Crystal Shores

I sat on the step of my deck for the last time. I was being forced into moving to Sacramento California with my mother and brother from Colorado. Where is my father? Well let’s just say my parents had just went through a nasty divorce and he got the house. My mother couldn’t stand living an hour away from her job so she got asked to be transferred to a larger firm. That firm happened to be in Sacramento, California. Why don’t I just stay with my father? Well my mother got custody so my brother and I get stuck going with her. So here I was sitting on the back step waiting for my mother to yell for me to get in the car.

“Hillary Rose! Stop hiding and get your butt to the car this instant!” Trinity Blaker yelled. I knew it was coming. I reluctantly got up and stomped my way to the front of the house. I wasn’t very pleased with the whole me leaving my town, my friends, everything I knew. I walked up to my mother, arms crossed with a scowl across my face. It was a permanent expression, I really couldn’t get it to change. “Finally! Now we have to go or we will never get there. It’s a long enough drive as it is and I really don’t need you to be a pain.
Try to keep the ride civilized with your brother AND me,” my mother said and then looked at me. “Hillary please. Please get that look off of your face. I am sorry you have to leave your friends and school in the middle of your junior year, but we have to go. Now please go find Jensen and say goodbye to your father.”

I said nothing, turned and walked into my house for the last time until I came to visit my father or shall I say IF I come visit my father. I walked up the stairs and into my brother, Jensen’s room. Well former room I guess now. He was sitting there looking out the window. He wasn’t too pleased about moving either. “Jens we have to go. I don’t want to go either, but we have no choice obviously. Come on, let’s go say bye to dad. “ Jensen’s head looked up at me. His expression was the same as mine, scowling. I guess twins really are a lot like one another.

Jensen sighed and said, “I really don’t want to go, but fine. You’re right, we have no choice.” We walked downstairs and found our father in the living room watching television of all things. Jensen spoke first, “Dad, we’re leaving.” Our father’s eyes turned to us and he had sadness in them, but not as much as there should have been.

“Alright son. Take care of your mother and sister okay? I am sure going to miss you guys.” Our dad said and hugged Jensen. He then turned to me. My eyes filled with tears. My dad and I were close and now I had to leave him alone. He pulled me into a big hug and said, “It’s going to be okay Hil, you’ll see. You’ll come back and visit me now wont you?” I nodded my head not really knowing if it was truthful. He wiped the tears from my face and struggled to smile.

“Okay dad. I am going to miss you. I’ll call you. Bye dad.” I said and then turned with my brother and left the house for who knew how long. Jensen hugged me and then we both slowly climbed into the car with my mother and pulled out of the driveway.

I immediately turned on my mp3 player and began to listen to Automatic Loveletter. I stared out the window as everything from my life went passing by. Goodbye friends. Goodbye dad. Goodbye school. Goodbye everything. I watched out the window as did my brother until we hit the highway. Then somewhere in the middle of the song “Parker” I fell asleep.

I woke some time later to Jensen shaking me awake. I groaned something that sounded like a mixture of stop and go away. “Hil we have to eat come on.” I groaned again and thought about telling him to go without me, but I was hungry so I groaned once more and got out of the car. “Mom is already inside.” Jensen signaled to the restaurant. It was huge and looked expensive and nice, not just some fast-food restaurant, but a nice sit-down restaurant. It was a nice log cabin like building and inside it was even better. It had candles and light lighting along with tables and tables everywhere, most of which empty. It was really beautiful inside for a restaurant, I wondered why there weren’t any people eating. I took out my cell phone as Jensen pulled me to our mother’s table. The digital time said 8:47 p.m.

I had been sleeping in the car since 11 a.m. That was a really long time for me. It amazed me. I sat down next to Jensen without looking at my mother and grabbed a menu. I looked for something good and expensive at the same time. I finally decided on baked ziti with breadsticks and ice cream for desert. I told the waitress and my brother ordered spaghetti while my mother ordered some pasta mushroom thing. After the waitress had given us our drinks and left, my mother sighed and spoke, “Come on guys, please. Please don’t do this to me. I know you are both sad and didn’t want to go, but it’s going to be okay. It’s a new beginning for all of us. You’ll both make new friends, I’m sure, and the academy will be great an-”

I broke my shunning plan and interrupted her, “Wait a minute. Did you just say academy? As in private schooling?”

My mother looked like she was sorry she had said what she had, but then began,” Yes I enrolled you both into an academy called Crystal Shores and it is for the best students so you both should be very happy with this honor. I think you will both like it I really don’t see why-”

This time my brother interrupted and he was mad just like I was, “Why what mom? Why we would be angry with this new thing we just heard about that we should have been told long ago? This is so like you. First you divorce dad, then tell us we’re moving states away all the way to California, leaving our lives, and now we have to go to some rich-ass preppy academy? Gee mom, thanks so much it just keeps getting better and better,” he said loud enough for the people that were in the restaurant to stare. Jens looked like he was about to blow up more so I put my hand on his shoulder and he looked at me. His face softened and he looked at his Pepsi.

“Everything will be fine you guys. Just wait. We haven’t even gotten there yet. I am so sure you will both meet a lot of new people and like the academy.” Our mother told us and I once again put my hand on Jensen’s shoulder for I could tell he was about to blow again. Luckily he kept quiet and our food came. We ate in silence and then as our mother paid the bill Jens and I went out to the car.

“She is making our lives hell Hil. Can’t you see that? Can you believe she would make us move and then ruin our lives more by making us go to an academy?” Jensen said.

“I know Jens, I know. She is being horrible about all of this, but we have no choice and if we have to go to an academy then we have to go to an academy,” I said and climbed into the car to fall back asleep.

We continued the long journey to Sacramento, California and finally reached it some hours later. As I knew, my mother got lost a total of 14 times on our trip and that put us back a couple hours. Now that we had reached our destination, we had to find the house. That would be fun, I’m sure. Who knows how many times she’ll get lost this time, but to my surprise she only took one wrong turn. We pulled up to the new house and I was shocked to be quite honest.

It was beautiful in every way, shape or form. It was gigantic as were all the other houses in that area. I was shocked at how big it was and how pretty. “Well guys, welcome to Crystal Shores.” My mother said to Jens and me. I closed my mouth and followed them inside. The inside was just as beautiful. It had so many rooms and closets, but what I saw first was a gleam from outside. I slid open the sliding glass door and found a pool. A huge in ground pool. I felt the water and smiled to myself, it was just right. Okay so maybe all things wouldn’t be bad. At least I could drown myself in something beautiful if things got too bad, just kidding.

I walked back into the house and went through it room by room. The kitchen was huge as was the living and dining room. There was a sun room, two bathrooms, and a game room downstairs in addition to the kitchen, living, and dining room. The basement was big and carpeted with three rooms. They could be bedrooms or whatever we pretty much wanted them to be. A huge staircase led the way up to the upstairs. Upstairs there were six bedrooms, three of which were master bedrooms that included master bathrooms. So six bedrooms, four bathrooms all together, a second living/lounging room. Then there was a movie room and a big balcony extending across the back side of the house. I went out onto the balcony and looked off into my backyard, at all the houses and other buildings where I was to do everything .

At least the house was magnificent, that was a good thing. I sighed at the thought of my friends and life back home then turned to go back into the house and downstairs to help unpack. Jensen and I were to start our first day of school two days from then. I wondered what it would be like and hoped that it wouldn’t be bad. I met Jensen downstairs and we looked at each other and managed to smile just slightly at the thought of our new house. We then trudged outside to bring in all the boxes and furniture from the moving vans. That was going to take forever.