Unexpected. (A short story)

One

'There's literally nothing here,' Charles thought to himself as he was passing through Tooele to his new house on the outskirts of the small town. "Oh isn't this exciting, look at all the space. Charles I can't wait for you to see the house it's beautiful." His stepmother was just a bit too excited about moving to the dullest place he had ever been, seriously why would people live in a place like this, it's tiny and dull and nothing interesting about it except when he had looked it up they had the most teen pregnancies, so yeah not much, "Yeah sure Melissa," he replied. Charles's father, Kevin, turned to him and glared at him, "Charles please don't call her that, please call her mom or mother." He glare back at him, "Oh I don't mind, at least he calls me by my name and not Regina anymore." She said defending him. Charles was obsessed with Once Upon A Time and thought that Melissa had represented the evil witch very well. There was an awkward silence in the car for awhile until Melissa spoke again, "Look there's the house!" She said excitedly. I turn to see a two story house with a small lawn and a moving truck in front, and dull like the rest of the town. God he already missed their apartment in Scottsdale, he also missed the Arizona sun. He missed the people and busy streets he also missed his school and his friends. He had looked it up and he had the choice of three high schools in Tooele. Stansburry high school, Grantsville high school, or Tooele high school. Of course he picked the one closest to his house which was Tooele high. Charles steps out of the car and can smell the slight stench of chemicals in the air, the guy who was helping them move their stuff inside probably noticed the face he was making and explained, "There's a chemical depot just a little past Stockton there's also a few army depots here." Wonderful that's just what he needs, a chemical plant threatening to blow up any minute.
A few hours later and lots of going inside and outside they got all their boxes moved in. There was three rooms two upstairs and one in the basement one was Melissa and Kevin's room and Charles chose the one downstairs which was the second largest compared to Melissa and Kevin's. Charles didn't call his father 'dad' or 'father' he called him Kevin and he didn't call his stepmother 'mom' or 'mother' he called her Melissa, he liked calling people their names, he like the formality of it. Charles had gotten all of the boxes that were marked with his name into his room and started unpacking the things that could be unpacked. He got three of the five boxes done because three of them were clothes and other things and the other two were books, and these weren't small boxes, they were full sized moving boxes just full of books, Charles had over 100 books and had read each one of them, so he would have to hold off on unpacking those until he had a bookshelf or two. Since he had nothing else to do and his phone said it was only 19:30 he decided to go on a walk to see if this town felt as drab as it looked.
Charles had walked around the block a few times and felt like he would hate it here. He had found a small park that was vacant of any kids and sat on a swing and slightly pushed himself back and fourth with his eyes closed when he heard footsteps heading to him. He opens his eyes to find a person in a leather jacket, black skinny jeans and combat boots with dyed red hair. They look at each other for a moment, "Did you just move here?" asked the stranger "Yeah, how could you tell?" Charles replied a little sarcastically. "I'm Charles." he said before the stranger replied, the stranger smiled and stuck their hand out to be shaken, "Nice to meet you Charles, I'm Mia." They say with a smile, Charles gladly takes the hand and shakes it.
For the rest of the afternoon they talk about the neighborhood and the town and what the school is like. "So you really like it here?" Charles finally asks, "Hell yes. After awhile you get used to it and it grows on you and you start to love the quietness and you get used to the smell and the test sirens on Wednesdays." Charles chokes on his spit "Test sirens?" he says with a terrified look, Mia just laughs "Yeah test sirens. Just in case if the chemical depot melts down," Charles still looked scared "How can you tell if it did melt down? Wouldn't it just seem like a test?" Mia once again laughed "First it wouldn't say 'this is a test' before and secondly the tests go off at 4:00pm on Wednesdays, I think we'll be fine." Charles was still scared but not as much. He looked at his phone and saw it was 20:40, "shit," he said to himself "I have to go Melissa and Kevin are probably looking for me, maybe I'll see you tomorrow at school." Mia smiled "We probably will. See you tomorrow Charles." It was Charles's turn to smile. "Later Mia."
Charles woke up to his alarm the next morning, he didn't understand why he had to go to school today for his first day it was a Friday and useless to go, but whatever it was Kevin's rule. Charles showered, got dressed, and ate before heading out the door to walk to school in the slightly chilly morning. 'The weather would never have been this cold in Arizona at this time of the year.' Charles thought to himself as he pulled his windbreaker tighter on him and moved to the side of the road at the sound of a motorbike coming down the street. The bike slowed next to him and called his name he turned to see a person an the bike that he couldn't recognize because of the blue bandana on their mouth and the goggles they had on. They lift the goggles and pull down the bandana and Charles recognizes the person as Mia. "You want a ride?" Mia asks and Charles nods his head.
The whole day was as boring as school can get and Charles already hates the school but had every core class with Mia so it made it more interesting. He learned that Mia lived only two houses down from him and was going to a party on Saturday, "I would love it if you came with me to this party, because first you could make more friends and it seems like you would be fun at a party." Charles accepted reluctantly because he wasn't fun at parties. Mia offered Charles a ride home and said that if he wanted a ride any day that he just needed to walk down.
Mia dropped Charles off at his house and left with a "Ill pick you up at seven tomorrow for the party." and left. Well there was no way he could get out of going to this party so might as well get mentally prepared.