Hey Niki

My first week went by quickly. Alexandria became the friend that I would sit by at lunch and hang around with before school. Tomos lightened up a bit with watching me after seeing that I was friends with her. He didn't stop looking out for me, though. In a way, I was sort of glad about that because on the Friday Alexandria was getting tormented by one of the boys in the grade below us and no matter what I was doing, he refused to leave her alone, so when Tomos passed with his friends he saw what was going on and got him to leave her alone. His friends were probably a bit confused as to why he helped two girls in the grade above him, but he told me that he never told them that I'm his cousin.

The weekend wasn't anything special for me. I mostly stayed in my room and completed all my homework on the Saturday and then on the Sunday I went over the letter that my mother had sent me which I had received on the Saturday. It was an important letter. I told my uncle about it and he told me that we could talk about it next week seeing as he worked mostly on the weekends then he did during the weekdays. I've never been quite sure just what he works as, but I guess that doesn't matter because as long as he provides for his family, that's all that he'll care about.

I've never been too close with my aunt. I'm not really close with my uncle either, but I feel like I can talk to him more then I can with her. Maybe it's because he's my mother's brother and she is just someone that he married which makes her my aunt, I don't know for sure. She's a nice woman, though. Since the beginning of the week I had only spoken to her around ten times, mostly just to thank her for the dinner or to ask her where something is that I've needed to use. To be fair, she hasn't gone out of her way to speak to me either so it shows that we both don't feel that bothered with not speaking to one another all that much.

On the Monday it was raining. It was also the first day that both Tomos and I were going to walk to school. It was only for this week, though. After this week my uncle is going to continue driving us to and from school –apart from Tuesday and Thursday evenings for me– but for the time being, we were walking. Before we left my aunt asked whether I wanted an umbrella to use because it was meant to rain harder as the day progressed. I declined and we set off. I don't think that Tomos liked it all that much because it was sort of cold in the rain, but he didn't say anything about it.

When we reached the school there was only five minutes until the bell, and because it was raining I knew that Alexandria would probably be in the Maths corridor along with the others from Chess Club. It's great that I can go there whenever it's raining in the morning now. It's also one of the reasons why I declined the umbrella that my aunt offered me. Just as I was about to head towards the building, Tomos grabbed my arm to stop me. I looked at him. "My friend's walking back with us today, okay?" he said.

"Oh, how come?"

"Before I knew you were coming, I arranged to have him stay for the week in the guest room because his parents are out of town and they don't trust him. I was going to ask him whether he would mind not coming and going somewhere else, but I forgot about it until Friday when he reminded me and by then it was too late to tell him that he couldn't stay when his parents thought that he was," he explained.

"But I'm in the guest room," I reminded him. He seemed to have had forgotten about that because he cursed himself when I mentioned it. "I can stay downstairs for the week."

He waved my words off. "Don't be silly, Niki. You know what my dad's like so there is no way that you'll be sleeping downstairs because of my friend. I guess he'll just have to stay on the floor in my room."

"I really don't mind staying downstairs for the week, Tom," I told him. He just shook his head. "Well, okay then." The bell went after so we said our goodbyes to each other and went into the building. This was my first Monday at the school and I had one lesson that I hadn't had in the previous week that I had today. It went just as well as my other lessons did. I met Alexandria at lunch and we sat at a table talking about what we wanted to do after this year. I already knew that I was going to move back home and go to the college close by. It had been somewhere else previously, but because what happened with my mother happened I decided that I didn't want to move to a different state to go to college. I knew that she wouldn't be too happy about the fact that I was going to give up what I had wanted to do since I was ten for her, but she's my mother and she's done so much for me so I'm going to stay close to her.

I bumped into Tomos and his friends when we were going from our forth class to our fifth class. I stopped him and told him that Alexandria would be walking back with us too because I had asked whether she wanted to come over. That was all I said to him before I carried on to my fifth class. The reason why I had asked her to come over was because I wouldn't be too comfortable walking home with my cousin and his friend because there was almost a guarantee that they would start talking and I knew I would be lost in whatever they were talking about. Sure, I'm okay with not being spoken to all the time, but because I had to be there and I couldn't just leave at any time, I knew I wasn't going to feel comfortable which is why I invited her.

During my final lesson I could see that the rain outside was letting up a bit. I hope that it stayed that soft until we get back to my uncle's house. It probably wouldn't but I could at least hope. My jacket had a hood if I needed it, but I never seem to like using them, even if it's raining quite heavily. After the bell went to signal the end of the day, I found Alexandria's class and met her outside of it. We then made our way to the front of the school and waited around for Tomos. I had told her before that we would be walking back with my cousin and his friend. They seemed to take forever to leave the building. It was slightly irritating having to wait around for roughly five minutes before they came out. I recognised his friend as one of the ones I had seen with him a few times.

