Converted: The New (Book One)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Emma

Paris, France

June 15

13:19

I feel bored. I look out of my window, the gray sky saying "Help. Please." My sweater and jeans are begging too. My green eyes and red lips are bright and happy, but not bright enough for me to be happy too. School's out but most of my friends are in Ireland or Canada and I have nothing to do. I look at my bedroom with its faded gray walls. The pink and white decorations. It was a basic teen's bedroom. Well, at least for me. I go downstairs and walk through the creaky, small townhouse with it's small, wooden steps. If emotions were colored, mine would be gray right about now.

I go into the dull, packed kitchen and make coffee while defrosting a pastry. The warmth and aroma smells like where I belong. Home. The smooth feel of the cup but the rough cracks feels like home too. The bright orange fridge and white tiles for the backsplash. The coffee maker, the microwave, and whatnot crowd the counter. The doorbell is ringing. It's probably a telemarketer or one of my mom's super-rich friends. I get prepared to yell at them in French or tell them off.

Instead, it's my best friend, Maddie. "Salut Maddie! Or should I say Ciao?" I tease. She just went to Italy for a week with her mom. Rome to be exact, but who cares? "Stop Emma! You know I was only there for a week!" Maddie responds. "You mean an eternity?" I question. Maddie just shakes her head as I invite her in.

"So how's Josh?" Maddie asks. Josh was my boyfriend and is spending his summer in NYC doing a camp by the Hudson River. "We text! We text! I swear you're going to go full on ship name and shirts and all that!" I exclaim. Putting people together is Maddie's thing. Once she dressed as cupid in fifth grade and made sure a couple kissed with her ' love arrows'. Unfortunately, Josh and I were the 'Lucky Ducks'. "Don't give me any ideas," Maddie smirks. "I'm grabbing some coffee. Black?" I ask. "You know me." Maddie faintly says.

I put the little cups in the coffee machine, but then I see someone in the herb garden in my small backyard. My mom and I decided to have a herb garden since the backyard was so small. "It will be great for a fresh taste!" She once said. But that was a long time ago. But anyway, there was a woman?

She was tending my plants. Who is that kind? I said out the window, "Thanks!" After I say that, she looks at me and runs. Odd. Guess it's one of those secret-be-nice things.

The coffee machine beeps and I take out our mugs. I turn on the water to cool it and something odd happens. The water floats. FRICKING FLOATING WATER!! It just floats for the moment. What happened to laws of gravity? Am I dead and this is all some dream?

"So, catch me up!" Maddie says filled with energy.

"Boredom. Boredom. Boredom. Done."

"Har Har."

"Seriously," I say with a straight face.

"Fine. You are so boring."

"M'kay."

Maddie's phone chimes.

"Argh!"

"What's wrong?"

"I have to go!" Maddie screams as if a bear was hunting her down.

"Why?"

Maddie is speaking briefly running out the door: "Meeting...Plane... Parents...Help..."

I wave goodbye. Loneliness. Again. It feels like being trapped in time. Nothing is moving. Nothing is happening. So I wrote a poem.