Moving away for the last year of high school was not very comfortable. Initially, I was angry with my mum about her job relocation. I didn't speak to her for a few days because of that. And yes, I felt bad for doing that to her—it wasn't her fault, after all.
However, this situation meant I had to change schools and leave my friends. Thankfully, living in this age, we had all kinds of social networks and chat apps. I eventually accepted it, realising chatting with friends over our mobile phones was enough. Although, of course, seeing each other face to face occasionally wouldn't be bad either.
I sighed as I opened the door to my new bedroom. Loneliness immediately filled the empty room. My next few weeks were going to be spent on decorating this place, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to survive here. It seemed so sterile—like a hospital room.
Rather, I went out into the living room, where my mum was putting down some boxes. It looked like she didn't need any of my help, so I went for the boxes where my things were. There was a bunch of them, to tell the truth. What could I say? I had many things that held memories and, of course, clothes.
"What do you want for dinner?" Mum asked as I was going back to my room with quite a big box in my arms. I was guessing this one was full of my vinyl records, posters, headphones, and so on.
"Pizza," I smiled. There was no possibility that she was going to cook on our first night here—having a delivered meal sounded more than enough.
"Prosciutto with mushrooms and Quattro stagioni?"
Nodding, I left the living room thinking how this place was so white. It caused shivers to go down my spine. Thankfully, the furniture we had was made of dark wood. My mum wouldn't like a plain place either.
After I had all of my boxes in my brand-new room, I decided to put on some music, so I opened the box with a small box cutter I got specifically for the move and took out my headphones; searching my Spotify library for the best playlist for this. Once the music was on, I could happily put all my clothes into the wardrobe and closet. It was pretty clear to me that it wouldn't take long, and the appearance of these two pieces of furniture wouldn't be the same as it was now. I had some posters to spruce up the room. I wouldn't call it a mess, but it did have some small so-called chaos in it. As long as it was mine, I was okay with that, to tell the truth.
When the song I was listening to was in the middle of the chorus, it stopped, replaced by the deafening sound of my ringtone. I checked my phone and could see a incoming call from one of my childhood friends—Evelyn. I missed her already. So I took the call, "Hey."
"Hey! We all were wonderin' how you doin'?" Evelyn explained the reason for her call, I could hear some muted voices in the background.
"Alright, I guess. I'm just unpackin'."
There was silence—if that was even possible. I guessed that she was somewhere with our other friends, while enjoying the last days of summer break.
"Okay. Let's do a video call," she suggested, and I sighed. It was clear to me that was she curious about my new home, but there was nothing special to be seen here. Not yet, at least. Although still, the video call was made.
"Girl, it looks like you live in a mental hospital!" laughed Amy. A blondie, who tried to take over Evelyn's phone, to which I groaned. She was pretty much right.
"I just started unpackin', what did y'all expect?" I rolled my eyes as I put my phone down and fixed it on the bedside table so they could see me and I could continue unpacking and filling the closet at the same time.
"I hope you have enough space for us to sleep over," Evelyn said, which made me look around. My bedroom wasn't big but not that small either. It was just big enough for me. Two of us could fit in my bed, and maybe five of us in the whole room if more slept on the queen-sized bed.
Shrugging, I closed the closet and went to the wardrobe, which was just halfway full now. The last pieces of clothes had to be put in there, and I could finally move on to something else.
"Hey, what 'bout the uniform?" was asked suddenly by the other blondie, Delilah, to which I shrugged.
"Mum's the one takin' care of it."
It was the truth. I didn't care now what the uniform for my new school looked like. In the beginning, I did, but I was too lazy to look it up. Of course, if I were to choose, I wouldn't wear any uniform at all. I didn't have a problem wearing smart clothes, but schoolwear was really not it, especially not for sitting in classes all day.
Soon enough, I closed the last drawer and went to another box where my notebooks and all the things needed for school were. And some mangas and books. Not many, as I wasn't good at searching for good books to read in bookshops. It was easier online.
"And how are y'all?"
"Still the same, girl. You're the one who's movin' across the country," laughed Amy, at whom I shot a doubtful look.
"Across the country?"
