"Mum, do I have to?" I whined as my mum helped me pack most of my belongings into a suitcase.
"Yes sweetheart. It'll be good for you! You'll get to travel the world while you get an education. Isn't that exciting?" She asked happily.
"Yeah" I sighed. Well at least someone's looking forward to it. I mean, it sounded amazing and all, but I was going to be leaving all my friends behind.
"Come on honey; let's get the last of the packing done. The ferry will be here soon" my mum said, placing the last of my clothes into the suitcase and started to put my shoes in.
Maybe now's a good time to introduce myself. I'm Layla Williams, I'm fifteen years old and my mum's sending me to school, on a boat. Fun huh? Not really. I'm going to be leaving all my friends behind and not to mention, I'm going to have to make new ones. Ugh. Just the thought of it makes me wanna hurl.
I quickly placed all of my toiletries into a wash-bag and shoved it into a suitcase.
I twirled a strand of my long blonde hair around my finger as I looked around my room. It seemed so empty now ... everything was packed up into suitcases for me to take with me. I had four suitcases in total, although they weren't actually that big.
I heard footsteps on the stairs before my dad appeared at my bedroom door.
"Ready?" he asked.
I simply nodded, not trusting myself to speak just yet.
"Come on then, let's get your stuff in the car" he said, forcing a smile. I think he understands how I'm feeling more than mum does. She's all about the education; dad's always been an emotional guy.
I sighed as I grabbed two of the suitcases and headed downstairs. As I reached the bottom, Sky – my kitten – came bouncing towards me. I carefully put the suitcases down before I lifted her into my arms.
"Gonna miss you Sky," I said, giving her a sad smile, "but Mum and Dad will take good care of you" I said, placing a quick kiss on her head and put her down again. "I love you Sky" I said as she gave out a small whine.
Even though she was a kitten, she was my rock, my best friend. Okay, so she couldn't talk, but she would always sit in my lap and listen to me drone on and on about my problems, and occasionally she would lick my hands to try and comfort me. I was definitely gonna miss that when I left.
I sighed as I stood back up. This was tougher than I thought it would be. I grabbed the cases again and dragged them to Dad's black Porsche with him and mum following closely behind. As the boot wasn't quite big enough for all four of the cases; two of them had to sit in the back with me. Comfortable much? Not.
The ride took about an hour and forty-five minutes, most of which I was either listening to my iPod, staring out of the window, or both. Neither of my parents said a word to me for the entire journey.
So you're probably wondering where on earth I'm going? I'm being dropped off at Dover Ferry Port on the south-coast of England. At mid-day, which was in approximately two minutes, the S. would be arriving. The S. is the boat I will be living and getting an education on for the next year or so. Fun. Note the heavy sarcasm.
Once Dad had parked, we stepped out the car, Dad taking two cases while Mum and I took one each, we headed towards a huge sign that read "S. boarding in 1 minute". As we reached the boarding gate, a huge (and no kidding when I say huge!) boat was slowly heading towards our gate. I didn't realise my mouth was hanging open until Dad chuckled and said, "Layla, I'm pretty sure you'd look plenty more attractive with your mouth shut"
"Oh" I muttered as I quickly sealed my mouth shut. Both my parents chuckled as I flushed a light red.
A young woman walked towards us, I'm guessing she was here to collect tickets.
"Here for the school?" she asked, smiling down at me as she was considerably a lot taller than me.
"Yeah" I replied, handing in my ticket.
"Okay, go right through. Your parents will have to come through to fill in some forms. Have fun!" She said almost too cheerily.
Have fun? Yeah right! They're just lucky I don't get travel sick. We headed in the direction the lady had pointed us in until we eventually managed to find a lobby which somewhat resembled a reception. There was a middle-aged man standing behind a desk fiddling with some papers and mumbling some incoherent words under his breath.
"Ah. That's Mr. Moseby over there. Let's go and fill in your forms" Mum said, smiling brightly.
"Mr. Moseby?" she asked as she walked up to the desk. Well, here goes nothing, I thought as I sighed once again.
