❝ i didn't know that much at all 'bout love before, but now, i think i'm learning ❞
𝙞𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝 she's moves for school, and he dislikes her from the day they meet.
started. 8.28.24
ended.
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chapter one new zealand to arizona
"LOOK HOW CUTE THE SIGN I MADE is, i am so excited to meet her." brooke said as her and her family waited for the girl.
"you kept me up all night with your stupid music." mason said, his arms crossed.
"why did you guys volunteer for this again?" he asked turning to his parents. "your mom was an exchange student, and stayed with a very bad family and almost ruined her experience. so we wanted to make sure that doesn't happen to esmeray." mr. thames said.
"and who said we aren't a bad family." mason said. "cut it out." his mom said hitting his shoulder.
"ouch."
"what does she look like again?" brooke said as she looked at the terminal esme was supposed to be coming from.
"we'll know when we see her." ms. thames said. mason sighed loudly, taking his phone out his pocket.
meanwhile esme was smiling as she came out of her terminal, looking outside and seeing the bright lighting shining from buildings, and palm trees high up in the sky.
"woah! look at the trees." she said as she looked up at the tall palm trees through the window. esme excitedly went to baggage claim, waiting for her two suitcases.
she couldn't wait to meet her host family, all she knew was they were a four person family with one son and one daughter.
esme grew up with only one brother, so she was excited to see how it was like to have a sister. she fixed the straps of her vera bradley backpack, reaching over to get her first suitcase off of the conveyor belt.
when her last one came she wheeled them to the front of the airport. esme looked around, trying to find the group of four people she was supposed to be staying with for nine months.
esme made it to the front, and then saw the family. three of them were smiling, while one had his arms crossed with a mean mug painted on his face.
"esme! we're here!" the tall girl shouted, holding up a red, white, and blue sign that said welcome to america with stars around it.
esme smiled widely, walking quicker to the family.
"hi!" the girl with the sign said, hugging esme. "our daughter is super excited to meet you, and we're glad you chose us." grace, the mom said.
"it's an honor, i'm so excited for these next months." esme smiled.
"i'm grace, this is chad, and these are our kids brooke and mason." grace said, and brooke waved enthusiastically again.
"brooke is super excited to be sharing a room with you." chad said as he looked at his daughter.
"it's late though so we're gonna head back and brooke is gonna give your a tour of her house and her and mason are going to help you settle in." grace said.
"okay!" esme said, looking over at mason who was staring her down.
"mason help me with her bags?" chad said, as he looked at esme's two purple suitcases.
"do i have to? can't she just do it herself." mason said to his dad. his parents spoke to him quietly, and brooke walked over to esme to distract her.
"i like your bookbag, i've always wanted a vera bradley bookbag." brooke said. "yeah i love it, it's actually my school bag." esme said. (me after speaking 135 dollars on that bag for school.)
"really? wow." brooke said, opening the car door and gesturing for esme to go into the back of the car.
esme sat in the middle seat, putting on her seatbelt as brooke sat to her right. "so do you go to the high school too?" esme asked.
"yeah it's my last year, but i'm also a ballerina so sometimes you'll be stuck with just mason in the house." brooke said.
"that's fine, i'm sure we'll become really close." esme said. "i'm also a ballerina too, i do it new zealand."
"that's where i hear the accent, i really like your accent." brooke said. "i like your american one!"
esme and brooke started talking about their lives, ballet, and just getting to know each other. mason came into the car, staring at the two before clearing his throat.
"can you move? i need to sit." mason said, in a rude tone. "oh yeah, i'm sorry." esme said moving over a bit, even though mason had a lot of space.
"you have enough space mason, stop being a pissy baby." brooke said, apologizing to esme.
their parents got in the car, driving off and heading home. esme continued to point at things through the window, not used to the atmosphere of arizona.
it was usually cold living in south new zealand, so the suddenly hot atmosphere was throwing her off. along with that new zealand was nineteen hours ahead of arizona, so the jet lag was hitting esme bad.
half way through the drive she started to feel drowsy, and she could feel mason giving her dirty looks from next to her.
she didn't know why he seemed to hate her, they had only known each other for about thirty minutes.
esme didn't have the brain power or energy to try to figure out, and as soon as she got to her and brooke's shared room she went to the bed, falling asleep.
