Alone

Chapter Three

Lee’s new house was nothing like her old one. Where her house in California had been square, sleek, and modern, this house seemed older. Homier. Her dad said it had been built a long time ago as a farm house, and it definitely looked that way. The front door opened into a living room, and the back door a dining room (with a brick fireplace! Lee didn’t think those existed anymore!), connected by a room painted forest green with lots of windows. The dining room and kitchen didn’t have any walls or doors in between them; the only way you could tell the difference between the two rooms was that, suddenly, carpet stopped and wood flooring began.

There was a hallway to the left of the dining room that contained the bathroom, laundry room, a door upstairs to the attic, and a door to a master bedroom with its own bathroom.

It was a big house, but not in the same sense that her old house was big. In her old house, everything had seemed far away, and airy, like too much space, but this house felt just big enough to be comfortable.

Lee’s room, she was told, was going to be in the attic. The lights had been redone, so she was going to have the long, rectangle shaped fluorescents that were used in classrooms, attached to her sloping ceiling. Her dad said she would get to pick everything out for her room, since she didn’t get a say in the move. It didn’t make things better, but it was exciting. Before, she had shared her room with her sister, and her mother had picked all the furniture out so it didn’t clash with the rest of the house, in case guests came over and the tour included the children’s room.

In the next week, Lee had gotten her room perfect. It was a long room, so she decided to split it into two sides. On one side, she had her bed, a couch, and a TV (with her Blu-Ray player hooked up to it, of course) arranged in a square on a rug, with one side open to get out to the other side. The shallow built in shelves on that side held her extensive library, and the half of one shelf that was hidden by her couch held her laptop and her snack stash.. The other side had a bar for hanging dresses and the like on, and all of her other clothing in drawer-like bins in the built-in shelves on that side, which were a lot deeper than the ones on the other side. That side also held a table and bins for her art projects and supplies, and the counter on top of the shelves had Bluetooth speakers. In the middle of the room, against the wall, was her desk and a huge cork board, which she had already started filling with pictures, drawings, and notes from Gemma and Nikki.

Lee fell asleep that Sunday night on her couch, watching Doctor Who on Netflix. Gemma had recommended it to her, but she had never gotten around to watching it. The Ninth Doctor had just made a joke to some kids about needing a blonde girl wearing a union jack, “..a specific one, mind you, I didn’t just wake up with a craving.” Lee was already half asleep, and didn’t laugh at the joke.

The next morning was hectic. Lee had finally drifted off at two thirty in the morning, and her alarm woke her up at five thirty so she could get on the bus. She threw on a black long-sleeved shirt and some jeans, and triple checked her backpack to make sure her MP3 player and earbuds were in it.

She sat on the front porch, bundled up in a winter coat, two pairs of gloves, and a beanie, and waited to see the headlights of a school bus. As she waited, she swung her feet and hit her heels against the porch, thinking to herself. She found herself thinking that maybe the move was a good idea after all, that maybe she had overreacted.

Before long, the bus’s broad headlights swept her street, and she got up to stand in her driveway, where she was told was her bus stop. The headlights swept right past her, though, missing her stop, and the bus driver slammed on the brakes on the other side of her yard. She trudged over to the bus door, and stepped into the bus.

“You the new kid?” the bus driver asked. Lee nodded. “Find yourself a seat.”

Lee walked slowly toward the back of the bus, sitting in the third seat from the back. She sat with her back to the window and her knees bent so that her legs could fit in the seat without spilling out into the aisle, and took her headphones and MP3 out of her backpack to listen to music.

"When the gets too

Heavy put it on my back

I'll be your levy

You are taking me apart like bad glue

On a get well card..."

A couple songs later, someone stopped in front of Lee's seat. They pointed and said something, and Lee took her headphones out.

"Sorry.. What did you say?"

"It's alright. It's just, that's my seat, actually," came the girl's voice. It looked like she still had her hood up, or a hat on or something.

"Oh! Sorry," Lee moved her legs and squished herself up to the window to make sure she gave the girl enough room, even though she was fairly skinny.

"I'm Ana, by the way," the girl said, holding out her hand. "Pronounced ah-nah, though most teachers get it wrong on the first day." Ana was cheerful, for having to be up at six in the morning to be on the bus. Lee took Ana's hand and shook anyway.

"I'm Lee. Well, Caralee, but I prefer Lee," she said. Ana nodded.

"Caralee's a cool name, but I respect your choose to call yourself Lee," she said, in mock seriousness, then laughed a little. "Whatcha listening to?" Ana asked, picking up the earbud Lee took out.

"Uhh.. Currently?" Lee clicked a button to turn the screen of her MP3 player on. "Seventy Times Seven, by Brand New."

"Oh, cool! I've heard of them, I think. One of my friends likes them, but he lives in England, so..” Ana shrugged.

“Did he move there or something?” Lee asked.

“Nope, he’s lived there his entire life, I’m pretty sure.”

“Well then how do you know him?”

“We met online,” Ana said it in such a way that there was no arguing about the validity of the friendship. They met online, and that was that. Lee was impressed, and she just nodded, having nothing else to say. Ana continued the conversation anyway. “What grade are you in?”

“I’m a freshman. You?”

“I’m freshman too! Maybe we have some classes together. Do you have a schedule yet?”

“Nope. I’m supposed to get it from the counselor when we get into the school, I think.”

“Do you know where her office is? I could help you find it.”

“I have no idea where it is, help would be great,” was what Lee should have said. Instead, she said, “Oh, yeah, I came in a couple days ago and took a sort of tour, I can find it.”

Lee mentally facepalmed. What was that? She should have just asked for help, like a normal person would. Ana just nodded, still smiling (Lee thought that was insane. No one is that happy at six in the morning. No one.)

“That’s good,” she said, then the bus stopped. “Oh! We’re at school.”