Chapter One
New Life
"Finished!" Nathan shouted triumphantly throwing his arms above his head. "I'm done, that's the last box, finally!"
Kelly was sat on the third step of the stairs with her back against the wall. She could hardly see her father, who was stood only two metres from her, because of all the towering boxes around the house. She felt as though they had made a castle from all the boxes, and that she was held prisoner.
Her father, Nathan Clark a lawyer, had just cello taped the last box and was now sliding it next to the rest of them. She managed a slight smile despite the fact that she didn't mean it. Of course she didn't. Cello taping that last box meant that this was real – they really were leaving New York.
Not only was she leaving New York behind her but, she was also leaving her life behind her. As a sixteen-year-old, she had lived her entire life in the same area; with the same people. She had gone to the same school since she could remember, with the same cafeteria, classrooms and fields. Her friends were here, and she knew if she was leaving, it would only take them a week to forget her, which would leave her a complete loner. Despite all of that, the thing that hurt her most, was to leave the glee club she had grown so fond of in the last two or three years of her life. They were like her family. No matter what, they were always there for her. She couldn't bear the thought of moving to new a new state, where she knew no-one. She wasn't good at socializing with new people; it had always been her weakness.
It didn't matter. There wasn't enough time to change their minds. Her father wouldn't change his mind anyway. This was happening and there wasn't anything she could do to stop it.
She finally gave in. The torture was too much. She picked up her guitar, which was leaning against the wall to her right, got up and tiptoed up the stairs to her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
She gently laid her guitar down and threw herself on her bed, tears streaming down the sides of her pale face. She held her pillow tightly against her chest and stared at the plain purple walls that surrounded her. All the boxes with her stuff in were downstairs along with all the other boxes. For a while, she lay on her bed with her headphones in her ears blocking out the noises of boxes being shoved around. She was listening to Adele, Set Fire to the Rain. She always found this song relaxing and soothing. She loved the sound of the piano. It made her happy, but sad. It's like every time she listened to music she found herself in a happy place, in her own world. Every time she put in both her headphones and closed her eyes, she could imagine herself lying on the green luscious grass with daisies surrounding her with the sun beaming down on her, with her hair down to her shoulders blowing slightly every time the breezy wind blew softly.
"Kelly, I've been calling you down for ages!"
Nathan came barging into her room and stopped at the foot of her bed. He stood facing her, shaking his head. She instantly tapped the screen of her white iPhone, and the music instantly stopped.
"Hm..?"
She hummed as she pushed the pillow away, trying to get herself up.
"I said, I've been calling you down for ages."
He said quietly, almost a whisper.
"Sorry, I had my headphones in, I didn't hear you."
She muttered innocently. Then again, he stood shaking his head.
"Don't put both headphones in next time."
She gave him an angered look and rolled her eyes however he didn't dare argue any further with her, because he knew that she extremely upset about leaving.
"Come on down, I ordered some pizza, with your favourite toppings. Get down there before it gets cold."
"I'm not hungry."
"You should eat, big day tomorrow!"
Those were the wrong words to say to her at that moment.
"Don't!"
She gave him a threatening look which angered him. She got up, because she didn't want to have to do this, not now, she had been avoiding this all week and she wasn't about to start it now.
"Don't what?"
"Don't act as though I'm looking forward to tomorrow, you know I'm not."
"I'm not acting like anything-"
"Yes you are! And I am sick of it."
He stood with a horrified look on his face. And she stood facing him with the most angered look she had ever had on her face before. She was breathing heavily and shaking slightly.
"Don't talk to me like that. Just because you're angry, doesn't give you the right to let it out on me."
"Whatever."
She said giving up, walking out of the room. She realised she didn't mind eating right now.
"No. You come back here and talk to me. I saw this coming and if I'm honest with you I want to get this done and over with. We've been avoiding it for too long."
"What do you want me to say, Dad?"
"Tell me what's been on your mind for the past two weeks?"
She stopped walking and turned around then sighed and started looking down at her feet.
"I don't have anything to say."
"Oh yes you do."
She attempted to walk away but he reached out with his arm and grabbed her.
"Stop! Just tell me!"
She froze. After a few seconds she spun around and started yelling.
"Fine. You want to know what I think. Here's what I think, I think moving is a stupid idea, you're taking away my life and I hate this. I don't want to move. I like it here, I like New York. It's my home and Ohio will never be my home no matter what you do to convince me."
They both remained silent for a few moments, until Nathan broke the silence.
"We've been over this."
"No!"
"We've already discussed this, Kelly."
"No. You did, I didn't have a say in any of this."
