𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐒

02. 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍 𝐋𝐀

Los Angeles, CA, USA
October

ALANA ALEXANDRA MILLER

"Oh my God, I can't believe that you're actually in LA!" My best friend excitedly says through the phone.

"Why are you so happy that I moved to California? Because I don't know if you forgot, but it means that we can't see each other every day like we used to." I say to my friend, who called me the minute I sent her a text to tell her that I got off the plane.

"Fuck, I just realized that. I'm going to miss you so bad," she tells me, sounding sad.

"Same, but we can call each other every day if you want. It's not like I'm going to make friends here anyway."

"Oh, come on. You need a new start, so stop with your anti-social mindset," says my friend.

"Well, it's not like I asked for this new start," I say in a whisper.

"What did you say?" Elena asks, bringing her face closer to the screen.

"Nothing, but I have to go; my dad keeps calling me."

"No worries, you'll call me when you're settling in your new room."

"Sure," I say and hang up immediately afterwards.

I quickly put my phone in my pocket and walk fastly toward my father, who's waiting for me near the exit.

"Be faster next time," says my father when he sees me arriving.

"Sorry, Elena Facetimed me," I reply.

"It's okay. So, Amber sent me a message to say that she was waiting outside, so let's go," he says as he leaves the airport.

I follow him, and when we're outside, I notice that my father is walking towards a white Porsche. When we reach the car, a tall woman wearing a long white dress with a white blazer comes out from the driver's side and hugs my father.

Their hug lasts for what seems like an eternity, and after finally letting go of each other, the woman turns her head towards me. And I can now clearly see her face.

My father's girlfriend looks like she's in her late thirties, and she has wavy, honey-blonde hair that cascades down her shoulders. She also has green eyes that are accentuated by the black mascara she is wearing. She looks at me for a few seconds and then smiles and says, holding out her hand:

"Hello, I'm Amber, and I'm extremely happy to finally meet you! Your father told me so many great things about you."

Well, he didn't tell me shit about you.

"Hi, I'm Alana, and I've also heard a lot of good things about you," I lie, shaking her hand.

She smiles at my father and says,

"Can y'all wait a second while I open the trunk?" Amber says as she returns to the car.

A few seconds later, the trunk of the car starts to open, and my father heads towards it to put his two suitcases in it. After doing that, he takes mine and puts them in the trunk. When he's done, he presses a button, which closes it, and he goes to sit on the passenger side while I go to the back seat.

I fasten my seat belt, and Amber starts the car, driving to her house, which is only 30 minutes from the airport.

I take my earphones out of my black backpack that I used as a carry-on, and I put them in my ears. Then, I take my phone out of my pants pocket and turn on my Spotify playlist.

I'm so focused on looking at the road through the car window that I don't even notice when the car pulls into the drive-thru of Raising Cane's.

"What do you want to eat, Alex?" My dad asks when I take off one of my AirPods.

"Anything, I don't mind," I say, putting my earphones back on.

A few minutes later, a boy comes to the window and gives Amber what we ordered.

She gives everything to my father, and he hands me my drink and my meal.

"Thank you," I say, taking the food from his hands.

I eat pretty quickly since I didn't have much food during our flight to Los Angeles, and after 8 minutes, I finish my meal.

I think we have about ten minutes of driving left before we get to Amber's, so I keep listening to my 13-hour-long playlist, and sometime later, we enter a well-secured neighbourhood where all the houses are huge and impressive.

This is the first time in my life that I've seen such big houses in real life, and I can't believe that I'm going to live there from now on.

Amber's white car comes to a stop in front of a house with a large black gate, and in less than a second, the gate opens.
Behind this gate was hidden a huge, beautiful, light-coloured modern house with a few palm trees in front of it.

Amber drives to the entrance and stops the car close to the front door. My father tells me to go get my suitcases from the trunk, and I nod as I unbuckle myself.

I get out of the car, open the trunk, and take out my two white suitcases. I wait for my father to collect his suitcase before I move and follow Amber, who was walking towards the house.

"So this is your new home, and I hope you will like it."

"I love it; this place is stunning," I say while glancing around.

"Thank you very much. You can follow me; I'll show you your room," she says while taking one of my suitcases and heading towards what looks like an elevator.

"So if you're wondering why it's so clean in here, it's because the housekeeper came an hour ago, and since my son is having a sleepover at his friend's house today, he can't mess up anything."

"Oh, okay. How old is your son?" I ask wanting to get to know more about the people I'm going to live with.

"He's exactly your age, so I'm sure you guys are going to get along pretty fast." She answers while we get into the elevator.

"Also, I completely forgot to inform you that your new principal called and told me that you can either choose to do your high school tour tomorrow or Monday. Furthermore, she told me that you have until Monday to start school."

"Can I do the tour tomorrow and start school on Monday like everyone else?" I ask not wanting to get behind more than I already am.

"Sure, we can go buy some school supplies tomorrow morning before the tour if you want," she tells me with a smile, and I nod. "Okay, so this is your room, and do you want me to walk you to your room or you're fine?" she says to me, pointing to a door at the end of the hallway.

"I'm fine, but thanks!"

"No worries, see you tomorrow," she says to me as she turns back to the elevator.

I walk towards the door she pointed to me, and when I open the door, I am shocked to find out that this room is two times bigger than the bedroom I had in New York.

I quickly glance around the minimally decorated room, and the first thing I notice is the king-size white bed with a white duvet cover and a nude beige-colored throw blanket at the end of the room. There are four big white pillows on the bed, and there are also two other smaller, light beige pillows.

On each side of the bed there's a white nightstand with two drawers each, and even though the room was not really decorated, there was a white desk at the end of the room.

I immediately take my phone from my jeans pocket and call Elena.

After two rings, she finally picks up, and I hear her tired voice say,

"Hi, do you like your new mother-in-law?"

"She's not my mother-in-law yet, but  she seems nice," I say.

"It's great. Don't forget that you have to show me what your room looks like!" She says excitedly.

"Yes, that's exactly why I called you," I tell her.

I FaceTime her and start showing her around the room. When I'm done, we talk about random topics until I finish unpacking all my belongings and putting them in the places where I want them to be.

"Well, I really have to go to sleep now. I have a brunch tomorrow morning with my mother's family, so I have to sleep." Says Elena, yawning.

 
"No problem, we can call each other tomorrow," I say, hanging up afterwards knowing that Elena is probably too sleepy to hang up.

I go to my dressing room and take out a random pair of black sweatpants shorts and a grey tank top for me to sleep in.

After that, I head to the light-coloured modern bathroom attached to my room and take a well-deserved shower before going to sleep.




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I'm probably going to change some details of this chapter but comment what you think of it.