A/N: I'm not sure how old Carly was supposed to be in iGoodbye. I'm guessing like... Eighteen? I am going to assume she is eighteen and it is the middle of senior year. PLEASE review. I spent so long researching and writing this chapter.
I stood in front of the dusty bathroom mirror, curling my hair. I couldn't believe I was starting at a brand new school. I've been at Ridgeway my entire life. Everybody there liked me! Why couldn't I wait six months? Then I wouldn't have to move to a new school in the middle of senior year. I'm going to have no friends. Everybody at this school already has their friends, and they're comfortable, so they would ever befriend me? What if nobody speaks English?
I finished the last strand of my hair and looked at myself in the mirror. I rolled my eyes and got some toilet paper to rub the dust off the mirror. My makeup looked nice, my hair looked great, and my outfit... I didn't know what to wear. Italy is huge on fashion, so I was sure I didn't look good at all. Dad had offered to take me out shopping, but I didn't want to go anywhere. I was still in denial. I had a knee length blue dress with a silver belt, a couple of rings and a really flashy necklace. I had black booties of my feet as well.
My dad walked up to the open bathroom door. "Are you excited?"
"Nervous." I admitted, unplugging my curling iron.
"Don't be. You're Carly Shay. The star of iCarly!"
"Not anymore, dad." I turned to him and almost rolled my eyes at the sight of him. It was 6:15 in the morning and he already had on his dumb uniform. I knew him enough to know he had woken up at 4:00 a.m. and was dressed up since 4:30. "I would rather just be known as Carly Shay at this school."
"Why?" I shot him a look as if to say Please, dad. I have my reasons. He nodded, as if he could read my mind. "Isn't that dress a little bit short for you?" I forced out a chuckle that said I don't want to talk about it. "Do you want me to drive you to school?"
"NO! I mean, no. No thank you. I can take the bus." He looked a bit hurt, but I knew that even though he was strict and old, he must have remembered what it was like to be a teenager. A look of understanding was on his face, and I sighed of relief. I didn't want to be here, but I didn't want to hurt his feelings either. "I have to catch my bus." I said, walking past him to get my purse. I started to walk out the door and I saw him still at the door of the bathroom, his head down. "Dad?" He turned to look at me and forced a smile. "I'm really glad that -" I turned my head and saw the bus coming. "I mean, I love -" I couldn't get the words out, because I didn't know if saying I love you to him was a lie. I didn't know if I loved him. I knew that I liked him and he was a great person. I sighed and tried to think about what to say, I really just wanted him to feel better. "...I can't wait to get to know you better." A smile crept on his face and I walked out.
I stepped on the bus and immediately noticed I was way overdressed. A couple of girls giggled as I walked by and a couple guys snickered when they saw me. Every seat was full, so I sat next to a nerdy looking girl. I turned to her. "Hello."
"Non parlare con me" She responded with a nasty glare and she looked out the window.
"Okay..."
A girl walked up to me when we got to another stop. "Aren't you from that show on the internet?"
I sighed. "Yes." I said quietly. "Wait, you speak English?"
Everyone around me broke out in laughter. "How dumb are you?" The girl asked. I stared at her in shock. "siete troppo stupidi per capire quello che sto dicendo?" I looked like a deer in headlights, probably. "Our school hates iCarly. It's dumb and immature."
I didn't want to make an enemy on the first day, so I just put on my headphones and listened to my iPod for the rest of the trip. I could hear the other kids laughing away. I didn't want to cry on the bus, but I did want to cry very badly.
The rest of the day went similarly. One girl came up to me and said how much she hated iCarly and anybody who watched it had no taste. Another one asked me if I even spoke Italian, and when I said no everybody laughed. One girl asked me why I don't just go back to where I came from. A very good looking guy came up to me and told me how pretty I was, and I thought I had made a friend. Then he asked me on a date and when I said 'sure', a boy came out with a video camera and everybody started laughing at me. Almost every single person I came across made fun of the way I dressed, commenting how Americans have no taste. Teachers hated me, ranting how I ruined their midterm tests because I didn't know anything about what they've been teaching for the past three months. I wanted to go home. Not dads home. My home.
I came to the house and ran to my room. I threw my purse on my bed and noticed there was a huge curse word written on it in black Sharpie. I threw myself on the bed and started crying. This was the longest and ugliest cry yet. I've never been so hated.
My dad walked into my room. "I assume your day was less than great?" I didn't even look up. I kept crying. "Carly. I know school is hard."
I sat up and looked him in the eyes. "No you don't, dad! You haven't been a teenager in like thirty years. You don't know what it's like to go from a school where everybody loves you to a school where everybody hates you. This is my senior year! It's supposed to be one of the best years of my life. Do you know what someone said to me today? They said that I should dig myself a grave and bury myself in it. Another person told me to drop off the face of the Earth and take my entire family with me, especially my stupid immature brother. They said that to me!"
"I'll call the school!"
"That will just make everything worse, dad!" I wiped away some tears. He sat on the edge of my bed and wrapped his arms around me. I felt uncomfortable, but I know he wasn't used to the 'father' thing, so I let him.
"I think I have something that will make you feel better." I looked up, hoping it was a plane ticket home. He took my hand and led me down to the basement. I was astonished. It was an exact replica of my room back home, right down to the purple light switches and the gummy bear lamp. I turned to him, speechless. I looked at his proud face and broke down crying again. I didn't want to cry, I really didn't. I know he must have worked extremely hard on this room from the day I got here one week ago and must have spent so much money... but seeing this room made me miss home so much more. It actually made everything worse. It made me think Sam was going to come through the door asking about the next iCarly. It made me think I would be getting ready for Ridgeway in front of the vanity. It made me think that I was going to finish my homework at the desk and then go to the Groovy Smoothie. I turned to my father. The poor guy looked heart broken. He must have spent at least $85,000 dollars on this room and all day and night for a week to make this.
"Daddy. I appreciate this. I really, really do and I love that you did this. It means a lot. It just makes me really... REALLY miss home, you know?" He nodded.
Great. Now I can't tell him that I want to go home anytime soon. It would be the most cruel thing I could do.
"How did you afford this?" I asked him, knowing he made a decent amount but not so much that he would have an extra $85,000 lying around.
He sighed. "My great great great grandfather had this... Coin collection. He had at least 1400 coins by the time he died, a good amount of them were very rare. Then, he passed it on to my great great grandfather who added coins, and it just went down the line. It got to me and, honestly, I was never really interested in adding coins. It was supposed to be passed down to Spencer but I knew that if I wasn't interested there was no way he's be interested so I... Sold it. I sold it to someone I think would value it more." I sighed. That was so incredibly nice. He really cares for me. I know my dad, he is very into tradition and value and stuff. He was probably really interested in those coins. I loved my dad so much right now, but I wish he hadn't done this for me. I had mixed emotions. I just hugged him very tightly so he knew I loved him.
"Dad, I'm sorry I've been acting like a jerk lately."
"You haven't!"
"Yes... I have. Thank you. Thank you very much for all of this. You are the best. How did you do this so... Perfectly?"
"I had a little bit of help."
"Hey kiddo!" I heard someone say behind me. I turned around and gasped.
"SPENCER!" I ran up and hugged him as tightly as I could.
