♡ CHAPTER TWO ♡
~~~A MONTH LATER~~~
The car ride from the airport to their so-called 'new home' was spent in painful silence. Ariana was sure that her brothers had no concern whatsoever about them moving. Their father was eager about starting fresh or whatever he said but he tried his best not to talk about it in front of Ariana since she still wasn't taking it easy.
She looked out the window, her earphones on. Come to think of it, it wasn't like she had a hundred bestfriends or a boyfriend to say goodbye to, she had one friend. A twenty-two year old guy that worked at the local pet shop. And they weren't even that close. But the things that made it hard for Ariana was:
1.The feel of new york. The busy streets, the traffic, the noise, the danger and the fast-pace of everything.
2. Her house. She was born and raised there! She lived everyday of her life waking up to the same old blue room, showered on the same white-tiled bathroom and ate in the same old rusty kitchen.
3. Her favorite place! To Ariana, abandoning that place was like abandoning her baby.
Her parents never knew about that place so they never fully understood why she was so upset about it. They told her every comforting thing imaginable about how they could visit their house again sometime, or how she could make new friends in her new school but Ariana never listened to them, knowing that what they said was true but it wasn't helping at all.
They couldn't remake her favorite place, she still couldn't spend everyday there.
"Cheer up, Ari." Cory nudged her ribs beside her.
"Cory, you know I don't like being called that!" she said without looking at her brother.
All she saw were palm trees and bright buildings and more palm trees. She could already tell the difference between New Yorkers and these Californians.
Most New Yorkers were independent individuals. They didn't give a fudge about other strangers on the streets. And just from the smiles on the peoples faces here, she knew that they were far from ever being like any New Yorker. And the bright sun that covered almost every inch of this city didn't exactly help warm Ariana up to this place.
After spent almost an hour looking at the brightness of Los Angeles, she decided to shut her eyes. In her mind, she kept replaying scenes of her life in New York. Every time she would get screamed at by taxi drivers whenever she would bike in front of them at a green light, every time it rained and every time she was at that abandoned lot at the back of that stupid old car shop.
Ariana never had a lot of family there. Her grandparents had passed away when she was just nine years old and they were from Florida, her only uncle was in Chicago and that was it. She didn't have any other uncles or aunts or cousins and that made her slightly upset.
"We'll arrive in exactly fifteen minutes, kids!" Her father announced. Ariana didn't want to be the worm in the apples, but she couldn't help it. She normally went with what her parents planned, whether she liked it or not. But she just couldn't do that with this.
She fell asleep in the car, not wanting to see more of the city. When she felt the cars engine stop, she opened her eyes and saw that they were parked in front of a small, wooden house. She was surprised to see that she found the house actually welcoming despite the massive difference it had from her house in New York.
Her home in New York was mostly made of cement, and looked very modern. It wasn't much, but you can definitely say it was modern. And the colors were made mostly of whites, grays and splashed of red.
This house was wooden. And from what Ariana could see, the outside was white and brown. And from the windows, - which were open and had no curtains - she could see that the insides of the house were unpainted.
Cory and Toby rushed past her and went inside the house. Her mother slowly walked towards her and stopped when she was beside her.
"Why is the inside unpainted?" Ariana asked.
"Because the past owners had five kids which kept writing on the walls. And they decided to take off the paint for the next owners," her mother replied.
Ariana's eyes wandered off to see that beside the house, there were actually more houses. Three houses spread out on both sides of their house.
"Come on." Her mother placed her hand on Ariana's back to lead her into the doorway. When they entered the wooden doorway,the house smelled like... smelled like...well Ariana couldn't quite figure out what it smelled like but it definitely did have a certain smell.
Ariana fought back the voice in her head that admitted it smelled like home.
The walls were all wood. Light brown wood that had chips of paint. There were no furniture, not one. The house was two-story, though the stairs had only about seven steps and it was straight ahead from the main doorway.
