Savannah
High
New
Kid on the Block
Chapter
1
“Hey Allie, How was your first day?” asked
Luke.
“It was….Um it was great!” I replied.
I had been sitting in the café on the afternoon of
August 22nd 2010, when Luke brought me the Rocky Road Ice cream I
had ordered. It was a Friday after school, my first of many in this horrible
place, not the café, the town. I
wanted nothing more than to tell him how horrible my first week of high school
had been and how much I hated this ridicules town. Unfortunately my stupid
mouth decided to blurt out that I had a great day before my mind could stop it.
It wasn’t by any means a great day. Come to think of it, I can’t possibly
remember the last time I had a great day.
Well that’s a lie. I could remember the last time as
though it were yesterday. I guess if I’m going to tell you this story it’s
better to start off there than here with Luke. So I’ll leave out the
conversation I had with Luke for now and start at the beginning. It’s better to
start this tale with the day that everything went wrong. Unfortunately it wasn’t yesterday. The last time I had a great day
was about two months ago. One of those bittersweet days in life as my intelligent mother puts it. Was it a bittersweet moment? Hell yeah it
was!
***
About three months ago prior to me sitting in Luke’s
cafe, my mother got a call from some recruitment agency as she put it. Don’t
even bother asking me, I don’t know and I really don’t want to know what
they’re about. Let’s just say that four in every ten parents in America gets a
call at some point or another from an agency like the one that called my mom.
So expect that you or one of your friends mom or dad to get a call from them.
They’ll tell them about a great job opportunity in some other state or even
country. Your parents would then make it seem as though they want your opinion
on whether or not they should take it.
Don’t even bother trying to persuade them to turn it
down. Believe me, just agree. In the end it just saves time and long lectures
with corny advice. It makes no sense telling them you don’t want to move away
from your home. It’s no use telling them you don’t want to go to a new school
or to make new friends because quite frankly you love your current friends.
None of the arguments you can come up with to make
them want to turn down the offer would help. So save yourself the trouble and
just start packing. After about a month of getting the great news, we packed up, sold our house and moved to some town
called Savannah in North Carolina. To make it all up to me guess what my mom
decides to do?
She
makes up for moving by throwing me a farewell party. Like that’s going to make
up for everything! What am I five? I must say that it was
a great day and my party was really cool. I got to say goodbye to my best
friend Vicky and all my other friends who told me we’d keep in contact all the
time. They even said that we’d email on MSN and web chat on Skype and not to
mention Facebook! This made me feel a lot better. Little did I know that pact
won’t last long. So basically that the last time I had a great day, was the day
I said farewell to my life in Chicago and hello to Savannah.
***
My mom couldn’t stop talking about how great the
plane ride was and how beautiful the scenery looked as we drove for god knows
how long from the airport to the town. I mean seriously it was like this place
was in the middle of nowhere! Did you know that I couldn’t even find it on
Google Earth? I saw the city my mom would be working when I looked it up. But
the Town and Suburban area of Savannah was no where on the map!
Maybe the town was beautiful I really don’t know. I
could vaguely hear her describing how outside looked as we drove. Most of my
trip was spent flipping through songs on my IPod. I ensured to have it fully charged
for our long trip. Thank god for Apple and their technology. As Taylor Swift’s “Back to December” played
in my ear I could hear my mom telling me to look at the Stadium and Buildings
as we past them. We’d just left the airport and were in a cab. I guess we were
passing through the city.
I supposed as
we got closer to our destination the scenery changed no more talks of buildings
and bus stations. She began to carry on about the park, nice houses with picket
fences and somewhere in there I thought I heard her say something about some
children playing at a beach or by a
beach . I must say I was a bit curious to see that. However, I wasn’t going to
give her the satisfaction.
I didn’t want to move here and vowed that no matter
what happens I wouldn’t like this place. I was going to go the high schools
spend four years there not make any stupid friends and then go off to college
where I would be reunited with my friends. That was the plan. Unfortunately no
one told me that life cannot be planned.
When we got the house that first day I again had to
admit that it was really beautiful. It had a lovely picket fence surrounding
it. There were some nice huge trees and a colorful flower garden not to mention
a really green lawn in front of it.
