You and I

Chapter One.

I probably should have shown more restraint when my parents informed me that we were moving. In my mind, moving from a city to a suburb was a big deal but to them it was like shopping at a different Woolworths; same groceries, different location. They were wrong though. A city and suburb do not have the same ‘groceries’. I highly doubted sirens would be blasting all through the day and the blaring of the horns from traffic jams would be heard at peak hour in a suburb. Nothing would be the same.

We, city folk, spend most of our time with our heads down reading the new tweet on our time line, or reading the new text message that informed us of nothing important. Moving to a suburb would mean greeting strangers on the street with a “good morning” or a “hi, how are you?” None of which I felt comfortable with. I was not a people person. Along with my socially awkward attitude, I was not one to initiate a conversation about weather and current news. I was a girl who kept to herself, which is pretty easy to do in a big city.

Putting the last of my photo frames in a box, I looked around my now empty room taking in how bland the walls were when they weren’t plastered with magazine pages. With my wall now bare of all traces of me ever living in the room, I walked out into the main room of the apartment.

Both my parents were busy scurrying around picking up the last few items that hadn’t already been packed. My mum was floating on her feet as she hummed a song that only she knew. This was a good thing for my mum. For as long as I remember she always wanted to live in the suburbs. She used to beg my dad to quit his job so they could move to a little cottage on a farm. Obviously, my mum was deranged.

Us moving wasn’t a result of my dad quitting his job. It was actually the complete opposite. He got a promotion. I have no idea why they would have promoted him to a place that wasn’t a city. I didn’t even know they had a firm that far out.  Needless to say, my mum was ecstatic. The minute she found out she started looking up houses and started to read information about schools. She was happy. Dad was happy. Me on the other hand… not so much.

It wasn’t that I had so many friends to say goodbye to. I had two friends. They weren’t even considered best friends and definitely not the type of friends that would care if I moved away. I guess you could say we were acquaintances. I kept to myself a lot. A big city was a place I enjoyed by myself. Walking around the centre of the city, finding a place to read a book with the shrill of sirens and car horns put me at ease.

“Come on kiddo” my dad woke me from my trance.

I shook my head and took one last look at the apartment I had been living in for sixteen years. I sighed, picked up my box and followed my dad out to the car. Walking outside I was greeted with the smell of petrol and the sound of cars rushing past on the bust street.

‘I’m going to miss this’ I thought to myself.

The audible click of the seat belt that signified that I was ready gave my dad the final push to pull out of the parking lot of the apartment building and head onto the highway. I stared out of my window taking in my surroundings. High risers and skyscrapers soon turned to industrial buildings and other cars and trucks and sooner or later all I saw was trees, small houses and kids on push bikes.

The green grass that encircled the houses on the streets was the greenest grass I had ever seen. Some front yards were plagued with bicycles and basket balls, other afflicted with sprinklers and colourful flowers that indicated summer. Sooner or later, my dad pulled into a paved drive way and I looked through the front windscreen and my eyes landed on a two story house that looked modern and endearing. I jumped out of the car and my arms reached up past my head giving my body a long needed stretch. I yawned and sighed and headed towards the front door.

When I stepped into the house, the bitter smell of cleaning chemicals tickled my nostril and I scrunched up my face. Hopefully mum packed some scented candles and room deodoriser. I took in the inside of the house and walked into the living room which was spacious and would surely fit the limited amount of furniture we bought with us. A glimmer of light flickered in my peripheral vision and I turned and was facing the calming blue of a swimming pool. Living in the city, I was always limited to either the apartment building pool or my bath tub. I would never step foot into the community pool and my bath tub was always too small. I dreamed of a swimming pool. Maybe this move wouldn’t be so bad after all. 

 

 

I know this is terribly short. I still need to get the hang of typing more in a chapter. Um, hopefully this chapter is okay. I tried to read through it to find mistakes and hopefully I found them all. If not, please tell me. My teacher has also told me I switch tenses a lot so if that happens I'm truely sorry. I'm trying to work on fixing it. Well, this is the first chapter to a story that I want to actually continue and finish. Thank you so much for reading this far :)