Jessica Miller

Salad Days, A Women's Fiction

 

OPENING SCENE: Introduces protagonist and inciting incident. Establishes the primary and secondary conflict.

 

Chapter 1

 

Rosie

 

The last time an email came from my alma mater, it shattered me. It was an obituary for Bailey. Even though at the time, I had been aware of her sudden passing, the obituary sent by my school to every student from the class of 2006 reeled me back into a reality I tried hard to avoid—a world where Bailey didn’t exist.

And now, seven years later, as I sat on the floor of my living room with my legs crossed and my computer on my lap, I was looking at another email from St. Vincent. My fingers hesitated before I finally opened it. I blinked. It said that my beloved school would be closing forever. 

If you asked anyone in my year, they’d tell you that we had the best high school years. It sounds ridiculous, right—who had a great time in high school? We did. It’s like we won the lottery. In my thirties now, I’d appreciate winning an actual money lottery, but when we were sixteen, the friendships I formed at St. Vincent felt like hitting the jackpot.

Though we hadn't spoken in what felt like years, with the news of St. Vincent’s closure, I knew my friends would soon start ringing. 

First came Wendy.

“Hey,” I answered the call, quickly stealing a glance at the clock. Half past eleven at night here in London, must be mid-morning Wendy’s time.

“I can’t believe it.” She said, forgoing hello. “This can’t be real.”

“I know. I wonder what happened,” I said.

The email from St. Vincent didn’t give much explanation, but it was safe to speculate that it was probably a lack of funding. 

“How does a school run out of funding? They have paying students!” Wendy cried out. 

“Maybe it isn’t profitable anymore.”

“They’re a catholic school! They have support from the archdiocese or something like that. . . don’t they?”

“Who knows how they work. But this is really sad.” I felt my phone buzz and checked the screen to see that Inez was now calling me. As soon as I merged the calls, Inez practically yelled for all London to hear. 

“ROSIE! DID YOU SEE THE EMAIL FROM ST. VINCENT?!” 

“Geez, Nez. You’ll wake up my entire household.” I said, chuckling.

“Oh, sorry—I forgot it’s close to midnight there. Am I on speaker?”

“Yeah. Wendy’s on the line too. I just merged our calls.”

“WENDY?”

Both Wendy and I shushed her. “You would think with age, those lungs would weaken a bit but you’re louder than you were in high school,” Wendy said.

Inez cackled. “You should hear my daughter. She puts me to shame. Wait, should we switch to video-call so we can see each other?” Wendy and I agreed. It’s been so long since our last video call together. I had a feeling Nat and Anna would be joining us pretty soon.

“So,” Inez said as I switched us to video. “I’m calling about the reunion.”

Ah, yes. The reunion. 

At the end of the email, it was revealed that a committee was formed to arrange the last—and biggest—reunion for the St. Vincent classes of 2005–2007. A combined reunion, what a feat. I wondered whose idea this could be.

“You’re coming, right?” Inez prodded.

It was set in July. So I had about five months. 

I considered the idea of going home to Jakarta. All the logistical things I would have to set up here in London just so that I could fly home for a few weeks began to weigh on me. 

London used to be my dream. I wanted to see how far I could go in life, chasing my career. Meeting Daniel and marrying him was a twist of fate I never expected. After Bailey’s death, London became my escape. The thought of home without Bailey was unbearable.

“You skipped the tenth-year reunion.” Inez reminded me, hope and worry visible on her face. “You must come to this one. It’s the last one. Ever. Don’t you want to see the rascals, Ricky and Remi? Ricky is a father now. A girl-dad, to be precise. I ran into him last year with his daughter. It was odd how mature he’d become—he was our class clown! And Edgar, your partner in crime?”

Before Inez went on to mention an entire yearbook of names, Wendy cut in. “Everyone will be there. Everyone,” she emphasized. From what I heard, aside from me, the tenth-year reunion was missing a few of our other friends. Edgar was abroad for his master’s degree and Remi didn’t show. This would really be the reunion. 

But I sensed that by “everyone” Wendy meant a particular person from the class of 2005, thinking his presence at the reunion would sway me. Never mind that we’d grown up and that it had been more than fifteen years since I last saw him, or that I now had a husband, a son, a job and a life here in London.

“If you don’t come to this one,” Inez said again as I remained quiet. “We’ll be reuniting in forty years when we start having funerals. No one can skip those,” she joked.

