New Beginning

We were driving north towards the state of New Hampshire. It was still warm in Orlando, my kind of weather. Why is it that parents sometimes seem to mess up everything at the wrong time? They were taking me away from everything that was a part of me. My friends, my warm summer days, even though in Florida everyday was summer, my beach and my home. They were moving me to the murky town of Claremount in New Hampshire. My mother's birthplace. The place where everyone knew the others name. But I went in peace, not even a whisper of my suffering to my family, because it was what was making them happy. Even though I was miserable.

It was a 19 hour trip to our new 'home'. Dads' driving was bearable but I was very impatient. All I wanted to do was set up everything and try to make a life here. Impossible. The trip was quiet, with the soft wind blowing through the car until we hit somewhere near Washington where it started to get to cold. Great! We listened to Mums favourite band the whole way up, she is very old fashioned in her music taste, but I still kept my mouth shut.

Our new house was very small and was nestled between very green forest and the next door neighbour's house, and that house was smaller. All the houses in this small town where small and woodsy looking, for some reason they must have thought they had to make it blend. The house was two storeys, and my mother's childhood home (Gran had left it for us in her will).

"Kate, come and help us get the stuff from the car please", the happiness in my mother's eyes was beaming, which helped me keep from groaning. "Yes mum. How long until Mary arrives?" try to be happy, try to be happy. "About two hours dear". Mary, my older sister, my best friend. Mary was the most beautiful in the family of course, she was about 5"11 with long dark blonde wavy hair that parted in the middle and flowed perfectly to the middle of her back, she had the perfect tan coloured skin that made her look like a surfer, which she wasn't. She had deep brown eyes, the same as mine. We got that from Dad. She was everything the opposite of me, with my short dark boring brown hair and light olive skin. I looked more like a wanna be surfer, which I wasn't.

My room, which I would be sharing with Mary, was upstairs to the left looking over the front yard, able to hear all traffic (if there was any) that came past. As we tried to move everything from the van and car into the old wooden house, it started to rain. This place just kept getting worse. I was setting up mine and Mary's bed when she arrived; she looked just a pleased as I did when we arrived. So she helped me with getting our room organised. Our room was massive, compared to how tiny it looked outside. We were able to set up our two double beds with enough room for our dressers and bed side tables. My bed was up against the window and Mary's was against the opposite wall next to the door. We didn't speak much, we just moaned and groaned as the rain got worse and the wind blew it hard against the window. Tomorrow would be worse. High school. I was a junior and Mary was a senior. And I wasn't very good at making new friends, of course Mary was. It might be harder for her now considering she was completely different to everyone else here with her tanned skin, which made me feel a little better about myself. Mary and I skipped dinner, we weren't really hungry and we didn't want to talk to our parents much anyway. Eating dinner would just start an unnecessary conversation and we didn't want that.

I slept well last night, my bed was still the same as before I suppose, just the surroundings were different.

I was defiantly not looking forward to my day ahead; I have been dreading this day ever since my parents decided to move here. My first day in a new high school. The morning was quiet as the family sat down for breakfast. Neither my sister nor I even attempted to make conversation with our parents. I was certain by the looks they gave each other they knew why. We drove to school in complete silence looking out our windows wondering why we were doomed to this place. We don't have much money, so our car wasn't nearly as good as some back in Orlando. We had a 1997 Daihatsu Applause. Everyone else here had around about the same price range in cars, so we instantly felt a little better. The school was small and elegant for a small town high school. The buildings were a dark brown colour with burgundy roofs and doors. We parked and then spoke for the first time since leaving the house. "I hate this! It's too small, and there aren't even that many people!" as Mary started whining, I sat still in the car and watched the students walk by. They seemed normal; it might not be that bad.

When Mary finally finished whining we stepped out of the car and put on our coats - they looked more upper class than what everyone else was wearing – and walked towards the front office to start our miserable day. We hugged each other, waved and then trudged along to our different classes. I found my way easily to block B for Chemistry. I walked on in with my heart drumming hard against the inside of my chest, I thought I was going to hyperventilate. I wondered how Mary was doing. I introduced myself to my teacher, whose name was Mr Newman. He was young for a man who taught Chemistry. I was seated next to a small girl in the middle of the room. She was nice and introduced herself. Her name was Anna, she kind of had the same toned skin as me, maybe a little lighter and short blonde hair with a side part. She had green eyes, I liked them. Anna was good to talk to and she was very helpful, probably the only one that would help me anyway. She led me to my next class which she was not in so she introduced me to one of her friends that was and then left. His name was Jai Henderson. He was absolutely gorgeous. He had naturally tanned skin, dark hazel eyes and dark brown hair, it was longish and was swept to the side, it was kind of mahogany coloured. He was tall and muscular, the type of body that was meant for keeping you warm and protecting you at night. When he talked he flashed his perfect white teeth to smile at me. "You're Kate Mackenzie aren't you?" There was that smile. "Uh, yeah I am. Jai, right?" I replied, just acting dumb. Unable to continue, he did. "Want to sit with me today? I could help you if you want?" He sounded like a Greek God, he looked like a God. A God that was standing next to a paralytic. I was pretty much paralysed standing there until I realised how to move my legs to follow him to our seat. "Anna says you moved here from Florida, what's it like there? I've never been out of this state." I was surprised by that, considering how he had a natural tan. "Um, it's nice. It's very hot, my kind of weather and it barely rained compared to here." I sounded like a complete idiot; I couldn't even make my voice sound normal.

