The truth she held inside

4

When I step in the door the smell of ginger bread slaps me in the face. The only time the smell of ginger bread roams through our house is when my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins visit. I go to the kitchen and I see my Aunt and cousin sitting at our kitchen tabel.

"There she is." My aunt gets up and gives me a hug.

In the process I hug my cousin too. She can be a bit of a trouble maker but we have a good cousin relationship.

"What are you guys doing here?" I say, confused.

"Well, your cousin, Veronica is going to be staying with us for a while. She'll go to your school aswell." My dad gets me up to speed.

It came as a shock to me that Veronica would be moving in with us but not a complete shock. Veronica has always wanted to live where we lived here in Seattle, Washington. She loved Seattle so much, we'd always go out when she came to visit and sight-seeing was her favorite. She lived in Califronia her whole life so I guess as she got older, she grew tired of it.

Her and her mom were planning to move to Seattle eventually but Aunt Lena wasn't ready just yet.

"My plan is to move here next year. I hate to be away from Veronica but she just isn't happy in California and I want to see my girl happy. I will be up here as much as I can and as soon as I'm finished with my current job and find a place and a job here, I will officially live in Washington.

I think it's cool auntie Lena is allowing Roni to change schools a couple of months into the year, especially since she's not happy there.

"We'd love to have Roni live with us for a while. It'll be like those sleepovers we used to have when we were younger." Malia shows Veronica some love.

All three of us have been really close since we were little. I am the youngest out of all of us but that never affected the way they've treated me.

"Yeah, like old times." Roni says back.

As a group, we help take all of Veronica's things out of the car and bring the to the guest room, which is now her room. Her mom is going to stay for the weekend and the next time she'll be back is Christmas break, which will be about a week and a half long.

Malia and I help settle our cousin into her room. She tells us how excited she is to start a new school and be closer to us. She's a junior, and it'll be the first time in a long time that I will go to the same school as someone in my family.

"How are the kids at school?" She asks.

"Everyone's pretty chill. We all usually stick with our friends most of the time but you won't have a hard time making new friends." I reassure her that everthing will be just fine.

We have dinner at eight on the dot and that's where we do most of our catching up. Aunt Lena tells us about her job and how it's time for her to move on.

My aunt is my mom's sister, her only sister. Dad has more siblings on his side. Three sisters and two brothers, that means a lot more cousins. Our family is pretty big and my favorite thing is when we all get together for the holidays.

Late in the night, none of the adults are still up. On weekends I always stay up late, either on my phone or watching t.v.

The weekend flies by and before we know it, it's Monday. This is probably the only Monday of the year that I'm excited to go to school. Only because Roni is going with me too.

I go to check on her and she gets ready way faster than me. Her mom went back to California yesterday and I can tell she's sad about it.

"Are you ready for today?" I ask, trying to be enthusiastic.

"Yeah, actually I can't wait. You're gonna show me around right?"

"Of course. We should leave now so I can show you to your classes."

After our little conversation, we start walking. Today it's just my cousin and I walking and not Damian and I. He usually doesn't walk this early but I'm sure he will be walking with us eventually.

"Here we are. I'll take you to your locker first so you won't have any trouble with that." I point down the hallway where her locker is.

Her schedule has some pretty cool classes on it that I can't wait to take next year. She got a top locker that isn't so far from mine.

"You're here really early." I hear Arthur say from behind me.

"I'm showing my cousin around. It's her first day. Veronica, this is my friend, Arthur." She smiles and nods at him and he does the same.

"Oh there's another Nyla in school... I'm joking but it is cool that you go to school with your family. My sibilings are either too young or too old to be in the same school as me." He makes Roni smile.

Arthur and I show her around together. He asks her tons of questions about where she's from.

"I bet you went to the beach everyday. Cali is so beautiful, I want to visit there one day!" He's in awe.

"Yeah, it is beautiful but there is so much more to see, you know?" She replys.

"Here is your first period class, art. You'll love this class, especially because your an amazing artist." I can't help but praise her artistic skills because she seriously has talent. "We have the same lunch, you can sit with me and my friends if you want, there are plenty of open seats at our table."

"Ok, cool." Roni seems genuinely happy.

"I have that lunch too, do you guys mind if I sit at your table? I don't really speak to anyone at my table, I just stare at my phone the whole time." Arthur speaks.

I never really knew he was in my lunch until now. I would have loved for him to sit with us if I had known about his current table situation.

"Yeah, of course." I tell him.

The first bell rings and we are all off to our first classes. I do hope that she enjoys this school. I don't want it to be like California. I see Ava, Remi, and Lucy after first period and I tell them about Veronica. I didn't really have time to talk to them this weekend because I've been so busy with my family.

The conversation with them was a little strange because it seemed like Ava was the only one actually paying attention to me. Lucy and Remi got distracted by every guy that passed by. This is something that never really happened before and something about it just doesn't sit well with me.