I knew she meant nothing by it, but I skipped Bailey’s funeral six years ago. 

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that, I didn’t mean it in any certain way.”

“No worries,” I waved my hand at the screen. “I know.”

I understood why Inez called me specifically about the reunion. Out of the five of us, I was the most elusive. She wanted to make sure I wouldn’t miss it.

Since Bailey’s death, my friendship with Inez, Wendy and the others remained strong. But it was never the same. I owed it to them to come home. Plus, I had been feeling untethered. Going home might help ground me. 

Finally, I said, “I’ll be home for the reunion.” 

Wendy and Inez cheered. Their excitement was contagious, and I began to feel ecstatic at the prospect of going home. It had been five years.

As much as I avoided home, I must admit that I missed the man-made lake near my parents’ house where I used to take walks. My mother’s cooking. The mall culture that was prominent in Jakarta’s social life. The way that if you walked for ten minutes on a random street, you’d be passing at least a dozen street-hawkers and people talking in different local dialects. 

I heard footsteps on the stairs and Daniel turned in from the hallway. I looked up at my husband with his bed head and one eye struggling to open. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did we wake you?” I winced, pointing the screen of my phone his way.

“What’s with all the screaming? Did the Spice Girls announce a reunion or something?” He joked and then waved his hand at Wendy and Inez on the screen. “Funny you should say that. It’s not the Spice Girls that’s reuniting. It’s us!” Wendy squealed. Daniel looked at me for an explanation.

“I’ll explain in the morning. Go back to bed, I know you’ve got an early start. We’ll try to keep it down.” I threw a fake annoyed look at Inez and Wendy. They grinned apologetically.

“All right, darling. No worries about the noise. I was just making sure it wasn’t anything serious. Night, ladies.” Daniel headed back toward the stairs. “Try to not stay up too late. I know how you get when you’re tired!”

My phone vibrated again and the screen showed Anna’s name. I merged her into our video call and saw that Anna wasn’t alone. She had Nat with her. 

“Oh, wow. All of us are here!” Anna remarked. The last time we scheduled a collective Facetime, Wendy was pulled into a meeting, I fell asleep, and Inez’s kids threw a tantrum. But look at us now—all five from different time zones on one call. My heart squeezed with nostalgia.

“Let me guess,” I cut in. “You’re calling about the reunion?”

“Yes! But I also have a confession,” Anna looked like she was about to burst at the seams.

“She’s the head of the reunion committee.” Nat pointed her thumb at Anna. “She didn’t even tell me.” It started to make sense why we were having a combined reunion. “And her main goal is to make sure the most elusive member of this gang will come.” 

“Well then, lucky for you, Wendy and I have just achieved that goal,” Inez said smugly. “Rosie already agreed to come.”

“Did you bribe her? Blackmail?”

“Just some old school guilt-tripping, babe. How am I to blackmail the wife of an attorney—no, what’s the word again, solicitor?”

I laughed. Indonesians were more familiar with American English and my friends were always thrown off by British terms. 

“Well done, Nez!” Anna squealed. “How about you, Wendy?”

“I’ll be there, come hell or high water.” Wendy lived in Melbourne. She and I were the only two members of this group who lived abroad. Inez, Anna, and Nat never wanted to leave Indonesia. Inez stayed in Jakarta and complained about the traffic and pollution. Anna and Nat ran a successful event and wedding planning agency in Bali. It was a joint business—Nat handled corporate events and Anna, the hopeless romantic one in our group, handled weddings, which were the most lucrative part of their business. With everyone scattered across islands and countries, arranging a rendezvous had never been easy. The best that we could hope for was some combination of three. The last time it was all five of us was for my wedding. They were my bridesmaids. Anna planned it all.

Nat and Anna were the exception—they were always together. They’d crossed the best-friend line straight into the sibling zone, arguing like sisters all the time.

“We’ll finally be properly reunited this time. It’s been so long,” Wendy pointed out. The call went quiet. I knew we had one person in mind. Bailey. It would always happen when we were together. When we told stories, when we laughed, when we reminisced, the loss of Bailey left a gap that couldn’t be filled. 

She was the reason I refused to attend the last reunion. I couldn’t do it—seeing everyone there without Bailey. There were six of us and I was closest to Bailey. I love the girls all the same, but Bailey understood me like no one else. To call her my best friend was an understatement. She was my soulmate.

