THE MAYFAIR MOON - The Darkmoon Saga I

Chapter 3 - A New Everything

Moving a thousand miles away from home in Georgia wasn't something I ever could've imagined. Lexington, maybe. I could even accept going as far as Savannah. But Maine? Not even on my radar. There was no sense complaining about it; I did the only reasonable thing I could do: I dealt.

My aunt and uncle lived in an old two-story house mostly surrounded by woods. It wasn't a rich place by any means; the outside could've used a new coat of paint, and by the looks of the yard, Beverlee wasn't much the gardening type. The plants hanging in pots on the porch were dead, and what might've been a little garden next to the shed was nothing more than a square patch of dirt overrun by weeds.

Alex and I both had our own rooms, and just like at home, ever since "the incident", she said little and did less. In her room, on the other side of the locked door, was where she stayed. Once, when Aunt Beverlee knocked on Alex's door to offer breakfast, Alex responded: "If I were hungry, I'd go downstairs and make something." I didn't know whether to be mad at her for being so hateful or worry about what was happening to my once loveable, always charming sister who'd never treat someone the way she treated Beverlee.

"I'm sorry for how she's been," I told Beverlee, sitting on the porch next to me later that afternoon. "It really isn't like her."

"She just needs more time," Beverlee said. "She'll come around. What you two have gone through is a lot to deal with."

That was an understatement.

It only took about a week before I let the changes in my life just happen—I'd dealt with them on day one, but by day seven, I'd accepted them and started eating dinner downstairs with Carl and Beverlee and watching TV with them in the den every night.

I always thought about my mother, though. I worried about her constantly. As it turned out, Jeff only spent a few days in jail before they released him. I asked Carl if my mother bailed him out (it didn't matter that he didn't actually do anything that time). My uncle didn't answer.

I had a lot on my mind: my traumatized sister, missing my mom, and what happened in Georgia. But I wanted to forget about it, to put it as far in the back of my mind as I could shove it. Focus on normal things, I told myself. If that were even possible.

School.

That was as normal as normal could get. It was my last year, and I knew I should've been used to change by then, but I thought nobody ever got used to having to adjust to a new school. Any other time and I would've been dreading it, but needing anything to put some normalcy back into my life, I looked forward to it instead.

My first day at Hollings High School was just about the way I expected it to be. Carl dropped me off on his way to work, and the few students hanging around out front barely looked at me. I slipped down one long hallway lined by art-filled walls and made my way to the front office. It smelled of cinnamon candles and hospital soap. A man in a navy work jumpsuit stood high atop a ladder with his hands buried in the flickering fluorescent light fixture above him.

"Good morning," a woman at the front desk greeted. "How can I help you?" She wore tons of gaudy jewelry on her wrists and around her neck.

"I'm new," I said. "Adria Dawson."

"Ah yes, I have your class schedule right here." She pulled a sheet of yellowish paper from behind the counter and handed it to me. "Great to have you."

"Thanks."

"If you have any questions," she went on, "or you need help finding your way around, just ask Julia."

I searched around, looking for "Julia". The janitor repairing the light grumbled a curse under his breath and sucked on the end of his fingertip.

"All right, it's up and running, Mrs. Wiles," a blonde-haired girl said as she came around the corner from an office door.