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3. New Friends


Yani- July 3


It was a most trying day.

I really couldn't understand why I was so-- testy---- today. I felt like snapping at all these little kids who were asking questions.
I didn't of course.
But holding myself back was even more frustrating.
So when class finally let out, I was more than glad to be heading home.

Diego had been a man of his word.
Not only had he managed to charm my family into letting me do work at Santa Lucia Orphanage, he'd gotten me the gig itself.

Yes, I admit I was entertaining notions that he'd be spending the summer working side by side along with me, but aside from the first day when he'd walked me through Inigo, the town where we lived, to the orphanage-- I hadnt seen much of him at all.

I could almost hear my friends laughing at me.
And indeed it seemed foolish.
The fact that I'd spend the first half of last week trying to get my family to stop embarrassing me and pushing me together with Diego--
Then spending the second half wondering where he was.

But when I'd said that Diego was a workman-- I hadnt know what kind.
I thought, like many of the young man here, that he would be a carpenter for a big company in the Bogota city.
Close...
But not close enough.

Diego Santoro was the of the foremen in-charge of the construction of one of the biggest malls that Bogota had ever seen.
Though I though he'd spend his time half-naked being tanned in the sun, I saw him going to work one morning looking spiffy in a dress shirt and stylish black pants.

'Thinking enough, Yani?'

'Oh hey-- Diego-- what's up?'

'I thought you'd be heading home by now, so I thought I'd come meet you halfway and take you for a cold drink-- it's devilishly hot today, isnt it?'

His english was flawless.

'Yeah, thanks for that. Heat always makes a school day much more challenging because the students are more hyper-active and prone to tantrums and--' I paused, realising that I was yabbering on.

Matt had hated that.

In fact, I remembered that the night that we broke up-- it was one of the things that he'd flung at me. Of course he'd apologised immediately after-- but it wasn't enough-- the damage had been done.

'Yani?'

'No, nothing.'

But before I got to flustered, he placed a hand on mine-- I was turning red-- I thanked God for the heat for the first time that day, at least he wouldn't know why I was so embarrassingly red.

'I'd like to hear about your day...' he said softly.

+++


Rach- July 03


Of all the places I could have applied for my internship, I chose South Africa.
When we first landed in Cape Town, I was awestruck.
It was a city that I hadnt expected to see in Africa.
Pretoria was the capital of South Africa, but Cape Town is their legislative centre.

I'd been enjoying a half year holiday at Echuca, Victoria when the other girls had left for their destination.
I felt bad that I didn't get to see them before they left-- but I just knew it was make me teary or chicken out from going to Africa.
I didn't read that Literature book-- I always forget the name-- for nothing.

But I've always been drawn to Africa.
And as a second year nursing student, I'd wanted to do my internship where I could make a difference.
So I signed up to the Young Medics (YM) who do great work in Africa, Asia, rural Northern Territory and some of the smaller islands around Australia.

It's my birthday today.
And well...
I suppose I'm a bit sad.
But happy too.

'Hey there, I'm Bishop.'

The girl with her sandy blond hair and friendly blue eyes greeted me.

'Bishop? That's an unusual name, I'm Rachael. Unineteresting at that,' I replied ruefully.

'Yeah, my parents were chess freaks. I've got two brothes named Rook and Knight,' she cringed at the admission, 'I'm from Cornwall, England.'

'I'm from Australia,' I replied, still laughing at her parents' quirk.

It was hard to ignore Bishop. She seemed to draw the people towards us with a flip of her hair, a generous smile or a tinkling laugh-- I chose to stand back and let her make friends for the both of us.

By the time that we got briefed and sent on an orientation program, we'd made friends with Paul, from Brisbane, Jamilla from Canada, Rusty (girl) from Texas, and Poppo-- I think that was his nickname-- from Sydney.

'Welcome, youngins',' the organiser, Felicity James, said with a big smile on her face, 'welcome to Cape Town. Enjoy your day here-- because tomorrow we head out to rural Africa... also-- while you enjoy yourselves, take a good look around you. These are your workmates, yourfriends and your family for the length of you stay.'

I grinned.
I already knew that I liked the people I'd met.
Especially with Bishop by my side, I knew that no one would even dream of picking on me.

'Hey Blue, move.'

I turned, and found Poppo grimacing as he tried to shift a suitcase past me.

'Uh-- my name is Rach,' I said brightly.

He nodded but didn't cast me a second glance.

'Hey Blue can you do me a favour and carry this for me?' without waiting for a response he dropped a guitar case in front of me and walked away. I quickly picked it up and followed him.

'Why do you call me Blue?'

'Coz you're a red-head,' he said in true Australian logic.

