The Choices We Make. (21st Anniversary Update)

{Author's note: In honour of ‘The Choices We Make’ turning 21, I’ve decided to update the story I first wrote so many years ago. I’d been intending to entirely rewrite the nearly 400 chapters this story contained but realised that’s just impossible for me.

Instead, I’ve updated the intro chapter and am starting it all once again. I’d encourage any authors, old and knew, to join me in revisiting these characters once again.

Choices was the first story I ever wrote all the way back in 2002. I loved how everyone came together back then with dozens of different people contributing and helped it become such a large story.

The writing on my part wasn't crash hot and I always wanted to go back and fix it. I hope my writing has come a long way and this is the story I would have written back then if I had the ability I do now.

So please, kick back and relax, and enjoy The Choices We Make 21st Anniversary Edition!

Dacia xoxo}

You step out of Ms Holmes’s media class and into the hallway of Northside Preparatory High School. Two of your best friends, Michael and Lyndsay walking in step by your side.

“Urgh! I just want to be that microphone. I want to have Ms Holmes holding me so tight in her hands as she breathes hotly in against me,” Michael groans over dramatically.

“You are such a pervert!” Lyndsay complains as he shifts his weight into Michael and rams into the wall of lockers next to you all. A bunch of nervous juniors jumping in fright at the sudden loud noise and the fact, as seniors, you three are much bigger and physically more imposing.

“She’s going to give both of you detention if she goes back over the footage from today. I could see you zooming in on her cleavage on the monitors,” you tell both of them.

Lyndsay laughs, “Well if she didn’t want us looking, she should have done that extra button up!”

You join in his laughter. As a recently turned 18-year-old, your hormones are going just as crazy as Michael and Lyndsay’s are, you just don’t think you’d have the stones to act out on it as much as they would.

Up ahead you see your next-door neighbour Rebecca and her best friends Katherine and Carla quickly appear and disappear at the T-intersection of the school’s corridors.

“Hey, I’ll catch up with you after lunch,” you tell your friends before putting on a burst of pace to catch up with the girls.

You’ve lived next to Rebecca since you were 5 years old and as you’ve got older you can’t help but have developed an overpowering crush for your beautiful neighbour. It gives you a significant stab of pain every time you think that she sees you as a best friend and nothing more than that. Unrequited love is one of the hardest pains a teenager can feel.

Sliding around the corner in your sneakers, the girls are halfway down this hallway already. What catches your eye next is a long thin slip of card on the floor. Printed blue and white with metallic silver embossing of authenticity. You stoop to pick up the strange bit of paper, turning it over in your hands. Tiny printed terms and conditions are on the back that you ignore but printed on the front in bold letters are 'The Weeknd', the date; tonight!

Holy hell! Someone dropped a ticket to see The Weeknd perform here in your city tonight. You have always wanted to see him perform, he’s one of the best-selling artists in the world. You can not believe your luck at all.

You put the ticket safely away in your wallet and race now to catch up with the girls. The distraction of the ticket on the floor meant that you missed the poster up on the side of the corridor. ‘School Dance’ written on a cheesy homemade flyer. The word TONIGHT is painted over the date in bright red colour.

“What’s up ladies?” you say to the three girls as you overtake them, sliding your arm over the top of your childhood friend Rebecca’s back. She’s a handful of inches shorter than you so fits nicely into the crook of your shoulder.

Rebecca is used to your moves by now so bats you away like you’re of no more importance than a bug. Katherine and Carla seem to find it funny though and share a giggle as they whisper something in secret to each other.

“We were just going over our dresses for tonight,” Rebecca tells you now that she has shrugged you loose. “Do you know what you’re wearing tonight?”

You hadn’t given any thought to how you might dress for ‘The Weeknd’. You only just found the ticket, how would you have planned that out already. “I don’t know. Probably just some jeans and an old band t-shirt I guess.”

Katherine gives you a stricken look when you say that. You have to do a double take as her reaction seems kind of old.

“You can’t wear that!” Carla says, injecting for her friend.

“Why not?”

“It’s the school dance! Everyone else will be dressed up. Did you forget or something?”

“Hah, yeah, nah. I’m just messing with you. I’ve got a suit and stuff all picked out,” you lie.

Damn it! Even with just finding the ticket, you’d forgotten all about the dance. You can’t believe it’s on tonight already. You have a heap of things to get ready that hadn’t been done at all.

Rebecca gives you a very stern look as the three of them reach the door to their next classroom. “My place. Pre-drinks beforehand. Don’t be late.”

The look of panic has still not left Katherine as she follows a step behind her two friends into the classroom as the bell for 4th-period sounds.

Including this period, which you’re now going to be late for, you’ve got three classes left that day to figure out what you’re going to do. Have a once in a lift time experience at ‘The Weeknd’ concert, for free no less! Or do you give up on that chance and do the normal teenage right of passage and go to your senior dance. Man, you wish you could remember why Rebecca seemed so adamant you head over to her house on time.