I did move a bit away, but across the country sounded extreme, maybe she just wanted to be dramatic. Amy only shrugged at my question while I moved my attention back to the things at hand. The sooner I was done with all of this, the better.
"Well, Jonah has a match tomorrow," Evelyn said after a short while as I was filling the drawers of my desk.
"I'll text him."
"Isn't it too much to change schools for like… one year?" I heard Delilah ask, which made me sigh—she was right. It felt pretty weird, but I had no other family in the town to stay with as Mum's parents weren't alive anymore and Dad's lived elsewhere.
"At least I won't have to see that bitch every day," I shot a smile at my friends, who all rolled their eyes.
"Exes are so annoying!" groaned Evelyn, which made us all laugh.
"You say it like you've had plenty."
"And kindergarten doesn't count," Amy pointed out.
Only half of my school and desk stuff were in their place when I gave up and shoved the rest there somehow, too. It would still end up like that, so what was the point anyway? I could clean it some other time.
"Hey, what 'bout New Year's in London?" I suddenly heard Delilah speak up, which made me shoot a look at them. That idea didn't sound bad. At least not for us, but our parents were a different thing. None of us were adults yet, after all.
The call ended not too much later after that, as we had nothing more to talk about. I wasn't here for a long time, so there was nothing special to talk about for now. But I was sure once school started, they would want to talk more. Or maybe about shops, cinemas, and parks where I have no one to go with except my mum.
"Pizza should be here in half an hour, sweetie," I heard my mum announce when I was skipping through playlists.
"Okay."
And so, I had about thirty minutes to make the room more livable while listening to some more music. However, as I looked around the place, I realised that I didn't know what to do next. Where to put my vinyl records and things like that. So instead I just sat down on the carpet in front of the bed, looking around the walls and thinking about how to decorate this room. Maybe looking through Pinterest would be a nice idea.
Just as another song ended, I heard the bell ring, so I got up and went out of my room. Seconds later, I could see a much better-looking living room. I was kind of surprised that Mum would rather start with this one than her own bedroom.
"Let's eat," I heard my mum say. I nodded and went after her into the kitchen, where there were some other boxes waiting to be unpacked.
Instead of unpacking some plates, we just ate straight out of the pizza boxes. It felt so different; it was only the two of us, late in the evening, in a brand new place with all those boxes around.
"I'll get your uniform tomorrow," Mum told me as she took another bite of the tasty food.
When I was standing the next morning in front of the building where I was going to be studying the next couple of months, in my new uniform, I was thinking about not going there at all. It was really stupid to change schools just for one year. Not because everyone there had their friends, and it wouldn't even matter for this year, but it was just… weird. Even at night, I was hoping that it was all just a dream and Mum didn't have to move to London for a job position.
A lot of kids went into the building with their groups of friends, laughing and talking. I could be in that situation too—back in my home town. Well, I knew my friends would tell me all the gossip from there later today. About new teachers, maybe someone who got pregnant or was going to drop out. I was actually excited to hear anything from them.
Mum had already settled everything with the school, and I just had to find the teachers' office. Well, find my home room teacher, to say it right. And then… just go through the awkward shit.
A couple of minutes later, I was listening to some things my new teacher was telling me while heading to the classroom. I had to say, I tried to listen, but it didn't go very well. I was just looking around, trying to get used to this place and maybe go truant. Although I was already too far for the latter.
The worst thing about all of this wasn't the looks from the other teachers, who were inspecting the new kid—me—but it was all those eyes of my new schoolmates. A new kid, in a whole new environment, without friends. All those eyes were inspecting me, thinking about what kind of person I was or whatever. I could only imagine what was going through all their heads.
"Class, welcome your new classmate," Ms Evans said to the class as the two of us stood in front of the blackboard. I looked over at her instead of staring right back at the numerous new faces.
She then gestured for me to talk. Of course, I had to introduce myself. And so, I took a deep breath before facing my new classmates. "Hi, my name is Sidney and I moved here from Luton."
No reaction. All the eyes were looking from me, to Ms Evans, then back to me. My introduction was either not it or they were waiting for something more to hear. But I didn't have anything more to say. Well, I did, but my name sounded like it was enough for now. Why would they need to know more anyway?
"Okay, then. You can sit down over there," the teacher told me as she nodded her head to one of the empty seats. I did as she said, moving myself through the weirdly quiet classroom to my newly found seat.
