Blazing Life

Created By: Lucas Murphy, Neal O’Brien, Harry O’Brien, Ruben Pandey, Thiran Navaratnam, Christian Ohtaras, Mason Trentini,

Ethan Hrnjak, Robert Mueller and Olivah Tisbury-Brown Team: The MCNS Novelists

Copyright Notice Copyright

Published by The MCNS Novelists Marist College North Shore 270 Miller St North Sydney NSW 2060

Copyright © 2016 Marist College North Shore.

All rights reserved. This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquires should be made to to the publisher.

People Change

3 Months Earlier...

There it is, the last bit, there’s always some flames still flickering, this time, it's the hardwood letting off that horrible pungent smell as usual. Paige sprays the fire with the last of her strength reducing what used to be a massive blaze to just a few embers. She moves in to finish it off but then out of nowhere, Charles pushed Paige out of the way and put out the remaining embers from the fire and says to Paige, “oi, Paige!, I Saved you didn’t I? just like every other time.” Charles is referred to as being a massive hero for his actions. But the other firefighters who had been there for hours battling the blaze were just sent home with their singed outfits and smoke filled lungs. But titles and medals didn’t make Charles happy, what he really wanted was a girlfriend.

Present Day…

It took Charles no time at all to work up the courage to talk to Paige and when he did he wanted to make an impression. He asked her if she wanted to drive the station's newest, fastest and most expensive firetruck and obviously she agreed, not thinking it was supposedly a date. There was an awkward silence inside the fire truck as they cruised around the fire district. A little while into their trip Charles asked if she had a boyfriend, it went a little something like this, "so how's your boyfriend?" Charles asked, “I don’t have a boyfriend,” Paige replied. At that moment Charles was suddenly excited. But she continued, “I am married, though.” Charles’ heart dropped. But unbeknownst to Charles, Paige was actually lying, she just didn’t want to be in a relationship with Charles. Charles was heartbroken and hated himself for thinking he might have had a chance with Paige. Charles suddenly had a large gaping hole in his heart

which couldn’t be filled. He soon became a quiet, secluded, antisocial person. When his fellow comrades at the station noticed this huge difference to Charles they were absolutely dumbstruck. “How can someone who used to be a confident, outgoing person have such a massive personality change?” they all asked. Paige felt terrible when she saw what she had done to Charles and she just couldn’t stand to see him this way. She wanted to relieve him of his internal and external suffering. Paige then decided that the best thing she could possibly bring herself to do was to tell him that she wasn’t actually in a relationship with anyone. Paige, however, couldn’t bring herself to tell him that she loved him too. To Paige, being in a relationship with Charles was something she couldn’t see herself really interested in. The station was becoming more and more efficient because everyone was doing an equal amount of work. Because of this new and improved Charles, Paige couldn’t help but like him more and more. Soon enough, the station was often noted for having the quickest response time and the most efficient method of putting out fires. Charles was a hero again but not just because of him single-handedly

saving the day, but for having the best performing fire district in the county and for having an immensely coherent team of firefighters.

The Fire Station“Paige…” Charles barked. Paige sighed. The now familiar call of Charles reverberated through the building. “There’s just been a call for a fire 2 kilometres from here. A distressed lady apparently called up and said her husband’s shed is on fire. You better get going because there’s another house next door about three metres away. C’mon you little cutie!” Charles said to Paige. It was unfortunate the situation was the way it was. Charles, the captain of his fire brigade, was always flirting on poor innocent Paige, who could do nothing about it. Charles, 25, had always had an interest with fire brigades. From the age of 4, he would dress up as a firefighter and pretend to put out fires. His ambition of becoming a senior fire brigade developed in his teenage years, where he was bullied by the bigger, older kids. “You’re never going to make it!” The bullies at school always told him. This bullying made him more hungry for power and ambitious. This turned him into someone that he didn’t want to be, and now he felt powerful and that he can do anything he likes, hitting on Paige a perfect example.

