Song of the Chapter: Life of the Party
August 17, 2009
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So this is how it all started. Well first let me tell you where I am now.
I never liked Oakland, California. It was full of drugs, which I didn't know at the time, but has been clearly shown to me now. I moved back here after not being able to stomach being in Canada anymore. I couldn't stand Canada for many reasons, but the major reason was having Shawn out of my life. I couldn't stand not having him to go to when I needed someone to hold me, or talk to when no one else knew how I felt. Canada was hard to stay in after I broke Shawn's heart.
I loved Canada, but after the whole thing with Shawn I couldn't stay there. I was constantly reminiscing, driving down the same roads Shawn and I would go down all the time. Even passing by the places we would go to every Friday night with our friends. He would sing Karaoke, I would watch him with full admiration. I knew he had a gift and that it would bring him somewhere someday. Now I know where it brought him, to a year round tour with hundreds of cities waiting to hear his voice.
But anyway back to the story, it all started when we moved from Oakland because my parents had wanted to move back with the rest of my family in Canada. I was only 11, but I remember some that had happened, including the day my sister went missing. My sister Alana had went missing a year before, Alana was 14 when she went missing.
The cops had started an investigation, the investigation was closed after 6 months of her being missing. They had found her dead, in an ally way in down town Oakland. Many girls had went missing, that all had been around the same age, the police in our area suspected it was a gang that had taken them. There were many gangs around this area, they were deadly, lethal, and armed.
My mom and dad had jobs where we traveled a lot, they had been part of an international business. We moved from place to place as their jobs got switched from station to station. It hadn't happened in awhile, we where stationed here since I was born. They were never really home all the time, so my sister and the babysitter had become my best friends.
I was told to start packing, I could only take things that I wanted. The rest would be given away. I packed all my clothes and my mother helped me while my dad took apart my bunk bed with I had shared with my sister before she went missing. My parents still weren't the same. All of my sisters clothes we're put in bags and then my father started picking up her stuffed animals that she kept in the corner. He had picked all of them up with the exception of one. It was her favorite teddy bear, she kept it on the window sill. I saw him look at it and he was about to put it in the bag with the rest of them. I stopped him abruptly.
"Daddy, wait!" He looked at me and I grabbed the stuffed bear from his hands. I looked at him then to my mother. "Can I keep this one?" I asked them, looking at the bears beat fur and scratched up eyes. Alana had taken that teddy bear everywhere until a year or two ago, it was her good luck charm.
My dad sighed and looked at my mother. "No Evie, you can't keep it." He said taking it from me. My mother walked to my side and put one of her hands in my shoulder. He looked at it in his hands then started moving to put it in the bag along with the rest of her stuff.
My mom scoffed at my father and took the teddy bear from the bag and handed it to me. "Go continue packing your clothes Evie." She said to me while pushing me towards the boxes.
My father glared at my mother, "She's gone, Jen. She's been gone for a year. She's not coming back." He started to sound angry at the end of his fit.
My parents haven't been the same since she went missing, they shut me out more, they started to fight more. I don't think my parents have kissed in months. My sisters disappearance and death had just caused chaos in my house hold. My mom couldn't sleep for weeks and my dad didn't go to work for awhile. Even though more people were home because of this, my house still felt like the most lonely place with out my sister.
It had been 3 days from the day we started packing. We were leaving Oakland for good. We had packed up our moving truck and packed our suitcases so that we would have clothes when we got there. We started heading for the air port, to say goodbye to Oakland forever. I had traveled the whole time with Alana's teddy in hand.
It took us over 12 hours to get there between driving and flying. It would've taken less time if I didn't get my bag stuck in the baggage claim chain which abruptly pulled me onto it with the bag. This had caused my mom to freak out.
They never showed me the house that we were moving into so when we pulled up to a huge house it was a surprise to me. Only three of us were going to be living in it and we had a house they could fit a family of six. For a couple minutes I wondered where my parents had some across such money, but at the time I didn't really focus on money.
