Just Her Irish Luck

Chapter 1: Ireland

~Hey everyone this is my first story. I hope you like it!

Please comment, vote and follow me!~

Copyright © 2012 Queanna Julien. All Rights Reserved.

Chapter 1:Ireland

The wind blew my brown curls out of my face and I inhaled the fresh mountain air. I could get used to this. Minus the bumpy car rides, the landscape was breathtaking and the chilly air felt good in my lungs. I thought that leaving London would be a bad thing, but moving to Ireland was the best decision my mum ever made.

We were driving up in the mountains, to what we would call our new home. Mum turned a sharp corner, and my left ribs hit the interior of our little Austin Healey car. Ouch! Guess I'll have to get used to that or mum should just drive a bit more careful.

Ha! like that'll happen.

"Hey mum, how long 'till we get there?" If these roads were any more winding, I'll be sick.

"Uh, just up this road honey, not much longer." She said glancing at the map she held.

Just then she turned into a gravel road with trees lined up on each side. It looked so pretty the way the light hit the trees, it looked almost enchanted. Good for some photographs, I thought to myself. Photography was always my thing, it just came naturally to me.

Mum must have realised how entranced I was with this place.

"You like it so far, yah?" she glanced at me, almost driving off the road.

"It's great mum, best decision ever." I said with a smile.

"Hey, I always make good decisions." she said teasingly.

"Oh yeah, sure you do mum" I said rolling my eyes.

We drove a little way again and reached a huge rusted black gate. It read Ardross. Mum stuck her hand in the glove compartment and pulled out a booklet. She turned a few pages before turning to me.

"It says here that Ard means height or peak and then ross may mean roses or something like that."

"Maybe they grow roses here?" I said sticking my head out the car. I spotted a few security cameras. Wow, they're really tight on security here. And then I saw it. I stepped out of the car and pressed the buzzer.

"Hello good afternoon, how may I help you?" a nasally female voice said.

"Um hi, this is Ms. Port, we're the new residents?" I said it like it was a question.

"Oh yes come on in, let me open the gates."

"Thanks!"

Then the gates made a loud creak and opened up. I got back in the car and mum drove in.

A wow escaped my lips when I saw my new home. Did mum get an extravagant new job or something? How did she afford this house? Should I even call it a house? It looked more like a castle to me.

"Close your mouth hon, and it's a manor not a castle." she said patting my cheek. Did I say that out loud?

The house was huge, well the manor, it was old but beautiful and regal. There was shrubbery all around and vines with little flowers that hung from the exterior walls and windows. The walls were a dirty cream colour and the roof had old dirty broken tiles, but it didn't make the house look bad. It only contributed to its antiquity.

Mum drived around the small cul-de-sac stopping at the front of the house. I got out, and pulled out my new canon camera that I'd gotten for Christmas last year. I snapped a few shots of the flowers and the house. I turned on my toes to have a better look around of the surroundings. Yep, they definitely grew roses here.

"Good afternoon Mrs. Port and Ms. Port, I'm Darla Lourdes, do come in" a lady dressed in business suit welcomed us, I assumed she was the face behind that nasally voice. We followed in behind her through big wooden double doors.

Another wow escaped my lips when I stepped into the house. It was much bigger than I was used to, so much bigger. Back in London we just lived in a cramped up flat, with five windows, FIVE WINDOWS. This was so much better than that.

"Mrs. Port there is just some extra paperwork I need you to fill out, do you mind coming with me?" she asked.

"Oh yeah no problem." Mum was always so carefree, it made me laugh the way the lady's face turned to one of surprise at her reply. 

"Quinn honey, have a look around will you, I'll just be a minute!" she said walking off with Darla.

Mhm. I mumbled, as I walked off in no particular direction.

The house was perfection. The living room was filled with vintage everything, from the drapes to the furniture to the china set that sat on the coffee table. The whole room was painted a light yellow and the huge fireplace smelled of burnt wood, it made the room smell musky and it made me feel comfortable. I headed into another room which happened to be the kitchen, which was surprisingly a bit more modernized that the living room. There was a microwave and a new stove, not like an old iron stove that I was expecting to be in it's place.

I didn't bother going down into the cellar, knowing myself I might just steal a gulp out of one of the wines down there, instead I went upstairs. The completely wooden titanic staircase I climbed creaked beneath my steps, as I traced my fingers along its Irish engravings.

The bedrooms were ... somewhat cute, all five of them having their own different theme, the decor a bit dull for my liking. It was a hard time picking which one it would take as my own, but the last one had this secret staircase that lead up to a small tower and the roof. So I took that one. It was better than my old room. There was a flat screen TV, a queen sized bed and the windows with light blue drapes. All that mattered was the view from the tower, it would make great photographs.

It was late evening when I came back down stairs. Darla had already left after the paper work was finished and mum was cooking dinner with what we'd picked up on the way here, since all our stuff from England and my big brother, Peter would be arriving tomorrow. I sat down on a chair and used my elbows to prop my head on my hands, watching mum cook my favourite, alfredo pasta.

"So Mrs. Lourdes was telling me about the neighbourhood here ..." my mum started.

"Who?"

"Darla"

"Oh, OK what about the neighbourhood?"

"Well we aren't the only ones living on this estate. There's another family living just down some trail she mentioned."

"Oh yeah?" I rested my head down, uninterested. So what, new neighbours. Nothing big.

"I want to go meet them tomorrow, you see, there's this private school, that Darla mentioned, and I really want you to go finish your O levels there. It just so happpens that the principal is our neighbour and...." she was rambling a bit.

"OK mum" I cut her off, "Where's this money coming from? First this big......... CASTLE, now a private school?"

"Quinn, I told you I got the new job remember?" she said looking away from me. She was hiding something. She wouldn't tell me and I was too tired. So I let it go, just for tonight though.

"Mhmmm." I mumbled. I was really tired. I walked out of the kitchen, my appetite for pasta suddenly lost.

"Where you going? I'm making pasta, your favourite!"

"Not hungry, I'm going to bed" with that, I got my bag from the living room and headed upstairs. I changed into a t-shirt with shorts and tied up my curls into a messy bun.

I dived under the lilac scented sheets. I thought about what mum said. New nieghbours huh? Maybe I should go with mum, who knows they might actually be nice.

~So what do you think?

Copyright © 2012 Queanna Julien. All rights reserved.