Smoky sky

RELAXING AFTER THE EXAMS

It was that day that Charlie realised that she had a photographic memory as well inhuman strength when she gets angry or her life is in danger. This life seems to be getting better and better, Charlie mused to herself.

Charlie confidently sat her final exams. The tests were easy for her, since she had reread all the textbooks and memorized all novels, poems and essays that have ever been taught. She was very proud of herself, she did not waste a single brain space and ultilise her ability at speed reading and photographic memory completely.

After the final exams, Charlie and her three girlfriends huddled in a comfortable booth inside their favorite café. The café is within walking distance to their school and right next to the train station, this has been their haunt for the last two senior years. The café is homely with a generous exhibition of artworks hanging on their walls and prices marked at the bottom of each.

Charlie looked around in appreciation of the artworks before asking, “Tara, your painting is gone, has it been sold?”

Tara blushed a lovely crimson color, her large and long thick lashes fluttered shyly, making Charlie gaze linger in admiration.

“It got sold on the day before my last exam, I couldn’t believe it since it has been up for months. I was very happy and had extra energy for the last exam,” said Tara humbly while a brimming with her signature wide smile that make her already beautiful face shine greater.

The girls squealed in happiness and hugged Tara tightly, so excited that their talented friend has gotten recognition for her work. Originally, Tara who is an academic tyrant painted a lovely pattern mimicking the traditional black henna patterns, but on a whim decided to fill the gaps with pretty shades of yellow and pink in traditional indigenous dotted method. The end result was a harmonious and beautiful painting, everyone in class had gathered around heaping praises upon praises for Tara’s talent.

Even the art teacher suggested that she enters the painting into the school competition. Tara is beautiful but actually quite bashful, so she initially hesitated until Charlie wore her down and she finally submitted it before the due date. Low and behold, the painting won the competition on its originality and ability to combine traditional art styles into a modern and aesthetic piece.  

Winning the competition gave Tara the confidence to agree to put this painting up for sale after Charlie persistently wore her down. The day they approached the café owner, she gasped, it was so beautiful that she was sure it would sell well. The kind elderly lady suggested that they list it as a starting price of one hundred dollars, which is already quite high for a new no name artist. If there were multiple interests, then the parties had a chance to put in a higher bid to win the artwork.

“So, tell us, how much did it get sold for?” asked Suzy with great curiosity. Charlie looked at Suzy and smiled, trust her blunt and oblivious friend to ask about money. Suzy is a lovely girl, straight forward with a tom boy personality.

She is the adventuress of their group, always daring and going forth to do whatever she wanted without much thought or hesitation. Charlie really admired Suzy, she lived without restraint and seemingly no regrets. Being around Suzy is easy, she often says random things which can irritate others, but she is normally quite oblivious about it.

Suzy also has the special ability to listen without reading too much into people’s words and overthinking, so she never takes anything to heart and goes through life happily. This makes Suzy very likeable and naturally their social butterfly that lets this group of nerds to blend in and socialize somewhat. Charlie mused, if it wasn’t for Suzy’s entertaining behaviors, their highschool years might not have been so fun.

Hearing Suzy’s question, Tara blushed even more and shyly said, “Not much, just three hundred dollars.”

The girl’s eyes widen in amazement and Suzy shouted loudly, “oh my god, that is so much more than the listed price! Did you break some record for place! Tara that is amazing!”

“Shush, that’s so loud, everyone is looking at us!” whispered Tara in embarrassment.

“You should be so proud, hey everybody, this girl is a new inspiring artist, she just sold a painting her, isn’t she incredible?” shouted Suzy as she looked around at the other customers.

Charlie also looked around and saw that the café is quite packed, and people are smiling, she nudged Mon and they started clapping. Others in the café joined in and soon the initial awkward atmosphere became jovial with a round of applause and shouts of congratulations from the random customers.

Tara is blushing but beaming in smiles, her confidence shot right up, feeling very happy. When the café owner came over, she gave the girls a platter of crispy fried wedges with sour cream and sweet chili sauce. This was their favorite dish that these high school kids can afford, being generous in size and within their budget.

