Normality

There was only one life Adelaide Conner had ever really known. For most of her life, she’d been in the spotlight.

It had all started when she was six years old. Her elementary school had put on a play, each class had their own little part and she was the star of the first grade’s performance. She confidently roamed around the stage, made the audience laugh, and sang a song in a slightly off-pitch singing voice. There, it turned out a man in the audience, an uncle of a girl in the fourth grade, was a talent scout for an agent in Los Angeles. He’d seen something in the small, dark haired girl that night. There was a twinkle in her blue eyes that caught his attention. He saw in her something that couldn’t be taught.

When she was younger, Adelaide was purposely made oblivious to the attention she got. At home, she was made to do chores and was only given pocket money if she did, she was made to sit down and do her homework. She wasn’t given everything she wanted at the drop of a hat. But not even that could stop the fact that by eight years old red carpets, screaming photographers, and interview after interview was a normal part of her life. As she got even older she would be asked about it, from people her own age she met especially, they would ask her what it was like. It would dawn on her that other people didn’t live the life she did, but at the same time it was often difficult to wrap her head around.

Adelaide had lived with her mother. She couldn’t actually remember a time when her father lived in the same house as them. As far as she was concerned, he’d always been in Australia. But she owed a lot to her mother. Adelaide had met other teenagers that were in the acting business. Some of them were lovely, and she considered to be friends. Others, well, others she just looked at and was so grateful she had a mother who kept her sane in the crazy world of Hollywood. She’d always let her know the second she started acting like a spoilt brat. In fact, Adelaide was sure she got grounded more than normal teenagers because of her Mom’s concern at keeping her normal. Without her… Adelaide didn’t know how she could survive and now, now she had no idea what she was supposed to do.

The last few days had been a blur. An overwhelming rush of emotion she couldn’t deal with. The pathetic part was that she’d faced the same things over and over for parts she’d played; when she was acting it was so much easier. Now that it was real she… she just didn’t know.

She’d barely even cried.

It was now a Friday, exactly eight days since she’d been told the news. The funeral had happened, the rest of her family had gone back to their homes, and she was alone. With the little money she had (she had no access to any of the money she made from her films until she was twenty-one) she booked a flight to Australia, where her father was going to let her stay with him for ‘as long as she needed’. She didn’t know how long she would need. She just didn’t want to be in LA for another second. That was all she really knew.

Once the plane was levelled in the air and the seatbelt sign clicked off, Adelaide turned on her iPod and tried to get some sleep during the 20 hours flight.

She went uninterrupted for the flight and was relieved when they finally landed in Sydney. Customs and baggage claim was nowhere near as bad as she’d been expecting. Perhaps the fact that she didn’t have security around her meant no one really noticed her. For a change she was just any other girl.

With her cap back on and tilted down, shadowing her face, Adelaide followed the signs to the arrivals foyer. Around her there were tears and hugging of people getting back from long trips away. There were cab drivers with signs of names. Her eyes scanned the crowd frantically before finally falling on a familiar face.

He was wearing faded, loose jeans, and a blue shirt with some logo she didn’t recognise on it, a brown jacket over the top, and brown flip-flops. He hadn’t seen her yet, in fact he wasn’t even looking in her direction. He was different to when she last saw him. His dark hair had hints of grey in them and he was scruffier. But as he turned to face her way she saw those piercing blue eyes she always associated with him and she realised, he was still Dennis Conner, her dad.

Adelaide took a deep breath and started heading towards him. She stopped right in front of him, not quite knowing what to do next.

“Hey Dad.” She said.

There was a long pause as he stared at her. “Addie.”

Suddenly she was engulfed in arms that wrapped around her tightly and emotion threatened to grip her even tighter, but she pushed it away as quickly as she could.

“I’ve missed you so much.” He said.

“Can’t. Breathe.” She gasped, trying to squirm away from him.

“Oh sorry.” He let go, and held her at an arms length away. “You’ve grown up so much.”

She forced out a smile. “It happens with age.”

“Alright, lets go.” He grabbed her bag off her and began to walk to the car park. She followed quickly.

Her dad’s car wasn’t fancy, but it wasn’t a piece of trash either. It was a relatively normal looking Ford, that must have been at least ten years old, it was dark blue and had a few scratches. It wasn’t exactly… what Adelaide had become used to, but it was… nice, she decided. She liked the change, it was what she wanted.

“It’s a bit of a drive.” He said as he started the car.

“That’s ok.”

