Feeling Blue

Feeling blue chapter 4

The great thing about where the new house is situated is that it is in walking distance of my school. I no longer need to catch the 4X bus which used to take forty minutes to get to school. It took much longer when it was busier, as it was a public bus. It was also a long walk to the bus stop from my old house. It would take me fifteen minutes to walk to my nearest bus stop and in the winter it was no fun at all in the dark and cold mornings.

I stood in the bathroom in front of the mirror, hanging in front of the sink. I looked at my reflection as I was doing up my red and black tie. My brown frizzy hair just hung there just past my shoulders. I could hear Leo crashing about over the boxes that still remained in the hallway. A few seconds later after Leo made the noise, I could hear my Dad shout up in frustration wondering if Leo had broken something.

I stumbled back to my room trying my best not to break anything. My bedroom consisted of a mattress on the floor, a wardrobe and a bookshelf. Around those pieces of furniture were a lot of boxes arranging in different shapes, sizes and weights. My study desk over the last day or so has been two boxes put together. Other boxes around the room had placed on them my revision cards and books from every subject. I was looking for my history book, text book and queue cards which I needed for a double revision session today.

I filled my bag up with books that were needed today. I stepped carefully down the steep stairs which were also covered in boxes. Navigating around the house was still a bit of a challenge, some doors which I thought entered into rooms were in fact storage cupboards. It was incredibly confusing.

When I found the kitchen it was absolute chaos. Dad was looking for his folder with all his facts and figures about the forest so he could sell off some of his business in the forest. Dad's business was a camp site which allowed children from the city to experience nature. It was great as he owned the forest as well as the house. At times he would ask Leo or me to camp with the children and set an orientation course around the forest. Those were the days which were fun but, we did have the occasional groups who hated the whole idea we even existed.
Dad was going to own part of the business and give the other half to that new couple who just moved in. He has now been offered a new job at the National Trust which is something different.

The kitchen was long but wasn't small, the newest part of the Victorian dated house. It was modern but wasn't as big as our previous kitchen in our old house. So moving around was a nightmare with all the boxes stacked up against each other.

Marina took the toaster off the chair to allow me to sit down. "Clara sorry, I can't seem to find the cutlery. Will toast do?" She asked while cleaning the worktop.
"Yes that is fine thank you." She smiled and plugged the toaster into the wall. She then put two slices of bread into the toaster and pushed the lever down.
"Up to much today?" I asked her while we were waiting for the toast to pop up. She smiled and replied with "unpacking I suppose." She giggled and jumped as at this point the toast popped up. She took it out and placed it on a chipped plate and handed it to me.

"You are not unpacking in your condition. How many times?" Dad shouted while putting two more pieces of toast into the toaster. He grabbed his cup of coffee off the worktop. "She can do whatever she wants Dad!" I reply with a bit of toast in my mouth. 

"Not when you're eight months pregnant!" Muttered Dad. He then put his arm around Marina. She then pushed him away, laughed and replied with "I can speak for myself, thank you. I can still do things just no heavy lifting. If I can't do something, I will let you know, alright?" She took a couple of plates from a box and placed them violently into the sink of soapy water.

I looked at the clock I was late for school so I grabbed my bag and the remaining piece of toast and headed for the front door dodging the boxes on my way out. I closed the door and I could feel a sharp, cold wind against my face. I looked up and saw the postman walking up the drive, past the Land Rover. He handed me some letters including some for the people who last lived at the house. There was one with my name on it, as I changed everything to the new address. I opened the letter while walking down the drive onto the main road.

It looked like a very formal letter in the way it was folded. It was from a college I'd applied for called Roundtree college. They had accepted me for an open day in two weeks time.
This gave me a sense of excitement while I walked quickly.