Charlie and Mon had decided to splurge on an iced chocolate with extra whipped cream to share and shouted Tara with a strawberry milkshake to celebrate. Suzy pouted, she is on a diet so she can’t have those yummy creamy drinks, so she opted for a diet cola instead.

“Let’s go to the night club my sister told me about to celebrate?” said Suzy, the party girl of the group to the nodding heads around the table.

“Yes! But I’m still seventeen and don’t have an ID?” Charlie said sadly, she really is eager this time around to go partying. Last time she adamantly refused, but she had serious regrets when she heard about how much fun it was and there was even a shooting incident! Clearly everything will be okay, and she had missed out on such a fun topic of conversation, which the girls bought up every time they met up.

This time around, she must go and celebrate twelve years of schooling together with her best friends. After highschool these girls all attended universities in different states and then started working in those states. They rarely got a chance to get together, probably once or twice a year during public holidays and festivities. Thinking about this made Charlie slightly depressed a small frown appeared on her charming face.

The other girls collectively groaned, that’s right, Charlie is the youngest in their year, having just recently turned seventeen! Now their collective first experience of a nightclub is foiled!

“Hmm…my cousin may have some connections, I can ask her?” Mon offered with a cheeky smile. That’s right, Charlie smacked her forehead, why didn’t she think of this before? Mon’s cousin is a famous beauty, a year above theirs.

During the last two years of high school, they heard of legends of how she tamed a gangster and captured a young businessman. The story her mysterious cousin became legendary for the girls in their grade. This had created a trend of girls trying to date local gangsters and guys pretending to be gangsters to get a girlfriend. Charlie’s group didn’t participate but enjoyed listening to gossips around the trap.

“Yes, our plan is saved! Mon, our celebration rest in your hands completely!” said Suzy as the girls collectively nodded with wide smiles. Having settled the matter, they turned their attention to discussing their exam questions and answers.

Charlie sat back and watched her friends talking with great animation, she felt very satisfied to feel this sense of carefree and world of possibilities again. This feeling existed once in your life, at this age where the world is your oyster and youth feels like anything can be achieved.

This feeling lasts until we experience the real world, where the day to day task of working and surviving is challenging enough. If we are not careful, bills, mortgages and commitments can really suck the carefree and daring out of our lives. In turn, this makes our world smaller and our views narrower and we become lost in the day to day mechanizations and dwelling on trivial issues that are representative of the core issues.

Charlie felt a twinge of sadness at the reality that she experienced and gratefulness that she can change her trajectory a little.

After the girls finished their spread, they separately took the train back home. Mon and Charlie live in the same suburb so proceeded to walk home together.

Mon is a tall, slender girl, with a beautiful face and extroverted personality. She is most worried about her thick wild hair and constantly trying to tame it. Charlie finds her hair the most charming but no matter how she tried to convince her friend that insecurity is difficult to shake.

On the other hand, Charlie is vastly insecure about her height. She is petite and below average height. Despite having a beautiful face and well-proportioned body, Charlie continues to feel insecure about her height. It is difficult to not feel intimidated by people around her when everyone is at least a head taller than her and she always has to literally look up to them!

Hanging onto Mon’s arm, Charlie who is half a head shorter than Mon, leans on her coquettishly as if they are a loving couple as they walk together. Mon finds it strange, her friend who is normally so uptight and proper has been super clingy lately. Though it is unexpected, she is happy that they now seem closer than before.

“Mon, let’s go on a trip together, over the summer before university starts?” Charlie suggested. In her memory they had such an amazing experience and so much fun that she wants to relive it. Also, she has an ulterior motive. She wants to convince Mon to study overseas with her at one of the world’s most prestigious university, but that would mean taking risks and Mon is not much of a risk taker.  

“Sure, let’s look at where we want to go. I’ll draw up a schedule and we could work out the costs. Oh, this exciting! I’m pretty sure my parents will let me come! I’ll add to the list to ask then,” she said with a wide smile, her eyes curved into half-moons.

Always a planner, Mon quickly took initiative to plan and book their trip. Last time Charlie didn’t know what to do because she never travelled, but this time she knew exactly what to do to help.

“What are your plans tonight?” asked Mon during a lull in their conversation.

“I have a dinner date with Louis, tonight is a good night to break up, we’re both done with our exams,” said Charlie in a nonchalant tone.