Lighting Fires

Towards the end of primary school we were running out of things to do on the weekend or in our spare time.

A group of friends and myself would just ride around on our bikes in search of fun stuff to do. We enjoyed making sparkler bombs but they cost money. In our pockets would always be a lighter to light the sparkler bomb up.

We previously lit a bush land on fire by mistake, lighting up a massive tree causing the fire brigade to come. Hurrying off on our bikes like we were about die, before anyone could blame us for it.

We decided to light small fires just because they were amusing. We would use sticks, leaves and pretty much anything we could find. At the end of every day our clothes would always smell like fire.

The real fun of lighting fires was spreading out the smoke so nobody could tell its a fire and get us in trouble. Riding around doing our own thing would always lead to lighting fires, which turned out to be most days. Every fire we did we made sure to put it out afterwards and slowly were making them bigger and bigger.

On top of this we would still make sparkler bombs with our spare money. One of the most amusing thing to watch was when we would get doggie poop bags and light the bottom of it, causing the plastic to drip while still on fire.

On the hot days we would go over each others house and continue to get up to mischief. I had two back yards one was behind my backyard and was over grown with grass and weeds. This was part of the sewage drain for emergencies.

We would lite parts of this on fire because it was really easy to go up and we had a hose to put it out. I also had these tiki torches and lawn mower petrol. We would fill my bird bath up with petrol then use the tiki torch to light it. Because the bird bath was on wood chip we would use my door mat to suffocate the fire instead of using water which could splash it down.

My friend slept over mine one night and we had been playing with fire in my 2nd back yard all day. My mum got home after working all day and night. She had a look outside and there was smoke everywhere and the whole back yard was on fire. Lucky enough we managed to use our hose and get rid of it after a few hours.

You would of thought by that I would of learnt my lesson.

I continued to make small fires around the neighbour hood with my friends. One day I was with only one of my friends and we were at our primary school which we did most of the fires around.

The school had just finished cutting back all of its trees and had a massive stack of dry wood and leaves. Of course we lit this on fire, the fire was huge almost out of control. For no reason the kindy teacher was in her class room and came out yelling at us. We managed to put the fire out surprisingly easy, she identified us to the police.

I went back over my friends house the next day and the police came. They were going to give us a juvenile warning and a fine. We denied everything and my friends dad and mum said we were with them all day. With out photographic evidence of us doing the fire we were unable to get into any trouble.

We all stopped lighting fires all together because even though we didn't get in trouble, we learnt our lesson.

First Day of High School

I arrived in the car at the side gate of this huge building. Everything looked so new and expensive compared to my primary school. I was lucky enough to have a few people from my primary school in my year. My friend picked me up from my house before, so we could arrived there together.

Their dad had a look at the board to see who was in who's faction. I was confident going there with a few friends but I got told I was in the faction by myself. All my other friends had at least one friend in there with them and this made me uncomfortable.

We all got called into this huge dark room with hundreds of seats where we were told to sit down. From here the teachers introduced themselves and our factions were called out again. I was a little bit scared but I knew there would be people worse off.

After leaving this dark room we had to make our way to our houses. This is when I truly felt alone and intimidated by other people. We all gathered around and walked off, I stood towards the back of the group just to be safe.

We all got to the oval where I had a good look at everyone. I remember instantly thinking that everyone looks like weirdos. The peer support leaders who where just older students helping us, introduced themselves.

Our group had to go on a tour around the school where a few people talked to each other but most people kept to themselves. It seemed that I wasn't the only one alone in this group. Even though I had this tour I was still clueless on how to get around this school.

Recess came and we had to go to canteen area where we got given the stingiest food I have ever seen. I went with my friends who had met people in their houses who seemed like alright guys. When they asked me how my house was going I said everyone seems gay but I guess I don't really know them.

For the rest of the day we where doing group activities to try get us to talk each other and become friends. We were all so bored, then lunch came and once again we got stingy food but this time it came with a juice box.

After lunch the leaders where excited but we had no idea why. We walked to the front and there were tug of war ropes everywhere. Everyone got excited even the teachers and all the other houses came down. It was house vs house and when it was our turn we kept on getting flogged. Regardless of us getting flogged everyone was excited and having fun. I enjoyed this ending to the first day of high school and was looking forward to coming back

My First Job

I walked in on my first day nervous and clueless as to what to do. Despite the fact that I caught the bus there with my brothers friend who had already worked there or that my brother works there I was still scared. They had already seen me before with my brother but I never have seen them.

 I walked up to the counter with my feet tapping knowing that this wasn't school I wasn't expected to be making mistakes. I popped my head around the to see if I could see anyone when I see this range who looked like a clown say "It's little Raxy."

Immediately I felt more comfortable, I walked around the counter and into the office where everyone was sitting on buckets or standing. Everyone shook my hand, introducing themselves. Everything looked so different from the inside instead of being on the other side of the counter.

I was told by the store manager who was just sitting on the computer to follow one of the managers as he showed me around. After walking around the store I just stood around fairly uncomfortable and nervous.

After standing around for 10 minutes or so the manager gave me a booklet to read about the job. I finished this booklet almost half an hour later and walked back in. Everyone was still standing around and joking until a few customers came in. Almost instantly everyone acted professional and moved to there positions.

I was told just to sit down and watch South Park on one of the employees laptop. I grabbed one of the big yellow step up blocks that I mostly have only seen in places like Kmart and Coles.

For almost the whole day I watched South Park and people came to watch when there was no customers. My brother came in towards the end of my shift just to see how I was going. When i finished my shift I said goodbye to everyone and was a whole lot more confident with my next shift.