Chapter 1

 

     Lizzy Hunt set her turquoise-colored travel bag into the compartment above her seat, number 17. Chills went up and down her spine as she looked out the window.

This was the last time she was going to see her own country for ten months. Lizzy sighed. She felt she was ready, but somehow unprepared. She wouldn’t see her family, not even her friends, Julie and Veronica, for almost a year. Lizzy quickly shut that thought out of her mind. No, she thought. I wanted this. I strived for this. This took a whole year to sort out. I can’t be afraid.

Afraid or not, Lizzy Hunt was on her way to England. Oxford, England, to be exact. Yes, she was going to meet her family. Her family for ten months, at least. She was going to be a foreign exchange student living in someone else’s home, eating from their kitchen, sleeping in their beds, and taking up their room. But they would take her, just as Lizzy’s family would take Bridget. Lizzy would be swapping places for a whole school year.

                            

                                 ~

“We hope you enjoyed your ride on Travel Air Times Travel Line, and that everything was as comfortable and cozy as you’d like it. Have a wonderful day.” An energetic stewardess wearing all navy and white said as everyone off the plane stumbled out of their seats. Lizzy got up and slowly opened her compartment. Her travel bag came rolling out on top of her.

          “Ahhg!” Lizzy said abruptly, as a couple of faces turned to see what all the commotion was about. Lizzy smiled awkwardly as she dusted off her ink-colored jeans. She promptly got up off the floor, as if nothing had happened. Like she needed something else to worry about.

          As Lizzy rolled her travel bag down to the waiting area for baggage claim, she pulled out a vanilla-colored piece of notebook paper. She had written down all of the names of the family members she was going to be staying with, just in case. She wrote down the address of the house, the name of the school, and even the dog’s name. She had to be prepared; no matter how unprepared she might have felt.

 

 

Names and Addresses

         

          Mr. Jerald A. Cadwell

          Mrs. Sylvia M. Cadwell

          Braden ~ Bridget’s twin brother

          Gwen~ Bridget’s older sister

          Rosie~ the beagle

Address, Home: 2881, Foxglove Avenue, Oxford, England

          Telephone Number: 987-341-7709

          School: Birchwood Secondary School

 

          Lizzy stared at the piece of paper until her eyes watered. It was the only thing that could keep her focused; otherwise she would begin to worry about all of the things she could do wrong. Finally, she saw mammoth-sized, oyster colored luggage bags rounding the corner of the systematic baggage claim machine. Lizzy picked them up, hoping that the Cadwell family would arrive soon. She had learned from Bridget, the girl she was exchanging her whole life with, that her family (the Cadwells) were almost always ten minutes late, for some reason. It just seemed to be the designated “behind schedule” time.

But before they exchanged lives, they had been exchanging letters back and forth.

They told each other about their own families as much as possible.

She had learned that Mr. Cadwell was a teacher at Birchwood Primary School, and Mrs. Cadwell was a florist. What an awesome combination! Lizzy had thought; whereas her dad was a banker, and her mom was a typical stay at home soccer mom. Bridget also said that Gwen was eighteen, kind of snotty, but was apparently all right once you got to know her. Bridget mentioned that Gwen went to the University of Oxford, and although she was stuck-up, she was very smart.  

The dog, Rosie, was barely one year old and was very quiet, but spunky if she liked you. And then there was Braden. Bridget had told Lizzy all about him. He was really good at cooking and was very talkative, but at school, all people liked him because he was really good at ‘football’ as the Europeans called it. Lizzy had first thought, oh, he’s probably one of those I’m-too-good-for-anyone kinds of guys. All sporty guys are like that. So, Lizzy had a made a pact with herself that she would never like him no matter how cute and talented he was. And that was that.

Lizzy looked up at the clock on the beige-colored wall. It was five-sixteen. The Cadwells were supposed to arrive at five-twenty five. Or rather, five-thirty five, adding on their ‘lateness’ factor. Lizzy thought. It was truly tormenting, waiting for a whole family to arrive, to observe who you are, to see your actions. Lizzy was quite apprehensive.

