Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

When I woke up the next morning it took me a few seconds to remember the day before, and that I was now in my new home. I sat up and looked around me, the boxes all over the place, and I knew that these weren’t all the boxes that held my belongings; there was more of my stuff downstairs. After washing up and brushing my hair I went downstairs, still in my pajamas to see what was going on. I was greeted with more boxes in every room I entered. It hadn’t seemed like we had too much stuff really, but seeing how many boxes it took up and knowing there was still more around the corner was odd. I had packed stuff I hadn’t even known I still had, or had ever had.

“Morning,” mom said when I walked into the kitchen. “Did you sleep well?”

“As soon as I managed to fall asleep after a few hours, then I woke up a few times but not bad.” We only had one box of cereal for breakfast, so I was forced to eat what was in front of me. “And mom, we need to go shopping today.” I eyed the fridge, knowing all too well it was almost completely empty.

“I know, I know, Alex. I’ll go get some food when we’re finished up here. You can stay and unpack.”

“No, I want to go, see what this place is like. First time I’ve ever been here. Maybe we could drive around and see where things are.”

“Sounds like a plan. We’ll go when we’re finished up here. Dad’s going to stay and finished up some things here.”

“Alright then.” I finished my cereal and went up to my room to get ready.

We drove to the nearest grocery store, which was about 4 blocks away. I noticed that a few of the neighbourhoods were similar to ours; perfectly manicured, nothing out of place, but as we got closer to the heart of the town things started to become not as perfect, even a bit sloppy. If our neighbourhood was the way it was, what were the others like that were further from town then we were? They were more spaced out then ours, I knew that much, but as for size and upkeep I wasn’t sure the difference. One day I’d go and look, but I wasn’t worried about it now.

After the back of the truck was full of food, we went home and dropped it all off, and then mom showed me where the school I would be going to was from our house. It wasn’t far; I would most likely walk a lot. After we drove around for a while and mom showed me where things were, we went home and I set to work at straightening my room up. After a few hours, it started to feel more like home, it took a lot longer then I thought to get everything unpacked though, and I threw out some things I hadn’t bothered about before.

The two weeks until I had to start school seemed to fly by, and before I knew it, there were only two days left until school started. I was physically ready; I had everything I needed, I was fairly sure I knew what I was doing when I got there, but mentally, there wasn’t enough time to prepare me for what I thought to expect. I still hadn’t met my neighbour, but my parents had talked to his mom - as far as I knew his dad didn’t live with them – and I heard he was my age, going into grade 12, and his name was William. Other then that I knew nothing. In my unrealistic fantasies I thought that I would meet him a few days after I’d moved in and we would become immediate friends, he would help me adjust to school, then eventually, well, who knows then. I knew what I wanted, and I knew that it was highly unlikely to happen, which had pretty much been confirmed.

It wasn’t until later that day that my luck with my beautiful neighbour changed. My parents had both gone out to look at some things for the house – I’d wanted to stay home. I still had a little trouble with that word here, but I knew it would get easier, and it really wasn’t as bad as I’d thought it was going to be. Then again, I hadn’t started school yet. I had been sitting on the front steps reading. I was maybe a little to absorbed in my book because when he called out I nearly jumped a foot in the air.

“Sorry,” he said, smiling slightly, “I didn’t mean to scare you, but I saw you sitting here and thought I’d come and say hello.”

“Oh… I… yeah, hi. You live next door, right?” Duh. He laughed slightly, but not at me.

“Yes, I do. I saw you the first day you moved in. I’m William, by the way.” The smile was still on his lips.

“Yeah, I heard. My parents talked to your mom I guess, they mentioned your name.” I was finding it hard to find words at the moment; he was even more beautiful up close. “And uh, I’m Alexis. Prefer Alex though.”

“I believe your name came up with my mom as well. Leave it to my mother to find out everything possible about the new neighbours.” He rolled his striking blue eyes, but again the smile did not disappear from his face.

I started – did she already know about my situation? Had she told William? My parents had promised not to say anything about it, and William didn’t appear to know anything, it wasn’t like he was staring at my stomach or anything. “Oh. Is she like that? Your mom?”

“All too much. Of course she would be a very well known person, and naturally she uses that to her advantage.” There was a slight bitterness in his voice when he spoke about his mom, but suddenly his tone changed. “Are you ready to start school here? I heard that you were going to the same one as me – once again, mom knows all.”

