L & S

Legacy and Sonny meet for the first time.

Legacy ~ Except 3

I pressed snooze on the clock radio for the fifth time that morning & sat up in my new queen four poster bed.

“Up & at ‘em! It’s your first day at your new school!” I said mockingly as I thought to myself, “New teachers with their new schedules, new hypercritical kids in their judgmental cliquey groups! What isn’t there to be excited about?”

I fell back onto my pillow in a huff just as Leslie burst into the room singing “Up & at ‘em! It’s your first day at your new school!” striding across the room to the window & balcony door, pulling back the bright scarlet red curtains that she so “carefully” picked out for me. I hated them & would have them changed the first chance I got to a more subdued deep red velvet colour that would suit the new black & grey duvet set better and would suit my mood for living with her even more.

“Obviously I get no privacy in this great new life of mine” I moaned shoving my head under the pillow.

“You will get privacy Legacy when you behave long enough to earn it. Now get up, get dressed ready for school & come down for breakfast. Grant will drive you to school once you’ve eaten.” Leslie retorted matter-of-factly leaving the room as if giving out a prison sentence.

I dragged my butt out of bed but instead of dressing for school as dictated to me by the fun police, I casually took off my PJ’s & threw them on the bed, chucked on my new bikini, fumbled in my drawers until I found my comfy beige short shorts & white tank to put on, threw the neatly pressed uniform hanging up in the cupboard into my school backpack along with a pair of white knee high socks, a white lacy bra, a pair of black boy leg knickers, the compulsory black school shoes, my small “all essentials” toiletry bag, but not before checking the contents: a small cake of soap, a brush, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, my blemish concealer, mascara, eyeliner & gloss then lifted the backpack up onto my back.

I walked across the room, opened the door to the balcony, grabbed the beach towel draped across the back of the desk chair before straddling the railing & than moving on to climb down the lattice work that was conveniently positioned close enough to the side of the house for me to lower myself to safety.

“If you think I am just going to bend over & take all this lying down Leso, you got another thing coming!” picturing my step mother coming into rouse on me to “get a move on” only to find an empty room amused me & I smiled to myself while I rounded the back of the house to where my board was conveniently waiting. I thought to myself the new bike father tried to bribe me with before he left would come in handy this morning. “Thanks, but no thanks Grant! I’ll be making my own way, as always!” I smirked as I juggled the board in one arm & put the other hand on the handle bars for steering & headed for my morning surf. Living this close to the beach definitely would have its perks!

I didn’t have to ride far. I had a look at google maps last night so had a rough idea for the lay of the land. I took a couple of turns down some bike paths crossed a couple of residential streets, one that looked like a main street but nothing like the main streets I was used to. I rode up the main street until I saw a park & what looked like an opening to the beach. I got off my bike & walked through the park to the opening & noticed a toilet off to the right of the dune fencing with a couple of showers next to it. “Perfect” I thought to myself “not ideal, but it will do”. The dune fencing was made of huge logs of wood & some wire in between the frame. It seemed sturdy enough so I locked the bike up near the toilet block & made my way down to the beach & my morning glory.

Hitting that beach first thing of a morning, I felt like I was in a dream. I stood there looking out at the beautiful clear skies & blue-green ocean & counted the sets. Glancing at the seagulls hunting for sand crabs, I let out a sigh. I was simply amazed at the view & commented to them, grinning from ear to ear for the first time since the move, “Maybe living here isn’t going to be so bad after all!”. Trying hard not to think of the boys & what I had left behind. I walked a bit closer to the water looking for a good spot to head out. Then I noticed a group of boys further up, some on the beach playing a game of footy & some in the water. Looking more closely they seemed to have the best spot on the beach, I could go & join them & be safe, some of these waves did look kind of heavy, but where was the fun in that? I made the decision to stay put near the opening where I’d left my bike & dumped my bag down with my towel, stripped down to my bikini & ran on out to greet my first wave. Even though the weather was warmer here the water was quite cooler & more crisp than what I was expecting. It made me gasp & cry out for a second but I dove in anyway. Thankfully the boys were too far away to hear me, how embarrassing that would have been! I was there probably about an hour & was able to ride a few waves, it took a fair amount of skill & effort but I loved the challenge. I made my way back up the beach, gathered my gear & headed to the shower block.

