one semester // s.m

02

Carolina Baise

     After a hard 'see you soon' moment with mom and a hundred thousand hours of flying, I made it to the one and only.. Toronto. I sighed of relief. I looked at the old Polaroid of mom and dad standing in front of the big Toronto sign that mom gave me. I grabbed my carry on and walked off the crammed airplane.

     After grabbing my luggage, I found a sign that says 'Carolina Baise' on it. There was a couple, about mom's age, and a girl who looked about fourteen. I waved and walked towards them.

     "Hi, um, I'm Carolina Baise." I introduced myself.

     "Hi Carolina, I'm Karen, this is my husband Manny, and our daughter Aaliyah." She introduced them all. "We have a son too. He's at home." She added.

     We all walked to their car and put my luggage inside the trunk. We talked about France and photography and how Karen was part British and Manny's job and Aaliyah's school life and everything nice in the Toronto life.

     "I'm sure our son Shawn would be happy to drive you around the area so you can get some nice photographs in." Karen assured me as she drove.

     We chatted the whole ride home from the airport. I mainly focused on the scenery around me. Which immediately made me pull out my camera.

     "We're home!" Manny said.

     Manny grabbed two of my suitcases while I carried the last one. Aaliyah opened the front door as we walked inside. Aaliyah grabbed my hand as we slightly jogged up the stairs.

     "This is your bedroom. Sorry it's not that pretty but you can make it work." She laughed.

     "As long as I have something to sleep on, I'm a happy camper." I said as I put my suitcase in the closet.

     "I'm so excited to finally have a girl in the house for once. Besides my mom, but you know what I mean." She chuckled.

     "Yeah I get it. It's just my mom and I living alone together in France. My dad died of cancer when I was eleven. So yeah, just us two." I sat down next to her and sighed.

     "I'm sorry," she put her hand on my shoulder.

     "Its okay." I smiled. It's hard not having a dad, but moping over him was never what he would've wanted. So I stayed strong and here I am, in the place where mom and dad first met.

     There was a knock at the door. I looked up at the door and saw the most beautiful boy I've ever laid eyes on. He dropped my luggage off outside my door.

     "Shawn! This is Carolina!" Aaliyah ran over to him.

     I stood up and introduced myself.

     "Carolina, this is Shawn. Shawn, Carolina." Aaliyah grabbed one of my hands and one of Shawn's and made us shake them.

     "Hi," he mumbled. It wasn't the most pleasant 'hi' I've heard.

     "Hi," I said back.

     I took a quick look at his face. Swirly brown hair, a little cheek scar, beautiful brown eyes, perfect pink lips. There wasn't a flaw on this boy.