Cherry (Blossom) On Top

Prolouge: The new girl

Rust, Dust, Mud. Everything is on my clothes and my face. Uncle Theobald threw me out, what am I gonna do now? He told me to pack my things, he loomed me with pushing me down the cliffs near his small house in the woods.
Now I'm here. Out in nowhere, with me only a small bag with one pair of jeans, a shirt and my almost empty water bottle. I don't know how long I've been going through this forest, I only remember one small creek I had to pass. My black ballerinas are definitely not the right shoes for hiking, especially not here outside of this town called Riverdale. I fell thousands of times, the mud in my face burns inside the deep cuts I got by those branches. My hands and arms are bloody and I'm feeling weak. The sun is setting down, so I just look into it and go further and further. My knees hurt, my shoes are broken and the cheap leather peels off the shoes. But then suddenly I see lights. Two bright yellow circles in front of me. I only have to pass like 100 trees. I start running, I don't care about my aching knee and the fact that I'm near passing out. When I reach the street, the lights are gone. Only the bright orange sun gives me light and I only can see an empty street in front of me. Sad and with tears in my eyes I sit down on one cold rock. My butt is freezing, but I don't have any other choice.
Suddenly I hear kids yelling and running. Their laughter echo through my ears. I see long red and wavy hair fly around behind some stone wall. A shiny white dress flies behind. Out of sheer exhaustion I closed my eyes, when I open it again, a beautiful girl with long red hair stands in front of me. She seems rich, her dress is clean, not any hint of mud on it. Her shining white lacquered Ballerinas reflect the setting sun. On both of her hands are white net gloves. She smiles at me while she gazes on my clothes.
„You seem not pretty rich, do you?" her cute voice asks me. I only shake my head, I'm too exhausted for speaking right now. She keeps staring at me and then just turns around an goes on playing with her brother who has red hair as well and wears white clothes as well. From now on they ignored me. I just sit here, shaking as hell because of the cold and watch them. The sun is gone now. Their laughter disappear and I hear the engine of a car.
Now I'm all alone.  I have no one. No family. No friends. I don't even have any food left. The dark around me feels scary, I'm not able to see my own fingers. The air is getting colder and colder the longer I sit on that rock. I hear wheels. Then I see another two big circles. The car stands still in front of me. I'm afraid, will he or she kill me like Theobald wanted to do it? I only see the huge shadow of a man, me, trembling and only gazing into his eyes. He squats down in front of me. The man seems nice, even though his black leather jacket makes him seem dangerous. Tears are running down my cheeks. I feel a warm hand on my cheek, wiping away the tears. „You're safe now little girl. What's your name?" his voice is relaxing and soft. My words get interrupted by many sniffles and sobs, but I manage to say a whole sentence. „A..Antoinette. I'll go by Toni please" I'm not scared anymore. „Hello Toni," he chuckles. „I'm FP. As I see, you don't have a place to stay right?" I shake my head. FP reaches out his hand and I take it. „You can come with me. Jug will be happy for sure to have another little sister." So we walk to his car. I can't see inside because I'm too small, but I can hear a boy yelling. „Dad, I want to go home! Jelly started crying!" I smile a little. FP put his hands on my waist and lifts me on the backseat. It's comfortable. I feel the boys look on me, but I just smile and his dad who shuts the door starts driving again. I'm amazed at the dark woods which doesn't seem as scary as some minutes ago. The lights and the people around me comfort me.
It doesn't take long time until I see a huge sign. I'm not sure what's written on it. I'm not able to read...yet!
I feel someone poking my shoulder and I turn my head around. FPs son looks at me. „What's your name?" he asks in a cute voice which makes me smiling. „Toni, and yours?" he smiles bright. „Jughead! I like your name Toni!" I chuckle again. He's funny. We pass some beautiful white houses with big gardens, but then we pass a small sign and the sight gets scary again. Lots of houses are shut down. I can't see any gardens or anything beautiful. I look at those kind of houses for about the next two minutes, then everything changes again and there are bigger houses with small gardens, but they don't seem as expensive as the ones I saw first.
The car parked on shutter and little stones. These shutter crunches under the wheels and FPs shoes. Jughead unbuckles himself and takes out the black plastic buggy with his little sister Jelly. Then he climbs out of the small family van. My door gets opened by the man who saved my life, probably. He carries me out of the car and then I look at the many different trailers in front of me. Now It's official:
I'm the new girl in town, Antoinette, Toni Topaz.