Chapter 1: Big News
When all hope is lost, the unexpected happens. It magically reappears. We never really expect it to come back, but some how it does. I lost my hope once. I never really confronted it though, until I came here. Because coming here made me take a good look at myself. It made me think about what was really important in life, and how even though things crash and burn, there's always some way they could get worse. I always wished I could go back in time and change things, but really looking back at it now, I wouldn't change a thing, because everything in our life makes us who we are. And I'm perfect just the way I am, with all my childish quirks, fears of food, and ideas of how things should be. See live isn't measure in the breathes we take, but in the things that take our breath away.
"How can you sleep, how can you breath, baby tell me how, how you love me now?" I sang under my breath as the last few minutes of school drug on. As the hand went around one last time everyone tried not to make a sound as the hurriedly packed up. The bell rang and everyone jumped up and ran to the door except for me and my friend Ann.
"You're so slow Lyn," Ann said and sat on my desk examining her nails as I packed up.
"Sorry if I'm not concerned about making a nail appointment," I told her and walked out.
"Yeah, what eve, so we're still on still on for the movies tomorrow right?" she asked and skipped off after a brief nod from me.
Okay brief history. I'm Brooklyn Holmes, and that was Ann Jenkins. We're both sixteen and live in down town London. She lives in a fancy mansion with butlers and maids and her parents are away twenty four seven. I on the other hand live in a simple town house with my parents and two little siblings. She is my supposed best friends, but I think she could care less. The thing is I'm rich, but I don't flaunt it. She thinks money can get you anything; like her nose, brown hair and body. I know I should stop hanging out with her, but I can't be mean, it's just not within my range.
As I walked out to my car the wind numbed my bare legs. The school I went to was a private school with a uniform. Skirts, sweater vests, and white blouses made up the girls uniform, while slacks were the only difference for guys. A new silver Toyota Rav4 was the only car in the student parking lot. The wind wiped my blonde hair into my face making me race for my car trying to get out of the cold January wind. Inside the car I sped as quickly as I could home, trying to beat the major traffic jams and just missing them.
The white little picket fence appeared in my view and I parallel parked right next to it. Snowed lined the streets and soaked through my shoes as I walked around the car. I slipped on the ice covered walkway and groaned as I landed on my butt. The red front door definitely stuck out against the light gray walls, but it had grown on me over time. The door creaked as you opened it and then would make no sound when you closed it. The inside or the foyer was smallish not large, but big enough to hold my family as we came in after dinner. To the left was the coat closet with a shoe rack where I placed my flats every day after school. The coat went on the hanger and the scarf and hat went on the shelf. As I make my way upstairs I always yell down to the living room where the twins, my little brother Chester and little sister Chelsea, always sat and played some video game.
Today though when I yelled downstairs there was no answer. I dropped my bag halfway up the stairs and hurried down them before rushing into the living room. I came into the strangest sight and the weirdest sound. It was empty and clean and silent. I walked to the kitchen door still looking around, before going into the kitchen. "Mom where's Chester and Chelsea?" I asked and sat down at the island as my mom placed a pan of brownies into the oven.
"They went over to Kate and Jess's," she said and wiped her hands on a towel. "Your father and I wanted to take you out to dinner, just the three of us," she said and I looked at her suspiciously. She smiled and started talking again. "You know your father and I have been thinking about having another honeymoon, to Japan,' she added with a shrug.
"I think you two deserve it. Some time alone so you guys can be romantic around each other without Chester and Chelsea getting grossed out," I answered her back before getting up. "I'm gonna go change, when's dinner?" I asked and stopped at the door.
"Six, so we leave at five thirty," she said and glanced at the clock. It said four so I had forty five minutes before I should get dressed. I ran up the steps before picking up my bag and continuing on with my usual routine. It continued on with just throwing my bag down in the corner of my room and plopping down on my bed. Everyday it differed I would read, do homework, or watch t.v. and write. Today it ended up with writing and watching TV. The forty five minutes passed quickly and before I knew it I was standing in the shower as my phone rang. I groaned and turned off the shower before answering the phone and pulling a towel around me.
"Hello?" I asked and was answered by a chipper hyper voice belonging to Cecilia; Ann's sugar high twin.
"Hola chica, how's the school treating you?" Cecilia chimed into the phone and giving me a head ache. No one on the planet should be that hyper.
"Fine," I said and headed for my closet. I turned on the light and sorted through my clothes looking for my green v-neck sweater and white lace lined under shirt. "How's Italy?" I asked somewhat irritated as I went to the clothes folded up in my dresser. I opened the first drawer and saw the green sweater lying right on top. I pulled it out and placed it on top before bending down to open up my undershirt drawer. On a shelf was a pair of black skinny leg jeans and I grabbed them before walking out of my closet to change.
"Oh fantastic, I'm glad I did this it's so much fun, can't wait till I'm back next month to tell you all about it," she said and I rolled my eyes at her tone.
