They Don't Know About Us

Arrival In the UK

After I arrived in the United Kingdom:

            After picking up my bags at the London Heathrow Airport, and waiting in the extremely long lines to exit, I got into a black taxi.

The driver didn't seem to pleased to be alive that day, and he gave me a grumpy moan when I handed him the address of my new family's residence. He set the paper down on his dashboard and started the engine. He didn't speak to me the entire way there, and it was a long ride. It was at least half an hour.

After the awkwardly silent ride, we finally got to the family I was going to stay with's house. I knew it immediately because I had already searched the address on Google Maps weeks prior.

 I stepped out of the taxi, and stared up at the enormous house. It was a large white house with columns in the front. It reminded me of an old plantation house down in Georgia I had gone to several years back. As I picked up one of my suitcases out of the trunk of the taxi, I continued to look everywhere on the property. My eyes skimmed across the beautiful front porch that had what appeared to be a koi pond on the edge of it. The trees in their front lawn were awe-inspiring. They were taller than the house and their leaves hid the inner branches of the tops of them.

"Oh hello! You must be Alexis! My name is Jenna!" a lady, about the same height as me exclaimed, skipping up to me from the front porch I was staring at. Then I realized that that must have been my house mom.

"I prefer to be called Lexi," I said, raising my voice a little louder so she could hear me as she made her way up the sidewalk to where I was standing. That's when I realized that I was still standing on the edge of the road.

"Okay, that is great," she said in a thick British accent as she quickly began taking the other suitcase from the back of the taxi's trunk. 

"Here, I'll get your things out of the boot really quickly," Jenna said as she finished setting all of my belongings on the ground. 

She stood up again and beamed at me. 

"Okay Lexi. Come in so you can meet the family," she smiled, helping me with my bags that I couldn't carry alone. We walked down the long sidewalk she had just come up on and got to the front door of the, what in my eyes, was a mansion.

We got up to the large doorway with many intricate iron swirl designs adorned on the white wood surface. Jenna then opened the door to display an even bigger than expected living area.

 I noticed each detail of the interior of the front of the house. The entire living room was white, white couches, white walls, white carpet. The only thing breaking the white was the little green and yellow pillows snuggled in the corners of the couches, as well as the tropical colored paintings and pictures hanging perpendicular to the floor, on the wall.

"Lexi is here!" Jenna yelled as she turned a corner from the living room, leaving me alone. I stood not moving, by the door, unsure what to do. I twiddled my fingers together and continued to gaze around the room, feeling awkward that she left me alone in her house. Jenna came back around the corner and looked at me.

 "Are you coming?" she asked with a smile, and I picked up my bags and followed her into a big clearing in the house.

 There was a spiral glass staircase in the center, a dining table to one side, and a little couch and coffee table on the other side. Everything was bright white, and it looked like something you'd imagine you'd see in an ice castle. I then followed her up the stairs, holding the side railing since the glass steps were very smooth and very slick.

"The upstairs is where all of our bedrooms are," Jenna said as she knocked on the first door she came to. 

"Hannah! Lexi is here! Come meet her!" Jenna yelled through the wooden door as she continued to lead me to the room next to Hannah's, whoever Hannah was.

Jenna smiled at me before opening the doors to the room. The walls in my room were pink and black, and my One Direction posters that my mom mailed a few weeks before, were hanging on the walls. The bedspread was covered in zebra stripes and furry throw pillows. It was as if Jenna knew my personality before I even said anything to her about myself. Jenna helped me sit my bags down on the hardwood flooring.

"Well, make yourself at home," she chimed as she walked out of the room with a skip in her step. As Jenna left, a little girl, about 7 years old with brown curly hair and brown eyes wearing a little blue dress walked in. "Ello!" she said with an adorable little accent. "My mum told me about you!" she said running up to me and hugging my legs. I hugged her back. I was kind of surprised by her reaction. I was used to kids being shy around me. But Hannah seemed completely comfortable with me! "And now, I'm going to have a big sister!" she said jumping up and down. "Yes, you will!" I said copying her reaction and copying her exact excitement. She ran out of the room, and then turned back around through the door. "Come see my room!" she said running back and grabbing my hand, pulling me with her. I walked into her room; everything was yellow and pink with flowers. She looked up at me and smiled, one of her front teeth was missing. She was such an adorable girl. "Lexi! Come down here!" I heard Jenna shout from downstairs. I quickly went down the stairs. Maybe a bit too quickly because I tripped on the last step and fell onto the smooth, hard floor. I heard Hannah laughing from upstairs at me, and I looked up and I stuck my tongue out at her playfully. She giggled at my reaction and ran back into her room.

I got up, making sure I didn't bruise myself. So far so good. I then walked into the living room again; Jenna was holding hands with a dark skinned brown haired, brown-eyed man right in front of me. "This is Jacob, my husband." She said looking up at him with a smile. I smiled and nodded. "You don't talk much do you?" Jenna asked me not being mean or anything. "I try to talk, I'm just shy unfortunately," I said looking at the white carpeted ground. "Well, we are going to break you of your shyness!" Jacob said laughing, nudging Jenna's arm, making her smile. Jenna then turned form Jacob and smiled at me. "Well, do I need to make dinner?" Jacob asked Jenna letting her hand go. "I suppose," she answered sarcastically, throwing her hands down as if she was frustrated. Jacob smiled and kissed Jenna on the cheek before he went into the kitchen. "I'll help!" I offered. "No Lexi! It's our treat tonight to welcome you!" Jenna exclaimed. She took my hand and took me near the white couch.  "Would you like to watch some films?" Jenna asked, making eye contact with me. She then turned to her left and pulled open a cabinet full of DVDs. DVD's of all kinds. I know for sure I saw "Titanic" and "Love Actually".  "Sure," I said as she let me pick a movie. I looked through the shelves more throughly and picked the movie "Twilight". She looked up at me and laughed. "I love that movie too!" she replied as she opened the DVD disk player and slipped the disk right in.

            After dinner I went back upstairs to my room to start to unpack my clothes. As I did I found my small CD player and CDs in one of my bags. I took them out and started playing the CD "Take me Home" by One Direction, my favorite CD. I listened to the beat at first, imagining the memories to those songs happening again. I always tended to attach memories with certain songs. Sometimes it was an annoying habit, but with One Direction songs, it was happy memories, not ones I wanted to forget. I started to dance around my room and sing to the music when the first beats of the second track, "Kiss You" came on. When the song ended I realized I had to unpack. So I got up and began taking the several layers of different types of clothing out of my suitcase. I brought lots of different types of clothes since I didnt know what I was getting myself into by leaving the country... Which I never had before. So after about half an hour to forty-five minutes, I finished. I looked around at the cleanliness and smiled. I was so happy living in a clean room for once. My room back home was always a disaster. In fact my parents never let me have friends over because there would be no where for them to sleep or even put their stuff down!

 After I relaxed, I took a shower and came back into my room and I laid down on my bed and looked at the ceiling. I took a deep breath in, closing my eyes gently, and reopening them, gazing at the ceiling. Above my bed, Jenna had taped my Harry Styles poster. I laughed quietly.  I knew my mom had probably told her how I am completely in love with him. I smiled again and turned over to turn off the lights before curling up in the zebra comforter and falling peacefully asleep. :)