Average
Adjective - 1. constituting an average. 2. usual or ordinary. 3 mediocre.

Well that's what the dictionary says anyway.

In my dictionary, under average, there are just three words, comprised of eleven letters. Amy Rose Wren.

It's always been the only way to describe me. Average. It's all I am.

I'm an average height (5'5), average body shape (stick out a bit in the middle and still more in the chest), average hair (dark brown and reaching to just below my shoulders), average complexion (pale with freckles that make me look like someone's been let loose on me with a paint sprayer), average knowledge (mostly B's across the board, with the occasional A), average friends (there are populars, geeks, emo's, grungers, all sorts), average family (parents and two point four kids, me, my sister and another little one on the way).

Basically, I can't find anything in my life that isn't vaguely average. Even my sister is a bit more interesting. At least she has some interesting stories about how people have been taunting her because of her name. It's the only thing I hold against my parents. Seriously, when your surname's Wren, you don't call your daughter Jennifer. Ok, yeah it's cute when they're younger, 'Little Jenny Wren' and all that, but when she gets to twelve, she will get picked on. There's no escaping it.

The only thing that doesn't make me your average 'sweet' sixteen year old is the fact that I don't let my hormones take the wheel and run down everyone near and dear to me. In other words, I don't get stroppy very often, and more importantly, I don't go drooling after boys. My friends have on several occasions wondered if it was because I didn't fancy boys, but when they worked out that I didn't fancy girls either, they simply assured each other that I just hadn't found the right person yet (either that or I was dead inside). At any rate, I let my friends do my fair share with boys. Sophie's been out with tonnes of boys (I'm not surprised though, she's un-averagely pretty with her short blonde hair, pale skin and bright blue eyes), and most of my other girl friends spend their time drooling over boys. Tasha spends much of her time keeping me up to date with the current hotties in her life, and when she's not she's faffing about if her longish light brown hair really brought out her periwinkle blue eyes or whether she should try some other colour. Meanwhile Lucy seems to spend every other minute freaking out about the various guys she likes and whether they would go for her, being that she was taller than average and her hair tied in a high ponytail giving the impression that she was several inches taller than she was. I prefer to hang out with my guy friends, Charlie and James, at times, since they don't spend their time drooling over hot guys. It's quite nice like that. They mean so much to me, the two guys. Charlie I'd grown very protective of over time and now I suffered an almost mother like complex with him, maybe it was because of his longish scruffy brown hair making him seem younger... and his brilliant blue eyes that seemed to stand out... they had no earthly business of being there... like an octopus in a flower bed... you heard me, an octopus... James meanwhile had a habit of making me laugh at stupid things that most people wouldn't find amusing, and I have reason to believe it was him that warped my sense of humour so badly. Whether he was impersonating Eric Morcambe using his glasses as his only prop, or pretending to impale me on his spiked dark hair, James always knew how to make me smile.

For a while, things were ok like this. Then came the terrifying letter that the rest of my friends went nuts over.

"PROM LETTERS!" shrieked Tasha rushing up to me after one form time holding the crushed piece of paper in her hand.

I blinked before diving into my bag and pulling out the piece of paper I'd carelessly shoved in there. Sure enough, details of the Prom were plastered across the page in clear black and white.

"This is gonna be so great!" burbled Tasha as we began to walk out of the school. "We'll get all our hair done up and our makeup and at some point we're going dress shopping together."

"I'm not going." I said quietly as we stepped out of the school and wandered across the playground, still wet from the rain earlier that day.

It had been a long day, and I didn't want to upset her, but I just couldn't deal with her and this incessant twittering about trivial things like the prom. I had essays due, exams to revise for... procrastination that desperately needed to be procrastinated...

"You don't wanna come dress shopping with me?" asked Tasha looking slightly hurt. Tasha's my best friend out of all the girls, so it was probably only right that we should go prom dress shopping together, but that hadn't been what I'd meant.

"No, I mean I'm not going to prom."

Tasha looked, if it were possible, more hurt than when she'd thought we weren't going dress shopping together. I'll go shopping with Tasha for almost anything else girly, she knows I will. I will with any of my friends, but I draw the line at dresses.

"But why?" whined Tasha. "Amy, everyone's going!"