"Yup, that's me. How can I help?" He asked, looking up from the papers quickly.
"This is Layla Williams. She's here for the school?" She said, pointing back at me whilst I smiled politely.
"Ah yes! Hi Layla, I'm Mr. Moseby. I'm in charge of this boat and everything that occurs on it" he said, holding out a hand which I quickly took and shook firmly.
"Now, your parents need to fill in some forms," he said as he handed my parents some papers, "and here is a map of the boat, your school timetable and meal times on the boat" he said as he handed me some more papers. I took them and thanked him before folding them neatly and placing them in my shoulder bag.
"Now, you will be staying in the room 122. You don't have a room-mate as everybody is already sharing. Is that okay?" he asked, smiling warmly. Is that okay? Well of course it was! My own space was what I enjoyed most.
"That's lovely, thank you Mr. Moseby" I said, smiling widely.
Not long after, my parents handed the forms back and we made our way to find my bedroom which wasn't too far from the reception.
Once we reached the door of my room I suddenly felt really nervous. How was I going to make new friends? What if no-one likes me? I never normally got this nervous, but I was worried because if no-one liked me, I would have to put up with it the entire time I have school, with nowhere to go.
My dad obviously sensed my nerves kicking in as he placed a hand on my shoulder.
"It'll be fine honey; you just got to give it some time to get used to" he said, smiling slightly.
"Yeah I guess" I sighed, reaching forward to open the door.
The bedroom wasn't very big for two people, but it was cosy. It consisted of two beds, two desks, two wardrobes and a bathroom. Like Mr. Moseby has said, I wasn't sharing, so I had plenty of room.
I placed the suitcases by the wardrobes and turned back to my parents.
"You'll keep in contact right?" I asked, looking up at them.
"Of course we will" My mum chuckled.
"Don't be daft kid, you're not living here forever, we'll come and get you as soon as school's out" Dad smiled.
I felt a bit better, but the nerves were still there about meeting new people.
"Can all visitors please leave within the next five minutes as the boat will be leaving shortly. Thank you" a voice sounded overhead. I guess that's mum and dad's cue to go.
"That's us!" Mum spoke, still smiling.
"See you soon kiddo. Love you!" Dad said, wrapping his arms around me.
"Love you too, bye" I whispered as I hugged my mum.
They soon disappeared out the door and I sat on one of the beds as I tried to take in the reality of what was happening.
After half an hour of doing nothing I decided to move the room around a little bit so at least I'd be comfortable. I moved the bedside tables from in between the beds to either side of them, and then pushed the beds together; re-making the sheets so it became a double bed. I then moved the desks so that they were next to each other, forming a square.
Once I was happy with the new layout, I started unpacking. Out first were the clothes, which very quickly filled up the two wardrobes, along with my shoes which covered the floor at the bottom of the wardrobe.
I quickly took out my wash-bag and placed all of my toiletries into the bathroom, along with my favourite red and black striped towel I'd bought with me.
After I'd been unpacking in complete silence, I decided it was time to unwind. My iPod and docking station was the perfect remedy. After rummaging around in the remaining three cases I finally set hands on the familiar speakers.
I placed them on one edge of the desk and plugged it in. I grabbed my black iPod touch and placed it into the docking station before selecting a random song.
'When It Rains' by Paramore came on, and as I'm a huge fan of Paramore, I started dancing about as I unpacked, singing very loudly.
"And when it rains, will you always find an escape? Just running away, from all of the ones who love you, from everything" I sang. Singing had always helped me keep calm, even in the toughest situations.
I carried on unpacking, placing books and photo frames on bookshelves and the desk, making the room look as much like my old bedroom as possible. I even put up a few posters from my room. By the time I'd finished it had just turned 2p.m. so I decided to check the meal times to see when dinner would be ready.
I walked towards my handbag which had been dumped on the floor by my door. As I bent down to retrieve it, the door flew open and hit me flat on the top of the head, sending me into complete darkness.