"Welcome to our new home, kids." Ariana didn't notice her father coming in until he spoke.
"So lets go explore and figure out which rooms belong to whom and where to put the beds." The stupid thing was, her parents already bought the beds and the bedside tables and everything else for the bedrooms even though they weren't even sure how big the rooms were and if the beds would actually fit.
It was all carried in a truck that her parents somehow rented and... Ariana had no idea why they couldn't just buy the beds in Los Angeles. Instead, they bought the beds in New York, had to wait an extra five hours in the Los Angeles airport just to wait for the other plane that was carrying the furniture, and then had to wait until the men her parents had contacted could carry all the beds into their huge truck and then drove all the way to their so-called "new home".
Even though Ariana didn't wanna be there, she couldn't deny the fact that she was excited about seeing her new room.
The hallway had a blue carpet. But the walls were still dominantly wood. When they reached the top of the seven-step stairs, the hallway went from left to right. There were two doors to the right and three doors to the left, all evenly spaced away from each other.
"Lets check out the left, first," Ariana's dad said. So the three of them went to the first room to the left.
They opened it and saw that the twins were there, sitting on the floor and playing some sort of word game, Ariana guessed. The room wasn't very big but it wasn't claustrophobic small, either. It had a window a bit high up on the wall that was opposite the bedroom door and another window at the right side wall that was a bit small.
"This should be like... the twins room," Ariana figured. Her parents looked at her with raised eyebrows, a little surprised to see her speaking in a sort of optimistic/enthusiastic way.
"Yeah, you're right, Ariana. Twins, this is your room," her father spoke and the twins stopped their game to jump up and down, saying "Yay! Yay! Yay! Our room, our room!" Her mother chuckled as they left the room but left the door open.
They continued on to the room across from the twins' room. The room was large,compared to the twins' room. The twins were only given a room for them to nap and play, but at night, the twins always slept in her parents room. So it was obvious who this room belonged to...
"Ours."
"Mine," Ariana and her parents said at the same time. Ariana half-glared half-looked-at-them-like-they-were-bonkers while her parents just looked at her with an amused expression, as if what she said was a clever joke.
They strolled in and examined the room. There was a window at the left side wall. And the view was of the neighbors window. But there was another door at the right wall of the room. Her mother opened it and saw that it was a walk-in closet.
I could use a walk-in closet, Ariana thought.
They left the door open, just like the other room and came to the door that was beside her parents room. The one at the end of the hall. Well it was obviously the bathroom. It wasn't too big nor too small. It had a toilet, a sink, a shower and a cabinet and some drawers but that was pretty much it.
They went down the hall and to the room beside the stairs.
It was about the same size as the twins' room. And just like their parents room, it had a window at the left side wall. This room had a built-in cabinet at the right side, but it wasn't walk-in.
"Ariana, you want this room?" her father asked her. Ariana pondered for a moment.
"I wanna check out the other room first."
So they proceeded onto the room across from the one they were in. The room was just a little bigger than the twins' room. There was a window to the right side and a window-bed thing at the wall opposite from the bedroom door. Ariana always wanted a window-bed but this window bed didn't have any mattress or foam yet. And to the left side, there was a door.
"Oohh I get a walk-in closet too?" Ariana ran over to the door and opened it to reveal a bathroom. With a hot tub!
Ariana turned to her parents. "I want this room, totally this room!"
Ariana felt a little smug that she got a bathtub while her parents only got a walk-in closet, but she didn't feel like boasting.
"So the room across could be... a guest room. And we could put some of our books and unused toys in boxes in the cabinets there," her mother said.
Ariana glanced at her watch, it said 3:37. She was tired from waking up at six in the morning but she didn't want to sleep on the floor of an empty house. So the five of them got to work.
The men that her parents had contacted to help them carried the beds to the rooms with her father. Her mother went and instructed them on where to put them. Ariana and the twins helped carry the suitcases to the living room.