“Well, I’m a little nervous. This school seems more… what’s the word… preppier? Then mine. The school I went to was nothing like that. It’s almost intimidating.”
“I know exactly what you mean. I’ve only been at this school for 3 years, but it doesn’t get any easier the next year. I suppose it has to do with the fact that I don’t want to go to a private school, it feels like it puts me at a higher place then others.” Wow. I honestly didn’t know what to think of him. His gaze started to intimidate me so I looked away – maybe one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, well, so far anyway.

When I looked back after a moment of mumbling something idiotically to myself I looked at him, but his eyes had a far away look in them, completely not concentrating on anything that was going on here, it seemed. Thank god, I was getting a little carried away with not knowing what to say, and it was making it awkward – well, apparently only for me. Suddenly his eyes came back into focus and he stared intently into my eyes, and then softened.

“Sorry about that. I just remembered something I have to do, and I have to be somewhere now. Hope to talk to you again before school starts, though. Maybe I could give you a ride, show you around the place?”

“Yeah, sure… Sounds great.” I replied. With one quick, breathtaking smile, he was abruptly gone.

Head swimming, I tried to concentrate on my book once again, but failed miserably. He was such an intriguing person, and what surprised me was how formal he seemed. It put the guys in my old school to shame – presumably in more ways then one. It started to get a little cold outside, and after putting up with that for only a few minutes I decided to go inside. There may still have been two days until school, and I wasn’t normally one to be overly prepared, but I had all of my stuff packed up and sitting by my door.

After a couple hours of trying to concentrate on my book and only getting a couple of pages further then I was before William showed up, I heard my parents come home. After eating and a couple hours of helping my parents organizing things I went to my room and did some thinking. Thinking about the baby, my life, and my future. I felt bad about the way I had left things with Tim, but what else was I suppose to do? The feelings I had for him were merely a crush as I had soon found out. I didn’t want him to be the father… the father that raised him, anyway. Would I tell William? No. Not unless it was absolutely necessary. But… No, it wasn’t necessary and it would probably go around the whole school faster then I could think of a way to handle it. The tears of realization and regret once again fell from my eyes. Regrets were useless, but I couldn’t help regretting this. It wasn’t how I’d planned my life. I wrapped my blankets around me and curled into a ball. When my mom knocked softly on my door I pretended to be asleep until she left. When I heard the door close I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling, dreading what was in my near future.

I must have fallen asleep eventually because when I looked at the clock again it was eleven in the morning. I rolled out of bed, completed my daily morning routines and went downstairs. Oh. Damn.

“Hey, William.” Damn. How can I excuse myself, change, and put on makeup without being obvious about it?

“Good morning, Alex. Sleep well?” There was a smirk. Stop looking at me.

“Uh, yeah I guess. Took a while to fall asleep though. You…?” I felt like a retard. Probably looked like one too.

There was a strange sort of sparkle in his eyes and his smile grew slightly. “Very well, thanks.”

“Oh, good morning, Alex. I see you’ve met William?” My mom said, bringing a box into the room. Okay, so I noticed I wasn’t the only one that looked like they just woke up. But she on the other hand, had been up for hours. She had no excuse. Then again, she didn’t have to impress the gorgeous neighbour.

“Well, we met yesterday while you were out. What’s that?”

“Just some things I decided I didn’t need, William said he would get rid of them for me.”

I eyed him warily. “I see…” I didn’t have anything else to say. I was too busy trying to understand him. Must have an ulterior motive. They always do.

“Yeah, I was out getting something out of my car and I saw her hauling tons of boxes to the curb so I thought I’d help her out.” I looked out the window. His car was in the garage. “Do you want to come? I could show you around a bit more.”

I had to admit, I was a little surprised. “Oh, yeah sure. Let me go change… and stuff.” Smooth.

He laughed quietly and smiled at me and nodded. “Alright, I’ll go and get my car.”

As soon as no one was watching I practically ran to my room, changed with lightning quickness and did my makeup – a little more carefully. I was ready and downstairs within five minutes.

“That was quick.” My mom commented, raising an eyebrow. Yeah well if you had a hot guy waiting you’d be quick too. I glanced out the front window and saw him putting boxes into the trunk. His t-shirt was rather tight today… his muscles clearly visible… black hair shining… Stop it. Deep breath. “Are you okay?”

