4 Years later……………
21st September 2016
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
The sharp echo of the electronic school bell echoed through the school halls at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic High school. 16-year-old Max Firewall trudged slowly through the bustling hallway with metallic rows of lockers on each side and rays of afternoon sunlight trickling in from the narrow rectangular windows above the lockers. Around Max dozens of students whizzed past him all dressed in their neat school uniforms with green and yellow blazers and ties.
He hated year 10 English on the last period of the day on the last day of the week, especially Friday.
As Max gruellingly hauled himself up a flight of stairs, clutching his English books, he made an immediate left turn and saw the door of the room he was looking for: Room 101. He peaked inside the classroom and saw already that many students had already taken a seat and Mrs Fitzgerald had already began writing notes on the whiteboard.
He rolled his eyes. This was going to be a very long and boring class.
30 minutes later………………
Max Firewall lay slumped in his chair with his shirt untucked and top button undone with his tie loosely fitted, listening to Mrs Fitzgerald drone on and on about some guy named Aesop. He glanced around the room and saw the neatly arranged rows of tables and walls covered in posters about essay structure, grammar, and Shakespeare. Just outside the window he could see the footy field with its 4 thin white stick goalposts and saw that some of the boys had already started kicking the footy around. He longed to get out there so he could get away from whatever bullshit his teacher kept ranting on about. Looking around he could see that many of the girls and boys were also slumped over with their heads in their hands, clearly not interested in the subject matter.
Mrs Fitzgerald, a 60-year-old teacher with wispy grey blackish hair, spectacles and a grey overcoat with a white shirt, black leggings and brown loafers continued with her speech.
“As you all know Aesop was a famous storyteller who lived around 500 B.C.E in Ancient Greece whose stories had a deep and impactful meaning”.
Max rolled his eyes. Today was even more boring than usual.
“Many of his fables involved animals that were anthropomorphized, meaning given human characteristics and placed in human scenarios. While they might be animals their plight can be applied in human context and teach us many moral lessons on how to live better lives”.
Max groaned “This is so fucking gay” he muttered under his breath.
Mrs Fitzgerald pupils dilated dangerously and angrily chimed “I am sorry Mr.Firewall do you have something you would like to share with the class?”
Max’s face turned bright red. “Oh nothing Mrs Fitzgerald” he replied sheepishly stroking his long red-haired locks which he had been growing out for at least 15 months. Now his hair was almost touching his shoulders which had given him that Kurt Cobain look.
He had a deep passion for music, especially Rock and Roll, and wanted to become a professional famous guitarist and singer. In November he was going to perform an original song that he was supposed to write to an audience of around 1000 students at the end of year school award ceremony. The only trouble was that he hadn’t even started thinking of writing a song yet because most of the crap that they taught in English wasn’t exactly helpful for song writing.
“You need a haircut Mr.Firewall, seriously cut that girl hair” lectured Mrs Fitzgerald.
Max’s response was to yawn loudly and pick his teeth.
“Now everyone we are going to be conducting an in-depth analysis of one of Aesop’s fables called The Boys and the Frogs. Everyone get your pens and highlighters ready. Ms. Zhang please help past these out.”
Mei Lin Zhang, one of Max’s female Asian classmates sitting in front of him passed him a sheet of paper in front of his desk. Grudgingly he clutched the paper in his hand and studied the contents of the page which consisted of a set of small paragraphs and an image of a group of boys pelting a group of frogs sitting in a pond with rocks.
Narrowing his eyes, he studied the contents:
The Boys and the Frogs
Some Boys were playing one day at the edge of a pond in which lived a family of Frogs. The Boys amused themselves by throwing stones into the pond so as to make them skip on top of the water.
The stones were flying thick and fast, and the Boys were enjoying themselves very much; but the poor Frogs in the pond were trembling with fear.
At last, one of the Frogs, the oldest and bravest, put his head out of the water, and said, "Oh, please, dear children, stop your cruel play! Though it may be fun for you, it means death to us!”
Moral: ‘Play for one may be death to another. Always stop to think whether your fun may not be the cause of another's unhappiness’
Max scoffed and sneered at the contents on the page. ‘When the fuck will I ever need this knowledge in my life? Like I will ever need this fucking bullshit!’ he laughed to himself inside his head.
Meanwhile at St. Mary’s primary school………………….
