His Bag of Trichs

Chapter 1

"Liam! Can you please bring the box of dishes into the kitchen?"

"Sure mum," I yell from the office where I am going through a box if computer games. I look over from my spot on the floor and see several stacks of boxes and begin looking through them. Sorting through the boxes reminds me how much I hate moving. Having done it six times since I was five has made having friends pretty difficult. Every time I seem to make good ones, my dad gets a new job and we have to move somewhere new. Thankfully, my dad finally landed a stable job at a company in Doncaster, so hopefully we won't have to move for a while. I was just starting to enjoy living in Wolverhampton and had even made some decent mates. Maybe I will finally have the chance to make some I can actually keep for a while.

"Mum! Where is this box of dishes ?"

"I think in the living room, next to the table, " she yells.

"Ugh," I huff. I just spent the past five minutes sorting through boxes for nothing?

As I start walking to the living room, I pass a picture laying out of my twin sister Alice and I on our very first day of primary school. We look so cute in our matching school uniforms and shiny black shoes. Next to the table with picture I spot a box with the word DISHES printed in permanent marker.

"Found it!" I shout as I pick up the box and grab the old photo before walking to the kitchen.

"Hey mum, look what I found," I say as I walk in.

"Wow," she replies, "look how little you two were, my how the time has flown by," she adds, getting slightly teary eyed. "I can't believe my babies are growing up and staring their last first day of secondary school tomorrow."

"What are you guys looking at," I hear from behind me.

"Look Alice, it's the photo of us from primary school," I say, holding the photo in the air.

She comes around the corner and takes the photo from me, "Wow, we sure look different, this is back when we actually looked like twins," she says with a small laugh.

When we were younger, Alice and I had the same boring light hair color and were exactly the same size. But, for our fourteenth birthday, our parents allowed Alice to dye her hair blonde and it's been that way ever since. Add on the growth spurt I had around the same time, and the Payne twins barely looked alike anymore. The only thing that had stuck was the full, pink lips we inherited from our mother.

"I can't believe tomorrow is our last first day of secondary school, AND we have to have it at a new school," Alice complains. "I'm getting tired of having to introduce myself in front of everyone and having to make new friends with girls who have already known each other since they were little."

"Well at least you have an easy time making friends," I say. "No one ever wants to talk to me. I wish we could just move back to Wolverhampton so I could have my last year with the few kids that actually liked me."

"I'm sure you'll make friends, someone's bound to like you, plus maybe you'll meet a nice girl!" Alice says.

'Oh if you only knew,' I think silently to myself.

But Alice interrupts my thoughts, "As much as I'd love to stay and chat with you, I have to find my uniform and perfect a hairstyle for tomorrow, see ya bro, love you mum!"

"See ya tomorrow Alice," I yell back as I watch her walk out of the kitchen. "Where do you want these dishes mum?"

"Come sit down and talk to me first Liam," my mum says from her seat at the kitchen table. "How do you really feel about tomorrow, and don't lie to me," she says with a look of concern.

"I don't know mum, I just want the other kids to like me. And we're starting a week and a half later than they are so they probably already have friends in their classes and everything," I say as I unconsciously move my hand up to my eyebrow.

"Liam! You know doing that isn't going to help anything!"

I quickly jerk my hand down, "I know mum, I know, it's just really hard not to," I whine. I know that it makes my mum upset to see me do it and then watch as I get upset about the result. "It's just something that happens," I say.

"I know honey, I just want to make sure you're okay. You know that your father and I love you very much and I don't want to see you do this to yourself ," she says.

"I know you don't, and I'll try not to," I say as I position my hair perfectly over my right eyebrow. "I'm just nervous about tomorrow and what they are going to think of me."

"Liam, you are a great kid with lots of personality, you just have to show it. Any of those kids would be lucky to get to know you, now help me put these dishes away."

"Thanks mum," I say as I give her a hug, "you always give the best pep talks."

"Love you too honey."

I spend the next ten minutes putting the dishes in the cabinets as my mum unwraps them and tells me where they go.

"It's finally starting to look like home," I say when we step back to admire our almost finished kitchen.

"I really think I'm starting to like it here," says mum.

"I think I can like it," I say with a small shrug. "I'm gonna head up to find my uniform and go to bed."

"Good night Liam, love you," mum says while giving me a hug.

"Love you too mum, see you in the morning."

I walk out of the kitchen, through the living room, and up the stairs to my room. It's not a big room, but it's not too small like my old one. Now that my dad has his new job, money isn't as tight as it used to be. Even though that should make me happy, I'm still really scared about life here. Even if we all "look the same" because of uniforms, I know everyone else is going to look cooler than me. Looking in my mirror, I can see that even with my perfectly thought out and styled hair swoop, you can still see my ugly, half gone right eyebrow. My left isn't much better either. Even though I have attempted to keep that one looking partially normal, it's still jagged looking

from uneven regrowing.

"Why do I do this to myself,"I whisper, walking away from my mirror to a box I'm pretty sure holds my clothes.

"Thank god," I say when I see it sitting on top of the rest of my clothes.

After brushing my teeth, I set my alarm and finally climb into my bed. As I begin to drift off to sleep, I start thinking of tomorrow and wondering what it will be like. My left hand slowly sneaks up to my eyebrow as I begin thinking of everything that could go wrong.

The next thing I know, it is five minutes later, and the skin beneath my left eyebrow is sore.

"What have I done," I groan to myself as I begin to cry. "I can't believe all my hard work trying not to pull has all come crumbling down the day before I start at a new school," I cry to myself as I finally slip into restless sleep.

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AN: Thanks so much for reading! Please vote and let me know if this affects any of you, I would love to know someone else! Xx