Her dad lived out in the western suburbs of Sydney, she’d never actually been to his place. The last time she came out to Australia had been for work, but she’d managed to get a few days off and saw the tourist sites of Sydney with her dad, but she’d been staying in a hotel the entire time. It was the first time she’d been anywhere else but Sydney as far as Australia was concerned and despite the circumstances, Adelaide had to admit she was a little bit excited. But not enough to squash the awkwardness, as her Dad put on the radio and the topic neither would speak about loomed over them.

There wasn’t much to see along the highway, just other cars. It was daunting being on the other side of the road, but she quickly forgot about it.

It was the trees in particular that stood out. They were different, it was odd because they weren’t straight away gobsmackingly beautiful, but there was an essence of beauty to them that was completely and utterly unique. It was… nice. There was all the potential for her to actually like it here.

“…In the news this hour, actress Adelaide Conner has been-

Adelaide turned it off quickly. “I don’t want to hear what they’re saying.” She said softly, almost to herself.

“I was only a second behind you in turning that off anyway.”

“It’ll die down.” She said, not quite convinced. “Something else will happen in a couple of days and I’ll be forgotten.”

“Where nearly home.” He pointed to a sign that said ‘Penrith 10’. “We only have about another twenty minutes.”

As they finally turned off the highway, Adelaide sat up a little straighter. There was denser traffic (though she hadn’t gotten used to being on the other side of the road yet) and more buildings, but there were also more trees. They quickly drove away from the city centre, towards the property her dad owned.

There more trees, more of that unique, not quite obvious beauty she’d been seeing. There were more open plains of green grass, they drove past some large houses.

“You’re lucky.” Dennis said. “It was raining all last week, so everything’s really green. Give it a few weeks of sun and it’ll be back to it’s usual brown.”

She smiled and stared out the window.

Suddenly they were pulling up to an averaged sized house. It was made of brick and had a green roof. The grass on the front lawn looked like it hadn’t been mowed in a while as it came up ankle length. There was an overgrown garden on the opposite side to where she was standing. It looking like now there was an undefined dead plant amongst a lot of weeds. There was a thin wire fence around the yard, and driveway was made up of grey gravel. She couldn’t see any more, but Adelaide knew that her dad lived on a large block of land and owned a few horses.

“I know it’s not exactly… Beverly Hills…”

She let out a small laugh. “I never lived in Beverly Hills. In fact, I’ve never even been there. I like this though.” She gave it another glance over and smiled. “It’s nice.”

“It would be nicer if I took better care of it.” He pulled her suitcase from the boot of the car. “Lets get you set up inside shall we?”

She nodded, “Sure.”

The state of the outside of the house should have been a warning to her. But it didn’t prepare her for the cluttered mess inside the house. The front door opened straight up into the living room. Old grey carpet (that may have once possibly been blue) covered the floor, with the blinds still closed the room was very dim. A brown leather couch faced the TV, next to it an old armchair, also brown, but material, not leather. There was a blanket over the back of the couch, and a jacket on its arm. On the coffee table was a mess of magazines, several mugs and a plate with a few scraps of food. The in the corner of the room, Adelaide spotted two acoustic guitars and an electric bass on stands, next to them an old looking piano with pages of music scattered across it. She smiled a little at that.

“Uh, just come this way. You’ll uh, take the guest room.” He said. “It’s probably the cleanest room in the house.” He led her down a narrow hall and opened the third door on the left. “The bathroom is the door across from your room.”

She nodded and stepped into the room, while her dad threw her suitcase on the bed.

The room was small. It had been painted a pale yellow, but the same carpet that had been in living room also graced the floor of this room. The bed stood in the middle, a standard white with floral pattern doona was on it. Opposite the bed was an old fashion looking dresser. It was a dark wood and had a large oval mirror standing up on it. On the same wall that belonged to the hall, was a build in cupboard with sliding mirror doors.

“Lots of mirrors.” She said, feeling a little stupid for doing so.

“Uh, yeah.” He scratched his head awkwardly as though he wasn’t sure what else to do with his hands. “So um, are you hungry?”

She thought about it for a moment. She hadn’t eaten anything on the flight, in fact, had barely eaten anything this past week, and suddenly the mention of food made her stomach growl a little. “Yeah.”

“Ok, well, I’ll just duck down and get some hot chips, is that alright?”

She nodded.

“Well, ok. I’ll be back in about twenty minutes.”

She nodded again.

Once he left the room, Adelaide sat on the bed. She’d made her decision now. There was something about this place that she couldn’t help but like. She had no idea if she could handle the life she’d been living without her mother and didn’t want to try yet. She was going to stay here. Stay in Australia, in this small town west of Sydney with her Dad. She wanted to give going to school a go. She’d always wanted to, but her schedule had never really allowed it. For once in her life Adelaide wanted to forget about her career, about Hollywood and just be a regular teenager.