There is a story that everyone must tell in their life. A single occurrence that just happens to change the entire course of our existence. Not everyone, however, chooses to share this story. They find it so unbelievable that there is no point to repeat this chain of events. In fact, they may even choose not to acknowledge the fact that the occurrence occurred. I, however, am not one of these people. I choose now to relate my story in the most efficient fashion I know how. To talk to you about it. I live in New York City. Or I should say lived. My parents relocated myself and my four sisters to the outskirts of civilization, somewhere in Connecticut. I loved my city. All the life in it flowed through my veins like a water runs through a river. Need I say that the move was devastating to me. My eldest sister, Jamie, loves it in the rural area we moved to, then again, the world is all very wonderful in her eyes. I am the next in line, the second sister. I am a year younger than Jamie and my name is Alexandria, but everyone calls me Alex. I am 17 years of age, and yet I had no say in our moving. Show me the justice in that. The next in line is Maria, she's fifteen. She is such a social defect, all she does is read and study. The next sister which should be brought to your attention is Liza, who is 14, and my youngest most annoying sister, Katie who is 13. She is obsessed with the male gender. Then there's my mother, dearest mother. I love her to death, but she is so flaky, all she thinks about is us girls. It is almost as if she is trying to relive her teenage years through us. My father, on the other hand, is a quiet mellow sort of man, who wishes not to be disturbed especially when he's working. He's a lawyer, which is Maria's aspiration. The apple didn't fall far from the tree there.
We all live in this tiny house in a small town where nothing ever happens. At least nothing like what it was like in New York. The population here is only 5, 000 people. Tiny, isn't it? The worst part about our house, only one bathroom. Imagine if you will the utter horror of five teenage girls and one bathroom. It sucks to say the least. The move happened in the late spring to early summer. I had no connections to anyone in the town yet, and it had been two months already. I often walked around my neighborhood, waving at the old people that lived sisters had found their own little niches in our new world. Jaime had her close circle of friends that she had meet at her job in the local store. Maria, surprisingly enough, had found a group that studies ALL the time, like her. Liza and Katie were best friends to begin with and were often seen roaming the town looking for the male gender, giggling profusely behind their childlike hands. My story starts around the time that the house next door to us, became occupied with people. Needless to say, a new family moved in. The Bingle's. There was a teenage boy of about 18 and a girl of the same age. They were tall and thin, blonde hair protruding at odd angles on the boy's head, whereas it was smooth and well cared for on the sister's head. The mother and father were mirror images of their children. I walked by their house, and watched them move in. They were distantly polite and it seemed as if the daughter was a little judgemental. I could feel her eyes sizing me up as I ran down our street, ipod headphones place securely in my ears, protecting me from whatever she had to say about my gawky tall figure. The boy made some effort to talk to me. Though, I could tell right away that his interest was firmly planted in my eldest sister Jaime. He would watch her as she walked about the porch, a phone plastered to the side of her beautiful smooth face, a piece of her curly blonde hair always twirling around her long fingers. Her seemly frame looked good in anything. The other two of my sisters were ignored, with their deep brown hair and small childish frames. My own brown hair, which always flew out behind me as I ran, was as straight as a board. The sister appraised us all, and deemed Jaime a little worth her attention. I found out their names were Ellie and Kye. I cared little about them. I stayed in my own world where it was safe, as I watched in fascinated horror at my mother making a fool of herself to our new neighbors. She was always knocking on their door, mentioning to the mother that, wouldn't it be nice if our children, who just happen to be the same age, became friends? The mother of the Kye and Ellie nodded in vast amusement. And always shut the door a little too firmly behind my mother's retreating figure.
About a week after they had finished moving, a candy apple red Porsche appeared in their driveway. It was the sleek kind that I was used to seeing in New York, all the edges seemless and smooth, the look of speed radiating down to its lugnuts. As I was making my morning rounds I craned my neck to see if the owner would step out of it. I was in luck, he did. He was a few years my senior, 19 at the most, and had messy black hair that shaped around his square face, his eyes, when they met mine, were a cold sort of blue. His whole demeanor seemed to scream that he was an unpleasant sort of fellow. He raised a hand in a polite salute, then turned toward the house. He walked with the most grace I have ever seen a human posses, to the front door and was warmly greeted by Ellie, who hugged him fiercely yelling over her shoulder for her brother. I ran up my steps, as their eyes watched me. I knew she was talking about me, as his eyes appraised my thin figure, my brown hair pulled up and sweat ran down my face. I stepped into the house, and leaned against the closed door. His eyes had an unnatural chill to them that had taken me aback. I had no idea what to think of our new neighbor.
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A month went by. The summer ended in all it's splendor of heat, humidity, and brief violent rain storms. Fall came, and with it another change for myself and my sisters. A new school. The candy apple red Porsche was always at the house next door. I never saw the owner, but Ellie and Kye frequented their porch, watching us, occasionally returning inside. My sister and I owned one vehicle; the ugliest minivan you could imagine, the color,a faded red, resembling rust at times. As Jaime(her senior year), Katie, and Liza(their freshmen), Maria(her sophomore year) and myself(Junior year), pulled up to the school, I could feel and hear the ridiculing glances and voices as they assessed the new kids car. I was mortified. I walked quickly away from the vehicle, head down and walking fast. My sister Jaime called after me, but I ignored her. I just kept walking. Until I ran into something that is. I almost fell over, but steadied myself looking up at what....no I should say who, I ran into. Those eyes were still just as cold, as they had been when they looked at me from his Porsche. "Beg pardon." he murmured, a light British accent tinting his speech. I mumbled a reply and walked swiftly past him. I could feel his eyes the entire way.
