She was sure—absolutely sure—that the house had looked like a house when she had gone to school that morning. She had expected it to look the same when she returned, but, alas, she came back to a "For Sale" sign and a living room chock full of boxes.
"What is going on?" Raleigh 'greeted' her mother. Arianna Cooper smiled as if everything was normal.
"We're moving," she answered. Raleigh suddenly saw her dad lugging a headboard down the stairs—her headboard.
"Dad! What are you doing? That's my bed! Where am I supposed to sleep tonight?"
"You'll be sleeping in our new house, of course," her dad, David, said.
"What new house?"
"The one we bought last month."
"But we didn't buy a house. I don't remember that."
"Well, you… didn't know," Arianna said with a hint of guilt.
"Oh, okay." Raleigh forced a smile. "Why didn't I know?"
"We didn't want to make you nervous. It's almost finals!"
"Mom, finals don't start for, like, four months."
"…Which will be gone like that."
"Okay, so, we're moving tonight?"
"No. We're moving right now."
"Why?"
"The paranormal doesn't wait," David chimed in.
"You're paranormal," Raleigh said monotonously, only to receive slightly scolding looks. "I'm only two weeks into the second semester. If you bought a house last month, we could have moved before the semester started." Her dad must have bought the house on his 'business trip,' near the beginning of Christmas Break.
"We wanted you to get a chance to say goodbye to your friends."
"What friends?" Again, scolding looks.
"Help us load." Her parents motioned to all of the boxes.
"Okay, I am not helping your wacky paranormal search. Besides, your equipment is totally jank. I mean yesterday, it said I was a—"
"Yeah—we know, Raleigh. The monster tracker is a little bit… 'janky.'"
"A little bit? Fine."
Well, it wasn't as if she would miss Tucson. Like she had said before, she didn't have any friends. So, she rolled her eyes, let out an exasperated groan and picked up the nearest box, heading for the moving truck in the garage. Finally, after about two hours, all of the boxes were in the various trucks, and Raleigh headed up to her room to try and make the move touching.
"Well," she said to the air. "I'm going to miss you room," she said dreamily, before looking at the floor and then back up. "Oh, who am I kidding? No, I'm not," and they got in the truck and drove. They drove and drove, for hours, all the way to their new house in Whitechapel.