Owwwwies!

CHAPTER 1

‘Owwies!’ I screamed, trying to remove my hairbrush from my hair. Before you ask how, honestly all I was doing was brushing it. Yet here I am, staring in the mirror, with a hairbrush as an attachment.

“Lia. What are you doing up there? Are you coming down for breakfast?” My aunt asked from downstairs. I was living with my aunt and uncle for 2 months during the school holidays.

“Yeah. Ahh, I’m coming.” I replied, thinking how I was going to get the hairbrush out of hair in 5 seconds. Scissors? A hat? Or, giving up and going downstairs, saying that it was starting a new trend?

I went downstairs, and before saying anything, my uncle burst out laughing, and dropped his knife on to the plate. This flipped the plate over, throwing the egg at my aunt, who was just coming out of the kitchen. She was so surprised that she dropped the cup she was holding, which landed on to the dog’s tail. The dog then ran and hid under my uncle’s chair. All in all, a good way to start the morning.

“Just wondering Aurelia, did you do something different with your hair?” My aunt ventured.

“Oh, this? You noticed?” I began.

“Well, it’s hard to miss.” My uncle inserted.

“Ha ha. I tried to get it out, but it’s sort of stuck.” I explained.

“We can see that.” My uncle replied.

“Let’s go try and get it out.” My aunt offered, leading me to the bathroom.

30 minutes later, and I believe half my hair nearly ripped out, the hairbrush was still in place. I know, it would have been the happy ending to one of these teen novels if it’d come out, but this isn’t some soppy love story, or the search for a teen’s individualness. This is about me being accident prone, and brushing my hair too fast.

“There’s nothing else to do. We’ll just have to shave your head.” My uncle joked. At least, I hope he was joking.

“Eat your porridge and then we’ll go to the hairdressers.” My aunt ordered, bringing me a bowl of vomit looking porridge mush. What was worse? Eating this, or having a brush sticking out of your brain?

It was about half an hour later, as my aunt and I got out of the car near the hairdressers. It was her normal one, so I was assuming that they wouldn’t cut all my hair off. But then again, I was the idiot with a hairbrush in my hair, so I couldn’t really be picky.

‘Beep.’ My aunt locked the car.

“Oh, wait. I left my purse in the car.” I remembered.

She opened the door again, so I grabbed my purse.

We walked a metre from the car, when I stopped and said.

“Oops. I left my iPod on. Can I go turn it off before the battery runs out?”

My aunt looked at me and said, “Anything else? What else could you have forgotten?”

10 minutes later we were a couple of metres closer to the hairdressers. We walked fast, as I’d made us a little late, checking everything in my bag, when my aunt suggested that I take my bag out of the car and with me.

“Thanks so much for taking me here Aunty…” I began, when I crashed into someone.

My aunt was already walking into the hairdressers, so she hadn’t noticed me sprawled on the ground.

“Watch where you’re going.” A voice said.

I looked up, expecting that the person who had crashed into me would give me hand up. But he was staring down at me, as if I had a giant hairbrush stuck to my head. Oh, yeah. That was probably why he was staring at me as though I was a freak. He began to walk away, leaving me on the floor.

“Hey. You can’t just leave me here.” I complained as the boy continued on.

I jumped up, in the aim to give the boy a piece of my mind.

“Aurelia. What are you doing? Hurry up.” My aunt called.

I turned and followed her into the shop of horrors. Is now a good time to say I don’t really like hairdressers, or people having scissors right in my face?

“So. What can we do for you?” The lady at the counter asked chirpily.

I looked at her, with my ‘Are you serious?’ face.

“Ah. I have a hairbrush sticking out of my head, could you please help me?” I said.

“Aurelia. Don’t be rude.” My aunt snapped.

‘What?’ Could I be less subtle? A blind man could see my problem.

Well, whatever. I had to give in. ‘Never surrender’ was my motto, except when hairbrushes were involved, and when I had about 5 hairdressers circling around me.

