Chapter VI
Fast-Forwarding Through the None-Sense
The rest of my summer in Moose Jaw went by uneventfully. The couple of weeks I had left of holiday I spent them in my room catching up with my reading.
I had many small goals in life—one big one to become a reporter—and reading all the books who had won a Pulitzer’s Price was one of them. So I read three biographies and also the fiction winner for 2010, Tinkers, by Paul Harding. I wrote reviews for all of them, for future use, though I did a more thorough job with Tinkers because of the skilful descriptions and also the fact that it had won even though it came from a small publishing house was impressive. And well, I had a preference for fiction.
Aside from reading I got familiar with the house. It was big and if we ever lost electricity or a smuggler came in I wanted to be able to walk around properly without killing myself over a desk. I walked again in the field a few times, always careful to go when there weren’t any workers there. Tank constantly followed me around when I did. My great aunts came for dinner a few times and I stayed clear of the humping-Pekingese. I lost many precious hours on my computer, caught up with episodes, stalked my friends back in Beverly Hills on Facebook and surfed through fashion blogs.
Samantha and Valerie came by the house a few times—usually not together—but they were a little bit more preoccupied with my brother than me to be really considered as social calls. As for Jared, he left for a football camp for the rest of the summer so I didn’t get to see him again.
Plain simple, it was a sucky summer, but I had partly myself to blame for it because I didn’t exactly go out of my way to make it nicer. I liked wallowing in my misery. It felt more dramatic that way. I could already feel that my friends back home were slowly forgetting about me. I called Neha as much as I could, but the other ones, with what I could decipher of their pictures and status on Facebook were moving on smoothly.
I loved my friend back home and I was more than happy knowing they were doing well, but couldn’t they have least fake missing me for longer than two weeks? For my sake?
Subsequently, when it was time to start school, I wasn’t the one to complain. I needed human interaction outside of my family and brother’s fan-girl club members. And I needed to go to school, get good grades and feel better about myself because of them. And I also needed to prepare my outfit for the day and have people actually seeing them. I didn’t need praise; I just needed to get my clothes out a little. They were like my pets; they needed a walk around the block from now and then and get attention from strangers. Also, you never got a second chance at making a first impression.
After many hours of trying on everything I had I settle for my Carven cotton-canvas and grosgrain skirt, my Chloé ruffled silk top, with my Miu Miu glitter-finish leather sandals who had five inches heels and my Stella McCartney Iris tailored wool-twill blazer if I ever got chilly.
The first day of school I got up extra early to get ready. I took a shower, arranged my hair into a stylised braid, put on my outfit and light make-up. I took my sweet time, enjoying the morning routine. It made me feel like I was back home in Beverly Hills. It was a nice feeling.
Downstairs, breakfast was waiting on the table yet again. So much for “only a Sunday ritual”. I would probably need to arrange my schedule so I would have time to sit at the table—not something I was used to do, to be honest.
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Teen FictionNaomi loved her life, living with her father in California. But when daddy takes a reporting job on another continent and loving daughter can't come, she has to go live with her mother and brother Noah, all the way up to Canada. With a new school a...