I was so tired of moving around everywhere. At least once a year my mom's company would move us. I had barely settled into my new school and ventured to make friends and then we would move again. I hated it. With a passion.

My name is Gabriella Montez and I suppose this is the story of my sucky life.

I was crazy about my mom of course, and my baby brother was wicked cool when he wanted to be but I didn't like all the upheaval the whole time. Dad had disappeared the year Alex, my brother, turned three. I was nine and the blow had hit all of us hard. My mother had spent weeks hiding in her room, crying her heart out refusing to eat, refusing to answer telephone calls. It was hard on me as I had to take care of my three year-old baby bro all by myself. Then one day I had enough and I stormed into the room. I roused my mother with a few choice words. I regretted it immediately afterwards but my mom kind of had needed a kick in the bum to get her going again.

She quit her job and moved to Las Vegas, the first move we made. There she got a job as a waitress in a casino but after two months she moved us again, this time to Washington DC. When I got older she explained that too many men had hit upon her while she had worked in the casino. With her heart freshly broken by our dad I understood. My mom is a stunning American-Spanish woman with gorgeous dark hair, tanned skin and smouldering chocolate eyes. Alex had gotten my dad's handsome looks and everyone says I take after my mother but I battle to see how we look alike. Except for my wild mane of hair that is as dark as my mother's and her tanned skin tone we look nothing alike. I'm the geeky brainiac. I have to wear glasses and I definitely have a few pounds extra around my waist and thighs.

Anyways, in Washington she got a job with an enormous corporate business in the advertising segment. This meant that they sent her all around the world regularly on business trips and the never kept her in one place for very long.

They paid her very well, so I suppose compared to some people we were very well off. But after a while you don't want the latest tech gadgets. You just want your mom around. Unfortunately, my mom had to work her butt off to keep her job. I basically raised Alex and myself. I got mad and indifferent to my mom at times but I couldn't bring myself to hate her. She was trying so hard to give us everything she could. Trying to make up for the absence of my dad in our lives.

For a while I hoped my dad would come back. Every day after we had all gone to bed I would creep out of my room and unlock the back door in case my dad came back during the night and needed to get in. Then early the morning I would creep out again and lock the door. Three years passed and slowly but surely I started to leave the door locked at night. I stopped cuddling with the teddy my dad had given me on my fifth birthday party. I stopped crying for him and missing him. I forgot what my dad smelt like and the way he had laughed every time that I had tried to sneak up behind him and give him a fright. I stopped imagining that he was reading bed time stories to me again and that if I was quick enough I would see him in the kitchen making me pancakes in star shapes. But I never forgot his face… or the special smile that he had for me. The way he tickled me until I couldn't breathe. The way he called me his Half-Pint, which he had done ever since he read the Laura Ingalls series to me.

Alex can't remember our dad at all. What is sadder for me is the fact that he barely knows our mum. I mean of course he knows who she is and he loves her but I'm the one who raised him basically. I shop for his clothes. I was the one he ran to with tears streaming down his face when he wet his bed. That was kind of gross but sweet all the same. I was the one who gave him a pep talk as on his first day to school and who sent out word through the school that I would skin them alive if they as much as touched my brother. I actually had to beat up a few of the school lunkheads who didn't believe me. I suppose I would eventually have to explain to him how men and woman differ and everything but that is one conversation with my baby bro that I am NOT looking forward to.

As a result we are much closer than most siblings are. We still sometimes fight but because of our history we cling very tightly together.

I couldn't care less about my iphone, apple laptop and xbox but I would die if I ever lost my brother and my mom. I suppose that's why it is such a good thing that I didn't know what my future would hold.

HSMHSMHSMHSMHSMHSM

I sighed as I taped closed the last box. I stacked it next to the mountain of boxes in the living room and called out for Alex. As he came skipping in a box in his arms I grimaced as my voice echoed back to me. That hollow sound of an empty house was starting to haunt me in my dreams and I really didn't appreciate it.

"What's up, sis?" Alex asked me cheerfully perching on the box he had just set down.

"Where's mom?" I asked grinning at him and ruffling his wild black hair.

"She's calling the moving agency," he said sneezing as a piece of dust tickled his nose, "They are supposed to be here soon."

"Ah ok.." I sighed and stretched out my awkward frame on the floor. Alex slipped down from his box and sat next to me, resting his head on my shoulder.

"I wish we didn't need to move again, sis," he sighed sadly, "Can't the company just decide on a place, dump us there and then leave us there?"

"I know, kiddo," I hugged him to my side comfortingly, "Don't worry. Mom said that the company promised they wouldn't move us again until at least I finished my school."

Alex huffed and pulled away from my side slightly and turned to me with his eyes darkening with annoyance, "That's like what? Two years? Sis, you're supposed to graduate in two years give or take a month. And then, you get to go to college while I'm stuck behind in the rollercoaster that is our life."

I winced and hugged him again, "I know. Hopefully everything will work out soon bro."

My mom rushed into the room, her long hair flying everywhere. She caught the expressions on our faces and sighed closing her eyes tightly.

"I'm sorry kids," she said sympathetically, "The truck can't get here for the next six hours."

Both me and Alex groaned and buried our heads in our faces. There is nothing like being all packed up and then told that you can't do anything for the next six hours. My mom winced and sighed again. She opened her mouth to say something when her phone rang. I looked up at her and saw pain cross her face. She turned away and started talking into the phone.

Alex and I glanced at each other. This was going to be a very long afternoon.