by Zac Moore
Here it comes.
“…You and your classes won’t be remaining in your current residences next year! Thank you, Advisor Jaden!” he says, enthusiastically, leaving the hall.
Oh, thank goodness! Wait, WHAT, WE’RE MOVING?!
“Any questions regarding this announcement?” asks Ms Janson.
“Yes, hey, 7W has a question: Why exactly are we moving?!” I exclaim.
“Oh, right, Advisor Davin didn’t really touch on the how or why, did he? Well, the school is reorganising the residential districts, from now on each district will be dedicated to and have facilities for one year, this district will be dedicated to year 7, and years 8 through 12 will have their own districts, the only thing changing will be the residents, trust me, the time spent packing and unpacking will be worth it!” says Advisor Jaden “That concludes this meeting, I hope you all have a fantastic Caltmas and New Year, and we’ll see you back on the 22nd of January!”.
Alex and I rush back home to announce the news to our class.
“Everybody in the lounge room NOW! This is not a drill! Emergency meeting, I repeat, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY MEETING!” screams Alex.
Everybody runs in the lounge room faster than Alex runs to a newly opened Italian restaurant!
“So, today at the class leaders meeting Mr Davin announced something that should’ve really been circulated at a school assembly! Next year we won’t be in this house anymore!” says Alex.
The whole class is shocked by this revelation, and rightly so, he made it seem as if the school is closing its dorms!
“What Alex meant to say is, next year we’ll be living in a house in the next district” I explain.
This calms down the class significantly, and Alex to some degree.
“Yeah, so, get to packing the stuff you intended on leaving over the break, so that it can stored securely and moved when we move in next year” says Alex.
Well done Alex.
“Meeting adjourned” says Alex.
Everybody disperses back to their rooms and Alex and I go to our room to pack our stuff.
“Right, let’s see, what kind of stuff am I supposed to pack?” asks Alex to himself.
“I'd pack all your class leader and school stuff, that way there’s no chance you could lose it and if the storage people do, you can just blame them” I suggest.
“Good idea Lizzy! Oh, what would I do without you, my love!” says Alex.
It takes the class a few hours to pack everything, but like with the preparations for the retreat, we’re done by dinner. After dinner Alex and I take everybody’s boxes and take them down to the storage place.
“This is all 7W’s stuff” says Alex.
“Alright, storage for this will cost $5 per day, so for 20 boxes for 38 days that will be $3,800” says the storage officer.
“Wait, $3,800? But we’ve been told by our year advisors that if we’re only storing them over the break that the school would cover the cost!” says Alex.
“Oh yeah, but it doesn’t work that way, see you’re supposed to arrange for them to be collected or hand them in on the last day of term, you can’t hand it in earlier” says the storage officer.
“Oh, OK then, thank you” says Alex, taking the boxes.
Thanks for the information, Davin!
“Geez, what on Earth is Davin doing, he didn’t say we could only hand them in on the last day of term! And also why is it that a school’s storage facility is open at any point other than outside a break period anyway, for what reason would you need to store anything during the semester?” rants Alex.
“They also rent out lockers larger than the ones in the residences term-to-term, and students and staff can store their valuables there when they’re away from school for longer periods, we put your stuff there when you were in the hospital, and also when you went to Vanuatu in term 2” I explain.
“How did you pay for it?” he asks.
“Well the hospital one was paid for by the school, and the Vanuatu one was paid for by the class budget” I explain.
“You authorized a transaction on the class budget without my knowledge?” he questions.
“You didn’t correctly inform me of your intention to take a week off school! So I guess we’re even then!” I rebuke.
Sure, he may have technically told me about it verbally, but protocol mandates that a student who plans on taking a week or more off school during term inform a class leader and year advisor, and if they themselves are a class leader, the year leader, IN WRITING! Nowhere does it say that class leaders can exclude their partner from the list of people to notify! We spend the rest of the walk home arguing about the idea of a class leader having to inform their partner of a planned absence. When we arrive home, we are greeted by Cal.
“No room in the inn for our boxes?” asks Cal.
“Not that, because it’s not the last day of the year yet they wanted $3,800 just to store it from today until the first day of school!” I say.
“What a croc” says Cal.
“Yep” says Alex.
On Monday after school Alex and I go to visit the new house, nobody is occupying it at the moment since the year 10s have finished for the year so the year 9s have moved into the year 10 district, and the year 8s have moved into the year 9 district, the only reason year 7 haven’t moved yet is because the year 8 houses are in great disrepair, though year 7 class leaders have been granted security authorisation to visit the houses during the week during recess and lunch, before school after 8am, and after school before 6pm.
“Hey, there are two extra bedrooms here, the hell are we supposed to do with these? We should only need 18 to house everybody!” says Alex.
“Maybe they’re planning on extra people being in 8W next year?” I suggest.
Alex goes down to check out the garage.
“Hey Lizzy, there’s a whole vehicle repair facility down here!” screams Alex.
“That’s great Al” I say.
I really don’t care. Oh hey there’s an office here, and it doesn’t look like the class leaders’ office.
“Hey Al, come check this out!” I yell down to him.
