Normal (Book One)

One...

"Thanks mum." I spoke without enthusiasm. I could see the disappointment in her face as I passed by. She had hoped this change would be better. I should be honest and say, it was better to get away, but it did not change all those memories and feelings that flattered through my mind every night when I was alone in my dark room.

Today was a new day and I knew my mother was hoping that I would start to be my old self again. I didn't see it happening. We had always lived in a small town with less than two thousand people as a population. I had always rather play music in my room or watch movies on my own, then to go out with the girls from school. It was not that I didn't even have friends back there. I had a few, but I did not enjoy the same things they did and we became more distance with each other after things changed in my life.

I used to be a happy person, loved to sit in class and chat with my friends, play some sports with the guys. I had always been active. I didn't mind going to movies or the Lake. Then it all changed. I would go to school and stay silent through classes. I stopped playing sports, going to the movies, even going to the Lake. I stayed locked in my room as soon as I returned from school and did not come out until the next day. It was rare I was seen at the dinner table. People said I was anorexic now, that was half right. I lost lots of weight with this change, but it was not that I was starving myself, I did eat, I just avoided being around other people so much that nobody saw me do it.

Without another word, without a kiss or a hug, which used to be a common action between the both of us, I opened the front door and walked outside. Normally, I would enjoy the sun, smile and tilt my face to the sky and let the sun warm me up. Today, not so much. I kept my head down, as I headed to the gates of the property. We lived not on a main road, but close enough to it. I could hear the low rumble of the local traffic already, and I knew it was only going to pick up in less than half an hour. It was peak hour, the time everyone is leaving home, heading to work, sending their children off to school. It was always busy, and it meant there was always stupid fools on the roads.

I had not yet walked around the new area we lived in. Coming from a small town, I knew it would be different. I knew all this because my mother liked to tell a visual story every day of her travels to work. She was lucky, to get the new job, I was pleased for her, but it had meant the move was official. My life back in town was gone, so it did not change too much for me, but unlike her, I had stayed in the house, kept to myself and did not go out to explore.

Outside the area we had moved to was very odd. Half the houses were not looked after, falling apart and looked like crap. The rest, were new homes, recently built and a lot of young families living in them. Their yards were all tiny, and I wondered how anyone was able to live in places like that. I hated the small yard, that was the downside to moving, I lost my freedom of my own yard. Ours was a little bigger than most, but I still was not impressed. The area also had many old empowering trees down its streets. Gumtrees. Protected as my mother explained. I thought they looked ugly, and made things very untidy. Our house was some what new, but the gumtree we had on our yard was horrid and got things all over the place. I had noticed my mother was outside every second night sweeping the driveway. It was a way for her to stop thinking about things, but also so she could keep the driveway and paths cleaned. I didn't see the point.

I knew my new school was not too far away. I was walking today because the weather was not going to suddenly change on me. It was the very start of the school year, end of January and in this state, it was always a heatwave around this time. I did not mind it, while lots of other people hated the heat. Walking to school made it simpler for me as well, to gather my bearings. I knew I was going into a new school, starting year twelve at a critical time. My studies from my school back in town had been transferred over, that was how the school government worked. It was good, which meant all my credits from year eleven would not be down the drain. The only problem with the new school was new people. Coming in at year twelve meant that all the other students would have their own groups of friends, their own ways of doing things. I was a new line of person. While I was not attending to make friends, I also did not want my time to be hard.