11-year-old year 5 student Lucy Firewall wasn’t exactly having the time of her life either, almost exactly imitating her older brother’s mannerisms as she sat slumped in her chair in her blue and white chequered school uniform dress listening to her teacher Mr. Nguyen drone on and on about fractions.
Lucy was now in her penultimate year of primary school and soon would be joining her brother at high school in less than 18 months. She sat in a brightly coloured senior level primary school classroom consisting of furry fabric covered walls of a range of different colours including red, blue, green, and white and dozens of posters covering a wide range of subjects including maths, English and science plastered all over the walls. Around the sides of the classroom were shelves and tubs filled with equipment such as books, scissors, glue sticks, colouring pencils and texters. Unlike high school, the desks were arranged in a way that made the students face each other in groups of 6. In front of the classroom lay the large whiteboard where the year 5 teacher Mr. Nguyen was currently writing fractions on the board with a whiteboard marker.
“Now class if we have 3/4 +2/3 how do you think we can add this together?” stated Mr. Nguyen. “Can anyone tell me how you can solve it” he asked the rest of the class.
Lucy was not listening to a word he was saying, pressing her Mary jane black buckle shoe against the desk leg and staring out the window towards the trees and bushes, daydreaming about something completely unrelated.
She was dreaming what most girls would typically fantasise about at least once in their lifetime, being the popular social queen bee at school.
She envisioned herself walking throughout the school hallways with her head held high, smiling with a sense of superiority while other girls moved out of her away and bowed their heads in respect and gratitude, smiling meekly at her as she walked past.
One nerdy girl with large-rimmed glasses and braces approached her, clutching a stapled document.
“Hi, Firewall I wrote that 6-page report on dolphins for you” piped the girl meekly. “Do you think I can go shopping with you and add me back on Instagram?”
Lucy pressed her pointer finger to her lip, “Mmmmm let me think about it loser, but I will have to check my schedule” she sneered down at the girl.
Meanwhile Mr. Nguyen adjusted his red tie and top button on his white shirt to relieve himself a bit from the spring afternoon heat. Narrowing his eyes, he spotted Lucy staring out the window and just by looking at her eyes he could tell she had completely zoned out.
“Ah Lucy Firewall care to show the rest of the class how to solve this?” he enquired.
Lucy didn’t respond, having not quite been drawn back to reality.
“Earth to Lucy, hello I am talking to you!” barked Mr. Nguyen angrily.
Lucy quickly snapped out of her trance and quickly spun her head back to the whiteboard with her pupils dilatating quickly.
“Sorry, what were you saying?” she asked sheepishly.
Mr. Nguyen groaned having to repeat himself. “As I was saying can you solve this problem?” he asked, tapping the fractional sum with his blue whiteboard marker.
“Um 17/12” Lucy guessed wildly.
Mr. Nguyen raised his eyebrows in surprise, surely thinking he had gotten her.
“Oh, wow that is actually correct, care to show us how you arrived at that answer?” he stated.
Red-faced and embarrassed, Lucy pulled her chair out grudgingly and began taking agonising painful steps towards the whiteboard. Around 20 pairs of eyes from all the other students were glued on her.
Lucy gripped the whiteboard marker in her hand, already slippery from the sweat in her hand building up in her hand from the nervousness. She raised the tip of the whiteboard marker to the problem then slumped her arm back down.
“I’m sorry Mr. Nguyen, I just guessed. I have no idea how to solve it” she confessed hanging her head down in shame.
Mr. Nguyen’s facial expression quickly turned into an angry frown.
“I knew it! You have not been listening to a word I have been saying for the past 20 minutes, haven’t you?!” lectured Mr. Nguyen angrily.
Lucy nodded her head, shamefully.
“Go sit back down young lady” ordered Mr. Nguyen pointing to Lucy’s seat. Lucy quickly did as he asked.
“For the rest of you kids who haven’t been listening, if you were listening to me, you would perfectly know how to solve these problems. I have been going through how to solve 7 of these problems in the last 20 minutes!” he furiously stated.
“These math problem solving skills are absolutely essential when you go to high school soon within the next 15 months. If you don’t pick up on these skills by then some of you are going to be absolutely screwed!” he stated.
Lucy glared at Mr. Nguyen angrily, annoyed by his cocky attitude. She hated him for always picking on her. Sometimes she wished she could just crush him like a bug……….
School finishing time 3:30pm………….
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!
Max Firewall breathed a sigh of relief as he trudged behind the old brown-bricked 3 storey school buildings with his backpack slung over his shoulder. School was finally over, and he couldn’t wait to go home and play some Call of Duty on his Xbox.
