The Life and Times of Ella Winters

Prologue

A time comes in every person’s life when they have to decide, to decide who they have been, who they are, and who they want to be. This is not something that is easily realized and will ultimately be the catalyst for a lifetime of self-progression, correction and regret. Some of the decisions may be small but the consequences can span weeks, months or even years. It’s the little things, the small moments, the seemingly trivial decisions that make up a lifetime of memories and shape a person.
This is the story of the seemingly unimportant decisions of Ella winters, whether made consciously, unconsciously or made for her each has a consequence and not always a good one.
As all good stories start, this one starts with a party…..

Decision 1: To go or not to go?

"Ells Ells" Kayleigh shouted down the corridor, running wildly, hair flapping around her face. Ella paused in her position at the end of the corridor and leant against the lockers to wait, slightly smirking at the sight of her friend legging it down the corridor like a loon.
"Alright Kay, nice run?" Ella said with a raised eyebrow when Kayleigh finally reached her
destination.
"Oh piss off! I've been calling you since you left the science block, you must be bloody deaf!!"
"Sorry mum! Come on then, what's all the running and shouting in aid of?"
"Party."
“When?"
"Saturday."
"Whose?"
"Dan Milton's."
"No!"
"Why?"
Ella said with a stern look, "You know why Kay, don't push it.” meaning for the conversation
to be over, but Kayleigh wasn't having it, she was determined that Ella was going to be attending this party.
"Just because he's got a teeny tiny crush on you, it's really not a big deal Ells, I mean you should
be flattered."
Ella rolled her eyes at the absurdity of this statement, "Are you actually serious right now? The
guy is a first class creep; he stares at me all the time. And you know when you catch someone looking at you and then they look away because they don’t want to be caught staring, he doesn’t look away he just caries on."
"Ok, fair point that is super creepy, but you probably won't even see him at the party."
"How will I not see him, if the party is at his house?" Ella's eyes scrunched up in confusion and
disbelief.
"Because, and I'm not exaggerating here, it's literally going to be the biggest party ever, he's
invited everyone he's ever met and quite a few he hasn't." Kayleigh grinned.
"Jesus! Why would he do that? His house is gonna get ruined."
Kayleigh shrugged her shoulders and answered "well, according to Stacey, his dad's pissed off to
Turkey with his new wife and Dan's not exactly pleased about it, so he's having the party to wind his dad up."
"Yeah, I reckon that'll do it."
Kayleigh checked her watch nervously knowing she was already five minutes late to her next
class "Come on Ells, I'm dying here, are you in or not?"
"Hmm, I'll think about it."
"YES! I knew you wouldn't let me down." Kayleigh pulled Ella into a bone crushing hug before
skipping off to her class with such enthusiasm that it made Ella tired just watching, she silently giggled at the sight before making her own way to class.
"Ell, wassup girl?" Nate shouted from across the room, waving her over to sit with him. She
glanced at her normal seat at the back longingly, she usually relished these lessons, art was her favourite subject and she was good at it, really good. She loved to sit on her own at the back of the class with her headphones in and just lose herself in the music and the flow of the pencil across the page, her hand making shapes and tones and contrasts that she hadn't even thought about. It was peaceful. But today was different; she knew Nate wasn't going to give up, so she slowly weaved her was across the room, plopped down on the chair next to Nate and started to get her pencils and sketchbook out of her bag.
"So" Nate said, "heard about the party?"
"Yeah, Kayleigh just told me, supposed to be the biggest party ever right?" She asked eyes wide
with a sarcastic smirk on her face.
"Oi Ells, don't underestimate yeah, I promise you it’s gonna be unforgettable." He said whilst
leaning in close to Ella, almost whispering the last few words.
She winked at him, as much she could no way believe the hype about this party, Nate's
cheekiness never failed to make her smile, it was infectious! "Ok, ok, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt, it better bloody be worth it"
"Girl it'll be better than worth it, it is gonna go off! I'm telling you I got a sixth sense for these
things" He put his fingers against his temples and shut his eyes as if he was meditating, doing his best mystic Meg impression. Ella laughed out loud, and flicked his arm in mock annoyance.