"I know." I said in the same quiet voice, looking down slightly. Tasha is about an inch shorter than me, but where I'm somewhat introverted, it often gives the illusion that I'm the shorter of the two of us. "Which is one of the reasons I'm not going."

I didn't get along in big crowds. I never had been able to. All my friends knew I didn't. It was a main reason I hated live music concerts and stuff. And then there was the fact that I disliked most of the year in school as it was. Most of the girls were the kind who caked their faces in makeup and talked about you behind your back, while most of the boys were the kind who took lighters into school to have body gas competitions with their friends. That was what I wanted at prom, being taunted by the girls and accidentally being set on fire by the boys. Note the sarcasm.

"Oh, Amy!" whinged Tasha. "It'll be fun!"

"Will it?" I said frowning at her and raising an eyebrow. "Will it really?"

Welcome to Amy Wren's guide to 'Why Prom is hell on Earth'...

1. In Prom, you are closed in like cattle with other people you don't like and who don't like you.

2. You have to wear... shudders... a dress and high heels.

3. You need to do yourself up with makeup and such.

4. You spend so much money on one night which you're not getting back.

5. Most importantly, you need... a date.

If any or all of the above seems undesirable to you, you should not be going to prom, or any other social occasion that involves seeing other people

"Yes it will!" snapped Tasha as we reached the crossing outside the school. "If you don't go, I'm not going!"

That worked for me. I was very happy for Tasha to come round mine on Prom night and have a sleepover or something. I would have been happy for her to put on whatever the most recent film was, with whichever celebrity she had a crush on, and to sit for a few hours discussing him. One of Tasha's favourite past-times was discussing cute guys. I would be perfectly happy to stay up until all hours of the morning, styling her thick fair hair while she braided my dark fine wisps, or to just dance around my living room to her latest music obsession, her wiggling her hips, me doing my best to imitate. However, I also knew how much Tasha wanted to go to Prom. What else was I meant to do?

"Ok, fine." I sighed after a few moments. "As long as I can just wear my jeans and a t-shirt... oh and my Converse shoes."

"You're not wearing jeans, t-shirt and Converses to prom!" cried Tasha. "Come on, say it."

"Won't make it true will it." I said sullenly. "But fine, I won't wear jeans, t-shirt and Converses to prom."

Tasha gave a mixture of an elated squeal and an excited giggle. "Thank you!" she said happily. "We're going shopping next Saturday, is that a problem?"

"Wha-?" I began but Tasha interrupted before I could say anymore.

"Ok, great! Well I'll see you tomorrow!" she said waving as she hurried across the crossing and off down the street, leaving me feeling as though I'd been cheated out of something.

'Past the point of no return now.' I thought hopelessly to myself as I turned and began to make my way down the main road, deserted of any pedestrians and made my way slowly home.

Lucy says:

You're annoyed about Prom too huh?

"You don't know the half of it." I typed back to Lucy on MNE ('My Network Explorer', basically an IM system). Lucy had been coming and going from our group of friends for about three years now. Her main group of friends included Sadie (a smallish but stunningly pretty girl, with olive skin and big brown eyes, which gave her an overall very innocent and approachable look), Helen (a long term ballet dancer with a slim and agile build, pale blonde hair reaching to her shoulders) and Ceci (only a few inches taller than Sadie, and who's hair colour seemed to change every few weeks). Lucy was tall and gawky, her mousey hair always tied back out of her face, and her cheeks always seemed slightly flushed, like she was constantly blushing. It felt very easy to talk to Lucy about things I was annoyed about. She was a very patient girl by nature and she seemed to get annoyed by the same things as me, so when complaining about prom, I knew she'd echo my thoughts. "I mean how am I meant to dance in high heels?" I tapped on the keyboard. "I can't even manage in flats."

Lucy says:
I know.

