Bittersweet: The Doppelganger

~*~Moving~*~

~*~
Moving
~*~

Cole Falcon placed her tray down onto the table beneath the row of large windows and sat down in a chair facing out towards the cafeteria. She scanned the noisy crowd of students in search of her best friends Amaryllis, Isabella, and Jasmine. A few of the students spotted her and smiled or waved at her. She smiled and waved back as she continued to scan the large room. The chair to her left scraped backward and Cole turned to see Amaryllis Porter plopping down onto the seat.

She grinned at her friend as she shook her short, red hair out of her face.

"Hi, Cole!" she greeted the other girl cheerfully, her gray eyes sparkling mischievously.

"Hey, Ames." Cole greeted her back with a smile of her own.

"Where's Isa and Jasmi?" Amaryllis asked her as she dug into her Shrimp Fried Rice.

Cole shrugged her shoulders in reply and picked up her fork. "IDK. They haven't shown up yet," she replied as she took a bite out of her Kung Pao Shrimp.

"We're right here."

Amaryllis and Cole both looked up to find Jasmine Tanner and Isabella James grinning down at them. The other girls walked around the table and took the remaining two seats to Cole's right. Jasmine flipped her long, black hair over her shoulder and turned towards Cole. As she looked at the other girl, her bright blue eyes began welling up with tears.

"I'm going to miss you!" she moaned suddenly, throwing her arms around Cole and squeezing her hard.

Cole sighed heavily. Here we go again, she thought as she patted Jasmine's back lightly. Isabella's moss-green eyes meet hers as she frowned slightly.

"Do you have to go?" she whined unhappily. "Why can't Niles let you stay here? You can stay with me and my mom. We can even share my room!"

"Why do you have to move to Transylvania?" Amaryllis asked next, disgruntled. "Where is it, by the way?"

Cole groaned internally, hating that she was going to repeat herself for the fifth time that week.

"I'm going to miss you too, Jasmi," she said, starting with her first. "You know that Niles was offered a job at Transylvania University. Thanks for the offer, Isa, but I can't. Someone has to take care of the doc. I have no clue as to where Transylvania is located, Amy. It's probably somewhere in Europe."

Her friends all sighed and pouted in disappointment. The girls went back to their lunches and talked about girl stuff and crushes.

*

Cole taped up the last box that held her belongings and stretched her aching back. She glanced around the empty bedroom, taking in the light blue walls she had painted the summer she turned twelve, the empty bookshelves that had, at one time, held her vast collection of fantasy novels about dragons and castles, princes and princesses, witches and wizards and vampires, and the dark hardwood floors. She sighed despondently. Why do we have to leave? she thought to herself forlorn-ly.

"Nicoleta?"

Cole turned around to see her father standing in the open doorway. "Yes?"