“Wha-? Oh, I’m fine.” She laughed, and I’m pretty sure she was laughing at me. Oh well, she was young once… she knows what it’s like. “I’ll be back sometime.”

“Don’t hurry, I know you’ll want to meet people. No doubt he knows a few.” A few? “Have fun.”
Oh, I will. I will. “Alright, see you in a bit.”

He glanced up when I walked out and smiled. “Ready to go?”

“Yep. Where are we going exactly?” I opened the passenger door and got in. It smelled like him. No complaint.

“There’s a depot downtown we can take this stuff. Have you seen much of the place yet?” He started the engine and Metal immediately came through the speakers. He laughed slightly and turned it down. “Sorry about that.”

“No problem, I’m the same way. And no, I haven’t seen too much yet. Grocery store… mall, school, that’s about it. Nothing exciting.” The retarded feeling was slowly slipping away, which was a relief. Maybe it was just my imagination. If I was dreaming this, I was going to scream. I actually pinched myself just to make sure.

“Ow.”

“What?”

“Huh? Oh, nothing.” I smiled sheepishly and stared out the window. He laughed. All right, so I wasn’t dreaming. Score. Except that retarded feeling was coming back.

“So how do you like it here so far?”

“It’s… different. But I like it I guess. I’ll know better once I start school.”

“The school isn’t too bad, you pretty much just need to know who to avoid, which group you belong to, and believe me someone will put you in a group whether you like it or not. There are the basic jocks and preps, then some chess club people, a.k.a nerds to everyone else, smokers, and then there are the “regular” people. Then, well then there’s us.”

“Us? What do you mean?”

“I’m going to assume that you think I’d be part of the “popular” crowd. Am I correct?”

“Well, yeah I guess so. But you don’t like that”

“Exactly. I’ve been told I could be, we all have, but there are people that set us apart from the crowd and think we’re freaks, into a bunch of s**t.”

“Who’s we? I don’t get it.”

“We being myself, Ben, and Natasha. I’ll introduce you to them when I get a chance. As for people setting us apart from the rest, I’m not too sure where they got that idea from but you know how people are. See, we – Ben, Natasha and I – are really close, no one really understands it. They’re pretty much my family. Other people are close, you know the whole best friends kind of thing, but it’s different with us. It’s hard to explain. I guess you’d have to be around us for a while before you understand what I’m talking about. People are going to get you to avoid hanging out with us, honestly it’s happened before.”

”What should I do?’

“It’s up to you. Maybe once you meet other people you won’t want to hang out with us anyway.” Not likely. There was one question that was burning on my tongue, seeing as I’d figured out his name and age, and that he wasn’t a jerk.

“Is there any anyone else that you’re really close to, or just them?”

“Nope, just them. I’m sure it will be obvious to you when you meet them but I’ll tell you ahead of time that Natasha and Ben are dating. Have been for quite a while. Which is why it’s obvious.” I fought the urge to blurt out my happiness. Every question had been answered the way I’d hoped.

We arrived at what was presumably the depot that he mentioned. He pulled into the back and parked with the trunk facing the door.

“Want some help?” I offered. Don’t want to seem lazy.

“Sure that’d be great.” His arms flexed as he picked up a couple of the boxes, tightening the sleeve around his biceps. Controlling my smile I picked up a couple boxes of my own and followed him inside.

Seeing as that only took a couple of minutes he showed me more of the downtown places that he went to occasionally.

“The main hangout is that club right there,” He pointed to a big brick building over to the right, “that’s where I usually go myself. It would be a good place for you to meet people.” There must have been some look of confusion on my face because he continued “It’s pretty much just a fancier version of a bar, some call it classy. Nothing like the clubs you see in movies. No fancy velvet ropes. One bouncer, but he lets most people in.”

“No kidding…” I was slightly overwhelmed. Not because of the place, but because he was such an intriguing person. I couldn’t think of anything interesting to say, and was afraid to say anything because it would probably sound very insignificant.

“Are you hungry?” he turned to me when he hit a red light. “There’s a place I’d like to show you.”

“Now that you mention it… I am sort of hungry.” My stomach responded with a loud growl. He laughed; I blushed. I studied him for a moment when he continued driving again. Maybe my luck was changing.