A navy blue car pulled up at the front door of a bland Colonial style house, with the Grayson family inside of it.
They got out of the car, leaving the bags to look round the house and finalize the deduction for the rooms. Eli stayed in the car, looking at the empty streets, no children playing about or even just taking a walk.
She missed the familiarity of the shining sun, and not the blazing sun trying to burn anything it could get it's grubby hand on. She stepped out of the car to find her parents inside the house.
When Eli stepped inside the house she was hit with a blast of cold air, and she immediately got goosebumps. She shivered walking through the entire house, and found them in the backyard.
Eli hadn't noticed the first time they came to the house to get a tour, but there was a huge pool in the backyard. It had to be cleaned, but she didn't care to get into it right now,
"Ah, Eli, will you go get your bags from the car, please?" Her mother asked and Eli bobbed her head and went back to the front yard.
She brought her smallest two bags to the foyer and went back to the car to get another one. When she picked her head up from inside the car, she stood upright to see a girl around her age, 14 or 15.
She was standing beside Eli, looking down at her. The girl smiled warmly and said "Welcome to Strangerville!"
"Oh… hey. Um, who are you?" Eli asked her, inciting a chuckle in the girl.
"Leah, my name is Leah. Who're you?"
"My name is Eli, and why are you standing here? Where did you come from!?"
"I saw your parent's car pull up and decided to see who was moving in next to me!" Leah cheered, waiting for Eli to respond.
Eli didn't talk back to her, and rather stared at her with a bland face. Leah still stood there grinning at Eli.
"So… I can tell that you probably don't want me here. I can go, if you want.." Leah said, unsure of her word until Eli nodded quickly and walked inside the house.
Leah stood there looking through the glass sides of the door, muttering malicious words under her breath. She turned away and went across the road to her house.
—
"Eli, I was thinking of inviting all of the neighborhood kids to the house like one big play date! How does that sound?" Eli's mother enthused.
It was the middle of dinner, and Eli was dissatisfied, at most. Her thoughts were anything but welcoming, as she thought back to her meeting Leah. She grumbled under her breath, knowing she would have to answer her mom.
"Yeah, mom, sorry to burst your bubble but I'm pretty sure that this neighborhood doesn't have any kids my age."
"Aw, okay. There has to be some kids around here, maybe some that live down the hill near your school?"
"Mom, this is a plateau, not a hill." Eli corrected, leaving her mother a bit dumbfounded.
"Oh, okay! I had no idea I was raising a future Einstein!" She said, recovering the same awkward silence at the dinner table.
The dinner table was left quiet after that comment, and the family went to their respective rooms to decorate. Eli got her stuff from the empty foyer "Couldn't they've at least gotten an accent table for the room?" She thought, hauling her bag into her arms.
Eli put her decorative books and real books on the shelves, and her sheets on her new double bed. She wasn't used to so much space, but she would adjust to this easily. She sat on her bed taking in the new location she would be waking up in every day.
"Huh, this place is kinda neat…" She realized before reprimanding herself in her head. She wasn't supposed to like this place!
She quickly got up to walk to her parent's room. Knocking on the door, she heard her mother say yes and walked in to see her father struggling with the curtains, and her mother directing him.
"Do we have running water, or will I have to shower at the local Walmart?" Eli asked in a sarcastic voice.
"No, there's running water, go ahead and take your shower!" her mother said, distracted with her father installing the curtain rod wrong.
Eli left the room before she could say anything about it, and got her towel and a pair of clothes for sleep. She walked into the strangely large bathroom, everything in this house was huge, or bigger by comparison.
—
Eli lay silently in her room, under the covers of her new bed. She couldn't sleep without hearing the sound of crickets, and turned to the window behind her bed and reached for the rail.
She couldn't reach easily and had to get up, kneeling on her pillows. She stood still for a moment, seeing no one outside. Then she heard a crash, most likely a trash can.
Eli looked to the source coming from a place near Leah's house, and saw dull red hair and blonde hair, bobbing up and down, running away like they committed a crime.
