Australia - An Ashton Irwin fanfic

Chapter 1

I awoke to the sound of my alarm clock, making its loud, nauseating BEEP as the digital numbers switched to 5:30 AM. As much as I wanted to be annoyed at the earliness on a Saturday in August and hit the SNOOZE button, I really didn't have a right to. This year, my loser of a high school was actually having a pretty great opportunity to study abroad in Australia for the school year while some kids from Australia were going to spend their school year here at our high school in Hillview, Massachusetts.

When the announcement was first released in May, the offer was only up for seniors which put me out of luck since I was going to be a junior this year, but in mid-July, the school board thought "it would be a great way for every possible student to learn different cultures around the world" while every possible student saw it as "a great way to party and meet hot people with Aussie accents and have a fling". Me, I just wanted an excuse to get out of my house. I mean, don't get me wrong; my parents are nice and all, but it's hard to have a good conversation with them when all they talk about are their patients and the different types of treatments they could do.

Both of my parents were doctors in Hillview Hospital (ranked number one in the state of Massachusetts and top ten in all of New England) and they were amazing at their jobs. That's actually how they met; my dad was my mom's patient when she was just an intern and he was about to graduate with his Doctorate in the medical field at Harvard. My mom always says "If it was someone else hooked up to that IV, there would be no way in hell I would consider going on a date, but your father was just to cute, how could you say no to that face?" with the same line being followed from my dad "And look at where that date got us," and then they made out. Okay, maybe that's a bit exaggerated but they do kiss and no kid likes seeing their parents getting all gooey and lovey. They, along with the school board, also thought it was a great chance to visit (as they call it) "a remarkable country! You don't get to go to Australia everyday!" And I would reply with "If you live there, you do" which resulted in them getting upset for being snarky towards them but they wanted me out of the house as much as I wanted to be out of it.

I rolled out of bed and hit the alarm off and trudged over to my closet. Thank God I packed a few nights before because I would have been screwed if I had to pack now and get to the airport all within an hour. My three luggage backs were sitting by my bedroom door and I made sure not to trip over them since I was still in a sleepy daze. The night before I had hung up my outfit for today that way I had nothing to really stress about but getting to the airport in Boston on time.

A pair of athletic shorts, sports bra and a tank top were propped up on a hanger and I switched into them quickly. There was no point really in dressing up nice since we were just going to be on a plain for about twenty-two hours. Our plane departs in Boston which (thankfully) is only about a half-hour away from my house. So once we depart, we fly for around six and a half hours to San Francisco and then we fly for 14 hours to Sydney. My mom ran this through with me so many times in the past month, that it was burned in my brain.

I heard a knock on my door as I was finishing putting on my shorts.

"Juliette, can I come in?" I heard my mom say in a perky voice.

"Yeah, sure." She walked in gleefully and gave me a tight hug before I could even say good morning. Her hug was so tight, I felt like my lungs were literally being crushed, so I attempted to hug her back.

After ten seconds, she pulled back. "Oh sweetie. I'm so excited for you! This is such a great opportunity. I'm sure you're going to make a lot of new friends." That was one of the main reasons she wanted me to go. She and my dad often thought I was a loner. Being called a "loner" isn't exactly something a kid wants to be told by their parents, because that means you're doing something that would make them think you're awkward if they were your age. It kind of sucked knowning I was giving that impression to them. Sure, I didn't like going out to group outings with my friends, but I just don't like going out at all that much. That's not particularly my fault....