I got out of the car and looked at the house, it was a dark grey house, maybe the color of storm clouds. It had pillars in the front where the front door was and the gray house broke into stone. I looked towards the road and looked at the house across the street, a boy with dark hair had a hose in his hand. A poor girl, who I was assuming is his sister was plastered against the house trying to escape the waters stream from hitting her. She was tiny, also with dark hair, her age I had guessed about 5 or 6.
My mom ripped my attention away from the boy and his sister by rolling me my suitcase. I pulled the handle up and started rolling it to the front of the house.
I struggled pulling my suitcase up the stairs and into the house to find my room, the house opened up into a huge livingroom. The house was very open so when you walked into the house you could see the livingroom, kitchen, and dining room off the bat. It wasn't crowded like our pulls house has been.
The livingroom was big and empty and the sound of my suitcase wheels rolling echoed as I rolled it across the hardwood floors. They were dark and thick, and the walls were beige and the wall had a stone fireplace.
Then I ventured into the kitchen which had a island with a stove on one side and the other side accompanied a huge sink. The counter wrapped around the wall and one part stuck out into the room parallel to the island. The part that stuck out had bar stools lined up on the side.
Across from the kitchen held a grand dining room with a table that looked like it could feed 20. The table was long and rectangular and had a white table cover.
The livingroom accompanied a huge staircase that brought out to the upstairs where my room was. The stairs led to a hallway which went left and right, the stairs had a view of the livingroom. There was a bathroom that was placed right when you went up the stairs, it was a full bathroom fit with a bath, shower, toilet, and sink. I ventured down the hallway and my mom eventually caught up to me.
"Come this way hun." She said to me while pulling me along she pulled me into a grand room. "This is your room."
It took about 4 days for our moving truck to arrive at our new house, and my dad and mother had unpacked that.
They set up my room first so I could get everything out away. I had took the second biggest bedroom since my parents insisted they get the master bedroom. I didn't care, I took the second biggest room, which had a walk in closet that I did not have a use for really. I had a bureau that had multiple drawers in it.
My bedroom also had a bathroom off of it that had a sink, a toilet, and a shower/bath. My room had a balcony which was on the front of the house directly over the pillars. It had a view of the houses across the street, the boy had went inside.
I remember the same day that I was unpacking my mom had called me downstairs. As I ran down the stairs, I heard talking as I got closer.
"You're the new neighbors! What a pleasure to meet you. We are Karen and Manny, we live right across the street." As I turned the corner I saw the four people from across the street on my doorstep.
I approached at my moms side and grabbed her arm, partly hiding behind her. I was always a shy kid. The boy who I had seen once I got here, looked me in the eyes for an abnormally long time which made me avert my glance to his mother.
My mom smoothed down my hair, "I'm Jen, my husband is Dave," she then pushed me in front of her. "This is Everly. We're the Forbes."
The mother, whose name was Karen pushed her two children forward a little, which became uncomfortable quickly. "This is Aaliyah, and this is-"
"Shawn. Shawn Mendes." The boy had spoken up which took his mother by surprise. He was different, he had this look that made me feel it as uncomfortable. He held his hand out for me to shake it and I took it, he shook my hand and let go. I half smiled and stepped back a little into my mothers space.
The boy across the street had become my new interest. Ever since the day I physically met him, he had become a topic in my mind. I had noticed that he always had the same friend at his house, which I'm pretty sure his name was Drew, according to the screaming that Shawn had done daily. The boy who I had an interest in, his name was Shawn.
Shawn Mendes to be exact.
It has been a week since I had moved into my new house and everything was settling in. My parents were getting calls for work, but they were waiting for school to start before they started working again. School was in a couple days, I was told I'd catch the bus and that my parents would be home a couple hours after I get out of school.
I was going into the 8th grade, I was getting old enough to stay home alone now. My mom encouraged me to be friends with Shawn from across the street, when I had already had that intention since I had met him.
I opened my door and walked into the front yard, today was the day I was going to talk to Shawn again. I had already planned it out in my head.
I was going to walk over to his house and ask about what I should know about our school. He was going to invite me in, talk to me about school and then we'd be friends.
