Also known as "Harry Potter and the Girl He Never Met." There's only one thing in here necessary for disclaimer, but whatever. The usual. Enjoy!
So this was it. Life was gone, done for, wasn't it.
She was in goddamn England.
Raevyn couldn't believe it—not even after all the months it had taken to finally up and move from her Chicago home. Yes, she'd known about the move, but it was impossible to believe.
She remembered what her best friend Rachel had said when she found out: "My God, Raevyn, you can't!" Practically a shriek in the phone—Raevyn hadn't been sure Rachel could handle a face-to-face announcement, although she herself would have preferred it. "Who'll be here to help me with my homework? My boyfriend?" Pause. "My God, Raevyn, have you told Aaron yet?"
No, not yet, she'd said. That was a more difficult confrontation.
Silence echoed like church bells, clanging in Raevyn's ears. "Aaron?" Hesitance, waiting to be blamed, hated. But it wasn't as if she'd wanted to go! "Raevyn… I—I don't know what to say. You're the best friend I've ever known, the prettiest girl I've ever seen, the smartest study partner I've ever been assigned—and now you're asking me to give you up?"
"I can't do anything about it, Aaron. It's Dad's job. We can't stay here."
"Tell him to get another job."
Tears came to Raevyn's eyes, making the sapphire depths glisten under the perversely sunny sky. Nothing mattered anymore, not her looks, her clothes, her social status—none of that made a difference here. Here she could just be the oddball, nothing more than an outsider looking in.
She struggled to compose herself as her parents called her in for dinner.
"We have good news, Raevyn." Dad's voice was too cheerful for the depression Raevyn felt was inescapable. Dad had friends, too—did he feel no sorrow about leaving them behind?
"We just got an acceptance letter to your new school." Here Mom echoed the same bright tone. What good news could possibly raise Raevyn out of her melancholy? But Mom seemed genuinely proud, something Raevyn hadn't heard in a while.
"So? Where am I going?" At this point, she could hardly bring herself to care.
"You've been accepted to an elite private school."
"Called?" This was starting to get on her nerves. It was just school, after all.
"Smeltings!"