The World As We Know It

Chapter 5: Settling In

Art Credit: skyblob on Instagram

The three of them sat on the floor of Bec and Pearl's bedroom, packing away the contents of their room. While Yasmin sorted through Pearl's clothes, Bec was busy packing all of her artwork and art supplies. Pearl helped with the packing as well, placing all of her toys into her backpack.

In the chaos of moving, the entire house had rearranged itself overnight. Boxes were scattered over every surface of the house, either marked keep or donate. Furniture stood around the house in random places, ready to be moved into the moving van and taken to a second hand store. Most of the hard work of moving had already been done, leaving the family of four left with the simple tasks of packing their clothing and personal items.

Picking up her teddy bear from the pile of toys that still needed to be packed, Pearl forced the stuffed animal into her bag, which was already packed to the brim. Looking down at the pile of toys still on the floor, Pearl realized that she wasn't going to have enough room to fit all of them into her backpack.

Unsure on what to do next, Pearl turned and faced Yasmin, who folded one of Pearl's shirts before placing it into her suitcase.

"What's the matter June?" Yasmin asked, quickly recognizing that something was bothering her sister.

"All of my toys don't fit." Pearl frowned as she pointed over to her bag. "Does that mean I have to get rid of some of my toys?"

A couple days ago, Yasmin had a conversation with Pearl where she explained that they wouldn't be able to take all of their belongings into their new home and that whatever they couldn't bring, would be donated to a second hand shop.

Pearl would never admit it, but it secretly hurt to see all their belongings go. Some things hurt less, like the analog clock hanging in the living room, but other things left Pearl with a weird sense of emptiness.

Earlier, Yasmin had instructed Whitney to get rid of all of their Christmas decorations, and Pearl had found herself sad at the upcoming loss of them. Giving away their Christmas decorations felt like they were giving away the memories that came with it. It felt strange to think about these items being in a store, being easily available to a stranger, who would have no idea of the memories and moments these items held.

Pearl didn't want that to happen with her toys. She was already losing so much with giving away the impersonal things, that giving up something she was so close with would feel like the end of the world.

Yasmin pressed her thin lips in a line. "June—"

Yasmin was quickly cut off by the sound of Bec dumping her art stuff on the floor. Paintbrushes and pencils clattered, while papers fluttered on the floor.

"Here." Bec mumbled, tossing her empty backpack over to Pearl.

"Bec," Yasmin glanced over to the pile of artwork on the floor. "You don't have to—"

"It's fine." Bec interrupted once against, her voice this time thick and unusually hard with emotion.

Bec looked down at the floor with watery eyes. Letting out a loud sniff, Bec shot up from the floor and ran out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Pearl looked over to Yasmin, who avoided eye contact as she carefully began to pick up Bec's art from the floor.

"It's okay." Yasmin reassured as she placed the pile of Bec's artwork back into her bag. "We can put the rest of your toys in a box."

Pearl felt like it was her fault for making Bec feel upset, even though Yasmin had told her otherwise. As much as Pearl should have been helping Yasmin clean up all the art supplies sprawled across the floor, Pearl felt frozen, the guilty pang in her stomach causing her to stay put and not ruin anything further.