The Meaning of Life

Moving to a new place is really difficult. Especially if its over two thousand miles from your former home. Life in Montana was like a dream. Riding horses whenever I wished, camping out only miles away from our ranch, and wonderful times with my best friend Samantha James. Florida, however, seemed like my worst nightmare. My mother promised me that I'd easily find new friends. She said that it'd be a great opportunity for me to get more into volleyball, my favorite sport. But in all honesty, I still believed that this was going to be a disaster.

Looking out my bedroom window, I spied my two brothers out in the driveway playing basketball on our goal, and they'd already gathered a group of about four or five new friends. I sighed and shook my head at Ty and Wess. They were so out-going and funny; and they loved it here in Florida. Sure they had friends back in Montana, but they absolutely loved the warm weather and sunshine all the time. They liked it so much here that it almost made me feel sick.

I turned back to face my big empty room and sighed seeing all the boxes cramped in the middle of the floor. I would have started unpacking, but I still had to paint the room first. I must admit, there is one good thing about this new life in Florida. We have an amazing house. Its a two story rock house, and it is extremely beautiful, not to mention big. Along with the huge house we also gained a really big back yard; it wasn't near as big as our ranch back in Montana, but it was still really nice. We got really lucky finding this place. Its located on the edge of a small cozy town where the athletics department is supposedly really great.

The athletics department is the whole reason we even moved to Florida. My father is a really good football coach and when Florida offered him a high paying job, he had to take the offer. It was really a smart choice to move financial wise, because my father's salary was raised quite a bit. As for my mother, she's already found a job at the local Health Clinic. She is a nurse and the clinic was running short on helping hands.

This whole big move was seeming beneficial for everyone in my family except me. I was the shy one in the family, where I got the genes to be that way I have no clue. Everyone else in the family had already met at least one friend because they are just so easy to befriend. As for me, I was still stuck at zero friends, and we'd been here for three days. I know thats not a long time to meet friends, but it was so easy for everyone in my family.

"Tally?" I could hear my mother call from downstairs.

"What?" I called back, but not in a rude way.

"Come on, we're going to the hardware store to pick up some paint so we can get started on this place," mom replied.

Heading down the stairs, I heard a boom of laughter from outside. When we walked outside to go to the car I saw that Ty was soaked with water because one of his friends had sprayed him with the water hose.

I hid my face and walked to the car as fast as I could to avoid contact with anyone. "You guys behave," my mother called to Ty and Wess while smiling. "Tally and I are off to the store to get the paint, and when we get back we'll get started." With that my mother climbed into the car and we were off.

~~~~~~~~

When we returned to the house my brothers still had their crowd of friends over. I got out of the car and went to the trunk to grab a couple cans of paint. As I was heading toward the house, I heard one of the guys that was over ask my mother if they could stay and help paint to pass the time. I had almost reached the door when the same boy that had asked to help jogged in front of me and held the door for me. Without really looking at him I shyly said a thank you and continued on upstairs to my room. After I set the paint cans down on the floor, which had a tarp laying over it to save the carpet from paint, I began down to get my last can of paint and some brushes and rollers. Halfway down the stairs I almost ran striaght into the boy that had held the door for me.

"Is this your paint?" he asked me, holding up a can of paint with a lime green smudge on the lid.

"Uhm, yes, thank you," I replied, taking the can from him and continuing down the stairs to get some brushes.

"Hey Tal," I heard my dad say when he saw me at the bottom of the staircase.

"Hey dad," I said replying with a big smile on my face.

"Coming to get some rollers?" he asked, holding one out to me.

"Yep, thanks," I said, taking the roller from his hand.

"Alright people," my mom called out loudly. Thanks to Wess, Ty, and my parent's friends we had roughly twenty people here ready to paint. "Today we're going to start with the three kids' rooms and the living room." I saw a few heads nod, but I did my best to avoid catching eyes with anyone. "Now split up," my mother called cheerfully.

I quickly headed up the stairs to my room, followed by Wess, Ty, and all of their friends. When I reached my room I closed the door and turned on my iHome, which was sitting on my windowsill. I turned my iPod on shuffle and the first song that came on was Hero by Skillet.

I had already gotten a couple strokes of bright blue paint on the wall when I heard a knock on the door. "Come in," I called out, keeping my attention on the wall.

"I, uh, came to help you," said the same boy that had held the door for me. "That is, if its okay with you."

"Uh, yeah, sure," I replied looking over at him and studying him for the very first time. He was very attractive, let me tell you. His somewhat shaggy brown hair was messy due to playing basketball earlier, and those crystal clear blue eyes just set it off.

"I'm Trace," he said, offering a generous smile and a handshake.

"Tally," I replied, nervously shaking his hand.