Chapter 1
“Charlotte, sweetie it’s time for you to wake up!” my mom, Alice whisper screamed into my ear as she shook me awake.
Then I realized what today was. The day we finally get to leave this old house in the middle of nowhere and move closer to my friends. “Okay, I’m up now!” I said grabbing phone and running to the bathroom. I put my phone on the counter in the bathroom, playing some music as I began my morning routine. I splashed some water on my face and patted it dry with a soft towel. Then quickly brushed my teeth, and applied some light makeup and pulled my hair into a ponytail. I packed up all my makeup, toiletries, and any other random stuff I hadn’t packed the night before into my duffel bag.
I tossed my bag over my shoulder and hurried down the stairs to eat a quick breakfast.
“Morning Charlie!” My 4 year old little sister, Abigail called to me as she wrapped her arms around my legs.
“Good morning, Abby! Are you excited about the big day?” I replied, pouring some cereal and milk into a paper bowl and grabbing a plastic spoon. We had been eating like this for the past week since Mom and Dad had already packed up our kitchen.
Abby looked up at me puzzled for a second before it clicked in her mind what I was talking about, “YES! I love the new house, but I’m going to miss this house!”
I sighed, up until this point, I had only thought of the positive sides of us leaving, not about all the memories that were attached to this house. “Me too, but we’ll make memories in the new house too,” I said.
I ate my cereal as quickly as I could and threw my bowl and spoon in the garbage. I know it sounds crazy, but I couldn’t wait to eat off of real plates and utensils again. My mom and dad, Matthew, came into the kitchen and told us it was time to load up everything else in the moving truck and head to the new house. I already had all my furniture on the truck. Even my bed had been put on a week ago. So for the past week, Abigail and I had been sleeping on an air mattress together in our room. That’s another thing I’m excited about in the new house, having our own rooms. I went upstairs to our room and did a quick “idiot-check” to make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything. When I had checked every room in the house, I grabbed my bag, got into the truck, and said goodbye to the only house I had ever known.
***
It had been almost a week since we moved into our new house and words cannot express how much I loved being walking distance from everything, including the beach. My room finally looked presentable and so I decided to invite my two best friends, Mallory and Carson over to have a girls’ night. The two of them had always lived next door to each other and now I was going to be living on the same street as them as well. Mallory and Carson were coming over that evening and so I went ahead and took a shower and blew my hair dry. Because my hair was naturally straight, I didn’t have to do much to it. I applied some mascara and a brush of foundation and blush. I put on a pair of Nike shorts and a sweatshirt and went downstairs to pick out some movies for us to watch. I decided to pick a couple of classic chick-flicks, The Notebook, Dear John, and Safe Haven. I figured we could also watch something on Netflix if we wanted to.
A couple hours had passed, and Mallory and Carson had arrived and we had decided to watch Safe Haven first. If you were to walk into my room, it would look like we got a lifetime supply of Hershey’s chocolate and decided to eat it all in one night. But what can I say desperate times call for desperate measures.