What seemed like an eternity later, which was probably only half an hour, I had a fringe, and a new ‘do’, as they say. Although I’ve never really understood who ‘they’ are. Oh, and did I mention that I was now hairbrush free?

As we entered the house soon after, my uncle came out of the kitchen with his hands covering his eyes.

“Is this a game? What are you doing?” I asked.

“I wasn’t sure if the hairbrush would still be there, and I didn’t want to have the same shock.” He replied, slowly removing his hands.

“Haha uncle. That’s not even funny.” I pouted.

“Well, now that none of us have an extra extremity, shall we go out somewhere?” My uncle said.

I smiled excitedly, exhilarated by being on holiday and having the freedom to travel around.

“Have you forgotten that we have that party tonight?” My aunt asked, and the mood of the room suddenly dampened.

“Oh yeah…I’d forgotten.” I replied, thinking that we’d have to be getting ready soon.

“Ah, actually I think that’s tomorrow, if I’m correct.” My uncle added.

We all crowded around the calendar, and then I exclaimed “Yippee! It is tomorrow! Let’s get ready to go!” I practically ran out of the room. Then I ran back into it.

“What are we actually going to do now? I was running to get changed, but then I realised that I don’t know what I need to be wearing.” I admitted.

“Well, seeing as it’s quite late in the day, but still pretty warm, how about we head to the city park around the corner and just walk around?” My aunt suggested.

My uncle and I looked at each other, making faces. Don’t get me wrong, we love forests and walking, but after the morning I’d had, I was ready for excitement, that could possibly hide the fact that I was a bit of an idiot.

“That sounds great,” my uncle began. “How about we head to the ice rink afterwards and go for a skate?”

“I don’t know,” my aunt began, when I interrupted with “that sounds like a great idea too!”

So it was settled. I loved our voting system and way of planning. Pretty much just go with it.

The park was green and planty. ‘Planty’ you may ask, but how would you describe an area covered in plants? We walked for over an hour, me taking photos of everything and anything. I kept popping up in front of my aunt and uncle and taking random photos of them. After a while they got sick of it and began chasing me. We must sound like the most immature group, but honestly, it was all mature until I tripped over a tree trunk and landed on another person walking.

“I am so sorry.” I repeated to the squished lady.

“Oh, no. There’s no problem. I’m sure that happens all the time. Tree trunks commonly attack people out of the blue. Just wondering though, have you seen my dog?” she soon explained to me that I’d fallen onto her and she’d let go of her dog, and now it was missing.

Instead of spending the time walking casually around the park, we ended up searching for the lady’s dog. We split up, and regrouped then split up again, and still couldn’t find it. I went back to the lady and began to explain that we’d looked absolutely everywhere, when I heard a ‘woof!’.

“Oh sorry. Were you still looking for him? He turned up a couple of minutes after you left. Thanks all the same, though.”

Great. You try to help some people, and then you end up realising that you were barking up the wrong tree. Literally. I shouldn’t have barked up that tree, and realised that the dog probably wasn’t going to be climbing trees, before that elderly couple walked by.

Anyway, going off topic. We made it out of the park alive, and without law enforcement having to accompany us.

“So, that was fun.” My uncle said as we drove off. I was hoping he was being sarcastic.

“We’re here!” My aunt exclaimed.

We all jumped out of the car and headed into the rink.

“16 and under are half price?!” My aunt exclaimed.

“Yeah, well. Lia is 16, isn’t she?” My uncle said with a wink.

I’d turned 17 a couple of weeks ago, but I was so short, I’m sure I could pass for 16. Or 12, as my dad always teased.

We grabbed some skates and headed to the ice. We did put our skates on before we went on the ice, in case anyone thought otherwise. Which is just weird, you know?

The skating started off stupendously. I never let go of the wall.

“It’s your new best friend.” My uncle joked.

I reached to punch him in the arm or something, but that proved pretty impossible since I was practically stuck to the wall.

