Mayberry Academy

I woke to my alarm going off. It was 7 am and I had to catch a flight in 3 hours. I groaned. Just then I got a knock on the door.

“Kailey, are you up? You know you have a flight in 3 hours. Have you even finished packing yet?” Anita, my dad’s new girlfriend, yelled through the door.

“I’m up!” I shouted right back. “And I finished packing last night.”

“Well hurry up! You know how your father is.” After that she left.

I groaned again. I think I know how my father is, I’ve known him a lot longer than she has. Try fifteen years compared to her 2 months.

I got up and got out of my bed. My bedroom was pretty big. My father was rich. He was a big CEO or something of a major company. I should know this right? I don’t. Ha. He never discuss’ work. It doesn’t bother me though. I really don’t care where he works. Maybe that’s wrong of me, but wherever he works is the reason why he’s never home, and the reason why I’m going on this flight in 3 hours.

I’m going to boarding school. Mayberry Academy. It was all the way on the west coast, in California. I live in Pennsylvania, so I knew it was going to be a long flight. My dad decided that boarding school may be the best thing for me at the moment. He’s currently having to go on a lot of business trips and he’s never going to be home. Of course Anita is going to go with him. But me? I’d be traveling a lot if I went with him and I’d miss too much school, and I can’t stay in this house by myself. So he decided 2 days ago that I’m going to boarding school. He knows the Dean, or Headmaster, of the school, so he’s able to get me in. Apparently they get a lot of students and it’s hard to get into.

I didn’t really want to go. My whole life was here. My friends, my family, everything. I sighed and looked to the bathroom. I might as well start getting ready.

About an hour and a half later I was downstairs, fully dressed and fully packed. I had decided to call my 2 best friends and my boyfriend and now here they were, obviously not liking this situation any more than me. I tried to smile as I looked at them. Holly was the first to smile, somewhat, back at me. She and I had been friends the longest. Since kindergarten actually. I hated to say good-bye. To any of them. But saying it to Holly was going to be the hardest. She was tall. Taller than me at least by 4 or 5 inches. I was short, only 5’ 2”. While she has perfect straight blond hair, I have brown hair that has a little wave to it. Both our eyes had the same color though, which was cool, they were both dark brown.

“This sucks,” my other best friend, Shane, said. I just nodded. Holly and I became friends with Shane when he moved here in the fifth grade. He was tall, almost 6’ actually. He had short black hair and blue eyes.

Then there was Jarrod, my boyfriend. Tall, taller than Shane, he was 6’ 1”. We’d been going out for almost a year now. He had dirty blond hair and green eyes He was also, well, hot. Ha.

“When am I gonna see you?” He asked. I just shrugged.

“I don’t know. But don’t worry, just text me or email me or something, we’ll figure this out I’m sure of it,” I said with a small smile.

“Aw Cami, this really does suck,” Holly said. “Boarding school? AND it’s all the way in California! You definitely have to keep in touch. No doubts.” I laughed.

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna forget any of you. I’ll try to visit as often as I can, too.”

Just then Anita came in with my dad. It was time to go. Already. Great.

“Good, your packed,” my dad said. His name was Daniel. I got my hair color from him and it was no mistake I was his daughter. We had too many features alike. “The car is ready outside and your flight leaves in an hour, and you know already that it takes almost an hour to get to the airport.” I just nodded and looked at my friends and then I looked at Jarrod. I hugged them all and tried not to cry. Especially as I hugged Jarrod and gave him a kiss good-bye and heard him whisper to call him when I got a free minute after I landed.

I got in the car by myself. My dad and Anita had plans for the day and getting me to the airport personally wasn’t on their lists. Didn’t matter I guess. It took about an hour to get to the airport, and after that, I was on a flight to California.

Hours later I was landing in California. It was late August so it was going to be the beginning of the semester. I thought about this as I got in a taxi that was already prepared for me. They had had someone standing with my name on a piece of cardboard.

Before I knew it I was in front of the school. It had a big sign off to the side that said “MAYBERRY ACADEMY” in big letters. Not hard to miss. Plus the fact that the school was gigantic. I lived in a small town. Small towns mean small schools. This school was twice if not three times bigger than mine. I sighed. Well, here we go.