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This is a fanfiction in response to the works of Jaclyn Moriarty, mostly:
The Year of Secret Assignments and The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie.
I have decided to write a mystery in her format with her characters while inserting a caricature of myself (and hopefully, other people) in there, too.
When I say "caricature, I mean, my descriptions of me and whomever else makes it into this story may not be accurately described physically. However, their personalities will stay true, possible even a little exaggerated. Hence: caricature.
Preface
Memo to Wendy McAlister, the American Bindy Mackenzie:
Things are going to get bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and there is nothing you can do to stop it.
[Envelope unaddressed, memo unsigned, written in psychotic script.]
The philosophical musings of Bindy Mackenzie:
Monday, first day of year 12, 2:29 pm (study hall)
There is a new student in school once again.
Her name is Wendy McAlister.
She has come from California (in America, obviously) to study in Australia in our school of Ashbury as an exchange student. I immediately thought of Finnegan Blonde (How I miss him!) and was alarmed that she might have come for a secret purpose as he did, with a false name and everything! I have even been mentioned to by my fellow classmates (jokingly, I hope?) that our names sound the same. Is she like Try, the sinister FAD teacher last year that tried to MURDER ME? I should hope not!
There is no reason to worry if Wendy has a dark purpose to be here.
However, there is a complication: SHE HAS A PERFECT AUSTRALIAN ACCENT ALREADY!!!
She claims she is a fan of an “Aussie” actor and emulated his accent. She has displayed some competence in theatrics.
She also seems to have been at the top of her California class last year. I should pay heed.
This may be why they call her “The American Bindy Mackenzie.”
Well, that and the cumbersome half-rhyme of our names.
2:36 pm
She also appears to write transcripts of everything. She says she wants to be an author, so the action seems innocent enough…but she is nothing like me academically! She slacks off to turn things in, lying to get out of it, only to rush home and finish it in a haze to turn in ASAP! I do no such thing! (Except last year, during my gradual poisoning by Try, I had no will to do homework. I quickly bounced back after the FAD group helped tail her. Now, my fellow FAD members and I are are the best of friends.)
Speaking of the FAD group, quirky, overexcited Emily Thompson and her two friends are lounging on the table across from me. Those three are inseparable.
Except…today I see someone with them…
IT IS WENDY MCALISTER!!!
She has been rumored to have a trio in her home country, eerily enough. Will her resemblance to Ashbury students never cease?
2:42 pm
The foursome is laughing. Lydia has her hand resting casually on Wendy’s shoulder, like they are old friends. Cassie seems thoroughly interested in what Wendy is saying. Emily is giggling nonstop. I do recall Wendy being rather silly in Maths today. She never shuts up about important things. Always cracking jokes, yet the teachers don’t mind.
She is strange. I hear she likes fantasy to an extreme. It’s been rumored that she had a few crushes on fictional characters in her middle school years.
How can I be friends with such a strange individual?
2:45 pm
But NO!!!
Her Ashbury likenesses continue!
She reminds me of Jacob Kowalski(small and skinny, hazy, shoulders violin thin…), and the two would be a good match in physique, except I remember transcripting Jacob’s change over the holidays(…his head nearly reached the door frame. And his shoulders were cello-broad…), so never mind…
I think I will wait for a month and see if she grows any taller.
Everyone else in Ashbury does so. I expect no less from her. It’s like she belongs here.
Email to: Lmontgomery@hotmail.net;
Amitchell@gmail.com
From:Wmcalister@ashburyhigh.au
Sent: Monday, 4:05 pm
Subject: Testing out the new Aussie address!
Hey guys,
Haven’t emailed you in a while, mostly because I’ve been on a flight to Australia! I LOVE Ashbury! The classes are easy, and they love me here! Some guys even ASKED ME OUT! (I’m not allowed by my host family to date, though. They don’t want me to get a long distance relationship going. No fun!)
Anyway, I wanted to tell you about my weekend, since you didn’t get to hear before I left for Aussie (my accent is RIGHT AT HOME HERE! Who knew I’d get by on a GUY’S accent I had learned? They thought I was from another part of Aussie! IMAGINE!!!)
This weekend, I went to a vineyard in Paso Robles to celebrate my cousin Joey getting married. For some stupid reason, I assumed there would be a member of her husband-to-be, Ricky’s family that would be as handsome as him that would ask me to slow dance, and we would thoroughly and romantically enjoy ourselves.
No one here was my age and male. That wasn’t related to me, anyway.
To put it mildly, the evening started out hot, bland, stupid, and unappetizing. A contest to see who could breathe deeper than the other would have been more entertaining. I was on the verge of tears as I listened to the toasts in the reception in the wine cellar afterward.
The setting was romantic enough, with candles floating in wide, shallow bowls, scattered with rose petals. Perhaps this was the source of my crying. I fully expected my one true love to be sitting aside from me. Instead, I saw my brother.
Everything changed when my mum offered me a swig of champagne for the toast to the bride and groom. I accepted.
It made all the difference in having a good time.
No one minded when I conducted them a la Motzart as they executed the Cha-cha-slide. I laughed in his silly high-pitched way, and nobody objected.
I was “nursing a good buzz.”
My voice was funnier, a little growly, when I talked to my family. I danced till the cows came home and had a great time.
I never got a piece of cake.
Anyway, I have also written this highly eloquent note to you both (I will email all my emails to both of you from now on. We are ALL to be included in conversation! We are the THREE!) to inform you that there is a girl here JUST LIKE ME! Her name is Bindy Mackenzie. Even sounds like my name, right? She is smart and types fast, plus she even WRITES EVERYTHING SHE HEARS DOWN like I do! Crazy, huh? The only problem is she’s WAAAAAY taller.
I also made friends with these three girls today that remind me of us. There’s this one girl, Lydia, that is like me, cuz she writes cool and weird stuff too, and we had a blast talking about way schools across the globe should be cremated for the better of our sanity. Then there’s Cassie, who’s a lot like you, Amber, and she is like so sweet and funny, plus she sings really well like you, and loves a lot of stuff you do! She’s kinda quiet, but you can be like that too, y’know! And Emily is your Aussie twin, L, cuz she is loud and funny and cusses like a sailor (not that that’s a bad thing! I love you both for it! It adds character!)!
So, anyway, I gotta go, its time to head over to the hotel and check in! I hope there’s a counter I can actually SEE over!
All the best,
Wendy McAlister, “the American Bindy Mackenzie”
P.S. That stuff in quotations above is what my classmates have been calling me all day today! I guess you know why now! (I just wish I were as tall as SHE is!)
P.P.S. I’m sending you guys this chocolate by mail this weekend called Toblerone! It’s hecka good! I hope you like it! I dare ya to eat it slowly! 