Circling Jupiter

pt. 1 // welcome to sherry coast

hi! i've had the idea for this story for SO long and i've had this chapter typed up for a few months now! poppy and jupiter (the main chars) are my babies and i'm happy to finally write about them! i have my major high school exams this year and i'm hoping this can be a nice stress-reliever for me to bring these characters to life. once again, they're my babies and i'm so happy to finallY UPLOAD THIS (:

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"Just two red apples please!" I yelled to Mrs. Finch as I ran across the street to her wooden set-up. Crates of bright yellow bananas, vivid red apples, and punnets of strawberries were laid out across the slabs of wood pieced together with rusty nails.

"On your way to school, darl?" she queried while packing up the fruit into a paper bag. I nodded my head in reply while trying to dig into my pockets for change. Pulling out two 50 cent coins, I placed them in her outstretched hand before grabbing my apples and fleeing down the bitumen sidewalk. I yelled out a loud 'thanks' as I did.

My hair blew furiously behind me as the wind lapped at my bare legs and arms. I had remembered to apply copious amounts of sunscreen this morning, knowing that today's sunshine was going to be scorching.

The weather today was going to be amazing, I could already tell. Looking out past the pier, I could see the fisherman boats already starting to depart and the nets being thrown into the clear water of the lake. Just across Lake Shoalman, dots of people furiously worked through the fields, hoping to collect as much produce as they could. And beyond that lay the tall curvy slopes of Mount Idris that housed most of the native plants and animals. Bright sunshine illuminated from behind it, making the tops of the mountain appear to be showered with flames.

After much running and crossing of roads, the gates of the school finally loomed over me. Pushing it open with one leg and holding the lock open with my hand, I quickly crawled into the school and made a mad dash for the main quad.

"Where have you been, Pop?!" Posey called out to me after hearing the soles of my sandals loudly slap the concrete, annoyance laced in her tone. "You weren't even up when I left the house this morning!"

That's Posey, my younger sister. She has straight black hair and dark eyes that are decorated with dark-rimmed glasses and fake eyelashes laced with dark mascara and dark eyeliner. Can you tell she loves dark shit?

"I woke up late! But I did stop for apples though!" I announced, holding up my paper bag proudly. She tsked at me before jumping forward to grab the bag, with a huge grin on her face.

Beside Posey were Flo ("Florence") and Zach ("Zachary"), my two best friends. All four us have grown up and lived all of our lives in Sherry Coast.

We grew up with the sand, the fish and the constant smell of salt water embedded into our hair and skin. Our childhood was frolicking in rock pools and collecting broken seashells, charming the socks off of fruit-pickers in exchange for red apples, learning to surf on the beach with slabs of wood as boards, jumping into the water from the muddy banks of Lake Shoalman, and staying up late on the beach to watch the clear sky's stars.

The bell, sounded by Ms. Greer, started to furiously ring, interrupting my conversations with Flo and Zach. Picking up our backpacks and cleaning up our mess, we ran across the quad to the brick buildings.

Sherry Coast isn't big. It's that type of tiny town in the middle of nowhere where everyone seems to know everyone, and everyone seems to know eachother's business. There's only one of everything. One post office, one medical centre, one doctor etc. And despite having "one" of everything, we lack one school.