Piasau School. I spent a good seven years of my life there, in that white, wooden building. I remember the teachers and the lessons, and the way we'd mess around at break time, the concerts, the games.
You could've marked the passing of each year with each new trend that swept the playground. Stuck-in-the-mud and tag became girls-catch-boys or boys-catch-girls by about primary 3, as we started noticing boys.
There were secret clubs and bestfriend alliances all over the place. Then Primary 5 came and it was with much haughtiness of the sort you find in little girls that we gave up running around til our lungs threatened to burst and lined up next to the tennis court fence every lunch time to weave friendship bands instead.
New children were welcomed like puppies, we'd gather around them and question them until we grew bored, deciding on the spot if we wanted to their bestfriend or not. We'd tell stories of poisonous snakes living in the sandy, stilted gloom underneath the school, gossip about who likes who, and tease each other mercilessly.
I met Sarah, Stephanie, Sophie, and Jackie two years ago in Perth. That was magical. I couldn't believe how much we've all grown up, but Michele Wilson was missing from that - I haven't been able to get a hold of her since.
I also think about Leigh Bennett, my surrogate best buddy after Jackie left, and I wonder what he's doing. I'd never have admitted that he's my best friend at the time, we spent a lot of time making life hell for each other. Or what happened to Jamie Taylor, the one all the girls fancied (probably because he was blond and arty), or Ben Ramsden, or Duncan Macallister. So many names, so many faces. I wonder where they are now.
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