A short little introductory chapter to a new story I've been thinking about for a while. Hope you enjoy, and yes, my other Xover FF is still in the works. That one will be updated weekly from now on, but this one will be updated when and if I have free time!

{13/01/24 - Due to a very helpful review on this first chapter, I've decided to revise, rewrite and add some more to this chapter. The same is happening for chapter 2}

Homesick In Royal Woods

Dylan Smith was sleeping somewhat peacefully against the car window, after a nine hour plane journey from London to Detroit. Nine. Hours. And there was a crying baby...the horror, ugh. Due to this, he hadn't slept the entire flight and had all but passed out the moment they began driving towards their new home, a new town...a new life.Dylan was woken by his father as they turned onto the street, just missing the street name sign. He'd been told the name, but clearly it had been forgotten. He woke just as a white and blue van passed them, how many people were in that car, he thought as he'd barely glimpsed silhouettes in the windows. The boy shook the thought out of his head and sat up.

"we're...here?" He asked his parents.

"Yep, we're at the end of the street" His dad replied, putting his phone into his pocket. "The moving company has already delivered our stuff"

Dylan looked at his watch, "it's half seven...they deliver this early?" He asked, as they pulled into the driveway. "I thought that...nope, on second thought, I'm too tired" The boy yawned and stretched as the car came to a stop, and wasted no time in getting out.

His parents followed suit and stood next to him as he looked at their new home, it definitely wasn't their old home but it looked a lot more spacious from the outside. He jumped a little as a key was shoved into his face.

"Wanna do the honours, Sweetie?" His mother asked with a soft smile.

Dylan stood still for a moment before slowly taking the key, taking the stairs up to the porch and approached the door. He inserted the key into the door and turned it, pushing it open once he heard the lock click open and then cautiously stepped inside.

Directly inside was the living, full to the brim with all their boxes, "we had a lot more boxes than I thought, wow" he whispered to himself, taking another step and then another until he walked into the kitchen, giving another look around. Seeing the backdoor, he walked over and peaked out into the garden, "huh, spacious" the boy nodded, then stepped back and walked back to the living room, seeing his parents already opening boxes.

"These won't open themselves, kiddo. Here, I'll take all yours up, keep looking around" His father says, giving Dylan's shoulder a squeeze.

Dylan nodded slowly, he knew that his parents were still worried about him, knew that he had taken this move very hard and were doing everything to help him through it. Obviously he appreciated it...but he needed more than what they could realistically give. While in thought, he took the stairs to the first floor landing and explored the rooms; the bathroom, what would become his parent's room and what would soon be his room. His room was A LOT bigger than his room back home in England, now this is something he actually liked, more than what he had seen so far. He couldn't wait to see the basement however, that was gonna become a place for him to make music in peace.

"There, everything of yours is upstairs, except for the stuff in the car. Can't let you have it too easy" His father chuckled, after Dylan had explored the rest of the house, excluding the attic.

The car, he thought and quickly took the stairs back down and out of the front door. He opened the trunk, grabbing his bag and most importantly, his guitar. Dylan sighed in content as he held it close, he did this for a few seconds before heading back inside and going up to his room. Closing the door behind him, Dylan slipped his bag off his shoulders and dug into it, taking out his effects and then he placed his phone, wallet, pen and notebook and the house key onto the desk, and after, put his guitar down onto the bed that was already in the room and then stepped back into the middle of the room.