There weren't a lot of suitcases for a re-locating family of five. But that was because the three kids and their mom sold half of the clothes in their closets so that they could make room to buy new clothes here in Los Angeles.
It took them a lot of hard work, but by the time it was 7:12, they were done. Merely seconds after they were done, the hired men drove off after they were payed without another word.
Toby's stomach grumbled and the five of them drove off to some pizza joint. The car they rode in was actually a metallic silver Chevy. It was arranged for Ariana's dads boss to buy it and take the payment off her dads monthly salary and then hired some guy to drive it all the way to the airport which her father drove all the way to their house. And the poor guy who drove the car to the airport was stuck with getting a cab home.
Tragic story.
They ordered the biggest pizza size. With the twins full by eating three slices each and despite Ariana's usually small appetite, she was able to scarf down six pizza slices that day.
The car ride home was quiet and before they all went to bed, Ariana's mother told her to put the bed sheets on which were in her suitcase.
"Hajshddu..." Ariana grumbled in response, unable to say anything that made sense due to her exhaustion and her stomach that felt like it might blow up.
Ariana went inside the room, left her jacket and sneakers on the floor, yanked the rubber band out from her braided hair, and plopped down on the mattress that went with the bed.
She didn't even bother to put the sheets on. It was dark and warm, and Ariana didn't feel like getting up. So she dozed off.
~~~NEXT DAY MORNING~~~
Call it cliché, but Ariana did wake up to the sunlight from the un-curtained window at the edge of her bed. She just now noticed that they put the bed at the corner of the room. The corner to the right of the bedroom door, so the window was about five inches away from the foot of her bed.
Ariana slowly sat up and stretched. She hadn't noticed Percy sound asleep at the un-mattressed window bed at the opposite side of the room.
Why hasn't he woken me up yet? Ariana thought.
Well number one, maybe because she had no reason to wake up early anymore since there wasn't any abandoned lot at the back of a rusty car shop to go to anymore. Or number two, it wasn't 7:30 yet, which was the time that Percy would wake her up.
She looked at the watch that she had forgot to take off last night. It was 6:28. A smile made its way onto Ariana's lips. She had never woken up that early without any alarm clock or Percy to wake her up!
With that realization, she jumped up from the bed, opened her suitcase and put the bed sheets on and then entered her own personal bathroom. She didn't feel like using the tub, she would just use it later that evening. After she took a very long shower, she changed into a sleeveless navy-blue and white loose top and beige shorts and flip flops. She didn't do anything with her rainbow-highlighted hair.
She bounded down the stairs before she left the door open since Percy was still asleep. Nobody was downstairs but she didn't mind. She was surprisingly still full from the night before, believe it or not. She decided to explore the neighborhood.
When she was out the door, she was greeted with the brightness of the sun. She was thankful that it wasn't really hot, though. It was bright but there was also a nice breeze. The lawn had dried up grass and there was a cobblestone walkway leading to the small gate in the middle of the white fence.
Ariana looked left and right. To the left of their house, there was another house that looked almost exactly like Arianas. But the neighbors house had more life to it and their garden was blooming. To the right was an empty house. It looked just like how Arianas house had been the day before. Windows open and bare and just... Empty.
Ariana went around the house. To the backyard, which was the view that her window-bed got, and to the sides of the house which wasn't very interesting.
After circling the house, she went back inside to see Percy pacing the empty living room. When he noticed her coming in, he cocked his head to the side as if to say, what now?
Ariana let out a frustrated sigh, not knowing what to do. It was the middle of summer, she just moved to L.A and needed a break from her family. A lightbulb went off in her head.
The beach!
She quickly went up the stairs and changed into a bathing suit and then put her clothes back on. She put her sunblock, her notebooks and a book in her maroon messenger bag which she had personalized with Beatles, Queen and Aerosmith stickers.
