Not That Perfect

I awoke a few hours later, when the plane was starting to land. Liv was still holding onto my hand, though she had taken my iPod, listening to it herself, “Sorry,” She said, handing me back my iPod, “You were asleep.”

I shrugged, “Don’t worry,” I answered, stuffing the iPod back into my jeans pocket. Liv nodded before she looked back out the window. I don’t know what interested her out there; I’m sure that all she could see was white, fluffy clouds, “What are you staring at?” I asked, leaning forward to look out the window myself.

Liv didn’t answer, pushing my head away as I got too close, “God Rae,” She said, turning around to look at me instead of the window, “There’s nothing out there.” She said, confirming my thoughts, “I’m just waiting to finally see the ground again.” Liv slowly turned back to the window, ignoring me as I rolled my eyes.

“Whatever Liv,” I said in return, crossing my legs.

“Hello passengers, it’s your captain speaking,” The intercom suddenly said, making me jump slightly, “I just wanted to let you know that we’ll be landing soon and the seatbelt on sign will be turned on shortly. Thank you for flying with us.” With that, the intercom was turned of, making a slight popping sound.

Quietly, I looked over at Liv to see her response to the Captain’s voice. As expected, another huge grin was spread across her lips, “We’re landing,” She sang under her breath, moving closer to the window. I tired to look over her head and out the window, watching as the plane ducked underneath the many clouds, “Look Rae!” Liv called out, whipping her head around to see that I was already watching. She laughed as she continued to speak, “We’re landing! We’re almost there!”

I nodded, “Yeah, we’re almost at our new house,” I said sarcastically, clapping my hands unenthusiastically, “Whoopee!”

Liv’s smile slowly disappeared when she heard my voice, instantly making me regret my words, “Oh, I’m sorry Liv,” I whispered, reaching up my hand to push back her bangs, “It won’t be all bad, “ I said, “I promise.”

“I know,” Liv said, her tone so quiet that I could barely hear her. She turned to look back out the window as we all felt the plane drop altitude, “We’re landing,” She started to sing again as the plane’s wheels hit the asphalt runway.
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A little less then an hour later we all got off the plane and, thankfully, got all of our luggage out of the airport. After we had hailed a cab, the three of us were off to see our new town. Our new home.

“Moo-oom,” Liv whined, hitting her head against the cab’s window, “I’m hungry, can’t we stop somewhere to eat?” Her complaints have been going on for hours. Not only had our mom not told us how far Little Falls was from the airport, but also she didn’t let us stop anywhere.

Our mom shook her head no, rubbing her temples with her pointer fingers. “Here Liv,” I whispered, handing her a bag of skittles that I found in my bag, “Just eat this until we get there.” A huge smile spread across Liv’s lips as she greedily started to eat my candy. I was hungry myself, realizing then that I hadn’t eaten anything that day, but I wasn’t going to complain like my little sister.

“Thank you Rae,” My mom whispered from the front seat, smiling over at the annoyed driver, “Excuse me sir,” She started, “How much longer do you think that it’ll be?”

The driver shrugged, not taking his eyes off of the never ending road, “I don’t know miss,” He answered, his breath reeking of cigarettes, “Not too much longer though, I think.”

I listened to my mother sigh, watching as she turned her head to look out her window. I had to admit that everything that we passed was gorgeous. Everything seemed so old, which only made sense. Apparently, Little Falls has been around since the nineteenth century. “Wow,” I whispered. An involuntary smile spread across my lips as I saw the hundreds of trees that lined the street and the beautiful houses that lined the sidewalk.

“It’s beautiful Mom,” Liv whispered, echoing my thoughts. I raised my eyebrows at her comment, ashamed that I almost liked my new home. I had decided in the beginning that Little Falls was going to be hell. That I was going to hate it. Not ever did I think that it was going to be some adorable, small, homey place that Liv and I almost instantly fell in love with, “When are we going to get there?” Liv spoke up once again, her long fingers pressed up against the filthy glass.

The driver answered in place of my mom, “We are here,” He said, turning the key in the ignition to turn off the car. A moment later he walked around the sides of the cabs, opening each of our doors, before I even got a chance to look out at our new house.

Slowly, I turned my head to look out my own window, for some reason hoping that I was going to hate our new home. But, to my disappointment, it was perfect.

It looked small from the outside, which would have been a turn off to most people but to my small family, it was perfect. We all hated cleaning so we usually stuck to smaller houses. I could have said that I wanted more room this time, if there was nothing else about the house to complain about, but everyone but the driver would know that I was lying.

In addition to its perfect size, the house was adorable. Our mom was right on the dot when she said that Liv and I would love it. The outside walls were a soft white color and the whole left side of the house was covered with yellow honeysuckle, showing no signs of the white wall and window that was underneath it, and there were a few brick steps leading up to the old blue door. It was obvious that someone had been taking care of the house because the lawn was perfectly mowed and the small garden that lined the steps was beautifully kept.

I watched as Liv walked slowly and carefully up to the house, almost like it was a frightened animal. I could almost picture her making a wrong movement and scaring the house away. “Wow,” She said, gaping up at the house. I followed her footsteps, smelling the soft scent of honeysuckle as I stared wide-eyed up at the house, “I kind of…” Liv paused for a moment, running her fingers through her lose ponytail as she thought, “I kind of love it.” She whispered, looking up at me for a moment to see if I agreed. Sadly, I could only nod as a response.

“Hello?” A voice said, coming from behind us. Liv and I turned around to greet the unknown face, only to be stunned by a guy around my age standing there. He was holding an old lawn mower, “Who are you guys?” He asked, his tone cautious.

“I’m Rae,” I answered, pushing my hair back off of my shoulder, “And this is my little sister Liv. We just moved here.” I stared over at the guy as I spoke, stunned by how gorgeous he was. You could see, even from a distance, his stunningly blue eyes. He was at least 5’11, four more inches then my 5’7, and he wasn’t wearing a shirt, showing off his lightly toned six pack. You could see his arms ripple as he held up the large lawn mower and his tanned skin was covered in a light sweat.

He nodded over at the two of us, shaking his golden blond hair from his eyes, “Oh, hello then. Welcome,” He offered us a smile as he spoke, “I’m Austin.”

Liv nodded quietly, slipping her hand into mine as she spoke, “What’s with the lawn mower… Austin?” She asked, her voice hesitant as she said his name. Liv had always been shy around new people. Even as a young girl, she hardly ever wanted to play with anyone new.

Austin looked down at the gardening tool, almost like he had forgotten that he was holding it, “Oh, hah, yeah, this… I’m actually the one that keeps your guys’ garden.” The three of us looked over at the garden as he spoke, “I guess that I won’t do anything today though. Did you guys just move here?”

Liv and I nodded, not knowing what else to say. Thankfully though, our mom walked up to the three of us, smiling over at Austin as she spoke, “Girls, why don’t we go inside and check out the new house?” She placed a hand on each of our shoulders, “You guys can talk more later.” Slowly, she guided the two of us up to the blue door.

“Bye Rae,” Austin called out as my mom started to close the door.