Black Sapphire

Chapter 1

••••••••Tennessee's POV•••••••• 

It all began when I moved to Gig Harbor. My father, Andrew, is a super natural doctor. On his last business trip, he came here for a client. He fell in love with this place and made me and my mother move up here with him. Just when I had become popular in California, I had to move for the third time this year. Now, instead of being on a Californian beach, surfing with my entourage, I'm stuck in Washington with rain and no friends! So now, I have to find new friends and new hobbies. So not how I imagined my summer holidays!  

"Tennessee! Let's go! We have to meet your teachers in twenty minutes!" my mother, Zoe, yells at me from the bottom of the steps of our new home.  

I really don't want to meet a bunch of adults who are going to ruin the next year of my life. A bunch of teen celebrities who are still in school always thank their teachers when they win an award, but we all know that they just say that so their teachers don't fail them! 

"Coming mother!" I yell back. Every new place we move my mom makes an appointment so I can meet my teachers. But my dad says that this is the last move until college or university, even then she will want to meet my professors. I start walking across my bedroom to grab my phone and text my old friend from California, Callie.  

"Cookie?" to get each others attention we write our 'special words.' mine is Cookie and hers is Donut. Some times we get into food wars where we text our special words back and forth for hours on end, occasionally adding a spinach from me and a cabbage from Callie.  

"Tennessee Parkham! Let's go," my dad yells. I hear his feet storming up the stairs. I quickly shove my phone in my pocket, grab my jacket, and race out of my room. I bump into my old man on the way down.  

"Come on, Dad. We're going to be late," I laugh, clearly mocking him and Mom.  

The way to my new school was completely silent. When we get to the school my mom and dad go to the front office to meet the principal. I sit in a seat at the lobby. I pull out my phone to check the message that I received in the car. It was from Callie, like I had expected, but instead of Donut I get a picture message. I tap the screen to open the message and I see some blonde guy giving Callie a kiss on the cheek. For one split second I am happy for her because I know she's had boy trouble ever since her last boyfriend cheated on her. Then that second ended when I realize the boy in the picture is my ex-boyfriend, Austin. Me and him split up after my dad announced the big move. I look at the photo again and see that they are under my favorite palm tree. I used to go there and watch people fail at surfing or do English assignments. Some of my best pieces were written under that tree. I turn off my new iPhone and am about to storm out of the lobby and go running home, crying, when I hear the sound of a door opening along with voices. There is a woman standing with them. She looks like she is in her mid-thirties and is wearing the ugliest pantsuit!! I happen to glance over at her left hand. I notice that her ring finger doesn't have any rings, meaning that she isn't married or engaged. Poor her.  

"Ah, and you must be Tennessee! Welcome to Gig Harbor High. I am Ms. Gerberg, the principal," she says with a heavy, British accent as she approaches me. But instead of greeting her I run out of the school, crying. When I get to the car, I throw myself into the back seat and bawl my eyes out. I hated Callie. I hated Austin. And I hated that tree.  

"Let me talk to her, Andrew," my mother mutters outside the car. The left, backseat door opens. I try to stop sobbing for a minute so that I can catch my breath. Mom slides into the car beside me.  

"Honey, I know you miss California. But Washington is cool too. Their school offers a supernatural class! I know you love that stuff, just like your father," she says once she is in and settled. My mother is always like this. She doesn't actually know me. Okay, she knows that I love anything supernatural. But she doesn't know that my preferable taste in guys is total beach surfer with blonde hair and blue eyes but I will fall for any cute guy. Or that me and Dad watch SpongeBob Square Pants behind her back because she believes that the show rots brains and that a majority of children who watch it are unemployed later in life.  

"Mom it's not-" I begin to say.  

"Then what is it," she presses. If she had let me finish I would have told her! I pull out my phone and turn it on. It goes directly to the photo. Seeing them together slaps me across the face. There it is.  

"Honey, I know this is a weird question. But are you jealous that Callie has a boyfriend and not you?" she asks.  

"Mother!" I am just shocked by what she just said. "Look at the guy, Mom" 

"That's Austin, isn't it?" she says with actual sympathy. I don't even need to answer. "Tennessee, summer is coming to an end. Soon you can meet lots of guys here. Let's just go home and forget this, okay?" I just nod my head.  

Once we get home my parents go inside, but I plant myself on the porch swing. I rock myself as I think. How could I let this happen? My whole life I imagined myself as the 'popular girl', and for a while I had all that, but I let it go. My parents don't know what I am going through. My dad grew up with perfect parents and a perfect life in Kentucky. He didn't have to worry about popularity. And neither did my mother who lived in Maine her whole life. I hear a sound coming from the house next to us. The sound of a door closing. I watch a figure come towards my own house. She is a petite girl with light brown hair and hazel eyes. She looks about seventeen, my age. I can smell the sweet aroma of the chocolate cake that she is carrying up our front steps.  

"Hi, I'm Lilliana. I live next door." she says shyly. I see her looking at her red, worn out, Converse shoes. I can tell right away that if I make friends with her I won't become popular. But this time I think I can survive not being popular.  

"I'm Tennessee! I just moved here from California!" I say trying to make some conversation between the two of us. 

"I just wanted to bring you this. And uh welcome to this place." I hear her quietly as she begins to walk away, she leaves the beautiful cake on the table.  

"You're welcome to stay! My parents wouldn't mind me having a friend a friend over for dinner." I offer gently. But as soon as I say it her face lights up. I've never seen this kind of thing before. People are usually so casual around me and don't care that I invite them for dinner. It warms my heart and brings a smile to my face, too. We go inside, smiling. We both have a new friend!