When she was closing the right-side window to her bedroom, she noticed that the window from her neighbors house was right across from it. The house that had a blossoming garden. The window looked exactly like Ariana's window except it had blue curtains and was closed.
Ariana stared at it for a few seconds before shutting off her own window. When she stepped out her room, her mother was just stepping out of the shower at that same moment.
"Hi mom, g'morning. I'm gonna go down to the beach, I'll be back for lunch," Ariana said. Her mother just smiled and nodded as she raced down the stairs.
"Come on, Perce! We're gonna go down to the beach!" she called out to the pup that was lying on the floor. But he just whimpered and closed his eyes.
Well, looks like I'm going alone then, she thought. As she stepped out of the gate, something occurred to Ariana.
She had no idea where the beach was.
She looked left and right. There was a group of kids standing nearby so she went over to them.
"Uh, excuse me," she shyly told the kids. They stopped to look at her.
"Yep?" One of them asked.
"Where's the beach?"
"Just go there," the kid pointed to the sidewalk that was left from the gate, "And you'll find it."
"Okay thanks." Ariana went that way.
She glanced at her surroundings. Well for one, the place was filled with palm trees and Ariana felt like the breeze was a nice change from the busy but dirty streets of New York.
If anyone in NYC were to walk in the streets smiling like an idiot, someone would scream something like "Hey! Wipe that stupid grin off your face, idiot!" or something even ruder than that. But as Ariana came across groups of teenagers sipping smoothies, talking or just walking, they all seemed to have smiles on their faces. Even if it was just a small smile at the corners of their mouths. The sidewalk ended and in front of her was a road, which she crossed. And then she looked up.
In front of her was the biggest and busiest beach she had ever seen!
There was a smoothie shack, and some booth for surfing activities or for the banana boat, Ariana guessed.
She had only been in so many beaches in her life. And the beaches she had visited didn't even have all that sand. It was more like a pavement near the ocean rather than a beach. She slipped on her sunglasses and went to the white bed-like thingies and set her bag down.
She glanced around. There were a few people playing volleyball. And a lot of people surfing and swimming and some groups of people were just hanging out and jamming.
So this is what California is like, she thought.
She decided to cool off so she took her clothes off, put on some sunscreen and went in the water. It wasn't too cold, but it wasn't warm. She liked the soft sand under her feet. Before she knew it, she dove in.
She continued to swim and watch the others surf until she felt like she wanted to get out of the water. When she got to the bed thing,she remembered that she didn't bring a towel.
Oh shizzle nuts! She thought.
She decided to just lay down and put her clothes on once she was dry. So she lay there, in the sun. Tanning, even though she didn't intend to, but she had no choice. At least a palm tree was blocking the sun from her face, but her body was the problem.
She glanced to her left, to the smoothie shack. It had a clock hung up on the wall. It read 9:17. Ariana's thoughts wandered to her home.
Right now, I'd normally be in my secret place with Percy, She thought. She thought more and more about all the moments and the memories and felt tears well up in her eyes. She wiped them before it could fall. People might think she's crazy,laying down on the beach and crying for no reason.
She decided to pull out her book. She read for what seemed like an hour, with the heat beating down on her stomach and legs. She was almost going to finish the book when a volleyball landed on the ground near her leg. She looked down on it and picked it up and threw it back to the bunch. She was gonna start reading her book again when she realized it was gone.
"Where's my---" she looked under, side to side and in her backpack.
"What are you looking for?" She jumped when a voice startled her.
She looked up to see that there was a boy sitting on the edge of the bed-thingy beside her. He had dark, chocolate hair that was wet. He was wearing dark blue beach shorts and a gray v-neck. He had light skin and lastly, he had her book in his hands.
She snatched the book from his hands and waved it in the air. "This!" she said. She stared at the boy, expecting him to apologize for snatching her book. He looked her age, about sixteen or seventeen or maybe even eighteen.