His black laced, tough black school shoes made a hard crunching sound as he walked along the gravel pathway, winding behind all the school buildings, tennis courts, gyms and basketball courts towards the bike shed which was located right at the back of the school next to the back fence where he had parked his bike. He was so annoyed that the school management had made it so inconvenient for him by making the bike shed so isolated and distant from all his classrooms.
St. Francis of Assisi High school was quite a large catholic high school with an impressive display of school architecture consisting of old-style retro, brown-bricked buildings for English and maths to the more modernised grey and green buildings reserved for the science labs. Other buildings such as the drama theatre, performing arts building and assembly hall were located adjacent to the science buildings. Small decorative features such as green islands with trees and bushes and fountains had been placed between the school buildings. All sporting facilities such as gyms, basketball courts and tennis courts had been placed directly behind the buildings reserved for the core-subjects.
Max finally reached the bike shed after a 5-minute walk. It consisted of a simple galvanised tin-roof held up by metal poles with bike loop racks placed in neatly organised rows. Around 10 to 15 bikes were parked here.
Max took out his padlock key and unlocked his bike and helmet and placed the blue bike lock chain in his bag and then proceeded to put on his green and black helmet. Jumping on his bike he simply wheeled himself through the back school gate which was conveniently located right in front of the bike shed. From here it was a simple 20-minute ride home, crossing the road to the other side and riding along the footpath that ran directly adjacent to the railway track. However, he wanted to make a few stops along the way………
Meanwhile…………….
Lucy Firewall had also finished school now and was now waiting in the front courtyard of her primary school for her mum to come pick her up. The front courtyard consisted of a small green island with a medium sized tree and a few surrounding bushes located right in front of the red-bricked 3 storey main building and a yellow tiled courtyard. The parent-pick up and drop off zone was located just in front of the black metal fence. An entire section of the street that ran directly in front of the school had been turned into a 2 minute drop off zone. Since Lucy’s school was in Greensborough it was too far to walk. Lucy sat on the courtyard steps, grumpily with her school bag at her feet.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Lucy looked up to see her mother parked in front of the school, waving at her through the window of her Toyota Corolla sedan. She rolled her eyes and looked at the time, it was 3:45pm. Of course, her mother was 15 minutes late because almost everyone else had left.
Picking up her school bag, she trotted through the black school gates towards where her mother was parked and opened the back door and dumped her school bag. Then she opened the front door and hopped into the front seat.
Her mother smiled and said “Do you want to go to the movies, it’s Friday night? You can pick the movie and we can spend some mother-daughter time together!”
Lucy sighed “I just want to go home”.
“Ok” said her mother dejectedly, starting up the car then proceeding to pull the car from the curb into the road and drive home.
On the way home her mother enquired about why her daughter looked so down.
“Why are you so sad?” enquired her mother.
“Nothing!” barked Lucy defensively.
Rebecca Firewall narrowed her eyebrows. “I am your mother sweetheart. I can tell when something is wrong”
Lucy sighed and confessed “All the kids are being jerks”
Shocked Rebecca enquired further “What do you mean, who’s being a jerk to you sweetheart?”
“Everyone!” screamed Lucy. “Everyone is just bullying me and kicking me around! Just because I am a hardcore Disney fan who likes to draw and who’s not into the cool kids’ stuff. They’re calling me a loser!”
Shocked Rebecca replied “That is absolutely ridiculous! The whole point of going to school is to explore different skills that you love, not to copy what others do!”
Sadly, Lucy replied “Well apparently the whole point of school is to be cool, and I am just not”
The more Lucy proceeded to talk the more hurt Rebecca became. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this sooner?” she asked.
Lucy became enraged. “Are you kidding me?! You are always so busy with your stupid accounting job that you never have any time for me anymore!” she screamed.
Rebecca held her head down in shame and a tear rolled down her cheek. She knew her daughter was right, in the last 6 months ever since she had taken that new accounting job, she had barely spent any time with her kids anymore to a point that she didn’t even know what was going on in her children’s lives anymore.
15 minutes later…………….
Rebecca pulled into the concrete driveway of their brown reddish coloured brick two storey house, stopping just in front of the garage shutter door next to the green front lawn. Still saddened by the recent argument she had just had with her daughter she gave a long sigh.
“Okay Darling grab your school bag and let’s go inside” she instructed.
