The Cherry Trees

Chapter Fifteen: 2014

"Annalise Gallot?"

"Er-Anne," I corrected my teacher.

"Anne, then. I'm assuming you are new here," she said with a smile.

"Yes. I'm from Georgia. In uh the U.S."

"Very nice! Class, welcome Anne!" she said.

"Hi," the class mumbled. I blushed and gave a small wave.

The teacher finished calling roll, and then she turned around and wrote her name in cursive on the electronic whiteboard. It was actually a pretty cool thing. I had seen it at my school, but only the fifth grade classes had them. They were basically computers that you could write on with the electronic pen. When she finished scrawling her name out, I read it and then tilted my head to the side when I saw her last name. My hand shot up as I itched with curiosity.

"Eager Anne! What is it?" Ms. Myers asked.

"Do you have a brother?"

"As a matter of fact I do..." and then a look of familiarity stretched across her face. "His name is-"

"Jeff," we both said at the same time.

A smile played at her lips. "You are the little girl of the family that's living with him aren't you? I heard him mention it before, but I never put it together! Of course! The Gallots!"

I nodded, and Ms. Myers blinked a few times before realizing she had gotten way off track.

"Oh! Sorry, class. Anyways, today we will be getting know each other by writing a paragraph about ourselves, and then writing a few more about what we did over the summer. You have an hour to write it, and then we will all be sharing. No exceptions! Get to work," Ms. Myers said.

I pulled out my pink composition notebook and began writing with my mechanical pencil, that squeaked whenever I pressed down too hard.

My name is Annalise Claire Gallot, but I go by Anne. My favorite color is light blue, and my favorite thing to do is read. I also do gymnastics, and my favorite singer is Selena Gomez. I was born in Greensboro, North Carolina on September 28, 2004. I lived there until I was eight, making a few friends. When I moved to Roswell, Georgia, I met my best friend, Lexi, along with a few others. I had one pet, a hamster named Sprinkles. My sister Alice, who I got to name, was born a year after we moved to Roswell, and then only a few months later we moved to England. Here, I live with one of my dad's friends, until we leave to go back to Georgia in January.

Over the first few days of summer, I was packing and getting ready to come to London. When we got here, I spent the first few weeks reading and looking for a gymnastics center. I wrote my best friend every other week, and still do. In one of her letters, she told me to get a social life, so I set out looking for a friend. Then I met Remy, who I now play with everyday. The guy my family is living with, Jeff, took me sight-seeing a few times, since my parents both work, and my sister goes to a daycare. Overall, my summer was pretty low-key.

I looked over my small paper, and decided it would have to do, I really didn't feel like re-writing it. I scanned the classroom looking to see who else was done, but everyone was still writing. Then I looked over at the clock and saw that I had only used 20 minutes of my time. I sighed and started drawing a picture underneath my second paragraph. For a while I was just aimlessly doodling, but then it began to turn into our tree house. Man, I missed that thing a lot.

My thoughts were broken by a perfect English accent. "Anne?"

I looked up at Ms. Myers. "Yes?"

"Are you finished?"