Well, here are the next two chapters! I'm not sure that I wrote them that well, but whatever.
Thanks SO MUCH to the people who've reviewed! I'm so glad that someone likes my story! Before I get on with the chapter, I'd like to give some personal thanks:
Allosaurous:You really think mine's the best? Thank you!! And you'll be happy to know that I've already recieved my ABWI (anti block writing immunization) lol
peaches500: I'm so glad that you loved it! Believe me, I will keep going. By the way, I love peaches. They're sweet. :)
cassiopoeia: Wow. You think my story's good without having even seen the movie? That's a huge honor, THANK YOU!! And I'm glad you think the dialogues are realistic, I try! Don't worry about bad things, you won't see a lot of them in my story. I like to stay happy at all costs lol. And keep working on The Refugee, it's really good and funny too:)
Friendlyfangirl: Just a quick shout-out to you for being the first to give imput! You rock!
Meghan was flattered. Based on the hearty welcome, she surmised that her arrival had been long anticipated and looked forward to.
The very happy blonde girl, who'd just identified herself as "Faye", vigorously shook her hand as the rest of her lovely family stepped up. She then let go and sauntered a little to the side as her father took her place.
"Are you Meghan Reynolds?" he inquired.
"Yes."
"Hello, and welcome again. My name is Laurence Winthrop, and this is my wife, Emma."
"Pleasure to meet you, dearie."
Meghan kept smiling as she noticed another new accent.
"She's Irish, by the way." the man told her with a smile, as if he'd known what she was thinking. He then motioned for the second tallest to come nearer. "This fellow's name is Anthony."
"Hello." he said breifly, with a look of boredom as he, too, shook Meghan's hand.
"And this little guy in the stroller - " Laurence said with pride, gently patting the head of the sleeping child, "- his name is Jacob."
"Hi, Jacob." Meghan said in a soft, sweet voice, giving him a little wave.
"We're very happy to have you - especially my daughter Faye over there." The man said, looking to the overly-excited young woman who could barely stand still. Then he chuckled. "Actually, it was her idea that we take in an exchange student in the first place."
"Well, I'm very happy to be here." Meghan responded. "And thank you very much for having me."
The man looked impressed. "Aren't you polite!" He looked to his wife. "Darling, we'll have to tell old Johnson down the road that we've found a genuine, well-mannered American teenager! Johnson, that bugger. Thinks he knows everything. If you ask me, he spends too much time down at the pub - "
His wife stopped him, gesturing toward Meghan.
"Oh, yes, terribly sorry. Well, come on then, let's get your bags. You must be very exhausted. We'll get you to a bed right soon."
The couple and the stroller began to move, with the tall boy following behind. Meghan started to go with them, but someone grabbed her arm. She looked back.
"Let's walk behind them, so we can talk." The jumpy girl said. And so they did.
Faye was a bit taller than Meghan, with her hair done in two braids that just barely touched her shoulders. She wasn't chubby, but wasn't skinny either. Her face glowed as she spoke with the foriegn girl she hoped to become good friends with. Meghan hoped the same thing - after all, they'd be living together.
"Did you have a good flight?" she asked.
"Oh - yeah, I mean, yes, I did. Actually, I kind of fell asleep. But it was fine. Thank you for asking."
Faye giggled. "Do you always talk like that?"
"Um...no." Meghan answered.
"I thought not."
There was a pause.
"Well," Meghan offered, "I can talk like I usually do, but you might not like it. I can be very obnoxious when I really get going. I mean I can just blather on and on and on without knowing when to stop. And then I get really loud - "
"Don't worry about it. You don't seem very obnoxious to me."
"Ha - give it time."
The two girls followed the couple and boys right up to the moving baggage.
"There they are." Meghan said, pointing to the ugly floral rolling case, the giant duffel bag, and the two old clunky suitcases as they slowly moved along the belt behind a giant cardboard box and a tied-up sleeping bag.
The group immediately commenced to grabbing the the bulky objects. Meghan started to grab the rolling case, but was efforts were quickly intercepted by her companion.
"Now don't you take that. That's my job. You're our guest." she firmly stated.
The special treatment was beginning to make Meghan feel a bit uneasy. She was used to doing things herself. If not for the fact that she was slightly zoned out due to exhaustion, she would've felt even more uneasy. But she let the case go.
Empty handed save for her giant brown purse, she once again followed behind the red-haired woman pushing a stroller, the tall man carrying two cumbersome suitcases, and the teenage boy hefting the duffel bag over his shoulder as if it were nothing.
Faye still preferred to walk next to her, dragging the wheeled floral carrier behind. She wasted no time in asking more questions.
"What city do you live in?"
"Chinatown."
"Where is that?"
"In New York."
"Is Chinatown like China?"
"Yes, only much smaller."
"Do you like living there?"
"Sure. It's very cultural."
"Is it like New York City, or is it a little town?"
"Oh, it's a city. Believe me. Chinatown is really more like an annex of an even larger city."
"I believe you."
The group was now walking outside, into the parking lot. The man talked endlessly to his wife, and the older boy marched behind them with a blank look on his face.
"Do you think you will like it here?" Faye questioned some more.