Grumpily, Lucy grabbed her school bag from the backseat of the car and headed inside with her mother fiddling inside her handbag for the house keys. Finally, she found them and inserted it into the keyhole and the door clicked open.
Lucy and her mother walked further down the entrance hallway to the living room which consisted of the black couches, coffee table, TV, DVD player and Xbox. Adjacent to the living room through a rectangular entrance with no doors was the kitchen with a fridge, microwave, oven, cupboards and a black countertop with plates and utensils stacked neatly in a rack next to the kitchen sink. In front of the black countertop lay the brown wooden dining table with 6 chairs neatly tucked in.
Lucy plopped herself on the couch and proceeded to unbuckle her black Mary Jane School shoes and kick them off, leaving her school shoes next to the coffee table. She then peeled her white school socks off her sweaty feet, scrunching them up in a ball and throwing them across the room landing on the floor.
Stretching her legs out, she plopped her bare feet on the coffee table, wiggling her white painted toes in the cool air-conditioned room.
“Ahh much better…” she sighed.
Her mother raised her eyebrows “Normally I would yell at you to pick your gross socks off the floor and get your disgusting feet off the table but since you told me how upset you are I think I will let it slide for now” she said.
Lucy smirked and stuck her tongue out rudely at her mother.
Suddenly they heard the adorable yapping and barking of a half-grown pup, more specifically a golden retriever. They could hear the tail-tell signs of paws scamping across the wooden floor and Lucy’s face lit up with delight when she saw the creature that came into her view; it was a Golden retriever puppy no more than 2 months old with a shiny golden yellow fur coat and a red collar with the name ‘Footstool’ inscribed on its name tag.
“Hey boy!” squealed Lucy with delight. “Did you miss me?”
Footstool responded by yapping happily and jumping up on the coffee table and began to lick her feet with his long red tongue, moving up and down her sensitive soles. Lucy began to snicker then her face turned red and started giggling uncontrollably.
“Hehe he, oh no stop that tickles!” giggled Lucy.
Footstool then got his tongue in between the resisting digits of her white painted toes, quickly dipping his tongue in and out at a remarkably fast pace, like a hummingbird tongue with a nectar flower. He made sure to get between every single toe because the best stuff was always between his mistresses’ toes, and he particularly enjoyed the taste of her toe jam and salty sweat.
Lucy started gurgling spit and started to sprawl her arms and body uncontrollably, her entire body bucking with laughter.
“Ha Ha Ha Ha! Oh, mum tell him to stop!” she laughed in between breaths.
“Down boy that’s enough” Rebecca ordered.
Footstool whined and hastily jumped off the coffee table.
Just then Rebecca received a call on her iPhone.
“Huh? Who could that be?” she asked in a puzzled tone, picking up the phone and putting her ear to the other end.
Lucy narrowed her eyes on her mother wondering who was calling her, while Footstool sat on the ground wagging his tail happily.
“Oh hi Mr. Jacobs” answered Rebecca on the other end. “Oh, you want to bring the files to the company now, is it that urgent?” she asked it a shocked tone.
Flustered she hanged up the phone immediately and hastily went to the Kitchen and grabbed the files out of the kitchen cupboards.
“Um why are the work files in the kitchen?” enquired Lucy.
“Stop Lucy, I don’t have time for this” said her mother in a stressed-out tone. “Oh Fuck, where is your brother he should be home by now!” she gasped.
Lucy made a tisk tisk sound. “Wow mum you really shouldn’t swear”.
“Shut up Lucy!” angrily barked her mother, pulling out her phone and quickly going to her contacts to call her son.
She pressed the call button and quickly placed the phone to her ear, anxiously waiting for her son to pick up.
“Excuse me young man where exactly are you? You were supposed to come home 10 minutes ago!” she said into the receiver.
“Oh, hey mum” said the 16-year-old teenage boy on the other end. “I have just decided to make a quick pit stop” he replied while he quickly licked a Magnum cookies & cream ice cream outside a milk bar. The milk bar was only 5 minutes away from their house.
“Max don’t tell me you are spending all that money you earned from delivering newspapers on junk food!” his mother lectured angrily.
“Oh, come on its my money I am entitled to spend at least some of it!” he answered back defensively.
“Look honey just come home now please” she sighed. “The company is asking me to do extra work again and I can’t leave your sister all by herself. Just promise me you will come home immediately”.
