Not Very Stereotypical.

Chapter Eleven

As the night carried on, I began to realise how much spare time I'm going to have after school since we finish early. Such a good idea. Before going to bed I decided on simply scrolling aimlessly again and replying to all my messages, which I've been kind of  neglecting since we landed on Saturday.

Laying on my bed, surrounded by cute basic fairy lights, I continued typing away when Timmy joined me, by tiptoeing into my room and onto my bed. He lay on my back and put his arms round my neck and sighed heavily. Drama queen.

"What's wrong?" I asked clicking my phone off and rolled my eyes up to look at his grubby fingers.

"Some boy called Ricky said that I couldn't play with him because I sounded funny and that I should go home." I could feel the boy pout at his words and I got irritated so I flipped around and sat up.

"So what did you do?" I asked him as his hands wrapped together, a twitch he does usually before he cries.

"I told the teacher and she said to ignore him and find someone else." I smiled, feeling slightly optimistic about the next part. "But I just went and sat in the toilet because I felt sad."

"Oh," that's not what I was expecting. He continued to play with his fingers as I sat up straight and moved him backwards onto a pillow.  "Well tomorrow are you going to find someone new to play with or are you going to be lonely and sit on a gross toilet again?"

He shuffled nervously and managed to look up at me with glossy eyes, smiling slightly as he did so. "Find someone else."

"Good that's my brother." I wrapped my hand around his neck and ruffled his hair slightly. I gave him a slight kiss on his forehead and began to tickle him lightly to put a smile back on his face. "But if you need someone to deal with this Ricky." I looked around imitating a spy. "I know a guy."

Winking, I pointed to myself before carrying on with my tickle mission- which I won, filling the room with laughs and giggles.

"Come on you it's time for bed!" Dad walked through the door, fresh out of the shower wearing his pair of pyjamas from Christmas time, the plaid trousers we wore all matching in the morning before dinner. Timmy sighed in relief from the lack of tickles and reluctance to go to sleep.

"I'll see you in the morning kiddo." I said giving him a high five before he leaves my room. I wave my dad off too, knowing that despite it still being early we'd be going to bed ourselves soon anyway.

Checking my phone for the time, I decided on showering now to leave me more time in the morning. Turning the temperature up from my Dad's icy preference, I awkwardly waddled towards the mirror to plait my hair out of my face before I hopped in the steamy water.

Making sure to scrub gently at my sun touched skin, I left the shower minutes later ready to settle down into bed, to tackle the fading effect of jet lag.

Deciding on checking my phone one last time after setting an alarm, I saw a notification about a message from Leighton.
'Since you missed the end of summer parties, how about a new semester one? Saturday night?'

A smile formed on my lips as I read the message. My first American party, my liver squirms at the thought as I laugh it off. I pulled the blanket towards my chin and began to type a reply. 'One thing you should know about me... is that I never say no to a party! I'm down.'

Before I could even see a reply, my eyes began to shut and the world drifted off dark.

The noise pierced through my ears and I declared torture from the instant I opened my eyes. My phone vibrated under my pillow and continued to let out its dreaded ring, I patted around where my head left the pillow absent and found my phone. Clicking the alarm off, I wiped my eyes and rolled over to face the ceiling with my dreary eyes blurring my sight.

I groaned loudly and began to sit up, cracking my back in the process. Still with the intention of getting up, I swung my legs over the bed and placed my feet on the floor and dragged myself to the bathroom to start getting ready for the day ahead.

Checking the time as I re-entered my bedroom to see it was now 6:00am. I brushed my hair-thanking myself for straightening it to avoid facing the rats nest in the morning. I did some makeup and picked out my outfit for the day ahead, settling on a cropped vest and a oversized hoodie paired with shorts. These being some of the only weather appropriate clothes I could wear comfortably for the morning and early afternoon.

Taking one last look at myself in the mirror, I grabbed my phone off charge and walked down the stairs whilst trying to be as quiet as I could to avoid waking Timmy up early, afraid he'd be moodier than usual.

Greeting dad tiredly as I walked past the kitchen towards my bag, the cool air from the open window started to hit my skin and wake me up slowly. I compared my classes on my timetable to the books in my bag and made a plan to get one of the books I needed from my locker earlier. Call me Mrs Organised.

"Toast this morning Bethan?" Dad asks as I retreat into the kitchen and slump onto the kitchen island.

"Please." I say simply, pulling my phone out of my back pocket of my shorts and onto the table so I could sit comfortably. "How did you sleep?"

As he puts the bread away he sighs and turns to me, mug in hand giving me a sorrowful look. "Okay I guess, it's boiling in that room- I'm going to have to buy a fan I think." He wipes his eyes and begins to walk towards the island.

"Well that's what you get for moving us to California, Dad." I chuckled as he sits himself down for a moment.

"I'll give you that one Beth, but on the plus side I was thinking of going down to the beach of something this weekend. What do you think, we're really not far away." I nodded, swirling my chair around to stand up.

I walked towards the toaster to grab my breakfast and my drinks. "That sounds like fun but I've been invited to a party on Saturday night with Leighton and the girls I was telling you about." I hear him cough as I pick up my plate to return to the table.

"How? You've only been here a day and you've already got a party invite! You amaze me." He takes one last large gulp of his coffee and places the empty mug on the table.

Chuffed, I smiled and ate my breakfast, shortly being joined by Timmy wearing the clothes Dad laid out for him last night. He also had toast and we were soon off on the school run, for another day of firsts.

With only small amounts of hesitation, I was ushered from the car quicker than yesterday- giving Timmy a wink of encouragement as I left to enter the stony building yet again.