The Yin and Yang of Heaven and Hell
Just another summer, or was it?
I clearly remember the day before I moved to the school, in fact I think I might remember that day better than the day I actually moved, the day I moved went by so fast it was hard for me to capture the details. I remember the day after I moved well not quite as well as the day before I moved, but well enough.
I woke up to the sound of my mothers high voice: "Sammie! Get up! We have to hurry!" her voice was so high pitched it made my ears ring a little, I could hear that something was bothering her. "SAMANTHA!" my mother was yelling now, "fine! I'm up, I'm up" I mumbled as I pulled myself together to get out of bed, I looked at the clock on the dresser next to my bed, the time was only half past seven, the graduation ceremony wasn't till ten o'clock. I got out of bed and got dressed, I looked at myself in the mirror, I was wearing my old army boots, a black tight fitting long sleeved shirt and my favourite jeans, they were red and tight. I looked down on the floor, clothes were spread all over my room, I started throwing them around me looking for a belt and my leatherjacket, when I had found it I turned to the mirror, my short rose red hair had fallen down on my left cheek during the night, so I had to straighten it, but I couldn't find my straightening iron. I looked towards the corner of my room where five large boxes stood, of course I had packed the straightening iron down, I had to face that my packing skills weren't exactly good, I had packed all the wrong things down, such as underwear, underwear was the first thing I started packing, underwear and CD's. I started throwing clothes around again till I found a hat, my red hat which my father had bought me when he was in Jamaica last summer, I liked the hat and it was almost the same colour as the jeans I wore, so I put it on. I went back to the mirror in order to put some make-up on, my grey eyes looked quite bare without make-up, I put a little eyeliner on, it was a dark shade of grey, and then some black mascara, I looked so much better now, freer, more like myself.
The time was five minutes to eight and I could hear my mother in the kitchen as I walked down the stairs. "Morning" I said when I entered the kitchen, my father looked up from his breakfast, "good morning my blessed offspring" he smiled at me, my mother turned away from the dishwasher, and gave me a judging glare as I got the milk out of the fridge, "what?" I asked her, "well surely your not wearing that today?" she asked me, "but I like it" I said, "ohh no you don't, your only wearing that to annoy me" she said, her voice was going crazy again, "no I'm not! I generally like it" I said, and sat down next to my father, "fine! You know what, wear whatever you like, I'll just have to pretend as if I don't know you" my mother said and turned to the dishwasher again, just as my younger sister Madison entered the kitchen, “hi” she said and sat down opposite me, “THERE!” my mother said when she saw Madison, “Sammie why can’t you wear something remotely simuler to what you sister is wearing?” she said looking lovingly at her youngest daughter, who was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a tight white T-shirt, Madison smiled at my mom, and said “mom, I really need 30£ for this weekend, it’s totally important, please can I have it?” my mom looked from me to my sister and back at me, then she gave a surrendering sigh and turned back to the dishwasher, then Madison turned to my father who said “we’ll talk about it later” before Madison even opened her mouth, then father rolled his eyes at me and returned to his breakfast.
The graduation ceremony was quite boring, the teachers pet held a speech about how we all would miss the school, however now it was time for us to move, as if anyone but her would actually miss the school. When I got back home it was two o'clock, I started packing again, I still had a bunch of empty boxes in my room which needed to be filled by the next morning. I sat down on the floor and started to sort out the clothes on my floor, my floor, I wouldn't be able to call it that for much longer. The boxes were filling up at the same rate as I emptied my room, it felt a little peculiar to me packing my entire existence into large boxes. When it was seven o'clock in the evening, my room was completely empty, with the exception of my bed and all of the boxes with all of my stuff in them. I decided to call my friend Akinna before I went to sleep, she was after all going to be my new roommate and I was a little worried that she had not finished packing yet, she had a tendency to be late. "Speak if you must!" Akinna said in a ironic voice when she picked up, "hay Kinna, it's Sam" I said, "oh hey Sam, God did you see that insane movie I told you to watch yet? It‘s crazy! I swear every time I watch it, it gets a little bit better, and since I‘ve see it like a million times, it now officially rocks my world, so did you see it, please tell me you watched it!" she said, "nope sorry, haven’t seen it yet, but I’m sure we’ll watch it together sometime, anyways, I was just wondering if you were done packing yet? You know, because we're moving tomorrow and all that" I said, "ohh yea totally, I'm just marking all the boxes now, as we speak actually, God this new school thing is going to be so awesome, right? I mean I know that we have like two months till it actually starts, but that should only give us time to get comfortable with our after school jobs and stuff right?" she said, she sounded very excited, a bit to excited actually "right, totally right Kinna, but ehh I have to go grab a bit to eat with my parents, sooo I'll just talk to you later then" I said, "okay bye bye Sammie, see you tomorrow" Akinna said, "yea see you tomorrow" I said, then I hung up the phone.