Eighteen agonizing minutes later, Lizzy half-expected the Cadwells to burst through the doors. Only one more minute, and Lizzy’s nerves would totally explode and she would be a wreck. Only one more minute, and the Cadwells would arrive. Only one more minute…

          “Jerald! I told you we couldn’t be late! It’s all about first impressions, I’m telling you! What kind of people show up ten minutes late to pick up teenager that is all alone in an airport???” A British woman practically shouted into another man’s face. She was wearing bright, crisp, white linen pants and an ocean blue ruffle top. She had shiny dark blonde hair scooped up into a chignon. She looked about 40 years old. Even after being shouted at, the man looked completely calm, wearing khaki pants and a blue polo. He had a bald spot on his head, but overall, he looked crisp, just like the woman next to him.

Lizzy’s nerves began to shoot all over her body. She felt like she was a bottle of soda that was being shaken mercilessly again and again. She felt weary. She knew that those two were the Cadwells, and she knew they would spot her soon. Then Lizzy thought, Better get this over with. …Here I go.    Lizzy then picked up her bags, (while consequently experiencing a bit of vertigo) and rolled them all over to Mr. and Mrs. Cadwell. 

          “Hi! You are Mr. and Mrs. Cadwell, correct?” Lizzy tried to sound as intelligent as possible.

          The two suddenly burst into smiles.

          “Oh, Lizzy! We were looking for you! We are so sorry for being late. We had to stop for petrol.”  Mr. Cadwell said, pointing to the parking lot, indicating the car. He stuck out his hand and Lizzy shook. She exchanged a smile with Mrs. Cadwell, who looked friendly.

          “It’s so nice to meet both of you, Mr. Cadwell, Mrs. Cadwell.” Lizzy said, as she tried to make direct eye contact.

          “Oh, no need for those prolonged names. You can call me Sylvia, and my husband Jerry.” Mrs. Cadwell, or Sylvia, said as she looked warmly at Lizzy. Then she started looking around as if searching for something extremely important.

          “Just a second,” Sylvia said politely, or rather whispered as she turned around. “BRADEN! GWEN! STOP LINGERING BY THAT MACHINE AND COME MEET LIZZY!”

Lizzy then moved her head to get a clearer look of Braden and Gwen. Gwen had long, light brown hair that was pin-straight, and she had very creamy looking skin. She had on a brown cargo shirtdress that brought out the flecks of green in her hazel eyes. And, to top that, she was very slender and tall. Then Lizzy looked at Braden.

Oh, great. Just what I needed, a really hot British guy. Fan-tastic. That will keep me away from liking him. Braden had the same skin as Gwen, but different hair. It was golden and a darker brown brown, like a mixture of birdseed. He also had different eyes. They were the kind greenish-blue color that would make any girl fall for him in a second. He was the six-letter name for ‘perfect’.

“But, Mum, Gwen was taking so long to find a ‘low-calorie’ food that I just had to stay here and help.” Braden said as Gwen shot him a scornful look.

“No, no, no, no, no.” Gwen said very quickly. “All of the options in that machine were just awful. I had to be careful what I chose. I can’t just eat a chocolate bar.” Gwen said superficially. 

“Never you mind that, you need to meet Lizzy!” Jerry said, as if he were presenting a new invention. Braden and Gwen quickly went over to where Lizzy was and immediately started talking.

“’I’m Gwen, as you probably know already. My sister said she told you everything about our whole family.” Gwen stuck out her hand gingerly, as if she were being forced to pet a hairy tarantula. Lizzy ignored the snooty look on Gwen’s face and shook her hand anyway. Then, all of a sudden, Braden scooted Gwen out of the way and gave Lizzy a luminous smile.

 “Hi, I’m Braden. But you ahhhhhb-viously know that.”

Lizzy giggled inwardly at Braden’s attempt to sound like Gwen.

