AN: First fanfic, so any feedback would be great. I won't put any more up until I do get some kind of feedback so I know there's a reason for me actually putting it up. Thank you and please please review or PM me. Any advice or ideas or anything would be awesome. I'll try and put it up frequently but sorry if I don't have the time or whatever. I know they don't have GCSE's in Australia but not too sure what the equivalent is. Enjoy…

I pulled out the earphone that was now causing my ear drum to buzz from the loud heavy sound coming from it. I switched my iPod off and turned to my right to find a deeply asleep, curled up lump beside me. How could she sleep in that impossible position? Her neck was bent over the side of the seat facing the arm and her long legs were wrapped up in her chest. "Imi!" I harshly whispered. "We're about to land."

She moaned and I chucked the unopened bag of peanuts at her face. She moaned again and flopped her arm forward hoping to hit me. "Dude, c'mon!" I said, louder this time.

"M'kay, 'kay. 'Um comin'." She groaned, still half asleep.

With her eyes still shut she slowly unhooked her legs from her chest and brought her head forward. She clumsily started to fumble around with her belt. I reached over and pulled it tight around her and buckled it for her. "You said you weren't gonna sleep much and you slept for like over half the flight!" I said, collecting my book and iPod and shoving it into my worn out, unorganised back pack, noticing it had a huge paint splodge on. "Sorry, had a hangover." she sounded a bit more awake now. I groaned. "No you're not."

"I am, honestly Liv."

"I was so bored. I read my book like twice. Oh well, we're here now. Have you got the keys and address and stuff?" I asked.

"How long was the flight?" She said, completely changing the subject, something she was rather good at after just waking up.

Like 22 hours or something, I dunno."

"Whoa, we're a long way from home then…"

"Well yeah. We're on the other side of the planet." I said, quite sarcastically but Imi didn't seem to even notice. She was rather good at being a douche after just having woken up as well.

I'd been to England before. I used to live there, my dad was English. When I was 6, we moved to England from Spain because my grandma was quite ill and she needed someone to be close by all the time. So, my dad being her only child decided that moving to Brighton would be the next stage in our lives. We moved into a typical sea-side type house, small, detached and tall and painted a light shade of blue. My grandma was ill for a long time and died when I was 11. My dad found it hard to cope so, just after I turned 12, we moved again. Anyone would think we would go back to live with my mum's family in Spain but that obviously wasn't far enough but Australia was. Our house there was small and wooden and practically on the beach. It was a very open house. The bottom floor was all one room apart from the toilet and utility room. The shower was outside behind a bamboo screen type thing. At either end of the house was a balcony over-looking the large open room. My parents had one side and I the other. I was lucky because I had the side the extended utility room was built on so the roof of that was my balcony out-side, facing the ocean. There was a small flight of wooden stairs that led just next to the back door near the shower, so I had an easy short cut to the shower too. Australia is one of those places that once you've been to, you can't ever leave. Leaving was a hard thing for me to do, but it was the right thing. I needed to get away from things that had happened there. I needed a fresh start so going to England with Imi was it, the start of my independence and adulthood. Another reason was art. For some reason, I thought that coming to England was going to help me with a hopeless career in something I was painfully passionate about. I had a GCSE and half an AS level in art. Also in R.E., physics and Spanish. I also have GCSEs in maths, geography, biology, chemistry, English literature and English language. I always thought that I would have some kind of career in science, like a marine biologist or something. That's what my dad wanted me to do and I thought I wanted it too. But, really I want art. I know it's going to be hard to earn even nearly enough money through it but I am determined to try. I know I'm going to miss Australia more than I know possible, but this is something I feel that I have to do. My dad and I have fallen out with each other because of the options I made for college. He wanted me to do science and maths and all the boring academic stuff and basically I didn't. So, I went against him and chose the stuff that I wanted to do. It didn't even matter because I dropped out of college. I was only doing well in Spanish and art and I was behind on even them. I couldn't cope with the work load and so I did what I always do. I gave up. I was bored and needed change. So here I am, about to land back in England. My parents are quite well of from my dad's job. He owned a restaurant. You would think I would be good in the kitchen for that reason, but I wasn't. I was the total opposite. I can't cook to save my life. My limit was pot noodles and then often went wrong.

