❝I think I may be downright and undeniably in love with you.❞
❝That's not surprising. I'm one of a kind.❞
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After issuing an ultimatum for her mother to follow to hopefully stray from her consistent moving addiction, Cassandra Lopez feels...
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CHAPTER FOUR ᴍᴏᴛɪᴏɴ ꜱɪᴄᴋɴᴇꜱꜱ
The sun had barely peaked through the clouds when we took off in a taxi toward the airport. My mother was engrossed in a manila folder filled with important documents she would need upon our arrival in Forks. I could easily tell by her pin-straight posture and clenched jaw that this transfer was far more complex than she'd anticipated. I guessed with Forks being such a small town that they were more careful with whom they decided to hire.
I stared out the window, keeping my forehead pressed against the cold glass. I could feel a headache slowly but surely build up just behind my eyes. Motion sickness was a common occurrence for me. I could never ride in a car for too long before my brain started protesting against the unpredictable movement of the vehicle. It always started with a throbbing headache and after a short amount of time, it transformed into unbearable nausea.
My mother handed me her purse without a word, keeping her eyes trained on the papers in front of her. I felt queasy just thinking about reading the tiny sentences written on the pages. I rummaged through her purse, searching for the motion sickness gum that never worked and some advil for my headache. When we arrived in Forks ─where I would need to ride to school with my mother every morning─ I'd need to invest in better products that would actually work against the nausea.
Part of me was excited to reach Forks. Once again, I would start over. New first impressions, new friends, and new teachers. If I just acted according to how I wished for them to perceive me, they couldn't judge me. At least not how I was judged daily here. No more homophobic slurs, no more whispering hauntingly in my ear in class, and no more notes tangled in my hair. It could be perfect if I wanted it to.
But another part of me, a much more dominant one, knew that for everything to be perfect, I would need to hide away my true personality and feelings. I'd done it before, and I didn't wish to do it again. I'd rather them judge me for who I was than like me for who I pretended to be. But that was a hard thing to admit as a teenager. Like most people my age, I dreamt of being liked and accepted, being part of the popular clique, and being asked to prom by the hottest guy ─or girl, in my case─ in school.
I didn't want to move, at least not really. I'd grown used to my life in California and to start over once more in a new town, a small one where everyone knew everyone, seemed excruciatingly exhausting. But I needed to see it as it was. An opportunity for a life of normalcy and everything I'd wanted for so long.
It went faster than I expected and before I knew it we'd reached Washington. I woke up just in time to watch us drive past the oddly eerie 'Welcome to Forks' sign. The sky had grown dark and I admired the way the stars seemed to crinkle so much clearer out here than back home. I supposed that was because a thousand buildings and skyscrapers weren't blocking the view.
