Good Riddance
One
I taped across the top of the last of the boxes with the heavy duty masking tape my mum had provided me with and once that was done, I sat down on it heavily, the ghost of a sigh escaping my lips. I looked around my room and sighed, I was feeling more than a little melancholy as I stared at up the newly painted beige walls. The walls had been red up until three weeks when my mum insisted we had to paint them in order to get the sale of the house to go through, so all my pictures had come down and the boring beige paint had gone over the vibrant red. The red had really reflected me and my mum had laughed when I had told her I wanted them painted red, nearly three years ago.
“Scarlett!” my father’s voice echoed up the stairs of the old empty house, now devoid of anything to make it ours.
“Yes?” I called back without bothering to move off the top of the box, my chin rested in my hand and I looked out of the window absently – it was grey today, typical Britain.
“You ready?” he asked.
“Yes!” I said and got up, picking up my blue bag from beside me as I moved. I went to the door of the stripped down room and looked back at the packed up boxes before heading out of the room and into the corridor decorated with floral wallpaper. I headed down the stairs and into the hallway.
“Ready?” asked my mum. She had an excited glint in her eyes and she moved with a sense of urgency.
“Yes” I said flatly.
“Oh try not to look so long faced Scarlett!” my mum said tapping me on the cheek to make me look up from my shoes. I looked up at her and stuck a false smile on my face, one I had been practicing for many years. The smile, however, seemed to satisfy my mum and my dad who came out of the lounge at that moment and patted me on the head.
“Ladies first” he said motioning to the stained glass front door of our the house. My mum went out the door first and down the steps to the driveway where Dad’s shiny BMW sat. Dad opened the door for my mum and then walked around to his side. I slid into the back seat and got my walkman out of my bag, I put it into my ears as we pulled out of the driveway and onto the cul-de-sac street.
I looked back at the house as we drove away for the last time. My dad had left the keys with the lawyers who would oversee the removal of all our boxes and the transporting of them to our new home. I looked at the front seats where my mum and dad were sat, my mum had her hand on my dad’s thigh and they were exchanging pleasant conversation, I assumed, I couldn’t actually hear them. It was the picture of suburban perfection. I didn’t like it but I was made to partake in it because I had no other option.
My name is Scarlett Robertson and I’m fifteen years old. I’ve had a Grammar school education for the four and a bit years I’ve been in Secondary school but now everything was changing. My dad worked for Virgin Media and had been offered a promotion, but that promotion came at a price, for me anyway. We had to move house. It wasn’t as if we were just moving down the road either; we had to move to California. My dad would be working in San Francisco, so he had decided to move us to Oakland so that we would be out of the “big city” and apparently Oakland is a nice suburban area, much like the one we’d just left. Mum had said I would be starting Sophomore year, it was November now so I would be starting halfway through the term semester. I was sixteen soon so I would be one of the older kids in the year, well that was nothing new, it had always been like that.
Everything would be different. I was leaving all my friends behind and for most of them, regardless of the promises ‘to stay in touch’ I knew that I had already spoken my last words to them and wouldn’t be speaking to them again.
“Scarlett!” my mum’s sharp voice brought me out of my thoughts as it pierced through my music. I took my head phones off and waited for her to speak.
“Are you looking forward to it?” she asked.
“Um yeah I guess” I said.
“Don’t say Um at the beginning of your sentences” she said.
“Sorry” I said, “But yeah I am looking forward to it, should be fun”
“The new house is very nice” she said, “Very big”
“Cool” I said. I knew you could get more for your money in somewhere like California and as my father had a decent amount he had managed to buy a nice house in a gated community. Gated. I didn’t even like the sound of that, why did it have to be gated?
It didn’t take long before we were near the airport, I got my mirror out of my bag in an almost knee jerk reaction because my mum always said you check your appearance before going out of the house or anywhere for that matter. My mum was very, girly, to say the least, and it had kind of rubbed off on me, almost by default; I hadn’t really had much say in the matter.
My long blonde hair was plaited today; it had no layers so it could all go back in a plait. It fell to the middle of my back as plait and when it was loose it fell to the bottom of my waist. I had dark blue eyes and rosy cheeks, I was right regular English Rose, I had a light scattering of freckles across my nose and had my ears pierced once in which a pair of gold studs had resided for fourteen years. My hands were elegant and I had long fingers with perfectly shaped nails cresting them, my mum had forbidden me to paint my nails because she said it would ruin my hands.
I got out of the car and walked hand in hand with my mum into the airport terminal. Dad was leaving the car here and that was being sent over as well, I didn’t even want to think what shipping fees would be costing him.
