I Am Invincible

After having been in Australia for about two weeks, it was easy to understand why so many people love it there. It’s absolutely gorgeous; I’ve been to every capital city and seen a million different beaches, cuddled a koala and fed kangaroos, seen the Opera House and climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge, met so many different and interesting people and made a ton of friends.

Jake’s band is really cool. We’ve become pretty good friends and I’m going to miss them when we go back to America. It’s hard to believe they’re all only 16/17 years old because they’re really talented. Not to mention that they’re all incredibly gorgeous. And tall. They tower over me. In fact, pretty much every Australian boy I’ve met has been tall, tan andyummy a rather handsome young gentleman. I love sitting on the beach and drooling over the surfy guys that walk past to hit the surf. I have never seen so many gorgeous boys in one spot. Jake thinks it’s funny how often I want to go down to the beach, but he always comes with me and points out random guys and asks me if I think they’re hot. Usually the answer is a ‘yes’. Sometimes Mark, Jackson and Rhys (the rest of Chase the Feeling) come down too, to play football and stuff and sometimes to go for a surf and I spend most of my time when they're at the beach checking them out. They must be very popular with the girls (and guys like me too, of course).

The only downside about being here in Australia is that I miss Zach. A lot. We talk pretty much every day but it isn’t the same as him being with me here, or me being with him back home. I want him to come over and stay with us for the last week of the tour, but it’s too far to travel to only stay a week. However, I am in the process of convincing dad to let me stay here for a while. I don’t want to go back to school in America just yet; I’m loving my time in Australia and I’m not ready to leave. Being here without having to think about my past year is doing me the world of good and I think that if I spend more time here, before I know it, I’ll be completely back to normal… well, as back to normal as I can get, given the circumstances. I’ve talked to Zach about my plan and he’s all for it: just as long as he can come and stay with me before he has to go start college in about five months time. Of course, I don’t mind if he comes over. I want Jake and everyone else to meet him, since I talk about him constantly (when I’m not fainting over the hot Aussie guys). I don’t know how they haven’t got sick of me yet when all I do is babble on about how I miss him and everything. I think dad’s about to crack and let me stay here. I heard him on the phone to mom yesterday and he seemed kind of defeated when he kept saying “okay… yep, okay… yeah, but… yeah…right (et cetera)” over and over again so I think maybe she was convincing him to let me stay. I think what dad’s most worried about (which is totally ridiculous, I might add) is the fact that Zach will be staying here and looking after me. Not because he thinks I’ll be unsafe or anything with Zach, but because he’s scared of the things we could be “getting up to” when we’re left alone together, even though he knows that we’ve already done everything at least once before. I honestly don’t know what goes on in my father’s head, but I don’t think it’s very sane, whatever it is.

I was thinking about all of this while watching Chase the Feeling do their sound check for the concert tonight when dad walked in and sat down next to me on the floor which would be packed with people in less than four hours time. I was playing a game on my phone and didn’t look up until I finished the level. Pressing the red phone button, I looked up to find dad staring at me.

“Yes, daddy?” Everybody makes fun of me for calling my parents “mommy” and “daddy”, but they can go jump off a bridge cause I’m not going to stop calling them that any time soon.
“Your mom convinced me... you can stay,” he said dispassionately. I jumped into his lap and threw my arms around his neck shouting “thank you, thank you, thank you” into his ear. “BUT! We think it’ll be better for you to stay somewhere near people you know. So if you decide to stay, we think you should go down to Kiama where Jake and the guys live and stay down there for the duration. It’s a much smaller place than Sydney and there’s much less chance of you getting lost. What do you think?”
“Yes, yes, yes! Thank you! I have to call Zacky!”
“Whoa, hold on. How long are you planning on staying?”
“I dunno. Ooh. What if I stay for their school year? I can do tenth grade here. Go to Jake’s school, maybe Zach can get some part-time work or something?”
“You want to stay here for a year and go to school?” dad asked sceptically.
“Yes. I do. I don’t want to go back to school at home. Not yet, anyway. And I want to graduate before I’m 20, I can’t do that if I don’t go to school,” I reasoned.
“Okaaaaay? Well, do what you like. Your mom told me that we’ll be paying for accommodation so you won’t need to worry about that…”

I squeezed him tightly (seeing as I was still on his lap), “Thank you, daddy! You’re the best dad ever!”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said with a hint of a smile, “Now go call Zach; I know you’re dying to.” He pushed me gently off his lap and stood up. I picked up my phone and found Zach’s number. Pressing the green ‘call’ button, I wandered out of the concert hall and waited for Zach to pick up. When he did, I explained everything and we both got really excited. He decided to book a ticket for next week and got off the phone to do that straight away (Zach’s apartment block is probably one of the only places in the world that doesn’t have broadband internet; it sucks). After telling him that I love him and miss him about eighty times, I hung up the phone and squealed with delight.

I couldn’t wait to see him again. This was going to be a long week.