Sitting down, I could feel my new classmates looking over at me. But that was all they could do, for now, because our home room teacher started her monologue. Thankfully, my seat wasn't really in the middle of the room, so I could just be at my own end looking over the classroom. There was nothing special to see. Maybe except for the amount of plants. Someone seemingly had a hobby here.
I didn't really pay attention to what the teacher was saying as I tried to be inconspicuous while scanning my new classmates. Well, only the ones I didn't need to turn my head too much to see. Nobody seemed to be a bully or anyone… bad, but it was probably only thanks to the uniforms. People were usually pretty different outside of school and these clothes. And in front of certain authorities.
I didn't want any problems because there was only one year left of high school, so I probably would do better if I stayed alone and minded my own business. I had enough friends already, anyway. They were just a bit far away.
Sighing lightly, I turned my attention to our teacher. She herself seemed like she didn't want to be here this morning. I couldn't say I was surprised. Who would want to be at school just days after they had holidays? Nobody.
Hoping that the time would go quickly so I could be back at home—where it didn't feel like home yet, unfortunately—I shifted my gaze to the clock next to the door. The minutes were passing quite slowly.
When the bell finally rang, the teacher went out with a few words, to which a loud noise could be heard from the chairs shuffling on the floor. Sighing, I stood up, too, looking around the classroom before checking my timetable.
"Hi," I heard a voice beside me, which made me shift my gaze to a petite girl with blonde hair falling along her face.
"Hey."
"I'm Bella, and my friends and I are gonna get some coffee later," she explained. Nodding, I waited for her to say more, even though I was sure about what was coming next. "Wanna come with us? I'm sure you don't know anyone here yet."
Her words were innocent, most likely. Although it still made me feel embarassed, it sounded like she just mocked me for not having friends here. I was probably just being paranoid. Even then, I still felt like I didn't even need them—new friends. And today I was supposed to face a call with the ones I already had.
"Sorry, I have some plans already," I smiled at her while trying not to sound harsh.
"Okay, bye," she nodded as she made her way out of the classroom. And I ended up alone. Again. This feeling was present pretty often recently, and I was hoping to get used to it as soon as possible.
When I arrived home, no one was there. It was understandable as Mum still had to be at work until later and no one else lived in the apartment except for the two of us. Mum even got an idea of getting a cat or something so it wouldn't be as lonely in here.
The moment I entered my room, my phone started ringing, to which I checked the caller's ID. Of course, it was one of my friends.
I smiled as I took the call, "Hey."
"Hey, girl. So what's new?" Amy asked, to which I sighed.
"Nothing. Just a really boring day."
I hoped the rest of the days at that school were going to be better, and more fun, because being bored all day was not my goal. Maybe finding friends here wouldn't be that much of a bad idea, after all. Just a pain in the ass.
"Poor you," I heard my friend say as some other voices joined in the background. "Guess what happened here?"
Furrowing my brows, I started to think as I laid down on my bed. There were many possible things to happen at our–their–school. Although, on the first day, it was a little surprising. And so, I just shook my head. "No idea."
At first, she sighed at my affordance but soon her excited voice was heard again over the speaker, "So, Ms Smith is pregnant and so is that loud girl… Sarah, or whatever her name is."
Rolling my eyes, I said, "Jeez, so a new English teacher, huh?"
After what seemed to be a quiet minute, I heard some other familiar voices from the speaker, "Hi, darling!"
"Hi, Ev, Del." I smiled even though they couldn't see me at the moment. There was some laughter and other voices, but it seemed like my friends were just at a crowded place.
""Uhm, so yeah, there's supposed to be a new English teacher, and Mona Johnson told me that he looks like a Greek god," answered Amy, finally.
Shaking my head, I laughed. Of course, she was talking about how hot the teacher allegedly was. And with him supposedly looking like a Greek statue, it was safe to say Amy's education was in danger.
"Any hot people around?" Evelyn asked, which made me roll my eyes again.
"No. I haven't seen any yet."
Maybe I had seen some, but given it was the first day and everything didn't really help, so I just probably didn't pay any attention to that. However, there were still many months in front of us, so I could inform them about that later.