Dear N.C. ,

WELCOME TO SOUTHPORT

June 1

Dear Cali,

Mom should hate him as much as I do. In fact even more. I guess I still don't understand why mom is making me move across the country to live with my dad for the entire summer and if that isn't the worst thing ever, I don't know what is. She probably thinks if I live with my dad maybe we'll work things out but I can promise you that won't happen. I'll miss you California, until next time. For now it'll be North Carolina I'm writing too.

"Leah!" I hear my mom's raised voice, making me jump. "What?" I respond, closing my journal and take my earphones out while I read the sign 'Welcome to Southport'. "I want you to at least try and talk with you dad" She says, making me roll my eyes. "We'll see about that" I say, leaning my head against the window as she drove through the city, finding her way to my dad's house.

I slung my bag's straps over my shoulder as my mom pulled into the small driveway of my dad's beach house. "Promise me that you'll at least try to be nice to your dad for once?" My mom asks as we both got out of the car, taking my big suitcase from her hands. "It's not like he deserves it" I remark, closing the trunk and following my mom to the drivers side as she got back into the car. "Well then I'll keep in touch.. love you, see you in August" My mom says, kissing my cheek before I watch her drive away. I head up the stairs to the front door, knocking on the door and waited. After losing my patience I turn the knob, surprised that it was open as I walked into the house. "Hello?" I call out, setting my suitcase and bags down. "I'm here" I say after not getting a response. "Hello??" I call out, louder as I walked into the kitchen, looking around. It was a nice place, small and simple but really nice. After figuring out that my dad wasn't home, I walked out the white french doors to the back porch and headed down the stairs as I followed the walkway that lead me to the beach. I could get used to this at least while I was here. Back home in California I have to drive twenty minutes to get to the beach.

I walked along the shore, carrying my black converse in my left hand as I enjoyed the company of myself. Well until I feel myself trip over the wet sand, landing on my knees and hands as I nearly landed on my face. "I am so sorry" I hear as I look up and see a boy around my age trying to hide his evident smile from laughing. I roll my eyes, standing up and tucking my hair behind my ears. "It's fine"I say quietly as I walked past him, seeing some of his friends laughing and we all knew what they were laughing at.

I walked back to the house, getting there after the sun had set already. I open the door carefully as I stepped inside and closed the door behind me. "Can you tell me where you've been?" My dad asks from the couch. "I could ask the same thing when I first got here" I say rolling my eyes. "I was out buying groceries so I could cook dinner tonight" He says, standing up and looking down at my knees as they were still somewhat covered in sand. "Did you go out and play beach ball or something?" He asks, walking over into the kitchen. "Something like that" I say and follow him. "I made us Chicken Alfredo, if that's alright with you" My dad says as he served the pasta on two different plates. "Yeah, that's fine" I comment and sit down in a chair with a table that had more than enough chairs for just my dad. "Why so many chairs?" I ask as I watched my dad bring the two plates, setting them down on the table and bringing the pitcher of lemonade, my favorite, to the table along with two glasses. "It's only four" He says as he sits down. I begin to eat, avoiding anymore conversation. We had enough already, at least I thought so. "So are you going to tell me where you were all this time before you got here?" He asks, pouring more lemonade into his glass. "I was just at the beach" I say nothing more as I continued to eat.

After finishing our dinner I get up from the table and bring the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. "If you're wondering where your bags are, I put them in your room" He says and points to the door on the far right. "My room is over there if you ever need anything" He also says as he points to the room across the living room from mine. I nod and walk into the room, closing the door behind me. The only thing that reminded me of my room back home was the white bed sheets and light gray walls. I begin to unpack, deciding where I would put my things and organizing my clothes in my new closet. I hoped tomorrow would be a better day for me, not that today was horrible but it could have been better for my first day in Southport.