I awoke to the sound of Liam Payne telling me that he's tried playing it cool. "But when I'm lookin' at you, I can't ever be brave." I sang along in my dreadfully croaky morning voice until I found my phone and managed to press snooze. Being the first day of term I'm usually excited to go back and see all my friends. But the problem is that I won't see my friends. I'm starting at a new school, in a new country and instead of being excited, I'm nervous as hell.
The past few weeks I've been here in Western Sydney have been miserable. Unlike my parents who have been thriving in the new atmosphere, I have spent most of my time in my new bed, which is unnecessarily big yet uncomfortable.
Like most things in my life since mum got her new job, it's too big, too fancy and generally over the top.
I find myself missing my two best friends, Sophia and Leigh. The way they always cheered me up by singing to me and made me feel like I had nothing to lose. But what I had to lose was them. When my parents decided to rip me from my comfortable life in London, my friends gradually moved away from me. It hurt but I couldn't blame them.
As I finally managed to rip myself out of bed and the hot shower water runs down my back, I find myself wondering what they would be doing right now. Because of the difference in time zones it'd be like six pm there, they're probably sitting together watching films and eating pizza. Pizza....
"Shit!" The word slips out of my mouth a bit too loudly when I realise I've been in the shower for 20 minutes. After turning the water off I step into my freshly carpeted room and dry myself while examining my new uniform. It's a hideous green pleated skirt, that, for a school uniform, is much too short. A blouse with the school emblem embroidered on the pocket accompanies the too-short skirt.
Today I will be starting the fourth term of year 11 at a public high school in western Sydney. I rolled my eyes at the uniform lying on my bed. At my private school in London uniform wasn't required. I tried to convince mum and dad to let me go to the private all girls school here but they said this move to Australia was a chance at a fresh start, and trying to replicate my life in England here would not help our family move forwards. "Move forwards?" I internally remarked with sarcasm with a roll of my eyes, "from what?" I wondered.
After my unsuccessful attempt at trying to pull my shirt over my head, buttons still done up, I impatiently undid every button one by one and put my clothes on the normal way. The skirt reached just below my bum and my legs were pretty white. I had just come from an English winter and felt insecure thinking of how tanned all the Aussie girls would be.
After fiddling with my skirt for a moment trying to make it as long as possible, I grabbed my makeup bag and sat down in front of my mirror. I applied just the smallest amount of foundation, pink blush and mascara, leaving myself time to lightly curl my dark brown hair which I had recently cut to reach just below my shoulder blades with layers framing my face.
I spritzed some of my favourite perfume, Someday by Justin Bieber, onto my wrists and neck. I couldn't leave the house without perfume on, to be honest I feel naked without it.
Examining my freshly-shaven and very pale legs, I decided to search around and see if mum had any spray-on tan. No, none. Why hadn't I thought of getting a fake tan before this?
When I felt ready I stepped back and examined my whole body. I couldn't help myself from gasping, the green skirt brought out the green in my murky brown/hazelish eyes which I had never before noticed. I looked somehow fierce but the curls softened the look. I didn't think I'd ever exposed so much of my legs. The colour of them wasn't so bad actually. I slipped on my white socks which went halfway up my calf muscle then my black leather shoes.
I then looked at the time on my phone and realised I only had a few minutes to eat breakfast and brush my teeth. So I just heated up the coffee my mother had left for herself on the bench and took it for myself since she obviously didn't want it. Instead of brushing my teeth I grabbed a packet of mint gum. On my way out I almost grabbed my jumper before realizing it was 37 degrees outside and that it wasn't winter here in Aus.
