Chapter 1: Charlotte: Being the New Kid Sucks… Oh Wait… Nope, Definitely Sucks

Every night before I went to bed, ever since I can remember I would look up into my mother’s sparkling emerald eyes and beg her to tell me about my father. She would gently sigh and brush the hair off my forehead, leaning down to kiss it.

“Maybe, when you’ve grown up a bit,” she would give me a light all-knowing smile, stand up from my bedside, turn the light off and shut the door. He’s still a mystery to me, and I’m sixteen now. I’ve given up asking every night before bed, and now just reserve it for major holidays. Still, no luck, every time I get the same response, Aunt Tilly throws a look at my mother, my cousin Mina shakes her head, and my mom just sighs. What’s the big secret with him? Every once in a while, after I’ve dropped the question, when they think I’m in bed I’ll sneak to the top of the stairs, and quietly listen in. Praying to hear something about this mystery man. One night, about a month ago, just before our latest move, while I  perched in my ever so clever hiding spot, I heard murmurs about him from below.

“We can’t ever tell her,” fiercely whispered Aunt Tilly

“You know even after all these years, you’ve never told said that much about him Laney,” Mina commented to my mother. I heard my mother take a sharp breath in.

“Hush now, child,” Aunt Tilly said towards Mina, “that is Laney’s business and Laney’s alone. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes Aunt Tilly,” Mina replied reluctantly

“Those eyes,” my mother murmured, “those eyes were always the thing I got lost in, the things that held me captive. Now Lottie has them! Oh, Aunt Tilly what am I to do? I miss him so much!”

“It’s too late now for that child,” Aunt Tilly said apologetically, “that ship has sailed. You can’t put Charlotte or him in danger like that. It must remain a secret. Are we understood?”

My mother sighed “yes Aunt Tilly.”

“Good now off to bed with both of you. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow with the move, remember we have to be quick and inconspicuous.” I didn’t wait to hear the end as I quickly scampered back to my room, praying no one would catch me.

Just as I was pulling the covers up, my door creaked open, “Lottie, Lottie, honey are you still awake?” my mother whispered from the door frame. I slowly rolled over, trying to make it appear as if I had been just falling asleep.

“Yea mom, what’s up?”

“I know you’re upset about this move, I know you just got settled again. I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of you, and how much I love you.”

“I love you too mom,” and with that she backed out into the hallway and shut the door gently behind her.

My name is Charlotte Anne Meres, most people call me Lottie though, I’m told it’s a name that has run in our family for years. Not like I would know though. The only family I have ever known are my Aunt Tilly, Mina, and my mom. If you couldn’t already tell, family is a touchy subject with her. So are friends. I’ve never had a best friend, unless you count my mom. You see about every eight to thirty-six months we pack up and move, just out of the blue. This last house in Louisville, was the longest we had been anywhere. I had finally adjusted, made a couple of friends, and was even starting to have a love interest, when they announced that we would be moving again. Aunt Tilly always claims we move for business reasons, but that doesn’t make much sense to me. How does a mail-order bakery need to move for business reasons? That is just one of the few mysteries that surrounds my life. There are only three things I want out of life at this point. One: to find my father. Two: to know what we are in danger of. And three: find out what happened to my mom to make her so secretive.

******************************************************************************

 “Lottie! Breakfast!” Aunt Tilly hollered from the kitchen downstairs. I could barely hear her over my stereo though. This morning it was blasting, my favorite band, Forever Yours’s song “Fake It with a Smile”, I thought it would be appropriate considering that is my plan for the day. It’s my first day at this new high school in Nashville; you would think I would be a little more excited. But why would anyone find any reason to be excited about being the new girl again? Just another day of being gawked at like a sparkly object. I’m just praying that today will be different. But, probably not.

I glance in the mirror; long, curly, strawberry blonde hair, unnaturally turquoise blue eyes�"some people described them as ice, I only saw turquoise though�"and translucent skin stare back at me. I often wondered if mystery man�"my nickname for my elisive father�"gave me these odd looks. My mom and I look nothing alike; her jet black hair falls straight down her back, and her eyes glimmer like emeralds. The only thing we share is our porcline skin. How did I come out of her?