Inside was
also nice even though it wasn’t furnished and was filled with boxes. I walked
about looking at the place where the television would go and the kitchen. I
walked upstairs and saw my new room. When I was finished exploring my mom asked
the inevitable question. What I thought of the place? It was nice I felt
comfortable and I liked my room. This was definitely a great place to live.
That was my first thought but I chose to point out the fact that our old house
was bigger with a pool in the back yard.
That led to one of our talks. We’ve been having lots of talks since dad and every time we
do it sounded the same. “Allie,” sighs, “Have a seat,” said my mom. I think
that if you just give this place a chance you’d really like it.”
“That’s just it mom. I don’t want to like it. I want
things to go back to the way they were.” I replied trying to keep from getting
upset.
“I know you do and I wish they could but they can’t.
Your dad’s not here anymore and I really needed to get away from Chicago. I
know you miss your friends but you’ve got the chance to make a lot of new ones
here.”
“Mom, do we have to bring dad into every one of our
conversations?” I questioned. I hated hearing him being mentioned in everything
we did and even though he wasn’t around now he still had an input into all the
decisions we made.
Sigh… “Look Allie I know you’re upset with me for
moving and for a lot of other things but I just really need you to try and make
this work ok.” She always lectured like
this. “Try to keep an open mind about it. The truth is we can really get a
fresh start by moving here you can be anyone you want to be here. No one knows
you and that means more chances to make some really good first impressions.
Just give it a couple of days and you’ll see this is the start of a brand new
chapter in your life.”
My mom was always talking like this. In parables as
though she was a fortune cookie. Life was always about looking at the glass as
half full instead of half empty. I never saw the point of that particular
parable. For the life of me I really never understood what she was saying but I
figured it was better not to make things seem that way.
Most of the time a good answer to get her to leave
me alone was simply, “Ok mom. I’ll try.” this was enough to get a smile from
her. This meant I could go back to my room and begin to unpack.
It was just the two of us now. I mean dad wasn’t
around anymore and that meant mom’s salary was all that was going to be used to
maintain this place. Come to think of it I guess if I wanted to blame someone
for all my troubles I’d have to put all the blame on my dad.
With him out of the picture mom had no choice but to
get rid of anything that reminded her of him. So we said goodbye to the house
and town and everything that they shared. It’s really his fault I’m in the
position I’m in right now but I really don’t want to think about him.
It’s been
over a year and I still tear up every time I think about him. So for a while
now I’ve been trying to teach myself to forget him rather than go through the
torment of reminiscing, looking at photo albums and thinking of the great times
I had with him when he was around and when I was his little girl. Now those days
are gone and I’m by no means a little girl anymore. I’m actually fifteen years
old and on the verge of starting a new High school.
It’s the summer vacation of my first year before
school starts and I’m sitting in an empty room filled with boxes. I don’t even
know how to begin unpacking. If dad was here he’d tell me what looks good
where. Try not to think of him. Maybe I
need to walk around a bit more. I thought, as I got up and walked to down
the hall. The first door on the right was my mom’s room and the first door to
my left was empty.
It was only
then that I realized that there was an extra room in this house. I decided to
explore. It was also empty. A lot bigger than my room and the closet was larger
as well. To the side there was a large glass door and a small porch to go out
on but I didn’t even notice it. That was until I heard the room playing a
lovely soothing tune on a guitar. That’s stupid rooms don’t play guitar. Yet
there was definitely sound coming from on the porch.
I slid the door open and step out on the porch. Then
it all made sense to me. The music wasn’t coming from my room or even my porch.
It was coming from the neighbor’s house. I couldn’t see too clearly though. The
wind blew the curtains and my eyes fell on someone sitting on a chair inside
the room of the house next door playing guitar.
It definitely had to be some older man or woman with
a lot of time on their hands because there was no way someone my age would have
listened to that type of music. It sounded more like what my mom would listen
to. As I stood there in my own little world I didn’t even realized that the
music had stopped. I hardly noticed that
someone was now on the porch next door staring at me.
“Hi!” his voice was a soothing as the music he was
playing. “Are you my new neighbor?” he asked. It took me a while to get back to
reality when I saw him. A teenage boy was now standing across from me in a
white T-Shirt and blue Jeans. He was definitely cute. He had a nice smile too
with somewhat of a boyish haircut.
