One Change After Another...

Chapter 1

Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like to just disappear. Vanish of the face of the earth. I wonder would anyone miss me...Probably not. When I was younger my friends and I, would pretend to visit the moon, fight aliens along the treacherous journey as we chomped down on our dairy milky-way bars. We used to live on the moon, surrounded by sparkling stars and the blazing hot sun. This fantasy of course would soon be cut short as my mother at this point would usually call "Dinner is ready!". My friends of course grew out of this moon phase. I on the other hand, did not. I never had many friends, but as my moon comrades decided I was no longer cool enough for them, they dumped me in fifth grade. Since then I've kind of entered the rebellious phase. You know the typical high school couldn't care less girl.

"Sam? Earth to Sam. Hello, is anybody in there?"

I Jolted upwards and looked at him sternly.

"Daydreaming again, were we Sam?"

I never learn anything in class. Usually I'm drawing in my beat-up sketch pad or searching for ways to annoy my mother. Either or suits me.

"Maybe if I wasn't so bored, I wouldn't have been daydreaming in the first place."

As he wrote on the freshly cut slip of pink paper, I knew that on this occasion I was doomed. He handed me that same piece of paper, which stated clearly 'Sam - sleeping and answering back in class AGAIN'. Again, spelt in larger than usual capital letters, under a bold title that said 'Headmaster Slip' which in this case made everything worse.

"Headmasters office now!"

I stormed along the empty corridors, inching towards the towering black door. I turned the handle, waiting to meet my fate. There she stood. The headmistress. Miss Dilworth. Her brown hair hung tightly round her rather square like face and her forehead crinkled up as she continued to look at me.

Here, would be a good time to tell you about me. My name is Sam, short for Samantha. I live in a small town in Ireland. I am your typical sixteen-year-old only with a little more rudeness, cockiness and loudness added to me. I daydream way too much as so rightfully demonstrated. No-one really bothers me (bar my mother and father), probably because they know I will stand up for myself. I am currently an only child after my big sister Rachel left us three years ago. She was probably my only friend, but sometimes the stories that I hear about her makes me think, whether I really knew her at all. All the parties she went to, all the popular friends she had and that crazy hot boyfriend of hers. Now that I think of it, all we seemed to do together, was perform magic tricks in front of our parents. But of course, she pulled off the most difficult magic trick known to mankind. The disappearing act.

"Sam? Were you listening to anything I just said?"

I had not been. So of course, like any other desperate and idiotic teenager would, I lied.

"Yes, I was listening."

"What was the last sentence is said then?"

Who knew that even teachers are quick to answer back?

"That you are very disappointed, and I need to concentrate harder."

That must be it. Right? I am here because I'm not concentrating hard enough so it makes sense. Yes, that must be it.

"You know Sam, sometimes I wonder where you go. I said this is your fourth time this week in here and its only Tuesday. You have been in here four times in two days Sam. Its unacceptable"

I was not aware of this. I had only spent two days in this prison. That's bonkers. I hate school if you can't tell already.

"I'm aware."

"Samantha this attitude has to stop. Your parents are coming to collect you. You will not be returning to school until Thursday."

"Don't you think that's a wee bit extreme, I haven't even done anything that bad. I just got distracted for the fourth maybe fifth time this week. I wouldn't even call telling a teacher their class is boring as answering back either, I was just telling the truth. It is the number one rule of the school."

"You used to be a great student Samantha, I remember seeing you in the corridor every day and your smile would have lit up the skies if everything was grey. I don't know what happened."

Rachel happened, that's what.

The car ride home was somewhat deafening. I could see my mothers skin turning redder by the second, and I could imagine at this point steam would start coming out of her ears. Dad was too busy at work to accompany Mum in collecting me early at this God-awful school, luckily enough for me he was also finishing late today which meant that I wouldnt have to listen to his lecture until tomorrow morning. I have absolutely no idea where we are or where we are going. We certainly were not on the way home anyway. I set my head against the cold dark window as the trees merged together forming drags of green and brown images. Slowing down, the long and narrow driveway we were now pulling up to looked, nowhere near familiar. Green fern trees stood tall and an old rusty bicycle lay on the marshy ground beneath them.

"Mother, where are we?"

"We are at my cousins house. I need to talk about the school her son goes to in California."

California, that would be neat. I wonder what It would be like to live there. The place where the sun never dies. The party never stops. Imagine going to school there though. Imagine coming to Fermanagh on holiday. Nasty. You know for a second there I kind of forgot about this whole suspension from school thing. I know for a fact mum hasnt forgotten. I could tell in the sound of her voice. The level of sarcasm used in the last sentence told me that.

"Margret, how are you? This is my daughter Samantha."

Thats when I knew I was in trouble. She never calls me Samantha. Only ever Sam. I hate being called Samantha and she knows that.

"Suzanna, I feel like I haven't seen you in ages."

That's my mums name. Suzanna. She was named after her grandmothers best friend, who was killed as a nurse in the army. Ran into battle to save the love of her life, whom had just been shot. The war ended only nine days after that.

"It's been years. Listen, I wanted to talk to you about your son Sebastian."

"He isn't in trouble or anything?"

"Not at all, just wanted to ask you about the boarding school he attends. Thats all."

Boarding school. You would want a lot of sunshine to make up for that. Imagine being stuck in that nightmare for a whole year. That would be ghastly.

Half an hour into talking about random gossip thats floating around or little town, mum finally remembered what she had come all this way for.

"Tell me about this school your son goes to."

"Well...He obviously doesn't like the fact that he has to stay there for most of the year, but it is an amazing school. Brilliant grades and all the comments I've ever heard about it were very positive. My son didn't get on well with his previous school mates. He would be out drinking late, getting into fights the whole lot. But now, he has completely changed."

Well she makes that school sound like a walk in the park. And no school is a walk in the park.

"Samantha here is out on suspension. Aren't you Sam?"

Wait, was she asking about this boarding school for me? Nope, not going to happen. I am not going to boarding school. Absolutely not. Normal school is bad enough, I only lasted two days this week. I have zero friends and hate all the people at my school. Goodness, I could only imagine living with them. Not happening.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Damn, you're still here?

Hope you enjoyed my very first chapter, with many more to come.

-E