Human

1.

            "How much longer?" I groaned from the backseat of my father's Land Rover.

"Cadence, for the love of god would you just chill out?" My mom scolded me with her annoying voice. I swear, it is like nails on a chalkboard bad. "We will get there when we get there."

My father sighed dramatically next to her in the driver's seat. "About 20 or so minutes." He answered me while he shot a quick glare at my mom that she didn't notice.

"Thank you." I muttered to him. We've been in the car for 26 hours. I don't know what the heck they were thinking deciding to drive from Santa Barbra all the way to Missouri. Of course it had been my mom's idea. Dad would have been just fine with taking a nice first class flight over, but no. Mom thought it'd be a nice, fun, family road trip on our new adventure. Maybe I am just feeling pissy, but there is nothing adventurous about uprooting your life and moving to some Podunk town in Missouri just for the heck of it. That's just stupid.

If Stephen were here, he would be in total agreement with me. It was always the two of us against our two parents, but now I am the outnumbered one. It's only been a couple of months since his car accident. I shut my eyes tightly trying to hold back the memory of that night, but it plays in my head all the time. I should have told him I loved him too. I should have begged him to stay with me, or gone with him. It drives me crazy thinking of all the things I wish I'd done differently that night. Even if I had hugged him for just two seconds longer he wouldn't have been in that intersection at the exact time the drunk girl ran that red light. In 17 years I had never lived a day on this earth without him at my side, and now he is just gone and I'm still left here.

I open my eyes again and continue to watch the boring nothingness that is Swanford fly by my window. I don't know how my parents came to pick this place. I know I haven't ever heard of it. It had only been a few hours after Stephen's funeral when they dropped the bomb on me that we were moving. Apparently it was going to fix all of our problems. I don't know why I am being punished for the fact that my father feels the need to sleep with every woman he meets. I also don't know why my mom thinks moving someplace else is magically going to fix that problem. I mean, maybe that's how she found this place. Maybe it is the town known for having the ugliest women, so maybe she'll have a chance of him keeping it in his pants.

I doubt it though.

Dad slows the car down as we turn onto a small road just a block or so from the tiny high school. The houses weren't terrible, but they weren't like the ones I was used to seeing back home in California. I sighed loudly as we turned into the driveway of a ridiculously big manor style house.

"Do you have a problem?" My mom snapped at me.

I rolled my eyes at the pinched up face she was making. "Was it really necessary to buy such a big house? I mean really. There is only three of us you know?"

My father turned in his seat to glare at me too.

Stephen, I hate you for leaving me alone with them.

I hopped out of the car quickly to get away from their stares. I wasn't 100% sure where I was going, but I knew anywhere was better than with them. I took off back up the road toward the school and the small shops I had seen on the way in. Even the air here smelled wrong. It was so earthy and clean. I missed the salty air of the beach. I wouldn't be surfing anytime soon here.

I walked into the first store I came across. I knew it had been a mistake the second I looked around. Everything was pink and frilly. Pretty much exactly everything I can't stand. It was some type of fancy clothing boutique. There were a few girls walking around, browsing the selections so I tried to just blend in and do the same thing. I stopped in front of a pair of bleach washed shorts that actually weren't too terrible. I glanced at the price tag and nearly choked on my own spit. Who in their right mind would pay $85 for a pair of jean shorts? I made a disgusted face and turned around to smack right into another girl.

She seemed to be about the same age as me. She puckered her overly glossed lips at me and flipped her long strawberry blonde hair over her shoulders. "Um, excuse you." She said in a sickly sweet voice.

"My bad." I muttered as I tried to sidestep out of her way.

She stepped over again cutting me off. "Who are you?" She questioned. "I've never seen you around here before."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Oh, are you the welcoming committee?" I asked sarcastically.

She cut her eyes at me like daggers. "She's got jokes." The girl said unamused. "You're the new girl aren't you?"

I couldn't help the surprised look on my face. How on earth did she know that? Is this town seriously that small? "Yeah, I am." I snapped turning the other way to get away from her.

The girl grabbed my arm and stepped closer to me. "I just hope you know that you aren't going to impress any of the people around here just because you think you're some cool new girl from California." She muttered under her breath. "My friends and I run things around here, and you aren't about to come in and try to screw it up." I yanked my arm from her and quick stepped away before she could touch me again. I was almost to the door when she called out to me again. "Oh, I'm Natasha by the way." She said cheerfully. "See you at school tomorrow!"

I couldn't get out of there fast enough. Drama like that is exactly why I can't stand other girls. I had only two girl friends back home, and the rest were guys. I just don't get all the vapid, petty stuff. Guys are easy, you can just kick back and be yourself without having them judge every single thing you do.

I was fuming from my encounter with the snarky princess and I wasn't paying attention when I stepped out into the road.

I heard a guy holler and I looked up just in time to jump back out of the way of a car that was flying up the street toward me. The driver stuck their head out to yell at me as they drove by. I let out a little laugh at it, then turned to the guy who was standing beside me. "You alright?" He asked.

I smiled and shook it off. "Yeah, thanks." I replied. "I just wasn't looking where I was going."

He nodded and smiled back at me. "Yeah well, you better be careful of that in this town. You never know what psycho is behind the wheel around here." He joked. He had one of those great smiles. It wasn't just his mouth but his eyes would light up with it. He looked up over my shoulder and his smile dropped. "Speaking of." He said as he watched the white BMW come up the road and pull to a stop in front of us.

The tinted window rolled down and a ridiculously gorgeous brunette girl with deep dimples poked her head out. "Garrett." She crooned. "Come on, I will give you a ride." She hardly let her green eyes skim me.

Garrett shrugged his shoulders at me and walked around to the passenger side of the car. "I'll see you around." He called as he climbed in and then the car sped up the road.

I walked back to my house and went straight up the stairs to my room. All of our stuff had been delivered and set up for us already. I ignored when my parents called me for dinner. Sitting at a table with the two of them, and eating moms over cooked lasagna was not very enticing. Instead I planted myself at my desk in front of the window and started to sketch in my notepad like I like to do when I am stressed. Something about the strokes of the pencil on the paper, and the shadow it leaves on the side of my hand just relaxes me.

I had only been sitting there for a few minutes when I got a weird feeling. I looked up out the window in front of me that didn't have blinds hung yet and I saw that my window looks straight into the neighbor's window. The girl who had picked up Garrett earlier, was standing in her window glaring at me. When my eyes met hers she brought her hand up slowly while she gave me a very fake smile. She started to act like she was going to wave, but then she flipped me the middle finger instead and then pulled her curtains shut.

What the heck is wrong with the people around here?