The sun was shining brightly. I laid on a towel next to the pool in my brand new bikini. The light blue water was moving gently, because of the light breeze that came from the trees. The smell of chlorine burned my nose. My skin was sweating, and I thought about swimming for a while. Instead I took a gulp from my orange juice, freezing cold because of the ice in it.
During moments like these, I couldn't help but wonder how perfect my life actually was. I lived in a gigantic house, so big that I could avoid seeing my parents for two days, I could lay beside the pool, play tennis – even though I sucked in it – have barbeques… But it was all about to end.
It had been six months since the day that everything changed. It had been a beautiful Californian morning. I woke up at ten, ready to hit the gym, and after that I'd gone to the beauty salon to do my hair and nails. I drove home the windows rolled down, enjoying the cool wind. Little did I expect to meet my parents at the front door, informing they had something to say to me.
Jessica, we're moving to Finland, my dad had said without a hint of joking in his voice. I didn't even knew what or where Finland was, but after twenty minutes lecturing I learned that because of my fathers job we were moving to a country behind the gods back, where there was actual winter.
I had had six months to get adjudicated with the moving, but so far things weren't going very well. I had hired my parents to do the packing for me, and I hardly even spent time in my room anymore, not wanting to see the boxes. But I couldn't avoid the fact that I was moving anymore. We were leaving in three days, and I was absorbing the last rays of sun before I went in the middle of the snow.
LAX airport was full of people, but the line going to Helsinki was shorter than any line. I'd waved goodbye to sunny weathers and was wearing UGGs and a thick coat.
The flight was pain free. The food was terrible, even though we were in the first class. I watched some weird Finnish movie but gave up because there was snow in it. It took 15 hours before we were there. I looked out of the window and gulped. There wasn't snow, but it was wet and the ground was full of wet and dead and disgusting leaves. The sky was grey. I hated the whole country before we had even landed. Everything went smoothly, too smoothly, I wanted to stay in the warm airport as long as possible. We took a taxi outside and drove to our new house at Munkkiniemi. To my surprise the house was huge and right next to ocean. But there was no use of it, since it was winter here.
- Jess, go to bed, we have to go into your new high school tomorrow to sign some papers, my mom said and I felt nauseated. New school. Shit. Finland was literally my own personal hell.