Dreams of Tomorrow.

“Will you be alright?” asked the old woman as the three of them got out of the car.
The young girl shrugged.

“I guess I will. I’m just jetlagged.” She said, moving to grab her suitcase from the trunk. “I got it.” Said the old man, with a gentle smile on his face. The girl nodded and tried to smile.

She stopped for a moment, looking at the two story house. It seemed bigger than her old house, yet it somehow felt safer.
The old woman rested her hand on the young woman’s shoulder.

“I sincerely hope you will like it there.” She said, her voice just above a whisper. She didn’t reply and simply followed her inside. “Our room is downstairs, we have two rooms upstairs.” she explained, taking off her light vest and hanging it on the pattern. “Just have a look and let us know which one you like best.” She said.

The girl nodded, taking off her shoes and wandering upstairs with her socks on. The older woman couldn’t help but notice the holes in them. One was blue, one was green. She sighed, trying to imagine her state on mind when she got ready to leave.

The girl walked into the room on the left, it was light shade of orange, like peach or something. It looked comfy with the queen size bed, the curtains matching the carpeted floor. The furniture were white. The two windows were overlooking the street and the side of the garden. The wall next to the door was covered with closets, so the only furniture in the room were the bed, the desk, the desk chair, bedside table and one small wall shelf with a few books. It was a lovely room, but not for her.
It reminded her too much of the spare room in her old house.

She took a step back, turned around and went to open the door on the right of the small hall.

This room was a light shade of blue/green, color of the ocean. It was a wooden floor. The queen size bed was on the right side of the room, facing the big window that looked on the backyard. There was a windowsill, on the window that overlooked the garden, with pillows and covers. Under the windowsill were two compartments were she could easily fit books or small boxes. She walked over to the windowsill and sat down, slightly pushing the curtain. The view was nice. She sighed and turned her head, towards the bedroom. From this perspective, it seemed ok. There was a wooden desk in the corner with some old books, neatly pilled. She didn’t have the heart to look at them just yet.

Same as the other room, the wall next to the door was made of closets but there was a small chest of drawers that was used as the bedside table.

Her eyes fell on the bed and she saw the towels neatly piled at the end of the bed. They already knew she was going to choose this room, probably because of the color and the windowsill. She sighed again and walked downstairs.

“I think I’ll stay in the turquoise room, if it’s ok with you.” She said, shoving her hands in her pockets.
“Of course sweetheart.” said the older woman. “When you walk out of your room, the door on your left is the bathroom, it’ll be your own. The door on the right is the desk room and small library, if you need anything, help yourself.”

She nodded and watched as the old man carried the suitcase upstairs.

“Maybe you would like to unpack and get settled?”

She nodded again and waited until he had walked back downstairs to walk up.
Kneeling on the wooden floor, she emptied her pocket, setting the two passports down as she grabbed the small key from her pocket and unlocked the padlock, setting it aside and unzipping her suitcase. She blinked back the tears as realization hit her.

This was her home now.

**

“Are you new?” asked a boy as he turned around and eyed her suspiciously.

“Yes.” She replied, trying her best to steady her voice.

“That’s cool. Where do you come from?” he asked again, resting his head on his hand, still looking at her.

“Europe.” She replied, feeling uncomfortable as he kept looking at her. She didn’t like it when people were looking at her longer than necessary.

“Which country?” he asked. She opened her mouth to reply but the bell saved her. She ran a hand through her hair and hoped she was going to stay unnoticed. The boy turned around, facing the blackboard.

“Okay so we have a new student.” Started the old man. She was expecting him to ask her to stand up and introduce herself as school had already started for a few days, but he didn’t and started the lesson straight away.
She mentally thanked him and tried her best to keep up with what the teacher was saying. She never had problem with the English language, for the daily basis stuff, after all she had the American passport, as well as her other one. But this was different than what she was used to. She frowned and scribbled down a word she didn’t fully understand, making a mental note to check that word in the dictionary later once she will back home. She tried her hardest to write down everything he was saying, not trying to sort out what was important and what was not.

The bell rang and she could feel the headache coming, and it was just the first class. She rubbed her temple, put her pencil case and notebook into her purple backpack and headed out of the classroom, taking out her time table and looking at it, trying to figure out where her next class was. She looked at her surrounding, biting her lip as she feared she was going to be late.

“Are you lost?” asked a girl, coming her way.

She looked over her shoulder, wondering if she was speaking to her. She saw no one so she replied.

“I’m new…” she replied softly. The girl nodded and stand in front of her, holding out her hand. She handed her her schedule.

“Oh cool, we have the same class. Come on, I’ll show you around.” Said the girl with a small smile as she handed her schedule back.

“I’m Valary by the way, but you can call me Val. What’s your name?” She blinked, the girl was speaking a little too fast for her.

“I’m Athalya.” She replied in a low voice.

“Uncommon name.” said Val as she opened the door for her. Athalya nodded and mumbled a quiet ‘thank you’ as she walked over to the teacher and handed him the piece of paper she had been given at the beginning of the day. The school admin told her it would be easy to catch up as school had only started for a couple of days. She hoped that woman was right.

“Welcome to Huntington High.” He said with a warm smile as he handed her the piece paper.

“Thank you.” Said Athalya as she headed to the back row of the class and went to sit next to the window. She put her backpack on the chair next to hers and took her stuff out, not looking up, trying to avoid all the curious stare of the other persons in the classroom.