‘Okay Aurelia. You can do this. Just let go.’ So I did. I moved slowly away from the wall, and for a couple of seconds, everything looked great. Then a tiny kid, doing way better than I was, skated past me, and I jumped back against the wall in fear. So much for being brave, scared by a 5 year old.

My aunt and uncle stayed with me for a while, but eventually lost interest in my snail speed. After them lapping me a couple of times, I decided I should probably brave the open ice.

One step, two step, wall. One step, two step, wall. One step, two step, three, oh crap. As I picked myself off the ground, I glued myself back to the wall.

“The best way to do it is if you just do it.” I heard a voice say.

I turned around, or at least my head did.

“Pardon? What do you mean?” I asked, unsure why this person was talking to me, or why he was giving me advice.

“Sorry, but I did see you fall, crash and altogether suck. No offence.” He added.

I stopped, turned the best I could and faced this mystery stalker.

“None taken.” I replied sarcastically.

“No. It’s not like that. I just thought you needed help. The 5 year old did just overlap you.” He added, skating past me.

“Oh thanks. Is this your way of making me feel better, because it’s not working?” I began to move on.

“All I wanted to do was help. You see, I used to be pretty crap at it too, then someone gave me some pointers, and now I’m pretty good if I can say so myself.”

“No, you may not say so yourself. I’m fine thankyou; I don’t need your help.” I crashed into a group of people a second after saying this.

The boy helped me up, and apologised to the crowd I’d squished.

“I’m Patrick by the way. But most people just call me Bluey.” The boy informed me, as he guided me along the wall.

“Bluey? Right. And that is short for Patrick how?” Was I just stupid, or what?

“Bluey because I have red hair. Or haven’t you noticed?” Patrick said.

Maybe I wasn’t the what, maybe I was just stupid.

“I’m Aurelia, but you can call me Lia. I’ll just call you Patrick, I find that easier.” I answered.

“Okay, now that we’ve worked out that we have nicknames, how about some skating?”

After 5 minutes work, I’d let go of the wall, and I’d like to say that I was spinning and gliding and piroretting…or was that pirouette? But that would be a miracle. At least I wasn’t getting shown up by a 5 year old again.

Patrick left a couple of minutes after, saying his mum had called, so I was again left alone.

By this time I’d made it halfway around my first lap. My aunt and uncle had overlapped me a couple more times.

As I ventured further onto the ice, a skater skated passed and nearly knocked me to the ground.

I kept going, even though I could hear the person laughing behind me.

‘Argh. Typical teenagers.’ I huffed, then continued my skate with my wall. Yeah, I did call it my wall, and I believe I can, seeing as I haven’t let it go for about 10 minutes.

Just as I was entering the straight, of nearly finishing one lap, one of those teenagers went way too fast passed me, and knocked me down.

I landed with a ‘ThuUd.!’

I may be a girl, if you haven’t noticed yet, but that was not the most graceful fall that could have been achieved.

‘Hehe…haha.’ The other teenagers lolled (yes, that is officially a word in the English dictionary), and so did the person who had knocked me over. After laughing for a couple more seconds, the teenagers got distracted and skated on. Only the person who had knocked me over stayed.

‘What are you still doing here? Come to knock me over again?’ I asked, heavy with sarcasm. I looked down at my behind, realising that the melting ice made it look as though I’d wet myself. Great, ungraceful and not potty trained.

‘Look. I’m really sorry.’ The boy said, lending a hand to help me up.

‘Sure.’ Again I replied with a splattering of sarcasm. How could this teenager really be apologetic, if he’d just had a laughing fit with his mates?

‘At least let me help you up.’ He stated, as I refused to grab his hand. Instead I preferred to flop around on the ice like a dead fish, as the ice was too slippery to get up from alone.

I finally gave in, and the perpetrator helped me to the wall.

‘Honestly, I’m really sorry. I was going too fast, trying to show off to my friends.’ He explained, glancing at his friends who were on the other side of the rink.