Lizzy turned around and saw that Jerry had already got her luggage in moving position.

“Well, are you ready to go?” He said to his wife.

“Certainly.” Sylvia said, as she walked down to the automatic doors. All of the family, plus Lizzy, followed while Jerry explained plans for dinner.

“Have you ever heard of Fuchsia Rendezvous? It is probably the most popular restaurant in this part of England, considering it has a five-star review from most food critics.”

“It sounds…amazing.” Lizzy said, trying to sound polite.

“Oh, yes, like you wouldn’t believe. We had to make reservations two weeks in advance!” Sylvia remarked as she slid gracefully into the passenger seat.

“Wow,” Lizzy managed to stifle out. “It must be really popular.” Lizzy then buckled the tan seat belt. A quick moment of silence came as Jerry started the car.

 Lizzy began releasing all of her nerves. Everyone seemed…at least easy to deal with. On the other hand, the family seemed pretty outgoing, which meant that there would be a lot of questions, and heaps of answering on Lizzy’s part.

For most of the car ride home, Jerry and Sylvia asked most of the questions, like, “How do you like it here?” or “Did you have a good trip on the way over?” or questions like, “OH! There’s the new café on The Main. Do you like tea, Lizzy?” Occasionally, there was a small bicker between Braden and Gwen, like, “STOP tapping your foot on the floor! It’s so-ho obnoxious!” then Braden would say, “You shouldn’t be bothered by that.” Braden would then lean back and roll his eyes playfully, just far enough for Lizzy to see.

“Here we are!” Jerry said excitedly as he pulled into a neat, clean driveway. To Lizzy’s surprise, she saw a big, complex, tan building in front of her.

“We live in a condo.” Gwen stated. She must have noticed the look on Lizzy’s face.

“O-oh, it’s very nice. I’ve never been in a condo before.” Lizzy said, as they all got out of the car, and started to unload it.

“Just wait until you see the inside.” Braden said, as he pulled the last of the bags out of the trunk.

Somehow, they all managed to transfer the many oyster-colored suitcases in one single load to the front door. Lizzy was in the back of Gwen while Jerry unlocked the door.

“Here it is!” Jerry spread out his arms, in a ‘ta-da!’ motion towards the inside of the house. All of them filed into the house, with Lizzy coming in last. The main rooms immediately made her feel welcome. There were tall, cobalt blue colored walls and a big, stone fireplace. Throughout the room, there were perfectly matching patterned couches and chairs that looked very inviting after a stiff airplane ride. But there was way more to see.

“Do you like it?” Braden asked, as Lizzy realized they were the only two left in the room.

Lizzy nodded eagerly. “Oh, yeah! I was just admiring your vibrant walls.” She then realized what she said. …What a dumb thing to say. Lizzy thought. ‘I was admiring your walls.’ Yeah, that was smooth.

Braden smirked. “Do you want to see the kitchen?”

“Sure.” Lizzy said politely, thinking that she could probably be a little less up tight around Gwen and Braden.

Countertops with brilliant flower arrangements atop of them caught Lizzy’s eye as she entered the kitchen. It was small, but workable. In the middle, there was an island for eating. Five wooden chairs surrounded it.

“Yeah, er, this is where we will be eating, most of the time…” Braden said.

“I, uh, like it. It’s very nice.” Lizzy commented.

Suddenly, a small, stout dog with large, brown fawn-like eyes darted into the kitchen. It went towards Braden.

“Oh,” he said, petting it. “This is Rosie, by the way. She’s sort of shy, but she’ll get used to you after a while.”

Lizzy looked toward the beagle. It was awfully cute. “Hi Rosie,” she said. Rosie continued to stare at her like a complete stranger, which, of course, she was.

After a few moments of complete quietness, Gwen burst through the entryway of the kitchen.

“Braden! It’s almost time to go! We only have ten minutes! Don’t you even care what you look like at a five star restaurant!?” Gwen said harshly.

