Blooming Youth

Chapter I | Meet the Moore Family

Lottie Moore

Last day of Summer. Farewell to the afternoons spent in bed watching melodramatic TV series and anime with my friends while we eat ice cream, the feeling of grains of sand on my toes while reading a good book, the sun hitting my face, and the grass tickling my bare skin as I appreciate the peaceful moments to sort out my thoughts...

That day I woke up to the sound of Hometown Smile by Bahjat as my ringtone. I groaned, reaching out toward my phone, and turning the alarm off. I was too lazy to get up, so I rolled over and faced the ceiling where a few quotes from my favorite books and authors stared back at me. Kind of like a diary of mine. In that way, I would wake up every day and read a random quote to gain confidence to face a new dawn. However, since the accident that this little ritual of mine started to lose effect. Now I wake up most mornings with a sickly emptiness weighing on my conscience, almost making me simply give up.

A moment later, my phone vibrated on the bedside table, indicating that I had received a message. When I turned the screen toward me, I saw that the message belonged to Luna, my childhood friend, saying that she would arrive in less than thirty minutes. Basically, a heads up to get my ass off the bed and get ready, otherwise, she would come up and do it herself. So, I stretched and got to work. It took me around ten minutes, but I had finished tidying up my room.

My bedroom was a decent one for an average girl like me. The walls were colored in baby pink and there was a bay window with a bench seat decorated with pillows and stuffed dolls and white translucent curtains. Looking through the window, you could see a navy-blue house and a forest behind it. Passing through those woods, there's a path that would lead to the old railway bridge that has been closed for 25 years and it's where my friends and I go to chill out sometimes. We hang out either there or at the junkyard.

Parallel to my white canopy bed, a large turquoise wardrobe was standing with a sea of lotus flowers below. It was Luna who drew them. She has a special talent when it comes to art I'm certain that in the future she will become a famous artist. Her future is guaranteed, unlike mine. I still couldn't find what my real talent was. Across the room, it stood my desk and a big corner bookshelf with four shelves. The bookshelf carried many types of books: romance, fantasy, horror, sci-fiction, classics, and crime, alongside other plushies of mine and a hot pink stereo.

Wearing the first thing I found at hand, a white t-shirt and a light pink overall dress on top along with a pair of white Nike sneakers, I started to braid my hair into two. I looked at the inside mirror of my wardrobe. Hazel eyes looking directly at me, my freckles salient, a pimple making its appearance on my chin. I knew that I was average but couldn't help feeling uneasy every time I saw those skinny girls with their immaculate skin and perfect bodies at school.

That's when I realized I had been fidgeting with the necklace around my neck. It consisted of a tiny silver butterfly holding a shiny pink stone in the middle, resembling a beating heart. It was my father who gave it to me for my eighth birthday. Since then, I have gained a new addiction. Whenever I start to get anxious, my hand automatically wraps around the little being to drive away unwelcomed thoughts. Just like a lucky charm... There it goes my mind wandering again until someone knocked on my door, snapping me back to reality.

"Come in!" I was almost done tying my shoelaces when I noticed in the reflection the door slowly opening ajar and heard some uncontainable giggles. A slight smile appeared on my face as I already knew what would come next.

"BOO!!"

An unpredictable weight jumped onto my back, the feeling of chubby arms wrapping themselves around my neck, almost making me lose the balance that I had to bend a little. In the mirror, I could distinguish two pairs of matching blue eyes peeking over my shoulders and gleaming with mischief along with their goofy grins. By them, I meant my younger sister and brother, Jessica and Thomas. Jess and Tommy for short. The troublemaker twins of the family.