He had only been in the fire brigade for five years, and he was already the most senior fireman in his station. Colette, who had been in the brigade for a whopping 25 years, was a lower rank than him, having not gone up the ranks nearly as fast as Charles. Although she had better work ethic and firefighting skills, the district chief never favoured women as high roles, so as soon as Charles came in, he was the favourite to take in the senior position. Besides, everyone thought Colette was really annoying, she always hums and sings to her weird music.

Paige was only 20, but battling a blaze, she was a champion. It was her fighting spirit she naturally possessed that made heads turn. She had been working at the station for just under a year but was already known by her colleagues as an expert firefighter even if Charles

always got the medals and promotions.

‘One day, that idiot is going to meet a sticky end. He has no life, apart from pretending he’s powerful and creating nonsense.’ Paige thought to herself as she walked out of the station and into the fire truck. ‘He always want’s me to do stuff that I don’t want to do.’ Only last week, Charles called her into the office to talk to her about his “heroic and life changing achievements”, that he got a cat out from a tree and gave it back to the owner. It was just annoying, that he was “nice and sweet” to her, and then turned ugly and was a nightmare to her.

“Paige! Paige!” Charles called out to her as he came running out. “I have something to tell you. Tonight-” “Sorry Charles, I gotta go. Speak to you later. Any more time wasted and the whole city will be burnt down!” Paige replied. “Ok whatever, but when you get back, I need to talk to you.” ‘God he’s annoying. If only he was eaten by a crocodile or something ridiculous like that, that’ll teach him.’ Paige thought to herself as she drove off with Colette. Stopping at the traffic lights, Colette said to

Paige, “I don’t like that Charles. I’m on your side, sweety, don’t you worry. People like that always end up in a hole, don’t you worry.”

The lights turned green, and drove off, Paige thinking about all that had happened in the past five minutes.

The Game

Charles called across the room, “Hey, you wanna come to the game this arvo Paige?” The girls around him sniggered, laughed and started gossiping among themselves. “I’m good thanks,” replied Paige politely and walked on unfazed. She rounded the corner and Charles was there, waiting for her, she could almost swear a look of malice flashed across his face. “Sorry about that” said Charles. “No, No, I’m fine.” Paige replied definitely. “So, you want to go to the AFL tonight, good game eh, got a nice car, you coming.” “Nah, I -” In one swift move Charles whirled her around the corner pulling her out of sight. “You are coming to the AFL tonight, okay.” Charles whispered venomously in a sharp, cutting undertone he couldn’t mask. “Fine” Paige got out. “That’s better” said Charles, with a tone of dominance in his voice.

Paige spent all lunch pondering over what might happen next, anxiety building in her stomach. Charles kept shooting dirty looks every so often feeding the seed of fear that had been sewn. Paige got up from the lunch table after finishing her meal contemplating whether to run off or go look for Charles, as it turned out Charles came for her catching her off guard and taking her hand gesturing toward his car, “That’s your car?” Paige gasped her mouth fell open at the sight of the Aston Martin Charles had presented before her, “Yeah nicked it from the regiment just this morning,” Charles exclaimed proudly making sure everyone saw him climbing into his car. “You do know, you’re going to - “ “Who cares, nobody’s going to dob me in” Charles interrupted sharply shooting a look of pure vehement at

Paige.

Once again Charles made sure all eyes were on him as he stepped out from the car tightening up his suit button as he walked with a deliberate swagger toward the front row. Brushing aside the spectators, he pushed to the front. Trying to avoid the staring eyes Paige stepped out of the car head bowed and followed Charles trying as hard as possible to conceal her face to her fellow workers. But no, Charles wasn’t letting that happen… “MOVE ASIDE! My babe’s coming through” Charles shouted over the voices of fans inside the stadium. The heads of spectators and authorities alike turned to a large, handsome man gesturing to a girl with her head bowed trying to avoid attention… Paige. Head in her hands she hurried forward her face flushed with anger and embarrassment.