'My hair is light brown,' I corrected him.

He stood up to his full height-- about six one or two, and stared at my hair like there were snakes growing out of it.

'Whatever you say Blue.'

+++


Emi- July 3


I don't understand how I can be so sick.
I'm supposed to have gone to Rome for the weekend to visit Camille, but by goodness the pollen's just gotten to me.
Considering I hardly get hayfever, and I'm in a city rather than the suburbs, I think its absolute madness.

There was a knock on the door.
I couldn't be bothered getting up, but yelling out 'Come in' was pointless since I'd locked my door.

I stumbled out of bed and practically crawled to the door.

'Yes?' I asked, sticking my head out of the door.

British boy stood there grinning at me like he didn't have a care in the world.

'Hello there,' he greeted me.

Stupid boy with a normal coloured nose.

'Hi, I don't mean to be rude but I'm feeling awful at the moment-- can you come back later?'

'Did you break up with your boyfriend then?' he said sympathetically, 'well he doesn't know what he's missing I for--'

'What?' I interrupted.

'Well you look like you've been crying...'

'It's the pollen,' I said, turning even redder than I'd begun, 'allergic reaction.'

'Oh alright then, hold on. I'll be back in a tick,' he said before disappearing down the corridor.

I sniffed into my tissue.
I didn't even know the guy.
Aside from a few mornings of eating breakfast together-- or me eating breakfast and him sleeping on the table-- we'd had little interaction.
I don't know why I was bothering.

He came back out of the door which I noted was only three doors down from across the hallway.

'Here you go,' he looked so proud of himself, 'its for allergy relief. I looked kind of like you when I first got here. German flowers are dynamite.'

'Thanks,' I said, surprised.

'No problem. I'll be back later to check up on you-- did you want something for lunch?' he said heading towards the stairs.

'No I'm fine. Hey wait!'

'Yeh?' he turned to me, a smile playing on his lips.

'What did you want?' he raised an eyebrow, I reddened again, 'I meant before when you knocked on my door.'

His smile widened, 'don't worry about that. I'll talk to you about that letter when you've woken up from your nap.'

'Alright,' I said awkwardly closing the door and heading back to bed where I read the instructions for the tablets before taking them.


I woke up feeling a bit better.
At least the incessant need to scratch my eyes and nose had become just a mild annoyance now.
I struggled to get up and check the time on my mobile.
Two-thirty.
My stomach grumbled.
I'd been asleep for two and a half hours.

'Room service!' a voice called, following two knocks.

I tried to suppress a grin as the British voice was again recognisable.

'How're you feeling?' he asked handing me a bowl of chicken soup.

'Thanks for this, a bit better.'

He was tall. Less than six foot-- but seeing as though I'm only 5'2 he was tall enough. In the tiny room it would have been too easy to be claustraphobic, but the grace in which he moved to the chair made him feel less intimidating.

'Hey, what's your name?' it occurred to me that I still hadnt found out his name.

'Silly of me, I'm Armaud,' he said, laughing at the fact that he'd failed to introduce himself, 'and you are?'

'Emily. Nice to meet you.'

My hand, warm from touching the bowl was taken by his cold hand and I felt a shiver run up my arm.

+++


Camie- July 4


I can't believe Emi's not here when I need her.

OF COURSE I feel bad that she's sick in some hostel while I'm here sunbaking in the apartment complex' swimming pool-- but I need her.

She would have made me feel better.
She would have told me that everything was alright.
That when I saw Johnie tomorrow, that nothing else would matter and my mind be free of any doubt.

Kei would've been disappointed with me.
Yani wouldn't have known what to say.
Rach would've teased me.
But though she doesn't like to talk a lot, it was always Emi's presence that calmed me.

The phone rang.

'Hello?'

'Hey Camie, get dressed-- we're going out.'

I nearly laughed out loud at how presumptious Trina was. I didn't really mind that she was far off base from me, or that I wouldn't have ever been friends with her had we been back in Australia-- and in fact, I kind of liked how different she was from the other girls.

'Where are we going?'

'Going to have a picnic with some of my friends.'

'Is... is Sandra going to be there?' I asked cautiously.

'She sure is. Now get ready, I'm coming by to pick you up in an hour,' she hung up on me.

She thought I actually wanted to see her again.
After she knew full well that Johnie existed between us.

I suppose I couldn't blame her.
It was my fault.
A stupid fault, but a fault anyway.

It had been two nights ago.
Against my better judgement, I went clubbing with Trina and her friends.
I never did it back home, but I thought-- heck it's a holiday, better make the most of it, right?
I didn't expect Sandra Contello.