The next morning I could feel a stream of mixed emotions flow through me, on one hand I was very excited to go to the new school, but on the other hand I was going to miss my parents, especially my father, I know that you are not supposed to like one of your parents better than the other, but my father had always been my favourite. I heard a loud engine purr outside my window, I looked out and saw that the moving wan was already at the house, so I went down stairs to greet the men who were driving it. The wan got filled up as went into the kitchen to say goodbye to my parents. My parents were sitting at the kitchen table having tea, they both looked up when I entered the kitchen, "ahh" my father said "well little bit, have you stopped by for one last cup of tea before you're leaving?" he smiled at as he reached across the table to get a biscuit, "naah I'm not really in the mood for tea" I said and sat down as well, "are you ready to go sweetheart?" my mother asked me, she looked worried and I could feel a lump form itself in my throat, "ohh yea I'm all set" I said "just waiting for Akinna now" I felt uneasy and pretended to see something interesting through the window, "now now dear, London is only a three hour drive away you know" my father said, “it’s not actually IN London dad” I said, though I knew he was right, this lump in my throat was stupid and silly. My parents came out to wave goodbye, as Akinna and I drove away in Akinna's old noisy car.
When we got to our destination I could feel the lump in my throat disintegrate, and I felt as free and happy as the expression on Akinna's face looked. Our new flat, which the school had provided for us, was rather small, but it was ours to do with as we pleased. The Flat had a bathroom, a living room with a kitchen in one corner, it only had one bedroom so Akinna and I had come up with a solution before we moved, we were going to share the bedroom, Akinna would have the bedroom the first two weeks and I would sleep on the sofa in the living room, then after two weeks we would switch. "sooo this is us then huh?" Akinna said when we started unpacking, she was hanging a hideous picture of some pretty-boy-pop-singer on the wall behind the sofa, I guessed I'd just have to live with that, I guess everyone must make sacrifices, and Akinna loved that pretty-boy so this would have to be one of mine. We started work the next morning, we had both gotten a job at a café, though it was not the same café, the one were Akinna worked was large and airy, it was a ten minute walk from were we lived. the café where I worked was small and cosy, it had one wall filled with old posters of bands from the seventies. The job was harder then I had imagined it would be, I had thought that I would only have to know how to make coffee, and that I had to be nice to the costumers, but it was so much more than that, there were a ton of different kinds of coffee, the costumers were peckish and assumed that my job was not that hard, and the fact that I am not all that good at math did not help me when I had to work the cash register.
Two weeks later:
I was waiting for Akinna in a café close to the beach, she is my best friend, we have been friends since the first grade, but she was always late, no matter how important the appointment she had was, she would always be at least five minutes late. It was very cosy in here, and I wondered why I had not been here before. Cream-colored walls, dark red curtains, little round tables with red tablecloths, and they had flowers in the windows, and the quiet slow violin music they played was very southing, very cosy indeed. the café was quite small though and there was a little overcrowded at the moment, but I did not mind there being this many people at all, I enjoyed watching as they were sipping their coffee and eating their cakes and talking to each other, there were so many different expressions on their faces, so many different reactions. A short woman stood up and walked towards the door, the slightly overweight man who had sat down opposites her, rushed after her, he looked a little confused. The young couple who sat in a corner were holding hands, the boys lips moved, and I would see that the girl was blushing a little, it made him smile and he leaned in to kiss her. There was a tall pale man sitting alone close to the door, he looked like he was around thirty, he wore sunglasses even though it was not very bright in here, maybe he had just forgotten to take them off, there was something fascinating about him. I watched him for a few seconds, then he turned his head my way, he sent me a little smile as if he had known all along that I had been watching him, the smile startled me a little and I felt a little ashamed so I looked down at the table.
