Every Ocean

Chapter 1

William lay, head propped up against the window, arms and legs sprawled out,and back bent awkwardly at a 45-degree angle. He covered the middle chair as well, giving me hardly any room to have my legs crossed. 

Drool glistened around his mouth, and my face scrunched up with disgust when a droplet fell down onto his t-shirt. I did the only thing that had to be done, making him call out "argh", and I would follow with an "oops, sorry."Now my foot had accidentally woken him, he fidgeted in his chair,withdrawing his limbs from all around the backseat. 

"My neck hurts." He moans, massaging it with his hands. William's my little brother. He's smart. Smart and obsessed with superheroes to the point he could be considered 'geeky'. As well as having the personality of a traditional nerd, he looks like one too. Seriously, with the glasses and everything, as though he has fallen out of a movie.  

"Don't sleep on it funny then, Will." I held in the laughter, because the image of him sprawled out on the backseat lingered around a little longer. I smiled, turning back to admire the monotonous view from the window, but now in a much more comfortable position.Usually, I would be sat in the front, away from Will's annoying car ride habits, like sleeping all across the seats; playing the same video game for hours;insensible loud chewing of sweets that he doesn't even like, then would complain about- the list goes on. However, now Steve's in the picture, it's not just my Mum, my brother and I in the car. Well, in this case we are in a van- a minivan to be more specific. Steve came home with it on Thursday, beaming, "it'll be great for days out with the kids!" and all my Mum replied with was a sheepish grin. 

Steve's very keen on these family days out, and road trips together, but I know they'll never happen. I remember the first day Mum introduced us to him, he went on about how we will have family game nights, and family meals out,but we haven't had one in the nine months we've known him. But, I'm not complaining. I couldn't' believe what he was talking about, because he started only an hour after saying "Hi, I'm Steve!" I warned Mum that she was moving very quick, but all she did was smile and state it was a "whirlwind romance",and that she's positive he's the one. 

I'm old enough to say bye to my family, move out and start the beginning of my adult life, yet here I am, sat in a minivan driving to our new home eight and a half hours away. Steve has two kids who are already in the town, with their Grandparents, who we are yet to meet. Steve has lived in Rich-Moon Bay his whole life, and only met my Mum because he heard of a business opportunity in Santa Grove, where my Mum's lived her whole life. The business opportunity didn't pan out, and so they both took the big leap of my Mum moving in with him, taking us along with her. As I said, it's optional for me, but I'm still choosing to join them. 

I'm seventeen, almost eighteen, and all of my friends have gone to college (all 2 of them), but I had no idea what I wanted to do, so instead of wasting money on choosing a subject I could regret studying in a few months time, I decided to take a year to think about it. From how Steve described Rich- Moon Bay, it sounded quite appealing, and considering I don't like a lot of people being around, the small population intrigued me even more. The idea of the beach had me excited because at Santa Grove, we were in the middle of an industrial estate and there wasn't a grain of sand or litre of salty water for miles. 

I thought of this year as a fresh start for me- a time for me to relax, decide what I want to do with my life, and simply have a nice time. Whilst thinking about the fruit cocktails, and endless hours of reading in the sun, I failed to acknowledge that there would be three young children living under the same roof as me, along with an over excitable middle aged man, and my not so over excitable Mum. 

Steve's bellowing voice hit me right in the face, just as I was managing to dose off for the remainder of the journey, "how's the crew holding up back there?"