It was the end of August, normally she would still be at home, hanging out with her friends. It went all too fast for her and there she was, in Huntington High, miles away from home.
It really was different from her old school. She had the same persons in all her classes except maybe for when she was studying languages, but other than that, she was with the same persons in all her lessons. Whereas in this high school, she had different students in almost each classes. It was going to be difficult for her to remember the names… That’s if she ever got to speak to anyone.

She opened her notebook and took a pen out of her pencil case, she got ready to write. She tried to reckon the time difference between France and the West Coast. It was ten am here, so it would be nine pm. It was Wednesday already…

Her thoughts drifted back to her life in France… Maybe she was going to miss the rain?

A small smile made her way on her face at the thought but she quickly went back to the present and started to write down the lesson. When she realized it was Math. She made a face. She had always hated math. Numbers and she had never been great friends, but surprisingly enough, she found it easier in English than it was in French. Maybe because it was just the beginning of school year.

The bell rang quicker than expected. Once again, she gathered her things and glance at her schedule. Lunch break. She sighed quietly, knowing that she would have her first lunch in an American high school by herself. She headed to where her locker was located. She opened it, thinking about putting her bag in it but she decided against it and just put the algebra book in it. She closed it and followed the flow of people that were heading to the cafeteria.

She couldn’t help but wonder if it really was like in the movies. With the jock, the cheerleaders, the preps, emos, goths, punks and everything…

She ran a hand through her hair, feeling uncomfortable. She almost wanted to give up on lunch and go outside to sit under a tree with her CD player. As she was about to turn around, her stomach growled and she knew she couldn’t escape it. She grabbed what looked like a hamburger and an apple before she looked around the room to find an empty table. She chose the one that was the furthest, not far from the windows. She was heading there, keeping her eyes focus on the table, but at the same time she was being careful at where she was heading, she didn’t wanted to bump into anyone and make a fool out of herself, especially if the person started yelling at her, she wouldn’t be able to understand. She wasn’t far from the table now when out of the corner of her eyes she saw someone getting up and coming her way.

Oh great she thought as she bit her lip. She didn’t want to get in trouble.

“Athalya, right?”

Athalya stopped and looked at the girl. She recognized her as the girl who had introduced herself as Valary.

“Yes?” she asked softly.

“Do you want to eat with me and my friends?” she asked, pointing at somewhere over her shoulder.

Athalya was surprised by the gesture and it took her a couple of seconds to reply.
“That’s really nice, thank you. But… I don’t want to intrude.” She said, with a sad smile. “I’ll just sit there, maybe another time.”

Valary smiled at the new girl and nodded, walking back to where she came from.

She sat down at the nearest table and her eyes followed Valary back to the table. She sat down and she saw a guy wrapping his arm around her shoulder, kissing her cheek. She smiled at him and then turned to the other people, her lips moved and she saw someone turning around abruptly to look at her. Athalya quickly looked away, her cheeks burning.

It must be nice… she thought, to have such a close group of friends. She wished she had close friends to help her through the events of the previous months. Someone to tell her that she would be missed when she left to the airport. There were a few, but recent events showed that they were just friends at school and in happy times, that was it.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and forced herself to take a few bits of her hamburger. It took her some time to swallow it down, she helped it with a few gulps of water, put the apple in her bag and got up. From the corner of her eyes, she saw Valary and some of her friends looking at her. She kept her head down as she left the tray where she was supposed to and left.

She sighed deeply and took out her timetable. Still had time to kill. She walked outside, taking a sit near the bell tower.
Will she be able to adapt here? She thought about her two passports. Was she feeling more French or more American?

To her, she was French. Her grandparents were French, her mother was born in France and they had moved to the US when her mother was not older than 10 years-old. From what she had gathered, she was born in the US but then raised in France. She was French, with two passports, making it easier. Sure, her mother spoke mostly English at home, but she felt French.

She rubbed her neck and checked the small plastic watch on her wrist. 10 minutes left. Grabbing her bag, she made her way back into the building, taking her timetable out again.

“Is that her?”
She tried not to look up as she opened her locker.

“Shhh Jimmy! No, don’t!”

She closed her eyes and when she opened them, she was face to face with an unknown person. Close, too close. She took a step back and almost lost her balance.

“Jimmy!” Valary hurried to Athalya. “I’m sorry! He was just curious to see the new kid.” She apologized.

“It’s ok.” Said Athalya, walking past that Jimmy kid and closing her locker. Without another word, she headed the opposite way. Her heart was still hammering in her chest as she got to class.

The afternoon went by uneventful and when the bell rang, she followed the flow of people outside.

She crossed the parking lot in a hurry and dropped her head when she spotted Valary and her friends. She quickly got into the car and didn’t look up.

“How was your first day of school?” he asked, looking at his granddaughter.

“It was ok Papy, it was ok.” She said, buckling her seatbelt. “I could have taken the bus you know. I don’t want to bother you.”

“It’s no bother Athalya, really. Your grandmother is baking cookies I think, they should be ready when we get home.”

She nodded, looking at the scenery through the open window.

Notes

Hello readers, I posted this story previously on mibba.
I'm rewriting it because I wasn't satisfied with it. Hope you will give it a chance.
Feel free to subscribe, comment and if I made a grammar mistake or whatever don't hesitate to let me know. I'm French, english isn't my native tongue so I'm bound to make mistakes.
Thanks for your attention!
SillyFrench