Behind These Silver Eyes

Chapter One Evan P.O.V.

Moving is hard. Moving to a different city is harder. Moving to a different country across the world, to a place where you know absolutely no one, is the hardest. Want to know the worst part? I am all alone, in a big city.

New York City, the place where where dreams created, become true. Filled with actors, singers, dancers, writers, business men, and brokers, among other things. The place where my parents sent me to jump start my acting career. The place where my world turned upside down.

Before moving, I had never lived in a big city. The only time I had been in London, was on school trips and acting auditions. New York is different. Everything from the tall, glistening buildings, to the people inside residing inside them.

In England, many of the buildings are older, but in New York almost everything is newer. The buildings are bright, glass covered monstrosities in the sky, reflecting the sun. Instead of the driver being on the right side of the car, they are on the left. Everything is so fast, it gives me a headache. This world is hard and impersonal, compared to the small English town I grew up in.

At first I resented my family. They sent me here on my own, through an exchange program. They did not even get out of the car at the airport to drop me off. I was to pack my bags and leave the only home I knew, to move into Sara Jackson's apartment, and go to school with her son, Chase.

Chase was nice. During my first week here, before school started, he gave me a tour of the city. From the top of the Empire State Building to Long Island to Brooklyn. He showed me the difference between Upper East Side, where the embassy is located, and the Lower. Chase was a fun loving guy. I learned he played a lot of sports and was captain of the football team at Cullingham Prep. Although, every afternoon he would disappear with his younger brother, Pierce, and return back around two hours later.

I could not figure out Pierce. He was protective of something, or someone. Since his middle school started a week before Cullingham, Chase and I dropped him off at school and Sara picked him up, dropped him off at the apartment, then went back to work or class. I was suspicious, though. Pierce was always back before us, then he and Chase left. I always wondered where they went, until Sara came back.

Sara was almost like a second mom to me. From the time I arrived, she treated me like her own son. She was gone a lot though, at work or at NYU getting her masters in English, leaving us to our own devices. All of the Jackson's were hiding something.

Honestly, I expect my senior year to be different. I expected to have senior ditch day at the London Eye. I expected prom in the courtyard at school under the stars, then going to Vela's. But expectations tend to fail us. I was not expect going to school in America, or attending Cullingham Prep, the school that practically shuns people who express themselves differently. I did not expect to be thrown into a world so different than mine it's is an alternate universe. I certainly did not expect to meet her.

All of these things landed me here, at the base on the grand front steps of Cullingham, on the first day of senior year. Chase was beckoning me to head into the front office.

"Go up these steps, down the hall, and it will be the first door on your left," he instructed, telling me how to get to the front office. "Are you sure you can handle getting there? I can meet up with my friends later."

I just rolled my eyes, getting annoyed from his motherly attitude that started this morning. "Yes, I'm fine. Go meet up with your friends I'll see you a later."

"Okay. Oh! I almost forgot, Mom can't pick up Pierce today, so we have to. Meet me here after school." He said, before running off to meet his friends.

Before I ascended the steps, I took in my surroundings. From where I was standing I could see the different cliches in the front, crumbling courtyard. The building itself had an older castle feel from the towers to the front rod iron gate. The people inside was a different story. In the far corner blocked by a wall were the smokers, and sitting on the top of the steps were the cheerleaders. The jocks were also there, and I could see a familiar blonde amongst them. As if he could feel my look, Chase looked up at me and gave me a look that said 'Are you okay?' I nodded my head in responded.