I stare dejectedly out the window of the plane, watching my city grow smaller and smaller below me. My sister's sitting at the window, making excited little "vee" noises every few seconds, watching our lives fade behind us with a huge grin on her face. I can't believe it's only been two weeks since my idiot of a grandfather came home, shouting that we were going on an adventure – an adventure that consisted of leaving everything that I'd ever known, moving to Canada of all places, and enrolling in an international school in the middle of February. And then he gave my sister and I two weeks to pack up and say goodbye to our friends (not that I had any anyway) before shoving us onto this plane with him.

I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Lovina Vargas, and I'm 16 years old. My sister, Feliciana, and I have lived with my grandfather since she was 5 and I was 6. Our parents were killed in a fire that completely consumed our house – it's a miracle the two of us managed to survive. My sister can't remember anything of it, but I can – I haven't been able to go near fire since.

Since then we've been living with my ridiculously young-looking grandfather (seriously, he's been mistaken for our dad before.) in Rome.

Oh yeah, we're Italian. Guess I forgot to mention that. The kids in this school will probably make fun of my accent too. Great.

Feliciana won't have a problem fitting in. She's constantly smiling, she's friendly, pretty, talented… everything about her attracts people. She'll make friends in no time. Me on the other hand… I'm constantly scowling, I swear, I'm not nearly as pretty, and I mess up everything I try. It's no wonder everyone at my old school hated me.

I look out the window again. According to the map on the little screen in front of me, we're just passing over Spain right now. Stupid country. Never liked it.

I sit back in my chair and sigh. Still another six hours until we land in Ottawa. And I don't have anything to do other than listen to my sister rant about how amazing pasta is. Great. This is going to be a long flight.

Oh well. May as well enjoy it. It's one of my last few cold-free hours.