If Normal Was a Thing

Ambushed With a Dare

The walls of the room I had chosen upon arrival were a faded creamy blue color, with a white ceiling that already had stars stuck all over the ceiling. Oakley had seen it first, and immediately shoved me towards it, claiming that the plush black carpet was just too much for her, and then plopped down one of her boxes in the middle of the only other bedroom on the second floor. My room was bigger, as her side had a built in bathroom and a walk in closet, and mine was just open space and a curtain covered closet. On the wall of the closet was a little door, but I immediately decided to never open the space due to bugs.

The move had been entirely my fault. Oakley's parents had adopted me a few short months ago. It had been a long and hard process, one where we almost lost a few times. But in the end the judge was in our favor. As a contingency of the adoption they decided that they would move away, sell their house that they had lived in for the past seventeen years, and move out to a town that was so far off the radar of our little country town, that there was no way I wouldn't be granted a new, fresh start.

That's the short version of how I ended up with my best friend Oakley, in a beautiful house on a half developed road. But the real story starts here, on the first day of unpacking, everything else is irrelevant. Sure it affected me, and Oakley and her parents knew that, but the point of a new start wasn't to dwell on the past, but look towards the future, right?

I was studying the walls, the floor, the space, everything, trying to envision where I would put the things I'd been able to bring with me. My bookshelf that my grandfather had handcrafted before he last away, for one, I had decided would be able to fit nicely at the foot of my bed as a base board of sorts, as there was already a built in bookshelf in the window seat. The window seat lead out to a flat part of the roof that I might be able to climb into...

I shook my head. No, that kind of thinking was useless now. If I wanted to go outside, then surely I could go outside.

So much had changed, I thought to myself as my hand drifted to the pockets of my jeans where my new phone resided. It even had a case that upon first look had been light orange, but once on looked more pink than anything.

I glanced back to the window that lead to the roof. I might not need it, but it would still probably be fun...

My train of thought was lost as Oakley's voice floated through the walls, talking about how she might insist that her walls be painted before she officially moved into the room. I left my new area feeling excited about what I would be able to do with it and my newfound sense of freedom, and started to grab the rest of the boxes.

♥ ☾ ♥

Sweat had begun to work its way into my clothes. I had already opened the window but even so, I knew that Summer in South Carolina would be different than it had been in Washington. I would certainly need a fan if I were to survive.

I scrunched you my face at the thought of money and needing a job, as I slid another book into its carefully thought out spot in the bookshelf that was indeed built around the window seat.

I had even further inspected the window to find that it was actually a double window that latched in the middle and opened liked French doors. They were single pane and practically begged to be used to go onto the roof. The window seat itself had a nice black cushion top that removed for storage space underneath. The window itself had a small ledge of wood that would support a smaller sized candle... not that I had any money, I reminded myself.

Despite Kevin and Stacey's kindness of adopting me, I wasn't going to take advantage of them.

I finished with the box of books I had been working on and carefully broke down the box to add to the few others I'd already unpacked. Most boxes had been clothes still on the hangers. Hastily packed, though it was great for unpacking, I reasoned.