Jimmy was confused when he got the call. He had been wagging school and just happened to be at home eating lunch when the phone rang. He let it go for a couple of rings, concerned it may be his parents. On the fourth ring, he had a feeling he should pick it up just in case.

By the sixth or seventh ring he had reached out for the phone, fumbling the receiver on the way to his ear, Jimmy said a rushed hello.

"Hello James, my name is Peter from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade we'd like to congratulate you on winning the scholarship to Chile."

Well, that was something. Jimmy had applied for the scholarship in the middle of the night one night, never thinking he would be selected. It was always worth a shot.

Peter, who sounded very distant and probably wasn't called Peter at all, continued telling Jimmy "this is a very exclusive scholarship. You will have all your expenses paid once you arrive in Chile, however you will have to make your own way to Chile."

"Huh?"

Jimmy hadn't read the fine print. He didn't have a couple of thousand dollars to go to Chile. He didn't have any money at all. He wondered how he could convince his parents to send him to Chile. Good riddance, out of their hair, out of their way.

They were always arguing about money, had a second mortgage on the house and probably couldn't afford to splash out a couple of thousand bucks, even though it would be such an incredible experience.

"Will you send a letter of something to my house? I need something on paper to show my parents," Jimmy asked the operator.

"Yes sir, you will receive your letter of offer in the coming weeks. Congratulations once again," said the call centre worker in India, who called himself Peter over the phone.

Jimmy began to think. That was going to be a lot of money. There was no way he could get it himself in time, and it was unlikely the parents would have the cash to fork out for it. What to do?

Jimmy went to the computer room and booted up his machine. The computer was getting a bit old, but it could at least tell him what he needed to know. Old mate Peter hadn't even told him when the trip would be. He would have to wait until the letter came in the post.

Jimmy had been learning Spanish for a couple of years. He wasn't particularly good at it, as there was nobody in the area to practice with. He did alright in some tests though, particularly considering he was learning by correspondence. None of the other kids in his year even bothered to learn a language anymore.

They had to back in Year 7, but that was a long time ago. Jimmy didn't really like the French class he took back then, but maybe it was the teacher. Despite not liking it, he decided to continue with it the next year. One day he saw a soccer match on the TV, Spain beat France 4-0.

That was that, he was going to learn Spanish. He never studied the languages with any plan of making it useful, it was just something interesting for him, and not too hard to pick up. He made sure he could first learn insults to mumble under his breath at his classmates.

It was getting towards the end of his time at school. A trip to Chile would be an unforgettable experience. It could make up for all the times he couldn't go on excursions because of money. The last time he couldn't even go down to the local beach for the Geography class.

They had been there every other year for some kind of trip, but it was sad that he couldn't afford the seven dollars entry fee into the park. He hadn't asked his parents for permission for that one. He just left the letter in his bag, then a couple of days before the trip, he told his teacher that he did not have permission to go.

Most of the teachers were concerned with Jimmy. He had been quite a good student, but he was dropping off. He was bored most of the time, aloof. He didn't always show up to class either. They wondered if he'd fallen in with the wrong crowd.

Jimmy hadn't really fallen into any crowd. He was sociable enough at school and sometimes people invited him to parties on the weekends. He rarely went. He thought he saw enough of these characters at school. He preferred to zone out over the weekends - the best things for him was to walk around the rocks at the beach.

He liked to go to the beach with his Dad, but those times were getting less and less frequent. They didn't live right at the coast, but it wasn't too far away either. He particularly like to scramble around the rocks as the tide was getting higher and higher. Less and less room to escape, more of a challenge to navigate.

Jimmy was back on the computer. He typed "cheap flights Australia to Chile". The results were not as cheap as he had hoped. He didn't know much about travel at all. A couple of kids from school were beginning to travel on their own. Some of the older kids did an end of year trip to Bali or Thailand. He knew he would prefer to be where they weren't.

It was getting cheap to travel from Australia, however Chile didn't seem to be on the list of bargain destinations. He turned the computer off. He didn't want to frustrate himself any further. He went back to his half eaten sandwich and tried to figure out a plan.

He thought about what he would do if he worked in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He certainly wouldn't make poor kids pay for their own ticket to take up a scholarship. He crunched angrily on the sandwich he had made.

He debated going back to school for the afternoon classes. Was it worth making an appearance? There was nothing too exciting going on, though there were rumours of an after school fight. These type of rumours spread every couple of days, but there had been a tense atmosphere after an incident at footy training.

Jimmy didn't go to footy training, so he didn't really know what happened. He didn't care too much, but he would have liked to see some aggression. He was feeling quite angry at this bloke Peter who just called him and interrupted his regular day.

