Beautifully Broken

Transitioning

Alana POV

Dad gets out of the car to answer his phone. He gets back in about fifteen minutes later. "Who was that?" My mom asks, "That was work." My Dad says, still a little bit shocked and shaky. "What happened? Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, I got a promotion."
"That's so great, Honey! I'm so proud of you. Is it the promotion you wanted?"
"No, They asked me to go oversee several stores."
"That's fantastic."
"They want me to oversee region 162."
"Where's that?"
"Across the state." there was a short pause, "Sweetheart If I take this promotion, we're going to have to move."
"Move!" Chase yells, "I don't want to move," Carson adds. I nod my head in the backseat. "I know moving is going to be hard on everyone, but this might be the best thing for our family."
"Mom, you can't seriously be considering this, can you?" Chase asks. "Well, We always knew that this was going to be a possibility, but we never thought this soon."

Three weeks have passed since Dad got the phone call about the promotion. I stand there looking at my now empty room; all of my stuff is loaded into the moving truck outside. I feel Dad's hand come and sit on my shoulder. "Ready to go, Princess?" I sadly nod my head. "I know you're not happy about moving, but this could be a good thing. I think you're really gonna like the new house." I sigh, "This was my first real home."
"Yeah," Dad says, squatting down a little bit to look me in the eye. "Do you want to know the best part about having a real home?" I give him a questioning look. "The building isn't what makes it a home. The people do. You're still going to be in your real home; it's just going to be in a different place." He says with a smile. I nod and walk downstairs. "Ready to go!" Mom says with a smile. I walk over and lean into her chest. She strokes my hair for a minute and kisses the top of my head. "Everything is going to be okay." I nod my head, trying to believe what she says will be true. I let go of mom just in time to hear Chase yell from the other room. "MOM! HE'S HAVING ANOTHER ONE!" Mom sprints in the room to see Carson on the floor of what used to be our Kitchen. Mom sits on the floor next to him as he leans into her. "Carson looks at me; you need to breathe. Can you match my breathing? We're going to calm down; everything is going to be okay." Chase grabs my arm, and we leave the room. When we get in the entryway, we see Dad come back in from the truck. "Where's Mom and Carson?"
"He's having another panic attack." Dad takes off into the other room to sit with them. "Carson has panic attacks?"
"Yeah, umm..... they only happen when a big change happens. Most of the time, He's fine; I guess that this just happened to trigger one." I nod my head, acknowledging that Chase is trying to avoid part of the question. Mom and Dad walked back into the entryway with a very shaky Carson. "Okay, Alana, who do you want to ride with? Chase or Dad?" Chase gives mom a look. "I'm driving?" He asks, "Yeah, we can't let Carson drive right now, so He's gonna ride with me." Mom turns her attention back towards me. "I'll ride with Chase." She nods her head as Dad says, "Alright, time to move out!" We all grab the last few things from the old house and leave to go to the new house. It takes about five hours to get there. We stop about halfway through and have Carson drive the rest of the way to the house as Chase puts on his two-hour Concert. As the last note is played on the last song, We finally pull into the driveway. I look around, wishing that I did not recognize where we were. "You okay, Sis?" I shake my head out of the trance; it's continuously getting traped in. "Yeah, I'll be fine." Chase hugs me and rubs my back for a minute. "Everythings gonna be okay." He says as he starts to unload the trunk of the car we were just in.

We unpack and get settled in the new house. Thankfully there are a few weeks before school starts again. My idea of leaving my past in the past has proven to be a lot more problematic than I had originally thought. I look outside my window and see the summer sun shining off of the top of the trees. "Mom!" I yell, "I'm in the living room!" I walk downstairs and down the hall, still slightly wandering around, trying to learn the layout of the house. I finally find mom sitting on the floor of the living room, surrounded by boxes of pictures that she is unpacking to hang up around the room. "Come, look at pictures with me." She pats the ground next to her. She hands me a picture frame with four pictures in it. One of me, one of Carson, one of Chase, and one of the three of us. I look at it and smile. We look at pictures for a while until I see Chase walk into the room. "Chase, do you want to look at pictures with us?" Mom asks. I jump into the conversation, "Actually, mom, I think I'm going to go for a run."
"Yeah, I'll go with her just to make sure she's safe." Mom nods her head. "Be safe, BOTH of you." Chase smiles and starts to laugh a little bit, "Come on, mom, when aren't we safe." She rolls her eyes at us and smiles. Be home before dark. "Yes, Mom." We both say in unison before walking out the door. "So, are you just planning on running the neighborhood, or do you want to google a trail?"
"No, um... I actually know a place. Follow me." I start jogging down the street with Chase close on my heels. We jog for about 30 minutes until we get to the entrance of this small forest. I pause at the entrance. "Alana. Where are we?" Chase asks, looking around slightly worried. "Don't worry about it; we'll be fine, come on." He nods his head as he follows me into the forest.