AllFreeNovel
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Now, as we all gather in the car park behind the annex building, a group of kids no longer at war, there’s a heavy sense of melancholy. Even Bram and Red have given up trying to fuck us over and the remaining kids of the HH crew have disbanded. With the King dead, and Monk put away, Bram isn’t a strong enough of a leader to keep the crew together. We’ve not forgiven either of them for the part they both played, but if this whole sorry tale has taught me anything it’s this: forgiveness isn’t in my nature but moving on is. As long as they don’t fuck with us, then we’re good.
“Good afternoon,” Cal says with a bright smile as he stands beside me.
The day is warm, and the first hints of summer fill the air carrying the smell of the briny sea up the hill and into our lungs. It might seem a strange spot to celebrate the end of our time at Oceanside, but it’s fitting. At the start of this term, Mr Carmichael had given me permission to use the back wall of the annex to display my end of year art project entitledReject.
A word that has so many meanings for every single one of us here at Oceanside.
Rejected by society, we’re the kids parents warn their children about.
We’re the outcasts, the misfits, the delinquents, the dregs of society. We’re the reprobates, the criminals, the savages no one saw fit to love and everyone wanted to avoid.
And yet when I look out into the crowd, my hand clutching onto the rope tethered to a piece of material covering the wall, I don’t feel like a reject anymore. I don’t fit into the mould I’ve been forced into. I’m not any of those labels.
I’m me. Asia Chen. Artist, friend, lover, sister, partner.
When I spot my boys, a feeling of acceptance fills my heart, warming me from the inside out. Each one of them filling a hole in my heart, plugging up the cracks, fixing me.
When I look at Kate and Pink, two girls I never believed I’d ever be friends with, I know this is just the start of many years of friendship. When I see the Freed brothers and Louisa, I see what my boys and I can become. When I witness Mr Burnside’s smile even though he’s hurting inside, I see an inner strength that I recognise in myself. And when I look at my baby brothers, I havehope. Hope that one day soon they’ll be mine again and we can be together once more.
Getting to this point has only cemented my opinion that I’ve made the right decision with my art because even though society as a whole can reject us kids for what they see at face value, the only opinions that matter come from the familyI’vechosen.
“We’re gathered here today to celebrate the end of these students’ time at Oceanside. To give them our well wishes and to support them in their future endeavours. Asia is one of our most talented students and she has been given permission to share her art with us and the future students who pass through these halls,” Cal continues, winking at me. “So without further ado…”
Grinning, I pull on the rope, basking in the reactions of the people here that I love.
Because Kate, Pink, Camden, Eastern, Sonny, Ford, me. None of us are rejects.
We’refamily.
And that word, above all others, is the one I chose to spray paint across this wall in glorious rainbow colours.
