The Day I Found My Place

Chapter 1

October 1, 2012

Dear Father,

Me and Mom miss you lots! So much has happened over the past few months that this letter could take years to write! I adored the orangutang pictures you sent, so I put them on The Wall of Photos. Mom says that when you come home, we’ll throw a huge party to celebrate your new book, feast and everything! Have fun in the forests of Borneo! See you soon!

With love,

Jordan

         P.S. Will you sign my copy? Just kidding! :)

I put down my blue fuzzy pen to grab my pink envelope and a picture of me and Mom. It was the picture from her birthday, the birthday he missed last month. We had half of the family over, but they couldn’t replace Father. He was always gone for long periods of time, but thats because he’s a famous writer.

Oh, I forgot to mention some things... I’m Jorden Sensi, 12, pieces, and single.... I haven’t found any guy that likes me for me, all of them just want to get close to my dad, or I scare them. I have 2 best friends; Abby and Jessica, but I get along with everyone well, too. I go to Robert Southey School, and I’m in Grade 8. I was pushed forward a year because I was smarter than the others when I was 7. I am a +A student who is pretty tall, long dirty-blonde hair, freckles everywhere on my face, and I over react a lot! I can speak a little spanish and french from a translator website, but I am very rusty. Once I called Mom ‘a purple-rainbow elephant’, but luckily for me, she didn’t know so I was in the clear!

I threw on a pair of dark blue jeans and my black ‘come to the dark side we have cookies’ t-shirt, my hair pulled back in a makeshift ponytail, as I hurried to get ready for school. Harley, our dog, barked furiously at something in the field, and I strained to try to see what he was barking at. I caught a glimpse at a sleek black body with a long tail that had a white tip, and the eyes were multi coloured marbled like cat eyes that bore into my mind and made me feel... exposed? I couldn’t shake the feeling that I knew those eyes from somewhere before, or was it my imagination? 

 “Jordan!” Mom was calling my name from the living room. “Hurry up or you’ll be late for school!”

Realizing what time it was, I threw my backpack onto my shoulders and raced off the deck, almost tripping over my shoe laces as I ran down the driveway.

“I still can’t believe they are dating, again!” Abby muttered, motioning her tanned thumb toward the two tables behind her. One contained girls, the other contained guys. The ‘happy’ couple sat at the farthest ends of the tables, as far away as they could get without leaving their groups. You’d think they were sworn enemies, fighting an unspoken battle in their minds or something. Tara and Camden didn’t make those eyes you see couples making in the movies, and if anything, they barely even looked at each other in any kind of affectionate way.

“Could be worse, right?” Jessica popped in on my left, taking one of my grapes and shoving it into her mouth.

    “Jeez Jess, can’t you knock!” I put my hand over my heart and pretended to be scared. We started laughing but doned poker faces when Mrs.Smith came into the room, and made it look like we were talking about what food was the most disgusting.

“Haggis. Do you girls know what that is?” She poked around her salad as she spoke, testing us with her eyes.

“Isn’t that a dead sheep liver or heart and other things stuffed inside a sheep’s stomach?” I looked up at her, hoping I said it right.

“You know your facts Jordan,” she mused, pointing her fork at me, “I know why you were moved up a grade.” Then she looked at my friends, who were holding back their giggling, or trying at least. “Now there is no excuse to not know what haggis is! You are in grade 8 for crying out loud and...” she continued to ramble on about knowing our facts and blah blah blah, while we were giggling about how she rambles. As the bell rang and Mrs.Smith finally left, our class rampaged down the hall, trampling or getting trampled by the other grades. I started to head towards my locker, but I was pushed against the wall, but  the only  people that were near me were Tamara and Kailey walking down the hallway, laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world. I glared at their backs and headed after them, stopping at my locker to drop off my lunch kit, then headed toward the computer lab. I stopped myself. Why go play games in the computer lab when I can go practice my dance, I thought to myself, turning around and heading to the music room.

 “Hello Jordan,” Mrs.Mooney looked up from her computer and gave me a smile. “What can I help you with today?”

“Hey Mrs.Mooney, is it alright if I practice my thriller in here with the movie thinger? Please?” I asked, batting my eyelashes in a cute way and smiled.

     “Well,” she looked at the time and thought for a minute and sighed, “I suppose.

She moved windows around on the SmartBoard and opened the movie for Thrill the World, selecting the moves we have done so far. I followed the steps and said the steps as I did them.

“Right, left, right, left. Shoulder, step, nothing, step, shoulder, step, shoulder, step,” I mumbled as I followed the steps. And as I started doing the booty bumps, I felt someone watching me, and not just Mrs.Mooney (I could tell when she was watching). It was a guy, but that was all I could tell. It made me uncomfortable, but it also made me feel loved and respected somehow. The rest of the dance went by in a blur, and I kept looking for the guy who was watching me, but my search always came up as a fail. I wanted his attention, needed to see his encouraging face. And I realized that my head was spinning(not literally of course!) and the bell for class was ringing. Fast walking with jelly for legs, I realized this feeling I felt for the random guy from the Music room, from books I liked to read. I was in love with a stranger. I’ll tell nobody. Unless.....