Hello Me

Chapter 4

"I am stuffed! I couldn't eat another thing." Ellie slumped back into her chair, feeling beyond full but satisfied. The food had been amazing, and the cosy pub was the perfect setting for her welcome meal, with crackling log fires and a low, beamed ceiling. Watching her grandmother stoop to fit through the door had been hilarious, like watching Harry Potter's Hagrid try and sit in a wendy house.

The waiter glanced over again at Ellie, making her sit up straighter and pull her full stomach in a bit. For some reason she felt like he had been catching her eye all night. He looked a few years older than her and was definitely cute, but this was really unusual – normally American boys didn't look twice at her. She wondered if it was the accent – the waiter had done a double take when she'd asked for some ketchup. There couldn't be too many Americans in Stokebridge.

Her grandmother didn't miss a trick, and following Ellie's gaze as the young man gathered the empty plates from the table next to them, she winked at Ellie suggestively.

"So, are you all caught up with the news now Ellie?" her mother smiled across the table.

"Well, I guess so! Ok, so let me make sure I have this right: Gran and Granddad were married for forty years, even though everyone kind of knew he was gay..." Her mother and grandmother nodded, encouraging her to go on. "But then Granddad met Donald at a flower shop, and they fell in love. And now they're going to get married 'cos that's legal here....and....Gran is going to marry them because she got ordained as a minister on the Internet?!" Ellie couldn't keep the incredulity out of her voice. If her friends back home could hear this, well, they just wouldn't believe it. Ellie was itching to email her best friend Hannah and tell her all about the crazy goings on in little old Stokebridge.

"You'll meet your granddad soon enough, Ellie, and Donald too." Jen smiled, happily. "We'll get you settled in school this week and then we'll go up to London next weekend, how about that? We can see a show in the West End, do some shopping on Oxford Street, and I'm sure Donald will probably want to cook us dinner, he's quite the chef." Her mother looked as excited as Ellie felt. Far from being the downtrodden and destitute divorcee herself, she seemed to be just fine with the split from Ellie's dad and the move to England. Ellie grinned and took a big slurp of coke, and grabbed the dessert menu. Why had she been so worried about this move? It was going to be awesome!

* * *

"I hate my life."

Ellie dumped her backpack on the smooth tiles of the hallway, and nearly sank down to slump next to it on the floor. Today had been the official, most awful, horrible day. Why had she thought starting a new school would be ok? British kids were evil.

It had started on a fairly sour note, when Jen had revealed the hideous school uniform that she was supposed to wear, every day. What kind of world country made kids wear a uniform to school? She was used to wearing jeans or whatever she wanted at her old school. The navy pleated skirt and pale blue shirt were most definitely not stylish, but the navy and yellow striped tie was the worst. Wasn't London supposed to be the fashion capital of the world? Clearly none of that fashion sense had trickled down to Stokebridge.

Luckily she had been spared the bus ride to school, which was sure to be a miserable experience tomorrow. Because it was her first day Jen had dropped her in a little late, so they could meet the head teacher before she found her first class. Mr. Williams was a fairly good-looking man in his early forties, tall but not too tall, official-looking but not too serious. He sat across a cluttered desk in his small office and talked about the importance of being on time, doing homework and a load of other details that Ellie had mostly ignored. She was a good student and had always done well in school. She found it easy. Academics and passing exams would be the least of her worries.