This is the first story I've written. It's about this 15 year old girl Morgan who goes to her aunt Mary's house in San Francisco for her sophomore year to get away from her mom and two brothers. Her dad died six months before and since then she's tried to cut herself off from everyone around her, including her friends and family, and won't let anyone get close to her. It's about her growing up and realizing that she doesn't have to push everyone away, she can let people in every once in awhile.

White Streak

Chapter One

"If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we aren't really
living." - Gail Sheehy

Morgan ran her hands through her hair playing with the violet colored
streak in the front. This was just one of the many different colored streaks in her hair. She had two red, three pink, a yellowish blonde one,
two orangish red ones, and her favorite, the bright white streak at the front of her head. It reminded her of Rogue's hair from X-Men. But her's
was not a "natural" gray, it had taken hours to get her hair the color white that she'd wanted. Meanwhile totally destroying her hair. Her mother of course hated it and never ceased to remind her that her hair was going
to fall out by the time she was thirty. Morgan always gave her the same answer, "Well then I've got 15 years left, I better enjoy it." That always
really pissed her off.
Morgan's new found annoyance with her mom, otherwise known as becoming a teenager, was really starting to get under her skin. Which resulted in her going to California where her aunt Mary lived for her sophomore year, maybe longer. She always thought of her aunt as very young and spontaneous, and she knew Mary wouldn't have a problem with her hair, or her several... piercings, or her spunky attitude, as she liked to put it. Her mom had another word for it, bitchy.
It had taken a long time to convince her mom to let her go to California for her next year of high school. But Morgan was determined to get out of the sleepy town in Wisconsin where she lived and going to live with her aunt seemed like the perfect solution. After a long talk and tons of persuading her mom finally said it was OK with her as long as Mary didn't mind. Of course with her spontaneous attitude and relaxed life style Mary jumped at the chance to have her niece live with her for a year. What they didn't know is that Morgan hoped she would be able to stay there for the rest of high school. She hated the school she was in now, even though all the teachers loved her, she was a straight A student. She was hoping to get a fresh start at a new school in a new city.
She continued to play with her hair as she waited for the plane to land. She hated flying, the only other time she had flown was when she was five. Unfortunately she had been seated right above the wing and could watch it shake and rattle, which ended up being her main activity throughout the flight. As the plane slanted forward and the ground came closer and closer Morgan started to panic. What if the pilot has a heart attack? What if the landing gear brakes and they can't land? What if the plane tips over when it hits the ground? She banished all these thoughts to the back of her head and told herself to relax. It was just a normal flight. Thousands of people fly everyday. The plane is perfectly safe.
She closed her eyes and as the plane landed safely in San Francisco she realized she had been holding her breath the whole time. She took a huge breath of air and noticed the woman in the seat next to her. She was staring at her like she was insane. She realized how stupid she must look to this woman who had probably flown a thousand times. Morgan had had her eyes closed, her knuckles were white from gripping the arm rests so hard and she had been holding her breath. She didn't blame the woman for staring.
One of Morgan's favorite hobbies was people watching. She watched the couples, families, and single men and woman walk by her as they went to get off the plane. There was an elderly couple who walked slowly down the aisle in the middle of the plane. They held hands even though they had to walk single file and they looked so happy. Morgan couldn't help but smile at them. Then came an overweight woman with obvious dyed blonde hair and flowered blouse that hurt your eyes to look at. Following her came a family with two little girls and an older boy. The boy looked about her age and seemed miserable. But the little girls were giggling hysterically and seemed extremely excited. The family made her miss her mom and brothers. All she had to do was think about all the things they had done to annoy her in the past year and the feeling was gone.
Before she realized it almost everyone was off the plane except her. She leaped out of her seat and grabbed her bag from the overhead bin and started hurriedly down the aisle. She was anxious to get outside and feel the sun on her face after the nerve-racking three hour plane ride from Wisconsin.
As she stepped through the doorway and out into the San Francisco airport she spotted her aunt in her old faded jeans and black tank top, she knew the next year was going to be anything but ordinary.

Chapter Two



"Time is what keeps things from happening all at once." - Graffiti

Her aunt ran over and gave her what might possibly be the biggest hug she'd ever gotten. She had to tell her to let go because she couldn't breathe. Mary looked her up and down like most relatives do and, to her surprise, said that she loved her hair. No adult had ever told her they loved her hair. Right then and there she knew that she loved her aunt more than anyone else. She had figured she wouldn't have a problem with her hair, but she NEVER would have thought Mary would love it.
Mary put her arm around Morgan and they walked towards the baggage claim area to get her two huge suitcases. Her mom had insisted that she was packing too much. But she had to pack basically her entire wardrobe. She knew her mom could always mail her out her other stuff, but it would be such a pain. She also had a giant carry-on bag. But this one was filled entirely with stuffed animals. She had always loved stuffed animals, and most of them were way too special to leave behind. They were all in her carry-on because she would never trust the airline with anything so special to her. With her luck her bags would get lost and she would loose them forever.
Her bags didn't get lost, and after they had grabbed them and struggled to get them all the way to Mary's car they started the half an hour drive over to Mary's house. On the way Morgan fiddled around with the radio trying to get a station to come in while her aunt chatted away at her about her room and how she didn't know what she liked so she just left it pretty bare. Once she had found a suitable station she relaxed and listened to her aunt talk.
"The bed in the room your going to stay in is really nice, but we'll need to get a new comforter for it. I don't think that you'd want to use the old lady one that's on there now."
"I don't really care as long as it's comfortable."
"Yeah, but trust me, this thing is horrible! I don't know why I haven't just thrown it out. I've just been too busy I guess. So we'll go shopping tomorrow, or the next day if you're too tired tomorrow. We can get you a new comforter, actually a whole new bed set would probably be good, and a new lamp, an alarm clock, the one in your room is broken I think, and all those other little necessities you need to have in a bedroom."
"Okay, that sounds great, I doubt I'll be too tired to go tomorrow, I don't know though. Traveling always tires me out."
"Me too, I hate it. We can just make some lunch when we get to my house and then you can relax the rest of the day. Sound good?"
"Great."
When they pulled up in front her aunt's house Morgan was really surprised at how small it was. She didn't remember it being so small. Then again she was three the last time she was there and it probably seemed a lot bigger to her then. There was a small garden in the front yard filled with beautiful flowers. here were dark red roses, purple violets, bright yellow sunflowers, and many others that she didn't have time to identify.
When they got inside Morgan tried to take in the scene around her but there was too much to see. The room they were in was obviously the kitchen. There were wood cabinets on the walls, two little windows above the counter on one side and on the window sills of these two windows were little vases filled with lily of valleys. Lily of the valley was Morgan's favorite flower. They filled the room with a sweet aroma that reminded her of her old best friends house. Her mom was always wearing perfume that smelled just like it.
"Where did you get the lily of the valley?" she asked her aunt.
"From my back yard. Go take a look."
Sure enough the side of the back yard was filled with them. They covered the whole length of the wood fence that separated Mary from the rest of her neighbors. The fence was completely covered with ivy and made the whole yard look like some sort of fairy palace. It was beautiful.
"Your yard is so beautiful. I wish my yard at home looked like that."
"Oh thanks. But just think, this is your home for the next year. So technically your yard at home does look like this." Mary said with a huge smile on her face.