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  Julia Jones

  The Teenage Years

  Book 1

  Falling Apart

  Katrina Kahler

  Copyright © KC Global Enterprises Pty Ltd

  All rights reserved

  Julia Jones is a typical teenage girl. She wants to fit in, have friends, be loved and happy. As you follow her journey, think about the choices she is making. Think about how you would act in the same situations and challenges.

  Table of Contents

  Frightened…

  One month earlier…

  Changes…

  The return…

  Doubts…

  First day back…

  Something is not right…

  Embarrassment…

  Dad, where are you?

  Fear…

  Decisions…

  The party…

  Unexpected…

  Guilt…

  Frightened…

  I stared in horror at what confronted me. The likeness was uncanny. It had the same long, brown hair and hazel eyes as my own, but the ghoulish grin was hideous. Numb with shock, I stood there, my mind reeling with confusion and panic. It took every last reserve of self-control, to contain the frightened screams that I felt bubbling inside. My mouth agape, I could not take my eyes from the ugly figure that had been shoved into the back of my locker.

  It was a child’s toy, a remnant from a long forgotten doll collection, but it had been remodeled to resemble me. A scattering of light freckles had been dotted across the nose and cheeks, probably with a permanent marker. In addition, a dirty brown stain had been drawn on the side of one leg and I glanced down at the birthmark that covered the inside of my own thigh, the mark I’d been tormented about from a young age.

  That hideous smile, the evil smirk that was painted on, made my skin crawl. But the most disturbing and horrific detail was the fact that there were three long, thick sewing needles protruding grotesquely from the torso and two more had been thrust brutally into each side of the head.

  With a gasp of realization, the words ‘voodoo doll,’ entered my mind. I had read somewhere that African tribes had once used this type of witchcraft to cast spells on village members. In many cases, the victims became violently ill, and sometimes the effect was so intense that people actually died.

  Then, without warning, everything went black.

  One month earlier…

  This couldn’t be happening! This sort of thing happened to other people, not me!

  White faced, I stared at my dad.

  “Are you for real?” I thought to myself. “One week before Christmas and you drop this bombshell on our family!”

  Speechless, I glared at him, my eyes turning dark with anger. My mother used to tease me about the color of my eyes when I was younger. “Black-eyed Suzie,” she used to call me. According to her, that was the color my eyes turned whenever I was angry. But I hated her taunting. I hated that expression and it just made me angrier to hear her using it. That would only encourage her to tease me further. I used to really hate my mother for that!

  But now it was my dad who had to bear the brunt of my evil look.

  Seriously, how could he do this to us?

  Without a word, I ran to the sanctuary of my bedroom and slammed the door shut. Throwing myself down on the bed, I grabbed hold of the tattered and worn teddy bear that still sat forlornly propped up on my pillow, the one remaining stuffed toy that I would always keep. And I broke down into a heart-wrenching sob.

  My world as I knew it was ending. It was a nightmare I wanted to wake up from and never experience again. But I knew that was impossible.

  At that moment, I just wanted to disappear.

  Changes…

  As I lay there, my pillow drenched with tears, I stared longingly out the window. My mom had tried comforting me, but I just wanted to be left alone. Nothing she could say would help.

  It just wasn’t fair! Surely there was another solution. I knew that my parents had money problems, especially after Dad lost his job. I’d overheard them whispering several times during the past few weeks, and then they’d cast guilty glances my way as soon as they realized I was within earshot.

  “What’s going on?” I’d asked, curiously.

  But my mother’s reply was always the same. “Oh, nothing darling. Nothing for you to worry about!”

  I can’t believe they’d kept it from me. And then right before Christmas, Dad decided to break the news.

  “We have to move back to the city. I start my new job in two weeks’ time.”

  My life as I’d come to know it, would not exist anymore. It was bad enough that I’d had to sell my beautiful pony.

  “We just can’t afford to keep her here any longer,” Dad had tried to explain.

  That was three months ago and I was still aching with misery at the loss of my beloved friend. That’s what she had become, the one constant figure of trust in my life. The one on whose friendship and loyalty I could always rely. And then, in the blink of an eye, she’d been whisked away.

  The memory of the horse trailer driving down our driveway and out through the old wooden gate, would haunt me forever. And in my dreams, I could still hear her whinny, her morning call when I would rush out to the stables to greet her. Her warm breath nuzzled my hand as she looked for the regular treats that I always had ready. She had been the light of my life but just like a candle in the wind, that light had been extinguished with one quick puff and was now gone forever.

