The Rainboy

October

Well, they've gone and done it again. My parents are forcing me and my brother, Kurt to move to some other place like we've been doing for the past, like, 30 years. Papa, like me hates moving. Kurt doesn't care. He's a lonely 22-year-old that still lives with us. He can't get a girlfriend, a place to live, or even a job. He can't even go to a decent college. He's broke and our family is generally broke.

I've had several jobs depending on the many places we've moved. Like I had to stock up leather clothing in a Louis Vuitton warehouse in Paris. I worked at a post office when we moved to Michigan, America. But my favorite job was sorting cacao for Toblerone chocolate in Switzerland. I smelled so good and I occasionally got to eat some. My mama has always been a housewife, but my father receives complaints from people about car mufflers and that junk. He gives them help and if he can't help them, he finds someone who can. He works hard and loves his job because he really love cars. But it doesn't pay very well. He normally gets about 20 Euros daily. That's not a lot. But we can still pay rent, buy food, and live life. I need to find a job too. But now that we're in England, I need to find the conversion between Pounds and Euros.

My parents made me learn English. It's actually pretty hard, but you get used to it. My mom proposed the move one month ago and I can now say, Hello, Goodbye, Thank You, Excuse Me, I speak German, Do you speak German?, How are you?, and What? . My parents don't think it's enough, but I will try.

We left our small apartment in Frankfurt today. It was raining. I looked out my window as we crossed by Eiserner Steg. I was as gloomy as can be. We stopped in Amesterdam for the night. I fell asleep crying.

We continued driving. It was very late by the time we were in St Osyth. Our house was pretty big, but old too. There was a clean, fresh bed in my new room already. I kerplunked right on top of it. I had a really hard time falling asleep, from Kurt's snoring to just being anxious. I sang "Der Sandmann ist da", a German lullaby Mama used to sing to me when I was little and couldn't sleep. I guess she assumed I had grown to old for lullabies, but whenever we moved, a lullaby was all I needed. I'm never too old.

Westerby High School. My 90th new school so far. I've gotten used to the drill. Don't make friends or else you'll miss them and become depressed. I've made the mistake of making friends and missing them a lot the next time we move. Mama and Papa don't realize it, but our family moves about exactly every two months. They just love other places. I'm a homebody, which is why I'm sick of moving and was not looking forward to a tour of this school.

Mr. Holtzman, the vice headmaster, greeted me at the front. He was short, but man, he was strict.

"Welcome to Westerby High School." He said in a very proper tone. I tried to remember how to say "Ich spreche Deutsch" in English.

"I...I speak German." I said timidly.

"DusolltestEnglischlernen." "You should learn English." He said. The guy said both in German and English. The guy knew German. We continued on for the most boring two hours of my life.

"Kommen Sie morgen in der Schule.InderZwischenzeitlernen Sie einigemehrEnglisch." "Come to school tomorrow. In the meantime, learn some more English."

That evening I learned, please, thank you, I'm learning English, and My name is Regen Kommen.