Paige
Life sucks.
Especially if you are a teenager who is legally obligated to accept and follow whatever decision your parents make.
Whether it's the school you go to, or the place you live in.
I say that you must not move from your house, with your kid, just after the beginning of Winter break.
Even if you were offered a huge promotion at work.
Think about their friends, the image they've established for the past five months in their old school.
Think about the friends they've had for the past thirteen years.
It's the Freshman year of high school!
It doesn't matter if they were valedictorian, Student Body President and President of Science Club.
It's still hard to adjust, at the beginning of a new semester, in a completely different atmosphere.
Especially if the kid we're talking about is not good at making friends.
I'm Paige, and here's what happened -
My father got a huge promotion at work and my mother does not have to actually work anymore, bit she still does because she loves her job.
He got a new apartment in a huge apartment complex, three towns over from where they lived before.
And even though he can't stand his wife and vice versa, they don't get divorced.
I wished that it would happen all the time when I found out what it meant, then, when I was eleven, one of my friend's parents got divorced with joint custody.
She said it was living hell, facing her father and mother detonating like bombs at the sight of each other every time they met.
So, I'm just waiting to turn eighteen so that I can move out of here, and join my dream university.
Which I haven't decided, yet.
It is a new beginning, starting over at a new place.
Or so I read in a novel.
So, I went to the park in our apartment complex, yes the complex is HUGE. And I sat on the swing.
I don't know why, but the oscillation of the swing calms my frustration and anger.
As I was waiting for my turn, a girl about my age tapped me on my shoulder and said, "Are you new here?"
I said, "Uh, yeah."
"Well, I'm Sarah."
"Paige"
"Let's be friends, I'll show you what to do here."
Ok, I didn't know what just happened! A complete stranger walks up to me and wanted to be my friend!
My old friends say that the air around me is so cold, it freezes the penguins from Antarctica.
"Sure." I reply. It's better than being a loner. Maybe we'll have something in common.
"Do you like sitting on the swing, too?" she asked.
"Yeah, I do." I reply.
"Which school will you go to, after Winter break ends?"
"North West High." I reply. "I'm a Freshman."
"Hey! I go there too. I'll show you around."
Turns out, she lived in the same building as me, on the fourth floor, two floors below me.
She has the most annoying brother, who is just a year younger than us.
Her uncle and his family live three buildings away from ours in the complex.
And, she'd become my best friend.