When she realized that he wasn't going to say anything, she sighed and laid down to read her book when the boy spoke.
"Sorry," he said. "I'm Brandon. Brandon Davis. I haven't seen you around before. You're new here, aren't you?" She paused to look at him.
"Yeah, I'm new. Just moved in yesterday from New York."
"Wow, New York! That's really different from LA, isn't it?" he asked.
"You have no idea," she grumbled.
"I didn't catch your name," he said. Ariana hesitated, but sighed.
"It's Ariana. Miller." She didn't expect him to say anything else. So she turned her attention back to her book.
"Pretty name," he mused. Ariana didn't respond. "I didn't know there were a lot of beaches in New York." Ariana looked up, surprised with his sentence. She traced the gaze of his blue eyes. They were looking at her seashell bookmark.
The bookmark was from her grandmother. She gave it to Ariana when they were visiting her in Florida when Ariana was six. Ariana had brought Popsicle sticks and they went looking for seashells. Her grandmother glued it onto of the blue Popsicle stick and Ariana's been using it as a bookmark ever since.
"There aren't a lot of beaches in New York. This was from my grandmother in Florida," she replied. Brandon looked up at her.
"Cool," he gave her a wide smile. "It suits you." Ariana raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" she asked as he shrugged.
"Well I mean that the seashell suits you," he replied. Ariana was surprised to talk to someone nice since back home, she only had one other friend who was twenty two years old who she would have a nice talk with here or there but really, they weren't that close.
"Why are you talking to me?" she suddenly asked. Brandon raised his eyebrows. Which were thick and complimented every other feature of his face. He had a strong jaw, and long eyelashes and his hair was starting to dry. It wasn't short but it wasn't long, it was just right. But it was starting to grow out.
"You're staring at me," he said. That made Ariana snap out of her thoughts and look down at her hands.
"You didn't answer my question."
"Yeah, you're question was 'why are you talking to me?' My answer is, do I need a reason to talk to you?" Ariana looked up at him.
"Well no but," she shrugged. "Whatever."
"Come on, seashell," he said. The nickname made Ariana quirk an eyebrow. "You can tell me."
"Well back home, I didn't have a lot of friends. And so it's kind of a surprise for me that someone here is actually talking to me."
Brandon fake pouted. "Well! Who wouldn't wanna be friends with a pretty girl like you, hmm?" He said. Though Ariana knew that Brandon was joking, she couldn't help but blush.
"Aww, little seashell is blushing!" He said. Ariana scoffed.
"Am not!"
"As if!" he smiled.
Ariana couldn't wipe the smile off her face. Her eyes wandered to the pile of clothes on the floor. She quickly went to feel her hair, which wasn't wet anymore. She quickly put her shirt back on as her stomach grumbled.
She glanced at the clock and saw that it read 11:02. She didn't want to be rude to Brandon, but she was starving!
"Look, don't you have somewhere else to be? Because I do." Wow. That came out meaner than I intended, Ariana mentally scolded herself.
"If that's your way of telling me that it was nice to meet me," he stood up from his spot. "Then the pleasure is all mine, seashell." He bowed like a prince would bow to a princess. Ariana almost puked inside her mouth.
"Whatever, Bye Brandon Davis." She stood up too and slipped her shorts back on and put her book back in her bag. She walked out of the beach and didn't look back to see the weird guy she had just met.
~~~Author's note~~~
Hello there lovely person reading this!
So thanks again for uh you know... ACTUALLY TAKING TIME TO READ THIS BOOK!
Anyway, what do you think of Brandon? And his nickname for Ariana, "seashell". And by the way, I don't have a would-you-rather question for y'all,but I do however, have a yes or no question.
And it is...
If you were given the opportunity to start a band,would you? Yes or no.
Annndd...
If yes, what kind of music would you play and which instrument would you play?
If no, why not?
So comment your answers and don't forget to vote and fan, too. Bye, peace :)
-J.Q