I borrowed some money from my parents to get me going, until I had a stable income, which I think is going to take a lot longer than I'm prepared for. I think I'm going to need some kind of part- time job to keep me going, to give me something to do. I get bored easily and a lot. I need something to motivate me. I have no idea what that is yet but whether it's someone or something, I need to find it and soon. At the moment, my best friend Imi will have to do. She wasn't coming to live with me in England. Just staying until Christmas, only a few weeks away. She didn't drop out of college like I did. She's stubborn and doesn't give up easily. She's studying English. Her plan is some kind of journalist I think. I don't know what I'm going to do when she's gone. I try not to think about it and pushed it to the back of my mind and onto the ever growing pile of crap that had previously been stuffed there.

"Okay." I thought to myself. "This is it. The new start for me and this one is not gonna go wrong." I breathed slowly, focusing my mind on optimistic thoughts. Something hard and oily flicked me square in the nose. I forced my eyes open and re-entered reality, returning from the confusing darkness of my mind to discover Imi, open packet of peanuts in one hand and in the other, turning a nut in her fingers aiming at my face. "No Imi! Not now."
Oh come on Olive. It's normally you acting five years old and me being the boring mature one. What's going on?"
" Sorry, I just wanna get off this plane. I've read my book like twice and I'm all fidgety."
"You're all grumpy 'cause you didn't sleep."
"Yeah, I know. I'm Just a bit… nervous I s'pose. I'll be back to normal tomorrow, promise."
She smiled and made me feel a bit more relaxed. A voice crackled over the speaker and rambled on about staying in seats as we landed and thanks for choosing the airline and blah, blah, blah.
"Well he went on for a bit." Imi complained.

"Uhuh." I agreed.

The seat belt light flickered off and the clicking or inpatient belts travelled down the plan quickly as everybody started to stand and stretch, waking up their legs ready for the queuing through passport control. I glanced out the window and a grey, drizzling sky greeted me. "Hasn't changed much then." I said quietly to myself. I hadn't been back to England since the day we left. "C'mon Olive! Let's go." Imi said, taking my hand and pulling me up from my seat. "Coming." I said, quickly tying my shoe lace and grabbing my bag. My legs were stiff and surprised with my weight so I was a bit slow and giddy as I shuffled out in the long queue of people, all wanting to get out too. A wall of cool air hit me as I came to the door of the plane. The flight attendant smiled at me, she looked tired and the smile looked fake. I briefly smiled back and continued to walk through the temporary corridor from the plane to the airport. As we came through the main door at the end, the line of people gradually came to a slow halt. I guessed they were checking passports so I slung my bag of my back and started rummaging round for mine. Imi leaned forward on her tip toes and peered over the crowd of people. If I did this, it would have made no difference. I was too short and Imi was quite tall. She had an amazing figure. Slim and tall with the right curves in all the right places. She had short blondish brown hair and brown eyes. She had an unusual face but not in a bad way. Her features all worked well with each other. She'd been offered modelling jobs a few times back at home. She did one once for some surfing thing about a year ago but didn't like it so didn't do anymore. I think it's a shame she never took to modelling. She would have done really well in it but I can't make her do things she's not in to.

We finally got through passport control and then had to wait ages while my paintings were taken off the plane. They were probably the last things to come off and I was tempted to just leave them. They weren't any good so why will I need them? Of course I won't leave them. I slaved over them for hours and they had cost a lot to get over here. Why didn't I just leave the stupid things at home? I'd bought 10 canvases and left the two huge ones at home. The thought of getting the huge ones through a door seemed ridiculous, no matter transporting them to the other side of the planet. I'm sure my parents don't mind keeping them. They are in my room so they won't get in the way. I've got to stop doing that, thinking of home. It doesn't matter now. I can't go back, I'm here now. My new start.