“Ok mum” sighed Max, finishing his ice cream and putting the wrapper in the street bin and putting his helmet back on.
Rebecca hung up on her son and then turned her attention to her daughter.
“Look sweetheart the company is asking me to come back again for extra work. I don’t want to leave you all alone but don’t worry your brother is going to babysit you, he will be home in 5 minutes” explained Rebecca to her daughter.
Angered by the sudden change in plans Lucy answered back angrily “I knew it! That stupid workplace is demanding too much of you, it’s taking over your entire life! And I am a tween who is almost a teenager now I can stay home all by myself!”
Rebecca sighed and kissed her daughter on the forehead and then patted Footstool on the head. “I am sorry sweety I have to go” she sighed.
She grabbed her bag from the countertop and headed for the front door.
“Bye, love you” she said waving her hand and closing the front door.
Lucy was now all alone in the house.
“This is fucking bullshit!” she grumbled angrily and then proceeded to head for the fridge because she was thirsty. Her bare feet made a slight sticky peeling sound from the sweat that had built in her school shoes and socks all day as they made contact with the wooden floor. Rummaging around in the fridge she quickly found a yellow can of Solo and headed back to the couch and put her feet back up on the table and popped it open.
Footstool jumped into her lap and proceeded to lick her face. She smiled and gave her best friend a scratch behind the ears.
“At least you like me…….” she sighed taking a sip of her can of solo.
10 minutes later……………….
Lucy gave a satisfied belch from the solo, crushed the can and threw the can across the room, not even bothering to put it in the recycle bin, satisfied with her sugary drink snack.
‘I suppose I should go finish my homework; I do have that stupid maths test next week’ she thought to herself.
Standing up, she adjusted her school dress then beckoned to her dog.
“Come on boy, let’s go to my room” she smiled.
Lucy and her dog Footstool proceeded to trot out of the living room towards a flight of stairs that was located directly in front of the living room and kitchen, on the opposite side of the hallway. The wooden staircase was a u-shape architectural type, the most common for two-storey houses, which led to another hallway with Lucy’s room on the left-hand side. Lucy slumped into her room with her school bag with Footstool following closely behind her.
Lucy’s bedroom resembled what any typical tween girl’s bedroom would look like, going from transition from young child to the first stages of early adolescence. Her room consisted of bright colours with walls covered in purple paint with an onslaught of golden poker dots. In the far-left corner was her bed next to the bedroom window, which had a flower patterned blanket and pink pillows and a blue bedsheet, all neatly organised. Near the bed lay her brown bookshelves and drawers which had all her schoolbooks, pens, pencils, and stationery stored inside and just in front of it was her study desk. She had still kept all her Disney stuffed animals which lay stacked on the top shelf; however, the toy chest had been buried in her clothes closet for 2 years and had not been opened at all. Scattered throughout her room were a few colourful beanbag cushions and fabric seated chairs. Covering the bedroom floor was a large Mickey mouse patterned floor carpet. On the walls lay some posters including her clock, calendar and a few paintings of horses, green landscapes, and a few posters of celebrities like Vance Joy and One Republic. However, her most prized possession was a beautiful enormous painting of the gorgeous classic Disney castle under a starlight, moonlight sky which was hung on the right-hand side of the room, directly opposite her bed. The painting was so enormous that it took up 75% of the space on the right wall leaving barely enough space for anything else to be hung. The clothes closet was located right next to the painting on the right-hand side.
Lucy slumped herself in her chair and dumped her school bag next to her, opening her bag and taking out her pencil case, worksheets, and exercise books and placing them on her study desk. From the top shelf she reached out and pulled out a stack of revision notes and put it on her front desk.
“I really hate fucking maths” she sighed.
Footstool crawled underneath the table and cuddled by Lucy’s feet, already closing his eyes, and drifting into a deep, uninterrupted peaceful sleep. Lucy smiled and placed her bare feet on his warm body.
“Awwwww sleepy boy?” she cooed, gently stroking up and down his back with her toes and scratching his neck with her white painted big toenail. She noticed that some of the nail polish was already slightly chipped and starting to come off, but she could apply a fresh new white coat later on. She then pressed the soles of her feet slightly into the side of his tummy since he had shifted his sleeping position onto his side and his tummy was moving up and down in a rhythmic motion due to his breathing. His body was so soft like melted butter, and the rhythmic motion of his breathing was almost like a foot massage for her, taking away all the aches and pains she had in her feet from walking, running, and jumping around all day.
