California Girl

Making It Easier

I stared down at my bowl of cereal. There was a huge weight on my chest, like an elephant was standing on me. What the hell was I supposed to tell Phoebe? I can't exactly rock up to her and be all like: "So Pheebs, my little brother got a major part in a major movie that's coming out, and we're moving to LA in two weeks. By the way what was the history homework?" No. I can't do that. It would break her. It would break us. Me and Phoebe, we've been the dynamic duo since reception. We were the ones who always got time outs for pushing the other kids out of the dress up corner, we were the ones who got in paint splatter wars, the ones who swapped food even though it was strictly against the rules. We had never been broken up for more than a month. 

I realized that I felt way to depressed to eat, and pushed my cereal away. Gina, our Yiyah, looked at me in concern.

"Do you feel not well?" she asked me, her filipino accent thick. I just nodded. It seemed like words wouldn't come. 

"Maybe you caught what your brother had." She tells me, putting her hand to my forehead to check my temperature.

"Go tell your mother, you have temperature, OK?"

"Yes Gina." I say, my voice husky from the crying that I did last night. I get off the stool and trudge through the kitchen to the stairs.

"Mum!!" I yell, which surprisingly doesn't exactly do wonders for my throat.

"Yeah sweetie?"

"I think that I have what Lex had, I'm gonna stay home from school today."

My mother doesn't answer, instead she comes down the stairs in her towel and envelopes me in a hug.

"I think that you deserve a day off." she says to me, looking concerned and motherly. I nod weakly.

"Go take off your uniform and get into bed, I'll tell Gina to make you some Tinola." (A/N this dish is kind of like a Filipino chicken soup, and it's soo yummy) 

I walk upstairs to my bedroom and look around at it. It's small, like any room in Hong Kong pretty much, but it's perfect for me. I have an awesome desk in the corner which is covered in ticket stubs, stickers and paint marker drawings. One whole wall of my room is covered in photos. Mainly of Phoebe and me, from the day we first met all the way until the end of last year, when we finally ran out of space to put photos on the wall. My windows are decorated with special window markers that my parents bought me for Christmas one year. I have everyone who visits my room sign their name somewhere on my window. I gazed around my room, picking up every tiny detail. My trophy cabinet, displaying trophies that I had won from swimming, athletics, soccer, netball, and many more. My pens and pencils spread crazily over my desk, my clothes falling out of their drawers, my Uggs lying near my bathroom door. It mad me so sad to think, that soon all this, all my life, would be packed up in boxes ready to ship out of the country. 

I flopped down on my bed, and felt the elephant standing on my chest again. 

"Stupid elephant." I muttered. I heard a knock on my door, and went to open it. Gina was waiting with a plate of rice covered by a warm, delicious soup. Tinola.

"Thanks." I told her, making a weak attempt to smile. She smiled back sadly and handed me the plate. I watched as she trudged back down the stairs, her shoulders slumped slightly. I guess mum and dad had told her about the move. I sat on my swivel chair, and began digging in to the Tinola. I ate and ate and ate, letting the satisfaction wash away my pain. Briefly. Once I was done, the elephant returned, but I guess this time he must've brought some friends along, because the weight felt like it had tripled.

I sat there for a while, pondering what to do. I could organize my clothes into keeping and tossing. I could take my books off my bookcase, and decide which ones I would ship and which ones I would absolutely have to take on the plane with me. Percy Jackson and CHERUB definitely qualified for books to take on the plane. I could've done these things, but I didn't. Instead, I heard my phone ring from inside my school bag. Borat's voice filled the room, informing me that I had a new text message. I smiled out of impulse, because I only have that ring tone for Phoebe. Then I remembered my predicament. For a moment, I wondered if maybe Lex had told Phoebe, and she was now texting me to inform me that she was never going to speak to me again. I shook that thought away. Lex would never do that, he knows that I have to be the one to tell Phoebe.