Making it.

Chapter 7 - This is Hailey.

"How are you today?" Mike asks as he walks through my door with me on Saturday morning.

"Tired." I answer with a yawn and set my bathroom bag down. He was already waiting outside my room when I was walking back from the shower stalls.

"I can see that. Didn't you sleep well?" He responds with a slight chuckle and I shake my head.

"I was talking with Milli and Simon until god knows when." I tell him, not bothering to make up some lame excuse and pull a sweater over my long-sleeved shirt. There is a pause before Mike re-starts this conversation.

"You really miss your friends, don't you?" He asks in a voice which tells me that he already knows the answer to his question but decides to play curious anyways.

"Yes, I really do." I look at him and his face mirrors the pity he feels for me right now, making me turn my head away immediately.

"Have you at least found some friends here?" He continues and makes himself comfortable on my bed, earning a scowl from me because I had just made it before he came in.

"Surprisingly, I have. We are a whole friend group now, I think."

"That's great. See-"

"Yeah yeah, I know. I am adjusting and everything is better than I thought it would be blah blah blah. Enough people have already told me that, Mike." I interrupt him and he jumps down from my bed.

"Well, what are we waiting for then? Let's get breakfast and then go to buy your school things." Walking to the door, Mike holds it open for me and I take my phone, purse and keys with me.

On our way downstairs, we don't pass any other students which is kind of obvious since it is a Saturday morning and everybody is still fast asleep the way I should be as well.

"I will take you to the best breakfast place in London." Mike promises as he starts the engine of the car and we drive off. He turns on the radio and the most recently released songs in the city are playing softly, making the car ride much more comfortable for me.

"Tell me a little bit more about yourself. I feel like there is so much that I could know about you if I knew that you are my daughter earlier." Mike says as we stop at a red light and I fiddle with my hands in my lap.

"Well firstly, I like to tell people stuff about me when I want to and not when they ask me to open up ..." Immediately, I notice how wrong that sounds and shoot him a reassuring smile, "But I get your point and you can ask me whatever you want to." I eventually say and look at him as he gives me a warm and genuine smile as well.

"Umm.. Let's start with something easy. How did you get to know your friends in the US?" Mike smiles and steps on the gas a moment later.

"Well, I tried out at this dance studio located on the edge of town and after my first class Milli and Simon came up to me and complimented me on my dancing which I know was a lie because I did not know how to dance for the love of god and then we kind of started talking more and more and had our first competition together and when life got worse at home I tried to push them away but Simon was so damn persistent in being my friend so they kind of forced me to hang out with them and- yeah. Then we got inseparable." I ramble on with my wild hand gestures and laugh whilst Mike looks at me worriedly.

"Okay I was not expecting this answer to be so out of the ordinary."

"I guess that this has been my normal for a while now."

"I fancy that you are honest about being unique. It gives you so much character." He says and I nod, knowing that this is not what I meant with out of the ordinary being my normal but I guess I can take his compliment.