"Sorry for taking so long, Niki. My teacher's just . . . well, a bitch," he told me and grimaced. I laughed. "Anyway, this is Mikey." He gestured to his friend. I waved lightly at him.

"Your dad won't mind about Alexandria coming over, will he?" I asked to which I received a shake of the head. "You sure?"

"Niki, trust me, when it comes to you my dad doesn't mind about anything," he told me. I accepted it and we started back to the house. Tomos and his friend walked ahead of us, mostly because I was still not too certain as to which way I would go to make it back so having him ahead was the best way to do it. Alexandria told me about one of the boys in Chess Club. His name was Chris and she had liked him since they had started high school. They had both been shy for the first few years, then he became friends with one of the other boys in Chess Club which brought him out of his shell a bit, and then she joined Chess Club only to find out that he was in it as well. It was good in some ways for her, but in other ways she hated it.

Despite being focused on my school work a real lot, I was no longer a virgin and had been out with several boys in my old high school. I hadn't had something like Alexandria happen, where I was shy, the boy was shy, and it was obvious that neither would ask one another out. My first boyfriend asked me out, the second I asked out myself and the third it was a somewhat mutual decision without anyone verbally asking. None lasted too long, but I did go all the way with all three of them. They didn't just use me for that, though. Something that I never admitted to my mother was the fact that I went all the way with them on the first date. She thinks that I only did it with one of them and that it was just before we broke up. What she doesn't know won't hurt her. But because I had had experience with a boy, I could give Alexandria some advice about what to do with Chris. Giving boy advice to someone isn't something that I thought I would ever do, but sometimes things just happen.

When we reached my uncle's house I had to find my aunt and tell her that Alexandria was over. She told me it was fine and asked whether she was staying for food. I told her that she was and then went back into the hallway. I didn't know where Tomos had gone but his friend was standing awkwardly next to Alexandria. "My aunt says its fine, Alex," I told her. She looked slightly relieved. I looked at the boy next to her. "Where did Tom go?" I asked.

"To put the dog out," he told me. He sounds awfully quiet. I wonder how he and Tomos became friends unless he's louder around friends. I nodded, told Alexandria to hold on a moment, and went to find him. I asked him whether he would mind asking his mother whether she could do something that is suitable for vegetarians tonight seeing as Alexandria's one. He laughed and asked why I couldn't ask her myself. I told him that I would feel rude asking her so he agreed to ask for me. I got a bottle of water out of the fridge before I left the kitchen which meant that Tomos had left it before me so his friend was gone from the hallway. I led Alexandria up the stairs and to the room I was in. We did our homework and then I pulled out my uncle's chess set that I had asked him to borrow after I had joined the club. We spent the remaining time before dinner playing against one another. We only had one game, though, because it took around five minutes for both of us to move one piece. Most people play the game and just do any move that they can. They don't get that you're meant to think about what the move will do for you further in the game and whether you're setting yourself up to lose or not.

My uncle wasn't back for dinner so my aunt let us take the food up to our rooms which meant that we didn't have to start a new game. We continued the game while we ate our dinner; we mostly ate the food cold because we would only eat during the other person's go. In the end she put me in check mate so we started another game, this time making sure that it wouldn't go on for the same amount of time by not taking the same amount of time with our moves and making sure that we somewhat hurried the game up.

It was nearly nine when we finally decided to stop with the talking and the chess. Alexandria mentioned that her parents didn't like her going out too much after dark and that neither of them would be able to pick her up. I knew that if I went to Tomos about that he'd tell me to ask his father to take her home. That seems too rude for me so I figured that the best thing to do would be to ask whether she could stay over. I asked her whether she would mind staying over before I went and asked my uncle. A part of me was betting on him saying no but much like Tomos would have told me, he said yes and got some extra blankets and a quilt for her to sleep on.

Despite only knowing Alexandria for a week, it felt like I had known her for longer. I certainly felt closer to her then I did with any other person within a week of meeting them. Maybe it's because I'm getting older, I couldn't really say, but since this deal with my mother I had been feeling a bit more mature than I was before. I guess it's mostly because I'm on my own now. Sure, I have my uncle and aunt here to look after me, not to mention my cousin during school time, but none of them are my immediate family. Maybe it's silly of me to think like that, but I can't help it. I probably never will.