"I need to go, I'm going to dinner, so I need to get ready, bye," I said quickly and hung up before her voice could make my newly founded head ache worse. I threw on my bra and underwear before throwing on the shirts and jeans. I went back into the en-suite bathroom and started blow drying my hair.
My grandmother was the most beautiful person I had known in my whole life. I got the luck to inherit her beautiful sparkling blue eyes, blonde hair, and fair skin. My dad couldn't even tan so; I had some color to my skin, but no real color, which is just fine with me. My hair was really thick, so it took five minutes to get it dried. I really didn't wear all that much make-up, but I did wear eye shadow and lip gloss, the occasional concealor on a zip, but nothing else really. All of that took twenty minutes; a ten minute shower, five minutes to blow dry my hair, a minute to get dressed, and four minutes to do make-up.
My mother was down stairs by the door about to yell up at me as I came sprinting down the stairs, with my jacket, purse, and keys in hand. She checked her phone as I pulled on my peep toe black heels, with bows. She motioned for me to get out the door before closing and locking it behind me. I pulled my jacket on over the sweater as snow started falling as we made our way to my car. Mom would go home with dad after dinner and I would probably come home, but still just in case.
"Where to?" I asked starting up the car, as my mother told me the most expensive restaurant in the down town London area. The car ride was almost silent except for the radio, which only made me more worried. We were never able to ride in a car in silence. My mom hated silence. It bugged me part of the time but the other part of the time I was fine with my mom going into an in depth detail of her day, it meant I could stay quiet and contemplate things. My big thing was contemplating things. Everything that happened that was big would go down in my journal and I'd spend weeks contemplating them. Like I had recently contemplated the whole time and space thing, and just time its self, but I had to come up with the times its self one before the time and space one. Traffic had calmed down nicely, but there were still some major jams, blocking the roads, so instead of the half an hour my mom thought it would be it ended up being forty five minutes, but with the silence it could be mistaken for a thousand years. The sun faded eventually and all that was left was the moon, stars, and city lights. The lights though seemed to illuminate five times more because of them bouncing off the snow. When we finally got there my mom finally said something and even though it was only 'finally' it gave me some sort of relief.
"Howard, sorry we're late, traffic was terrible," she said sitting down next to a older looking man, with graying hair, or as I called him my dad.
"Hi dad," I said giving him a kiss on the cheek, before also sitting down.
"How was school?" he asked as a waitress took our drink orders. I pulled my jacket off as I answered.
"It was fine, boring, but fine," I said and felt a couple stares from around the room. As usual people stared at me while I was in public. Most respected my privacy, but some didn't.
"People are staring dear," my mother warned me.
"Thanks mom," I told her with a false smile. "So what's wrong?" I asked five minutes later after another round of silence. Our orders had been placed and our drinks had arrived, but my parents still had yet to make conversation.
"Why would you ask that?" my dad asked looking from my mom to me. they were silently communicating.
"Because you and mom ar silently communicating, and that always means something's wrong," I replied glancing back and forth between my parents. My mom couldn't look at me and my father was avoiding my eyes. "Did great Aunt Sheryl finally kick the bucket?" I asked. My great Aunt Sheryl was ninety nine and was on death row, she was probably my least favorite aunt, because she thought I was a boy, she always forgets I'm in the room and she hates me.
"Brooklyn Felicity Holmes, you could be more polite to your aunt and no she hasn't died yet," my mom scolded me.
"Then what? You guys can tell me anything," I told them trying to sweet talk it out of them. It either worked or they just caved because the next things out of their mouth mad me freeze in my seat.
"We think you're clinically depressed," my mom blurted out. My eyes widened and my head tilted a bit as I started at them. "We have decided to intervene. You'll be going away for a bit," she told me and I looked at my dad.
"There's this lovely little troubled teens boarding school in Napa Valley, California, we though would be perfect," he explained and I still said nothing. "You'll be leaving for the school on Saturday evening," and at this I finally found my voice.
"That's in less than one day," I almost yelled drawing attention.
"Shush!" my mom said quieting me down. "It's been decided. We've read your book and we're concerned," she told me.
"Couldn't I just see a therapist instead?" I asked trying to change their minds.
"You'll see the counselor weekly dear. We have all the information back at the house, now can we please," she said stressing the word please. "salvage what we can of this lovely dinner?" she asked or more like ordered giving both me and my father the eye. I stared down at the table and sat there throughout the whole dinner. I didn't even eat my food. Luckily enough for me my mom went home with my dad, and I was assigned to pick up Chelsea and Kate for dance class that night. So seeing I needed to improve my attitude I stopped at the grocery store quickly and picked up a twenty ounce bottle of cola and a box of chocolates.