Before a play flight could break out their teacher Mrs Podd shuffled in, she was a completely
stereotypical art teacher. A short woman, a little on the chubby side wearing an extensive amount of wool clothing in various colours, and had hair mildly resembling a stray cat complete with random splatters of paint. "Good afternoon class, sorry I'm late, I'm in a bit of a tizz today so just work on your sketchbooks for the remainder of the lesson." She shuffled back out the room, hurrying in the direction of the staffroom.
"Yes, free lesson!" Nate said, leaning back on his chair and setting his feet up on the desk.
"Err, don't you think you should actually make the most of this time, you're way behind on your
coursework Nate." Ella said, narrowing her eyes at him in a worried stare.
"Chill Ella Bella it's all under control girl, nothing for you to worry your pretty little head
about."
Nate winked cheekily at her and slid further down his chair, shutting his eyes, there was no way he was gonna miss an opportunity to nap. Ella knew it wasn't worth arguing about, she wasn't even sure why he picked art, he couldn't draw to save his life. She sighed at him dramatically and opened her sketchbook, she was currently working on a very detailed dragon sketch, she took in the progress she'd made and drifted off into her little art world trying to work out how she could make the flame stand out without using colour, when a noise to her left broke her trance.
"That's really good." He said, staring at her through piercing blue eyes amidst a mop of curly
hair. She recognised him; his name was Harry or was it Barry? Something like that. She'd never personally had a conversation with him but she was sure he was the guy that her friend Amy had been gushing over for the past few weeks. Ella didn’t see it, sure he was alright looking, he had nice eyes definitely and a wide inviting smile but that hair it was crazy, like it had a mind of its own.
"Err, Ella, did you hear what I said?" Balls, she'd been staring at him without saying a word for
at least a minute.
"Oh god sorry, I just spaced out for a minute there." she smiled apologetically.
He laughed, not a fake kind of laugh but a full throaty chuckle "happens to the best of us, I said
that I think your drawing is really good."
"Oh, Thank you, I'm having a bit of trouble with it if I'm honest, can't seem to get the depth
right."
"Well I think it looks ace, I've noticed you do a lot of pencil drawings."
"Erm yeah, I prefer working with pencil, there is something quite satisfying about making
something come to life, with a single pencil as my only tool."
"Yeah I suppose so, that's a cool way to look at it, I'm no good at the realist thing, I like
illustration."
"You mean like cartoons?"
There was that chuckle again "Yeah I suppose you could call them cartoons."
"Sorry, that sounded really rude."
"Its fine." He smiled. He turned back towards his own work, and she noticed an A3 page full of
tiny detailed characters all drawn with a sharpie, perfectly aligned not a mistake in sight. She strained to look closer and took in the detail; each character displayed a different facial expression, each one completely and beautifully unique. She was blown away by the complexity. He glanced up and noticed her staring, and gave her a questioning look. She smiled widely at him "Definitely not cartoons."
"Thanks, I'm Harry by the way, you're Amy's friend right?"
"Yeah that's me."
"So I'm guessing you'll be going to Dan's party then?"
"Not if I can help it." She sighed.
"What? I thought everyone was buzzing about it."
"Well obviously I'm not everyone."
"Whoa ok little miss sarcasm, if I'm honest I'm not really looking forward to it either, there is so
much hype it's only going to disappoint."
She scoffed "Exactly! So are you going?"
"Most likely, got nothing else to do, might as well see how bad it actually is." Ella rolled her
eyes and gave him an unimpressed look.
"Come on it could be a laugh, we can watch everyone drink themselves stupid on lambrini, and
take bets on how many lads Stacey May gets with." He said wiggling his eyebrows and smirking.
"You do have an excellent point; that would be amusing."
He gave her a small smile and turned back to carry on with his work. They passed the rest of the
lesson in a comfortable silence listening to the deep snores of Nate sleeping beside them.