I looked up again and saw that the man was still watching me, his sunglasses were on the table now, his eyes were very bright, I could not tell if they were blue or grey. A split-second later Akinna walked through the door, her light brown hair looked beautiful in the sunlight, and she was wearing a short white and yellow summer dress, and white sandals, somehow she always managed to look stunning, and at the moment she looked perfect for going to the beach, I was wearing an old pair of jeans with holes on the knees, a black t-shirt which said "BOYS LIE! But not as well as we do." on the front, and my old pair of red converse, not very practical for going to the beach now that I thought about it. Akinna sat down beside me: "I'm so sorry I'm late Sammie, it's just that this really great shoe sale sort of magically appeared from out of nowhere on my way over here, and I got these beautiful new leather booths, I’m telling you! totally gorges!" She said as she took her sunglasses off and smiled at me, she knew that I did not mind her being late, she was always late, but she still felt like she had apologize every time: "So gorges booths huh? Can I see them?" I asked her, and tried not to laugh as she reached for the bag as fast as she possibly could, it was like seeing a fiveyear old at christmass. When she bowed down, I could see that the pale man was leaving, he turned at once when I looked at him and looked me straight back in the eyes, he sent me a little nod as he went through the door, there was something truly fascinating about that man, but life goes on, and I guess that he was way to old for me anyways.
When we got to the beach the sun was shining even brighter, there were many people here as well, mostly other teenagers who were around my own age, but there were some families, adults and children. We found a nice spot where we decided to lay down and enjoy the sun for a wile. My thoughts wondered off as I lay there in the hot sun, I couldn't wait to start at a school where people might actually understand me.
I woke up to the sound of my mothers high voice: "Sammie! Get up! We have to hurry!" her voice was so high pitched it made my ears ring a little, I could hear that something was bothering her. "SAMANTHA!" my mother was yelling now, "fine! I'm up, I'm up" I mumbled as I pulled myself together to get out of bed, I looked at the clock on the dresser next to my bed, the time was only half past seven, the graduation ceremony wasn't till ten o'clock. I got out of bed and got dressed, I looked at myself in the mirror, I was wearing my old army boots, a black tight fitting long sleeved shirt and my favourite jeans, they were red and tight. I looked down on the floor, clothes were spread all over my room, I started throwing them around me looking for a belt and my leatherjacket, when I had found it I turned to the mirror, my short rose red hair had fallen down on my left cheek during the night, so I had to straighten it, but I couldn't find my straightening iron. I looked towards the corner of my room where five large boxes stood, of course I had packed the straightening iron down, I had to face that my packing skills weren't exactly good, I had packed all the wrong things down, such as underwear, underwear was the first thing I started packing, underwear and CD's. I started throwing clothes around again till I found a hat, my red hat which my father had bought me when he was in Jamaica last summer, I liked the hat and it was almost the same colour as the jeans I wore, so I put it on. I went back to the mirror in order to put some make-up on, my grey eyes looked quite bare without make-up, I put a little eyeliner on, it was a dark shade of grey, and then some black mascara, I looked so much better now, freer, more like myself.
