𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒩𝑒𝓌 𝒢𝒾𝓇𝓁

⋆ chapter 1 ⋆

My heart was pounding as I sat on my messy bed nervously chewing on my fingernails. The piercing sound of my alarm abruptly waking me up from my nightmare, that I was sadly about to endure.

The only thing that kept me awake was the sweet smell coming from downstairs, salivating my mouth. I knew my mother would have cooked me something delicious for my first day of school as she would be feeling guilty she wasn't here to wish me a friendly goodbye.

I sat procrastinating on my bed, contemplating whether I should move. I wasn't quite used to getting up at 5:30 in the morning, the American school system being so different to the Australian one left me feeling stumped. America wasn't my home and it never will be.

The dumb school I was enrolled in didn't even have a uniform, what was the deal with the that. I opened my bare wardrobe wondering what to wear, looking at the stacked cardboard boxes in my room that I was to lazy to unpack. This is so dumb they had so many rules and regulations on the dress code why didn't they just have a uniform.

Obviously wasting to much precious time staring at a pretty much empty closet, I made my way over to one of the boxes simply labelled as 'Freya's clothes'. I dug through the box picking up a long white sleeved turtleneck, I guess it would do. I dug around a little more to luckily find my favourite pair of denim mum jeans. I quickly got changed knowing I was running short for time, praying I wouldn't be late on my first day of school. Just as I was leaving my room I took one last glimpse at my closet eyeing off my favourite flannel that caught my eye which I gladly wrapped around my waist.

I entered the bathroom and glanced at myself in the mirror, why was I so ugly? I tied my hair messily back into a low ponytail completing it with my favourite black scrunchie, giving up on how I looked. I dreadfully left the bathroom with my stomach desperately roaring at me as the delicious aroma wafted into the room filling up my nose. Arriving in the kitchen the sweet smell that I could now signify as pancakes became apparent, seeing a plate of the delicious goodies already stacked on the table with maple syrup by its side. The next thing that caught my attention was the note left on the kitchen bench, clearly for me.

"have a great day at school sweetie,
love you lots,
mum."

I'm not gonna lie it sucked living with just my mum, don't get me wrong I loved her but I wanted a "normal" family, you know the ones you see on Disney channel, a mum, a dad and a sibling. It didn't help I was isolated in my house all the time in a foreign country. I would daydream about my dad, who was he? What was he like? Would I ever meet him? The sad thing was I knew the answer to my last question and it was a no. My mum never talks about my father nor ever mentions him. If I asked a question she would pretend not to hear or simply ignore it. I believed I deserved the right to know.

Looking down my hallway I saw my mothers decorative clock reading 6:20. Well that sucks, I was supposed to already be out the door walking to the bus but I simply had no motivation and just wanted to go back into my bed and feel the refreshing sensation of being wrapped and cocooned in my cold duvet. I grabbed a banana and started running towards the bus stop which was a little over ten minutes away from my house but due to my lack of fitness I knew running wouldn't get me very far.

I saw the big yellow school bus trailing right behind me which made me cringe due to how accurate the shows depicted them. I safely made it on the school bus living the American dream. I sat down on the filthy fabric that lined the seats which stunk of deceased rat which was a smell I had to grown to become immune  due to the half an hour bus rides I had to endure even in Australia.