Braden shrugged and went up stairs to the second floor. After he left, Gwen looked at Lizzy.

“I suppose I better show you to Bridg- I mean, your room, then.” Lizzy followed Gwen upstairs.

“Here it is,” Gwen said as she straightened out her brown shirtdress. “Bridget cleaned almost the whole entire thing out. Only the furniture is here…so you won’t have anything to snoop at.” Gwen turned up her nose and headed to what Lizzy guessed was her own room. 

Lizzy was a little surprised at Gwen’s boldness. Bridget had told her that Gwen was sort of snotty, but not so offensive.

Lizzy finally stepped back to take a look at the room. It instantly reminded her of a piece of Boston cream pie. The walls were a latte color, and there was a dark brown ceiling fan with glossy blades. The bed was a dark, chocolate brown color, with a frame that was the white. And to the place closest to the door, there was a white closet. All of the food-oriented colors made Lizzy feel quite hungry, which reminded her that she had less than ten minutes to look at least presentable for a five star restaurant. 

She popped open one of her oyster-colored trunks and began looking for what outfit she should wear.

In five speedy minutes, Lizzy managed to pick out a thin gray scoop neck sweater (with a burgundy camisole), a dark denim skirt, burgundy ballet flats, and her favorite pearl earrings. She hoped it was suitable enough.

When Lizzy got downstairs, Sylvia was still trying to curl her hair, Gwen was searching around ruthlessly for her black and white cap-sleeve summer dress, and Braden and Jerry were waiting patiently by the door. To Lizzy’s surprise, Gwen stopped and stared at her for a moment.

“I like your outfit. Very fitting…for you.” Gwen said semi-kindly. Lizzy thanked her meekly and decided that was a start with Gwen. At least she tried to say something nice.

Finally, they all piled into the car after many minutes of endless searching and un-cooperating hair. In less than 20 minutes, Lizzy would be in the most prestigious restaurant in southeastern England.

 

                                         ~

The black-tinted rotating doors swung around smoothly as people went in to them. In deep fuchsia colored letters, the name on the building spelled out, “Fuchsia Rendezvous”; it looked very city-like against the sleek black building. Like the doors, the windows were tinted. Out of all the restaurants Lizzy had been in, this was definitely the most glamorous.

As they all got out of the car, she tried to focus on acting as suave and sophisticated as possible. But that was just too hard to do while being with a family you just met an hour ago.

“Oh!” Gwen said in amazement. “Look at the fountain in the corner. Isn’t just fantastic? And look at the walls! What a spectacular shade of fuchsia!” Lizzy was taken aback. One, because of the astonishing allure the building gave off, and two because this was the first time she had ever seen or heard a sign of Gwen being impressed.

Jerry walked forward to the reservations desk. A woman with thick, black hair stepped forward.

“Reservations?” She purred to Jerry in a thick Spanish accent.

“Yes, the name is Cadwell.” Jerry grimaced as she gave him a sultry look.

“Right this way.” She swayed as she walked outside to the balcony in the “backyard” of the building. 

Lizzy heard a champagne cork pop as the black-haired woman gave them their table.

“It is usually quiet, but we have a wedding reception tonight. If it is a bother, just tell me.” She then turned around.

Lizzy looked down off of the balcony, and, luckily, it looked like things were starting to settle down at the reception. There was a toast, Lizzy could hear:

“To Yolanda and Mac, and the many great years they will have together,” a nearly bald man said as he graciously lifted his glass to Mac and Yolanda.

“TO YOLANDA AND MAC!” The wedding reception guests echoed. There was a small silence of everyone taking a drink from his or her glass.

“Lizzy?” Lizzy snapped her head up. Clearly she had missed something.

“Yes?” Lizzy said a little bit too loudly.

 “I said, ‘would you like some bread?’” Braden said, as he was in passing-position with a wicker breadbasket.

