The Bennett Boys

CHAPTER 1

Have you ever had to leave a place you once called home? A place that was once your world, your shelter, your...everything. 

A lot of people complain that Cambridge, Massachusetts gets too cold in the wintertime, or that it's not suburban enough. But to me, it's always been my lifeline. It's fun and vibrant and cultural. And to say that I'm going to miss the only town that I've ever known is an understatement. It's made me who I am and brought me everything that I have. And up until a month ago, I was exactly where I wanted to be. I was wrapping up my junior year of high school. I was captain of the track team and president of our school's Key Club. My life was simple, but I was happy.

I guess all good things have to come to an end eventually. Right?

It's crazy how much your life can change with a snap of a finger. Or in our case, a phone call. I remember the day that my mom told us we were moving to Newport, Rhode Island so vividly. I had just gotten back from my best friend Carly's house. I walked into the kitchen and smelled my favorite dessert. Mom always made coconut cake from scratch when she was either at fault for something or trying to win me over with one of her wild ideas. Yes, I was an exact replica of my mom, physically-speaking. I had her long honey-blonde hair and hazel eyes, but what set us apart were our personalities. My mom was spontaneous and energetic, whereas I was more Type A. What drove my mom was adventure and new experiences; what drove me was organization and achievement.

That night – the night that I came home from Carly's house – I knew that something was up. I mean, the coconut scent that lingered in the air was a dead giveaway, but my mom looked nervous, and I knew that whatever she had to tell me wasn't going to be good. Not for me, at least.

"We're moving," she said as I sat there with a slice of the coconut cake in front of my face. It didn't matter how delicious the buttercream frosting smelled; I lost my appetite the second that the words tumbled out of her mouth.

She went on to explain that we were relocating because of her job, but after that point, I had tuned out the rest of the details. Because the rest of the details didn't matter. We were moving, and that was that.

"Why can't you find another job that's here? In Cambridge?" I pleaded. I mean, it wasn't like she couldn't. She worked at an art gallery. There were plenty of them in this town.

"Honey, it's not that simple," was her reasoning, but I wanted to tell her that neither was packing up our entire lives and moving to Rhode Island.

I begged my mom to let me finish off the summer in Cambridge, but it was out of her control. We had until the last week of June to say our good-byes.

I knew nothing about Newport except for the fact that it was nothing like Cambridge. It was preppy, sophisticated...prestigious; things that I wasn't. 

"Think of it as a new chapter in your life," mom said, trying to convince me that moving would be a good thing. But how was saying goodbye to everything that I had loved, to everything that had made me me, a good thing? I wasn't ready to re-establish myself just yet. I didn't want to.