you live here?

2: moving

saturday, 23rd june 2000.

After surviving 2 of the most boring days ever at school, I had to finally let go of all of my friends back in Illinois. I mean, it wasn't that much grief to lose, but I still felt a pang of guilt after leaving my friends. Shit happens. You just have to shrug it off and pretend it didn't happen in the first place anyway.

Stuffing all of my clothes in my suitcase, I made a pile of clothes I didn't need so that I could donate to Goodwill afterwards, and a pile of clothes that I would bring with me to my new life California.

While packing up, I saw so many things that triggered childhood memories. My favourite penguin stuffed animal, my Elsa costume tucked away in the corner of my bedroom closet and Twister - a cheesy smile plastered across my face after reminiscing about the time I'd always win against my cousins whenever they came over. I mean, I didn't really need these things anymore; it was just kind of nice just to see them for the last time before I'd give my stuff away to charity.

I gave one last check under my bed, in my closet, and my drawers for anything I must've accidentally left behind: nothing.

"Ready?" My mom asked, peeking her head through my door.

"Yeah." I sighed, putting my penguin stuffed animal in one of my suitcase compartments. Mom smiled slightly at the sight of me keeping it rather than giving it away.

"Okay, sweetheart." She gave me a quick kiss on the forehead, helping me zip my suitcase shut as it was stuffed with belongings.

"Thanks, ma." I sighed greatly in relief, wiping the sweat from my forehead after running around the house for stuff I needed to salvage for our new house.

Me, Mom, and Dad walked towards our taxi, making sure to fit all of our suitcases in the back and buckle our seatbelts.

My eyes were glued to my mp3, clicking through the songs in my playlist. I watched as cars drove past the taxi i was in through the passenger's window; I saw a dog's head poking out the window in the back of a grey Toyota, which made me smile to myself.

We'd arrived at the airport. Dad rustled through his wallet to pay the driver in cash, and I also managed to help Mom safely unload all of our luggage from the taxi's trunk.

The three of us walked into the airport, the size huge compared to us.

"Let's see... So we're in terminal five now, and we need to go to the gate," Mom trailed off, scanning over the screen showing all the gate names and what flights go where.

"Gate M34." Dad said, pointing at our airline and what time it would depart.

"Yeah, what Dad said." I shrugged, trying to be helpful despite the fact that both my parents had worked most things out.

We dragged our suitcases along the smooth airport floor and finally managed to get to our gate -- M34.

It was weird, really. I'd completely forgotten what being in an airport was like since the last time I'd gone (I was five). Me and my family never really travelled by plane unless we were to go to the opposite side of the country, so we'd always just visit neighbouring states to Illinois.

My gaze wondered between the different commuters inside the airport. A family sitting down on one of the benches, a guy wearing a suit and tie carrying a briefcase, people inside the souvenir shops looking for some kind of memorabilia.

As soon as we'd gotten onto the plane, Mom checked the tickets to see our seats. D1, 2, and 3.

"Here." Dad gestured to our three seats, hauling our suitcases onto the overhead storage.

I took my seat, scrolling through the different movies on the screens. I decided to play some games while I waited for everyone to board.

While on the plane, we had breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You didn't have to expect anything fancy if you ate in economy, really. But hey, at least the plane gave out ice cream.

After the flight, which Dad practically slept through the whole five hours of flying, Mom watched a couple of movies, and I listened to music on my mp3 while drawing in a notebook, which was great.

We exited the airport and waited outside for another taxi to take us to our new house.

"You excited, honey?" Mom asked, stroking my hair.

"Yeah, I guess." I shrugged, taking out an earbud to listen to her speak and then eventually putting it back in.

Once our taxi had arrived, I helped Mom and Dad load our luggage into the back of the taxi. After that, we strapped in, and I still continued to listen to music. Dad talked to the driver about what to do and see in California, but I wasn't really interested in anything except for the sound of 'Creep' by Radiohead blasting into my ears through my earphones. That song makes me cry.

Holy shit.

When I saw our new house, my jaw dropped. It was surprisingly really nice. The modern exterior, circular windows... it was kinda like those houses you'd see the really rich people live in movies. Except I wasn't in a movie, and I wasn't 'rich'. I mean, Mom and Dad each have their own business, so I guess they must've found some sort of way to earn money.

I opened the car door, stepping out and looking up to admire our new house. It was in a small neighbourhood in San Diego, California. Not many people were outside their houses like our last place in Illinois. I heard the faint shouting of teenage guys and the skid of wheels against the concrete - probably a skatepark nearby.

Once we'd taken out all out luggage from the trunk of our taxi, Dad paid the driver in cash, and we entered the house to see all of our furniture placed inside.

The rooms were spacious and big compared to our last house, a whole ass fireplace in our living room, a kitchen island... Damn, my parents really knew what they were doing when they chose this house.

I rushed upstairs to my room, desperately opening the door to see it.

A closet built into the wall... a bed, and a balcony.

I heaved the balcony door open with most of my strength to see a view of the road below, cars parking in and out of their driveways.

You know whatz this was pretty cool.

I maybe might like my new life here.

I turned back to my room, imagining where I could arrange my things: my posters there on the wall above my head... my CDs on my desk here... my band shirts in there...

After what seemed like less than a few moments upstairs, I checked my wristwatch and saw that I'd spent twenty minutes just checking my room out and planning what kind of stuff I'd put.

Like my old house in Illinois, there was a staircase leading downstarirs, which was way cooler in this one because it was kind of curved and pretty fancy.

I carefully stepped down the staircase step by step, aware of the risk of falling down and potentially hurting myself.

I saw that the entrance door was opened, so I looked outside and saw the UPS van (probably with some more boxes for us). Mom and Dad were inside opening the boxes, and I helped unload some of our last ones from the van into our house.

I heard the scraping of wheels, which slightly irritated me. I looked up to see a guy, probably around the likes of the same age as me, doing cool tricks on his skateboard in his driveway. Weird. Who was he? Why wouldn't he just go to the skatepark?

"What're you looking at...?" He said, raising his eyebrows in amusement.

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chapter 2 just dropped, guys!?!??!!

thanks for reading (and the support!!) 😁😁🙏