Lucy then turned her attention to her maths homework. It was a set of 20 problems, all involving adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions together. She especially hated the ones where they had a different denominator because since she had not really been listening to her teacher Mr. Nguyen she didn’t have a clue how to solve them.
After 10 minutes she violently threw her pen into the table, splitting on impact and spraying a splash of ink all over the table. She was so angry; she couldn’t even do one of these problems which was a strong indication that she was going to fail next week.
“Fuck this!” she snarled. “I need a breather”.
Looking out the window she saw the rays of the spring afternoon sun and suddenly had an idea. Smirking, she looked for her magnifying glass, located on the lower bottom shelf and picked it up.
“I think I need a little stress reliever……….” she giggled.
15 minutes later……………
Max Firewall finally arrived home, wiping ice cream off his face and wheeling his way across the concrete driveway towards the gate, adjacent to the garage that led to the backyard since his bike was too big to be wheeled through the front door. Clutching on the brakes, he stopped himself a metre in front of the gate and began fumbling for the house keys in his pocket and found it, quickly sorting through the multiple keys on the key ring. Finally, he found the padlock key and unlocked the padlock, dragging the latch across and swinging the gate open.
Pushing his bike through he came across a gravel pathway and a series of 3 steps on his right-hand side that led to the side garage door. Looking for the second key on the key ring, he found it and inserted it into the keyhole, unlocking the door, and swinging it open. Carefully he lifted his bike up the 3 steps, which wasn’t too difficult since he had been going to the gym for a few months now, and pushed his bike through, parking it on the left-hand side of the garage next to the shelf of tools and pushed the kickstand into position with his foot, ensuring that it would stand upright by itself, without tipping over. With a heavy sigh he unclipped his helmet and left it on one of the handlebars.
Max quickly exited the garage and walked around the back of the house to find his sister being stupid in his opinion and wasting her time.
He was shocked to find his sister kneeling in her school dress, barefoot and holding a magnifying glass to a group of ants that was scurrying out of the anthill, located in the corner of the backyard where the grass met the concrete barrier of the backyard concrete pergola. She was concentrating the rays of the afternoon spring sun through the magnifying glass in such a way that it became a superheated laser beam that cooked the ants. He watched as the ants wriggled and writhed in pain, their exoskeleton emitting tiny wisps of steam before succumbing and dying in a pile of ash which was the parts of their body which had been burnt off.
Max rolled his eyes. He would have thought she would have stopped this childish thing 2 years ago but no, she hadn’t grown up and was still playing with the ants.
“Just what do you think your doing?!” he asked sternly.
“Oh!” said Lucy sheepishly quickly breaking out of her trance and hiding the magnifying glass behind her back. “I didn’t realise you came home, how long have you been standing here?”
“Long enough to see you wasting time!” answered Max back angrily.
“Oh, come on, I was only out here for 5 minutes!” defended Lucy.
“You have a maths test next week, have you even started revising?!” shouted Max angrily. “Mum’s going to kill you if you fail another test!”
“Umm yeah sort off…….” replied Lucy shamefully.
“I would have thought this behaviour was cute when you were 7 years old but now you are going to become officially a teenager in less than a year. Here you are, 11 years old and three quarters and still fucking around with the ants outside!” Max lectured furiously.
“Ooooh I am going to tell mum you swore!” giggled Lucy.
Max pointed to the back sliding glass door.
“Go inside and study now sis! I am not going to ask again!” he yelled.
Lucy sighed “Fine” and trudged back inside.
Max turned his back on the anthill and sighed to himself ‘Some kids just don’t know when to grow up’.
Suddenly he felt a sharp prickling pain in his finger, a painful feeling he got like someone had pricked his finger with a pin. Baffled and confused he raised his hand to his face immediately and studied his pointer finger very closely.
It was almost like a tiny metallic dart or splinter had embedded itself in his fingertip. It was a silvery shiny colour and glittered and shone in the rays of the afternoon sun. Scared out of his wits he began looking around frantically.
“What the fuck, where did this come from?” he gasped, thinking someone was playing some stupid sick practical joke on him.
His eyes focussed upon the anthill and as soon as he did, his vision became very blurry, to the point that he could barely see anything in front of him. He had also begun developing a splintering headache and felt really dizzy to the point that he could barely stand up, like he was intoxicated.
“What the actual fuck is going on?!” he gasped as his vision went completely black and he passed out.