"Nicole, are you ready to leave?" My mother bellowed to me from down the stairs. "One moment Mom, I'm just finishing packing!" I yelled back. As you guessed I was moving. I'm not positive where exactly this place was located. It's somewhere in California. A tropical place called, Laguna Beach. I couldn't wait. My Dad, Joe, recently won the power ball, and both him and my mom chose to move there. I really will miss all my friends back in Dalesville, Connecticut. But one great thing is that I am just going there as school ends! By the time I get there, there will only be 5 days left of school, and then I have to wait another week until my best friend Ashlee gets here. Dalesville public schools are very strict about the last day of school, and every last day should be on the 25th of June, whereas Laguna Beach Schools aren't that strict, and they get out the 13th! I couldn't believe it. I was so ecstatic, on a count of I would be able to swim in the pool almost all year round. "Nicole are you coming down here or what? We are leaving now, and unless you want to stay here on your lonesome, get your tush down here now!" I ran down the stairs and grabbed my stuff. "Okay Mom, I'm ready to go." I took the stuff into the truck and looked around the neighborhood. A blue Dodge Caravan, that was in semi-good condition pulled up. "Nicole!" I was overfilled with joy. "Ashlee!" I was excited to see my best friend before my journey. "Thank you so much for coming Ashlee! I can't wait to move to California." The look on her face was a little disturbed. "I'm going to miss you while your gone. And your going to miss going to the real jr. high with us." I looked at her firmly. "Oh, I forgot. I will be staying in middle school, and we won't have our graduation. I feel terrible. I hope you understand!" She looked at me. "It's just I wish we could graduate together. "It's alright. You'll be able to see me as soon as you get out of school." Ashlee smiled. "Nicole, get in the truck. We're leaving now." my dad told me, as he was standing in front of the moving truck. "Bye Ashlee, see you later!" I jumped into the vehicle. "Bye Nicole, have a safe trip!" My dad looked at me. "Nicole, why don't you go in the van with your mother, so you can ride on the airplane with her. If you go with us, you'll arrive later in Laguna Beach, because it will take us 7 days to get there. You need to go with your mother so you can arrive sooner for school." I hopped out of the truck and hurried to my mom's van to sit in the front. "Your not sitting in the passenger seat honey." My mom said. "Yeah, because that seat's reserved for me!" My brother Mike looked at me. "Mom, that's not fair!" My brother tried to win the fight. "I have seniority!" My mom knew he was right. "It's true, he is older. But their may be times where you want your way and she'll get hers." My brother laughed. "I'm willing to live with that." My mom was alright with that. We hopped in, and took off shortly after. "Kids, wake up, we're at the airport." We got out of the car and moseyed our way over." Soon enough, about 2 hours later, we were in the air terminal, and we showed the stewardess our tickets, as she opened the port to board the jet. "Flight LAG312 will be leaving in approximately 20 minutes. All passengers must board the flight within the next 6 minutes. Have a nice day." When we were on the plane I quickly took the window seat in our row. "Mom, that's not fair, I wanted the window seat!" My brother started complaining. "I have seniority, I say I get the window seat." My mother chimed in. "Children, we only have 1 window seat, and 2 aisle seats. Mike, your sister is to sit in the window seat." His jaw dropped. "What?! Why should I be the one to suffer? Why should I always be the one who alwa––." my mom stared him down. "I told you before in the car when you wanted to sit in the front seat. If you sit in the front you may have to give up some turns, and be the one to 'suffer' if you do." He sat in the seat adjacent to mine.
Two days later
Finally, Laguna Beach! A new place to explore. A new place to find friends. I got off the plane, and went to the conveyor belt to retrieve my luggage. "The Wasson Family...anyone," A tall man with dark black eyes looked at my mom. "Are you by chance Mariah Wasson?" He waited. "Why yes I am. And this is my daughter, Nicole, and my son Michael." He extended a friendly arm. "Nice to meet you all. Please follow me to your limo. We played follow the leader until we arrived to a big long Hummer Limo. "Oh my gosh!!" We were all stunned. "Right this way, I will seat you." We all entered the limo, and explored the 21st century equipment. "Wow," Mike pushed a small button located on a remote that lie on his armrest. A big screen plasma TV appeared right in front of our eyes. "This is amazing. Lets do that again!" My mom refrained him from doing it. About 20 minutes later we arrived at a beach house, with palm trees and a tropical setting around. "Holy Sh–." "This is amazing! Well, what are you waiting for, let's explore our mansion." Before I got the chance to enter, a charming, tanned boy came up to me. "Are you new here?" I looked up at him. "Why yes, I am." I got up, but then tripped over the curb. "Clumsy me." He put a hand out, to help me up. "Its okay. I'm just as clumsy. My name's Andrew. I live down Cherry St. I saw you pull up, and I thought I should introduce myself." I looked at him with a smile. "My name's Nicole. Thanks for introducing yourself, I'm not the best when it comes to meeting new people on my own." He gave a grin. "It's okay. Would you like me to show you around the neighborhood? I can show you were all us Cali people hang." I felt a rush of happiness. "I would love to." He pulled his bike up to his side. "Hop on, you can stand on the pegs, unless you don't want to." I glanced at the bike. I'm not really into bikes and stuff, but I wanted to make a good first impression. "Sure." I hopped on the bike and holding on for dear life, rode away.
To see what happens next, stay tuned for the 2nd 'episode' of the series.