  A sudden cold draught burst through my open window and I jumped out of bed to close it. The temperature had been unseasonably warm for that time of year, and I had opened my window earlier in the day to welcome the rays of sunshine that danced on the patterned rug beside my bed.

  As I stared out onto the grassy fields of our twenty hectare property, my heart filled with sadness. There would be no more horse riding, no more hanging out in the stables with friends and no more living in what I had come to call my home.

  We had moved there, three years earlier, leaving behind our family home which was situated in the township of another state, over a thousand miles away. It could have been on another planet, the distance was so great. Once again, it was Dad’s job that had forced us to be uprooted from everything that was familiar. I recalled the vivid memory of being told I had to be separated from everything I knew and loved; my home, my school, my friends. And it was my two best friends, Millie and Blake, who I had found it hardest to say goodbye to. I remembered how distraught I had been at the thought of not being able to see them each day. Millie was my closest friend ever and Blake… he was my one true love.

  That was how I had felt back then. But with the passing of time, our friendship had gradually been reduced to an occasional phone call at Christmas and birthdays. It was then that I realized Millie’s birthday had just recently passed by and I had completely forgotten about it.

  Glancing towards the myriad of photo frames that adorned my bookcase, I spotted photos of Millie and I, so happy and totally inseparable; BFFs was what we had once called ourselves. Then another image caught my eye. I reached for the photo that sat towards the back of the shelf, the one that was covered in dust. His handsome face stared back at me. The beautiful warm smile that had once
made my heart melt, still managed to create a small, familiar flutter in the pit of my stomach.

  I remembered the devastation I had felt at being separated from the boy I loved. He was my soul mate, the one to whom I could tell anything, even my deepest darkest secrets. We’d promised that the distance would not keep us apart, but over time, life had just seemed to get in the way. And according to Millie when we last spoke, Blake had started going out with someone else.

  To return to that old life was not something I had ever expected to happen and I knew that it could never be the same.

  A gut wrenching fear abruptly took hold and I shivered with apprehension about what lay ahead.

  “I’m not moving!” I screamed loudly. “You can’t make me move again!”

  With frustration and anger, I thrust the photo frame I was holding at the closed door, the glass shattering into pieces all over the floor. Through tear filled eyes, I glared angrily down at the image of Blake’s smiling face, staring happily back up at me.

  Then, feeling totally distraught and completely overwhelmed, I burst into uncontrollable wracking sobs.

  The return…

  When our car pulled up at the driveway of our old house, the one from my past life, I stared from the window in disbelief. The sick feeling that had wormed its way into the depths of my being felt ready to erupt. I had hardly spoken a word over the past weeks. My mother’s anxious looks, followed by her desperate attempts to console me had been of no use.

  Miraculously, Dad had found a buyer for our country property almost straight away, and we’d had to pack and move as quickly as possible. I hadn’t even had a chance to return to school after the Christmas break to say goodbye to everyone, and it was only my closest friends who I’d bothered to call.

  It was all just too heart breaking to even think about right now but what was annoying me most was my brother’s whole attitude towards the crisis. I’d thought he would be even more upset than me, but surprisingly, he had managed to handle it all really well.

  “I don’t mind going back,” was his response when he heard the news. “It’s too boring out here in the country, anyway. And besides,” he’d added with a grin, “there are so many more hot girls at my old school!”

  Girls! I swear that’s all he thinks about these days. It’s actually a miracle that he even manages to get any schoolwork done. And moving in the middle of his final senior year obviously is the worst scenario ever. But he doesn’t seem to care and it really annoyed me not to have his support. Out of everyone in the family, I seemed to be the only one who didn’t want the change.

  “She’ll be okay!” I had heard my dad say to Mom the other night. “Just give her some time, she’ll adjust.”

  Well if he thought I was going to be happy about the situation, he had that totally wrong! He had no idea what it was like for someone my age. Having to sell our farm and return to our old home in Carindale was all so humiliating. What was everyone going to say? What were they going to think? And apart from that, I was not looking forward to going to a new school.

  Mom had tried to convince me that it would all be great. “The new high school that’s been built while we were away looks amazing. And as well, Julia, we’re so lucky to be able to move back into our old house! You’ll have your bedroom back again and we can do it up just the way you always wanted.”

  I guess I should be grateful that my parents had decided to keep our house when we moved. A family from out of town had been renting it the whole time, but had recently bought their own place so it was available for us to move back into. At least that was something in our favor.

