Home Sweet Home? (fK&C fanfic)

Chapter 1 - First Day of School

12 Days Since We Left Home

Brooke Keye's POV: 

    "Brooke! Get up, it's time for school!!" my Dad yelled up the stairs. My eyes opened lazily and for a split second, I thought I was still in Indiana. However, my mind quickly woke up and a wave of sadness washed over me.

    This was a new day. A new city. A new school. 

    I rushed down the stairs and threw my folders into my new backpack. Dad glanced up from his work, smiled, and said, "Your mom told me to tell you good morning and that she loves you. She also said not to pester your new friends about for KING & COUNTRY. It is a bit of a problem how much you obsess over those guys!!"

    I nodded, saying softly, "Yeah, it's priceless." Dad's smile faded and then he said, softly, "You ready for school?" 

    I shrugged, "Who knows?" It would have been better if  I were going with my friends... if I could start middle school with them... I'm already missing out on some big events of their lives...

    Dad sighed and replied, "Brooke - I know this is hard but you need to have hope and trust in God to bring good friends to you." I nodded again and murmured, "Okay, yeah, I know." Dad nodded and then my two brothers stomped into the room and we headed out towards the bus stop. I stomped up the bus stairs and sat in the very back. My younger brother, Kyle, was going to a different school since he was still in elementary but my older brother, James, was in the same school as me and plopped himself down beside me.

    I stared at the passing landscape through the bus window and tried to keep my emotions locked away. Tall buildings, metal buildings, buildings of every color and shape that I didn't recognize passed in a blur. School drew closer and closer along with my doom. 

    It seemed like the next time I blinked, the school was suddenly in front of me. Butterflies settled in my stomach and, trying to buy time, asked James, "Why did school have to start so early?"

    "You know why - we moved early August and school starts in early August." was his only response.

    I sighed and followed my brother out of the bus. As soon as I stepped outside, the nervousness intensified and my introvert-self wanted to jump back into the bus. This was a small school since it was a 'harder' school with more work and not everyone made it but it was still a lot of people in a small space. I turned around but James was already gone - lost inside the wave of people. I took a deep breath and walked into the crowd. 

    Oh, let this go well... 

Several hours later... 

    RING! RING! Every student jumped up and grabbed their backpacks - except me. I slowly collected my stuff, trying to allow most students to leave so the hallways would be empty.

    "It's Brooke, right?" 

    I looked up and saw my teacher, Miss. Cee, looking straight at me. I glanced around to see I was the only student left in the room. 

    "Yeah..." I said in a voice barely above a whisper. 

    Miss. Cee's eyes softened and she said, "Your family is new to the town, right? I don't recognize your family from last year..." 

    "Yeah, we moved here from a small town in Indiana about two weeks ago."

    Miss. Cee's eyes widened slightly. "Wow, really big change, huh?" 

    "You couldn't even imagine..." I murmured softly. I'm pretty sure she heard me, but she ignored my comment. 

    "Well, have a good rest of the day!" she replied cheerfully. I nodded and quickly left school. 

    The bus had just then started loading people and I scanned the crowd for my brother. James found me before I found him and headed over to me.

    "How was school?" he asked.

    I shrugged, "Boring. Too many people. Same old, same old." James laughed slightly and replied, "Same for me. At least school started on a Friday so tomorrow is the weekend." 

    I rolled my eyes, "Yeah - it seems pointless to start on a Friday but I guess better for us." 

    James nodded and stepped onto the bus. I followed and once more sat in the back. Since I had waited in the classroom, the only empty seats were the back seats - thankfully. Plus, our neighborhood was one of the first stops so I was able to get away from the hustle and bustle quickly.

    "Welcome home!" Mom said as we walked inside the house. She was sitting on the couch, smiling broadly at us. "How was school? How was 7th grade for you Brooke and 9th for you James? Did you meet any new friends?"

    I said, "Boring, boring, and no" then headed up to my room to drop off my backpack. 

Mreow? 

    I stopped mid-step from leaving my room to see our cat, Max, yawning widely from sleeping on my bed. "Aww... you need something?" I cooed, walking over to him and scratching his head. He started purring his usual EXTREMELY  loud purr and my grin widened. "I'm glad we brought you... you're like the only friend we could bring along, you know?" 

    Max blinked slowly at me, then winked. "I can't speak cat, sorry, little one." He winked again then stood up and stretched his long body. He jumped off my bed, rubbed his body against one of the boxes still in my room, then left. I rolled my eyes and followed him downstairs, carrying my homework.

    "Was Max sleeping in your room?" Dad asked from the stove as I passed through the kitchen. I nodded and continued my path towards our backyard. 

    One of the only good things about this house is our huge backyard. It was literally 10x the size of our old backyard and our old backyard wasn't small! Lots of trees filled the yard which means an INSANE amount of hiding spots. Because of this, we didn't know all that was in the backyard. Probably wasn't a good thing but who cares?

    I was intent on trying to find something interesting, not disgusting. And maybe also get some homework done. Maybe. 

    I went all the way to the back fence and turned around. Gazing out across the yard, I felt a spark of happiness but quickly brandished it, feeling guilty. I wasn't supposed to like anything about Nashville! I shook myself mentally then started looking through our yard.

About An Hour Later...

    Woah...

    I pushed back the leaves and gaped in amazement. I was in one of the taller trees and apparently this one had a huge, flattish spot in the middle of itself. A natural treehouse! I could see outside but I didn't think anyone could see inside. I nestled inside and started working on my homework.

    Only Nashville Early College (NEC) would think of giving us homework on the first day of school and on a weekend.

A/N: True story, I actually go to Toledo Early College (see where I got Nashville Early College from?) which is supposed to prepare us for college or something. It is a lot of homework and extremely big projects using MLA format among other things. Sometimes I wonder if the teachers just enjoy giving us homework... 😂 However, it would be cool to have a 'naturally grown' treehouse!!