"Hey! Where does this go?"
Rory made a vague gesture with her hand towards the half-empty living room and walked out the front door, ignoring the exasperated sigh of the mover behind her. She had spent the last hour in her new room trying to organize everything the way she wanted it and now she was tired and wanted to rest outside for a moment. It was a clear spring day, perfect for moving into her new home. Rory and her father had moved from house to house, city to city, countless times and so she knew that it was lucky that at least the weather was cooperating; there would be enough hassles as it is.
"Hey kiddo!" Rory turned to see her father walking out of the door behind her, wiping his hands on his already dirty jeans. "We're almost done here; just a little longer to get everything sorted out."
Rory smiled, knowing that even once they got everything sorted out and organized it was only a matter of time before they would be packing everything back up, ready to move on to the next city. Chris and Rory Hayden had their routine down and could pack up their entire house in a record of four hours. Like most things, it all came with practice and they had a lot of that.
"Good," she half moaned, dramatically flinging out her arm in front of her and putting a hand on her forehead. "I'm exhausted. Moving takes so much out of me."
"Yeah, I can see that. You've really been putting a lot of effort in, the movers have nothing on you," he replied sarcastically. He paused for a moment. "We'll order in tonight, find the best Chinese food in the area."
"What, the cook's not here yet?"
Chris glared for a moment before nodding, knowing as well as Rory did that the two of them were completely hopeless at cooking and relied completely on hired help and take-out. Rory had learned how to make the basics at St. Mary's School for Girls, but she was there for less than six months and there was only so many times that you could make scrambled eggs and pasta before you got tired of them.
"Alright then, I'm going to go pay these guys and then we'll see about food."
He clapped a hand on Rory's shoulder before turning and walking back into the house, already exclaiming over something that wasn't done properly. Rory sighed, watching him go, knowing that soon they would be in a different town, at a different house, ordering around different movers. It was the same routine every time. From an early age she had learned that everything was temporary and nothing stayed the same.
They had only been living in Seattle for four months when Chris had announced that there was an amazing job opportunity available in Hartford. Rory had sighed, already used to this routine, this scramble to find the perfect job in the perfect place that would lead to living the perfect life.
"This time we're staying there. This is it." He had said as he did every time he announced that they were moving, wrapping an affectionate arm around his daughter.
"Yup, this is it," she replied as always, forever the dutiful daughter.
And that was it. Within a week the arrangements had been made and their life had been packed into the cardboard boxes that they always kept in storage, just in case. They had arrived in Hartford to find a relatively sized house with a huge swimming pool in the backyard. As houses go, it wasn't bad compared to some of the others they had lived in but as for the people, well they would have to see.
Rory had two days to herself, two whole days to organize and reevaluate all of her possessions before she was expected to make an appearance at Chilton Academy. She spent her time reading, arranging her room and making adjustments to her vast collection of clothing. The promised emails were sent off to old friends in Seattle, informing them that she had arrived safely and missed them. This wasn't true as Rory had learned from a young age that missing people meant being attached and therefore she never became attached. The only people that she was really close to were her father, his parents and her best friend, as they were the only constants in her life.
She did have friends, enemies and acquaintances from almost every school that she had gone to, but eventually contact stopped and life moved on. Relationships, if any, were kept casual as to avoid the heartbreak that would inevitably come once her father found a new, better, more improved place to live.
It had been like this for as long as she could remember. Her mom had taken off soon after giving birth and was rarely heard from, last Rory had heard she had married and was with child. It hurt sometimes, knowing that her mother didn't want her and had a new son or daughter to dote upon like she had never done for Rory. Her father had raised her, forgoing after school activities and going out with his friends to look after his daughter at the young age of sixteen. When college came upon them, he decided to go to Yale as it was closest and he had left Rory with his parents, returning constantly to check up on her.
From when she was about six to now at the age of seventeen, it was just the two of them against the world. Rory adored her grandparents but with them moving around constantly for Chris' job, she didn't get to see them very often except on holidays. It was at a boarding school that she had only attended for two months that she met her best friend Logan.
Logan appeared to be her male counterpart and they hit it off right away. As both of them moved around a lot, Logan because of his habit of getting kicked out of all the schools that his father sent him to, the two of them decided that friendship was ideal and they stuck to it. Four years later, they still emailed and phoned weekly, eager to have someone else to talk to who understood.
On the eve of her first day of Chilton, Rory went to bed early, hoping to have a good night sleep before entering her new school. All the high schools that she had attended had been generally the same; different people, different teachers, same attitude and same overall expectations.
She could hear her father moving around downstairs, getting ready for his new job the next day. Rory knew that he was optimistic that this would be the last stop, their home for the rest of her schooling. Even though she was doubtful, she put on a hopeful face for her father, thinking maybe this time it would stick, maybe this time it would actually be forever.
Rory scoffed inwardly, admitting to herself that that was a lie, before rolling over and pressing her face into her pillow. She wasn't nervous, going to a new school was all part of her yearly routine and she had had that routine down for years.
