Little miss lucky

Chapter 5

It's been two weeks since I moved and so much has changed. Firstly, I started a new school! It was a little bittersweet on my first day, because it would be my first day without my bestie and my boyfriend getting me through the day, but I was so excited! I'd forgotten what it was like to be a new girl - nerve racking but so exciting. It was so weird. Everyone stared at me and they all seemed really excited to have me there. Except one girl. Nikki. I suppose every school has its Lexi Valentine after all.
 
   The school looked so exotic compared to the tall, red brick building I'd been used to. This school was a huge, white building with a long path leading up to the front door. Tall palm trees lined the edge of the path and the sun was beaming down on us. I felt like I was on holiday, not going to school! We were shown to the principal's office where we were enrolled into the school. I was given a timetable. My first class was English, which I like okay. The teacher was nice enough, and so was my Science teacher in my next class. At break time I was surrounded by a crowd of girls wanting to know everything about me, where I was from, why I was there, how long I'd been in Australia.
      I answered everyone's questions until suddenly everyone stepped back. One girl caught hold of my wrist and pulled me to the side. A gang of three tall girls swept right through the middle of the small crowd which had gathered up. They continued walking without even looking at us. I didn't need to ask who they were. It was Nikki's gang. Lexi and her followers wouldn't  stand a chance against girls like this. They were all wearing tiny skirts and tops and they all had matching gold, jingling bangles on their right arm. And I don't know how they even walked in those heels!
Anyway, as soon as they had ploughed through our little crowd, I turned to the girl who had pulled me out of the way. "Hi," I smiled. She had long, wavy hair the same chestnut colour as mine, but she had some blonde streaks in it. She was quite tall with loads of freckles, just like me! No one back home had as many freckles as me! "Hi," she replied in an Australian accent. "I'm Kylie."
  Kylie and I walked round together all day, telling stories and laughing and asking questions about each other. Kylie said she had an older brother and she couldn't believe it when I told her about my huge family, which had got even bigger since the move! "Your cousins live in the same house as you?" she exclaimed. I nodded. "My whole family moved here, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, the whole lot!"
"You're so lucky," she replied. "I have loads of cousins, but they live all over the place and I've never even met most of them. It's just me in the house - well, my brother's there too but he might as well not be." I laughed, thinking how nice that would be. "It was never like that at home for me - I have two little sisters and a little brother who always want attention. But I suppose I love them really."

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I didn't feel like I loved my brothers and sisters when I got home that day. Our house is normally pretty hectic these days - it was bad enough when it was just me, mum, dad and four brothers and sisters. But add two aunts and two uncles, two sets of grandparents and two cousins. I'm sure you've had nightmares about it at some point in your life. Anyway, that's every day for me. But today was even worse. My youngest sister, Lily, was screaming her head off. She's only one, but she can make quite a bit of noise if she wants to. Then there's Daniel. He is five, and he's a right pain! He always walks straight into my room and steals my stuff. And he always shouts that he's not five, he's nearly six! Next there's Grace. Grace is nine and she's my favourite if my siblings - even though I don't think you're supposed to have favourites. But Grace tags round with me and let's me borrow her stuff and shares my stuff. And my other cousin, Jasmine's little sister, Jessie, is ten. So those two go about together while Jasmine and me are hanging out. Then there's me, of course, and then Scott. I've already told about Scott - seventeen and a total pain.
  Anyway, today Daniel was trying to snatch Lily's teddy away from her, so she was screaming. Grace was standing with Jessie, arguing with mum again that she wanted to share a room. Scott kept shouting from upstairs, telling us all to shut up. Again, my nightmarish reality. I suddenly had a brainwave. "Who wants pizza?" I shouted over the clamour, picking up the phone. It didn't take long for them to all gather round, shouting "Get me a pepperoni," and "Oh, can I have chicken?" I smiled to myself - if I was ever left in charge again, at least I knew what got them to stop. Food.

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After I'd finished my pizza, I went up to my keyboard and began to play. When we arrived at our new house there was a small room at the side of my bedroom. Mum wanted it to be an en suite bathroom or a walk-in wardrobe. But I just had to turn it into my music room. My keyboard is against one wall, my music stand in the corner and my violin case beside it. There was enough room to put my accordion beside a chair in the corner and my flute normally stayed on the chair. I just had to make sure I didn't sit on it! My guitar was hanging on the wall beside a few music certificates I had won. I loved my little music room - it was my favourite place to be. Then there was a knock on the door. Normally I would have screamed "Go away!" But I knew this knock. It was four short taps, then a pause, then two more short taps. Morse code for hi. I opened the door and Jasmine stepped into the room, smiling. "I thought you were never going to let me in!"she said with a sigh. "Sorry!" I laughed. "I couldn't hear you over the piano!" So we sat together at the piano and sang together, one of our favourite things to do.

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   That night I called Charlie, which I do every night. He told me all about how weird it was without me and that he missed me. I said the same things to him, of course, but I don't honestly know if I meant it. We'd only been apart for about a couple of weeks, but it already felt like we were drifting apart. I wasn't sure if our long-distance relationship would last for a few more years. Afterwards I called Megan and told her all about the new school. She laughed so hard when I told her about Nikki and her gang, the Australian Lexi Valentine. I didn't tell her about Kylie, though. I didn't think she'd really appreciate that.

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Thanks so much for reading this story! Will Melanie stay with Charlie? Will she keep her promise?

Find out in Chapter 6

  Thanks so much!
                   MelanieGranger17