I didn't even know that Trina had friends in Johnie's circle.
Though I might have expected it.
Though Trina was a year younger than me, and three years younger than Johnie-- Sandra was the ame age as him and the older sister of Trina's best friend Sophie.

She was a bitch.

I don't even know how I managed to tolerate her.
The night was spent eyeing each other up.
I resisted the urge to tell her to just take a picture.

Halfway through the night, she approached me.

'Ciao.'

'Ciao,' I replied, smiling. I would have been willing to be friendly to her if she hadn't been so rude.

'You're Johnie's friend from Australia,' she said with a slight accent.

'Girlfriend,' I corrected her.

Okay, maybe I was being a bit of a bitch too. She didn't seem to mind, she shrugged her stupid slender shoulders and flicked back her long, long hair.

'I don't think I'd be able to do that.'

'Do what?'

'Go out with a guy, when I couldn't personally keep tabs on him...' she replied, flashing her eyes at me.

'I don't need to keep tabs on Johnie. I trust him,' I put emphasis on that last sentence.

It was true to a point.
Yeah, we've had troubles.
Jealousy doesn't happen without a reason you know.
All couples go through that stage.

But I knew that trust was important to him.
And it was to me too.

'How perfectly... naïve.'

'Spit it out Sandra,' I gritted my teeth.

'All I'm saying is that there are girls here in Roma who wouldn't mind a piece of your boyfriend. And I cant say I'm that far down the list.'

I wanted to slap her.
But I controlled myself.
This wasn't the time for violence.
I smiled and allowed a random guy pull me to the dancefloor.

+++


Kei- July 04


I sat at the back of Jenny's mustang once more, this time for a five hour long road trip to Turtle Cove Beach.
I felt extremely... relieved.
That's the word.

Relieved that we werent in a minivan that Julia had told me we were planning on hiring, instead of the two separate cars.

At about eleven-thirty a.m. on Indepedence Day, I met Brian's best friends Avery Jacobs, Duncan Loggs and Jed Patterson.

They're all very friendly.
All very funny.
And all very hot.

I'd have to say Avery is the funniest.
He'd gotten out of his car and did a double-take when he saw me.
He didn't even wait to be introduced, he just picked me up and hugged me.
I didn't mind.

Duncan is probably the hottest.
Not that there was a lot between the boys.
In fact, I didn't have much of an opinion, I had to take Julia's word for it.
The moment I saw him eyeing Jenny I knew there was something going on there.

Jed Patterson is the friendliest.
He didn't mind at all when Jenny and Julia threw themselves at him talking at a million miles per hour-- he was their favorite.
He smiled at me and gave me a hug, not as massive as Avery's but just as friendly.

I watched Julia when she interacted with him.
But if she still had the crush on him, she must be a very good actor.

'So what do you think of the boys?' Jenny asked.

'They're really nice,' I replied sincerely.

'Nice? They're more than nice!' Julia replied.

'Ah. Yep, well I've never seen a hotter or friendlier bunch of friends,' I attempted to quelch Julia's disappointment at my lack of enthusiasm.

'That's more I like it! Besides, you'll need to like them. They'll be your company for most of the summer,' she said.

'What exactly does that mean?' I said, stiffening.

'My boyfriend Joshua is coming up to stay with us.'

'BOYFRIEND?'

My cousin, who couldn't keep her mouth shut for more than two minutes managed to withold the information that she had a boyfriend for two weeks?
Impossible.

'We've been having a fight--' she blushed, 'I didn't want to mention it unless things worked out.'

I was a bit hurt that she didn't feel she could confide her problems in me.
I must not be that good at acting, she was looking at me from one of the mirrors.

'don't look like that Kei, I just didn't want to upload all my baggage onto you when you just got here.'

'Fair enough,' I replied.

We arrived at Turtle Cove just after six.
The sun was high in the sky and the small town streets were packed by holiday makers celebrating the Fourth of July.
We'd come today in order to see the fireworks.
From what I understand, we were coming at the end of tourist season.

The hut/shack/cottages were next to each other.
So much so that from one room of the house, it was only 3/4 metre jump into a room of the other house.
Both were two storeys and three bedrooms.

I found a kindred spirit in Avery.

'Can I join you?' he asked. I looked up to find green eyes smiling down at me from dark brown hair. But no matter how cat-like his features made him, his smile was pure kitten.

'Sure,' I said.

He passed half of a sub that he'd made.

'Wait,' he said before I could shove it into my mouth, 'Do you like anchovies?'

'Love them,' I replied.

He relaxed, 'eat away.'

+++


A/N: What can I say people I hope you're liking this summer. Bring on the roooooomance. love kei