First Love • Jace Norman

New Girl in Town

The eight hour drive from San Francisco to San Diego was seemingly painless. We packed all our belongings into two large U-Haul trucks. The first of which we were actually going to drive there in and then the second one would come down a few days later driven by a U-Haul worker. We ended up stopping a few times here and there for gas and bathroom breaks and such. As we started to approached the general Los Angeles area I fell into a deep sleep. Within what seemed to be minutes I felt harsh tapping on my shoulder. I awoke with slight confusion but soon regained full consciousness.

"Ariel wake up, we're here! We're finally here!" Mabel says with unconditioned excitement.

Well by that statement, I guess her experience getting here was less enjoyable then mine. I smirk with my eyes still shut. Mabel is my aunt and I have been living with her for two years now. I moved in with her to get away from mom and her abusive boyfriends. Eventually Mabel decided to move down here for her job promotion.

I slowly flutter my eyes open to find that our U-Haul truck is parked into this small driveway. The house in front of us looks elegant and cozy.

"Oh, this house is so cute!" I exclaim.

I get out of the car as Mabel nods with a smile and stands next to me. She wraps her arm around my waist and we both just stare to admire our new home. I can't help but to smile ahead of me and I can tell that Mabel feels the same way. With the lawn as green as ever laying just slightly in front of an arched entry way that leads its way to the one car garage and driveway. The house is a small one story with two bedrooms. I decide to stop for a second to glance up farther ahead the neighborhood and notice a few more bigger two story houses. This makes our home more unique and for that I am utterly grateful the Mabel made this decision.

"It really is, isn't it? We should get to packing, we'll have a lot more to do in a few days come time."

"Agreed." I respond.

As I get to unloading the smaller boxes out of the truck, Mabel begins coming back and forth to grab them and put them inside of our house. I hear a few people yelling at each other down the street and when I turn to look, a boy about the same age as me riding a black skateboard. He has both feet on his board and he is full frontally facing me. As he slows down, he gives me a smirk and a wave. I blush faintly before waving back. After that little encounter between me and said "boy", me and Mabel finish unpacking the truck of boxes into the house a few hours later.

As I am unpacking my clothes, I can't help but let my mind falter back to that boy from earlier. He looked very strong and masculine yet at the same time warm and friendly. He was for certain attractive, I would surely introduce myself to him soon enough. I could hear Mabel's foot steps near my room and I immediately rid myself of any potentially naughty thoughts. Mabel peaks her head into my door way.

"Hey. I'm going to return the U-Haul, get air mattresses, and some food. What would you like?"

"Hm. I would like a premium filled mattress in the color green." I joke around.

Mabel looks at me with her brows raised and scoffs a bit.

"I was joking! I would like In-N-Out please." I reply back.

She laughs and shakes her head before leaving me to continue to unpack. A short time later, I decide to take a shower. I lay out my pajamas and start to run the hot water. I quickly get in and quickly relax my sore muscles caused by todays partially heavy box lifting. The water feeling good against my skin as I knead out any possible knots in my neck and shoulders. After fifteen minutes or so I get out. You know the drought in California is bad and me using more water than needed is unnecessary and only makes our problem worse. Maybe living here will finally be the real fresh start I need away from my mom. I plug my phone in to charge before grabbing a book from my suit case. "If I Stay" by Gayle Foreman sounds about appropriate right now. Almost instantly after I comfortably situate myself on my bean bag, the doorbell rings rather obnoxiously. I rush my legs over to the door as fast as possible with thoughts of Mabel quick in my mind not even bothering to check the peephole.

I open the door to be faced with four unfamiliar people and one familiar person. I stand there in the front doorway embarrassed with the way I look. My hair is freshly wet and I am wearing plain grey shorts with a black t-shirt on.

"Hello! Is your mom home?" The mother asks.

I grimace at the word 'mother' but will still be polite anyways. I analyze further to see the boy from earlier. He continues his smirk from earlier as his eyes rake down my body. I start to feel insecure and soon see the sister elbow the boy in his side. She offers me a friendly smile so I smile back.

"Hello! She's actually my aunt and she's out right now running a few errands but come in." I say as I usher everyone inside.

"What's your name?" The mother asks once everyone is inside.

"My name is Ariel but people usually just call me El."

"Well this is Glory, Xander, and Jace." She says pointing to all three younger people.

My eyes linger a little longer on the person she points to last, recognizing this as the boy from earlier. It's now my turn to smirk at him at him. He looks at me with his brows playfully raised and I really want to chuckle but hold myself back.

"We made you and you aunt this lasagna!"

"Thank you so much for this lasagna, I'll be sure to tell my aunt and I'll have her also be sure to have her as well as myself pay you guys a little visit sometime."

"We better be going, the pizza is going to burn. It was nice meeting you Ariel!" She said before forming an assembly line with her husband in the front, her behind, and then Xander, then Glory, and then finally Jace. Jace turns to look at me one last time and smiles. I smile back at him wondering when I'll be able to see him again.

"It was nice meeting you too. See you guys soon!"

After I shut the door, my back slides down and I shake my head gently. There would be no way in hell that I wouldn't see Jace again, that's a promise.

EDITED