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02 | meet the Jordans

Once I'm inside the lavish house, bright lights and a tall girl sitting at the kitchen counter are the first things that catch my eye. She's absorbed in her cell phone, and I notice she's strikingly beautiful. Blonde hair, a heart shaped face and blue eyes—the classic beauty. There's also another girl: she's redheaded, with white earphones dangling from her ears. The redhead is walking around the house, oblivious to the world as she hops along carelessly to the beats of the music. Aunt Alexa clears her throat loudly as Uncle James walks into the house with my luggage. I stand there awkwardly, unaccustomed to being in strangers' living rooms. 

I want to slap myself right now. Hard. 

"Katy, Riley, this is her," my aunt introduces me to the audience super dramatically, as if she's giving me a Grammy award in front of five hundred people. The only man in the house simply nods along to her words.

I don't feel like a celebrity right now. 

Actually, I feel the least celebrity-like right now than I have ever felt.

"Lissa," I mumble lamely, smiling slightly at my cousin and whoever that other girl is. Why couldn't I have had a classier, more sophisticated name?

Something on the lines of Shanaya or Ishika? 

When I was born, Mummy desperately wanted to name me Alyssa after her best friend, Alyssa Steele. Papa,being the person he is, consented on one condition: that they would add their own quirky spin to the name—just to make it unique. Hence, my name was born. Looking back, my parents agree that naming me Lissa was nothing but destiny.

Riley—I guess—is the girl with long flaming-red hair and the weird dance moves. Katy barely looks up from her screen, but Riley spins around automatically and smiles brightly at me. She's a few inches shorter than me, and I would roughly put her height at five feet five. I pull my pink hoodie a little closer to myself and adjust my handbag strap uncomfortably. I so badly wish I didn't have to be a stranger here. I wish I'd met these people once before barging into their house with a six-month long vacation plan.

Thanks, Mummy and Papa.

"Hey, Lissa. Welcome to the Hills," Riley says to me,walking over in an instant. "I'm your new neighbour. I live next door." 

She looks me up and down—just like Aunt Alexa did--before nodding slightly, as if I'm acceptably dressed.I guess it is a Juniper Hills thing. Aunt and Uncle grab my suitcases and haul them into a room on the first floor as Riley grabs my arm and drags me inside the kitchen. Technically, I should be asked to do my own work, but here everyone is, doing stuff for me and pulling me here and there.

My life seems to have transformed into some kind of epic movie.

"Katy, your cousin," Riley glares at Katy and points very noticeably towards me. Oh wow, another awkward introduction. Why couldn't I have been a puddle of wax? Why doesn't this Earth split open and suck me in?