After waiting for what seemed like ages, a few guys with muscled arms came and helped us with everything. Imi had been organised and hired a small delivery van to take all my stuff to the new place. I was more opposite to Imi that possible. She was organised and I wasn't at all. I would never have thought about how we would magically transport all my crap from the airport to the house. And again, the thought of Imi leaving me returned. I think my parents felt so much happier about her coming with me than me being alone. They knew home much I relied on her. I rely on her so much more than I should and it's going to be huge shock when she leaves. I'd known her since my first day at my new school in Australia and since then, hasn't left my side. The sister I never had.

An hour drive later, the taxi pulled up on a quiet street with tall white houses on. I looked down at the piece of paper and up at the house which was soon to be mine. It was much bigger than I thought it would be. I paid the taxi driver and me and Imi were left alone outside this huge house, waiting for the van to arrive. We waited for the van before going inside. It was quite cold and I regretted being stubborn and refusing to change out of the things I had on before we left Australia. I wouldn't be able to wear many of the clothes I owned so I wanted to make the most of the tiny space I had left to wear them.

We were in London the capital city of England. I had only been here once, on my 10th birthday. I was taken to the London eye. I mostly only remember how shocked I was by the amount of people. I mean, Brighton wasn't exactly a quiet place but London was the busiest place I had ever been to and to be quite honest I hated it. I have no idea why I was back. We waited in the driveway, still looking up at the house. I heard a crunch or tires on the gravel of the driveway. I turned around and saw the van. Imi found the key in her bag. She didn't let me look after it, I don't blame her. In the space of 24 hours, just sitting on a plane in one spot, I would find a way to lose it somehow. She passed it to me and I made my way to the porch. I shoved the key on the lock, twisted it and swung the door open. A skinny staircase o the right, all clean and white and on the left a hall with two doors one side and a larger one at the end. The first door led into a cosy living room. It was tidy with a cream carpet and walls. A dark brown sofa and armchair complemented this and a coffee table filled the space in-between. A large mirror hung on the chimney breast, making the room seem bigger. No TV. The next door led outside to a small ally around the outside of the house. I didn't bother to unlock it; all I could see were the bins and nothing interesting. The larger door went into a reasonably sized kitchen with big glass doors looking out to a long garden. It had a patio at the end the house was on and the rest was well kept grass. Empty flower beds led down each side and met some bushes at the far end. There was a gate to next doors garden. Just in front of the glass doors, a round table and un-matching chairs filled the space. A large space between the table and a breakfast bar made the room feel quite big. Three stools sat around the bar and other kitchen units formed around the rest of the room. The walls were all white and the tiled floor was an orangey brown. In the corner diagonally opposite the glass doors, a thin curtain hung from the ceiling. I walked over to it and slid it open. A step up led to a small hall about 3 footsteps long and just wide enough for someone to stand in was behind it with a boiler on one side and shelves all the way from the ceiling to the floor. I ventured out of the kitchen and realised a door under the stairs. I unhooked the small latch and opened it. It was dark behind the door and I couldn't see much. I noticed a light switch; I reached for it and clicked it on. The cracking sound of bulbs filled my ears and light revealed a steep staircase heading down. There was a wooden door at the bottom. I carefully made my way down the creaking stairs and just about made it to the bottom without breaking anything. I looked up the stairs. Imi stuck her head round the door. "Cool, a basement." She said. I reached for the handle. "Wait! Don't open it!" she said, making me jump slightly. "Why?" I asked, confused. "Well… there might be something like in there…"
I laughed. "Pffft, like what?" I asked, slightly mockingly.

"I dunno." She shrugged.

"Alright ladies?" I heard a man's voice from up the stairs say.

"Yeah, thanks." said Imi, forgetting the apparent dead body in the basement.

"Can I just get you outside to see where you need things?" he said.

"Yeah sure." Imi took a step forward so I couldn't see her.

"Can you leave my paintings till last please?" I called up the stairs.

"'course love." I heard the guy say.

"Thanks!" I called. I pushed the door handle down. If there was something I here I suppose discovering it would be better to get over and done with. I quickly swung the door open and thought how stupid I was being, actually letting Imi's pathetic little wines bother me. I quickly scanned the room; I was right, nothing in there. Just a small room with a rough, grey carpet and a few shelves on the white wall. It smelt of paper so I guessed it had previously been used as some kind of office.

