Misfit Toys

Chapter One

If you've ever watched an English soap opera, you wouldn't have been surprised by the sight of Kate's new home town.

The houses were quite near each other with small yards. There were about twenty houses on each side of the road and you could see the central of the village. There was a post office, a few shops - different clothing ones and two grocery ones -, a pub that looked like the heart of the village, a bus stop to city.. It was like a copy of Emmerdale and Kate loved it.

Her home was at the end of the street (most of the village seemed to live in one street which was quite odd to her) and it had a nice garden that her mum had already planted a few flowers.  

Kate had her own room with a bathroom upstairs and she was nearly done decorating it. 

If you looked at the house from the street, it looked peaceful and beautiful. If you knew what was happening inside.. well, at the moment the piece was gone, replaced with anxiousness and tensed athmosphere.

"Mum, I don't want to go, how many times do I have to say? I don't want to go!"

A short, 16-year-old girl with brown hair looked at her mother with fiery eyes. She put her hands on her hips, wanting to kick something. Kate new she was acting like a five-year-old but at that moment she couldn't bring herself to care.

What kind of mum would force her child to go to a camp with complete strangers for two weeks? She knew her mum was thinking of her best, she knew she wouldn't go out and make friends without being forced but that didn't make her enjoy the situation any more.

"Kate, just listen to your mother. I know the kids in this village, most of them are nice and I'm sure you'll make loads of new friends. There will be kids from other villages too", her mum's boyfriend, Tim, said.

Kate sighed and rubbed her temples. She liked Tim and she didn't snap at her mom that often either. She let out a quiet "fine" and walked upstairs to her room. Being angry got her tired and gave her a headache. She fell on her bed, trying to calm down. It was only a camp, right? 

But social situations made her anxious. To her, social situations equaled humiliation and dissapointments - she wasn't really a fan of either.

She got up from her bed and sat down on the desk, opening her laptop. She was happy they moved away to a new village. Since she hadn't really had friends there, so there wasn't much to miss. She was an internet person anyway. 

You could tell that quite easily judging by the skin colour (seriously, she was as white as snow), eating and exercising habits (the best exercise is the walk from the laptop/bed to the fridge, right?) and the fact that she was a night person.  

While she surfed the internet, she looked at the calendar that was hanging on the wall. The camp would be in a week. Kate sighed, she had a week to prepare herself.

"Mum!" She opened the door and shouted to her downstairs.

"Yes, dear?"

"Can we go shopping for the camp?"

"Of course, we'll go first thing tomorrow, yeah?"

Kate mumbled a yes back and closed the door. Since she had no choice but to go, might as well take the most out of it? She didn't have that many summer clothes and a sudden heatwave had hit England - she was sweating like a pig even right now. 

"Ugh", Kate let out a non-pleased noise and walked over to her window, opening it and popping her head out to get some fresh air. Going outside was overrated. 

She saw a group of boys walking towards the central town, teenagers judging by the noice they made, and tried to get a closer look.

One in the group suddenly stopped and said something to the rest of them. The others continued making their way up the street while the one turned around and took a few faster steps. He walked to a house, the one before the opposite of her's, and Kate got what she wanted - a closer look. 

He had curly hair, he seemed tall and even a bit muscular. She couldn't tell what he looked like up close but he was definitely good looking. The boy looked up and saw her. 

He seemed to smile and wave at her.

"Hey!" He called out.

Kate quickly pulled inside and shut the window. She turned her back to the street and closed her eyes. Oh shit. 

She realized she hadn't said anything back and slowly turned to look outside the window again. The boy was now slightly laughing, waved her and walked inside the house.

Great, just great, Kate thought as she sat down on her desk, burying her face in her hands.  

If everything continued to go this smoothly, the camp would be fantastic.

........

When Kate's mum said they were about to do some serious shopping, she wasn't kidding.

That morning they took a bus to London that was only an hour away. Now, four hours later, they were sitting at the back of the bus with quite many shopping bags.  

"I really like the dresses we found, they look so good on you!" Kate's mum, Brenda, said excited.

Kate smiled at her mum's excitement and she had to agree. The dresses were pretty and the shape made her appear slightly smaller which was nice. Still, she couldn't look at the amount of clothes they had got without laughing. It was kind of ridiculous, but they didn't do shopping that often so maybe it was acceptable. Besides, Kate had given most of her old clothes to charity. Her mum said it would be pointless to carry all of them to their new house, they could just go buy new ones, and so they did.

When the bus arrived at their stop, they made their way out, getting amused looks.

"A girl has to do what a girl has to do, eh!" Brenda smiled. Kate slapped herself mentally. She loved her mum but sometimes she could be a bit.. daft.  

As they stepped out to the bus stop, Kate nearly bumped into a group of boys. As she looked more closely - it was the same group she saw outside her window yesterday.

"Hey, Brenda! You've been shopping I see?" Kate heard someone say. She turned her head to the direct the voice came from and saw the curly-haired boy that had greeted her yesterday. 

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as a small blush creeped up on her cheeks.

"Hello, Harry and boys! Yes I was. My daughter - you know my daughter, Kate?" Brenda greeted back happily and waved towards her daughter who slightly unwillingly raised her hand to a small wave and gave them a quick smile.  The boy group greeted her and smiled back, the curly kid (Harry, apparently) smirking knowingly. Shit.

"Yeah well anyway, we went to London to get some stuff for the camp! You're all going as well, aren't you?"

Kate watched as everyone in the group either nodded or said yes. Her mum clapped her hands excited, going on about how fun it would be. They talked for a while until she said they needed to head home to get some dinner on table. Kate mumbled a goodbye as they made their way down the street.

"Um, mum. How do you know all those boys? Should I be worried?" Kate asked, trying to hide the genuine curiosity and slight panic with a joke.

"Well almost all of them live on our street and Harry works in the bakery that's right next to the pub, you know that one? His mum is the pub's landlady", her mum chirped.

In other words, there was no way to avoid that boy.  

She found herself thinking of the boys eyes that looked like they were green, and the smile.... oh god, this was no good.

~^~

A/N: Soooooo, this is the new idea I've been working on for a while. Since it is summer... I thought it would be a good timing to publish the first chapter (and the upcoming ones).

Please comment, vote or even fan if you can or want. Thanks. xx