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AMELIE'S HEART WAS pounding out of her chest. As her fingers drummed gently on her knee to the soft tunes emitting from the car radio, her mind scrambled to latch onto something so it didn't fall into her mouth to be discarded on the back of her mother's leather seat. She pressed her lips together, thinking. The bag sitting by her feet suddenly looked a lot more daunting.
"Are you excited?" Rosie, Amelie's mum, asked. She looked back at her daughter in the rearview mirror, her right hand remaining latched onto the steering wheel.
Amelie clicked her tongue. "Teenagers are scary," she murmured through her teeth. "So, uh . . . no."
Her other mum, Stacey, turned around in her seat with a frown. "Aren't you a teenager?" She questioned with confusion pulling at her every word. Amelie laughed gently, her doubt slowly slipping away.
"Yes. But everyone already has friends, mum. I don't." She tilted her head, sending her a look as if it were obvious. Her brows only furrowed even further, a line etching itself into her forehead while she turned back around in her seat.
"This is a small place, Mil. We'll be the talk of the town, meaning that you can make friends with anyone. I'm sure of it." They turned into the school, pulling into the first parking space. "Just try to talk to people, sweetheart."
Amelie stared at her lap, her fingers fiddling with the rough edges of her jacket. "I'll try," she sighed as she pushed her door open. She threw her bag over her shoulder, trying to ignore the worry that began to eat away at her brain, because trying was hard. Trying was so hard, especially when she was trying to be someone she wasn't.
Stacey leant her head out of the open window. "Good luck, Mil," she grinned. "I'll pick you up later, okay?"
She nodded her head as she waved once more at her parents before stepping towards the school. She pulled her bag further up her shoulder, suddenly finding the floor to be rather interesting. Her dark hair fell flat over her back, cascading down her jacket and stopping just beneath her shoulder blades. She breathed out, the sound reaching her ears. She didn't want to do this. She wanted to go back home.