Upstairs, there were three bedrooms, two with beds and the other had a walk in wardrobe and an average bathroom. Another flight of stairs led up to a room right at the top of the house which I thought would do for keeping my painting until I got some kind of studio.

One of the rooms with beds was slightly bigger than the other so I called shotgun down the stairs. I heard Imi groan. I laughed. "Olive?" she called from down the stairs.
"Yeah" I answered, coming away from the window of my new room that faced the drive.

"The guy wants to talk to you about your paintings."

"Okay, coming!" I bounded down the stairs and my iPod fell from my pocket and started playing Blink-182 loudly through the headphone. I didn't realise and just shoved it back in my pocket. I ran outside to the van where the guy was waiting. "I have like noe English music" I thought, Did I even know any? Don't think so. I walked round to the back of the van and where the doors were open. One guy was already in there, starting to lift one end of the largest paintings in there. There were all neatly wrapped with about a hundred sheets of various protective crap. "Where do ya wan' 'em?" said the slightly younger looking one said.
"Urrm, the top room please."

"cool." He answered.

"Please be careful." I said.
"Always am." He said, winking. I laughed and wirled round, hitting something I didn't expect. Again, my iPod fell to onto the ground- the poor thing had so many scratches. "Whoa dude, your iPod!" said a guy with an orange beanie hat on, now crouching down to pick it up. "Yeah, thanks." I said.

"Blink-182!" he exclaimed, handing it back to me. "I'm like totally obsessed with them." He added. I looked up and realised his face. It was gorgeous and made me immediately want to know his name. "Ha-ha, me too." I said, probably looking like a total twat staring at him actually unable to take my eyes away from him. "I-I'm Olive." I said, totally dazed. "Dougie." He said, smiling shyly. "Long time since I've had to say that." He muttered quietly as if I wasn't supposed to hear. I ignored it and carried on melting. He had small, laughing blue eyes and a cheeky grin which practically made me die inside. Curly wisps of brown and blonde hair stuck out from the rim of his beanie. He shoved his hands into his baggy hoodie. He shyly smiled and shuffled form one foot to the other. "Hey Dougie." I said, looking down, not wanting him to see the state my face was in. "Hey Olive." he replied, with the cutest smile. "I swear Olives are those weird green things you have on pizzas?" he asked.
"Um yeah, you can have them on pizzas I guess, It's short for Olivia but I only get called that when I'm in trouble."
"Ha-ha, you have really olive coloured skin too." I held up my arm and unrolled my sleeve looking at the colour of my skin. "Yeah, that's another reason too." I laughed. He listened intently. "Arr okay. It's cute, you're small and cute." Dougie teased. I grimaced at him. He patted me in the head and subtly winked. The guys walked passed with another canvas. "What's with all the big white thingys?" He asked, gesturing to them as they lumbered passed. It was a good question. What were they, hopeless scribbles? "My art crap"

"Art crap?"
"Yeah, art crap. Well paintings and stuff."
"Oh, that's cool. Are you Australian?"
I laughed. "No, English. I lived there since I was 12 but now I'm back. You picked up from my accent? I thought it was really un-noticeable?"

"It is. I just listened carefully. So how old are you now?"
"17."

"18!" he said, pointing to himself acting all proud that he was older. "Who's that?" Dougie asked, gesturing to the front door. I turned round to see what he was asking about. I could see Imi in the kitchen. "Arr, that's Imi." I said, now turning back to face him. "Imi?"
"Yeah, she's like my best friend. She's staying here till Christmas then going back to Australia."

"How come?"
"She has to finish college."

"Oh right. How old's she?"

I grimaced "18." I said, holding back.

"Ha-ha! Looks like you're the baby then." He exclaimed. I gasped.