As they took their seats Charles attempted to put his arm around her neck but Paige angrily shook it off her face burning. “And the two teams for tonight are….. The Crocodiles - Cheers roared from the stands as green and silver flags waved from the far end of the pitch - aaaaaaaaand….. The Kangaroos,” more cheers erupted from the stand this time much closer and more ferocious. Both teams ran out of the tunnel as the crowd around them cheered and booed the players waved and smiled standing in their lines ready for the match. Then there were the mascots… for the Roos there was a guy wearing a kangaroo outfit and waving at the crowd and running around the stadium. Then… was it, no, a real crocodile wandered onto pitch smiling and winking slyly as the crowed gasped and screamed in what can only be described as fear. But the crocodile heeded not the cries of the crowd and held up a small Crocodiles flag and the fans rallied overcoming their fear to cheer on their team. “LET THE GAME BEGIN” “TWEEEEET” the whistle sounded and the players rushed forward as the ball was thrown into the air.

Love is Oblivious Charles was running out of ideas, he knew she was losing interest, he needed to put some more wood in the fire, something to keep her here, mentally and physically. He wasn’t sure at first but after meticulous revising and weighing out all of his options, he came up with the most unoriginal plan he could’ve thought of. Mario’s Pizza House. Inserting the phone number was enough nostalgia for him, until they picked up. “Hello Mario’s Pizza House, only the most delicious and authentic pizza place around, how may I help you?” Now feeling his inner softness and anxiety coming out, he apprehensively mumbled “Umm, can I please have two medium sized margarita’s, and two cans of sprite, I’ll pay here.” In truth, he wasn’t sure what she liked, although he thought assuming her order would be the ‘smoother move.’

After a twenty minute wait they’ll both want to forget, the pizza man arrived. Charles bounced out of his seat, wallet in hand, ready to pay. Almost instantly, the atmosphere changed, Paige’s mood took an unexpected turn, one that he never thought she had in her. She was genuinely flirting with the pizza delivery man! It was almost something out of a fairytale! Just when Charles thought Pizza would save his chances with Paige, something that gave him only good memories, only made it worse! He couldn’t sit there for another minute, the cheesy pickup lines were coming into action. All he could hear were lines like “Your pizza just has that delicious edge!” What made it worse was that Paige was the one making moves, not the oblivious pizza delivery man. His name was Tobias or Toby, I later realised. Obvious assessment’s of the situation had to be made. He looked like a sheltered, traditional teenager who needed money, however he could. He’s not very fond of healthy food and has since dissed the idea of having braces, doesn’t know how to actually make pizza nor anything decent and spends his time playing PlayStation.

Although these accusations may be true, Charles couldn't help but despise Toby’s every blind move. He needed a plan. His thought process changed with the knowledge that cliches will only make it worse. It was obvious she wasn’t interested and his chances with her were slowly but surely becoming what dreams are made of. Similarly to earlier, he disconnected himself from the reality he so desperately wanted to change and then weighed out all of his options. Thoughts such as taking the cheesy option of reminiscing previous experiences, one’s that had nothing to do with Toby, making him irrelevant his end goal. Another possible option could be to start to talk to Toby, making him feel uncomfortable therefore enforcing his self-proclaimed dominance. He then realised a common fault in all of these plans, they could all go very wrong. This was the key! He needed to come up with something so spectacular, so ingenious yet it had to be flawless.

At this point, the entertainment which the game was meant to bring was irrelevant, even though Charles was an avid Kangaroos supporter. The season leading up to this big night was what some would call ‘A rollercoaster.’ The atmosphere the fans had built up was nothing below extraordinary. Now that Charles thought about it, the experience he could be having if he didn’t treat Paige like a competition would be far better than this. Through this though, he still didn’t change his mindset, Tobias needed to go away.

Enraged Charles has had enough. Why, he questioned. “I should thank you for introducing me to an awesome and nice guy.” said Paige “Aww thanks,” Tobias says as Paige giggled. “Half time is almost here. Do you want to come with me?” Paige asked. Tobias nodded whilst smiling at Charles.