Standing under the shower still in my bikini, I washed my hair with my head under the water letting it run over me to get rid of the salt from the ocean. While I picked up my toothpaste & brush, I was running images from my “morning glory” back through my mind replaying some of the dumpers & thought how I could improve. I spat out the toothpaste into the drain, rinsed my toothbrush & then took in a mouth full of water & spat it back out again. Facing the shower, leaning both hands up against the wall, I’d washed all the conditioner out of my hair & was just taking a minute to let the water wash the last of the soap away when I heard a voice.

“Hi”

I spun around to see a very handsome boy in a pair of wet billabong shorts, no shirt & bare feet carrying a board, his bright smile set off butterflies in my stomach. He looked back to wave off his cute friends in a gesture of “I’ll catch up”, & they sniggered to themselves. I didn’t quite catch what they were saying as I was trying to wipe water from my eyes and face but I got the gist they would have been slagging on him & he would no doubt cop their interrogation later. He had brown hair with what looked like sun bleached blonde strands that was long enough to look scruffy. His physique told me he didn’t work out all that much but was still toned, fit, healthy & tanned, no doubt from all his days at the beach. His smile, I assumed was dependent upon his mood & spoke volumes. I could tell straight away, if he was happy his smile was big & bright & showed off his perfect straight white teeth. He also had the most beautiful blue coloured eyes that shone almost as much as his smile did. I could see no tattoos but smirked as I eyed off the n****e ring on his left n****e. I noticed how well groomed he was even though he had a rough rugged appearance. The bracelet, necklace & watch he was wearing didn’t seem to match his look or personality & I wondered if they were a gift or if he had bought them himself.  

“Um, hi” I replied turning off the shower & grabbing my towel.

“You’re new here? I haven’t seen you around before”.

I almost asked “Is that a question or a statement?” but held my tongue, there was something about him, I was curious about him & then for some reason decided on the spot “This is a new leaf Legacy Jane Walker. Don’t ruin it with your arrogant, smart a*s attitude, you’re here now! Make a real go of it”.

“Yea, we just moved here, a couple of blocks away” I replied as I motioned in the general direction & then scolded myself as I thought “You don’t even know this guy & your telling him where you live!?”

“Cool! My name is Jackson but everyone calls me Sonny” he said as he put out his right hand to cement his introduction.

At least the boy has manners I thought & met the other side of his handshake & with all the friendliness I could muster while standing there freezing my a*s off in the fresh morning breeze, I replied “I’m Legacy” & gave him my brightest smile to match his.

“Legacy huh!? You did pretty well out there! We were watching out for you, not many newbies come to this beach, the sets get a bit unpredictable sometimes but us locals love it. You handled yourself well!”

Oh gosh, they were watching out for me! How embarrassing!

“C’mon Sonny, you’re gonna be late!”

Score! Saved by the interruption! I turned a little to the right to see another older good looking boy that I didn’t see in the group before, hanging out from a veranda at a nearby mansion backing onto the park & dunes. Was this place heaven or what? All these cute boys to look at wouldn’t make me forget about my boys but it sure wouldn’t hurt!

“You live there?” I asked.

“Yea, not a bad spot eh!?” he answered amused

“Umm yea, it’s a real nice house!” I commented.

“Well, they’re right. I need to get going or I am going to be late. Was nice meeting you!” he said while walking away.

“Yea, was nice to meet you too!” I replied unsure of why I had a sudden combined feeling of sadness & loneliness. I didn’t want him to leave.

“Wow! Hot and nice!” I thought & looked toward the sky & said to myself “I’ll have some more of that please mum!” and smiled. I started to dry off with the towel more quickly now. I needed to get into some dry clothes before I ended up with pneumonia! Ok, so pneumonia might have been a bit of an exaggeration! But I couldn’t contemplate right now the feelings I just had with a boy I had only just met & needed to think about something else instead of the goose bumps he had given me.

I turned again & blushed almost immediately with embarrassment when I realised Sonny was still walking towards his house & hoped that he hadn’t heard me talking to myself. As I watched him, drying my hair now, I saw him hesitate & turn around still smiling his bright white toothed smile eyeing me off. “least he’s not gay!” I thought smugly & gave a small coy smile as well.

