It All Began In Autumn

chapter 1

My name is Camellia, but they call me Lia.

And this is the story, about how my life changed forever.

How cliche of me...

It was an early September evening, my parents and I had just moved back to mom's hometown, a town that was more of a village. A single convenience store, a diner, one gas station, a school for all grades and a flowershop my parents were opening were the most interesting places.

My mother's mother who was living in this house died two weeks ago, I had never met her, but my parents claimed we should move to her house for sentimental reasons. And because someone had to take care of the fields and be here for harvest. And because we couldn't afford our house we lived in at the time.

It seemed rushed, like an excuse more than anything. But I went along with it. Sixteen is old enough to help out at the flowershop but not old enough to argue with life decisions.

I had few friends back in Minnesota, the people were as cold as the weather. I didn't expect them to be better here. Our house was in between the fields and the forest. My room in the attic had a small window that had a great view of the forest, and I would spend the summer nights with my arms on the windowsill, listening to the forest sounds and watching the dark woods.

That first autumn, I was sitting underneath a willow tree in our yard with my legs gathered to my chest and my chin on top of my knees, I watched the road leading to the town for hours, waiting for anything interesting. Dad was working on the fields and mom was at the flowershop since that morning and it was already five in the afternoon.

A breeze caressed my cheek, cooling me down and I closed my eyes, relaxing in it's touch. A twig broke, startling me in the quiet and my eyes snapped open. There was a girl, younger than me, she was standing at the edge of the woods, just over the small road, and she was looking at me, behind her was a massive black dog with eyes that glowed blue. His legs seemed like they were dipped in white paint.

I placed a lock of my lightened from the summer sun hair that escaped with the wind, behind my ear and half closed my eyes to see them better.

The girl's lips moved and the wolf dissapeared in the woods. The girl started walking towards me. She was barely eight, scrawny, olive skinned with long fiery hair.

She was dressed in stripy yellow overalls and her hair was in messy pigtails, her feet were bare.

She stopped at the freshly painted, white fence. The stakes reached her chin. I decided to stand since she clearly wanted something.

"Hello, can I help you"? I politely asked once I was close enough. "This house isn't yours" her answer surprised me. Her small face was set in a sceptic frown.

"It was my grandmother's, now I live here". I tried to sound neutral. "Water". My brows shot to my hairline, rude squirt! I thought to myself as I went to fetch her some water, when i returned with the glass, she drank it all in one go, gave me the glass back without a word and turned around, she made her way to the woods and dissapeared the same way her large dog had beforehead.

I didn't think about her again afterwards, not for a while.

And when the first two weeks of September rolled away, and the time came for me to go to school I had long forgotten about the weird girl.

"Got your lunch"? I nodded, "tissues, pads and ".. i cut my mother off with another nod. "I have everything mom, I'll be fine"! I reassured her and she sighed, kissing my forehead, "I know you will be".

My father had already left for the day. I waved at mama and walked out of the house. I made my way to the bike that lied under the shed and placed my messenger bag in the basket. I rolled the bike out and got on once I was in the road, careful for my knee length black flare skirt not to rise too much.