The time was five minutes to eight and I could hear my mother in the kitchen as I walked down the stairs. "Morning" I said when I entered the kitchen, my father looked up from his breakfast, "good morning my blessed offspring" he smiled at me, my mother turned away from the dishwasher, and gave me a judging glare as I got the milk out of the fridge, "what?" I asked her, "well surely your not wearing that today?" she asked me, "but I like it" I said, "ohh no you don't, your only wearing that to annoy me" she said, her voice was going crazy again, "no I'm not! I generally like it" I said, and sat down next to my father, "fine! You know what, wear whatever you like, I'll just have to pretend as if I don't know you" my mother said and turned to the dishwasher again, just as my younger sister Madison entered the kitchen, “hi” she said and sat down opposite me, “THERE!” my mother said when she saw Madison, “Sammie why can’t you wear something remotely simuler to what you sister is wearing?” she said looking lovingly at her youngest daughter, who was wearing a pair of blue jeans and a tight white T-shirt, Madison smiled at my mom, and said “mom, I really need 30£ for this weekend, it’s totally important, please can I have it?” my mom looked from me to my sister and back at me, then she gave a surrendering sigh and turned back to the dishwasher, then Madison turned to my father who said “we’ll talk about it later” before Madison even opened her mouth, then father rolled his eyes at me and returned to his breakfast.
The graduation ceremony was quite boring, the teachers pet held a speech about how we all would miss the school, however now it was time for us to move, as if anyone but her would actually miss the school. When I got back home it was two o'clock, I started packing again, I still had a bunch of empty boxes in my room which needed to be filled by the next morning. I sat down on the floor and started to sort out the clothes on my floor, my floor, I wouldn't be able to call it that for much longer. The boxes were filling up at the same rate as I emptied my room, it felt a little peculiar to me packing my entire existence into large boxes. When it was seven o'clock in the evening, my room was completely empty, with the exception of my bed and all of the boxes with all of my stuff in them. I decided to call my friend Akinna before I went to sleep, she was after all going to be my new roommate and I was a little worried that she had not finished packing yet, she had a tendency to be late. "Speak if you must!" Akinna said in a ironic voice when she picked up, "hay Kinna, it's Sam" I said, "oh hey Sam, God did you see that insane movie I told you to watch yet? It‘s crazy! I swear every time I watch it, it gets a little bit better, and since I‘ve see it like a million times, it now officially rocks my world, so did you see it, please tell me you watched it!" she said, "nope sorry, haven’t seen it yet, but I’m sure we’ll watch it together sometime, anyways, I was just wondering if you were done packing yet? You know, because we're moving tomorrow and all that" I said, "ohh yea totally, I'm just marking all the boxes now, as we speak actually, God this new school thing is going to be so awesome, right? I mean I know that we have like two months till it actually starts, but that should only give us time to get comfortable with our after school jobs and stuff right?" she said, she sounded very excited, a bit to excited actually "right, totally right Kinna, but ehh I have to go grab a bit to eat with my parents, sooo I'll just talk to you later then" I said, "okay bye bye Sammie, see you tomorrow" Akinna said, "yea see you tomorrow" I said, then I hung up the phone.
The next morning I could feel a stream of mixed emotions flow through me, on one hand I was very excited to go to the new school, but on the other hand I was going to miss my parents, especially my father, I know that you are not supposed to like one of your parents better than the other, but my father had always been my favourite. I heard a loud engine purr outside my window, I looked out and saw that the moving wan was already at the house, so I went down stairs to greet the men who were driving it. The wan got filled up as went into the kitchen to say goodbye to my parents. My parents were sitting at the kitchen table having tea, they both looked up when I entered the kitchen, "ahh" my father said "well little bit, have you stopped by for one last cup of tea before you're leaving?" he smiled at as he reached across the table to get a biscuit, "naah I'm not really in the mood for tea" I said and sat down as well, "are you ready to go sweetheart?" my mother asked me, she looked worried and I could feel a lump form itself in my throat, "ohh yea I'm all set" I said "just waiting for Akinna now" I felt uneasy and pretended to see something interesting through the window, "now now dear, London is only a three hour drive away you know" my father said, “it’s not actually IN London dad” I said, though I knew he was right, this lump in my throat was stupid and silly. My parents came out to wave goodbye, as Akinna and I drove away in Akinna's old noisy car.
