High School Treachery | ✓

PROLOGUE | Moving On Up

P R O L O G U E
Moving On Up

Lyndon Prince was ten years old when she and her family moved for the first time. She and her siblings had complained, whined, and cried—just a little—as an attempt to avoid it. But, alas, their parents ignored the pleas of the ten year olds and seven year old, ultimately relocating their family from New York City to sunny Miami, Florida. In the end, Nicholas Prince's new job opportunity mattered more.

The Prince siblings parted ways with friends whose names they can barely recall now and learned to adjust to the new weather conditions they were, practically, shoved into.

Things started to look good for the entire Prince family. For once, Lyndon and her fraternal twin brother, Noah, were getting along. For once, Lyndon and Noah actually included their three year younger brother Knox in their conversations. For once, the three kids voluntarily spent movie nights with their parents.

But, as usual, all good things come to an end.

With every new position in the company offered to Nicholas Prince came an even higher salary, and although peace and a happy family in his home meant the world to him, so did money. He's always wanted more.

At almost fifteen years old, Lyndon was told she and her family were relocating again, this time going back to New York City.

Nicholas and Angelica Prince had hoped their kids would rejoice at the news of going back to the place they once begged to never leave — but that wasn't the case.

The three siblings banded together, and that time, they won their fight.

Nicholas left the next morning, alone, to a new apartment in New York, while Angelica and her three children remained in their large house in Florida — a house that was starting to feel bigger and lonelier with every passing day.

When Lyndon was almost seventeen years old, she once again heard the news of her mother's desires to move. But Lyndon had other plans — plans that involved doing everything possible she could to, once again, stop this move.

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"We're not going to have this conversation again." Angelica Prince frantically looked through her bag in search of something. Her attempts to locate whatever was missing had proven to be useless, as her two oldest children continued demanding her attention.

"What do you mean again? You've never had a conversation with us about it in the first place," Lyndon had shouted from her side of the living room. She'd chosen to stand behind the couch, a good few inches away from her mother. Lyndon knew how her mother's temper could be, just as well as she knew her own. If Lyndon didn't play this conversation right, her mother would mistake her desperation to stay for disrespectfulness, and the last thing Lyndon had wanted was to get slapped across the face and still get stuck moving back.

Angelica threw her bag onto the couch and looked up at her only daughter. Silence followed the motion, and this is when Noah Prince decided was the perfect time to enter the conversation. "What Lynnie's trying to say is that you won't even speak to us about this move, Mom."

The stern look on Angelica's face had softened, only slightly, at the sound of her eldest son's voice — but not enough to change her mind. Nothing could stop her from believing that this move is one hundred percent needed, one hundred percent necessary.

"There is nothing to discuss, my loves," Angelica said as she grabbed her bag and continued her previous task of searching. "You don't want to go, but you are. I am sorry this is bothering you so much, but we were supposed to do this three years ago. I gave you three extra years here. Be grateful."