A New Beginning

Part 5, A New Family

We arrived on post and I am immediately overwhelmed by the amount of camo everywhere. There are soldiers all over the place, I guess I don't know what I was thinking an army base would be like. Its like it's own complete city that only certain people have access too. I feel like a VIP for some reason.
We arrive at the house and walking in I am immediately attacked by a husky. On my mom's side they are all about the nicknames and that dog got yelled at with 3 different names before I realized what was happening. Bora, Rory, and Bobo. Turns out her name is really Aurora Borealis. Walking in, the house was way bigger than I expected. We enter in the first more formal living room, down the hall immediatly to the left is another hall with my room, Taylors room, and one of the doors to the giant bathroom. Mom showed me to my room there is a queen size bed pushed to the corner, a little dresser with  a TV, and a nightstand with a snow globe on it that I reconize from when I was 4.

" I hope it's alright, if not you can use Taylor's old room I doubt she'll mind."

"No this is perfect. I'm just happy to have a bed not covered in God knows what. Hotels are gross."

She watches as I dropped my bag on the bed, gives me a smile, then we head into the main living room.

"Hi I'm Jose, I've heard so much about you!"
He seems really excited.

"Hey it's nice to meet you."

"You look so much like your mother. I feel kind of starstruck, you are THE Mackenzie, it's nice to finally put a person to the name."

I smile and give a little chuckle "yeah I bet."
Isabella comes into the room

"Hey Memzy" she smiles at me.

"Hello Bella, it's been awhile."
I don't know if it's just me but I  can feel a lot of awkward tension in the room. I hadn't seen Bella in years and neither of us know how to react to one another. We used to get along really well when we were little so I'm hoping we can find that connection again.

A long conversation ensued when everybody was trying to figure out my personality, my likes, and dislikes. Jose is my mom's third husband. They got married in the three years time span that mom and I had no contact. He's clearly trying to make a good impression and I'd say it's working. He and mom were working together to make an incredible meal. With his Mexican backround and moms culinary education they make an incredible dinner.  As we're finishing eating someone showed up at the door. Mom answered it and a woman walked in.  She immediately looked at me.

"Wow that's her isn't."
She walks up to me and shakes my hand.

"Hi I'm Kim your neighbor and your mom's best friend."
Closely following behind is her husband and two kids. They're all introducing themselves and they seem amazed by my presence. Again someone shows up to the door, this time it's Taylor!

As soon as the door opens we lock eyes and I hear her yell.

"Ahh Memzy I miss you!"
Its been a year since I'd seen her.  We have one of those real dramatic hugs where you rush together and hold each other as tight as you can not letting go for a few minutes. I hadn't even noticed the guy following her inside.
"Hey you're Mackenzie, I've heard a lot about you I'm Eli."

"Nice to meet you." Is all I managed to say. I feel like some sort of celebrity here and there is way too much attention on me. I hate meeting new people beacause I'm a socially awkward introvert and this is a super stressful situation for me. I think Layla read my mind because she said,
"Okay everyone, back off the shiny new toy we've got some games to play."
She brings out three board games while Jose grabs the beers. We all gather around a large dining room table and have a good time. I've notice that everytime I look up someone new quickly looks away as if they weren't just staring at me. After the seventh time I learn to ignore it. I already know I'm going to like it here though. These people know how to relax and have some fun!