The Job
My name is Lily McGivney (that's pronounced Mc-give-knee). I'm 16 years old, I'm only 5'4 , I have what you would call a curvy body, light brown hair, and dark brown eyes with specks of gray (my favorite feature). Not the most gorgeous traits. If I had to rate myself between a 1-10 I would say that I was about a 5. I'm average...Very average. Honestly, if you would see a dictionary and look up the word average you would see a picture of me smiling with my thumbs up. But all that normal averageness was dashed to bits the moment my dad decided to take a job in Forks, Washington.
It was a beautiful summer day in the city of Oconomowoc (which is in Wisconsin). I was walking around Lake La'bel when I got a phone call. The caller ID alerted me that my dad was on the other end. My dad is a tall, buff man with dark brown hair. Slight patches of gray tainted the area around his temples, but that's okay. He has the same dark brown eyes as I do, and a smile that lights up a room if you get him happy enough (which isn't that hard to do). He's the kind of person that makes everything more exciting just by the way he says something.
He's been unhappy with his job for awhile and was looking for new jobs all across the country because there are many hospitals looking for Heart & Lung specialists, so we were getting prepared to move at anytime.
Anyways, he started the conversation by saying, "Lily! Oh Lily, I love you so much, you are the most amazing daughter in the whole world, your more than that, your magnificent! Your amazing! Your a miracle..." This scared me a little. Usually my Dad doesn't just give me this much praise for just answering the phone, so I had to interrupt him by asking, "What are you talking about, dad? Did something happen? Is everyone all right?"
There was a long pause before my dad spoke again, and this time he spoke his words with a little more composure, saying," Everyone is fine, better than fine, we're all fantastic! I was just offered a job in Forks, Washington! It's great! The hospital up there is absolutely wonderful. I can't wait to start, and the benefits are more then what we can ask for-we'll be set! "
I've been investigating all of the possible states and cities that we might be moving to, and once my Dad said "Forks, Washington" my heart sank. Forks, the rainiest place in America! So I would be trading the beautiful white snowy days of Wisconsin for the cold, rainy days of Forks. I love summer rain, it's absolutely wonderful. I love walking along a dirt path while the rain falls- it's one of my favorite things to do-but wouldn't rain all the time be a little boring? While I was contemplating all of the new hoodys and flannels I would need to buy, I was interrupted by my dad impatiently coughing on the other line, waiting for my response. So I finally worked up enough excitement to rival my fathers own excitement by saying,"Oh my gosh DAD! This is awesome! I'm super excited! I was just thinking of all the things I could do and all of the trails I can explore!" (I love walking in the woods).
After I answered, my father started going on and on about the new opportunities that I'll have and the new people I'll get to meet, until I thought he was talking too much about the opportunities that I'll have instead of the opportunities that we will have, so I decided to ask him, "Hey dad, how does Mom and Charlotte feel about Forks?"
After that he paused for about five minutes before saying, "Actually, I haven't told them yet! You were the first person I thought to call." Then my dad started to laugh and said, "Please don't tell your mother I told you first!" Then, before I knew it, I started laughing too. We laughed for a good 10 minutes before I realized that it was already four in the afternoon. I'd been walking for a good three hours. So I said goodbye to dad and began walking home. We only lived about two miles away from the lake, which was a very easy distance to walk. As I entered Red Brook Road, I stood there, looking at my favorite house in the whole neighborhood. It was a three-story red brick house with cerulean shutters and four windows on the face, with a nice auburn door and a gorgeous wreath of dried white roses and lilacs. Sometimes I would be caught staring at this wonderful house. I've always found it to be extremely beautiful, and the fact that the back yard lead to the woods made it even more appealing. I couldn't gawk at this house all day, so with a sigh I began to walk again down the road to our house, which wasn't ugly, but it wasn't as pretty as the red brick house.
Our house was a nice, two-story, gray bricked house with crimson shutters and four windows facing the front. My favorite part of our house was the cobble stone path leading all around the house. It just made the house seem more historic and more homey, in my opinion. As I walked up to the house, I heard yelling, so I started to run to the door. Unfortunately, I underestimated the distance between myself and the door, and ran myself full force into the door with a loud Smack!, knocking me off my feet instantly. From the sound of my head hitting the door, the yelling in the house stopped at once and whoever was yelling came out to see what the cause of the sound was. It was my mother and my sister, Charlotte, who came to see my epic fail as I lay on the ground, covering my head with my hands, saying how much it hurt and being completely oblivious to how loud my mother and sister were laughing. After laughing for a good 15 minutes at my expense, Charlotte began by saying, "Wow, Lily, you sure know how to lighten a mood!"
Charlotte is my older sister by only one year and we are extremely close. She has dark brown hair and hazel eyes that change color with her mood, which makes it very easy to know when something is bugging her. She is one inch taller than me and she loves to rub it in, even if it is only one inch. She has a very curvy body, like me, but she will not do anything outside. She detests anything that has to do with sports and she hates the woods (which is why I do most of my walking alone.) Charlotte is 17 and she's entering her Senior year this coming year, and she is very unhappy that she has to move to a different school and leave all of her friends. She hates the idea of leaving her high school right as she's about to have her awesome senior year.
As for me, I wasn't too keen on the idea either. Changing schools as your going into junior year isn't good either. I mean, you just got over the awkwardness of freshman year, of finding your way around the school and making friends, and you've made that friendship grow over your sophmore year, and now you have to leave right in the middle to a different school in a different state, not knowing anyone, and your stuck there for 2 years.
Charlotte's lucky, she only has to stay for one year and then go to whatever college she wants to go to, and yet I'm the one taking it very well. Charlotte, on the other had, isn't at all. Whenever our mom brings it up she starts shouting and sulks about it for an hour before she can come back to the conversation. My mother tries to console her as much as she can, but to no avail.
My mother is the kind of person that hates seeing a baby cry, and seeing as that we are her children, she can't handle it. She does her best and hopes this is something that will pass after we are done moving. My mother is a wonderful women. She has light brown hair like me and hazel eyes. She is a curvy woman as well and she is only 5'6'. She has a very kind face, but when my father does something foolish or silly (which is very often) she'll always wrinkle her little bird nose and say,"Oh, Ralph, your such a kid." And my Dad would always reply, "You make it sound like a bad thing!" And the conversation would always end there.
But that reminds me, so I ask Charlotte ,"Why were you two fighting?"
And then, with a very solemn, look she said in a cold voice, "Forks."
"Ah, so Dad finally got to tell you. He says that he and mom have already been looking for a house and they found a wonderful one right by a forrest!" I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster. Charlotte only glared at me in reply, and the the conversation was dropped.