Worry Rock, chapter 1

I've always known that I'm not exactly pretty. I don't look like one of those model cover girls that you see on all of those top shelf Playboy magazines that one of my best friends Tre is obsessed with.

But I was always one of the ok girls in my class. I was funny and I was good at a few subjects without being called a dork and I was friends with Billie Joe and Tre and Mike who were three of the most popular boys in school.

I liked my new high school. And I hated the one I'd had before. I used to get hateful and upsetting things yelled after me because I was different and because I liked punk rock music.

But then I went to a new school where people were friendly and they didn't back away from me with my purple and black hair and band tees and cut offs.

The labelers at my old school wouldn't accept me into their group, because they said my band weren't real punk. They said that my band and me had turned emo. And as much as I hate to admit it, I guess they were right.

But at my new school people accepted me for who I was. I wasn't really like Billie and Tre and Mike. But we were into the same music and that was cool.

Billie had gelled bright blue hair and had just bought some new converse, which were shocking pink and bottle green. He always looked so cool, and I'd always had a crush on him but he had no idea. The problem was, all these beautiful blonde girls in our class had massive crushes on him too, and so I didn't have a chance.

Then there was Mike. A bit of a smartass, but still a great friend and a really funny one too. He was always there for me when I needed him most, and he was the only one who knew about my crush on Billie. I'd told him because I could totally trust him. Basically, you couldn't ask for a better friend.

And lastly, there was Tre. He was wild, outgoing and hilarious. Whenever someone threw a house party and we went, you always knew that Tre would show up wearing something extremely funny. Like last time when this girl Lisa invited us to her house party. Tre showed up in these shocking pink Playboy boxer shorts, a blue cape tied around his neck and his bright red converse shoved onto his feet.

Everyone except Lisa and her friends burst out laughing when Tre started running round the house, his arms outstretched and making airplane noises with his mouth. Most of Lisa's friends just tossed their hair and muttered,
"So immature." Lisa was speechless.

So that's Tre for ya. You can see they're great people to be with. But, after a while, everything started to go wrong. Let me tell you how . . .

Billie and Mike and Tre and me were sat at our desks at school, which were all clumped together.

"So, you guys, remember. It's the Hayseed Mall on Saturday for Christmas shopping, right?" I reminded them. They all nodded slightly.

"We'll have a look round, then we'll split up and buy each other's presents," I continued.

"Then we'll all meet up at Night Wish and get sodas," Mike added, getting more enthusiastic.

Night Wish was this soda place, which had just opened at the Hayseed Mall. It did brilliant sodas and candy.

So that Saturday we all went over to the Hayseed Mall and looked round all of the stores. Then we eventually split up to buy stuff for each other. I didn't know what to get for them. I knew what sort of things to get them. I'd get Billie some kind of male chunky jewelry and I'd get Mike some hair product: Dye or gel or wax or something. And Tre. Well, Tre would be getting something silly but sweet, like an oversized teddy or a Superman outfit.

I looked around for a while and once I'd got them all something, I went over to Night Wish and waited for them. Billie came. Tre came. Mike didn't come. We had a soda each. Mike still didn't come. We had another soda. Then another. Then we got candy and threw it at people. But Mike still didn't arrive.

After about an hour and a half, we went and looked round for him. Guess where we found him. Guess what we found him doing. And guess who we found him with . . .