Out Of This World

Something warm and heavy was placed on my stomache and I smiled at the soothing heat.

Only my smile wouldn’t come. My face was numb, frozen into hypothermia.

“Kim! Kim darling can you hear me?” I forced a raspy groan as Grace reached to move some hair from my face. There was a brisk cracking sound as a chocolate strand snapped easily in two. Bugger.

“Oh you’re going to be late for school!” she clucked, “And I’ve already made your breakfast. What a waste!” Grace has issues. She can’t waste things, like actually, physically, mentally, psychologically can’t. Everything in my house gets recycled if not used; keep the tap on for more than 3 seconds and you get Grace tutting at your shoulder about children in Africa. Don’t get me wrong, she’s really a very sweet woman, but we all have our problems, right? Some are just more…tedious than others.

“You left the window open Kimber,” she said, flinching as her fingers brushed my skin, “We’re gonna have to put you in the bath.” My nerves screamed in prostest as the hot water bottle was lifted off my stomach. I felt my shirt being wrenched from my skin and unbuttoned as quickly as numb fingers could. After my shirt was off, Grace made for my trousers. There was the sound of ripping fabric as the bottom half came off while the top remained stuck to my hips.

“Well…now you have something to wear during those hot summer nights, love,” Grace optimized. Soon I was being lifted by my arms and legs as Grace and my father carried me plank-of-wood-style to the bathroom. I could feel my body instantly being to thaw as the humid steam made contact with my skin.

“We’re gonna put you in now, ok?” Dad said gently. There was a thud as my legs were dropped, bashing off the bottom of the bath.

“Gently Mark!” Grace scolded,

“She slipped! Ice is often slippery!” Dad argued.

The rest of their tussle was silent to my ears as I basked in the glorious sensation of being thawed. Slowly, the ice melted off each of my limbs and the frozen nerves came back to life. I breathed a sigh of content as my lips turned from blue to a rosie pink. I opened my eyes and watched crusts of ice from my lashes flitter down to float on the surface of the bath.

“How’re you feeling?” Dad asked worriedly.

“Great,” I smiled, then catching the look both parents were giving me added, “Im sorry for scaring you.”

“How many times have I told you to keep the window closed?! Especially during winter!” Dad yelled, his voice coming out harsher than intended as it ricocheted off the bathroom’s tiled walls.

“And what’s more you left the heater off! What were you thinking? We almost had to get Ben!” Grace added. Dad’s body stiffened at this. He was quite the Alfa male.

“She obviously wasn’t!” he muttered, getting to his feet, “Grounded, til Friday.”

“I think the Friday after would be more suitable,” Grace put in. Dad agreed. Standing up, she threw a lemon coloured towel at me before exiting the room after her husband.

Fine. I almost freeze to death and you punish me for it.

As you might have noticed my parents weren’t ones for sympathy.

My hot bath didn’t last very long. As my body temperature went back to normal, the bath grew increasingly cold which I obviously didn’t notice until icicles began to collect at the bath’s sea-blue sides. Disappointed at how short lived bliss could be, I reluctantly climbed out of the tub and dried myself off before heading to my room to get ready for school.

Just as I was searching for my tie, there was a knock on my door. I instructed the knocker to come in and was surprised to see it was Ben.

“Hey,” I said, throwing him the Metallica hoodie I had borrowed three months earlier, “What’re you doing here?” Ben took a seat on my bed and stuffed the hoodie into his school bag.

“I came outside and was startled to find that for once I’d made it out before you. Grace told me what happened. Do you erm…need anything?” Interpreting what he ment by ‘anything’ I quickly shook my head before asking him to get up; producing my tie from where he’d been sitting.

“I guess we’re late then?” I stated more than asked.

“As always, but later.” He replied, watching me do my tie at a break-neck speed. “Could you do mine for me?”

“Yeah, on the train.”

“We missed it. We’ll have to grab a taxi,”

“On the taxi then!” I said, scooping up my bag and slinging it on my back.

I ran down stairs and yelled a goodbye to dad when Grace stopped me from proceeding any further.

“Breakfast.Eat. Now.”

“I don’t have time Grace I’m gonna-“

“Waste food? I don’t think so. Eat it before I make you.” Ben sniggered behind me and Grace produced a slice of toast and Vegemite which she practically threw at him. “Ben will help you,” she smiled.

Rolling my eyes I folded the toast in half and stuffed it length ways into my mouth before beginning to chew as grumpily as possible.

“Swallow,” I gulped down the toast leaving a nibble under my tongue. “Good girl,” Grace smiled before ushering us out the door. As soon as we got past the house I spat the morsel into the nearest garbage bin. Ben laughed,

“You’re so imature,”

“Whateva Treva.” I said lowly, showing him the residue left on my tongue. Ben closed my jaw before shoving my head away.

“Grotesque,” He muttered in his best English accent.

“TAX-AYYY!!” I yelled, flailing my arms about at the passing vehicle. The car stopped and we both climbed in.