I cleared my throat to get rid of the lump that I felt forming and changed the subject. “There’s one thing we need to do at the reunion.” Everyone tensed up. “We should dig up the time capsule we buried at the school.”

On the day of our graduation, we buried a time capsule under the old Banyan tree and promised that we would dig it up at our tenth-year reunion, but obviously since Bailey passed and I didn’t show up, it stayed buried.

Anna nodded her head. “It’s long overdue. We’ll do it. Bring your shovels, ladies.”

Pre-Event I: Seven Assignments

Book Title: Salad Days

Author: Jessica Miller

About the Book: SALAD DAYS is a fiction novel primarily set in Jakarta, Indonesia. Told through dual timelines and multiple perspectives, it explores themes of youth, unrequited love, nostalgia, and found sisterhood as Rosie and her friends unravel the reason Rosie's high school love story ended so prematurely. With its heartfelt narrative, humor, and rich cultural background, this book will appeal to fans of Kevin Kwan's "Crazy Rich Asians" and Clare Pooley's "Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting."

Tone of Voice and Intended Audience: Each chapter is written in first-person, alternating between the female characters in their 30s. Throughout the progression of the story, there are "St. Vincent" chapters which take readers back to Rosie and friend's high school years, and these "St. Vincent" chapters are written in the third-person point of view. Salad Days is intended for readers of Contemporary Romance and Women's Fiction, as well as fans of K-Dramas. Based on the theme of youth, this book may also be relatable for Young Adult readers.

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1. Story Statement

Marked by the heartbreak of her first love, Rosie Davis returns to Jakarta for her high school reunion—with the hope to see the boy who colored her youth seventeen years ago, and mend her broken bond with her dearest friends.

2. The "Antagonist"

Anna Sofyan is a hopeless-romantic and a professional meddler. She has always been this way. It's probably why she became a wedding planner. She romanticizes things, dreams big, and sees the world through rose-colored lenses. But this gets her into trouble—not everyone appreciates her help, which can sometimes have disastrous outcomes.

Then there's Rosie. She is skeptical and builds a wall around her heart. When Rosie falls for Ben, Anna inserts herself yet again, playing cupid or wingwoman—always trying to force situations in which the two would have to interact. Until one day, Anna unknowingly perpetuates a rumor that throws Rosie and Ben off the course of their love story.

For years, Anna carries the guilt that she might have caused Rosie and Ben's premature end. So when she is recruited to organize their school reunion, she plots for them to meet again after seventeen years. Never mind that Rosie is now married and has a kid. She dreams of closure between the two. Closure she selfishly wants for herself.

3. Breakout-Title Options:

a. Salad Days — a nod to the Shakespearean idiom referring to the beloved period of one's life when one was carefree, innocent, and youthful.

b. The Time of Us — encapsulates the spirit of Rosie's friendship in high school and also works to capture the time she had with Ben, the love she lost before it even began.

c. The Last Reunion — uses the inciting incident that brings Rosie home to Jakarta to face the love, grief, and friendship she left behind.

4. Genre and Comparables

Genre: Contemporary Romance; Women's Fiction; Young Adult

Comparables:

a. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. Rich in Asian background and Eastern cultural perspective—its humor and hilarious turn of events made it an easy and fun read, bringing readers to an epic, heartfelt ending.

b. Iona Iverson's Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley. Its multi-POV, interesting characters, and subtle drama with a romantic subplot gives readers warm feelings, which is what Salad Days is meant to do.

c. The Most Likely Club by Elyssa Friedland. The theme around high school reunion and female friendship feels adjacent and similar to Salad Days.

5. Core Wound and Primary Conflict

Opt 1: Rosie's scheming friends and lost love in her youth pull her back to her distant home in Jakarta, threatening to shake up her peaceful new life in London.

Opt 2: Seventeen years after the greatest heartbreak of her youth, Rosie journeys home for her high school reunion, where closure means confronting her fear of vulnerability and returning to the friendship she abandoned.

6. Conflict: Two Levels

Inner Conflict:

Rosie, the protagonist, was the overlooked eldest daughter in a family consumed by her brothers' medical needs. Forced to fend for herself, she steered away from vulnerability and guarded her heart against love and heartbreak. But then she met Ben—the boy she couldn't help but fall for. Their brief, failed romance left a mark that she carried into adulthood, long after marriage and motherhood. 

