How A Letter To My Future Self Changed My Life

Chapter 3 - New Town, New House and New Neighbours

'Sweetie, wake up. We're almost here.' My dad said as we approached the 'WELCOME TO PENNYVILLE' sign. 

A small town with a withered old sign. How cliché.

It took us another 5 minutes to get to our new house and I used this time to observe my surroundings (and to fully wake up from an impromptu nap).

It looked like any other average town - kids were playing in the local park and the older generation were fishing by the side of the lake. The only difference that I could see so far from Springwood was that Pennyville was really small. There were only around 50 houses in the entire town, according to my parents. There was a post office, two schools, a university, a park and a lake. Oh, and there would soon be a café. Obviously. 

It would be very strange living in such a small town after having lived in a big city all of my life. But I was living under a new mantra: 

New town, new life, new me.

The first thing I noticed when we pulled up on the driveway of our new house was that it was absolutely massive. It was completely detached - which was in big contrast to our semi-detached back in Springwood - and had a white Pickett fence around the perimeter. It appeared as though all of the houses in the neighbourhood were detached which was very weird to me. Perhaps we had moved to an affluent area??

Stepping out of the car, I opened the porch door and noticed that our new home had a name. 

'Renacimiento' 

I thought that that was the most beautiful name. (Later I would discover that it meant 'Rebirth' in Spanish which is highly ironic and very, very fitting) I was about to turn around and ask my parents what the name meant and why it was on the front of the house but I saw that dad was juggling a few boxes and trying to open the front door at the same time.

'Don't hurt yourself before we even get to step into the new house, dad.'

'Yeah. Yeah. I don't see you actually helping anyone or anything Abbie!'

'I just want to make sure that I get the best room. I can't have the one at the back again - there's no sunlight!! If you actually OPEN THE DOOR I can scope out the area AND THEN I'LL HELP'

'Take the keys from me...' He jingled them in between his thumb and forefinger 

 '...unless you want the cutlery ending up on the floor. And I bloody hope that's not what you want - You know what your mum is like'

'Heard that' 

Mum mumbled and I saw my dad shiver. They had the best relationship of anybody that I knew but I swear, my mum had my dad wrapped around her little finger and she loved it. 

Taking the keys and avoiding the potential spat , I unlocked the door and stepped inside. 

I immediately ran upstairs, not bothering to help my dad with the boxes - yes, this could be considered to be quite selfish but I wanted the best room and I did warn him. I was not going to be stuck with the room at the back of the house AGAIN! 

I went to the room that would border on the side of the house and it was honestly the most beautiful sized room I had ever seen. The walls were an ugly shade of green which was a little off-putting BUT it was nothing that a coat of paint and a smile wouldn't fix. 

There was a bay window (I had wanted one of these since I was about 10 and saw that Emily from Pretty Little Liars had one) and a walk in wardrobe and even an en-suite bathroom. I felt like royalty. I had gone from having one shared bathroom downstairs to having my very own in my room. How amazing!!! 

I instantly claimed that room as my own.

I walked over to the bay window and noticed that I could see directly into the house opposite me. More specifically, I could see into the bedroom of whoever was lucky enough (or unlucky enough) to be window neighbours with me. As I was scanning the side of the neighbouring house, and let's be honest, being extremely nosey and looking into the room opposite I noticed that THERE WAS A FUCKING GREEK GOD IN THE ROOM OPPOSITE ME. 

Ok, it totally isn't one of those stories where I somehow magically become neighbours with the most attractive neighbour ever. But, even I had to admit, he was kinda cute.

But it was more of a bookish, nerd kinda cute. 

As I was not so subtly looking in his general direction and totally not checking my new kinda cute neighbour, he looked directly at me. And when I say directly at me, I mean looking through me into my soul. He had curly brown hair and the deepest blue eyes I had ever seen. They were a deep aquamarine blue with whisps of white. His most striking feature by far.

He looked at me and it was as if the entire world stopped for those 3 seconds. I felt myself getting lost in his eyes. Again, how cliché.

Now, you'd think that any sane person would wave or say 'HELLO' or something. Yeah, not him. He angrily tore the curtains from right to left and that was the end of the shortest love story that ever was. I was used to people not liking me, but that was after they got to know me and decided that I was too loud or too annoying for their liking. 

I wasn't having this. 

I was going to find out what was wrong with 'Bookish Nerd' 

Sadly, I had to unpack before I could right these wrongs.

So I went downstairs, collected the boxes from the removal van and unpacked all of my belongings into my new room. 

...

After hours and hours of unpacking and making my room become as homely as it could be for now, I lay in bed that night and wondered what my new life would entail and how I was going to tick off my newly found checklist of things that I needed to achieve. I had wrote this list on the way here.

However, I made a mental note of a new addition.

-  Become a vet.

-  Stand up when seeing something unjust.

-  Make at least one person smile a day.

-  Play the part of a princess in a musical or play.

- Meet someone and 'live happily ever after'.

- Find out what makes Bookish Nerd so ... angry? miserable? 

I didn't know why he was playing on my mind so much. I had only had a 3 second interaction with him. I hadn't spoken to him. I hadn't actually done anything other than stare at him. But that didn't seem to stop my brain from thinking about him all night.

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Authors note.

Leigh here! 

Been a few days since I last uploaded but life got in the way!! 

Hope this is progressing fast enough but not too last the entire plot gets lost. I aim for this to be around 40-50 parts but anything can happen. 

I have a basic plot line but I have already changed my mind countless times so I'm as in the dark about where this story is going as you.

But isn't that part of the fun!!