  I followed my parents inside and trudged up the old familiar staircase to my bedroom. Situated at the end of the hallway was the panelled green door that led to my private place, and I raced towards it, desperate to have some time on my own.

  Bursting through the door, I was hit with the nostalgia of my childhood. The teddy bear wallpaper still decorated the walls and my old pink curtains hung loosely from the window frame. I remembered choosing the fabric. The little white flowers surrounded by a pretty pink background had been my favorite and I was so proud of the outcome when they were finally fitted to the window.

  Recollections of the endless amount of time I had spent staring out onto the garden below came to mind and precious memories flooded my thoughts. It was as if the past three years were totally surreal and hadn’t even happened. Visions of Millie and Blake and the times we had shared filled my awareness and I wondered what their lives were like now.

  So many times, I had considered calling them or trying to keep regular contact but I always seemed to have more important things to do. It had been so long since we’d last spoken. Surely though, they’d be happy to see me and have me back? We used to be so close. Perhaps my mom was right and everything would all just fall into place. I felt a spark of hope lift my spirits ever so slightly and then, a vision of Blake, his arms wrapped around my shoulders as he hugged me close, crept into my mind.

  Maybe, just maybe, things could return to how they were. I felt my lips twitch, a small smile forming at the corners of my mouth. And then I remembered that Millie had said Blake was going out with someone else.

  Three years had passed by after all, so what could I expect? Not that I had found another boy to replace Blake during that time. As I turned to face the open door, something caught my eye. It was a blue scrawl on the wall next to where my bed used to be positioned. The tiny heart I had drawn, all those years ago still remained in clear view. And the letters inside reminded me once more of the romance we had once shared... JJ Loves BJ

  Julia Jones Loves Blake Jansen…would I ever find another boy as special? Somehow I felt that did not seem possible!

  Doubts…

  I decided to give Millie a call.

  “Hi, Millie!” I imagined the words I would say. “It’s Julia – you remember me…your long lost friend? Well, guess what! I’m back!”

  “OMG, Julia!!! This is the best news I’ve ever heard!!” I pictured her smiling face in my mind, the face that I remembered so well and the reaction that I so desperately needed to hear.

  Picking up the phone, I keyed in her number. It was amazing how clearly I remembered it, even though I hadn’t called her for so long. I was sure that her number would forever be ingrained in my memory. Almost every evening after dinner, we would call each other, sometimes talking for an hour or more.

  “How can you have so much to say?” my mother would ask. “You’ve been at school together all day and you still manage to spend so long on the phone! Hang up now and go and do your homework!”

  That same scenario was repeated almost every night. I’d nod in agreement to my mom, but keep on talking until thirty more minutes had passed by and she was threatening to rip the phone out of my hand.

  Impatiently, I waited for the line to connect. Busy signal. Great!

  I hung up and waited a few moments before trying again.

  “Hello, is this Mrs. Spencer?”

  “No, I’m sorry, she’s not here” was the reply.

  “I was actually wanting to speak to Millie,” I continued.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, dear,” the high pitched tone announced through the earpiece. “You won’t be able to speak to her today. Actually you’ll be waiting quite a while. They’ve gone traveling around Europe for a few months, the lucky things. Haven’t you heard? I was sure that Millie had told all her close friends.”

  The annoying voice prattled on and on, as I stood there silently; my mind reeling in disbelief.

  “Hello? Hello? Are you there?” continued the screechy voice. “Can I take a message for you?”

  “Ah, no, it’s ok. Thank you!” I replied and quickly hung up.

  Sinking to the floor, I shook my head in total dismay. School was starting in two days’ time and Millie would not be there. And the fact of the matter was that she was going to be away for quite some time. She had gone to Europe with her family and I’d been completely u
naware of it. I felt so guilty.

  But perhaps if I’d been allowed to have a Facebook account, or even Instagram, I would know what had been going on in her life.

  That was never going to happen while my mother was around though. She was so strict and old fashioned, a real control freak. “You don’t need that sort of distraction,” she always said. “And besides, I’ve heard too many stories of cyber-bullying and terrible things going on all because of social media. You don’t need it, Julia. Just pick up the phone to stay in contact with your friends. That is all that’s necessary!”

  Well what did my mother know! If I was allowed to be like any other normal teenager, it would be so simple to stay in contact with everyone.

  The familiar uneasy feeling began to form once more in the pit of my stomach, the recurring one that I was experiencing a lot of lately.