“Be right there!” he yells back.
He takes his sweet time coming back up, he is really into buses and anything bus-related. He enters the office.
“What IS this?” he says with disbelief.
“It’s an office of some kind, but it’s not the class leaders’ office” I say.
“This ain’t no office, this is a freaking study! Hayley is going to FREAK when she sees this!” says Alex.
“She so is!” I say.
“Freak when I see what?” says somebody familiar.
How did Hayley get in here?
“Oh, hey Hayley, Lizzy and I just thought you’d, y’know, lose your mind when you saw this study!” says Alex.
“I wouldn’t exactly say lose my mind but, this wouldn’t be a bad place to do some reading” says Hayley.
“Yeah, by the way Hols, how did you get in here?” asks Alex.
“Well, funny story Alex and Lizzy, Ms Janson has appointed me as the new residence manager for 8W. That grants me the same permission you guys have with regards to the new residence” says Hayley.
“Residence Manager?” I question.
“What’s that?” asks Alex.
“Well, it’s as the name suggests, I manage the residence, set up room assignments, organise for repairs, basically all the residence stuff you guys currently do” explains Hayley.
“Wow! Sweet! Less responsibility for us!” says Alex.
“Actually, you guys now have two new responsibilities; co-ordinating subject selections, and managing the various managers you have below you” says Hayley.
Of course, I knew that, it’s listed under the “Year 8 and above only” subheading on the list of class leader responsibilities in the class leader handbook. Alex looks quite dejected, so I decide to cheer him up with an interesting fact about class leaders.
; “Hey Alex, don’t feel so down, mate, look, every year we get more staff but our responsibilities remain largely the same” I say.
In year 9 we get a timetable manager, year 10 we get secretaries, year 11 we get a student assessment reporting officer, and year 12 we get a Board of Studies liaison officer.
“Wow, we sure get a lot of help!” says Alex, whose face instantly beams up.
We walk around the house with Hayley, who draws out a map of the new house, before returning home. On the way back home, Alex strikes up a conversation.
“So, what should we use the extra lounge room for?” asks Alex.
Oh yeah, the new residence actually has TWO lounge rooms, except only one is hooked up to the TV antenna, but we did find a cable outlet.
“Well there is that cable outlet, maybe we could have Foxtel installed?” I suggest.
“No! Video games room! That second lounge room has sound proofing so all the guys, oh, and Elva, can move their game consoles in there and leave the rest of us to study or watch trashy TV!” exclaims Hayley.
“Why don’t we do both of those things? I mean the TV does have 3 AV ports on the back” says Alex.
“Because one of those is being used by the surveillance system monitoring box” I say.
“Yeah, because we TOTALLY need to be able to watch the security camera feeds in the lounge room when the class leaders’ office already has a computer dedicate to that which is also secured with our usernames and passwords!” exclaims Alex.
We spend the next 10 minutes arguing over unplugging the surveillance monitoring box, later we discover that the surveillance monitoring box actually has three AV inputs on it, we head home and phone the chief of security to ask what these inputs are actually intended for, as it turns out the surveillance box is a discreet AV receiver, so the inputs can be used for any kind of AV device.
Chapter 10
Hi, I’m Elizabeth
It’s the morning of the 22nd of December; the day after the last day of the school year. Last night we packed, the class leaders had a little end-of-year party, and 7W stayed up until midnight to reflect on everything that happened over the past 10 months, from Alex’s seizure to Eve’s overnight departure and Hayley’s appointment as residence manager. So far this morning Alex and I have seen our classmates and fellow class leaders off on the buses back to where all of our high school journeys started, well except for Alex, whose high school journey started at his sister’s friend’s mother’s house. I could've also gone back to Sutherland, but I choose to stick around and wait for Alex's parents to arrive. We’re sitting at the front of the administration district.
“Are you nervous?” I ask Alex.
“Nervous? Ha! What a laugh, I'm not nervous! I mean these guys are my parents, I've known them since forever! Oh Lizzy!” he says, hysterically.
“Don't run from your feelings” – Alex taught me that lesson on the day we became boyfriend and girlfriend, and now it's my turn to remind him of that lesson!
“You hypocrite” I say.
“What?” he says.
“Wasn't it YOU who said that I shouldn't run from my feelings? Well why don't you take a look in the mirror!” I scream.
“But I'm not running from my feelings! I have no feelings to run from!” he screams back.
“Look, I can tell when you're lying, you ARE nervous about seeing your parents again, aren't you?” I say.
“Alright, I am, it's been so long, and I've changed so much, what if they hate me, or worse, what if they don't approve of our relationship?” he questions.
“It's fine, Alex, your parents know about me. Sorry you had to find out this way but I intercepted some emails from Deniz, at the end of every term he emailed your parents to tell them how you were doing and what you were up to, not only in school, but also in general, they were clearly worried about you, so they took measures to monitor you, if that doesn't show how much they care about you, I don't know what will” I say.
He seems reassured, go Doctor Iz!
“Thanks, Lizzy, but can we talk about something other than my parents for now?” he asks.
“Sure, what would like to talk about?” I ask.