“To school!” Ben announced, pointing forwards through the dashboard.

“Ashwood Secondary College,” I told the driver before leaning back and buckling my seat belt.

Ben flung open the taxi door just as the bell rang. I threw a few notes at the driver and hopped out dragging my bag with me. The weather was icy with Antarctic winds blowing straight through my ribs. I fished out my woolly hobo gloves from my blazer pocket with shaking hands and coaxed them on before stuffing my hands in my pockets. I was pretty much fully covered. Hopefully no one would try to touch my face. As we entered the school, the heat of nine-hunded thoughts smothered Ben like an army of electric blankets and soon he was wrestling his jumper off and stuffing it tediously into his bag. I glared at him in jelousy.

“Feeling warm, Benjamine?”

“Just a bit,” he smirked, “Watch it, your lips are going blue.” Still glaring, I covered my mouth with my hands and blew the hottest air I could muster into my palms. The hottest air being about 14 degrees.

“Here,” Ben said, unwrapping my scarf from around my neck. Balling the wool into his hands he lifted the fabric to his lips and breathed on it before raveling it around my face. I glared at him through the wool but voiced a muffle of gratitude all the same. Second bell sounded and we were well and truly late.

I walked into mentor to the monotonous sound of morning register.

“Kimberley,”

“Here.” I called taking a window seat and leaning against the wall. Jack attempted eye contact several times but I ignored him. He stopped when Roxy turned and groped for his attention. Literally. I watched her from the corner of my eye as she flicked a piece of jet black hair from her face and laughed at his expression. She acted as if it was all a joke, but we all knew it was to remind the females of her rule over the male gender. I scoffed under my breath, hastily covering my mouth as a puff of frost eminated from between my lips.

Roxy was devil spawn with an awesome name. She was the revolutionary scene girl, the rocker chick, the hardcore metal-head super skater woman- the girl who made it popular to be emo. I hate labelling, but Roxy labelled herself, and her cronies with an unspoken stereotype of royalty. I disliked her very much. She was one of those people who’d be a royal bitch to you in a way that if you talked about it, you’d sound like some pathetic little cry baby.

Like I do now.

Anyway…

The school day passed in a whirlwind of chaos and confusion as usual. Ben would mind-read his way to the top of every class and I’d lecture him (provoked by the injustice of it all) about how it would never get him anywhere in the real world, and he’d take it routinely, seeing my point and responding with an indifferent:

“I don’t really care, Kimmy.”

Then I’d reply with a “Don’t call me Kimmy, Benjamine,” and he’d say,

“My full name’s not Benjamine, Kimberley,” and I’d either:

a) Go silent in a huff or

b) Call him some random name with ‘loser’ slapped on it’s random end that I’d take 0.0005 seconds to generate in my random brain.

It was halfway through one of these imature displays of debating techniques that Alice stepped in and invited us both over to her place after school. Ben made up some lame excuse about muffins in the fridge whilst I immediately responded with a,

“Sure!” that I really hoped didn’t sound creepily enthusiastic. Alice smiled, said she’d look forward to it and told me to meet her by her Jeep after school. I watched as she turned and walked to end of day mentor, auburn hair swishing from left to right in the centre of her head. Behind me, Ben inhaled sharply,

“Well, enjoy being interrogated by Mr. and Mrs. Theraputic Kimmy,” he said with a smirk.

“Meh, Alice is worth it.” I said cooly, reaching into my locker. Ben bent down until his lips were barely a centermetre from my ear,

“Alice, or Hayden?” he teased. I glared at the back of his walking figure as he made his way to his form class.

Hayden was Alice’s step brother. They’re families had been conjoined by marriage since Alice was four, so no one could really remember what life was like without him. I, on the other hand, didn’t even want to try to remember what life was like without him. Sigh.

---------***---------

“Hayden’s at Rugby,” Alice smirked, hoisting her bag higher over one shoulder, “But he’ll be back before you leave,” I tried to act unconcerned but I couldn’t fight the twinkle in her eye from coaxing a small, blushing smile onto my lips. Lifting my gaze from the freshly manicured lawn, I was disappointed to find a silver Lexus parked in the drive. One of Alice’s parents were home.

I walked in to have the warm smell of baking envelope me in a hug. Alice dropped her bag on the floor and I did the same before following her into the kitchen. Mrs. Burke was there, sitting at the scoured marble counter on a shiny black bar stool while Juliet, Alice’s cousin unloaded some chocolate chip cookies from the oven. Much like her house, Mrs. Burke looked implausibly clean and correct. She had ebony hair pulled into a tight bun that made her look proffessional and business like even while she was wearing a pink wooly jumper and a pair of loose grey trackies. I tried my hardest to subtly hide behind Alice as she bent down to give her step-mother a peck on the cheek.