"Wow, I've always wanted to go to Florida, it looks real nice."

"Yeah it's beautiful, it's my home, and I suppose it will always be beautiful to me."

"Yeah I guess so."

Then the class was called to order. I couldn't concentrate on the lesson, I hated math. Why did I have to be stuck in this boring subject with the most beautiful boy in school? The bell finally rang for lunch, Jai stood and waited for me to gather my things and walked me to the cafeteria. I was instantly dragged away from him as soon as Anna saw me enter the large room. She introduced me to more of her friends as we got our lunch and sat at their table. Jai was at the other end talking with a girl and a boy I had met but couldn't remember their names. He didn't seem too interested in the conversation. I caught him look at me a few times as I searched the room for Mary. She must be late out of class. "Hey Kate," I heard someone call my name from somewhere behind me. I turned to see that it was Mary approaching me. I instantly flew up to my feet and hugged her. "Oh my goodness, I have been looking for you everywhere! How has your day been so far?" She asked, genuinely curious. She was standing with a bunch of seniors that were all slightly taller than her. "It's been fine I guess, I have met a few people that are in my classes and stuff. What about you?" "Yeah, it's been great! I've met heaps of people. This is Madie and Sophie. Mad, Soph, this is my little sister Kate." She introduced me to her friends. They both had brownish hair. One had blue eyes and the other had a deep brown. The bell rang then for last period as we talked about our day. "We've got to get to class Kate, sorry, meet you at the car ok?"

"Ok, see you later." I called after her as she turned to wave, I waved back and then turned back to my new found friends. I stumbled backwards a bit as I ran into Jai. He was standing close smiling at me. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," He said, a sincere apology. "It's alright," was all I could say. "What class have you got now? I'll help you find it." I told him what class I had, which also happened to be his next class. French was also not one of my favourite subjects, but I could bare it now.

"So, how has your first day been so far? Not too scary I hope." He laughed and smiled again. I couldn't help but answer back laughing. "No it wasn't scary at all actually. There are some really nice people here." It was true, so I said it. "Am I one of the nice people?" He asked with a little smirk on his face. "You, you are one of the nicest. Thank you for all your help today, you made it a bit easier." I said blushing a bit. He looked a little smug. "No problem. Glad to be of service, anything else you need today ma'am?" He said sarcastically and we both laughed together until the teacher glared at us. When the bell finally rang for the end of school, Jai walked me to my car. We talked for a few minutes until Mary arrived. He left and went to a group of jocks at the other end of the car park. "Wow, he is gorgeous. Where did you find him?" Mary asked as we got into the car, her eyes following him. "I know right. He's in my math and French classes. Anna introduced me to him, he is so nice." We both sighed and spent the rest of the trip home in silence. When we arrived home, mom and dad were still at work so we were happy about that. We went straight to our room to do our homework. The rain was absolutely awful. You couldn't even go outside for a walk. We were doomed to study in this town.

Three weeks went by quickly. I made a lot of new friends and kept most of the friends I made on the first day. Anna was the best friend I had so far. Her and Jai, even though he only talked to me in the two classes we had together. I had other good friends as well, like Lucy, Alix and Charlotte. These were my closest friends. I also met a few more boys in my grade, all were good looking as well, not as good looking as Jai though. We all sat together at lunch, at the biggest table in the cafeteria. I was glad I had made a lot of friends here. It made it less painful. I thought about Orlando less than I thought I would. I was also happy about that, it meant that I was starting to like it here. More the people than the actual town though. It was so boring here. Our group organised a trip to the movies for next Friday, at least they had a theatre. Us girls were going shopping before hand and then we were meeting up with the boys for dinner and then we were going to see the movie. Anna insisted that we should all go camping one weekend as well, but no one thought to much about that idea considering it has been raining non-stop for three weeks.