Indian summer

Chapter 1

I leaned my head against the car window as my mom continued to sing along with the band Alabama as they sang 'my song' Dixieland Delight. The static started to crackle and soon we lost the station.

"Dang, can't keep any station." My dad cursed, fiddling with the radio while keeping one hand on the steering wheel. "S'gonna take us forever to find a good country station."

"If we hadn't left we wouldn't have to find a new station." I muttered quietly, watching the trees fly by that replaced my beloved rolling hills of blue grass.

"You know we didn't have a choice." My dad said flatly, still trying to find a decent station. Everything was pop.

"Yeah we did, you didn't have to take this job."

"Dixie, you know this is really big for your father." My mom cooed. "It's a much better job than what he had before."

"But why Forks Washington?" I shot back. "You guys loved Kentucky, all our family is back there, [i]and[/i] Forks is the rainiest town in the world! There's never gonna be any sun! We're gonna be stuck in a little gloomy small town all because the law firm dad's workin' for waved some money at him."

"Dixie!" Mom scolded.

"That's enough, Dixie." My dad growled, giving me 'the look' in the rear view mirror. It was the look he'd give me when I was on the edge of getting a spanking. I didn't doubt my dad's ability of giving me, his 16 year old daughter, a spanking

"I don't understand why Rhett got to stay back in La Grange." I pouted.

My dad glanced at me again in the rearview mirror, "Because yer brother is legally able ta stay by himself. Ya ain't old enough and that's the end a this discussion." Whenever my dad got really pissed his thick southern accent came out. He worked really hard to work up a decent non-hickish sounding voice for his job. My mom took my dad's hand over the center council of the truck and held it lovingly.

My pants started vibrating then. I dug my cell phone out and flipped it open, there was a text from my 22 year old brother Rhett. 'How's the road trip?' was what it said. I texted him back telling him he better get his ass out here and save me soon. I knew he'd get a kick out of that but wouldn't take me seriously.

I pushed the send button, there was a cartoon of a letter flying into a mail box flashing on the screen. How ironic that they'd use that image that seemed almost ancient for today's newest technology. 'Message sent' flashed across the screen and the picture blinked away to reveal the background on my phone. It was one of those self took pics of me and my 'friend' Ronny. We had been straying into something deeper than the term friend when my parents decided they needed to uproot my life and drag me to the other side of the country.

In the picture my head was leaning against Ronny's shoulder, his arm was wrapped around my waist and he grinned that smile that made swoon every time. I had no idea if I'd see him gorgeous brown eyes in person ever again.

It was late summer, early August, I'd be starting school next week and knew no one. I had the same friends since preschool and now I'd have to make some new ones. Or I could just be the social outcast, go goth, sit in the corner and cut myself.

I'm way too dramatic.

The woods started to lessen and soon I saw a sign that said 'Welcome to Forks' in big bold letters. "Hey, we made it!" My corny mom exclaimed.

"Joy," I muttered to myself.

We had to drive down the main street to get to the other side of town where our house was, which didn't take long. The main street was dotted with small amounts of people and cute little shops you'd see on movies. Once we were on the other side of town the woods began to thicken again.

"I heard there are wolves returning to this region. Isn't that cool, Dixie? Maybe we'll see one." My dad sounded like we were taking a day trip to the zoo. I heard wolves were immensely shy animals and I highly doubted we'd see one.

We stopped at a stop sign and I could have sworn I saw a grey blur run through the trees. Probably my imagination getting the best of me.

Our house was nestled back in a grove of trees. I thought back to my home back in La Grange, Kentucky. We lived in farm country, it was all open except at this time of year when the corn was at it's highest. I sighed thinking of the yellowing acres of wheat and corn I left behind back home. I looked up at where the sky was supposed to be and felt somewhat claustrophobic.

The semi backed in our driveway after we parked off to the side. One of my dad's buddies had a semi and he offered to drive our stuff out. I stepped out of the car as the backup beeper echoed off the closely laid trees. I shivered and reached for my hoodie, it wasn't this cold when I got in the car.

My dad and his buddy, Gary, started unloading the boxes and me and my mom would bring them inside, trying to separate them into piles so we could at least know what went were. We finished unloading and waved good bye to Gary, our last piece of Kentucky.

My dad took us out to eat that night. All our cooking utensils were packed away and we had no food anyways. I think they also wanted to check out the town. We ended going to this small corner diner and I felt out of place as soon as we went in.

All the heads turned when we walked in, they didn't stare but they looked long enough to make me feel uncomfortable. We found a table, I would have chosen one in the back but my parents, being as eccentric as they are, picked one in the middle. The waitress had a sweet face and greeted us with a smile.

"You guys from around here? I don't think I've seen you before?" She asked, cocking her head to the side like a curious dog.

"We just moved here." My dad said, using his worked up non-southern accent. I could just feel the stares.

"Well, welcome! We're glad you're here!" The waitress then proceeded to take our orders and all that jazz.

Curling up in my newly made bed that night I thought about tomorrow. I'd spend most of it unpacking but I hoped I could try to find some people my own age. What kinds of things did teens do up here? What was I saying, it's not like I moved to a different planet.

I flipped open my phone and gazed at the picture of Ronny and me. I let out a long sigh. It may not have been another planet but it sure felt like it.