“Kim! I didn’t know you were coming over! Here, have a cookie,” I cringed inwardly as Mrs. Burke caught sight of me over Alice’s shoulder. Juliet held the cooling tray up for me and I gladly took a cookie before turning to Mrs. Burke and smiling a hello. She smiled back in salutation, scrutinizing my every move through her dark framed spectacles. I let out a mental sigh whilst putting the cookie in my mouth and beginning to chew as sanely as possible.

“Ow! Holy shit Juliet these are hot!” Alice squealed, flinging the cookie haphazardly back onto the cooling tray,”How the hell did you manage to put that bloody thing in your mouth, Kim?” I shrugged, thinking of an excuse as inconspicuous as possible. I didn’t have to, Mrs. Burke made one for me,

“She’s not a drama queen, that’s how,” she said, glaring at the cookie crumbs as if they would leap out and give her AIDS, “Clean that up Alice, and mind your language,”

“Sorry step-mother,” Alice said, rolling her eyes. Juliet offered me another cookie which I carefully declined,

“I’ll grab some more later,” I said.

“Why aren’t you at work anyway?” Alice questioned rather rudely. Mrs. Burke gave her a cold stare before placing her magazine down and cooly taking off her glasses,

“Three of my afternoon patients cancelled and I took the chance to show Juliet the nearby Universities.” She went back to reading Women’s Day, a silent dismissal. Alice shrugged, grabbed a few cookies and walked out the kitchen. Just as we got to the hall, Mrs. Burke called me back.

“Kimberley!” she called.

“Yes Mrs. Burke?” I replied, walking backwards into the kitchen.

“How’s your friend Benjamine coming along?” I was a little surprised yet all the same relieved that she hadn’t decided to ask me how I was handling childhood neglect.

“Um, he’s ok I guess,” I said.

“Using his stress ball and doing his exercises I hope?” she prodded,

“Yeah, all the time,” I lied. Ben never did his exercises for the main reason that he didn’t need to. Mr. Burke thought the reason Ben would swear so fluently and carelessly in public was that he had Coprolalia. The real reason was that he just didn’t care. Take me as I am and love me for eternity- that was Ben’s motto. Plus, I learnt 75% of the inappropriate vocabulary in my brain listening to Ben’s dad tell us war stories for half an hour, so how could Ben know any different?

“And how are you, Kimberley?” she asked; her face was plastically sympathetic as I cursed violently in my head. I zoned out completely, nodding every so often and thanking her for the advice after being dismissed. Exiting the kitchen, I wanted to tear my hair out and hang myself with it.

---------***---------

I froze, dropping the cookie I was holding to the ground.

“Shit.”

“What?” Alice asked lowly,

“I’m ment to be grounded!” Alice started laughing,

“Oops.” She smiled. I was just getting to my feet when the chirrup of the Burke family’s excessively irritating door bell rang up the marble staircase. I heard the mummble of low voices as I began to open the door and instantly recognised them as Juliet and Ben’s. I stayed where I was and waited for him to come up.

“Oh, hey Ben,” Alice smiled, twinkling her fingers in salutation, “How’re your muffins?” Ben stared, one hand frozen while ruffling his hair.

“Oh! Yeah, muffins. They’re fine.” Alice laughed forgivingly. She understood and hated how pressing her parents could be. Ben returned a smile of thanks before turning to me,

“Your parents said you were grounded,”

“Yeah! I just remembered I was coming home-“

“Don’t worry about it I told them it was a drama thing.” He said, gesturing cooly. I stared at him.

“Ben. I don’t take drama.” Ben shrugged,

“Not my problem mate,” I huffed, running an aggravated hand through my tangled hair. Alice pulled me back into her room and I fell with a thud as she sat on the floor. It was then that something descended from the gates of heaven and christened my eyes to see nothing but impeccable beauty. Hayden walked in- shirtless. I would’ve squealed if my tongue wasn’t frozen to my pallet.

“Hey Alice do you have a-“ he spotted me and Ben on the ground, “Oh shit sorry, didn’t realise you had friends over. Hey Kim, Ben.”

Ben rolled his eyes at me before turning around and returning the nod Hayden shot at him. Deciding unsticking my tongue wasn’t such a good idea, I did the same and Alice looked at me as if I was trying too hard to be cool; which I was, sorta- nodding like a total jackass was way cooler than unsticking my tongue and flicking frozen spit into his eyes. After collecting a spare protractor from Alice, Hayden leftme shaking the room and Ben informed me that he wasn’t to stay long; the motive for his visit was to pick me up and return me home since my parents were out grocery shopping. Hugging Alice goodbye I got to my feet and scooped up my bag before trudging through the squelchy lawn to Ben’s ute. We got in and I held my hands eagerly next to the heater.

“Trying a little too hard to be cool back there Kimmy,” Ben smirked, turning on the ignition and pulling out of the drive. I rolled my eyes,

“Pssh. You know me, Benjamine. I’m as cool as it gets,” and I leaned over before looking smugly into his eyes and pecking his cheek blue.