Emma's Story

A/N: I use to have up Emma's Diary, but I had a better idea about what Emma should be doing, including a new boy and crazy girls getting in her way and giving her painful memories, and a physic reading that leaves Emma scared for her life. R/R

Chapter 1: Life Changing Events

I watched my mother ring the front desk bell. Families I had met before were around us as well as some I hardly knew. My father was talking to his new boss, getting everything set up for us to join the group on the road.

My Father, Neil Gilbert, had just gotten a great new job, but it required for us, his family, to go on the road with five other families we had yet to meet. I didn't know if they were nice, mean, trustable, and trustablilty was big for me.

My mother, Lisa Gilbert, and my brother, Elliot Gilbert, were quiet ok with the move. They thought it would be fun to see the world with a bunch of people we hardly knew yet. And to make it worse, not only would I be leaving my best friends right before our last year of high school, I had to attend a school with four other girls and four other boys I hardly knew, and be great friends with them. If you know anything about my life, which you should, if your reading this, I can't trust people I just met, not to mention being great friends with them.

"Emma, the bus is leaving, you don't want to have to drive for hours with us," My mother called as the attendants closed the carrier to the charter bus the kids would take everywhere.

I pulled on my backpack, stocked with extra towels, my iPod, cell phone, food, and no liquids. Then I followed my brother onto the bus we would be riding for the next 8 hours and from then on, until we went overseas in two days.

Once on the bus, I caught a glimpse of the other children forced from their happy lives to move around the world. There were 15 of us all together, 5 older girls, 4 older boys, 3 younger girls and 3 younger boys. Since Elliot and I were coming onto this long trip after they had been on for at least a month now, it seemed like we were the only two who didn't know anyone.

I sat in the back, with two of the older girls across the aisle. The other two older girls sat in front of me. It looked like all four of them knew each other, and I was the new kid trying to fit in. The two in front of me were twins, brunette hair, tan skin, big brown eyes, very identical, and very Cleo. The girls across the aisle, on the other hand, couldn't be more different. One had chocolate brown skin, dark black hair, and brown eyes. The other was as pale as pale could be, red hair, green eyes. All four pairs of eyes were on me as the bus pulled out of the hotel.

Two rows in front of the twins, were two boys. One had the same red hair and pale skin as the girl next to me. The other also had pale skin, but bleach blond hair, matching my friend, Rikki's. As the red-head boy looked back at me, the blond boy kept his head towards the front.

Across from them were two other boys. One had dirty blond hair, shaggy, and tanner skin. He also looked back on me with big blues eyes. The other had dark black hair, almost the shade of the boy I'd known since I was three, Zane Bennett. His eyes were a dull gray and didn't move from me for at least a minute.

"I think our brother has a little crush on you," one of the twins said with a quick look to the other. "I'm Lilly, this is my twin sister, Rose, and the boy with the black hair is our step-brother, Luke."

"Hey, I'm Emma," I said trying my best to smile and look like I was happy to be there.

"I'm Molly and this is Jane," The girl with the chocolate skin said sticking her hand across the aisle to me.

I shock it nicely, then pulled it back and whipped it on my pants, just in case. I was never the one for messes, epically around a lot of people, like Cleo and Rikki. My friends tracked accidents like bees to flowers. It was a wonder how they haven't been caught. Still, I guess it is also the reason they are so fast on their feet, even though I'm the fastest in the water, Rikki sure can beat me on land.

"And the boy next to Luke is Mark, don't waste your time on either of them," Jane informed me. "The boy with the hair like mine is my brother, Sam and the one next to him is Bridge, not his real name."

"He won't tell us his real name," Molly explained. "I won't try with him either. All the boys in this program are losers or mysterious secret keepers who don't let anyone near them."

"Then I guess I will fit in then," I said under my breath, but I think the twins heard me, because they slide back into their seats after that.

The ride was long, and the other four girls hadn't spoken to me much since they introduced themselves. This gave me enough time to talk to Rikki and Cleo over text messages. When I had last seen them, we were hiding from the moon at Cleo's place, father and sister being out of the house and everything. Lewis and Zane were there, and the whole night was like a big good-bye party to me, besides the fact that I don't think Cleo remembers exactly what she did.

Now it was like they were telling me fairy tale stories. I hated being left out of all the fun they were having over brake. They were telling me things, like the Juice Net Café had closed, they had seen some new girls hanging around the beach, some boys were being obnoxious jerks to the tourist girls and how they were messing with them to teach them a lesion. It was funny to hear about, but it just made me want to be there with them.

It was dark by the time we made it to the hotel. The four girls were waiting for me after I had exited the bus. Molly and Jane stood on one side of me Lilly and Rose on the other.

"Hey, Emma, we just wanted to remind you, the girls group meets at two in my room every day. We sort of have this club going and we would like it if you were there," Molly explained. 'I'm the leader."

"Ok I guess I will be there," I said before turning and walking up to where the director and my father's boss were giving everyone their room keys. Did I tell you everyone gets their own room if you are over the age of 12? Well they do.

My room was nice, for a hotel room. It was also were I would spend the rest of the week. I could hear others outside, just some more of the 15 kids that were staying with us in this program. I knew now, standing here, that this was my life, and I would have to live it out as best I could till I could get back to the only place I was safe. Who knew how hard that would be.