Jaime finally caught up with me, her blonde hair swinging over her shoulders as she ran. "Who was that?" she asked oblivious to the fact that the guy I had just run into had been living next door for about a month. "He lives with the Bingle's." I muttered. She looked over her shoulder at his tall muscular frame and shrugged. "I've never seen him before."
Katie and Liza walked past us, whispering behind their hands and looking back frequently at the object of Jaime and myself's conversation. I rolled my eyes at their retreating backs and kept walking, head down, my only mission being to get through the day.
The high school office was a collection of papers, filing cabinets, and messy desks. Their was an "in" and an "out" box filled to the brim with forms and paper-clipped copies of schedules sitting on the main desk in the front of the office. The secretary was a squat woman with graying hair and a smiling face. She appraised us as we all walked into her domain. "Welcome." she began with a slight drawl to her voice. "You must be the Benny girls." she said her eyes running over us and the natural age order we all stood in. Jaime stepped forward and handed her the manilla folder that held all the transfer papers, scheduling papers, health forms, and "oh-b y-the way" forms that my mother had spent hours filling out the night before. I watched in amusement as she silently cursed the pen she wrote with and questioned the Lord Almighty over her number of children. The secretary took the folder and added it to the "in" box. "Well, I guess you all...." she stopped staring over my left shoulder, another smiling hiding her looks of appraisal. I turned to see what she was looking at and found myself staring at the Bingles and my own personal wall. "You must be the Bingles and Mr. Darce." she said, a sigh over her elevated job load hiding in her fake cheeriness. "Yes, actually." Kye answered. She nodded at all seven of us and turned to her desk. "Let's see. I have here schedules, a map of the school, and a slip of paper that is to be signed by all your teachers certifying that you attended all your classes today." she looked over her glasses at all of us. "Be sure you turn these in at the end of the day." She pushed her glasses up and flipped through the papers she had. She called each of our names and we stepped forward to claim our papers. After she had handed these out she gave us a stern look. "Get to class, and I don't want to see any of you in this office again. At least for causing trouble." She then grinned as if it were a good joke and shooed us out of her office. I looked at my sisters and almost started laughing. All of them were rummaging through their papers, trying to find out where they needed to be. One by one, they all left for their respected classes as I began the same process. My first class appeared to be Chemistry. Great. I walked down the hallways, glancing at the many decorated lockers of cheerleaders, jocks, and the occasional chess nerd. The diversity stunned me. In New York, there were only two crowds. The in or the out. I usually resided on the out. My older sister Jaime, was always on the in. Don't even get me started on the other three. I was used to being an outcast, so it was no surprise to me when I stepped into the classroom, noone wanted to sit with me, or offer me a seat. I sat quietly, waiting for the bell to start my day. I closed my eyes and started to daze. The bell rang, and there was a shuffle to get seated. I could feel a person sitting next to me, but still I held my eyes shut.
I was awakened by a loud smacking sound on the desk in front of me. I slowly opened my eyes to see a balding man of about 40 standing over my desk, glaring fixedly at me. "I realize you're a new student Miss Benny, but we do things a little differently here. In my class, there is no sleeping. Just rapid note taking, and labs. Get used to it." he smacked his hand on the desk one more time and nodded to my desk partner. There was a slight undercurrent of giggling noises and I blushed crimson. My desk partner cleared his throat, and I turned with the horror of realization, towards him. It was my wall. Mr. Darce, I guess his name was. His eyes were slightly amused, but that was quickly replaced by the cold vacantness that usually resided there, once he realized I was staring.
The class was uneventful, except for the feeling of slight dislike radiating from the other side of my lab table, and the bell couldn't ring quick enough. I rushed to what the layout of the school told me, was my locker. Jaime was right there as well and she looked happy and flustered at the same time.
"I...." she began breathlessly. "Got to sit next to and talk to the most wonderful guy in the whole world." she sighed blissfully. "I see. And was he real, because Jaime, sometimes I wonder if the people you meet are the same people I meet. They may seem real to you, but in reality, they suck." I looked at her reddening face. "Yes, he's real." she muttered, her beautiful features clouded by a frown.
"I'm sorry, Jaime. I just sat next to the coldest most ungracious creature in the world. I'm none to happy right now. I'm sure he is the best guy imaginable." I looked back up at her from my rummaging in my backpack and saw that she wasn't even listening to me. She had the look of a seasick puppy on her face and had a shining look in her eyes. I turned to see what had her so enraptured. There, walking down the hallway towards us was another enraptured person, his sister, and my cold deskmate. The enraptured boy was in fact Kye Bingle. He was smiling and waving at Jaime and she waved back shyly. He approached us with his two sidekicks. "Hello, Jaime." he said softly. "Hi, Kye." she responded.
I heard a snort to his right and saw Ellie cross her arms in an ill natured manner. "Oh, this is my sister, Ellie and my best friend, Noah. We've just come from England. Mum and Dad wanted us to experience some culture, so we moved here. We live just next door to you. Did you know?" he said excitedly to Jaime. "Yes, my sister." here she pointed me out, "Alexandria, we call her Alex, told me that we had new neighbors. England, my that's exciting. I should love to go to England." she smiled.
When I was pointed out, the eyes of all three whipped towards me, but only one pair lingered there. My own personal wall, could not seem to stop staring at me. The bell rang, a warning that we had better head to the classes we were assigned to next, lest we be late.