After all of this, Charles had achieved nothing. Enraged with anger, he screamed in frustration. Charles calms down slowly and he thought for a moment. “Excuse me, I have to go to the bathroom” Charles uttered with a smirk. As Paige walked with Tobias. Charles started to saunter off to the bathroom. He glanced over his shoulder to check if anyone was there. The lobby was empty except for the cleaners and the crocodile mascot. Charles crept over to the cleaner waiting for the right opportunity to nick the keys. He swiftly moved towards the cleaner and in the swift movement. “RIPPPP”, the keys flew into Charles' hand as he dashed towards the Storage and V.I.P lounge. Lunging at the door he pushed in the key in and jumped closing the door shut behind him.

He stared in awe at all the AFL players as they were preparing to get onto the pitch. They were practicing for the second half while the technicians were walking around getting ready for grand final effects. Charles watched the players as he crept along the room so no technicians could ask him for his I.D. Suddenly the manager came to him and asked him who he is. “Uuummm-”, Charles stuttered. The manager studied him for a bit. “Oh, you’re the new technician right”. “Yeah, yeah I am”, Charles said confidently. “The technics room is to your right, enjoy”, said the Manager as he walked off. The sweat building upon his brow had evaporated. “That was a close one”, Charles muttered to himself. He strolled into the technics amazed about what he saw room.

There were electrical gadgets everywhere. They were all purposed for celebrating gigantic things. There was danger and hazardous items everywhere and the perfect things to do something bad, really bad. Charles inspected the gadgets questioning “will it do the job” or “would it make my plan a success”. He kept checking the gadgets until he suddenly heard a noise behind him. He turned around to see a green tail attached to something. “He could jeopardize the whole plan”, Charles said to himself.He ran after the “tail but when he went out of the room he saw the AFL players about to hear the call to come out. “LET'S MAKE THEM BEG FOR MERCY. LET’S GO BOYS. HUSTLE!!!”, the Crocs roared as they were ready to go.

Charles ran back into the room and he picks up the item to his right. “PERFECT”, he uttered to himself in dark joy. Charles looked at the time and rushed outside before the players. “Where is it, where is it??”. He looked to the right and saw it. He ran to the technics and attached a motherboard to it. He wired it quickly while plugging in cables. “Done”. He saw the crowd confused as he walked through where the AFL players were meant to. Charles ran off inside as the commentator said: “HERE COMES THE CROCS!!!”. The players ran out running towards the field for their second half. The crowd roared with excitement but what they didn’t know is that this may be “their” final.

Firefight Just before the second half whistle sounded, Charles came back and retook before the second half started they first allowed the team mascots to rally the crows for the playing whistle. “TWEET” The whistle rang for start of the second half and almost immediately the ball was seized by the crocodiles they dodged, ducked and weaved through the kangaroo’s easily and before long the goal had been scored fans and pyrotechnics erupted, but and his seat as the halftime horn is sounded and the teams go back to the game. The Crocodiles clinched the win by scoring the winning goal with twelve seconds to go. Once the game ended an ear piercing whistle sounded and then flames erupted from the funnel of the pyrotechnics display the entire audience gasped in awe but no, something was wrong. Then the flames began to flicker onto the field. The crocodile mascot was trapped in a cage but the fire had cracked open it and the crocodile escaped the AFL stadium. “We need to get out of here. Now!” said Paige in a panic “

“No we must help everyone that needs it.” Charles said confidently secretly confiding in himself that his plan was successfully underway. With that Charles went to help. Charles was fighting the fire with ferocious force, one mistake could burn the entire stadium down but Charles would not mess up his one chance to get the girl of his dreams. At many occasions Charles nearly lost his balance but regained his stability and kept on fighting. Charles made it look like he was fighting the fire, when, in reality, he was allowing it to grow before quenching it back down and making it appear to be a fight. However, Charles knocked over a gas tank that intensified the flames, too much for Charles to handle. Then the heat of the flames stunned Charles and he slipped over backwards and stepped onto a water bottle that was dropped on from the stands. Charles fell over and was unconscious as soon as he hit the ground.