We entered the florescent lights of the airport and I blinked because it was quite dark outside under the cover of cloud that had been existent all day. I looked up at the huge board in the check in area and saw the flight to San Francisco, California, was on time and would departing in an hour an half. It was time to fly away.
“Scarlett!” my father’s voice echoed up the stairs of the old empty house, now devoid of anything to make it ours.
“Yes?” I called back without bothering to move off the top of the box, my chin rested in my hand and I looked out of the window absently – it was grey today, typical Britain.
“You ready?” he asked.
“Yes!” I said and got up, picking up my blue bag from beside me as I moved. I went to the door of the stripped down room and looked back at the packed up boxes before heading out of the room and into the corridor decorated with floral wallpaper. I headed down the stairs and into the hallway.
“Ready?” asked my mum. She had an excited glint in her eyes and she moved with a sense of urgency.
“Yes” I said flatly.
“Oh try not to look so long faced Scarlett!” my mum said tapping me on the cheek to make me look up from my shoes. I looked up at her and stuck a false smile on my face, one I had been practicing for many years. The smile, however, seemed to satisfy my mum and my dad who came out of the lounge at that moment and patted me on the head.
“Ladies first” he said motioning to the stained glass front door of our the house. My mum went out the door first and down the steps to the driveway where Dad’s shiny BMW sat. Dad opened the door for my mum and then walked around to his side. I slid into the back seat and got my walkman out of my bag, I put it into my ears as we pulled out of the driveway and onto the cul-de-sac street.
I looked back at the house as we drove away for the last time. My dad had left the keys with the lawyers who would oversee the removal of all our boxes and the transporting of them to our new home. I looked at the front seats where my mum and dad were sat, my mum had her hand on my dad’s thigh and they were exchanging pleasant conversation, I assumed, I couldn’t actually hear them. It was the picture of suburban perfection. I didn’t like it but I was made to partake in it because I had no other option.
My name is Scarlett Robertson and I’m fifteen years old. I’ve had a Grammar school education for the four and a bit years I’ve been in Secondary school but now everything was changing. My dad worked for Virgin Media and had been offered a promotion, but that promotion came at a price, for me anyway. We had to move house. It wasn’t as if we were just moving down the road either; we had to move to California. My dad would be working in San Francisco, so he had decided to move us to Oakland so that we would be out of the “big city” and apparently Oakland is a nice suburban area, much like the one we’d just left. Mum had said I would be starting Sophomore year, it was November now so I would be starting halfway through the term semester. I was sixteen soon so I would be one of the older kids in the year, well that was nothing new, it had always been like that.
Everything would be different. I was leaving all my friends behind and for most of them, regardless of the promises ‘to stay in touch’ I knew that I had already spoken my last words to them and wouldn’t be speaking to them again.
“Scarlett!” my mum’s sharp voice brought me out of my thoughts as it pierced through my music. I took my head phones off and waited for her to speak.
“Are you looking forward to it?” she asked.
“Um yeah I guess” I said.
“Don’t say Um at the beginning of your sentences” she said.
“Sorry” I said, “But yeah I am looking forward to it, should be fun”
“The new house is very nice” she said, “Very big”
“Cool” I said. I knew you could get more for your money in somewhere like California and as my father had a decent amount he had managed to buy a nice house in a gated community. Gated. I didn’t even like the sound of that, why did it have to be gated?
It didn’t take long before we were near the airport, I got my mirror out of my bag in an almost knee jerk reaction because my mum always said you check your appearance before going out of the house or anywhere for that matter. My mum was very, girly, to say the least, and it had kind of rubbed off on me, almost by default; I hadn’t really had much say in the matter.
My long blonde hair was plaited today; it had no layers so it could all go back in a plait. It fell to the middle of my back as plait and when it was loose it fell to the bottom of my waist. I had dark blue eyes and rosy cheeks, I was right regular English Rose, I had a light scattering of freckles across my nose and had my ears pierced once in which a pair of gold studs had resided for fourteen years. My hands were elegant and I had long fingers with perfectly shaped nails cresting them, my mum had forbidden me to paint my nails because she said it would ruin my hands.
I got out of the car and walked hand in hand with my mum into the airport terminal. Dad was leaving the car here and that was being sent over as well, I didn’t even want to think what shipping fees would be costing him.
We entered the florescent lights of the airport and I blinked because it was quite dark outside under the cover of cloud that had been existent all day. I looked up at the huge board in the check in area and saw the flight to San Francisco, California, was on time and would departing in an hour an half. It was time to fly away.