“Yeah I am” I replied, trying not to be to hyper. I
always talked as though I was hyped up on Coca Cola
“Well I’m Gabriel.” he replied “But my friends all
call me Gabe.”
“I’m Allie,” I answered. His name was as old as the
music he was playing “Gabriel like the angel right?” I asked.
“The angel?” He questioned looking as though this
was news to him.
“Yeah you know what an angel is right. All white
with wings?” I was now trying to be sarcastic hoping it would work.
“I know what an angel is I just didn’t know there
was one named Gabriel.” He was smiling
as he spoke and I took this as a good sign.
“Well you really should catch up on your bible
studies he’s one of the most important angels there is.” I taunted.
“Hmm I’ll do that,” replied Gabriel with another smile.
“So are you going to be staying in that room?” He asked.
“Well it depends are you going to be making noise in
my head all night?” he looked a bit confused again as I said this. “The
guitar!” I added.
“Oh well don’t worry I only practice the guitar in the
day. I leave the nights for the flute and the drums.” I hoped he was only
joking when he said that.
“Ok well it was nice to meet you Gabriel,” I said.
“You can call me Gabe,” he replied. I told you all
my friends call me Gabe.
I smiled as he pointed this fact out to me and I
couldn’t resist. “Well bye Gabriel.” With that I turned and walked out laughing
under my breath knowing he wanted nothing more than to say call him Gabe.
I walked outside after that conversation I leaned
over the balcony of the stairs and called out to my mom.
“Mom!” I shouted. She answered then came poking her
head from the living room looking at me as I stood at the top of the stair
case. “Is it ok if I take the room next to you?” I asked. “It’s got a bigger
closet and more room,” I added to strengthen my case.
“Yeah sure honey,” she answered. I moved my stuff
into the room opposite Gabe’s porch and unpacked and when we were finished the
entire house was looking as though we’d lived there for years. I again had to
admit that with the introduction of Gabe, the cute boy next door and the
finished look of my new room, I was feeling a bit better about the move.
The first couple of hours in my new room were spent
talking to Vicky and my other friends on Skype. They got a view of my room and
I felt as though I was still in Chicago as we stayed up and chatted.
After the first week I was already beginning to feel
homesick. Most of my days were spent in the house and going out to the
supermarket with my mom a few times. I saw some nice places to wonder about
just a few blocks away from the house. The neighborhood seemed quiet during the
day. I was tempted to take a stroll on mornings but I never did. I didn’t want
it to seem as though I was getting use to this town. There were also a few
places to shop or window shop in my case in the main streets in town. Again I
wasn’t too sure I’d be able to do it.
My mother had started her new Job and wasn’t home
anymore. I hadn’t spoken to Gabe since I first saw him; the television wasn’t
giving me any good shows to watch and none of my friends were home during the
day. I’d finally decided that after two weeks of being home and stuck with
nothing to do I needed to take a tour of this town.
That Thursday night during dinner I crossed my
fingers under the table and asked my mom if I could take a look around town the
next day. I told her how bored I was home and how much I wanted to just stretch
my legs. Surprisingly without so much as a question she agreed. She even said
she’d leave some money for me to buy anything if I saw something I liked.
I was happy but found it strange that she didn’t
feel uncomfortable sending me out on my own. I guess she felt that the town was
safe or that I deserved it. I hadn’t been complaining as much as I was before
and mostly because I was tired of fighting with her. Things were changing,
faster than I could keep up with them.
New place to live, new friends to make and new
school to start; I didn’t know how I was going to deal with all of this. What I
did know was to get through this I would need my mom. As much as I didn’t want
to admit it at the time, she was the only true friend I had in Savannah. To get
through these next few difficult years I figured I’d need more than anything to
be on her good side.
I guess it’s like what dad always said. I’m growing
up; changes are going to come expected and unexpected ones. He always told me it's
how I deal with them that defines who I am. One of his favorite sayings was
that life was like playing cards; sometimes you’re dealt a really sucky hand. “It’s not the hand that you're dealt its how
you play the game.”
hope to turn this one into a best seller
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