Unbeknownst

Chapter 1- "Why?!"

"Why dad? Why now? Why not next year, or even two years from now? Why do you want to ship me off now?" I shouted in frustration. All I could think about was how inconsiderate he was being.

"Honey listen," my dad tried to comfort me, it wasn't working, "your different than everybody else, i-in a good way," he caught himself, "you're IQ is incredibly high for someone your age. You're quite literally the smartest girl in your school." He relaxed a little when he saw my reaction shift at the complement. "That school just isn't good enough for you. You should be glad I'm doing this for you. You're going to a great school with a lot of people who have the same..." he thought for a moment, "capabilities as you." I let out a loud huff and stormed up to my room. Just when things were getting good with Brett, I thought to myself, he was finally noticing me, and what about Ella! She is going to be devastated when she hears the news, after all, we have been best friends since the first grade. I can't just leave her like this! I fell face first into the soft mattress of my bed. It was just my luck for something like this to happen, for the one thing that made me different. That made me just a little bit better, to get in the way of my life.

"Why?" I whispered to myself, the sound muffled by the pillow that I had buried my face into. I laid there, motionless, until I finally found the relief of sleep.

* * *

I had no idea how long I'd been sleeping, but when I woke up in the morning nothing seemed out of the ordinary. None of my suit cases where packed ready on the floor, all the cloths that had laid on the floor for weeks on end where still there, untouched, and my pillow was no longer wet with tears. I felt as if it was all a bad dream. But when I got downstairs and saw my huge suitcase waiting, I slumped my shoulders and slowed my pace. I pushed open the double swinging doors of my kitchen and slowly ate the cereal that was on the table, my dad always did the easy things for me when I got upset like this, he had most likely already gone to work too. He was a neurosurgeon at the local hospital. Which meant working early mornings and late nights. After eating as slowly as possible I went upstairs and got ready, I brushed out my long hair and put on a tight-fitting pair of jeans and a long sleeved sweater. I waited downstairs patently for Ella to arrive, as she did every day since school began. I turned on the TV and stared at the screen, not exactly interested in what was on. When Ella didn't show up at 6:30 as usual, I began to worry. Did dad already tell her that I was leaving tomorrow? Was she mad because I didn't tell her myself? The doorbell rang snapping me out of thought. I rushed to see who it was and immediately perked up when I saw her there, though the moment was short lived when I realized that I would have to tell her that I was leaving. I opened the door wide and led her inside a little too aggressively, she looked at me suspiciously and I flashed her a smile, which seemed to have calmed her down. I had been putting this moment off for a few weeks now hoping that my dad would change his mind, but he never had.

"Hey, you look a little sick." She noted

"Oh, it's nothing." I reassured her, and that seemed to be enough. She started rambling about her and Mark and the 'thing' they have together. She talked for a good ten minutes before even bringing up plans for next week. I smiled a bit, hoping that I would never forget this moment with her,

"So, I think that next week we should go to the movies. You know me and mike-"

"Mike and I" I corrected her, she rolled her eyes and continued,

"Hey," she looked at me with a devilish look in her eye "maybe Brett could come." She raised her eyebrows up and down "I've seen the way he looks at you, oh, and the way you look back" I must have flushed red because she giggled at my reaction. There was a long moment of silence, which is a very uncommon thing when Ella's in the room. So I took a deep breath before beginning.

"E-Ella," I stuttered "I can't," she looked at me, her big eyes resembling a confused puppy,

"Can't what?" she prompted.

"I can't do any of that," I paused waiting for her to say something, and when she didn't I started again with my explanation this time "I can't do any of that because my dad is sending me off to some prep school for geniuses and I'm not," I paused and my voice softened "I'm not coming back, it's at somewhere in Wyoming. I leave tomorrow afternoon." Her shoulders slumped and I felt a sharp pain in my chest, I hated seeing her like this, but the reaction only lasted a split second before she perked up again.

"Hey, we will always have skype, right?" she said in an attempt to cheer me up. I smiled half-heartedly at her comment and began to slowly tune her out again when she began to ramble on about how I was missing an "opportunity" with Brett. She left for school and for the first time I didn't go with her. She promised that she would wake up early to say good bye but I doubted that she had that kind of strength in her. I told her it was fine for her to just sleep in and call me when she woke up. I led her out the door and she squeezed me in a tight hug before half jogging to her car. I sighed and dragged myself to my room. The entire rest of the day I watched TV and thought of what the hell I was going to do next, I quickly showered and got on my laptop. I had tried searching this place up a million times but never got much of anything. I searched for about half an hour and found nothing that I already didn't know. Defeated in turned off my laptop and laid silently in my bed, eyes wide open, fearing what was to come next.