BLOODSTONE ACADEMY

1: The Move.

Jade.

It was the first day of an autumn that promised to be long, dark and cold, and secrets hung about the air as always. Thick, juicy, dangerous secrets that I did not know yet, but somehow knew would completely destroy our already fragile family once I found out.

"We're moving back to London tomorrow," Mom announced abruptly in the middle of our usually chronically silent breakfast.

My fork paused in mid-air for a fraction of a second before I stabbed it into my neatly sliced piece of jam toast, brought it to my mouth, chewed, and swallowed before glancing up at both of my parents.

"London?" My brow raised in slight perplexity.

"Yes," Mom said with a cheerful smile that held several layers of obscurity to it, as everything around here always did. Everything always felt like a lie or like half truths. Like everyone had been let in on a secret only I was not privy to.

"Your father and I thought it would be nice to celebrate your eighteenth birthday back at...home for a change, and also because it's been so long since we left. We believed a change of scenery mixed with...homely familiarity would be beneficial to all of us."

    Her smile seemed genuine enough, but there was something underneath—there always was. Something I've never been able to figure out.

Dad simply nodded beside her as he tore into his chicken without a care in the world. And I remained silent because I had nothing to say.

The word 'home' had come to sound so...strange on Mom's lips. It made sense that she had hesitated before saying it, seeing as we've never had a home. Or at least, I haven't had one.

Mom and Dad grew up with their parents and grandparents in England, and I grew up...well, all over the world. It's a bit complicated.

Mom looked to Dad for support when I turned my attention back to my food, and simply continued eating without speaking, or gesturing to show that I had understood her words, and Dad cleared his throat loudly to garner my attention.

"Yeah, I uh...I know you don't remember much of it but I promise you'll really like it in London. It's very..." Dad wiped his mouth with a napkin as he grappled for what to say. "It's very, um...nice! Yeah, it's very nice in London!" He gave me an awkward smile, and Mom nodded enthusiastically beside him.

I simply looked away from them again in silence and began spreading jam over another piece of toast, and I could practically feel the laser burn of their stares searing through my forehead. So, I looked up with a questioning frown.

"What?"

"Don't you...have anything to say?" Mom's shoulders lifted in a slight shrug. "Any objections or-"

"Does it matter if I have any objections?" I interrupted my Mother's sweet charade because it was starting to become nauseating.

"Uh, I..." She looked to Dad for support again, but this time he simply stared back at her in silence because they both knew the truth, and they knew I saw right through their bullshit.

"That's what I thought." I dropped my knife as I pushed the chair back, got up and began walking away from the dinning table because I had suddenly lost my appetite and wanted to be alone.

"Do not walk away from the breakfast table while we're having a discussion, Jade!" Mom snapped as I walked away, and I scoffed but kept walking.

"Jade!"

"Leave me alone, Mom. I've lost my appetite," I sighed and kept walking, headed towards the stairs.

In the past, I used to throw tantrums. Whenever my parents would announce the news of our move from yet another house we were just barely settling in at breakfast like Mom did today, I would cry and yell, and...destroy things.