Moments ago he never thought about going to Chile, now he wasn't going to be able to take up the opportunity of a lifetime.

Step One

Jimmy was tired. He had been up all night chatting to his new friend. He'd only been chatting with Eloise for a week, but he felt a real connection. He didn't know too much about her, and sometimes had to use Google Translate to try and get his message across, but he really felt this could be something.

"James Sinclair, you need to pay more attention in class!" That was a shock, he forgot he was in class. He was in dreamland. Jimmy had applied earlier in the year to go to South American for an exchange. He got in, but financial reason meant that he couldn't go.

Jimmy was not really poor or rich. Middle class. Lived in town, he wasn't a farming kid, he didn't ride horses or motorbikes. All around he was pretty average. Some classes he did well in, others he simply didn't care so half the time he didn't even bother to turn up.

He had a skateboard, so sometimes he'd go and ride around on that instead of going to class. Today he hadn't brought his board, so he went to school. He was falling asleep at the desk. To be honest, he didn't even know what class he was in.

Mr Jones was his teacher for a few different classes. Sometimes he liked him, others he couldn't think of anything worse. Today was one of those days. He considered heading out the door and going back home. His Mum was home though. Not today.

Focus.

A picture of the body. Jimmy thought about that. Could be anything really. He considered laying his head down on the table, but a roar from "Jonesy" settled that matter.

"James Sinclair. You think you're so special don't you. Doesn't even need to pay attention in class. Boy genius. Going to be the top of the class. Well, mate. You're never going to be the top of my class. I'll tell you that much."

Jimmy mumbled an insincere apology. He wasn't really sure what for. He had just drifted off. He remembered bragging about getting the top mark in a test he didn't study for. That still didn't narrow it down to help him remember what subject he was in.

Thankfully, the bell rang. It didn't help his headache, but at least he could move on. Somewhere else, out of that room.

He had been so excited when he first got the news that he would be on his way to South America. He knew he would have to get saving, so he started doing some odd jobs around the house, around the neighbours. Odd jobs didn't pay very well though. He looked out for a job in the supermarket.

He should have gone to Coles or Woolies, but first he checked out the little grocer. I guess that was a mistake, because he was claiming that five bucks an hour was the going rate. That didn't last long. Jimmy walked out on the second day. He wasn't going to put up with that.

When he got home and shared the news with the parents, he was faced with a look of concern. They told him it was going to be difficult to come up with the money. The family was strapped for cash at the moment.

He didn't really know why, but he guessed it went back a few years, when there was a sustained period of fighting between his Mum and Dad. He just tried to avoid that. Every time he heard it was about to begin, that was time to go for a long walk, or maybe to put the headphones on and listen to something as heavy as possible.

Every now and then he would go to the beach with his Dad. They were going less and less now. In reality, old John was getting fat. He was getting fat, lazy and depressed. He didn't want to let that on to his family, but John had lost a lot of money.

He told his wife some of the story and they had almost come to blows. There was a time when she would come home yelling and screaming, threatening to kick him, hit him. He would always try to say things like "for the children".

They only had one child, so that didn't really make any sense. Though he thought if she kicked where she looked to be aiming, there wouldn't be any more children in the future.

They never did come to blows, but things changed. That money was never coming back, and John spent so much of his time trying to think of new ideas to evade debtors and further questions about his financial stability.

When his son came home after winning a great prize to go to South America, John was downcast. Sure, it was a great win, but they could never afford it. The debtors were already breathing down his neck. He saw the way that his young son started getting into the household tasks, helping out with the neighbours, just trying to scrape together the cash.

The reality was though, South America wasn't cheap. What kind of prize was this, anyway? They give you the great prestige, but then they didn't give you any money. Not much of a prize. Eventually the enthusiasm for the odd jobs cooled.

It wasn't like the old man had much enthusiasm himself. Not for household tasks, or anything. He went to his job and put in the minimum effort to ensure he remained on staff. He hated the work, the boss, the office, the clients.

However, every week, he could go to the supermarket, and everyone could eat. Everybody happy. Everything is fine. John enjoyed the weekly dinner after he had been to the supermarket. The Sunday roast. His wife was a good cook.

He wondered if there was any roast leftover in the fridge now. That could be a good lunch. He thought about it, no, there wouldn't be. He polished off the last of it yesterday afternoon. Too bad.

South America, hey. Don't know much about that. They like their soccer. Would have been good to go if Jimmy did get over there. Would have been great if the government paid for us all to go. That'd be something, wouldn't it.