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Excerpt that captures the inner conflict:

“What’s there to think about? You like him and he asked you out.” Bailey threw her hands.

Rosie didn’t answer. She stared at the pool. “I’m scared, B.” 

Bailey watched her face intently. “I’m scared of how much I like him. This is the first time I ever feel this way about anyone, so I admit I don’t have a lot of reference, but this feels too big. Like I’m one breath away from falling in love. What the heck do I know about love?”

“Nothing wrong with that. No one really knows love until they give it a try.”

“But what if I get hurt? What if he breaks my heart—or worse, what if I break his?” 

Bailey understood where this fear came from. Rosie grew up having to look out for herself. She didn’t have the safety net other kids feel with their parents. Under a similar circumstance, Bailey had the luxury of an older sister, Amanda, who would rush to her if she needed help. 

Rosie was the older sister. Every monster under her bed, she fought off alone. Every tear she shed, she wiped with her own hands. Every mistake, she fixed herself. The threat of a first heartbreak must feel like an impending doom.

(Note: this excerpt was from one of the "St. Vincent" Chapters, hence the third-person voice.)

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Secondary Conflict:

True to her "avoidant" nature, Rosie fled from grief when her best friend Bailey suddenly died. She refused to attend the funeral in hopes that denial would shield her. This decision cracked the bond between her and her closest friend group: Anna, Nat, Wendy, and Inez. Now, returning for her school reunion, she must face not only the boy she once loved but also the friendship she abandoned.

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Excerpt that captures the secondary conflict:

When I finally told the girls over video call, the rage behind Nat’s cold, dead stare pierced through me. She blew up, calling me selfish and a coward. 

“You didn’t show up at the funeral, disappeared on us, and now you expect us to understand your need to feel closer to Bailey by hiding her letter from us?!” She yelled then. “Bailey wanted all of us to know and we deserved to know. She was our best friend too!”

She quit the call as I was sobbing. Everyone else was quiet. Anna’s disappointment was palpable. Wendy frowned but said that she knew I was hanging by a thread, tending to my grief alone. Inez didn’t say anything. 

Nat wouldn’t speak to me for a long time. Anna suggested I give her time and I did. Until one afternoon, I saw a group of school girls in their uniforms at Waterstones. 

I finally called Nat. “Took you long enough,” she said the second she answered my call.

“I’m so sorry, Nat.”

(Note: this excerpt was from one of Rosie's Chapters, written in the first-person voice.)

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7. Setting(s)

Primary Setting:

Jakarta, Indonesia. Early 2000s. The city was chaotic but alive—roads congested with hums of buses, ojek, bajaj, and cars honking, street hawkers everywhere, and luxurious skyscrapers and malls existing amidst kampungs (villages and slums). St. Vincent Catholic School is located near the border of west and central Jakarta. Its strategic location draws students from various ethnic (Chinese- and Non-Chinese Indonesians), religious, and socio-economic backgrounds: 

• Egalitarian and tight-knit. Everyone blends together.
• The school's architecture reflects the Dutch Colonial/Old Jakarta (also known as Batavia) style with terracotta roofs, white walls, open corridors, and courtyard.
• The property with ample greenery is a retreat from the harsh heat and unforgiving chaos of Jakarta.

[Historical side note: The country was going through a reformation after the "Mei 1998" riots that toppled the "Orde Baru" regime (New Order). It exposed deep ethnic, economic, and political fractures, especially against the Chinese-Indonesian community. However, our characters, in their youth and innocence, were cushioned from the reality of the political instability. This historical piece is mentioned in the story only as a subtle background.] 

Secondary Settings:

• London, UK — Rosie moved to London from Jakarta in her twenties, one year before Bailey passed, to pursue her career. She ended up meeting her future husband and planted new roots there. This is where she was called to return home for the reunion.
• Melbourne, Australia — where one of our characters, Wendy, lives with her aunt. This Australian city hosts many Indonesian immigrants and it's brimming in diversity, arts, and history.
• NIHI Sumba — a resort in a less explored island in Indonesia. Rosie and her friends vacation at this resort to have some time together before they attend the grand reunion. Its beaches are pristine with the turquoise Indian Ocean on the horizon. Locals have their own dialect, culture, custom, and traditional attire.