When we got to our destination I could feel the lump in my throat disintegrate, and I felt as free and happy as the expression on Akinna's face looked. Our new flat, which the school had provided for us, was rather small, but it was ours to do with as we pleased. The Flat had a bathroom, a living room with a kitchen in one corner, it only had one bedroom so Akinna and I had come up with a solution before we moved, we were going to share the bedroom, Akinna would have the bedroom the first two weeks and I would sleep on the sofa in the living room, then after two weeks we would switch. "sooo this is us then huh?" Akinna said when we started unpacking, she was hanging a hideous picture of some pretty-boy-pop-singer on the wall behind the sofa, I guessed I'd just have to live with that, I guess everyone must make sacrifices, and Akinna loved that pretty-boy so this would have to be one of mine. We started work the next morning, we had both gotten a job at a café, though it was not the same café, the one were Akinna worked was large and airy, it was a ten minute walk from were we lived. the café where I worked was small and cosy, it had one wall filled with old posters of bands from the seventies. The job was harder then I had imagined it would be, I had thought that I would only have to know how to make coffee, and that I had to be nice to the costumers, but it was so much more than that, there were a ton of different kinds of coffee, the costumers were peckish and assumed that my job was not that hard, and the fact that I am not all that good at math did not help me when I had to work the cash register.
Two weeks later:
I was waiting for Akinna in a café close to the beach, she is my best friend, we have been friends since the first grade, but she was always late, no matter how important the appointment she had was, she would always be at least five minutes late. It was very cosy in here, and I wondered why I had not been here before. Cream-colored walls, dark red curtains, little round tables with red tablecloths, and they had flowers in the windows, and the quiet slow violin music they played was very southing, very cosy indeed. the café was quite small though and there was a little overcrowded at the moment, but I did not mind there being this many people at all, I enjoyed watching as they were sipping their coffee and eating their cakes and talking to each other, there were so many different expressions on their faces, so many different reactions. A short woman stood up and walked towards the door, the slightly overweight man who had sat down opposites her, rushed after her, he looked a little confused. The young couple who sat in a corner were holding hands, the boys lips moved, and I would see that the girl was blushing a little, it made him smile and he leaned in to kiss her. There was a tall pale man sitting alone close to the door, he looked like he was around thirty, he wore sunglasses even though it was not very bright in here, maybe he had just forgotten to take them off, there was something fascinating about him. I watched him for a few seconds, then he turned his head my way, he sent me a little smile as if he had known all along that I had been watching him, the smile startled me a little and I felt a little ashamed so I looked down at the table.
I looked up again and saw that the man was still watching me, his sunglasses were on the table now, his eyes were very bright, I could not tell if they were blue or grey. A split-second later Akinna walked through the door, her light brown hair looked beautiful in the sunlight, and she was wearing a short white and yellow summer dress, and white sandals, somehow she always managed to look stunning, and at the moment she looked perfect for going to the beach, I was wearing an old pair of jeans with holes on the knees, a black t-shirt which said "BOYS LIE! But not as well as we do." on the front, and my old pair of red converse, not very practical for going to the beach now that I thought about it. Akinna sat down beside me: "I'm so sorry I'm late Sammie, it's just that this really great shoe sale sort of magically appeared from out of nowhere on my way over here, and I got these beautiful new leather booths, I’m telling you! totally gorges!" She said as she took her sunglasses off and smiled at me, she knew that I did not mind her being late, she was always late, but she still felt like she had apologize every time: "So gorges booths huh? Can I see them?" I asked her, and tried not to laugh as she reached for the bag as fast as she possibly could, it was like seeing a fiveyear old at christmass. When she bowed down, I could see that the pale man was leaving, he turned at once when I looked at him and looked me straight back in the eyes, he sent me a little nod as he went through the door, there was something truly fascinating about that man, but life goes on, and I guess that he was way to old for me anyways.
When we got to the beach the sun was shining even brighter, there were many people here as well, mostly other teenagers who were around my own age, but there were some families, adults and children. We found a nice spot where we decided to lay down and enjoy the sun for a wile. My thoughts wondered off as I lay there in the hot sun, I couldn't wait to start at a school where people might actually understand me.