Eli stopped watching them after they ran down the street and brought the window up, feeling the warm air on her skin almost instantly. Once she heard the crickets she was calm and fast asleep.
Something else was active inside of her, one that made her skin crawl and gave her goosebumps once she was under those covers. Hopefully, she would get somewhat decent rest that night.
—
Eli woke up under the vibrant rays of sunlight and hopped up from her bed, like she had been living there for forever. She gathered another pair of clothes and walked to the bathroom, taking a shower.
Once she left the bathroom she instantly smelled her father's cooking from downstairs. "Ahh, bacon and eggs! A classic." She thought. Gliding down the stairs, she saw someone in the foyer, someone she knew.
It was Leah, talking to Eli's mother, presumably about her. Eli rolled her eyes and avoided their gaze, making it to the kitchen.
It's not like Eli didn't like people in general, it's just that she didn't like Leah. Not people like her who show up out of nowhere with the intent to make you their friend. At any cost.
Eli sat at the dinner table, which was a separate room from the kitchen, eyeing the pantry for something she could snack on, but there was no hope since her's was more of an ingredient household.
She heard light footsteps walking towards her, and figured that it was Leah. Without even making a peep, Leah looked inside the room, then walked up to Eli when she heard her.
"Hey, Eli! Isn't today such a chill day?" Leah cheered, keeping that same grin on her face from yesterday
"Chill, as in chilly? Cold?" Eli asked her, getting Leah to nod.
It wasn't that cold outside, in fact, in Brindleton Bay the average temperature was only a bit lower than this.
"Hm, back in Brindleton Bay, the temperatures got way colder." Eli boasted, making Leah show an unreadable face, like confusion mixed with hidden anger.
They sat there in silence before Leah started mouthing off to Eli about the incessant hot temperatures and how they were considered normal by the Strangerville community, but Eli didn't listen.
Eli got up when she heard her father shout that fated "food is ready!", and walked past an idle leah to go grab her plate.
"So, are you staying for breakfast? Or you have plans." Eli chided as she sat down, then Leah started walking out of the dining room.
"No, my mom wants me back by the time you guys start eating, she doesn't want me to bother ya'll." There it was, that same expression of lack of interest, empathy or melancholy, whatever you'd like to call it.
Eli had yet to discover what that face meant.
—
Eli walked through the house, looking at the different rooms like the downstairs bathroom and the living room. She saw boxes everywhere she went, even some were still in the kitchen.
She decided to sit in the living room instead of her bedroom to, yet again, get used to the house. Her father saw that she wasn't doing anything.
"Hey, why don'tcha go outside and see what this town has in store?" he suggested, destroying her peace.
"Hm, is it hot outside?" She asked.
"Well-"
"Yes." She replied before he could say anything.
"Well when I was just a kid in Oasis, I couldn't say no to my mother when she told me to go outside. Bring an umbrella! You'll be fine!" He scolded, boring Eli and making her get up.
"Okay! Okay, I'll go!" Eli said as she grabbed one from the umbrella stand.
She walked outside, fiddling with the umbrella to open it. When she finally got it open she walked down the road.
She walked down the small sidewalk once a car came her way, noticing that no one else was out, just when she first got there.
She didn't feel too safe walking down the path going to the lower land of Strangerville, but didn't have anywhere else to go. She watched passing cars, all looking bigger than the average car, and people, mostly wearing sunhats.
Eli couldn't believe it, that she was already sweating from the humidity of the valley. She looked around and saw all happy faces, no one miserable from the unbearable heat.
By the time she got to Walmart she was already drenched in sweat. She walked inside the Walmart looking like this is the first time she's had hot weather.
The days in Brindleton bay never got too hot, with them mostly being cloudy and chilly. She never was opposed to the idea of weather, but this time she wished that the days would stay cloudy.
With her hair reaching levels of frizzy she never thought it would, sweat even dripping down her chest, stomach, face, and back, and fumbling with her umbrella to get it closed, she looked so new to Strangerville.