“Lottie!” my aunt yelled again, “Hurry up! You are going to be late!” I sighed glancing at the clock I still had twenty minutes left, but I knew Mina would be anxious to get there. She has to be early for everything, even if it is just driving me to school and getting me acquainted to the area. Slapping on the biggest smile I could muster, I grabbed my mp3 player and head-phones and tossed them in my purse. I’m sure they will be the only two things that get me through today with my sanity intact.

“Lott�"oh there you are,” my Mom started as I walked into the kitchen, “Mina is ready to go whenever you are.” I saw my aunt standing happily by the stove. It’s easy to see how she and my mom are related; they are near carbon copies, except for the fact my mother is thin as a pole and Aunt Tilly is rather plump. I grabbed three cinnamon pancakes off the stack she had going next to the stove. I carelessly tossed the plate onto the table, showing my absolute distain for this day. Aunt Tilly and mom exchanged a look but didn’t say anything. Grabbing my fork, I dug in, knowing this will be the highlight of my day.  

“Laney, what the hell is taking Charlotte so long?” Mina complained storming into the kitchen from the garage her short black hair looking effortless. “Oh, there you are,” she said taking my arm and pulling, “come on we are going to be late on your first day! Get a move on.”

“I’m eating!” I whined in protest as she dragged me off my stool. “Can’t I have a good breakfast before my first day in hell?!”

“Charlotte Anne!” exclaimed my mom and Aunt Tilly. “You will have a perfectly lovely day at school today,” my mom said coming over. She bent down and brushed my bangs off my face, kissing me on the forehead like she would do when I was a kid.

“Yea sure mom,” I sighed, “it will be just another day of being gawked at and have to sit by myself at lunch. Nothing new with that!”

“Those are lies Charlotte Anne,” Aunt Tilly said turning around to glare at me, “You are going to have an excellent day. It won’t be like that school in Detroit.” I rolled my eyes still dreading the day, but also realizing there was no way they are going to let me stay home.

“Okay, okay, fine it won’t be that horrible,” I said trying to convince myself, more than them. I stood up, grabbed my bag, and followed Mina to the door. “Love you guys, see you after school!” I said with a big fake smile on my face. Turning around, I let the smile fall, knowing just how horrible this day was going to be.

Climbing out of the car, I felt all the eyes drill into me. Even though Mina and I were here nearly thirty minutes before school started, there were still enough students to make me feel like I was on display. “Everyone’s staring at me,” I whispered harshly to Mina as we approached the main office. “Did I suddenly grow horns and a tail?” I asked sarcastically.

“Don’t be so negative Lottie. It’s just because they’ve never seen you before. I’m sure it’ll stop,” Mina replied; obviously not amused. I just sighed; Mina had never had to be the new girl. She is ten years older than me, so she was out of school when we started doing the ‘move every eight months or so’ thing. We walked down a typical high school hallway, beige lockers plastering the walls, with poster about staying above the influence, and what upcoming events were going on. It looked just like every other school I had been to. We finally found our way to the door that read ‘Main Office’. Mina and I exchanged a look as she opened the door to the office. Walking into the office, I realized the décor hadn’t been updated since the 70s. Wood paneling coated the walls while orange shag carpet covered the floors. All of the furniture was covered in a green, yellow, and brown argyle pattern. And behind the desk was a plump, grandmother looking woman with thick round glasses.

“Oh, you must be Charlotte May-er-s, the new girl,” the way-to-cheery-for seven-in-the-morning secretary said as she hung up the phone. I cringed slightly before correcting her.

“Its Meres, rhymes with Sears,” I said politely, “But yes that’s me.” I smiled, trying to be as pleasant as possible. Everyone screwed up our last name. I should be used to it by now, but it was just another pang that reminded me that, yes, I was indeed the new girl again.

“Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you dearie,” she said, in her thick southern accent, reaching her hand across the desk to shake mine.

