World Traveler

The next morning was the first day of school. Basil had me up at, literally, the crack of dawn. Thankfully she had only shaken me. After I was fully up, we ‘bonded’.

“Why did you fly out the day before school started? I would think that you’d want to come sooner so you could get to know the family.” Her question didn’t surprise me, and honestly I’m surprised someone didn’t ask sooner.

“I postponed it as much as possible. I have a twin brother, Liam, and we are incredibly close. Its crazy really. I didn’t know how to tell him I was going to be leaving for three years. I actually only told him four hours before my actual flight.” She whistled lowly.

“That’s kinda harsh don’t you think? I don’t even like my family half the time, but I still would tell them.” I simply shook my head.

“I didn’t tell him so he didn’t count down the days. Instead of breaking down, though we both did that at first, we watched movies, well Toy Story. And we just enjoyed each others company.” Her eyes got wide and her smile grew as she thought of something.

“The way you talk, you really love your brother. Its like you sleep with him or something.” It took all of my strength not to jump on her and hit her. I was never really violent, but Something about the way she said that killed me inside. She must have seen my face, the anger etched into every crevice. “Woah, sorry, wrong button to push. I was just kidding.” When my anger didn’t recede she got impatient herself. “ Then just hit me if you’re so mad! I know the look, Stephie gets it with me all the time.” I contemplated hitting her for about fifteen seconds, but then my laptop dinged from its place on my bedside table. Liam!

All my anger melted away as I lunged for the laptop. I flipped it open in record time and instantly I was greeted with the screen saying I had an incoming call from LiamPayne. I clicked accept and there he was, in the lunchroom of our school. His hair was neatly tamed and I saw the school jumper resting on his shoulder.

“Hey sis!” I waved and heard shouts from all of our old friends. “I get to talk to her first, back off!”

Chuckling, I spoke, “What's for lunch?” Liam grimaced and I knew before he said anything it was the school’s chicken. It was usually undercooked and inedible. The potatoes they served with it bounced, also not healthy, and the vegetable was usually cold. My poor brother. “Never mind. I know already.” This caused a smile to break out across his face at me.

“I miss you sis. Its weird not having to wake you up. I would with this, but one, you’d never hear it, and two, it would be about 2 in the morning there. Okay, we’ll talk later, lunch is almost over, plus it looks like you have to get ready. Bye Sammy!” There was a chorus of ‘byes’ from our friends and Marnie yelled, ‘We didn’t get to talk to her!” before the screen went black, the last thing I saw was Liam’s smiling face.

Tears streamed down my face as I realized how much I truly missed everyone. Maybe this was a bad idea. Basil, who had been getting ready as I spoke with Liam, smacked my head lightly.

“Wipe that look off your face or the kids at school will eat you alive. You have five minutes to get ready before breakfast.” With that, she spun around and marched down the stairs. I hopped off the bed after I heard the door shut and picked out my clothes. It wasn’t anything special, a blouse that ‘Liam’ got me for Christmas last year (really my mom bought it and put his name on it, because she thought I wouldn’t like the cards Liam got me). It was purple with a scoop neck that had frillys and was tied. It was just really pretty and it would make me feel like my family was there with me today. I picked out the dark wash skinny jeans that Marnie had bought me. ANd lastly, my sneakers my dad had bought me at the fair that came around once a year. they were black and lime green, striped. They almost looked like converse, but not quite, and I wore them all the time.

I took about three minutes to get ready, deciding to just put my hair up instead of really styling it, and since I don’t really wear makeup, I didn’t bother with it. I don’t want everyone to see the fake Samantha Payne. If they are going to judge me, they are going to judge me, not a fake person I wish I was.

In the back of my mind, as I hopped down the stairs excitedly, I thought of Haven.