People passing by ignored her and went on with her lives, but she was thinking about everyone walking by her.
"How is she wearing a cardigan in this heat!?"
"I swear that dude is magical, he's wearing the tightest jeans I've ever seen…"
"I wish I had the endurance of these people…"
She walked to the clothes aisle and didn't see any heavy clothing, which makes sense. She saw all summer clothing, sleeveless shirts, shorts, and if she went over to the shoe aisle then she'd probably see flip flops and flats.
She walked through the Walmart looking for the food. She tried the front, back, left, and right. She still couldn't find the food! She looked around for an employee but couldn't find any, how different were things in Strangerville?
—
It was Eli's first day at school, but not for the rest of the students. They had already started school a month ago. Her mother suggested- no, insisted that Eli looks the very best for her first day of school in Strangerville.
Though she was feeling rather sluggish, she got up and managed to walk down the long, winding hallway to the bathroom.
Her mother had brought her a green cardigan, white shirt, and black slacks. "This is your idea of first day of school clothes." Eli thought as she got dressed in the morning, in the early hours of 7:26 A.M.
She wasn't up for the outfit, but didn't care as long as her mother wasn't dictating her entire wardrobe for school. When Eli came down the stairs her mother squealed and hugged her, saying she was so proud of her daughter for getting to 9th grade.
—
Eli boarded the bus, staring at a late Leah running to the bus. "Ahh! Wait for me!" She yelled, knowing the bus wasn't moving. When she got on the bus she noticed Eli in the middle, and slid next to her in a second.
"So new girl, do you know what our school looks like?" Leah asked with anticipation, awaiting Eli's reply.
"Yeah… I took a tour before this."
"Alright, our school mascot?" Leah asked again.
"The Salamanders…?"
"Aw yeah! Strangerville salamanders!" Leah yelled.
Some people around them encouragingly shouted "Wooh!!", startling Eli and pumping Leah up.
"Hey.. wasn't there some disease that's plaguing this place? Why haven't I heard of that here yet?" Eli asked, hearing some small groans among the bus.
"Eli, that's just fake news, we have no plague or virus or whatever! That's just a myth made up by some paranoid people who wanted others to stay out of here because it's a little hot!" Leah clarified, relieving Eli of worry.
"A little hot… right." Eli said
Eli went the rest of the bus ride not talking and Leah talking too much, but she dealt with it.
Leah brought her to the main office, a few separate rooms from the main school building.
Leah told the front office lady, Ms.Hudgins, of her being new. Eli was handed her schedule and promptly told to "Have a great first day in the grand South!" By a random secretary.
Eli and Leah left the office, Leah asking questions left in right.
"What's your homeroom class? Please don't tell me it's Mr.Hudgins, no relation to Ms.Hudgins though."
Eli looked at her schedule, seeing that her homeroom class was Ms.Brown.
"It's Ms.Brown, who's yours?" Eli asked, igniting the happiest face Leah has ever made since Eli met her.
"YESS! I KNEW I WOULD BE ABLE TO GET CLOSER TO YOU!" Leah screamed, prompting a heavy sigh from a security guard.
"Sorry, they know me." Leah said in a more hushed voice.
They walked into the real building, Eli feeling the most cold and frigid air ever known to man.
Eli shivered at the temperature, but Leah came prepared and ripped the dark blue school cardigan off of her waist and put it on.
"Ergh, why are they blasting the AC? It's like they're trying to give us frostbite over a sunburn!" Eli complained, making Leah chuckle a bit.
"You're talking more! That's great!" Leah exclaimed, making Eli shut up.
They walked in silence for the rest of the way, until they finally made it to the 9th grade hallway. Students were running around, still getting used to the flow of the time before class.
"...Where's my locker number?" Eli asked, flipping the paper around on both sides. "I can't find it… Please tell me this place actually uses lockers!"
"Nope! It's sophomores and up that get the lockers, something about the freshmans not being mature enough.." Leah said.