The sixteen year old looked around his new room, at all the boxes he had to unpack. With a heavy sigh, he was realising just how quickly all this had all happened. It was just three months ago, that he was happily living in England. Just having finished Year 11 and was applying for collages, wanting to do something with music, he was definitely a skilled guitarist and could easily drum out a beat but he was worried about his writing ability, he had just picked out the best place for him to go when his parents had informed him, rather out of the blue, that they were going to be moving to America of all places, more specifically, a town called Royal Woods, in Michigan. Immediately after that information was given to him, he'd gone and angry drummed for about...five hours? His hands were very close to bleeding after, but the blisters were too painful too continue. This helped a little, but the closer the date got to moving, he had to drain his anger, sadness, frustration, out into his music. Dylan ended up filling two notebooks worth of lyrics in two weeks, some he actually liked and would like to use in the future. He didn't want to leave home obviously, what sixteen year old would? Plus he didn't want to leave his friends, he had life pretty much planned out. He knew that he couldn't change his parents minds, he was only fifteen at the time, and that wouldn't change when he turned sixteen in September, and with how school worked in America, he'd have to go back for two more years! That was what annoyed him the most. It wasn't entirely all bad, he could easily find somewhere to study music after going to school in Royal Woods, maybe he'd have to make that demo album after all. Now, saying goodbye to his friends at the airport almost killed him, friends he'd never seen cry before had shed tears, he did as well. He had to remember to take pictures and video chat with them later on after unpacking.

Unpacking, he sighed and got to it. Thankfully, however, this actually didn't take too long, around an hour and a half he thought, he grabbed his phone and looked at the time on his phone, "40 minutes?! Well, I didn't think time flew when you're bored out of your mind" he shrugged and put his phone back onto the desk. He found himself sitting on the bed after, and began to daydream about being back home, with his friends, and with...his eyes looked out of the window and saw the house opposite their own, the garden was a mess and a couple kites and frisbees were on the roof. For some reason this made his chuckle, a family must live over there and wondered if they were the 'go a greet the new neighbours' kinda neighbours.

He was pulled out of his little daydream by his mum. "Dylan! Could you come down here please" he heard her call from downstairs. Dylan took a breath, and left the room. Coming down the stairs, he met his dad on the way up, "Hey bud, chin up, okay? This'll be good for us, and you" the man ruffled Dylan's hair and then passed him, heading to the bathroom.

"Yeah" Dylan muttered and jumped the rest of the stairs, missing the last two steps, and landed on the floor. Looking around, he saw that his parents had already finished unpacking, that was quick, he thought.

"Hey, mum, you called?" He asked, putting on a smile, leaning on the countertop and looked into the kitchen from the dining room.

"Ah, there you are, sweetie. C'mere" she says, opening her arms for him, he gave a small genuine smile and embraced her in the hug, sighing into her shoulder. "Finished unpacking?" she asked, rubbing his back.

"Yep...all unpacked" he replied, pulling back and grabbing an apple from the counter, taking a bite of it. His mum smiled softly, giving his shoulder a squeeze.

"That's great, one thing off your mind...look, it's still early, why don't you go explore for a while. Just keep your phone on loud and…" She was stopped by his chuckle and a hand on hers.

"turn my location on, yes mum…thanks, y'know, I think I will" he replied with a nod, wanting to get out for a while, giving her cheek a kiss before heading back upstairs, grabbing his phone, wallet, notebook and pen to write lyrics if he found some inspiration, and the house key from the desk that was already in his room. He headed back downstairs and walked towards the door.

"I'll be back later on!" He called to his parents, who both replied with an "okay!"

He slipped on a jacket on, opened the front door and headed out into the fresh air once again.

It was a lovely twenty-five degrees out today, the sun was shining and there was a cool breeze in the air. Well, this wasn't so bad, at least the weather was nice, he thought. Putting his hands into his pockets, he walked down the steps and looked both ways down the two way street. He thought for a moment and decided to take the left, he took a breath before taking off in that direction. Once he reached the end of the street, Dylan looked back down at their new home and thought for a moment, digging into his jacket and pulling out his notebook and pen then quickly wrote something down.

'I'm packing up my dreams, gonna chase the unknown,

Leaving behind the familiar, gonna make a new home.

Crossing borders and oceans, spreading my wings wide,

In a world full of possibilities, I'll find my stride.'

Glancing at what he wrote, tempted to tear the page out but like the rest of what he writes, he was satisfied with it. Dylan nodded and closed the book, shoving it back into his pocket, then glanced at the street sign as he passed it. Franklin Avenue.