you live here?

1: news

wednesday, june 21st, 2000.

Riding the bus back home from school, I leant my head against the window, looking outside. I heard the faint humming of cicadas, the crisp smell of summer air, and saw kids washing cars for probably some money to use for buying cool things over the summer break. I mean, there weren't many things you could do on the bus anyway except for staring blankly out the window, or like me, listening to music if you had literally no one to talk to. All my friends were picked up at school by their parents, meanwhile I, get my eardrums blasted by playing music at full volume on my iPod shuffle.

The bus came to a halt - and I noticed it was now my stop. I hopped off my seat, lazily slinging the strap of my backpack over my shoulder and walking out the bus door and follwoing the sidewalk that lead to my house.

Once I'd gotten to my front door, I rummaged through my front bag pocket for my keys. They were hooked on a carabiner; then I twisted the key and opened the door, greeted by my mom walking down the stairs to say hi.

"Hi, sweetheart," Mom smiled, pulling me into a tight hug. "How was school?" She pulled away, a warm look in her eyes.

"... Oh, school?" I asked, reverting my gaze from her. "Yeah, uh... it was fine." I shrugged, slowly inching towards the stairs to get to my room.

"That's great, honey, dinner'll be ready in about..." She looked at her watch, squinting as she didn't have her glasses on. "Twenty minutes." She walked away and into the kitchen, probably getting dinner ready as she said.

When I got into my room, I flopped helplessly onto my bed. Flipping myself over, I stared at the white ceiling, and thought about everything that had been going on at the moment. As per usual, the answer was... nothing. I heaved a sigh.

God, I hated my life so far, It like, won't get any worse, right?

I quickly turned to my bedside table and clumsily knocked on the wood in case something worse did happen to me. I elicited a sigh of content and continued to stare up at the blank ceiling.

"Sweetheart, dinner's ready!" Mom called from downstairs.

I hesitated to climb out of bed, but I used up every inch of perseverance I could and managed to get out, making sure my duvet was folded up neatly. I then went down the stairs, my hand holding the railing so that I didn't fall.

"Yeah, mom... coming." I yawned of boredom.

Once I'd gotten to the kitchen, I was greeted by my father sitting down at the table. He gave me a smile, but as soon as mom had placed down all of our food and said the prayer, they didn't eat. I knew something was up by that.

"So, honey... uhm," Mom started but gave Dad a look so that he could continue her sentence.

"We're moving states." Dad blurted out, silently chewing on the steak.

"We're WHAT." I said, my eyes widening in horror.

"Young lady, you do not raise your voice at me or your father." Mom gave me a stern look, making me silence immediately.

"...Sorry." I looked away, digging my fork aggressively into my carrots.

"Anyway," Dad sighed. "We're moving to California." He nodded.

"...From Illinois?" My eyebrows raised.

Mom began, "Yes, sweetheart. Your father has been offered a new job." She continued.

"Oh, uh... cool?" I sawed through my steak with my knife, resisting eye contact.

"So, yes. We're going to the airport on Saturday." Dad huffed, mouth stuffed with food.