"This is honestly not fair at all."

No truer words have ever been spoken by Kelly Peterson in the whole 10 years that I've known her.

I turn around from applying some mascara and roll my eyes, but not too much since my mascara is still wet. I really don't want to start over and have to redo it. "Kell, I honestly don't even have it in me to argue about it with them anymore. Their decision is not going to change"

"But how can I start senior year without my best friend in the whole entire world?!"

"You don't," I shrug my shoulders, "come with me to stupid Texas and we can start senior year together over there."

Kelly looked absolutely mortified at that idea. Which is exactly how I looked when my parents first told me about moving to Texas. She shook her head and gave me a nervous laugh, "I love ya, Gabs, but hell no."

I laughed and got up from my chair and joined her on my bed, closest to my bedside table. "It's not fair, but at least I have family there, you know?"

"Yeah, family you hardly ever see, I'm closer to you than them."

"True, but I've visited a handful of times. And I did live there until I was five. I haven't been there in a couple of years, but I mean, I was really close to my cousin Val growing up. We were like best friends. She's cool. I like her."

"She could be a total bitch now for all you know!"

I rolled my eyes at her assumption. We didn't visit Texas often. But the times I have gone, she was nothing but nice. I don't know her THAT well, but I do know she's really nice and pretty. And I mean, we text back and forth. "She's not! She's visited and I've gone a couple times."

Kelly sighed and went over to my desk, "whatever, I'm just really going to miss my best friend. New York isn't going to be the same without you."

"Don't remind me," I beg of her, "I'm dreading moving back to Texas just as much as you're upset about me leaving. Seriously I mean, this was gonna be the year I dated Smith O'Connor!"

"Yeah!" she turned around from digging in her purse, "he was gonna come back form Europe and finally ask you to be his girlfriend and everything was going to go perfect and before we knew it, we were going to be double dating with two hot guys. Preston and I. And you and Smith. Now that's all ruined."

That was literally the plan.

Smith O'Connor was the hottest guy at school. He comes from a wealthy family. He's very smart. He's athletic. He's cultured. And did I mention he's hot? Dark hair, the hazelest of eyes and the most beautiful lips you could ever imagine on a guy. And he likes me! Isn't that crazy? Me, Gabriella Montez, who isn't a total babe but I don't think I'm ugly by any means. So this is huge. He can literally have anyone. We hooked up at the beginning of summer and hung out for a bit, but when he was leaving to Europe for a month and a half, he told me to wait for him. And I was more than willing to do that.

But that was ruined when my father wanted to take a job in Texas. Get back to his roots. It made me sooo mad. And sad.

"Kell, I'm literally getting so depressed, it's not even funny."

"Then let's go shopping!"

This is why she's my best friend. And why I'm going to miss her and New York tremendously. I mean, is there a Barney's in Texas? Ugh I don't even want to know the answer to that. "Yes, please," I jump off my bed, "let's."

And so we did. Twenty minutes later, we were in Barney's looking around as usual.

"Excuse me, do you have this in a size two?"

The sales lady turned around with a smile on her face, but it instantly dropped when she saw who was talking to her. "Oh these? They run small."

"It's okay. I'll take a size two."

She faked a smile at me and went to go grab my size as Kelly comes up behind me with a really pretty blush cashmere sweater and holds it up, "Yay or nay?"

"Definitely yay," I tell her looking over my shoulder only to see that the sales lady had put my jeans down on the counter and was busy doing something else at the cashier.

What the fuck. She has no other customers right now. Ugh. I asked for a size two. And she's not getting them for me. I hate shopping sometimes. These sales ladies who are miserable with their lives take it out on us. She knows who I am and I'm sure she hates me. I use my credit card as if I'm breathing. All the time. Without a care in the world. And I don't know why these ladies have such a problem with it. Isn't it beneficial to them?

Okay, maaaaybe because I come off as a spoiled brat, but again, why do they care? They don't know me. Their job is just to get me what I want.

Or maybe tt's because she heard my friend once say her hair was atrocious. And she hates us all.

Kelly held it up to her body, "yeah? Should I wear it to the charity brunch tomorrow?"

"Yes," I tell her, getting a little sad that soon, I won't be attending these events with her anymore. Or with my family. Ugh. "You should definitely get it."

"You realize this is our last event together?" Kelly turned around and proceeded to look through more clothes, "no more galas, balls, parties, charity events..."

