just speak to her across the road in the Class Leaders building, she has an office there and is there until 6pm. Oh, right, I should probably go check the answering machine.
I head over to the phone and press the MSG button (that button was originally programmed to key the PA system from that phone but Alex reprogrammed it to instead play back messages on the answering machine).
“You have one new message” says the answering machine “New message from Eveleen Grace, received today at 12:30 PM”.
Eve? How funny getting a message from her.
“Hi guys, just calling to let you know that I arrived safely at my new home last night, Alex emailed me the video of this morning’s announcements, thank you very much for your kind thoughts and maybe we’ll reunite in the future, who knows? Haha, take care guys” says Eve.
Normally I’d delete the message, but I choose to transfer the message to Alex’s archive, he deserves closure of his relationship with Eve, even if it was rather one sided. I sit down in mine and Alex’s room to do some homework, and about an hour later Alex comes out of his meeting with Kana.
“How’d it go?” I ask Alex.
Alex sits down across from me.
“Mr Folder wants me to be the Support Unit’s class leader after Rebecca graduates” he says.
“Will that impact on your duties here?” I ask him.
“No, I’ll still be allowed to be 7W’s leader, but I’ll have to spend the first term of every year in the SU residences” says Alex.
“Then take the position, I’m sure 7W will understand you not sleeping here for 1 term a year” I say.
“You didn’t let me finish, that means I won’t be able to be present at the election for 9W class leadership because I’ll have to contest the SU leadership!” he says “Kana is trying to find a loophole for me to still contest the 9W leadership in absence but for now I’m stuck!”.
“Don’t worry, Alex, there is still a whole year until the next election” I say.
“You’re right Lizzy, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it” says Alex “Thank you”.
“You’re welcome, Alex, now go do your homework, you don’t want Davin getting on your ass again, do you?” I ask.
He gets his homework and starts to do it. A few hours and about 5 of Alex’s homework tantrums later, we hear an announcement over the PA system.
“Attention class leaders, year leader Kana Farmer has entered, please proceed to the entry hall” says the announcement.
“Wonder why she’s here? Could this be about your new position, Alex?” I ask Alex.
“Probably, let’s go greet her” says Alex.
Alex and I proceed to the entry hall wearing our class leader badges and jackets. We both salute the year leader, who is wearing her official year leader jacket and badge.
“Ten-hut!” says Alex.
“At ease” says Kana “A pleasure to see you, 7W class leaders”.
“Same to you, year leader” I say, “I apologise for the lack of formal greeting, we weren’t aware you were planning to visit”.
I read in the CL handbook that it’s protocol to wear full class leader attire when addressing the year leader or anybody above the year leader in a class leader capacity, we’re also supposed to address each other by title and not name, and when the year leader or above makes an official visit, you’re supposed to have a speech prepared to greet them.
“Oh, this isn’t an official visit, Elizabeth, I just didn’t have time to swing by home and drop off my jacket” says Kana “I just came to speak to Alex”.
I look at the time, and just as I suspected, it’s after 6pm, surprise official visits can’t be made after the school closes. Well we’re idiots.
“Oh! No problem, Kana! I’ll leave you two to talk” I say.
Alex and Kana head into the communications room and I go around and take orders for pizza.
Chapter 7
I Love You, Idiot!
The meeting between Alex and Kana has been going for a few hours now, they came out for dinner but quickly went back in, maybe I should check in them to make sure that Alex hasn’t had another seizure. I knock twice on the communications room door and pop my head in only to see Kana TICKLING Alex! Yeah, you read that right, TICKLING!
“Kana! Alex! Whadaya doing?” I exclaim.
“Isn’t it obvious Elizabeth? I’m torturing Alex!” says Kana.
“What for exactly?” I ask, suspiciously.
“I’m trying to get him to be the year’s IT advisor!” says Kana.
“Alright, alright, I’ll do it! Just stop touching my emergency sausages!” says Alex while laughing.
Alex quickly calms down.
“For real though, it’s taking quite a while to fill out these forms to allow me to run for the leadership of 9W, that’s why we’ve been so long” says Alex.
“Yeah, he also needs a representative to represent him at the election” says Kana.
“I’ll be his representative” I suggest.
“That would disqualify you from election, since technically you’re already standing” says Kana.
Blast, hey wait a minute…
“One minute, Kana, I think I might know somebody!” I say, quickly leaving the room for the lounge room.
“Hey guys, any idea where Cal is?” I ask.
“Which one? Schwebel or Mackie?” asks Hayley.
“Mackie” I say.
“Oh, he would be in his room” says Alex.
“Thanks guys!” I say, running off to Cal’ room.
“Hey Cal, pardon the intrusion, could I have a minute of your time?” I ask Cal.
“Sure Lizzy, what’s up?” he asks.
“You don’t plan on running for class leader in year 9, do you?” I ask him.
“No, I’ve no intention on challenging Alex, nobody does, why?” he asks.
“Well here’s the deal: He’s been asked by the Support Unit Co-ordinator to be class leader there, and that has no direct impact now, but in year 9, he won’t be able to stand for re-election without a representative, but that representative won’t be able to stand themselves since technically they’ll already be standing, so I was wondering, would be his representative?” I ask.
“I will, but only if he is OK with it, I mean, I did sort of run a smear campaign against him at this year’s election” he says.
“I’m sure he won’t mind. Thanks Cal!” I say, before heading back to the
communications room.
“Good news Alex, Cal has said that he’ll be your representative! How does that sound?” I ask.
“Thanks, Lizzy, that’s awesome!” says Alex.
“No problem!” I say, leaving the room.
About 10 minutes later Alex and Kana leave the communications room.
“Hey, call me later baby” Alex says to Kana as he escorts her out.
Grrrr! Why does Alex feel the need to flaunt his romance with Kana in front of everyone, especially me! Wait, are these feelings, jealousy?
“Alex, are you and Kana, romantically involved?” I ask Alex.
“Me and Kana? Ha! Gotcha Lizzy! Nah we were just playing around to see who would believe it!” he says.
“Oh, OK, that’s good!” I say “Wait! I mean! I don’t care, I was just curious! It’s not like I harbor feelings for you or anything! Oh my goodness I’m so tired I’m going to bed, good night everyone!” I say, quickly leaving the room.
God, why did I say that? You’re such a fool Elizabeth now everybody will think you actually do have feelings for Alex, oh what am I saying? My feelings for Alex are out of this world. A little while later Alex comes to bed,
“Did you remember your medication dear? Err I mean Alex?” I ask Alex.
“Um, yeah, I did, Lizzy” he replies.
“Good, good, don’t want you having any seizures overnight” I say.
“Are you sure? You seemed to enjoy visiting me in the hospital” jokes Alex.
“Idiot, don’t joke like that! I was genuinely worried about you!” I scream.
“Sorry Lizzy, you know I couldn’t resist the urge” he says, “Seriously though, Lizzy, you were acting pretty strange today, is everything cool with you?”
“Geez, do I have to spell it out for you? I LOVE YOU ALEX, MY DEAREST IDIOT!” I scream.
Shit, did I actually say that?!
“I’m sorry! I have to go!” I say.
I try to run but Alex stops me.
“Lizzy, please, don’t run from your feelings” he says “You love me, so what? That’s nothing to be embarrassed about”.
“Idiot! I’m not embarrassed it’s just… well, can’t a girl have secrets?” I say, “So, is the feeling mutual?”
Alex places his hand on my left cheek.