My Blue Eyed River

Chapter 1

Do you ever have that feeling of not wanting to do something even though you know it's the right thing to do for yourself, your friends, and your family? Even though it may seem impossible to get through, you know you have to one way or another. Life isn't always going to be fair and it sure as heck isn't going to be easy either. You just always have to remember to keep your head up and keep going.

The music from my iPod blasts through my headphones and into my ears as I stare out of the window of the car, watching the trees and other vehicles as we pass by. I sighed as I began to fully process what exactly was going on. I am sitting in the passenger's seat of my moms car. It is filled to the top with boxes and other unnecessary stuff that she just had to keep. I can hear the faint sound of whatever my mom is listening to on the radio. It sounds like jazz but I'm not quite sure if it is. All I know is it sounds amazing and it just makes me want to jump out of this moving car and dance. I look over at my mom and see that her eyes are straight ahead, watching where she is driving, while her thumbs tap to the beat of the music on the steering wheel. She seemed okay but I could tell that something was on her mind. I decided to just ignore it. I turn back around to face the window once more and catch a glimpse of the large moving truck behind us in the side view mirror. My dad was driving the truck, following closely behind me and mom. Let me backup a bit and explain who I actually am.

My name is Tatum Collins, but everyone that I'm close to calls me Tate. Well, I guess you can only consider my mom and dad the only people that are "close" to me anymore. I'm a dancer. I've been dancing for as long as i can remember. Dancing for me was like breathing for other people. I need it to survive. I'm 17 years old and I'm a Junior in high school. I have long dark brown hair that flows down my back. I have green eyes that I absolutely hate. I blame my mom for that. And I have freckles that I got from my dad. Lots and lots of freckles. I'm also 5"6' so I'm not short but I'm not taller either.

My moms name is Brooklyn Collins or Brook and my dad's name is Jace Collins. I also had a big brother that was 19 years old but that changed about a year ago. His name was Parker Collins and he was my everything. We were so close and we were best friends. We did everything together. Now I guess I have to do everything solo.

We used to live in a very small town right outside of the city in Montana. We absolutely loved it there until the accident. Now all it represents is pain. With that being said, we decided to move to Oakland, California. I wasn't too happy when my parents came to me with the idea of moving in the middle of the school year. I just didn't want to do that but I eventually caved. Hence, I really didn't have a choice in the matter but whatever.

When I told my friends back in Montana that I was moving, they all just dropped me. They all blocked me from all social media and erased my number from their phones and everything. The only explanation I got was from one of their parents, saying that it would be too much of a hassle to try and keep up with us so they thought that it would be best for me to just "end it while we could", whatever that's supposed to mean. I don't need them anyway. It's good to start fresh with people that don't know everything about me. Make new, better friends that wont treat me like trash.

I know that we are in Oakland but not too sure how far we are from our new house. I remove my headphones and turn to face my mom.

"Hey mom," I said with a slight raspy voice because I hadn't really said anything the whole trip.

"Hey sweetie, you okay over there? You've been awfully quiet the whole ride." My mom asks as she glances at me and then back at the road.

"Uh... Yeah ma I'm fine, just a bit tired that's all. Are we almost there?" I asked while looking around.

"Yep.  We should be there in about..." she looks down at the GPS on her phone "20ish minutes actually."

"Oh okay good, I'm tired of being in this car. Have you talked to dad yet?"

"Yeah, he's good. I called him about 25 minutes ago or so to check to see if he needed anything."

"Oh okay. It's actually really pretty here. Better than I expected it to be. Ahaha." I say starting to put all my stuff into my backpack before we get there.

"Oh yeah me too. I'm not sure what I was expecting but it definitely wasn't this." She replied.

I almost had a mini heart attack when. We passed a small building that had a sign on it reading Dance Studio.

"Oh good heavens mom, please tell me you saw what I just saw." I said to her excitedly.

"No hon i didn't see, what was it?" My mom asks me with a slightly worried look on her face.

"There was a dance studio back there!" I answered her trying to look back to see it but we were too far away.

"That's exciting, you'll always have your dance to hold onto no matter where you go." She says reaching over and moving my hair out of my face.

"Yeah you're right. That's something I can't get rid of, hahah, It's stuck with me." I say as mom puts both hands back on the wheel and continues driving. "I might actually like it here after all."

***15 minutes later***

My mom stopped the car soon after, in front of a place that looked like it could be our new home. Me and mom get out of that car while dad pulls the moving truck into the driveway. He soon got out of the truck and walked over to me and mom standing in front of the little house on the lawn. Dad wrapped his arms around mom from behind and she leaned back into him while I stood beside them. After all these years and everything that they've been through, they are still so much in love. I want to have that with someone one day. We stared at the house for a few minutes before anyone said anything

"Oh my goodness, it's so cute." I said looking back at my parents.

"Yeah it really is bean (my dad's nickname for me). What do you think of it Brook?" My dad says and looks down at mom.

She looks up at him and smiles. "I think it's wonderful. I feel like we are really going to like it here." Dad leans down and kisses mom while she stands on her tippy toes.

"Um okay ew, enough of that. Can we just go in now?" I say walking towards the truck to get at least one box. Mom and dad pull away from each other but they are still staring at each other. They finally looked away from each other and walked towards where I was by the truck.

"Sure thing my little bean" my dad says while ruffling up my hair with his fist.

"DDDDAAAADDDD oh my gosh. I'm not six anymore." I said to him while patting my hair back into place.

"I know but you'll always be my little girl." He smiles down at me. I smile back and roll my eyes at him. "Okay, okay can we just unload this truck now so we can get something to eat?" I said while turning away from my dad and back at the moving truck.

"Oh yes, I can second that. We passed a pretty nice pizza place a couple blocks down. We can go there if y'all want." My mom said grabbing a box off the truck. Me and dad also grabbed one or two each (depending on the size) and walking towards the house.

"I'm totally down for pizza, what about you dad?"

"Yeah pizza sounds really good right about now." He replied

"Okay, it's a plan, let's get these boxes in the house then pizza it is." My mom says while heading towards the house. Me and dad follow right behind her. Once we get to the porch, mom sits the box down and pulls out a set of keys from her pocket. "Y'all ready?!" My mom asks with much excitement. Me and dad nodded at her eagerly. She laughs and enters the key. She turns it until we hear a click. She turns the knob and the door swings open. She grabbed her box and all three of us stepped inside our new house. It was absolutely gorgeous and so adorable. I loved it. It's something that I'm going to have to get used to but i think that I'm really going to like it here after all.