“Hey listen, a group of us are having a sort of bon fire on the beach here Friday night about 7pm; it would be cool if you came along!”

“Oh, umm...” I paused a minute trying to remember if I was grounded or not. “I know this is going to sound like I am palming you off but I don’t actually know what I am doing yet...”

“Oh...” he replied. The look of disappointment reached his eyes. He wore this nonchalant attitude like he wore his smile. Clear & confident. But the act didn’t fool me & I saw right through it. “That’s alright, I’m sure I’ll see you around here again soon, the way you rode those waves this morning you won’t be able to stay away for too long!” he grinned again but it wasn’t as bright & then he started to walk off again.

“Oh bugger it! I am already in trouble; he’s a nice boy trying to make friends with you! You like him & he’s good looking! Why not make it worth your while!” I thought.

“Hey Sonny!? I’ll be there!” I sang out to him & waved goodbye.

“Great! Can’t wait! See you then!” he waved back.

I watched him turn around & smile at me with his big white teethed grin one last time before he disappeared around the fence of his house sensing he didn’t want to leave either. This time, his eyes sparkled brightly, which in turn made me smile. For the first time in a long time, it felt good to smile even if I had pangs of guilt to go with it.

I walked around to the toilet & saw the door was hanging off its hinges. “Great! Just great!” I said to myself but loud enough anyone walking by would hear my frustration. I went back around the side to the bench where my bag was sitting, took a glimpse around & tried to remember if I went past a servo. Short of going home to change & getting an earful from Leso this was it. I finished drying off, undid the back of my bikini, wrapped the towel around me & took off the wet bathers. I continued to get dressed into my new school uniform, skilfully using the towel as my cover, dried my hair some more, as best I could with the already wet towel, brushed it & put it up into a braid pulling out my bangs and some side strands. I went back into the small cubical to put on some mascara, eyeliner & gloss using the cracked mirror in the small toilet. I eyed the state of it & the no toilet paper & thought “I’ll hold it till school”. I wrapped the wet clothes in the wet towel & only then frustratingly realised I was going to have to go home anyway to drop them off with my board. I was just trying to figure out how I was going to balance everything when I heard Sonny sing out to me again.

“Hey Legacy! You want a ride to school!?”

I turned around & saw three other kids with him, all of them wearing the same school uniform as me. The two boys jumping around play fighting with each other, looked younger & a girl about the same age as me instinctively moved forward to grasp Sonny’s hand, she didn’t look too impressed that he had asked. “Beats facing Leso!” But what about my board!?” I thought.

“That’s really nice of you but I have my board & bike here”. I replied coyly.

“Thats cool, bring it over here & you can lock it up in the garage for the day! You can come back this arvo with us & grab them then. Perhaps the surf will calm down a bit for you by then too!” he sniggered jokingly.

I couldn’t help but laugh at him then. “Really? Wow, umm...ok sure, that would be great!” 

He let go of the girls hand to walk over to me. He took the board from the wall while I picked up my backpack, my wet clothes & steered the bike to his garage.

“This is a nice board! Where did you get it?” he asked genuinely curious.

Trying to think of an uncomplicated answer I replied “A friend made it for me, it’s one of a kind.” meeting his wondering gaze.

“I know what you mean.” He commented before we reached the others & I blushed. As I got closer I paid more attention to the pretty dark haired girl with bright green hazel eyes who would look much more beautiful except for the scowl she constantly gave that would warn off anyone wanting to approach her. There was something about the mix of the two personalities that made me think they didn’t fit either & wondered again if it was her that gave him the jewellery I saw on him earlier.

The single black soft top Suzuki looked lost in the spacious double tandem garage. The girl followed us in. There was enough room for another three cars. He carefully placed my board next to some others in a rack against the back wall. “You can lean that up against the other bikes there if you like, want me to hang those out for you?” he asked nodding towards the bunched up towel in my arm.

