I'm Not Fine At All || Calum Hood

A Fresh Start

Hey. My name is Layla and i'm 16 years old. I moved to Sydney about a week ago now. I lived in England with my mum, my dad and my older brother.

We moved here to start a new life. I was looking forward to everything apart from one thing. Starting school,

I had a lot of great friends in England but i was afraid i wouldn't be able to make any here. Who would want to be friends with me.

Why did i move here? Well that's a long story so stick around.

Ok so when we were younger, my dad used to beat my mom when he was angry and would hit us too. After so many years of violence my mom finally got the confidence to stand up to him. She set up a court case and everything. After years, she finally got a divorce. That was when i was 13.

Everything seemed fine after that. That was untill, a month ago he came knocking on our door trying to apologise. Mom knew not to fall for his tricks again. He always used to try that one on us when he needed money. He would try and act all sorry and loving untill a week later when he was angry again because he needed more money and people would be looking for him because of stupid bets he would make which he knew he couldn't afford.

Mom slammed the door in his face that day. But it freaked her out a lot. So she started searching for a new place to live. Eventually, she decided we needed a fresh start all together. And because my brother and I were as freaked out as her, we couldn't argree more.

So that's where Sydney comes in. We bought a beautiful house online and I couldn't be more excited about life here. And with that, I bring you back to the present.

I was sitting in my room, still painting after 3 days. I loved my new room. It was bigger than the one in our house back home. No. This is our home now.

Because dad wasn't there to take the money that mom had put her blood, sweat and tears into earning, mom had been saving up all that money and put a lot of it into buying this beautiful house.

I had a walk in wardrobe and everything.

I took a huge breath as I put the paintbrush down and looked all around the room. I was done.

Now I just had to wait an hour or so to make sure it was all dry before i could start moving my furniture in. I cleaned myself up before going downstairs.

"Hey Lai, your school uniform came about 5 minutes ago. Go look at it." I heard my mom say as i entered the kitchen.

My mom didn't really look like me. She had dark brown hair and green eyes. I had light brown hair and hazel eyes. I was also quite tall and slim I guess.

I walked into the living room and saw a parcel on the table. I opened it and examined my new uniform. It looked a lot like my old uniform except the colours. There was a white shirt, a blue jumper, and a black skirt. Underneath all of this was my school blazer. I guess I was happy with it. It looked a lot better than my old uniform.

I went upstairs to go try it on so I could show my mom. As i was walking upstairs i saw my brother leave his room wearing what looked like his new uniform. My brother, Alfie, was 2 years younger than me yet he was still the same height. He had brown hair and blue eyes, something he carried down from "He who shall not me named".

"Looks good Alf" I said admiring my brother's uniform. He would be going to a different school than me. He'd be going to a private school. My brother and I were both above average when it came to school and I had even gone to a grammar school back in England. But, seeing as we were starting fresh, i practically begged my mom to let me go to a normal school. My brother on the other hand, had chosen to continue with his higher education seeing as he wanted to be a game designer when he's older.

"Thanks Lay, I think i like it too. Feels more ccomfortable than my old uniform. I guess that's the Sydney vibe" Alfie replied, as he walked up to me.

"Just stop trying to be cool" I laughed as i hit him lightly with the small pile of my uniform i held in my hands.

"I'll stop trying to be cool when you stop trying to be funny" He laughed back as he continued down the stairs.

I rolled my eyes and carried on walking to my room. I slid into my uniform and went back downstairs. The skirt was a size too big but aoart from that everything else seemed fine.

"That was the smallest size they had. Seriously Lay, you need to put on some weight" My mom laughed as she observed my uniform.

For once in my life I was actually happy with my weight. I used to miss out meals just to get to where i am now. It's not that I eat healthy now, I'm just really picky with food. But don't get me wrong, if i like a food, I'll eat a lot of it.

"It's not that big, I think i'll survive" I said, examing myself in the living room mirror.

I went back upstairs and got changed again. I quickly checked the time, checked if the walls were dry enough, and then went back upstairs.

"Hey mom I think my walls are ok to start building my bed. They're more than half dry so by the time we're done, they'll be fully dry" I said whilst I sat down on one of the kitchen stools.

"Ok, I'll get Alfie to help you, go call him" My mom replied.

I called him from the living room and we both went upstairs after mom had told us there was to be no noise or trouble. Yh right.

Alf and I got along better than average siblings but we still had our fair share of arguements. In fact, we knew it wasn't an arguement we would get in trouble for. When we did stuff together we'd always form this sort of friendship that made us laugh and cause trouble A LOT. But after the move, we both seemed worn out and we just got to work so we could finish as quick as possible.

We put the bed together bit by bit to the sound of dishes downstairs because my mom was sorting out the kitchen. We were done in about half an hour at which point it was 9 o clock. Before Alfie left my room, I told him to tell mom that i'd be going to bed. As soon as Alfie left my room, I grabbed a pair of pajamas from my suitcase I'd packed full of clothes for the first week being here whilst the house was being sorted, and went to my bathroom.

I put my pajamas on, brushed my teeth and scrubbed all my makeup off. I walked back into my bedroom and quickly checked my phone. I looked at a bunch of tweets I'd recieved from friends back home saying that they'd missed me. I decided to tweet something.

@LailaPlaysGuitar: "Missing everyone back home. Dreading first day of school tomorrow :\"

I put my phone back on my bed and went to go fetch my blanket that was downstairs. We'd all been sleeping downstairs since we'd moved. Today though, we'd all managed to get our beds done so it would be the first night in our new rooms.

I went into the living room to find my mom watching tv.

"I'm going to bed" I said as I grabbed my blanket and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

"Ok, hope you have a good first night in your new room" My mom replied turning her attention to me.

"I will. You too" I said

"Oh and don't forget to set your alarm clock. Remember, you're going to be walking. I'll make your breakfast tomorrow morning." She said as I started walking up the stairs.

"Ok. Night"

I walked back upstairs and set up my bed. I sat in it and quickly checked my phone to answer some texts before putting it back down and crawling under the covers, turning out the lights.

Let's hope I won't die of humiliation tomorrow