The Brighter Side of Life

Chapter 9

Ramona's face was set in a pensive grimace. She bit her carrot viciously, crunched until there was nothing left, then bit it again.

"Have you guys ever noticed-" crunch crunch " - that the supporting characters are always more interesting than the main one? Like, do you think it's a consolation for not being the centre of attention?"

I scrunched up my face in dismissal. "After a six hour shift, I'm surprised I have the mental capacity to keep my eyes open, let alone talk about the role of supporting characters."

Mona, the terrible twosome, and I were sitting on a brightly coloured table in the youth centre that Scott volunteered at. Scott and I were both wearing our uniforms as we were coming back from a shift, and the others had followed shamelessly. Part of me thinks that it's because of Scott's awesomeness - and not their allegiance to yours truly - that they decided to stay.

Dante's face crumpled in thought, "she may actually have a point there, you know. Like, for example, if say - Kenny was the main character, he'd be totally boring. All he'd be doing is complaining about life to whoever just happens to be there. But as my sidekick, he rocks being the nerd with the obsession with writing in that book of his."

"I heard that," Kenny shouted, rooting around in the literary section of the youth club. Two seconds ago, before Ramona had spoken, he was complaining about the club's possession of (and I quote) 'the pretentious wannabe classics'.

"Of course everyone has to have a copy of Divergent. Like, give me a real classic, why don't you? Where's the Pride and Prejudice? The War and Peace? Work with me here!"

I then pointed out that he was probably one of the few teens in existence that actually wanted to read those. Mainly because we all found them boring and pretentious, and also that no-one was going to spend two months reading War and Peace like he did. Most people our age couldn't even spend an hour reading a children's book.

He simply shrugged and said that his originality was simply what was going to make Leona fall for him.

We all exchanged disapproved glances at that.

"I was counting on it!" Dante replied to Kenny's comment. It was funny how they always took the opportunity to take digs at each other. Maybe opposites really do attract.

"I've decided that I'm going to write a novel," Kenny declared, stepping out from behind the bookcase to come into view. His voice was no longer disembodied.

Ramona scoffed, "Okay." She said. "Just make sure that your supporting characters are more interesting than the main. I'm pretty sure that's how the greats do it."

This made myself and Dante chuckle.

Kenny puffed out his cheeks and sighed. I realised that he was serious when he began to disappear from my view once again.

"Wait!" I called, feeling bad. "What would it be about?"

He squealed excitedly and scurried to our table. I was forced to take my legs off of his chair.

"I was thinking about it last night," he began. "And I want it to mean something. Not just be a story, but a story with a message. An underlying meaning, you know?"

Dante nodded like he did. I mirrored his action.

"I don't know what I'm going to write about yet," he finished. "But all its going to take is a bit of inspiration."

We all took this as, "I'm going to be shamelessly observing all of you until one of you is interesting enough to write about."

Ramona groaned.