“No, it’s fine....” I could feel the girl’s eyes, whose name I didn’t know yet, glaring into my back. “It’s your first day, you’re not even at school yet & you already got haters!” I thought to myself but there was no way this girl was going to get the better of me. I turned to her, put my hand on my hips & matched her glare with an equally unimpressed challenging one. She rolled her eyes away from me, crossed her arms & displayed her annoyance to Sonny who completely ignored her & continued on.

“Well, you’re not going to be able to come with us this afternoon if they’re wet!” he mused.

I was quite chuffed at how much he wanted me around & the thought of riding to school & coming back here this afternoon sent the butterflies buzzing again. “Ok ok!” I smiled. For some reason, I wanted to be around him too & unable to stay irritated for very long with his happy go lucky demeanour being so infectious.

“Good! No use trying to fight me, I always get what I want” he smiled again, this time at both of us. “Oh gosh! How rude am I? Legacy this is my girlfriend Corrine Fagen” he said as he rushed to her side & leant over to give her a peck on the cheek before saying “Sorry” & then grinned sheepishly.

I learnt pretty quickly that morning that Corrine was not interested in becoming my friend. She barely spoke two words to me in the car on the way to school which didn’t matter because the windows were down & the younger boys who shared the back seat with me had an endless playfight battle to win & would have made it hard to have a conversation anyway. It seemed Sonny spent most of the ride trying to gain back Corrine’s affections & trying to coax her out of her bad mood. He would occasionally glance at me in the rear view mirror & rather than make things any more difficult for him than what they already were I pretended to be more interested in facebook on my mobile than I was in the ride to school. I had had 8 txt messages from Mav already today & the mood these two put me in made me face the reality of how much I was really missing him & didn’t hesitate to tell him so. His last message was a little more cryptic than usual. Mav didn’t do cryptic very often so I was intrigued. It read “is ur plce free 4 us 2nite & wht is the new school like - KTRC” which I roughly translated to “Will Leso be hanging around, can we chat tonight �" keep the rents clueless”. I knew Leso would be working back late tonight with some other students & teachers for preparation for some art show that was coming up soon so I eagerly but less cryptically replied “Cant wait! Getting to school late this morning �" had a great surf! No doubt Leso will have something to say about it” then turned my attention to the scenery as we drove past mostly residential houses with a few corner shops. The drive was probably less than 15 minutes in total. We crossed a main road, drove into an industrial area, went through some back streets & hit the school soon after.

 

It was a nice looking school. The grounds were immaculately manicured. The buildings were tag free. There was not one bit of litter on the ground & every student inside the gates appeared just as flawless with not a hair out of place. Nothing like the last school I attended. I got out of the car grabbed my bag from the back & walked with the others towards the gate just as the bell rang. The two younger boys ran off together & Corrine & Sonny seemed to be having another disagreement. I was breathing a sigh of relief that I grabbed the white bra instead of a black one & wasn’t really paying much attention to them until Sonny turned to look at me. Corrine still obviously not impressed with my presence or new found budding friendship with Sonny stormed off mumbling that she wasn’t going to get another tardy this week for anyone.

“Do you have your class schedule yet? I can show you what building you have to....” he trailed off looking in Corrine’s direction.

I looked toward the building closest to us that had a big sign on the side of it that read “Administraion Office” & smiled to him.

“No not yet, I have to go to the office first. It’s ok. You go catch up with her.” & nodded toward her empty existence beside him & already thought how much she didn’t deserve him & if I were to get to know him any better I would tell him exactly that.

“Ok cool, well umm, we sit near the Performing Arts building at lunch so come find us! And you will be fine! You rode those waves like a pro this morning, this place will be a piece of cake for you!”. He gave me his bright confident smile again then turned around & sprinted to catch up with Corrine.

I watched him disappear into the distance, the same lonely ache returning from this morning when he’d left before. I turned toward the Admin Office & my new daunting future. The office ladies seemed nice enough. All my forms had already been filled out by Leso or my father but they gave me my class schedule, took my photo for my class ID which doubled as a library pass, a folder with some books & blank lined paper & some stationary in a large pencil case, a key on a keyring with the number 107 on it on one side & the word “Dolphin” on the other.

Author's Note

Only looking for reviews regarding content at the moment where they can provide feedback on the outlining of the story and structure. Thanks!