Meanwhile Paige was helping the players down the tunnel into the change rooms and toward safety.”34, 35, 36 Alright that’s everyone safe” Paige then turned to go through the tunnel herself only as soon as she thought she was safe the supports for the tunnel collapsed. Only inborn reflexes saved her as she dived backward avoiding the flaming log by a millimeter. Paige then turned around only to see that she was completely trapped by fire. Paige screamed at the top of her lungs for help but nobody came. Paige once more screamed out for help in hope that someone would rescue her. Then when all seemed lost Paige heard footsteps racing around the corner. It was the Pizza Delivery Guy Tobias. There was no way for Tobias to rescue her so Tobias just left the room without saying a word. Paige called for Tobias but he did not come back. Paige sat there in her misery thinking that these were her final moments. But only moments later Tobias was back, knife in hand he cut through the roof with and reached his hand down without a word Paige grasped it she felt herself being lifted by his strong comforting hands and into the safety above.

The Demise After the fire had been put out, Charles had seen that Tobias and Paige were falling for each other. He could see them holding hands and enjoying each others company. Charles became jealous and decide to take matters to the next level. He was going to officially get rid of Tobias, this was it, he was going to win Paige over once and for all. His previous plan might have failed, but this time he had it all planned out, he was going to sneak up on Tobias and make short work of him. Charles was proud of that idea, it was completely fool proof , but if he got caught he would be in very big trouble.

Charles was normally a nice caring man and was known to be a firefighter, but under his beautiful mask was a strong jealousy. Charles may have had the skill to be one of the senior firefighters but he might not be able to handle all of his problems. He had to be very stealthy indeed, because Paige found out what he was doing, he knew she would never be with him for she had a soft heart for people. Charles was about to commit a crime, could he do it?

He must have thought for too long because he felt scaly skin rub against his own, the drips of saliva rolling down his skin, the cold blooded reptile devouring him, he looked up and saw the throat of a crocodile! Next second half his body was up that throat, the saliva making him slide in faster, Charles knew this was the end, and he was right, it was the end of him. After the crocodile was finished Paige and Tobias were still in their seats, too shocked to move. Suddenly the crocodile opened his jaw and spoke, “ I have been watching you all for a long time, do think that Charles was a good person, he ordered the pizza to try and win over you Paige, and then, when he saw that you were in love he rigged the pyrotechnics to set the stadium on fire so he could put it out and again, try to win Paige back from Tobias, finally when Paige was trapped and Tobias saved her Charles took it to the next level, he tried to murder Tobais, yes and he was

very close, it was fortunate I was able to slip away from the spectators and finish Charles before he made rid of Tobias.”

The crocodile then slipped away giving Tobias and Paige that same sly wink as he scurried away. Tobias and Paige was still sitting in awe. Charles was gone Paige was finally relieved of his harassment.

Epilogue And that’s where it ended I guess. At least, I didn’t remember anything

after that. All I know is that now I’m so much happier without him. Charles, that is. He just wasn’t for me. I know how much he wanted me, but he was forcing me into a relationship I didn’t want to enter.

Some people just don’t understand. You can’t get someone to like you by forcing them. People like him think that the world revolves around them. They won’t change their minds. You just have to change around

them.

Blazing Life is roller coaster of emotion, events and relationships. It shows the extent humans will go to for love. It is the story that has evolved from a crocodile, firefighter and

pizza delivery person. This has created a interesting story thats funny and entertaining.

“A fascinating and interesting book that comes together well even with confusing

backbones”

The Australian Newspaper

Blazing Life

“Wow, Awesome, Cool, Amazing, exhilarating, original, humorous, dangerous

and just a great read”

Sydney Morning Newspaper

Ages: 10-16