Accepted Transitions

CHAPTER 1

As I stare out my smoggy window at 3am in the morning, I think about the one thing that's been on my mind since the beginning. The only reason why I am homesick, the reason why I'm an insomniac, and the reason why I had to leave the people I love so much behind...

My age.

...It sucks being 18, you know?

You have to deal with the transition of non-dramatic childhood fun, to melodramatic expectations, and getting into unworthy colleges.

Ugh, college.

Please don't get me started.

While I sit here and daydream about majestical creatures and being swept away by some sexy Greek god, everyone else is thinking about the following:

Education

Scholarships

...and Grad-School

Forgive me if I sound like your typical high school stoner, but I just think there's more to life than papers, book reports and studying.

But hey, guess you can't have everything, am I right? I don't want to start school..

...I wanna go back home.

"Hey! You ready to leave your childhood behind baby girl?' My dad jokes while practically throwing my memories into fresh, cardboard smelling boxes.

"Hn..."

"Oh you know I'm kidding. This is adulthood, a brand new life! You get to go on new adventures, meet foreign people, and get to drink all the vodka you want! Hey, maybe you even get to see those dancing bears!"

"Sure dad...' I mumble, tears prickling against my eyes, begging to fall down my cold ebony cheeks. The thought of me leaving the place I've grown so attached to over the years is heartbreaking to me. I never thought it was going to be this hard to leave Alaska.

I pause.

I'm leaving my home. My snow, my lonely walks at 12am with my best friend, my dad's famous hot chocolate...my wolves...

At that last thought, I stop taping boxes shut and crumble to the hard oak floor, my tears finally making their way from there prisons.

"Raves? Are you okay?!" My dad yells, throwing whatever he had in his hands into a random box and falls to the floor with me, holding my lithe frame in his broad shoulders while rubbing the back of my head.

"M-my dogs." I croak.

"Oh sweetheart...they will be ok, don't you worry. I promise I'll walk and feed them, and take them all on hikes, like you do. Okay?" After some silence, he pulls away so I can answer him fully.

I wipe my tears away with my hands, then after a couple of minutes I clasp them together, trying to break the silence somehow.

"...M-Mika doesn't like running next to Austin, so make sure their a ways apart from each other, okay? And also, Willow loves fish more than animal, so make sure she gets double portions of salmon then the others do with meat..."

A hefty chuckle erupts from my dad's throat.

"So that she gets as much protein as the rest of them. I gotcha Raven. You can always come back and visit each of them on your holiday breaks, alright?" He swipes my bangs behind my ears.

I smile, knowing my dad cares so much, and only wants what is best for me...mom would've done the same.

"Thanks dad."