“So, I know about the existence of the School Life Project, but what is it exactly?” he asks.
Alex must have been living under a rock, the School Life Project was all over the news in the months leading up to when the first students moved in!
“The School Life Project, or SL Project for short, was a NSW government plan to turn some public schools into boarding schools, plans for it started in June last year, and construction on the first residencies started in November the same year. The idea was to eliminate enrolment areas and allow students in senior years and their parents to pick a school based on its educational programs without having to worry about traveling from home to school every day, it faced some real opposition from smaller high schools with fewer classes and selective high schools” I explain.
“That’s quite interesting, but if the original idea was to allow SENIOR students to be enrolled wherever they wanted, why on Earth are year 7 and 8 students living here?” he asks.
“I said that WAS the idea, but eventually some principal somewhere had the idea that they could extend on the idea to also include students who would otherwise be living on their own. I wouldn’t say that was the case for all the students in our class but that I can’t explain” I say.
“I can” says a familiar voice, “See, Elizabeth, most of the students in your class were actually from around here, and if there are still empty rooms in a class’s residence after all the out-of-area seniors and students living away from family are placed, we offer those rooms to local students, of course, this was the case for your class and also everyone else in your year, you and Alex are the only exceptions”.
“Principal Bay! Thanks!” I say, “By the way, it was a principal’s idea to allow students living away from family to be part of the SL Project, right? So, which principal was it?”.
“It was mine! Pretty neat idea, right?” asks Principal Bay.
“If you asked me that at that start of the year, I’d have said it was a terrible idea because it meant I’d have to spend the whole year with Alex, but now I can say that I think it’s awesome what you did!” I say.
“That’s great, Elizabeth, but you should know, as a teacher I can’t say I approve of your relationship with Alex, but I suppose as long as your parents approve and you’re not breaking any school rules, I can leave it be. Hey, isn’t that your Mum now, Alex?” says Principal Bay.
“I think it might be Principal Bay” says Alex, looking off into the distance at a silver Honda Odyssey with the licence plate HM-1505.
The car Alex was looking at pulls alongside the curb, a woman with blonde hair gets out as does a rather dark looking man with no hair.
“Hey! That’s my Mum and Dad! MUM, DAD, OVER HERE!” screams Alex, standing up and waving his arms.
Alex runs over to his parents and gives them a huge hug, I also stand up but don’t run towards them, I mean, I’m not their daughter!
“Mum, Dad, I, I’ve missed you so much!” he cries.
They hug for a few minutes before Alex wipes his tears away.
“Come! Let me introduce you to my girlfriend!” he says, enthusiastically.
Moment of truth!
“Mum, Dad, this is my fellow class leader and girlfriend, Lizzy, please, introduce yourself!” he says.
“Hi, I’m Elizabeth, Elizabeth Gotthold” I say, shyly.
Please oh please let them be approving!
“A pleasure to meet you, Elizabeth, thanks for taking care of our little boy” says Alex’s Mum.
“We know he can be a bit of a pain at times” says Alex’s Dad.
“Andrew!” says Alex’s Mum, angrily.
“Thanks for a good year, Lizzy, I’ll see you after New Year’s, call me if you ever want company” says Alex.
“Do you live on your own, Elizabeth?” ask
s Alex’s Mum.
“Yes, my parents are ambassadors for Australia in Spain, I’m alone from the night of the 2nd of January to the morning of the 23rd of December every year” I say, “I’m VERY independent for my age though!”
“It’s true! She can even change a lightbulb on her own!” exclaims Alex.
Alex’s Mum whispers something in his ear.
“Hey, Lizzy, how’d you like to spend the night with us?” asks Alex.
Spend the night, hey? It’s the first time a guy I liked ever asked me to his house. Well, it’d give Alex’s parents and I a chance to bond and form a stable relationship!
“Sure, I’d love to, Al” I say.
Alex’s Dad loads Alex’s and my own bags into the VERY spacious boot and we head off to Alex’s place. When we arrive, Alex introduces me to his pet dog, Robbie, pet chicken, Chooken, and his two sisters, Amelia and Anna. Amelia seems to be happy for Alex and I but Anna gives me a few cold stares.
“Alex, I get the feeling that Anna doesn’t really like me” I say as we unpack.
“She doesn’t, remember that phone call I made to my family after we settled in? Yeah, I told her all about our previous experiences with each other” says Alex.
“Well, all I can say is, I hope Anna and I can move past it and become good friends” I say.
After dinner Alex goes to take a shower and I have some alone time with Anna while washing up dishes.
“Anna, look, I’m sorry for everything I did and said to your brother, I know what I did is unforgivable but I really hope we can get past this for Alex’s sake” I say.
“Elizabeth, Alex may have gotten over all that but that’s because he’s as soft as the Spaghetti we had tonight, now I am a little bit empathetic to you because he threatened you and that wasn’t right, but know this: I will never ever grant you forgiveness” says Anna, sternly.
Well, it’s pretty clear where Anna stands on this subject.
“That said though, I am more or less happy that Alex found someone like you, but I just have to protect him from his feelings getting hurt, if you were an elder sister, you’d understand, trust me” says Anna.