So I started walking over to his house and abruptly came to the realization that Drew was there. How? You may be wondering, well lets just say it was a rerun of what I saw when I first came here. Except I was the target, and Drew was the attacker. The hose water was freezing, I let out a screech that caught Shawn's attention.
"Drew! Leave her alone!" Shawn took the hose from Drew and turned it off. "She's my new friend, don't make her change her mind already, you idiot."
Friend?
"Yes you're my friend, are you okay with that?" Shawn answered, my eyes shot open in realization that I had said that out loud. I nodded, "Yes, I-I-I'm okay with that." I stuttered, completely embarrassing myself in front of Shawn.
Shawn shoved Drew, who was still laughing, and walked over to me. Everything was soaked, head to toe. "You're probably cold." He said and grabbed my arm pulling me towards his front door, "Let me get you a towel." Then he disappeared inside.
Drew walked up to me and gave me this look I couldn't explain, "Don't think you're getting the special treatment, Shawn's nice to everyone." He said in a bitter tone.
I looked away from him, I didn't like Drew. He had already seemed like a jerk. I ringed out the bottom of my shirt and gave up after Shawn had appeared with my towel. He wrapped it around my shoulders, then sat me down on his front step.
Drew gave me a look, "Hey shawn, I'll catch you later, my mom wants me home soon." He said and started walking down the road.
Shawn gave him a weird look before he left, he knew Drew was lying, so did I and I barely knew the kid. He was a bad liar, and I had seen him here way later than now, it was only 3:30. Shawn then, focused his gaze on me, and sat down near me.
"Hey I'm sorry about Drew, I don't know what's wrong with him." He said laughing a little bit, I nodded and he continued, "You can come inside if you want, I'll give you some clothes to change into, so I can throw yours in the drier." He said helping me up and opening the front door.
I got up but then I stopped, "I can just go change at my house, it's right there." I said pointing behind me, but he pulled me into the house.
"It's a waste of walking, here I'll show you where my bathroom and room is. We're friends now so you might as well know where I live right?" He said letting out a cute little laugh.
As I followed him though his house, I took in how it looked. It looked kinda like mine, well it was the same setup but different themes for each room. He pulled me up the stairs and dragged me down the hall way to his room. He had a huge room, with a bathroom and a lot of windows.
Once we got to his room I looked around as he looked for clothes for me, his room was painted gray, he had lots of things on the walls. He had papers that had lots of writing on them on his bedstand. He had a guitar in the corner of his room and a camera near it.
He walked over to me and put the clothes out in front of me which pulled me away from the guitar. "Here just put on some sweats and my shirt. Aaliyah's clothes wouldn't fit you she's too small." Then he noticed what he said, and his face turned red. "Wait- I didn't mea- I mean your not big but like, well your perfect but like, Aaliyah's clothes are stupid and you'd look better in mine." He said finally getting out his words.
I laughed and walked towards his bathroom, I locked the door once I entered. I pulled the soaked clothes off my body noticing that my bra was partly damp. I tried drying it a little and then put Shawn's shirt on, it went a little past my butt. Than I pulled off my wet shorts, luckily my underwear weren't soaked, I pulled on his sweats and tied them so they would actually stay.
I looked in the mirror and shook my head, his outfit on me looked ridiculous. I made my way to his bedroom and walked in. He was holding his guitar, that's when I noticed he knew how to play, and well.
He looked up at me when he saw me enter the room and he laughed, "See, you look better than I do in my own clothes. I told you Aaliyah's would look stupid." The smile on his face creeped up to his rosy cheeks, and he patted the spot near him. I sat down.
He started strumming along in his guitar and he kept messing up and shaking his head. 'No' he would say every time he messed up, then he would start again.
He held the tune he was strumming and looked over to me, "Want to hear the song I'm working on?" Be asked kinda shy.
I nodded eagerly.
He finally got the tune he wanted then he started singing,
"Take your shot it might be scary,
hearts are going to break.
We don't have the time to be sorry,
so baby be the life of the party."
That's when I knew this Shawn Mendes kid was going to be my best friend.