Narelle's Scope

Sydney, Australia's most inhabited metropolis, was full of jobs and education. A vibrant environment, popular with tourists, it was a spirited center for urban life. Sydney was Australia's oldest and largest city, and was extremely multicultural, and Sydneysiders generally led good lives. Sydney was the perfect place to live, full of character and brilliance.

My name is Narelle Fludder, and I'm a Sydneysider. I think I should start this from back when I was thirteen years old, and we were off from school for the summer. I had made plans with my friend Zackery to go visit Sydney Aquarium, which was something the both of us did together whenever we had free time. Both of us were interested in those sorts of things. Zack didn't live very far from where I lived, which made trips to his house really easy.

I darted toward his house, huffing, and when I reached my destination, I stepped up to the porch and tried to catch my breath. Then, I knocked on the door and waited there for an answer. After a few seconds, I heard the sound of footsteps from inside the house, getting closer to the door.

"Who's there?" Zackery asked from inside the house.

"Narelle, Zack!" I answered, still panting.

The door opened and revealing my friend Zackery Kipling, who was the same age as me; he was a couple of inches shorter, though. He had an orange plastic coffee stirrer in his mouth, and he considered that his signature trait. He'd been chewing on those stupid things for years. He even had a collection of them, no joke. He stepped out and greeted me with this sad expression on his face.

Zack had sort of a unique appearance, partly because of the way he dressed; his favorite outfit consisted of a black running jacket that was highlighted with yellow and lime green and which he kept unzipped with the collar standing straight up, and under that he usually had on a black T-shirt, and a pair of black cargo pants, and he had a shock of pitch black hair. But the thing that stood out about his appearance more than anything was the color of his eyes; Zack had extremely rare violet eyes.

"So, are you ready to go?" I asked.

"Yeah, pretty much, I guess."

"OK then, c'mon!"

Both of us set out, entering the active streets of Sydney. Our surroundings were really pretty, with lime green trees and a bunch of buildings that looked kind of like a bundle of mirrors because of the way the light reflected off them. The whole area was kind of maze of big mirrors, in fact. Zack shuffled his feet and shoved his hands in his pockets, keeping his eyes half-lidded and fixed on the sidewalk. Then, I shot him a puzzled look, wondering what exactly he was thinking about. He took his hand out of his pocket a few seconds afterward, then he played around with his stirrer and sighed.

"Hey ... are you OK?" I asked.

"Huh?" he said, raising his head up. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine ..."

I really didn't believe him, but I just figured it would be best to leave it at that, because Zack was stubborn anyway, and if I pried, he was probably just going to throw a tantrum. We kept on walking, and several minutes of awkward silence passed. Zack rubbed his eyes and groaned. I really wanted to talk to him, but I was just afraid; I was scared that I'd make him feel even more bad. Just then, we were both surprised when a mischievous voice called us.

"Narelle! Zackery! How's it going?" a guy with black hair and eyes capped with yellow cat's eye contacts chimed, strutting up to us with a smug leer.

"What's up, Kethry?" I answered, trying to be as nice as I could even though neither of us really liked the guy.

"Yeah ... what's up?" Zack sarcastically said, scowling at him.

Kethry Audrey was a boy who went to school with us. We both knew him ever since preschool, which the three of us had attended together. Kethry's black hair was spiky, and it looked ashy and sooty. Because he kept wearing those creepy contacts, I didn't exactly remember what color his eyes really were. He had sort of a washed-out skin color because he was anemic. He was just slightly taller than Zack, maybe by half an inch or so. But much like Zack, he usually wore dark colors.

"Nothing, really ... I'd just been taking a walk and I saw you. Are you out on one of your dates?" Kethry teased us.

"Shut up, you bastard. You know me and Narelle just always spend time together. That's just what we do, OK?"

"Of course, of course ... it's nothing to get all mad over. I was just joking," he snickered.

"Yeah, you do a lot of that," I said.

"So I do ... well then, I guess I should get going. Catch you two lovebirds later."

"Ah, screw you, Kethry!" Zack barked.

"Heh ... temper, temper. Bye, now!"

Smirking, Kethry turned around and left. Zack seethed, frustrated at his attitude. I giggled at how irritated he got around Kethry, but I perfectly understood just why he was so irritated. Kethry had always enjoyed playing cruel tricks and acting unkind toward other people, especially Zack; in preschool, me and Zack were playing a game, and Kethry kept bugging us to let him play with us. Neither of us really felt up to the idea of playing with him, but we figured it was the only way to get him to shut up about it. Zack ended up winning, then Kethry pushed him, then picked up a nearby toy and threw it at him, striking and bruising him across the head.

I petted Zack's head, snuffing out his fiery attitude. He really had a bad temper, but it was sort of fun seeing him get all riled up. He easily got mad over the stupidest things sometimes.

"C'mon, let's go," I said, taking hold of his hand and dragging him along our path.