"Mom?" I called out the minute I opened the door to my house. "Are you here?" I didn't get a response. That's when I remembered that she was going to be at work today. I hope her first day went better than mine.
I went to the large kitchen and already saw the picture of me this morning taped on to the refrigerator. My mother, the overachiever. In that picture, I looked so happy to start school in a new place. Oh my god, where did that happiness go?
The house was incredibly empty. Even though it was only my mother and I that currently lives here, it has three floors, including the basement. The kitchen itself was massive. We had a big table that could sit six, an island, microwave, oven, stove, the stainless steel refrigerator, and a bazillion plates. It might not sound like a big kitchen, but trust me, it is.
I walked over to the pantry that sat on top of the island and took out a box of croissants. Yum, from Belle's Croissants Shop right before we left Paris. I grabbed a can of coke and walked up until my room.
It was probably twice the size of my old room. The room was painted bright blue from the last people living here, but when my dad comes back, I'm going to ask one of his set designers to paint an Eiffel Tower instead. There were many unpacked boxes still in my room, and the only thing that I did unpack was the important thing: my computer.
I quickly rushed to it and turned it on. I opened up Internet Explorer and started googl-ing absolutely nothing. None of my friends would be online right now and even if they were, it would be none of the friends I wanted to talk to. I'll make sure to set my alarm extra early so I could get a conversation in while they're at school. It's not like they worked anyways.
I heard the door click and I knew my mother was home. "Leighton, sweetie! I'm home!" she called and I turned off my computer and ran downstairs like a little child. "How was your day?" She had a huge smile on her face with her camera by her side. She held her tripod in her right hand and she waited for me to answer.
"It was..." I tried to think of the right word to describe it. Terrible? Horrible? The worse start of a new year ever and I want to move back to London? "Possibly not as good as your day." I finished. "What happened at work?"
"Leighton, it was amazing. The people here have such talent. It's so hard to stay in one pose forever, but the models did a great job. The crew helped so much today, it felt like all I had to do is click a button. It was fantastic. I am so glad that we decided to move to America. Aren't you?" I cringed at her words. Glad wasn't the right word I would use to describe the move to America, but I couldn't make my mother feel bad.
"Of course! America's amazing..." And like that, she exploded, going into more details about her day at work while I was thinking of ways to get us to move back to Paris. Oh how I missed you, Paris.
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"More steak?" asked my mother. She had spent the past hour cooking all of the steaks we had in the fridge. I was on my second one, and I was already full. Especially since she added mashed potatos, broccoli, and cream corn.
"No thanks mom. I think I've had enough." I pushed the plate away and started to pick up some of the food that fell off as I was eating.
"Are you sure? This is delicious. But we have so many leftovers." She looked back at the stove, where a pile of seven steaks were still sitting there. "What a waste of food."
"Just keep it for tomorrow or something. I have to go do some homework." I walked out of the kitchen and went back to my own room before flopping down on my bed. I stared up at my ceiling and thought about what to post on it. Hm... I thought back to pictures of my best friends. Maybe I can make a collage and put it up there.
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