The Disguised

A New Life?

I put my favorite books into the second box. I grabbed a black sharpie and wrote on it "Noah's things." Another box to add inside the truck. I bet everyone will be filled with joy when they find out that their outcast, Noah, is moving. No more awkwardness. No more idiots, and finally no more people out of line.

            ..........

"Noah, c'mon sweetie," my mother shouted from downstairs. "The truck's going to be here any minute!"

I sighed and brought the rest of the boxes into the living room. As I was walking down the stairs, I slipped and the box opened, spilling the books on top of me.

"Shit," I whispered as I rubbed my forehead. When I looked at my hand, blood was running down my palm and fingers. Great...

My mom ran into the foyer."Honey! Oh my god." She eyed my cut on my forehead.

"I'm okay," I said. "Just a cut. No broken bones."

"Oh, thank God," she helped me up. "Go clean yourself, I'll pick up."

I went to the laundry room and pretended to clean the gash of my forehead. I was used to my injuries healing quickly and I never questioned it. I put a bandage where the cut had been to make it seem like it was still there. The foyer was back as a empty space and my mom had carried the box of books outside.

"C'mon let's go. Your dad will ask his friend if he can help him pack the rest." She smiled.

"Okay." I replied.

She walked out the foyer and went outside. I was heading out when a stack of papers on the kitchen island caught my eye. I don't know why but they stuck out and brought my attention. Maybe it was a warning to not look because what I read was not at all pleasant:

DECLARATION FOR DIVORCE

My heart sank. Divorce? They never mentioned anything of divorce. Maybe because they didn't want me to know. Is it the reason we were moving? I don't want to know right now. So, I won't ask my mom anything, I thought. I'll just act normal like always. It would also explain how my dad's things weren't packed. I put the papers down and went outside. My mom noticed my pale face.

"Are you okay? You look like you have seen a ghost."

"I'm fine," I said, hurriedly. "Let's go."

She shrugged and climbed into the driver's seat of the truck and started the engine. I slid in on the passenger seat and closed the heavy door.

We drove on. My dad was going to be at the new house in a couple of days, so we were ahead. The sun was setting and I looked at the pink streaked sky. The packing took most of the day so I was exhausted. But I wanted to stay up until we arrived at the new house. I thought about the papers I found, instead.

My parents didn't fight. They didn't get mad at each other. They looked like they really loved each other a lot and loved their time together. Maybe it was the reas on that my dad drank a lot. And he would sometimes come home drunk. My dad would be upset at those times, but my mom didn't care. She would make him go to sleep so he could rest. He always drank when he was stressed. And that seemed more often these days.

My mom parked at a restaurant half way to the house so we could eat. Good thing too, I was starving. I ordered a grilled chicken wrap with some iced sweet tea, and enjoyed it. My mom looked at me as I ate. I could tell she was thinking about something. And I think I know what it was. But if she wanted to say something, she didn't say it.

We started heading our way to the house once more. It seemed like a very secluded area. When we finally got there, I was surprised. My parents never really liked two story houses. So it surprised me when I saw it was one. It was a small, modern Victorian house. The house's color was a yellowish beige. It was lovely. But it made me nervous as I realized this was my new home. And I was soon going to be placed in a new school.

"Here we are," my mother parked the moving truck in front of the house. "Beautiful it is."

She hopped out the truck, I doing the same, and we tried to move in the boxes from inside the house. Once we were into the foyer with all of the boxes, we decided to leave them there. The only things we both grabbed from our boxes were our blankets and pillows. Luckily, my mom had managed to bring a large inflatable bed and a air pumper.

My mom went quickly to sleep. But even I, being so exhausted from today, couldn't sleep soundly. Every little noise that was made, I was immediately woken up. And the nerves of moving didn't make it any better, or the papers I had found. But after a couple of hours, I slowly fell asleep.