"I think I will."
"Well, if you like the city, you will like it here. Do you like shopping?"
"Oh, yes."
"Good. Becuase my mother and I are going to take you, after school on Monday. We're taking you sightseeing, too. We'd go tomarrow, but she's busy then and besides, you'll probably still be very tired. We're going to miss church this week so that we can get you settled in. You'll go with us next week. Tomarrow we'll get a better chance to get to know each other. Well, today, actually."
"Today?"
"Yes, considering it's about 1o'clock in the morning."
Meghan was shocked. She truly had lost her sense of time.
"Wow."
Faye didn't really notice Meghan's surprise.
"You'll be staying with me in my room. Won't that be lovely?"
"Oh, yes, very lovely indeed."
The girl looked at Meghan with a questioning look. Then she smirked.
"You're very funny."
"Well, I try."
They arrived at a large black station wagon, where the man proceeded tto open the trunk and load in the luggage. After Faye dispensed the rolling case to her father, she opened the car door and motioned for the traveller to climb inside. She climbed in after her, followed by her elder brother. Her mother climbed in on the left in front, father on the right. Little Jacob, now awake but astonishingly quiet, sat in his mother's lap.
"We don't usually put Jacob in the front like that," Faye laughed, "but there's nowhere else to put him!"
Meghan prayed against the airbags.
Mr. Winthrop promptly started the car. They were off to Meghan's new home.
I was sleepy. Very sleepy. But I was still awake.
And it was a good thing, too, because London at night is just beautiful. I wasn't sure if it was five minutes or an hour that passed, but soon we were passing by the huge parliament building, and then I saw the giant clock named Ben. From these things shown beautful light. I checked the time. It really was past one o'clock.
And that certainly wasn't the only light I saw. Everything was lit, and there was surprisingly a good deal of traffic, even at this late hour. If Paris is called the city of lights, then it must really be blinding to outdo London. Like New York, it's a city that never sleeps.
Like I've said before, I usually don't really get tired until late at night. Usually right around that time I'm just beginning to feel drowsy. But this time was different. I was jet-lagged, disoriented, and completely thrown off.
And yet, I was still so full of bliss. I knew I'd get plenty of chances to see the sights, but I didn't care. I took in as much as I could right then and there, on the way to the Winthrop residence. And it was dazzling me.
Already this place gave me the grandest feeling. Like I'd been whisked off to Neverland - and I don't mean Micheal Jackson's house. This was supposed to be the city Wendy left to get to a magical world, but I found this world magical enough itself. I knew already - I was going to like it here. A lot.
The girl, Faye, must have seen the stars in my eyes, because her talking was brought down to a minimum.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
I nodded.
All too soon we came to a stop in front of an old, two-story brick cottage. I was too drowsy to observe very much, but I saw that the yard in front of the cottage was very small, and was surrounded by a wrought-iron fence. The proud man who'd driven us looked to the back seat. "Here we are. Our home." he said.
Faye's brother stepped out first, her second, me third. It hadn't been too long of a car ride, but I stretched just the same.
Once again, nobody allowed me to even touch any of my bags. They all insisted on carrying them for me. Mr. Winthrop led the way through the little gate and up the pathway to the front door, followed by his wife and little boy, his oldest, and the girl who still acted as if she'd just poured a bag of sugar down her throat and had washed it down with a few bottles of Powerade.
As I trailed behind them, I took in a deep breath of fresh night air. Even that seemed different to me.
The man opened the door and we all followed him in. I was too tired to really bother looking around inside, and all I really cared about at that point was that somewhere in this house there was an open bed.
I saw them making three of them making their way up the stairs, while the fire-haired woman and her little son went into the kitchen. I immediately followed upwards.
"You're going to like my room." Faye chirped. "The walls are pink!"
"Oh, yay, I like pink." I sleepily replied. As you can tell, I was beginning to lose it.
Sure enough, when we got to the room I'd been designated to sleep in and a light was flipped on, I saw pink. And not just on the walls, either. Everything was pink.
My bags were set at the foot of a wooden twin bed with pink blankets on it. Right next to it sat a white nightstand with pink flowers painted on it. On the other side of the room, I saw a little canopy bed, all decked out in pink ruffles. Another nightstand sat next to that. It was painted just like the first.
I looked to the floor. It was dark wood, with a white rug little pink roses all over it. As I looked more, I saw that there were roses everywhere - in vases on the nightstands, printed on the wallpaper border, tied on the posts of the canopy bed. Where there weren't roses, there were teddy bears and china dolls, gobs of them. They sat in a row on a long shelf gracing one of the walls. On Faye's nightstand, there sat next to the vase a rosy-cheeked doll with a white bonnet wearing what else: a pink dress. On mine sat a small brown teddy bear.
Okay, I know I said I was too tired to take in my surroundings before, but - geez! This much girly pink stuff was impossble to overlook! It was more fluff than I'd ever seen in my life. But hey, I was willing to sleep anywhere by then. Even on the dining room table. Just somewhere.
"Um, thanks for carrying my bags." I told them. I was told in return to think nothing of it. C'mon! Isn't there a such thing as too much hospitality?