"Err, out of whom exactly?"
He turned and pointed next door. "the rest of the boys, and then you two." He explained. The rest of the boys? I'm guessing he lived next door with some other mates. How many? This could be interesting. I was hoping we wouldn't be next door to some crank yold man who moaned every time we turned the TV on. It looked like it would be the other way round. "Olivia- Rose Larissa Perkins!" I heard Imi yell. I swung my head round to see her hanging out the door looking a bit annoyed. "Yes Imi." I called back, expecting her to say something embarrassing. "Stop flirting and come and help me!" she said. I was right; something embarrassing. Great. I grimaced at her as I her Dougie laugh. I turned to face him. "See you later Olivia- Rose Larissa Perkins." He took a step backwards and headed for next door. I stood there, watching him walk away. "Bye." I murmured after he'd shut the door. I walked in ad shut the door. I shivered and pulled my checked shirt tighter round my body. It was freezing, even in the house. "Who was that?" Imi asked, coming out of the living room. I shrugged. "Dougie. He lives next door apparently with some other guys."
"How many?"

"Dunno, but he said see you later so I guess we'll find out soon."

"Could be interesting"

"That's what I thought. He had cool shoes." I said. Imi gasped and then giggled. "He-he!" she said with a huge smile on her face. "What?" I asked confused. "Nothing, nothing." She turned around quickly and went into the living room.. "No what? Tell me." I demanded. "Tell you what?"

"What you're laughing at."
"It's nothing really."

"Yes it is, tell me." I followed her and grabbed a cushion from the sofa. I slung it at her and it slammed her in the face, messing her hair up. She grimaced and shook her head about, trying to adjust the hair back to where it was before. "So, what's so funny?"
"Well, it's just that you said his shoes were cool."
"Yeah, and?"

"…You only ever notice guy's shoes when you think they're cute…" she finished. I stared at her, probably looking quite freaky. "No I don't!" I said a bit delayed because I kind of new she was right. "You kinda do Liv…" I walked out into the kitchen. I probably went red; she knew I got embarrassed easily. I went over to the fridge and remembered we had nothing to eat and that the fridge probably wasn't even working yet. "How do you turn a fridge on?" I called to Imi. I heard her footsteps as she came in and stood behind me. "I've already done it." Of course she has. It's Imi, what do I expect? I opened it and the light flickered on. "I'm hungry." I said, noticing a small TV on the counter on the other side of the kitchen. I shuffled over to it and switched it on. "You'll have to go get food then." Imi said.

"Yeah, I'll go… tomorrow… maybe." I stuttered. She sighed. "We could just get pizza?" I suggested. I knew it was a stupid thing to say as I finished saying it. I'd been here as long has Imi had, why would she know where the nearest pizza place is? "From where? I dunno where to go."
"Ooo, do we have a yellow pages thingy?"

"What's a yellow pages thingy?" Imi asked.

"A yellow thingy book… thing with phone numbers n' stuff."

"That really doesn't help Olive."

"We have a TV though" I said, gesturing towards it and trying to sound hopeful. She walked over to it and switched it off. "Not a very big one" Imi complained. I giggled at the dirtiness of what she just said. She looked at me slightly puzzled and then clocked at my dirty mind. She sighed and tutted at me being immature. I walked over the curtain and pulled it so I could see the shelves. I spotted 3 tins. I grabbed one; baked beans. I chucked it over to Imi and she caught it. "Think that's all there is." I said, reading the other two tines. "Spaghetti hoops?" I said, getting ready to throw it to her. "Naah, we'll have beans." She set the tin down on the counter. "Awr shit." She splattered.
"What?"

"No tin opener." She said, chucking it back to me. I checked the other tins to see if they were easier to open without a tin opener. They weren't. "We have the peanuts from the plane?" she suggested.

"No, you chucked them everywhere."
"Oh yeah… we could just go for a walk and hope we come across some kind of shop."

"But it's freezing… we um could just ask next door." I asked, hoping like hell Imi wouldn't notice how enthusiastically I had just said that and that I just wanted to see the Dougie dude again. "Just because you wanna see Dougie again." She said making quote marks in the air as she said Dougie. Damn, she got me. She knew me far to well. "We might have to anyway."

"Okay!" I said, trying not to sound happy but failing hugely. She smiled at me. She smiled at the thought I was finally considering other guys. Other guys than Grey.