It has been 2 weeks since I saw the eviction letter on our front door. Mum and I had packed all of our belongings and we were ready to catch our flight to New York.
"We have to leave!" I called out to Mum from our front porch. She was still looking for her blue sneakers. I've never met a woman so stubborn that she will put our trip to New York in jeopardy because of a pair of shoes.
"Coming!" She hell's back and I hear footsteps quickly running down the staircase.
She grabs her car keys off the bench and we pack everything into the car before starting up the radio and driving away singing along to our favourite musical theatre songs.
Security is a pain, boarding is slow and I'm stuck between Mum and an old woman for the whole flight, unable to move with a high risk of touching someone.
Once we arrive at the New York Airport we grab our luggage and catch a taxi to our apartment block.
It's so huge! The building wouldn't be anything short of 10 stories. I hold tightly onto Archie's leash as we ascend the stairs to our 3rd floor apartment. Mum unlocks the door and dramatically swings it open. My jaw drops. I thought our house in Georgia was luxurious, this is just crazy.
Everything is modern and either grey or white. Accent colours like blue and red are scattered around the house. All of our furniture we didn't end up selling, has already been moved here.
We arrange some chairs and hook the tv up before I place dibs on the bedroom I want. We ended up with a three bedroom apartment, 2 bathrooms and a very nice and spacious living and kitchen area.
"Did you end up calling the school?" I ask mum once we've settled in.
"Yeah, you're starting up next week. Apparently they supply most of the books and things because it's only a small school." She tells me.
I nod. Being in Grade 8 meant that school wasn't really too important. I still tried my hardest though at every thing I was given. As I reminded myself when I was stuck on something, how do you expect to succeed if you don't push yourself?
Mum had always told me that when I was younger. I was a Level 8/9 gymnast at our local gymnasium. Comps and meets every month certainly weren't my favourite part of gym, especially because of all the travel. But I always enjoyed learning new things and pushing myself to achieve something I didn't think I could. Sure it came along with it's fair share of injuries and what not but that's just all part of it.
Later that night I was on Instagram. As I was going through my feed I noticed I had been tagged in a photo. I went onto the post to see what it was. I couldn't believe it.
Chapter 5 done. Because I've got 6 and a bit weeks of holidays I'm going to try to really do well with this story. Obviously I can't promise anything but I will try.