Love from Tinley

Love from Tinley: Chapter 2

 Chapter 2: Ups and Downs

"This is inhumane," I moaned. It was 4th and final airplane that we were going on. But for me, being one not to appreciate air travel, I was ready to be in freaking Britain already.

We were close. The plane had just taken off. We were about to be on our way.

Nadia and I had sat together throughout all the flights, and people were fascinated with us being twins. One guy asked for Nad's number. I couldn't stop laughing the whole time he talked, until he finally got mad and hurried away.

Good thing he wasn't cute.

I shut my eyes, tight. I chewed my gum so furiously it felt like my jaw was going to pop off. "Nads, I hate flying. I hate it."

"I know you do," Nadia sighed in reply. "Now please stop complaining, you're stressing me out."

I took a deep breath, opened my eyes, and began to flip through the Sky Mall I snagged on the last flight. Since this was the overseas one, they didn't have Sky Mall. Which seemed quite absurd to me, but hey, whatever.

On the previous flight, Mom had handed me her phone when we were boarding. She had pulled up a set of pictures of our new house, which was beyond adorable.

It was a three-story townhouse on a street downtown called Atchison Lane. The house was white brick with really cute colorful accents, like a door with a cute rainbow mural on it, and colorful flowerboxes that hung over the balconies on each floor. There wasn't much of a front or back yard, but the gate in the backyard led to an extremely cute little park. Down the street was a local coffee shop/cafe called A Whole Latte Love, and next door to that was a bookstore called The Cat's Pajamas. I suddenly couldn't wait to move in.

There were pictures of the inside, too. Like a super cool spiral staircase that went through all 3 floors. Most of the walls were exposed brick, my favorite! Nadia and I had the second floor, which had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Mom and Dad took the top floor to themselves.

Throughout the whole final flight I couldn't stop thinking about our new house, and even our new life!

We got to restart our lives, Nadia and I did. But we decided that we weren't going to lie about anything. We were going to be ourselves, and see what friends we ended up with.

Speaking of new friends, we learned that next door to our townhouse was a family called the Rylands. They knew the realtor that was selling our house and pulled some strings to get our family e-mail address. Turns out they're super excited about us moving in! Mr. and Mrs. Ryland have 2 kids, like our family, named Drew and Lila. They also have a nephew that lives with them, and his name is Kendall.

Kendall and Drew are the same age as Nads and I, and Lila's only 7. We all exchanged phone numbers (with the exception of Lila) and have been texting constantly. They turned out to be super funny and I can't wait to meet them! 

Finally, the plane landed in the Kensington airport. It was pretty late, 2 am probably. Nadia and I were practically sleepwalking through the airport.

We had gotten a rental car until our Sedan got shipped in, so the delivery-car-guy gave us the keys and we loaded the car with our suitcases. I was just ready to get home.

I guess I had taken a nap in the car, because Nadia was shaking my entire body like she was on crack.

"TINLEY RHEA STEELE! WAKE UP AND ASSIST ME IN MARVELING AT THIS WONDERFULNESS!!!!" she screamed in my ear. I struggled to open my eyes, and when I finally did, my jaw dropped automatically. We were here.

It was gorgeous. Probably the cutest house I have ever seen, I thought, still half-asleep. But I was still pinching myself to make sure it was real.

"Can you believe it, Tinsley-boo?" Dad said. I rolled my eyes. He never failed to come up with stupid nicknames for me.

But I couldn't believe it! The place was ahmazing!

As soon as Mom and Dad unlocked the front door, Nadia and I sprinted inside and explored the entire house, determined to know it inside and out. Even the inside was cute!

And Mom and Dad's "special surprise" for us not making a huge deal about leaving was that they redid our rooms. So as soon as Nads and I figured that out, we ran upstairs as fast as we possibly could. 

There was a door on the left and one on the right side of the second floor. The one on the left said "Tinley Rhea" and the one on the right said "Nadia Camden." We grinned at each other and bolted into our rooms, both letting out identical squeals.

My. Room. Was. Ahmazing. Times. A million.

The walls were exposed brick, and one wall was completely covered in pictures of me and my friends. The floors were hardwood, like the rest of the house, but there was a super cute rainbow polka dot rug over by a TV/couch area. The room had a beautiful king-sized bed, which was white and iron-cast. The bedding was a multi-color floral print that matched all of the colors on the rug. There was a white desk on one wall that had a brand new pearly pink Macbook Pro sitting on it. White twinkle lights were strung around the top of the entire room, and there was a pretty white iron chandelier hanging from the ceiling. There was a white iron Eiffel Tower sculpture by the door that led out to the balcony.

It was beyond perfect.

It was all I could've ever asked for.

By the time I finally caught my breath, Nadia and I ran out into the hallway screaming. We swapped rooms; she looked at mine and I looked at hers.

Her walls were exposed brick as well, with the same wall of pictures and the same hardwood flooring. She had a lavender shag rug, though, and a black, white, and lavender bedspread on a black iron bedframe. She had a black version of my iron chandelier, and the same white desk, but hers held a silver Macbook Pro. She had twinkle lights, too, and a TV/couch area. But instead of a white Eiffel Tower like mine, hers had a black iron Big Ben sculpture. Her room was gorgeous, too, but I couldn't help but love mine more.

We screamed again and ran downstairs together, squealing out our "THANK YOU!!!"s and giving them huge bear hugs. I couldn't have been happier.

Maybe, I thought as I hugged my family, Kensington won't be so bad after all.