She turned away from him hiding the tears that were forming in her eyes. He didn't get it. He never would. Just like she didn't want, he chased after her, calling her name.
The car slowed down driving over a road bump. Kelly was sat looking outside, reading the signs they passed. There was a big one that said 'Welcome to Ohio'. She sighed. Closing the window, she got out her headphones again and put on Super Bass by Nicki Minaj. She didn't want to give her Dad the chance to try and make small talk with her. She wasn't in the mood, especially after last night's argument. It ended badly.
Half an hour after, they were driving down a busy road that had all kinds of shops. They also passed a park. There were loads of teenagers her age sat on the freshly cut grass and benches. It reminded her of home. She loved taking an early morning stroll through Central Park when she got the chance.
They were soon pulling up in front of a beautiful house. It had the nicest front garden. It was full of flowers and a lovely shade of green grass. It seemed very welcoming however Kelly didn't want to think about it too much.
Nathan, on the other hand, was thrilled. Kelly hadn't seen him smile so much since in forever. She liked seeing him happy, but not when she wasn't.
She wanted to avoid him as much as possible. So she had made up her mind, she would dump her stuff and then go exploring around the area. Nathan couldn't possibly say no to that.
Nathan began to walk towards the house with a silver key in his right hand. Kelly followed in his footsteps dangling her bag on one hand and guitar in the other. She stood on the white-painted porch watching him insert the key into the lock and turning it. Here we go she thought to herself.
The red door creaked open revealing a nice but empty hallway. The walls were painted yellow-ish beige.
"Home sweet home!"
Nathan whispered to himself. Kelly rolled her eyes, thinking how cheesy.
She ran up the stairs to pick out her room. She chose a bright medium-sized room. It was perfect. Carefully, she placed her guitar into her closet and raced down the stairs to pretend to help load the boxes in.
An hour passed and they had finally finished. Kelly mostly just looked for her boxes and put them into her room. Once Nathan was loading the last few boxes Kelly approached him.
"Dad…I-uh… Can I go to the park?"
His first reaction was shock. He was surprised that she even wanted to go out. He was hesitant at first but then he agreed.
"Sure. But be back before six. "
"Ok."
She simply said. She grabbed her bag which was lying on the porch, and she set out on foot.
The park and the shops that she saw from earlier weren't too far away from where the house was. It was about ten minutes on foot. Once she arrived, she went straight to the park, she dodged all the shops.
The park wasn't as packed as it was earlier. There were fewer people jogging, fewer teenagers and not many dogs either which was good because Kelly didn't like dogs very much. She continued walking along a path when a member of a group of teenagers sat on a bench to her right spoke to her.
"Hey, you!"
She looked to her right. Most of the teenagers that were sat on the bench either had piercings or tattoos and most of them were smoking. However, the one that spoke to her stood out, because he had his hair cut in a mohawk.
"Me?"
She asked.
"Yeah, you!"
He said violently.
"Yes?"
She said trembling slightly.
"Do you have any cigarettes?"
Kelly gave the one with a mohawk a quizzical look.
"N-n-no…"
"Do you have a lighter?"
"N-n-no…"
He sighed. Kelly froze. Her legs wouldn't move. She just stood frozen to the spot staring at them. This must've annoyed them because they were all giving her evil stares until the one with the mohawk intimidatingly asked her,
"Can I help you?"
It was as if someone had snapped their fingers and she woke.
"Uh-No… No um… Im ok!"
Then she stumbled away in the direction she came from. She was getting tired and decided to head home.
Knock! Knock!
The door was opened.
"Kelly!"
"Dad?"
She noticed unfamiliar faces sat in the kitchen, the only place in the house that had chairs at that moment.
Nathan was cheerful full of glee.
"Mr and Mrs Hummel, Finn and Kurt, I would like you to meet my daughter, Kelly! Kelly these are our neighbours, The Hummels!"
Why hadn't he called me and warned me that the neighbours were coming over? She thought to herself.
She greeted each of the Hummels. Finn and Kurt were the same age as Kelly. Once she was done greeting them she tried to slip away, and caused herself an even bigger problem.
"What a great idea, Kelly. Why don't you show Finn and Kurt around?"
Gulp!
"Oh, it's boring, there's not much to see."
"Kelly!"
My Dad nodded at me as if to say, don't be rude!
"Sure. Come on, I'll show you around."
She said reluctantly. She showed them all the rooms, the living room, the kitchen and then finally she showed them her room. They sat in a circle in the centre.
As soon as she entered, she could see that, Nathan had tried to put some of her clothes in her closet. He left some in the boxes and Kurt had noticed.
