The Light in the Dark

The plane ride to California was long, uneventful, and boring. I was glad to be off of the plane and ready to explore and take a nap. By the time we landed in California it was mid Thursday morning. My mom and I decided to see the new house, then she would go with me to the local high school to get enrolled then she would head to the hospital to everything out. Once my mother and I departed from the plane, seeing as we brought no luggage with us, we waited outside for our cars. The movers who had offered to drive our cars out here had gotten a couple hours head start, we had waited for a couple hours before I heard the familiar sound of my beloved Impala. The movers pulled our cars up in front of us and handed the keys over, we thanked them and my mom paid them. Then my mom and decided I would just follow her to the house then we could head to the high school.

We both got in our separate cars as I followed my mom I noticed there were a lot of woods surrounding the town, which I knew I would enjoy exploring. The airport was a little ways out of town so the drive was slightly long. My mother turned on a street that was lined with nice houses, they were nicely spaced out nicely, and each house was different sizes. As we got closer to the end of the road there was only one house that had a for sale sign posted in the front yard, so I presumed that was our new house. The house next to ours was a small little brick house that had a few stray plants in the front yard, while the rest of the yard was covered in bright green grass. There was a cement drive way with a small silver car, beside the driveway was a thin wall of trees, my best guess was they were to separate the two yards, but the trees were mostly dead or dying.

Our house was a medium sized brick house that had hedges out front, with a flower bed, all the flowers were dead, and it was overgrown with weeds. Most of the grass was dead and brown. Connected to the house was a small garage small enough for one car. I heard my mothers car engine cut off and then her door slammed. I pulled my keys out of the ignition and stepped out closing the door lightly behind me.

I walked towards my mom and stopped beside her leaning against her car as she looked around the outside of the house. She seemed happy with it, though almost every plant on the property was dead or dying, she still seemed to love it.

"Lexa, what do you think?" She asked me as finally took her gaze away from the house, and looked over at me.

"It's nice, not really what I was expecting, but nice." For the first time in awhile I saw my mother smile, a real genuine smile. Every since my father passed away and she had been working so much at the hospital, she never really had the time to enjoy life and just be happy. The old house always reminded her of my father, Daniel Horowitz, when my father was still alive she never had to pick up extra shits because we had a double income family. I knew she was glad to be away from the house, and that town.

"Well, you want to look around inside?" She asked as she dangled a set of keys in my face. I took the keys from her, after she told me which key was for the front door, then she said she was going to meet the neighbors. I made my way up the small walkway that lead off of the driveway, I got to the front door and unlocked it, hearing the click as the door unlocked. I swung the door open, almost hitting it on the wall. Slowly I walked inside as I looked side to side. On the left side of the house I could tell was the kitchen, then towards the right side was the living room and a down stairs bathroom. I continued to walk straight until I reached a large wood staircase, which lead up to the bedrooms and the upstairs bathroom. There was a bedroom at each end of the hall, and the bathroom was halfway between each room. I walked towards the room that was on the right end of the hall, the door was propped open with door stopper, I kicked the door stopper out into the hallway and pushed the door open. The room was large, it had black carpet and the walls were white, there were a few holes scattered on the walls. The wall to the right had a large bay window, from the window I could see the neighbors backyard. I heard a knock on the bedroom door, I spun around to see my mom leaning on the doorframe smiling at me.

"Do you want this room?"

"No, I mean it's nice, but you deserve it."

"Honey, you can have this room, I'm not a big fan of bay windows anyway."

"Thanks."

"Well do you want to head out to the high school then?"

"Yeah sure."

My mom pushed herself off the doorframe and walked down the hallway, I followed closely behind her as she rushed down the stairs. She stepped out onto the walkway and asked me to shut and lock the door behind me, I tossed her the keys after I shut the door. I pulled my keys out of my pocket and rushed to my car so my mom could back out. Once she backed out of the driveway she headed straight, with me behind her. The high school wasn't too far away, it'd take me around 10-20 minutes to drive every morning. We both parked in the student parking lot, school was still in since it was only early morning. I felt the anxiety rising in my chest as I stepped out of my car as my mom walked towards me. My mom smiled softly at me as we walked towards the double doors in the front, while I tried to stay composed and calm I felt a panic attack coming on. Walking through the double doors I saw the front office to the left of the hallway and I pulled my mom towards it. As she talked to the woman at the front desk I sat down in one of the chairs and tried to calm down my breathing. While my mom was still talking about enrolling me. The woman at the front desk called for the principal and an old man who had white hair and a stern face stepped out of the office at the back, he walked around and shook hands with my mom then walked over to me an looked me over.

"And you must be Lexa Hororwitz?"

"Y-yes sir." I stood up from where I was sitting and shook the hand that the old man was holding out to me.

"I'm Mr. Argent, the principal."

I nodded at him as he told my mother we could go back in his office to sort everything out. I followed behind my mother slowly as we stepped into his office. He walked behind a large desk and sat a black leather chair and motioned for us to sit, in the two black chairs that were sat facing his desk. My mother and I sat down as he pulled papers out of a manila folder and pushed them in front of my mother.

"If you'll just fill this last form out, we can get her starting school tomorrow."

"That sounds good." My mom said as she took the pen that Mr. Argents laid beside the paper and started filling it out. While my mother was doing that Mr. Argent turned his attention towards me.

"So how are you liking Beacon Hills so far?"

"It's u-uh, nice." I knew I was fumbling over some of my words, from the anxiety attack I was trying to keep at bay.

My mother handed Mr. Argent the paper, he nodded as he sat it aside on his desk and explained to my mother she needed to know, then he let me know that I could pick my schedule and other paper work up tomorrow morning. We thanked him and left, once we got to parking lot my mother let me know that the mover should be at the house by know and we decided to back to the house to help the movers.

When we pulled up to our house a larger movers truck was in our driveway, my mother and helped everyone unload the truck and tell them where to put all the heavy stuff.

It took us about a total of two hours to unload everything, and put all the furniture together. Once the movers where gone, I worked on unpacking my room. I got most of my clothes and books unpacked, when I ended up passing out on my bed.

Around 7 or 8 at night loud banging and yelling from next door woke me up. I stood up and stretched, then walked to my bay window and looked out towards the neighbors house to see a guy rush out of the house and get on a bike, not to long after the young guy left, and older man ran towards the small silver car in the driveway and speed down the street. I figured it was just a fight and went back to sleep.