The Mold

The Move

The move was numb, numb of all feelings and emotions. It had to be this way, what good were Arabelle's emotions at this point? They would would only make the heart wrenching yet necessary separation from the only town she knew much, much more difficult. Her and her family only stayed at their Nana's for one night, long enough to recollect and process, before collecting all of her Mothers retirement savings along with sentimental souvenir's and moving cross-country.

"It's small, but big enough for the 3 of us." Her Mother said whilst turning away from the steering wheel to quickly face her children, referring to their new house in Pomme, Oregon. "That's all we need, isn't it? Just as long as I don't have to share a room with this one." Ary replied with a half smile, attempting to lighten the mood with frothy sarcasm. This earned a "Seriously" from her 10 year old sister and a facetious eye roll from her Mom. "Listen guys it's a two bedroom house with a basement, I've looked at pictures and the basement would make a perfect room so I was planning on taking it--" Ary couldn't let her hardworking mother sleep in a basement, after all she's done for this family, Ary couldn't let that happen. "No mom, it's alright I'll take the basement, 'sides I've got dry skin, a little humidity couldn't hurt." Quickly interrupted Arabelle, adding a pinch of self-deprecating humor to lighten the favor. A quick chuckle from her mother and a cheery "Alright, it's yours." Was her reply. Ary looked out the car window and noticed with a disappointed sigh that the scenery of Pomme was by all standards boring. There was a simple pattern that the vast majority of Pomme followed, and that was; trees, buildings, and more trees. But, as Ary knew, all boredom is accompanied by peace, and peace could possibly be the most attractive state of mind for Ary at this time.

"All right, this is it." Her mother said while pulling into the driveway of a small egg-shell colored house. She spoke in a soft tone as not to abruptly wake Samantha, who was snoring on Arabelle's lap. After blankly staring at the still sleeping Samantha, Arabelle's Mother decided that Sam most likely wasn't going to sleep very well in the new house so it would be an injustice to wake her now. "C'mon let's go check out the house." Arabelle's mom left the car with Ary not far behind her.

"So this is the place? It's...cozy." Ary said to her mother after taking her first peek at the place. When walking through the front door, you're met with what seems to be the living room, obviously devoid of furniture at this point. To the left of the doorway is the stair case leading to the second story, the stairs are hardwood, an interesting change from her last residence. Straight past the living room is the kitchen, the only thing separating the living room from the kitchen is a flimsy piece of pressboard with a door way. "You hate it and you have every reason to, but this is all we got for right now so we gotta deal." Her mother said while running a hand through her thick brown hair, the same hair that she had passed on to her oldest daughter. "I get that Mom, and I actually kinda like it, it's... Peaceful." Replied Arabelle while continuing to examine her new new home utilities. The kitchen was barren except for a rusty stove that would most likely explode if tampered with. "Mom... How exactly did you bag this place on such short notice?" Asked Arabelle, simultaneously running her hand along the walls, getting a literal feel for the place. Her mother had taken a seat on a single folding chair left in the middle of the hardwood floor living room. "Hah, well honey,
I guess you can say I was desperate." Her mom said while blankly staring at the dusty hardwood floor, a sign that she's having an inner debate. "I didn't wanna say this in front of Sam but this house was a drug lab, our asshole landlord left that out, I had to find that out from doing some online research." Her mother said while simultaneously standing up and slowly striding towards the window on the houses facade. "This house, a drug house... Who would've guessed." Said Ary with far more salt than she had intended. Thankfully her mother had been so focused on her own captivating thoughts that she hadn't noticed the comment. "Well I'm gonna go get Sam, walk around for a bit." Her mother said whilst reaching for the door. Will do, thought Samantha, will do. The room that she had anticipated seeing the most was the basement of course, seeing as that's going to be her most visited area throughout this summer, a summer without promise, as she left all of her hobbies and friends three states over. "Maroon, seriously?" She whispered to herself, referring to the wretched color covering the entirety of her new room's walls. Although she complained to herself with gusto, she knew for a fact that no matter how ugly the walls were or how cabin-like the house was, it was still a living improvement compared to her last. Her father was, in simplest terms, an abusive man. That night wasn't the first time the welfare of her mother had been threatened by his nature, but with hope it would be the last. Ary still remembers being a child, before Samantha was even a seedling, and hiding under the dining room table, listening to the harsh words reverberating throughout the house, aimed at her mother. It only took her until grade 2 to see the patterns, and predict without any psychic background that these verbal attacks would escalate to physical ones, all in the time frame of maybe an hour.

After sitting in that basement, contemplating all that had happened to lead her to this point, she decided it was time to get personal with Pomme. Get to know the town, it's people, and it's architecture. She was going to be living here for who knows how long, so she might as well get comfortable with all of its nooks and crannies. "I'm going out." She said once she reached the top of the basement stairs, aiming her voice towards her mother. "Make sure your ringer's on, oh and me and Sam are gonna go out to the furniture store to look around, this place is depressing right now... Hey do you want a day bed or just a bed?" Arabelle only stopped long enough in her path to spit out "Bed" and continued out the door.

Not to her surprise, as she strolled down the hill her house sits upon, she was met with a group of teenage boys who couldn't help but oogle. They would've cat called as well if it wasn't for the fierce glare she shot them, causing them to quicken their pace. Although now sour because of the male sense of superiority and entitlement, she could understand their reasoning. She was probably the first new face those small town boys had seen in years, and not to mention her face itself was an attention grabber. She was not graced with traditional beauty, instead she was given something much more powerful. She had striking features; an oval face with a strong and perfectly centered up-turned nose, a set of plump lips and large, intense murky green eyes, placed deeply under her brow. Some would say her lips were too small for her face, or that her nose was too big, but no matter how you perceived her facial structures, you'd be hard pressed to look away. Her facial formation was uncommon, therefore it earned her a plethora of unwanted attention. As she advanced upon the bottom of the hill, and took a left, she noticed a park a couple blocks down roaming with teens, all of them most likely going to the highschool she'll be attending at the end of summer. To socialize, or not to socialize, she thought to herself while walking in the general direction of the park, still in a mental debate. Why the hell not? she thought to herself, coming to the conclusion that the benefit of potentially knowing someone at her new school out weighed the con of having to talk to people. And so she quickened her pace to reach her destination faster.