“Oh, yes. I would.” Lizzy turned a bit pink. All of the family was looking at her as she took the basket, as if expecting her to say something else.

“This is a lovely restaurant; I have never been to one this nice.” Lizzy said thoughtfully as she broke her bread

“Neither have we,” Sylvia said. “It was Jerry’s idea to bring us here, because of your arrival.”

“Thanks so much...I really wasn’t expecting this.” Lizzy said, hoping she wasn’t turning red as she spoke.

“You’re welcome; it is our pleasure to have you here.” Jerry said, smiling at Lizzy.

Everyone opened their menus after that, and began browsing.

“Just order whatever suits you, Lizzy, if the British currency confuses you.” Sylvia said kindly as she unfolded his deep-fuchsia colored cloth napkin.

Luckily, Lizzy had taken the time to study it as much as she could. She remembered that about 1.90 U.S. dollars equaled one UK pound. So, she looked carefully to make sure nothing she ordered was over 12 pounds. Unfortunately, almost everything on there ranged from about eighteen to  twenty-seven pounds. So, about every dish on there was nearly thirty to fifty hundred U.S. dollars. Lizzy felt a bit guilty that Jerry and Sylvia would be spending at least that much on her.

When the black-haired waitress came back, it seemed as though everyone was ready to order. Lizzy looked at the waitress’ silver nameplate/nametag on her white collar. Her name was Saranda.

“What is it that you’d like?” Saranda asked, as she looked at Braden.

“The Ragout of Chicken Chasseur. And my beverage will be…water with lemon.” Braden said promptly.

“And you?” Saranda said, looking at Gwen.

“Aubergine-Chevre Rolls, easy on the tomato sauce. And sparkling water, for me.” Gwen said snobbishly.

Saranda turned her head to face Lizzy.

“Um…the broccoli pizza, please. And I’ll have the…sparkling grape juice for drink.” Lizzy said, feeling unsophisticated. But she did not see any surprised faces, so she thought she must have ordered well.

Jerry and Sylvia took their orders, and Saranda meandered off.

Jerry straightened up his back and took another sip of his water. “Braden, I think now would be a great time to tell Lizzy about the secondary school you will both be attending next week.” Jerry looked at Braden expectantly.

Braden looked at Lizzy directly in the eye. It gave Lizzy a bubbly feeling all over her body.

“Well,” Braden said casually. “Birchwood Secondary School is the name of it, but everyone calls it Birchwood.” Braden paused as if to let Lizzy soak it all in.

“We learn math, English, science, art, music, French or Spanish, humanities, and Physical Education. But math, drama and music, and your language alternate for first period. Like, your first day you might have math for first period. The next day you might have your language. Then drama and music the next day. It all depends on your schedule.” Braden took a bite of his bread before continuing.

“Oh, and everyone carries a swipe card. You swipe in this machine by the door to your classroom to let the school’s office know you have arrived to your class. You can also have money stored on it to buy snacks during lunch.” Braden stared at Lizzy as if to say: “get it?”

Lizzy quickly responded. “Wow, that sounds really different…we don’t have those in New Hampshire.”
          Gwen raised her thin eyebrows. “Oh, so that’s where you live. Isn’t that by North Carolina?” Gwen said in an, ‘I-know-everything’ voice.

Lizzy didn’t want to embarrass Gwen by saying, “No, it isn’t. North Carolina is way southern.” She didn’t want to correct anyone just yet.

“Yes, North Carolina is a bit more south, though.” Lizzy said unpretentiously.

“That’s what I thought,” Gwen said smugly. “Our cousin used to live there, but then he moved to California.”  She took a very small sip of water.

Lizzy smiled at Gwen just to seal things.

“So anyway,” Braden said suddenly, as if he were waiting forever. “That’s what it’s like at Birchwood.” He looked at Lizzy.

“How long is a school day, about?” Lizzy asked to show she was interested.

“About six hours.” Braden said simply.

“Six hours?” Lizzy repeated, surprised. “At my school in New Hampshire, ours is seven!”

