By the end of the day, everyone had heard that I had lost my virginity to Ricky and no matter how much I denied it wasn’t believed by anyone who didn’t know me personally. In fact, some of those people who did know me personally even thought that it was true. Matt, the guy who sat behind me in maths winked at me as he walked past and then drew me a picture of a bed, writing the words ‘wanna jump in it with me?’ underneath. I threw the paper back at him but I don’t think it got my point across as he stared at me the whole way through the lesson.I should have never crossed the cheerleader. The realisation came as I walked home from school that afternoon and the freshman girls who usually walked along with me asked me how Ricky was in bed and if I screwed him before or after he asked Marie out. The whole school obviously believed the lie and it just made me want to shove Marie’s pompoms down her throat. I basically ran the whole way

I opened my eyes and found myself lying in a field of poppies, staring up at the sky which was dotted with stars. I don’t know how I got there – the last thing I remembered was being in Ally’s car sitting on the back seat with my head on Morpheus’ shoulder. I guess that I must have fallen asleep. I slowly stood up, feeling slightly intoxicated. A gentle breeze tugged on my hair and made the plain white dress I wore cling to my body. I twirled, letting the dress flare out at the bottom and I heard myself giggle, something I never did. It caught me by surprise and I slapped a hand to my mouth to silence the sound. “It’s the poppies.” A small and timid voice broke through the intoxication haze which I had found myself in. I spun around and found myself staring down at a little girl who looked to be about seven years old, although she was unlike any child I had ever come across in reality. H

Detention. I suppose it could have been worse, though. I could have been made to apologize to Marie, although I was far from sorry. It was, in fact, a moment I would cherish until my dying day – seeing her face go all pink and blotchy as she looked down at her ruined cheerleader outfit (why on earth do cheerleaders seem to hang around in their uniforms?) and shriek like a banshee until one of her minions tried to clean the spaghetti and sauce from the fabric with a napkin. She had slapped the minion away and made the poor girl cry, but what did that matter to Marie? Sigh. Detention. I walked to the bleachers on the school’s massive football field, swinging a bucket, spatula and bright yellow rubber gloves in my hand as I walked. The principle thought that he was doing me a favour by giving me a choice of which detention tasks I wanted... oh so generous. Between cleaning desks with an alcohol based solvent which made you feel sick, writing out “food fights are

“So? What were the dreams about?”The crew and I sat at our usual table in the cafeteria, munching on the day’s hamburger and fries specialty. Ricky looked up at me from devouring his burger, surprise written across his face.“Oh, nothing really. Stupid things.” he mumbled, still half chewing.Vi looked at us from across the table, a questioning look on her face. Ricky must have seen it because he quickly went back to his lunch before anyone could ask him any more questions. I followed his lead, not really wanting to be subjected to Vi’s alien-probe-interrogation... especially since I didn’t actually know much.“Oh Kay, I heard what happened with Mr. Peterson.” Josh piped up from next to Vi.He was looking rather emo today, decked out in a slipknot shirt and eyeliner (he’d probably avoided the principle all day because of it), which made the smile he wore seem out of place.

My eyes fluttered open groggily as the sun spilt into the room, illuminating the dark blue walls and cream coloured bedding. My eyes flew open with a start as I realised that this was not my bedroom and that the back which faced me did not belong to my giant teddy bear which frequently shares my bed with me. It took me a few moments to realise that I was lying on my brother’s bed and that the back actually belonged to Nik.The previous night had been an utter blast complete with lots of delicious food, plenty of dancing and crazy uncles singing drunkenly to some Greek band from the eighties. We had got home late but Nik and I were far from tired so we decided to catch up on everything he’s missed out. I guess I was more tired than I thought because the last thing I remember was jumping onto Nik’s bed and telling him to tell me about the girls in Greece. When I was younger, Nik would have carried me back to my bedroom and tucked me into my own bed. In fact, e