Eli showed a face of anguish, like she was already tired of carrying her things in a bag. Leah guided her through the crowded hallway to room 113A.
"This is the ELA room, and 113B is science. Make sure you never get the two confused. Also 114A is world language, Spanish, and room 114B is world language, Chinese. Specifically Mandarin, though…" Leah spoke on and on until they were both in the classroom.
"Ooh! Come sit by me!" Leah said and dragged her to a seat with somebody already in it. She pushed the girl in the seat out and forcefully sat Eli down.
"Ow! Leah, what was that for!?" The girl yelled but Leah was already fixated on something else.
"Sorry.." Eli whispered to the girl who had to find another seat. She ended up sitting behind Eli, fuming at her instead of Leah.
Then the teacher entered the room, Ms.Brown. She glanced around the classroom, finally catching Eli sitting in the mid-front.
"Ah, new student, would you please come to the front here?" She asked. Eli got up and went to the whiteboard.
"Could you please introduce yourself to the class?" She asked again and Eli picked up a marker and wrote her full name on the board, including her middle name.
"Hi, I'm Eli Thea Grayson and I am new to Stangerville and this school… That's all." She said and walked a way to go sit down.
"Where are you moving from!?" Some kid in the back asked.
"Brindleton Bay." she said, causing an uproar in the class.
"You know we beat them in almost every game, right?" Leah asked, and Eli shook her head no. "That's the one school that we constantly defeat, sorry about that."
Eli rolled her eyes and nodded her head showing she was fine with it, then paid attention to the teacher erasing then writing something on the whiteboard.
"Alright class, take out your books and read for 10 minutes! Then we'll move on with today's lesson."
The teacher walked over to Eli and handed her a tarnished copy of "Of Mice and Men" Eli flipped the one-chapter book open.
She reads a paragraph, then closes the book. She faces Leah who seems to be very concentrated on the book.
"Hey, what part are you at?" Eli asked her, snapping her from her focused state.
"I'm at page 16, yo-... right, you just got the book." Leah said.
"Right, well what's all this about cherishing friendship and writing?" Eli asked Leah, who was shocked at the question.
"I don't know, girl! You're a girl right?" Eli made an annoyed face, saying "Just tell me!"
"Nevermind, I haven't been focusing on what the book was actually saying, I just skim every page and find a synopsis for every book I read!" She continued.
"God, you're hopeless…" Eli muttered and continued reading.
Time passed quickly, and Eli was already catching up to Leah in the book, already on page 12. While the class was reading the teacher was typing away on the laptop, probably finishing up the lesson for the class. Eli kept reading and only got to page 13 before the teacher's timer went off.
"Okay, class, I believe we've got off to a great start today! Now that we're done reading, can I get someone to pass out the textbooks?" The teacher asked and one girl got up quickly and walked to the back of the classroom. "Alright then, April. Go ahead."
She passed out all books except for one, which she handed off to Eli. She opened the textbook to a random page, page 152, and saw that it was a poem. Eli wasn't so interested in poems so she closed the book and waited for the teacher's instructions.
Then the teacher told the class to open to page 114, opening to a poem by Langston Hughes, "Mother to Son".
"Class, I want you all to silently read the poem, you will have five minutes then we will discuss it."
—
"Man, I'm sorry your first day was bumming you out. If we went to Northpark it would've been way more interesting!" Leah said, confusing Eli.
"Northpark? There's another high school here?"
"Well of course there is! Strangerville gets its own district, but Brindleton Bay shares one with Willow Creek. Also, there are way more kids here than you think. We're RCPS, Roswell County Public Schools, notice the 's'?" Leah said.
Eli never really thought of the county she was in, especially about the fact that Willow Creek and Brindleton Bay shared counties. Thinking back to that idea, they were very close and there weren't many kids, so it does make some sense.
"Yeah… we were DCPS, Delgato County Public Schools. I didn't know anyone from Willow Creek, so I just never asked about the merged county."
"Well it's nice to know, isn't it?"
