She was different. Instead of short blond hair hers was a long chocolate brown that she refused to dye out of spite. Her eyes where an extra green hazel and her silloet was tall and slim, the type that could slip through a crowd as if it wasn’t there. On top of this she loathed gossip and rolled her eyes at fashion and matchmaking. It was primarily these last things that condemned her as far as popularity was concerned. This isn’t to say that she didn’t have friends. There where people to sit with at lunch and chat with in the halls. But she felt that she was lacking someone special.
Different, but not bad, she thought. Besides, Mom says… She snatched up a pair of socks from the dresser drawer with contempt. Forget what Mom or Dad say, they also say that we have to move in a week! Her fingers tightened around the sock ball and she dropped with meaningful force onto a nearby chair. One week.
“Lilly!” Her dad called. “School, 15 minuets.”
“ I’m coming, I’m coming,” she grumbled. After pulling on both socks and shoving her boots on after them she clattered down stairs in a stormy mood.
The ride to school was abnormally quiet. Lilly turned her pencil over and over in her hand, trying to keep her temper down.
"Look," her dad said, finally breaking the silence.He glanced quickly over at her.She kept her eyes on the pencil.
“I know that you aren’t very happy about the move,” he paused. leave it to parents to over simplify. She shifted in her seat and stared out the window.
“I think it will be good for you. It’s a nice place and—“
“And I’ve never even been there. One week Dad? I’ve got one week to say goodbye to all my friends and the place I’ve lived for the last ten years. We don’t even have family in Idaho!”
Her dad sighed, and the rest of the car ride was silent.
She had planed to tell all her friends the news as soon as she saw them, but when it came time she found it harder than she had ever expected. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat running words through her mind until the last minuet. When she finally pushed the words out she saw the ripple they created but the conversation did move on.
The last half of the school day proved busy enough to take her mind off of her troubles, and the ride home was generally cheerful, but when Lilly stepped through the front door she was coldly welcomed by a living room piled high with empty boxes.
Her mother stood framed in the kitchen doorway.
“Packing time,” she said. Lilly frowned, to discouraged to argue. She spent the rest of her day in her room. The rhythmic thump of her positions hitting the bottoms of boxes matched the pounding of her mounting anger, and by dinner it was outrage.Needless to say that night didn't go well.
Laying in her bed that night Lilly counted the hours. A week was such a short time for such an extreme thing to take place. She thought of her life and friends as if she was already gone. She thought of them far away. In this state of being perched above her life she began to realize how grey it looked, so many things in it patterned after one another. So bland. She remembered her friends' reaction to the news and how mild it had been. She had never had a closely nit friendship. Maybe it was time. Idaho wasn't the ideal place for adventure but it would be a change.
more of ch. 1 on it's way!