‘I know how I was knocked over, by an idiot. That doesn’t give you the right to laugh at me, after you’ve nearly killed me.’ I added.

‘Kill you? I barely touched you. You obviously just have really crap balance.’ He retaliated.

‘Whoa, yeah pick on the cripple.’ I poked my tongue out, really mature and lady like.

‘Look. I’m sorry I laughed at you. I had to. See my friends were there, and it would be uncool if I helped you up.’ He explained.

‘That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. But then again, teenagers are like that. It just really wasn’t the nicest thing to do. At least you didn’t mean it.’ I gave in.

I think I took back the sentiment, as he laughed at me again, when I fell onto the ground, tripping over the exit of the rink.

As I got up, I punched him on the arm. ‘Shut up!’ I poked my tongue out again.

He helped me to the seats, and as I went to sit down he said

‘I’m Alexander,’ but I cut him off.

‘You?!’ I exclaimed.

‘Yes, me? What, what’s wrong?’ Unaware of my sudden epiphany

‘It’s you. At the hairdressers. I can’t believe it.’ I exclaimed, at realising that he had knocked me down twice already.

‘Hairdressers? Did you hit your head on the ice?’ Alex sarcastically asked.

‘He he, no. Today, you knocked me to the ground and left me. Remember?’ I couldn’t believe that I met him again.

“Oh. That was you?” He questioned.

“Yeah, I have a bruise on my rear end to prove it.”

“We have to stop crashing into each other; one of us is bound to get hurt.” He added.

I fumed at him for a second longer, as he had left me sprawled on the ground, then realised I was being unreasonable.

“Well, semi-nice to meet you,” I began, “but I have to be going now. See ya.” I walked towards my aunt and uncle who were already heading out, pretending as if they didn’t know the girl who was waving at them with the wet pants.

“Will I ever see you again?” Alexander asked.

“For safety, I hope not.” I replied.

He looked as if he had more to add, but I was already running to catch up with the others. Although this involved tripping over two people and spilling someone’s drink down their front.

Chapter 2

“Owwies!” I yelped, as my electric toothbrush gave me a jolt.

My aunt came running up the stairs, as I retracted the toothbrush from my tongue.

“What in the world are you doing?” She quizzed me.

“Me? Nothing. Why’d you ask?” I gave my best innocent-puppy dog-suspiciously hiding something look.

“Oh, sorry. I just assumed you had another brush attached to your forehead.”

“Aunt. Come one. I may be clumsy, but even I have standards. I don’t do the same stupid thing twice.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. Then added, “Who knew it would be so much effort looking after you? You’ve only been here two days, and already needed a hair cut, and had possible electrocution.”

I laughed, hoping that she was joking about me being that disastrous.

“You’re a tad disastrous dear.” Answering my fears. “But, we love you.” And I was relieved.

“I was just checking if you were ready. Remember, we’re going up the mountains today.” She inquired and reminded.

“Today? Mountains?” I questioned.

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten.”

“Okay, I won’t.” I joked. “No, I’m nearly ready. Just grabbing my stuff and I’ll meet you at the car.”

The journey to the mountains was more about the journey than the mountains, as there was so much traffic, that by the time we’d arrived, it was time to leave again.

“What do you say? Stay the night?” My uncle joked.

“What?” I stared in horror.

“Great idea.” My aunt answered.

“What?!” I repeated, worried that I wouldn’t have any clothes or my toothbrush, not the fact that we were up in the mountains and had the prospects of sleeping in a cabin or in a sleeping bag.

“We’ll just have to sleep in our clothes in the back of the car. We’re all good with that, aren’t we?” My uncle asked.

My jaw dropped to the ground, not liking the suggestion at all.

My aunt and uncle laughed hysterically.

“Relax Aurelia. Surprise! We have it all planned.”

Ideas:

Go up mountains

Bump into two boys again…linked? vs. not