"Alouette!" mum's shrill yells wake me up.
It takes me a minute to realise where I am. And when I do, I burst out laughing. I fell asleep in a wardrobe. In England. I fall off the bench I'm laughing so hard, and land with a crash on the hard ground. I roll into the wardrobe doors, which fling open with a bang. This makes me laugh harder. I have tears rolling down my eyes, and a stitch in my stomach. Mum's heard the commotion, and has burst into my room.She sees me lying on the floor, laughing, and cracks up as well. Wren comes rushing in and joins in the laughing fit.
"What happened?" Wren asks, still laughing.
"I fell asleep in my wardrobe. I woke up, realised what I'd done, burst out laughing, fell off my closet bench, rolled into the doors, and they opened," I howl with laughter.
"Closet bench?" Wren asks, sobering up.
I gesture to it with my hand.
"Oh. That's cool," Wren says.
"Anyway, girls. I need to talk to you," mum interrupts.
"I'm actually terrified. Last time you 'needed to talk to us' you told us that we were moving countries," I say, no longer laughing.
Wren, who has turned a ghostly pale, and has worry evident in her eyes, joins in the conversation.
"Just get it over with," she winces.
I stand up as mum starts to talk.
"I know it's only been a day, and we're not actually properly moved in yet, but I was hoping that you girls could go to school tomorrow," mum says.
"Yes! It's been so long since I last socialised!" I scream out.
"You could've done without the build up. This was not worth the build up," Wren grins.
Mum smiles back.
"We'll get all your school supplies and uniforms today," mum says, handing us letters.
"What are these?" I ask.
"Letters from your principal. They have the stationery list, and the uniform dress code thing," mum informs us.
Wren and I get changed, and mum takes us shopping for school.
"Hey, where's dad?" I ask.
I can't help but remember the last time I asked that question.
"He's gone out to get some pillows and blankets for tonight," mum says, winking at us. "We might actually get some sleep tonight!"
"Speak for yourself! I had a really good sleep. 14 hours," I reply.
Wren smiles.
"Me too. My window seat is really comfy. And it opens! There's storage under it," she tells us excitedly.
"Cool! Was there anything inside it?" I ask.
"A couple of dead cockroaches," she laughs.
"Eew!" I say.
We walk into WHSmith and buy all our stationary. Mum sits on her phone while we pick out stationary.
"I've ordered your uniform. It should be at our house this afternoon," she announces.
"Oh. Cool!" I say, and she pays for our things.
We've been in this country for nearly 3 days, but when the cashier at the counter tells us the price of our haul, in a british accent, is when it finally kicks in.
Oh my gosh," I say, turning to Wren. "We're in England."
"Duh," she replies, rolling her eyes.
"Can we keep shopping? Please?" I ask mum.
YOU ARE READING
Can I Tell You A Secret?
Teen Fiction5 girls. 5 secrets. 1 way to find them out. When Alouette moves to England with her family, she's expecting to spend the rest of her school life in misery. With all of her friends and childhood memories back home in New Zealand she doesn't know how...
