Spaces (h.s.)

1

February 2010

"Remind me why we're doing this again?" I complain as I lay my chin on my fist as I look back to my mom from the passenger side as she drives.

"Because it's the nice thing to do. When your neighbours invite you over for the first time, you need to bring something over", she answers, keeping her eyes on the road.

"Okay, but still.. not everyone does that. I'm sure it's just the Asian side of the family talking", I say as I look back out the window, beginning to draw hearts and stick figures in the fog that had formed from the rain. "Did I mention how bad this rainy weather 24/7 is for my hair?"

"Only about 1000 times since we moved here. I'm sure you'll get used to it. Maybe even let nature do it's thing and leave it curly for once..?", my mom suggests to me with a small, playful smile as she glances over to me.

I shake my head at the thought of it. "Not with my layers and bangs, no. Besides, taking care of curly hair is way harder than straightening it."

"Suit yourself... I just think it's funny how I curl my hair and you straighten yours. But I guess the grass is always greener on the other side, right?", the black haired woman asks as she lets out an airy laugh.

"I guess...", I shrug as my mind starts to wander off. I know I'm zoning out yet again.

All I could think about at this point isn't the nervousness of having to meet new people, but instead, the sort of mind numbing, stomach churning, throat tightening feeling of missing my friends.

It's been almost 2 months since I moved to Holmes Chapel. My mom got offered a job opportunity and a way better pay here, so obviously she couldn't turn that down. But on the downside that any kid moving overseas, I lost my life back in Canada. My friends, my cousins and my life in school. Hell, I had to start grade 10 in another school halfway through the year, which is a shitty situation to be in, by the way. I've never been a fan of change. Hate it. Especially when I was finally getting settled into the friend group i've had for the past three and a half years... well that's if you don't include the time i've been away. I miss the whole deal.

For some reason, I actually miss the mindless shit my classmates would say or do in the middle of class or in the hallways. As much as I liked to complain about how stupid and annoying and loud they were, at least I could understand their slang and what they were saying. Out here, "across the pond" it just sounds like a bunch of jumbled up words put together and somehow they understand each other. I think I'm getting better at understanding some slang, but it's no where near what I need it to be. Most of the time, I find myself repeating their accents in my head or mouthing it to myself. For some reason, I find it absolutely hilarious.

However, it's not like my social life now was dead. It's been pretty okay. I make friends pretty easily, really, but that's only if people approach me first. And when you're the new girl in your year that transferred from Canada mid-year, people get curious. People want to get to know you. And make humour out of my accent, or compared to them, the lack there of. I've got a solid number of 3 real friends in Holmes Chapel, and my family is starting to get settled in.

I finally zone back in.

"Which place are we getting the stuff, anyway?", I speak up, checking the time on the car and noticing I had zoned out for a good 4-5 minutes straight as the radio played.

My mom leaves a few moments of silence as she turns the corner, the only sound coming from the music on the cd player of the Civic she's driving. Finally, she points to a quaint, homey-looking place, to its logo on the side of one of its brick walls and responds,

"W. Mandeville Bakery"

"... Looks pretty cute." I speak in a monotonous tone, shrugging as I keep my eyes on it as my mom parks the car. "So... am I staying in the car or do I have to come in?"

"You say that like it's a bad thing", my mom says in a jokingly offended tone as she turns the key, turning the car off. She pulls it out and puts them in her pocket.

"I dunno... I mean, it's not, I just-... y'know... music. Rain. It's perfect..." I mumble as I pull my purple wired earbuds out of the pocket of my raincoat.

"I think you could do without for 10 minutes", she chuckles as she puts the hood of her coat over her head.

"Actually, I think I'd wither away if I didn't", I say in a playfully serious way, nodding my head so matter-of-factly to add on to the act.

"Ha ha.", she fake laughs, "C'mon, it won't be long", my mom insists, nodding her head and gesturing for me to get out the car and join her.

I sigh and groan a bit, but eventually smiling, "Fine."

We rush inside the bakery to avoid getting rained on anymore than we had to, and once we make it inside, I take my hood off and shake my head to get any rain off my hair. A curl starts to form on one of my hair strands. Well shit, now I gotta straighten that again. I swear, anyone in an argument with me could just simply throw water at my hair and immediately get me to back out.

"If you really don't want to interact with people that much, you could look around or stand to the side while I order, okay", my mom offers, and how could I say no to that one? Answer: no way I could.

I nod as I turn around, walking to the other side and leaning back back against the wall, putting one of my wired earbuds on. After a few seconds, I look up from my finger's fidgeting to check on my mom.

"That's all?", a curly-haired brunette boy asks her with a friendly smile, and my mom nods.

For a split second, the boy and I make eye contact as he looks over my mother's shoulder, and I could've sworn I felt my breath hitch in my throat. He smiled and nodded to me.

Dimples.

He looked like he was around my age. Tall-ish, green eyes and a smile that can only be referenced to as a sort of "Cheshire Cat" smile. The kind where it's wide and playful, where the corners curl up and it typically forms a side smile. The kind of smile that's just undeniably cute...

God, I've really got to stop getting crushes on random people. But something about seeing a bunch of new people... in England? I mean, the ones back in Canada were nothing special. Well, mainly the boys. At least the girls knew what a shower and a good haircut was.

He walked back into the backroom, causing me to break out of my thoughts. At that same time, my mom comes back and nods her head for me to follow her, and on my way out, I catch one last glance at the curly haired boy from the bakery.

I'm probably never gonna end up seeing that guy again... that's too bad, though.

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well, look who finally updated after a whole month! This one is sort of a backstory chapter, it's something I had scripted in, actually, so I thought I'd include it. It's not the best, but I'd like to think the end is pretty (👀) kind of thing, y'know?

Anyways, dunno how long it's gonna be till the next update but I've already got 2 chapters in the works so.. that's that.

bye!