Chelsea and Kate couldn't be happier when I picked them up because Chester and Jess were throwing Lego's at their heads. They sat in the back seat gossiping and I had hide the chocolates and soda so they wouldn't beg for them. Chelsea was diabetic after all. I hadn't even come to a complete stop when they jumped out of the car and raced for the studios front door. I rolled my eyes and pulled away. By the time I got home I snuck quietly up stairs into my bedroom so my parents wouldn't hear and then sat down on my bed. I turned on the TV and opened up my laptop's internet browser. A packet laid on my bed and it said Napa Academy on the front. I looked up Napa Academy and opened up the schools website. There was a little slideshow opener and then it went to the main page. I examined the website and found that the school helped teens with all sorts of problems ranging from mental to physical problems. Inside the packet itself was a schedule, school brochure, and a page of random info on the classes, extracurriculars, and staff.
"So what do you think?" I shot up form the bed at the sound of my mother's voice, but laid back down on my stomach.
"It's alright," I answered curtly.
"Sweetie it's for your best interest," she told me still not budging from the doorway.
"I get it mom," I told her and she sighed.
"Start thinking about packing at least. And no more than two boxes of books," she told me and I glanced wide eyed at my prized book collection.
"But mom," I started to say, but when I looked back at the doorway she was gone. I thought about what I was gonna do. I sighed before getting up off the bed and going into my closet. A few boxes had been placed in my closet and marked clothes. I just started grabbing things off of the hangers. Some were fancy party dresses I had acquired from various red carpet events and parties. On top of the dresser laid opened my book 'Abused'. I stared at it for a few minutes before throwing it out the door. Everything in that book that I wrote was the reason I was being sent away. Part of the reason why I was basically friendless and why I cried. In the world of being an acclaimed, world renowned author, you could never trust anyone, unless you really get to know them. Plus if you're book is real and sad, it's a constant reminder of pain that you've gone through, pain that cuts deep into your soul, never healing completely.
I threw more clothes into the box and moved onto my dresser. The dresser had my jeans, shorts, which were rarely used, and I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't fit, and my tops. Only my stuff that wrinkled got hung up, but then again most of it was suppose to be dry cleaned, when in fact it got home washed normally. My mom disagree with the way I took care of my clothes, but she was a perfectionist and thought if it said dry clean it meant only dry clean. I had a couple shelves full of shoes, most converse in random colors, but some heels, flats, and flip flops. I had to set up another box before stuffing all my shoes in there. It was kinda weird that all my clothes and shoes fit in two boxes, but then again, the clothing box was gigantic. I glanced at the shoe box as I took it out to my bed room, and the at my book case. I had a good foot or so left in the box so I dumped it back out and started laying the books in the bottom. For this I locked the door so my mom wouldn't catch me. I'd tell her I gave my books to Ann, my mom would never ask Ann if I actually gave them to her. I just had to keep my mom out of my room for the rest of the night, put a decoy box in my car, and then throw the box in recycling at a random place. So with a plan decided I packed two square feet of my books and then placed the shoes back in on top so that my mom wouldn't see. I then went on and packed the rest of my books in the assigned book boxes.
By the time I looked at the clock it was already midnight. On the TV stand was my plane ticket so to see exactly what time I was leaving. The plane ride was twenty six hours, so that meant I was leaving at ten the next evening, but with the London airport I would probably have to get there at eight or seven. It meant I would get to San Francisco at about four.
I couldn't get my mind wrapped around leaving England, but eventually I came to enough sense that I dialed Ann's number. A ringing came across the line until I heard Ann's voice. "What Brook?" she asked exasperated.
"Um…I can't make the movie," I said leaning into the opening of telling her I was leaving.
"Why?!" she asked getting a bit mad.
"I'm going to California, for quite a while at that," I said rushing through it. I held my breath waiting for her to answer, but instead I just heard laughter.
"Brook we all know you're famous, but you can't just cancel plans on me to go flying around the world, no matter much you are needed. Besides you aren't quite famous enough to get called the night before," she said and I could here cruelty in her voice, even though I knew she was trying her absolute best to hide it, yeah right.
"I'm really going to San Francisco Ann, I called to tell you I'm leaving and I have to get ready and pack, so goodbye," I said and waited for her to reply. I heard even more laughter come from her.
"Yeah I'll see you Monday in school, bye," she said and hung up. I laughed to myself before hanging up and bringing the rest of the boxes out of my closet. Really I preferred simplicity in my room at the time, so all I had to put into memorabilia box was ten black and white photos of different things, a jewelry box or two, crystal statues of dancers, and some random other things. They didn't take up that much room, I didn't pack my alarm, but I did pack one of my lamps. Just random things from around my room, nothing really too big though. All my clothes did get brought with me though. I was too much of someone who wanted to look great, to leave them. By the time I had finally taped everything shut and labeled them all it was three in the morning. Everything was piled in the corner except for a set of clothes and pj's, my purse, something for entertainment on the plane, and my bedding. Bedding would be packed tomorrow after I got some sleep. I swapped out my clothes for my pj's and climbed underneath my Style&co. "Wildflowers" pink bedding collection.