I peered out into the little town that I would be staying in for the rest of my life from the passenger seat in the car. The light from the sun blinded me, making me cover my eyes.
"So what do you think, Ashley?" my mom asked me. I just gave her a disapproving look.
"Oh c'mon, Ashley, give it a chance!" Mom said. "Look at that. A small little town to give you a brand new start." I groaned.
"Don't get started on that again!"
"Aw, why not?" my 12-year-old sister Isabel said from the backseat. "It's fun to talk about Ashley's mistakes. Or maybe mistakes isn't a strong enough word. How about catastrophe? Disaster?"
"Shut up dweeb!" I yelled. I have to admit "dweeb" is a pretty weak word for a 17-year-old to say, but I still get in trouble when I swear in front of my mom.
"Alright, you two. Don't get me started already. There! Look thats our house! Isn't it cute?" I rolled my eyes.
"Just dandy." Isabel and I took our suitcases out of the trunk and ran upstairs to claim the biggest room. I got there first (of course) but Mom made me give the biggest room to Isabel (of course). Isabel was her favorite. Isabel was everyone's favorite.
I unpacked my stuff and sat on the ledge by the window to look out at what the street was doing. My mom and Isabel were outside with the Mover's truck when I saw my worst nightmare: neighbors.
Great. Now I would have to meet every fucking person on this whole street and have to deal with all the awkwardness. Mom shook hands with the mom or guardian or whatever, and she obviously saw me at the window because she yelled:
"Ashley! Come down here and meet the neighbors!" I groaned and stomped downstairs.
"Ashley, this is Elena Gilbert, and her brother, Jeremy. This is their Aunt Jenna." I smiled.
"Hi, everyone." Jeremy was kinda cute. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
"Hey, I'm Elena. I'm your next door neighbor."
"Good. I'm glad to see someone my age on this street. Seventeen, right?"
"Yeah. Hey, are you going to Robert E. Lee high school?"
"Yeah. How'd you know?"
"That's where I go!"
"Cool. At least I'll have someone to hang out with."
"I dunno..." she lowered her voice. "I don't know if you don't want to get mixed up with me and my friends."
"Oh, please. At my old home, I crashed my mom's car AND burned our house down. What could be worse than that?"