Americans go abroad for three reasons: to study, to travel, and to get into trouble.
-Unknown
(POV: Zoe)
The drive was long and painful. I stared out the window, knees to my chest, laying against the door.
I was kind of going to miss this place. The simplicity of life here. I grew up in New England, it's where I did everything. First time I walked, talked, rode a bike, read, got detention, smoked, drank a little.
It was almost impossible to believe I wasn't going to come back to the same bed tonight. I wouldn't even be close. Unless you consider 3,383 miles away close.
We finally arrive at the airport, and I step out of the car, taking a long, deep breath, taking in everything from this place. This place with so many memories. This place I grew up.
I shook it off walking inside, going through all the security and passport stuff. There were so many papers and screenings I needed to complete, it made me sick.
We finally got all of our clearance, and made our way to wait. Mom gave me twenty dollars and told me to go get us breakfast.
I sighed, going to Dunkin' Donuts, a popular grab-and-go coffee and donut place, in New England.
I ordered myself a medium coffee, with cream and sugar, and got my mom an ice tea and glazed donut. I paid, pocketed the change, and walk back to her.
She sat nervously, tapping her foot slightly as I hand her her breakfast. She smiled, taking them carefully from my hands.
We sat silently until we were to board. We then board, and get set for takeoff.
Eight hours. Eight painfully long hours sitting in one seat next to my excessively anxious mother who won't stop tapping. She was quiet though which was nice. She just watched some movies, and I sat reading my books, headphones on.
They tried to serve me lunch and dinner, which I just picked at for my mothers sake. But really? Frozen bread AND frozen butter? Do you know how hard it is to spread frozen butter on frozen bread?!
We FINALLY landed, and thank god for it, I had almost finished my playlist, and the books. We exited the plane and looked around. So busy, so crowded, even more so than the airport back home! Well, 'home', seeing as this is my new home.
We checked our luggage, got our money changed into British pounds, and finally got out of the dreaded airport, onto the cold damp streets of London. People filled the sidewalks like schools of fish swimming downstream, and cabs flooded the road. It was like whenI lived in New York, just, less yellow.
I hailed us a cab, and my mother told the cabbie the address of the flat we were to be staying at. Twenty minutes and an awkward silence later, we arrived at the building. It was older, and brick, with lots of lights and lots of people.
We got inside, carrying boxes on our hips. Mom told me my room was the last door on the hall, the biggest bedroom since I had the most stuff. I argued it for a minute, insisting she should have the bigger room, than decided to just suck it up.
The walls were grey like at our old house, but it was bigger. There was an actual closet and a bathroom!
Maybe this was a bribe to get me to act nice, maybe even to get friends so they can come over and be in my 'cool' room.
No matter. I put my boxes in a pile in the corner and start to explore my room.
It was truly amazing. So large, the grey just making it look bigger with the trick of the light.
I stepped into the bathroom, and looked around. It was smaller, not very much room, but there was a bath with a shower head, and a mirror with a built in medicine cabinet above the sink that had a dark counter top.
Then I walked back into my room, the wooden floorboards creaking beneath my feet.
"It's not horrible." I mumbled, starting to unpack.
The next day, Mom took me shopping out in town, needing to get me some school uniforms.
I took a couple skirts and shirts into the dressing room, tossing them on the chair. I pull it on, looking at it in disgust.
An electric blue sweater over a white collared dress shirt, with a tan skirt, and dark elephant grey tie.
I mean it wasn't unflattering, it was just ugly, and not dark enough. To bright, to flashy, it made me look peppy.
I finally managed to buy a few outfits, and convince my mom to buy me some new clothes, and a leather journal. If I was going to buy something awful, I wanted to even it out.
After she dragged me out to this restaurant called Speedy's for dinner, we got back. I went to my window, peering out onto the late London street. I looked down and realized it was a fire escape!
So I opened my window and climbed out, bracing the late night air on my skin, trying to enjoy my last night before I had to go to school.