“Hah, well, maybe you’ll like it a little better here.” Braden said smiling.

Lizzy thought about how wonderful this new school would be. Swipe cards? How cool would that be? She also wondered what the people there would be like. Would they be snotty, or would they be welcoming? Lizzy knew though, like all schools, there was a mix of every personality, bad and good. 

“Do you know any of your teachers or schedules yet?” Lizzy looked at Braden.

“We’re supposed to get them tomorrow.” Gwen said in an “as-a-matter-of-fact” voice.

“Oh, wonderful!” Sylvia said. “I am hoping you two get George as an English teacher.”

“How awesome would that be? Having your own relative a teacher!” Braden lit up at the sheer thought of it.

“Who’s George?” Lizzy asked, slightly laughing.

“Oh sorry, dear. George is my brother. But you will be calling him Mr. Libby.” Sylvia said warmly.

“Oh that would be nice.” Lizzy said.

Suddenly they all saw drinks being dished out in front of them.

“Sparkling water for you, water and lemon for you, sparkling grape juice for you, Portland white wine for you, and 2003 red wine for you.” Saranda straightened out in a perky manner when she was finished.

“Is that all?” She asked.

“Yes, thank you.” Jerry said.

 

After that, the main discussions were about new shoes, (Gwen) new football gear, (Braden) and the chrysanthemums and asters that were coming in season any week now (Sylvia). Jerry mainly listened to all of the family conversations, just as Lizzy did. She wanted the spotlight on someone else, for a change.

A half hour later, Saranda came back out with two black plates. They were both sizzling with chicken and pork rib.

“This is yours,” she placed the chicken in front of Braden. “And this is yours.” She set the pork in front of Jerry. 

“I will be back in a second to give you your pizza, eggplants and salmon.” Saranda turned around sharply on her stiletto heels and went back inside.

Lizzy naturally expected Jerry and Braden to dig right in. But to her surprise, they waited the whole time until Gwen and Lizzy received their meals, and Sylvia her salmon. Just as Lizzy was about to pick up her fork and knife, Jerry cleared his throat.

“I would like to propose a toast to Lizzy, to a great year at school as well as a wonderful year at our home.” Jerry lifted his wine glass.

“To Lizzy!” The family shouted.

Lizzy turned about as red as Sylvia’s wine, but smiled anyway.

After they all took an ample gulp of their drinks, Lizzy looked at Sylvia and Jerry.

“Thank you.” She squeaked.

“You’re welcome,” Jerry said sincerely. “I really do hope you have a spectacular time this year.”

Lizzy looked around the table. Sylvia was smiling at her, and even Gwen was giving a pleasant look. Finally, Braden broke the silence.

“Welcome to the Cadwell family!” He said joyously. He suddenly put his arm around Lizzy.

 

And that just about made her night. 

Reviews

[compositionc]

AWESOME! I love Lizzy. She reminds me of one of my friends. Very sweet. I went to London only a few weeks ago. Someone asked me where I live, and I answered 'NEW HAMPSHIRE!' They were like, 'Where's that? Is that by Florida?' I laughed and had to point out where it was on my portable US map. I can see how she felt.
It was really well written- interesting, but detailed at the same time. The Cadwell family sounds really nice, yet a little scatterbrained. They're gonna be funny.
Now, I'm really excited to see what Bridget's life is going to be like!

[halflives]

This is a brilliant beginning. I love the idea of exchange students, so this was an obvious read for me. Yeah, no one knows where NH is. :D

Anywho, there IS something I'd like to point out. there are a few "time skips" where there's just a block of text, then there's a time skip, and the paragrpah separation has indentation? If you could choose it either to be a block of text or have indentation, that would reduce the confusion in readers.

Otherwise, well done! I'm thoroughly interesting, and reading on!

[Short.Nerd]

Lizzy seems pretty awesome :) I agree with Fafa it was well written and very interesting:) I'm curious about Bridgette.