You know when you throw a pebble in to water it makes a quite satisfying sound before disappearing from view. Looking back, that’s how I remember Alice’s file on road accidents landing on my desk. The sound of something heavy landing on wood, something at odds with the brightly coloured pens, the heart shaped post-its, that gonks Jo always buys me. And then the file starting to disappear from view, almost absorbed by the tangle of cables I seem to need on a daily basis, by receipts, chocolate bar wrappers, sunglasses, lipgloss and hats. But it didn’t disappear even though my life went on around it.

Then my friend Scratch stepped back off a kerb and was gone from our lives forever.
And in the dark days that followed, as he lay in a coma, I looked for comfort everywhere. That’s when I remembered the file. I thought maybe it would have some answers. And it did, but much, much too late for Scratch. Inside was so much information as densely packed as rock and almost as impenetrable to take in in one go. And I started to think, we teens are bombarded with so many messages all the time; don’t take drugs, don’t walk home alone, don’t drink alcohol, don’t smoke.

As I tried to digest pages and pages of risks, the graphs and the pie charts of fatalities, serious injuries and casualties I realized all the work that went in to it. All those waves of people collating information on tragic accidents, distilling it down in to graphs and pie charts and hoping we’ll get to the message – don’t die on the roads – there’s no need. Hoping we’ll understand that it’s all so avoidable – as easy as saying ‘Watch out mate’. Because they’ve seen it all before too many times and know if you don’t the ripples go on forever. You’re left with a gaping gap in your gang of friends, the school removing their name from the leavers list, their siblings never enjoying his birthday again and their parents spending every day wishing things could have been different, because ripples never stop.

If you’ve been involved, or have lost a friend, in a road incident visit www.roadpeace.org/ or call Road Peace’s confidential helpline on 0845 4500 355 (Mon-Fri, 9am–5pm)

Wicked Magazine is delighted to announce its role in Sofia's Diary - The DVD.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...

We always knew were fabulous on the page and on-line, but now we get to be fabulous on the small screen.

Enjoy and congratulations to our own Sofia Taylor.

All the Staff at Wicked Magazine.

It's almost as if it's cool to be back at school. True prom dresses and havaianas have to go back in the closet, but we at Wicked Towers weren't loving that Lily Allen look anyway. We're totally looking forward to tartan tights and riding boots and all things wintery.

What a summer it's been. Sure sunshine was in short supply but we were all at the movies anyway. Anyone not been listening to the Mamma Mia soundtrack? We fell in love with Georgia and her cat Angus, and we couldn't get enough Boys like Girls or Alphabeat.

But now as it is back to school, I'm proud to say Wicked Magazine has got right behind the govt EMA scheme. The clever government people have put together a package which allows people to stay on at school by paying them an allowance. Up to £30 a week. Worth looking in to, I'd say, because by the time we see the sun again you could be on the way to completing that course.

All the deets are here: www.direct.gov.uk/ema

'Til next time,

Alice Clayton Smith.

Editor-in-Chief

Wicked Magazine.