The Unbelievable

Chapter One: The Chosen Ones

„Meryl this is actually the coolest thing ever! "

My best (and technically the only one) friend is staring at me with her wide brown eyes opened in enthusiasm. Shame I wasn't thrilled as much as she was, since I never found foreign exchange programs THAT awesome. It happened that somehow, our English teacher thought that Diane (my best friend), I and a few other students from different class would love to be THE ONES picked for the Winter Wonderland Study Program in London. I mean it is somewhat cool that you can spend some time abroad and obviously London is beautiful but hello? I have never been further than New York my entire life and this is freaking over-the-ocean far away.

We live in California – I know what you're thinking, oh my god how lucky they are! - But no, we don't live in L.A. where the dreams come true and one can never be sad. Our small creepy town is called Larkspur and when I say creepy I really mean it. The town used to be called 'The Great Sanatorium' which I think speaks for itself, even though history says it was used to portrait, that here you can find peace and quiet (well so you can on the cemetery, right?). It is certainly true since the number of inhabitants is only 12 000 (yes, I did not forget a zero). So everybody basically prays every night to get the chance to get out of this place, but I was currently horrified.

Diane took a sip from her soda putting her cat sunglasses on, staring at the sea. Her parents are one of those rich people in Larkspur, so basically everyone worships them since here everybody knows everybody. Their house is like the largest here - except for the school and the court building. You can see the entire coast from her garden where we were just sitting and where she was about to convince me that the best opportunity of our lives has just came.

Diane has two siblings, Derek – who has already left for college in NY - and a little sister Donnie. The major difference between us (besides the money) is the family status. Her family was the most amazing family I have ever seen. I loved to spend time at her house, there was constant fun and laugh. You always felt warm when you came and her mother made you pancakes or a fresh lemonade. Me on the other hand, I lived in the bottom part of Larkspur, our house was small – which I didn't care about – but even though empty. I've never known my mother, my father told me she left and never came back. I had no idea how she looked or anything because he hated to discuss it and I respected that. So it was just him and me, the two castaways – like he always said. Maybe that was why I was so afraid to leave.

"I promise you, it WILL be fun. And besides, it is just a month. Remember, we will be home for Christmas." I take a bite of a melon and smile a little.

"Alright, alright. I'll give your theory a shot." A satisfied expression appears on her face as she gets up and takes the cans of the sodas.

"I should go, we still have one more day at school to survive." Yawning I give her a hug making my way out from the garden.

I desperately get on my yellow old-school bike and head the way home. It takes around 10 minutes to get to our part of the town but I'm a slow driver and I love to ride around at dusk. Even though it's November it is still pretty warm. Alert, another thing I can't imagine – London is freaking cold.

After stopping at the mall since I knew there wouldn't be anything but frozen pizza at home, I finally get to our lovely house. It looks pretty decent from the outside except for the bright yellow door. That happened because my father found it too depressing so one day he just brought the colors and we painted the entire door. I was 8 so I obviously felt amazing. I 'park' my bike in the front and automatically go round the house to the French window door that lead into our living room. The door is obviously opened.

"Dinner!" I shout into the outer space stopping our dog Max from knocking me down.

A head with curly black hair and well-known old schooled glasses pops up from the kitchen. "Meryyy!" My father in something that used to be a cooking apron lifts me up from the floor and hugs me. He does that ever since I was a child.

"Dad." I protest. "You'll ruin the stuff I've just bought."

"I cooked." His face is full of pride when he points at something at the cooker.

"Pasta?" Smelling the pot I take a lucky guess.

"Nah, it was supposed to be rice." I giggle and kiss him on the cheek.

"At least Max has dinner too." Joking I turn the cooker off.

"I brought bagels." His face brightens. "Good girl....you know what we are."

"Connected!" We both shout together.

I leave him to prepare the bagels and head upstairs to put my bag into my room. I throw it at my bed and my look moves onto the grey suitcase lying opened on the floor. What am I doing?

I sit on the bed facing the mirror. I check my face after like the hundredth time of my life. I always wonder how my mother must've looked like, not that I would need her but still I looked pretty much different than my dad. Putting off my glasses (same as my father's, yes we are that crazy) I look into my hazel eyes. He had deep blue and I was always envious of them since mine were like a dirty sea water. I run my hands through my short curly hair. I was blonde or something really close to that which made a lot of people think my dad adopted me. So in my head my mom was blonde with green eyes and tall as hell since I was tall too. And she must've had very sharp cheekbones, the way mine were sometimes scared even myself. I seemed anorectic even though I ate a lot. Maybe my body was suffering of lack of usual groceries like pasta, rice sometimes potatoes since my dad and I pretty much ate toasts with peanut butter, bagels with anything we had and milk with cheerios. I know we seem weird and chaotic, but I think that's enough for both of us.

I sigh picking up the application paper from the floor.

November 25th

Tomorrow was 22nd so it was closer than I actually realized. I run down the stairs handing my father the paper in exchange for my one and only peanut butter and jam bagel. I give him a warming smile and land on the couch turning the tv on.

"You excited?" Joining me he puts my legs on his lap and takes a bite of his bagel.

I fake a smile and nod.

"Come on Mery, this is a great opportunity, you know I can't afford much to give you things like this and this scholarship program is awesome!" Seeing the look in his eyes, the kind that I knew I couldn't resist made me actually want to do this for him.

"Okay." Smiling he signs the paper and we let the evening fall down.