“You as well,” I replied with a smile. She turned back around and started filing thorough papers.

“Here is everything you are going to need to make your first day as easy as possible,” she said smiling giving me the papers.

“Oh, and I’m going to need your mom to sign these,” she said handing papers to Mina.

“She’s not my mom; this is my cousin Mina. Mom and Aunt Tilly couldn’t get away from work long enough, so Mina brought me,” I said with a shrug, I knew how it was going to look. Single mother, work devoted, and almost every year it landed me in the counselor’s office talking about my feelings. I have never had a problem with my mom not bringing me. I have been through so many first days of school, and every time mom makes a much bigger deal out of it than it is. The secretary just looked at us puzzled.

“Well… Ummm…” She finally stuttered out, “I guess you should just take this home and have your mom sign them and then bring them back.” I took the papers from her and nodded. This is going to be a very long day; I thought to myself as I flipped through the papers she handed me. I had typical junior year classes, English III, Honors Physics, Pre-Calculus, Lunch, World History, and my elective Music Theory.

Music is my love. It is the only thing that I can count on in my unstable world. Country music is my favorite; something about the passion that goes into it makes me love it. I love to write music; especially lyrics. My mom and aunt say I have a beautiful voice and think I should get involved with chorus. The only problem is I have terrible stage fright; I don’t even like to sing at church while everyone else is too. Someday, though, I hope to overcome my fear and open for my favorite band Forever Yours. They always have contests to find new and upcoming artists. I was going to enter one last month, but then my mom announced we were moving, and I just couldn’t find the motivation to send in my lyrics.

“Well Charlotte, I’d better get back home and help mom and Aunt Laney get this order shipped out. You are going to do great today. I’ll be back to get you at one o’clock. See you then!” Mina said as she hugged me. I looked at the clock, only six more hours to go. I smiled and waved as she left the office, as soon as she was out of sight I turned to face the day ahead of me. I began to walk out of the office when a call from behind me made me stop.

“Charlotte! Charlotte! Wait!” the secretary, Mrs. Christians, called out.      

“Yes, ma’am?” I turned, checking to see if I had forgotten something.

“I forgot to introduce you to your student buddy,” she said rising from her desk, “This is Zachary Campbell.”

“Hi,” he said with a breathtaking smile.

“Hi,” I smiled back.

“Zachary will be showing you around, helping you get from class to class, introducing you to people, and helping you get involved with all the going ons here,” Mrs. Christians said with a smile.

“Please call me Zac,” Zac said, he extended his hand to take my schedule. “Well looks like we have lunch, English, pre-calculus, and world history together.” He handed me back my schedule. “Shall we get going to class? Mr. Shim is a stickler for tardiness.” He held open the door for me. Maybe today won’t be so bad after all.

“So what did you think of this year’s reading list?” Zac asked as he walked me towards my next class.

“Honestly?” I replied studying my schedule, “I’ve read most of them already. I was in the advanced program at my other schools.”

“Well maybe you can help…” Zac cut off mid-sentence as a tall, slim boy approached us. He threw an arm around my waist and tugged me away from Zac.

“Thought you could have the new girl all to yourself Campbell?” The boy confronted Zac. I was mesmerized by him. His yellow-hazel eyes sparkled down at me as he grinned sweetly at Zac.

“Blanes,” Zac nodded at him as he casually adjusted his position closer to me, “This is Charlotte. Charlotte this is Lucas Blanes, he plays on the basketball team with me.”

“How lovely,” I replied lost in Lucas’s eyes.

“Zac, I’ll take it from here,” Lucas carted me away from Zac. “I’ll make sure she gets to her next class safely. Maybe we’ll even stop for a snack along the way.” I saw Zac’s face turn bright red as we turned the corner.

Two boys fighting over me. How could this day get better?

Reviews

[Eve S.]

It is enthralling as an opening chapter. The mystery man adds an intriguing charm to the story and makes one imagine things. The characters introduced so far are quite catchy. Liked the two boys one girl plot; it previews a love triangle. I hope the coming chapters will prove I'm wrong when it comes to this point.