Going Way Back

Chapter Two - Goodbye Old Life

                                                          Connor

After Sapphire left, the room was silent. Mum looked shocked and horrified as if she had cast her own daughter out herself. Connor glanced at Mackenzie, who shrugged.

"I'll go talk to her," she said, getting up and leaving the silence of the lounge.

A door shut. Kylie put her arm around Stella, hugging her tight.

"It's okay, Stell, it's not your fault," she said. "She's just a teenage girl and she needs space to come to terms with it, okay? She'll be back. Maybe tomorrow. And Kenzie's with her, she's not alone. Okay?"

Mum nodded, sniffling. Feeling awkward, Connor got to his feet, mumbling an excuse.

"Uh, I'll just... go."

Nobody heard him.

He made a quick exit and went straight into his room, shutting the door. He stopped and looked around at the room. Sports posters on the walls, piles of laundry on the plush carpet. A bed in the corner. A small desk. Baskets and baskets of cricket balls, basketballs, volleyballs, rugby balls, hockey sticks and cricket bats. It was messy and disorganised, but it was him.

Now he had to leave it? All of it?

Kylie had said that Twizel was a beautiful town, with incredible views of the Canterbury Plains. She had said that it was an incredible opportunity to live there and that they would have an amazing time.

He decided to see for himself.

He opened up his MacBook, a gift from his Dad, and typed in the search bar. T... w, i, z... e, l. Kylie wasn't wrong, its current population was 1300 and had an area of 12.23 square kilometres. From 1000 square kilometres of Auckland to 12?

Connor scrolled through a couple of photos — Kylie was also right about the scenery; it was beautiful — and had a look at the school's website. It all seemed normal enough. Just a million times smaller.

He felt almost disoriented; his whole life had been pretty much the same. In fact, the only major change had been his parents' divorce, but he had only been three years old then. He liked his life, the visits to his dad's house, school and his friends, and Sapphire and Mum, even though she was at work most of the time. When he thought about it, really thought about it, he didn't want to move.

Connor shut the laptop and pushed it aside, swinging around on his chair and grabbing a basketball. It was time he got some practice in; his coach had told their rep team to keep up the practice over the holidays. He slipped into the kitchen, trying not to look at Mum's tears across the breakfast bar as he opened the freezer and grabbed a Juicie. Kylie's arms were still around her, still encouraging her. He felt a stab of guilt as he remembered her words, 'Everything I do is for you and Connor. I spend every hour of every day working, so I have enough money for food, school, after school activities and everything else!'.

Sapphire had obviously been surprised. Too surprised. In truth, he had been as well, Connor admitted to himself. Stella was always at work, and it was easy to think that she didn't care for them. But did she?

Sucking furiously at the Juicie and trying to ignore his numbing fingers, he pushed the front door open and chucked the basketball into the air. It made a hollow noise as it bounced. Donk, donk, donk. Empty. Just like him, about to leave everything he knew. Donk... donk... donk...

"Cut it out!" he said aloud. Just play basketball, Connor.

Holding the Juicie with his mouth, he dribbled the ball left, right, crossover, between legs, drive forward and lay-up. Rebound and dribble out, slow crossovers, step back and shoot, three. Repeat.