"Oh, I see you're not the up to date fashion kind of girl."
"Kurt!"
Finn nudged him.
"No, not really."
She answered truthfully.
But she could clearly see that he was. Kurt was dressed like he was posing for a magazine photo shoot or something.
To change the subject they started talking about the high school Kelly was going to be going to. They talked about different clubs they had, the teachers and how icky the lunch food was.
Finn was first to notice that Kelly had a guitar.
"So, you play guitar?"
He questioned her nodding to the guitar in the closet. Kurt's face lit up when he saw it.
"Uh, yeah, I do actually."
"Cool!"
Finn said wearing the cheesiest grin she had ever seen.
"Do you sing?"
Kurt asked with a serious voice. Kelly knew she could, but she didn't want to say yes. She was hesitant but instead the answered a question with a question.
"Do you?"
"Yes. We both do. Finn and I, we're apart of McKinley's glee club, the New Directions."
William McKinley High School was the school Kelly would be going to.
"So my question, again, do you sing?"
"I-I-I-I dunno.."
"Grab your guitar let's hear you."
"What?"
Kelly partly screamed at him.
"Let's hear you sing. Come on, get up!"
For some reason, she obeyed what he said. She got up and brought her guitar over and sat back down in the spot.
"Sing us a song."
"No."
Kurt gave her a sharp look.
"Ok, I will I will!"
She began to brush the chords of the guitar, creating music. She didn't even know what she was going to sing.
Then the song came to her. Vanessa Carlton, Hands on Me.
Kurt and Finn had smiles on their faces by the time she had finished. Even Kelly smiled.
"Wow, you have a voice."
Kurt said mesmerized.
"You're really good!"
Finn said, again wearing a cheesy grin.
"Thanks."
And they continued telling stories, singing songs and just having a good time. I've made friends! She thought to herself.
A buzzing and irritating alarm sound kept on repeatedly making noise. Kelly reluctantly turned the alarm off and groaned. First day of school. Well this is gonna be hell.
She got up and started to get ready.
Once she was dressed, she headed to the kitchen and bit a piece of toast.
"Good morning, honey."
Nathan was sat at the kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee.
"M'rnugi"
"Excuse me?"
Kelly finished chewing the toast and swallowed it.
"Morning."
He chuckled, behind a newspaper he was reading.
"Right, I'm off."
Just as Kelly was about to walk out, Nathan called after her.
"Wait, hang on, don't you want me to take you?"
"What? No. I'm fine going by myself."
Nathan didn't bother arguing. Kelly was feeling a lot more confident about today than she would've been if she hadn't spent the evening hanging out with Kurt and Finn.
As she walked down the pavement, she heard Kurt call her name.
"Kelly!"
"Hey!"
She called back.
"Where are you going?"
"School?"
"Get over here. I'm gonna give you a ride, duh!"
"You know its ok, I'll just walk."
"Get over here."
She couldn't say no.
The bell rang.
"Welcome to McKinley!"
The first thing she saw when she entered the school was red. McKinley's theme colour was red. Everything was based around red. As she walked at Kurt's side (Finn had walked off with a rather short girl, she assumed to be his girlfriend), she could see how the school was categorized. The jocks, the cheerios, the nerds etc.
Just as she was getting used to having Kurt with her at her side, a boy with super-gelled hair and striped navy and white bowtie walked over to talk to Kurt.
"Hey, Kurt!"
"Hello, Blaine."
Kelly stood to the side awkwardly. They started talking about a magazine or something, Kelly couldn't keep up.
"Oh excuse me, Blaine this is my friend Kelly. She just moved in next door, and Kelly this is my friend Blaine."
Blaine was a rather cheerful person.
"Hi Kelly, it's nice to meet you."
"Hi, it's nice to meet you too."
They shook hands. Straight after Kurt had introduced them to one another, he walked off with Blaine, leaving Kelly alone. She turned to unlock her locker when an unusually familiar face appeared through the crowd.
"You!"
He said.
"Cigarette guy!"
Kelly called him. It was the guy that was with the group of teenagers, the one with the mohawk.
"Cigar- who?"
"Nevermind."
She splattered out.
"What are you some kind of stalker?"
She looked at him confused.
"What?"
"Are you following me?"
He gave her an awkward threatening look.
"What, no!"
"Good!"
Then he walked away. She couldn't understand why they had just had that one minute conversation, but she was definitely glad he was gone.
The bell rung again. The day had only just started and Kelly was already feeling tired, but she knew she had to battle her way through her New Life.
Thirty-two seconds down, a few more hours to go.