"Kell, stop," I couldn't handle it right now.

I didn't want to break down and cry in the middle of Barney's. Yes, my life is changing... and definitely not for the better, but I had to stop being reminded of it. I figured that the less we talk about it, the more it won't happen. But it's happening and so still the last thing I want to talk about is how I'm leaving my beautiful New York penthouse to go live in a house in Dallas.

Kelly looked at me with sad eyes and I know she didn't mean any harm by it. "You're right. No more Texas talk."

"Thank you," I smile at her, "let's just talk about how fabulous those jeans are going to look on me."

That's all I needed right now. Those jeans. And I needed them NOW.

"Where have you been?"

I put my Barney's bag down on the table and ignore my mom's question. She can figure it out.

She sighed and closed the cabinets pretty loudly along with the refrigerator door that was opened and walked towards me. "Gabriella Elizabeth Montez, I'm talking to you. Answer my question right now."

"I went shopping with Kelly, okay?"

"Shopping?" her voice sounds mad, "we are about to move to Texas, young lady. You don't need anymore clothes to pack up in boxes. And besides, the people in Texas don't care what the hell you're wearing."

Oh my gosh. Is that supposed to make me want to go? Grossss.

I opened my laptop that was sitting around the island on the table and quickly logged into my Facebook account while my mother kept talking to me about my spending habits and how I had to cut down when we moved to Texas, but I had notifications to check and friend requests to approve.

My mom, all of a sudden, came over and closed it. Ugh! What the fuck? "Mom!"

"I'm talking to you, Gabriella!" She sounded mad. And I felt a little bad about it, but not too much. "You need to stop acting like a brat, okay? We're moving whether you like it or not. You can't shut us out."

Fine then. I'll just give her a piece of my mind. "Do you realize that you're kind of ruining my life with this move?"

"Oh please," she rolled her eyes, "we're moving to Texas, not some foreign country. Your friends can visit. You can visit. It'll all be fine."

"But it won't be, mom!" I tell her.

"Gabriella," she drags my name out, "please don't make this harder than it is. Do you think I'm particularly happy about moving? I'm born and raised here. When your father got the job here, I was ecstatic. Back to my roots. But now it's his turn to get back to his. You sacrifice sometimes. Your father, he misses home. He misses the simple life. So please, once you turn 18, get the hell out of there if you want, but for the next five months, cooperate."

"Wait," I try to choose my words carefully, "if I wanted to spend second second semester here, I could?"

She smiled at me and nodded, "I've already talked to the head mistress at Kenwood. You can come back second semester."

Oh my gosh. I have the nicest parents, ever! "Seriously? Even though my birthday is in January? I can still come back and finish school here with everyone?"

"Yes," my mother tells me, "but..."

Fuuuck. Of course. I knew it wasn't going to be that easy. Shit. "What?"

She comes over to me and gives me a stern look, "you have to show your dad and I that you're actually trying to embrace every inch of Texas, okay? School, our living arrangement, your cousins and aunts and uncles. Everything little thing about it. No complaining about family parties..."

I knew it. I knew it wouldn't be that easy. Ugh. I got my hopes up for nothing.

Look, I'm a nice person. I'm friendly and I get along with most people, but I love getting my way. I'm set in my ways, my way of living and I don't really want to change that. So the fact tat I now just can't sit through classes with a miserable look on my face and I'll probably have to hang out with my cousins and their friends when I don't want to is going to be so hard to do. SO HARD. Ugh. I knew there was a catch. I got too excited for a minute.

I think about it. I don't know if I'll pull it off, but I'll have to really try because it not, who's gonna give me money to come back to New York? "Okay, deal."

"Yeah?" my mom smiles at me, "show us you're embracing all of it, every inch, and you can come back second semester. And stay with Kelly or grandma and we'll take care of it. If you don't, well, you're free to go since you'll be 18, but you'd be cut off. Your grandparents won't give you money, none of your aunts or uncles. You'll legit be cut off..."

"Yes," I nod my head, but I'm not convinced myself, "I'll do just that."

My mom kisses my forehead and turns back to go pack the kitchen, "who knows, maybe you'll fall in love with Dallas and won't even want to leave."

Yeah, right. Haaaa. "Sure, mom."

Eeek. I have to go tell Kelly and all my friends the good news.