I sighed and rubbed my forehead with my palm. Lucy was great to talk to in order to get it out of my system, but what I really wanted was someone who could give me a solution. I decided to do what I always did in these situations. Go for a bike ride over the park. It was one of the few material things I loved in life, my bike. It felt like it gave me some sort of freedom which I knew was only a feeling that would be gone the moment I scrambled off the bike... or got a car. I glanced out the window. It was still light-ish. I'd be ok as long as I wasn't out too late. I quickly tapped to Lucy "back soon, going out" which I knew she'd understand to mean my bike, and logged off the computer. I was alone again tonight. My mother was out at one of Jenny's clarinet recitals, and Dad was never home because of his work. It was hard I suppose, sometimes. It was like I'd had to take over his role, supporting my mother and looking out for Jenny. I grabbed my jacket and quickly scribbled them a note which read-

'Mum, Jenny and Point-four.
Gone out on bike. Be back soon. Don't worry about me.
Amy xx'

-before locking up the house and running down to the unlocked shed where my bike stood ready. I often wondered if my bike enjoyed the rides as I did. I knew that sounded silly, but it often felt like that. When I was riding through the park, over the hills, it felt like my bike quivered beneath me, as though it were feeling the same tension and excitement that I did.

I pulled the bike out of the shed, swung my leg over the seat and cycled straight out of the garden and down the driveway before turning out onto the road. My old bike was a few years old now, purple, from the days when I'd still been a girly girl. I really should've gotten a new one, or gotten this one painted. I was more into blue now. I reached the end of the road and turned off into the main road. It was about six o'clock, just after the main flurry of rush hour, when everyone was in having their dinner. It was a good time to go for a bike ride in my opinion. It let me go really fast down the main road and got me to the park that much quicker.

Because it was starting to get dark, I decided it might be better to keep to the paths in the park. I looked up at the slowly purpling sky thinking how much smarter it would have been to stay at home, but right now I didn't care. There was nowhere else in the world I would rather be than where I was right now with the wind whistling through my hair as I sped down the path. I glanced to the side. Beside me the farmland that stretched off towards the marshes a few miles away morphed into the river with its steep banks running along in a valley below the path, overgrown with trees and shrubbery. There was a low rumble of thunder and I felt the first drops of a storm, but I didn't care. I carefully took my hands off the handlebars and felt the wind rush under my hands. For a few happy moments, I was free. I was a bird swooping through the skies, a fish in a vast blue ocean. I was a piece of paper caught on the wind. To the world I was worthless, but for now, in this moment, that didn't matter.

As the sun slipped below the horizon and the world around me began to grow darker. I began to contemplate turning back and going home when I saw a huge shape move up ahead of me.

"Hey!" I yelled, but the shape did not move. It took up the whole of the path I was too close to stop! "Get out of the way!" I screamed.

The shape looked up at me. I caught sight of its eyes, wide with terror. I threw on the brakes and swerved, desperate to avoid whatever it was. I skidded around it, the wheel just missing whatever it was. The wheels slipped on the wet ground and with a jolt, hit a rock and shot over the ledge and down a near vertical drop into the valley. I hit the brakes over and over again as I hurtled down but the mud was wet and I couldn't find any grip. The branches of the trees lashed out at me. I grabbed out at them, trying to stop myself, but it didn't help. My feet came loose from the pedals. I tried to put them to the floor to stop myself, but all I did was bend my ankles back the wrong way. I was going too fast. Suddenly, my bike collided with a tree trunk. I was thrown forward, my whole body twisted. I yelled out in shock and pain as my head crashed against the trunk. The world swan around me as I continued to tumble down. My foot caught for a moment before it too twisted painfully. I screamed in pain as I continued to fall down the steep valley. My fingers scrabbled at the floor as I desperately tried to stop myself. Several times, various parts of my body were slammed against tree trunks as I hurtled down. I hit my head several times more, and bloody specs spattered down over my face. My limbs dragged lamely, my fingers still fumbling though they too were painful and I could feel the blood on them. The slope became gentler and I began to slow. The ground felt moist and easier to grab onto. I finally slowed right down and found myself lying on a mattress of sludge beside the river.

I lay still for a moment, pinpointing exactly where I was in pain, the rain pattering on my face. My hands, my arms, my legs, my right foot, my back, my head... my whole body was throbbing in absolute agony! I tried to look down at myself, but I couldn't move... I couldn't tell if I was still in one piece... I was sure I was, but I couldn't tell how badly injured I was... I knew however that I needed to be found. I could feel a haze settling over my mind, but before I slipped away into the world of complete darkness, I opened my mouth and let out an ear splitting scream. I felt it make my whole body quiver in pain, my mind being ripped apart, but now it didn't matter... I wondered vaguely if I'd ever see Mum or Dad, or Jenny, or Point-four or my friends ever again... but that was my last thought before I let my body relax and I slipped away into unconsciousness.