Ella swished down the corridor toward the canteen for lunch; she knew that the only topic of
conversation between her friends would be the much anticipated party on Saturday, so she mentally prepared herself for the onslaught of gossip before she entered. She walked straight over to the table at the far right of the canteen waving at her little brother Tony on the way. She sat in her usual seat in-between Kayleigh and Amy with Lucille and Elena occupying the remaining seats. Her friends were already in full gossip mode and had barely noticed her sit down, she watched them with a calm fondness, she loved them all deeply, they'd been best friends since the very first day of year 7 and they were still solid after 4 years. Kayleigh was probably her best friend, they lived really close to each other and walked to and from school together every day, they both played for the school sports teams and were often seen as a pair; it was rare that you saw one without the other. Then there was Lucille and Elena both as ditzy and blonde as you can get, but loyal and kind in equal measure, always the first on the dance floor they could always be relied on to provide entertainment and cheer anybody up. Finally there was Amy. Ella and Amy had had their differences over the years but she felt now that they understood each other on a different level to the rest of their friends, they could argue and fight but Ella felt safe in the knowledge that they'd always find their way back to each other.
"She's doing that thing again." Amy said, nudging Lucille.
“Earth to Ella.” Lucille said chucking a cold chip in Ella’s direction.
“OW, sorry did I zone out again?” Ella apologised whilst trying to extricate the squishy potato
mush that was Lucille’s chip from her hair.
“Just a bit mate, what’s going on in that big brain of yours?” Amy asked.
“Nothing really, just you know stuff.” Ella said, dragging out the word stuff in an attempt to
make it seem extra boring.
Amy gave her a ‘who are you kidding look’ but was satisfied enough to steer the conversation
back in to more important waters. “So, the party we’re all in then, I need my wing women.” she winked at the rest of the girls and Elena snorted orange juice out her nose.
“Wing women, what on earth are you talking about?” Elena stuttered, still recovering from the
orange juice catastrophe.
“Well, I found out from Ritchie in history that Harry Baker is going, he said all those lads are
going. It’s the perfect opportunity for us to get to know each other.” Amy said raising her eyebrows suggestively.
“And, so you need us for what exactly?” Kayleigh asked.
“Oh for God’s sake do I need to spell it out, I need you to make sure that we are not disturbed
meaning keep the lads entertained and slags out of the immediate vicinity.”
“So, what you really want is for us to be your bouncers.” Kayleigh said disbelievingly.
Ella felt an argument brewing and figured it was time for her to step in; in hindsight what she
said was probably not the best thing to say to try and mellow out the situation. “Well, whatever it is you want us to do Amy, you might not even need us, Harry isn’t sure if he’s going yet. He told me he would only go if he’s got nothing better to do.”
“You what?”
“Erm …. I said.”
“I heard what you bloody said! When did you talk to Harry, and why didn’t you tell me
immediately.” Amy was propping herself up on the table in an effort to be closer to Ella and looking her directly in the eye.
Ella unconsciously backed up a little in her seat “Well, he’s in my art class, I didn’t know that
was who he was cause I usually sit at the back on my own but then Nate called me over to sit with him and I knew he’d want to talk about the party and If I didn’t go over I wouldn’t hear the end of it, and then Miss Podd was late and then she left and told us to just get on with our work and everyone started chatting and Nate fell asleep and I was drawing and next thing I know he’s sitting next to me and telling me he likes my drawing.” She drew in a lungful of oxygen after her babbling explanation.
“Then what happened?” If possible, Amy got even closer to Ella’s face.
“Then we talked about art for a bit, he asked if I was going to the party, we both agreed that it
would be shit, but that we could have a laugh together if we both went.” She wanted to take back those words as soon as they came out of her mouth, but it was too late.
“What so you’re like going to the party together then?” Amy seethed.
“NO, NO, not at all, we were just joking around, I don’t even want to go to the sodding party,
and I’ve spoken to this boy for all of 20 minutes.”
Amy breathed deeply through her nose, for an annoyingly long time before she spoke again,
“It’s fine, this is good, it means we have another reason to talk at the party now, you know group bonding.”
“I’m not going to the party, it hasn’t even happened yet, in fact I found out about it 2 hours ago
and all its done is cause trouble.” Ella slid down in her seat and sulked.
Amy rose till she was leaning slightly over Ella and pointed a finger in her face “You are bloody
going to that party, and you’re gonna have a laugh with Harry and you’re going to talk me up until he fancies the pants off me, understand?” The question was quite obviously rhetorical because she flounced out of the canteen before giving Ella a chance to reply.
“Well looks like I’m going to the party then.” Ella sighed and layed her head on the table in
despair.