Elsa's Pov
Lucas brought me all around town with his second-brand Toyota. We made our drive to the neighborhood park which was occupied not by humans, but flocks of pigeons as they interacted with one other without any worries occupied on their minds. As we drove deeper into the city we were led up to a bustling road lined with shops. We passed local florists and cinemas, bakeries and bookstores when we finally drove by a market.
"Make it quick, alright kiddo? I can't stand being stranded alone for too long," my brother plead.
I pity girls with no older brothers in their life; Lucas Tilden cared for me like his own sister. He is known to do great things: an expert in archery and held a highly respected internship in the healthcare sector. Amazing, that brother of mine. However, he is a pure disaster in cookery since young. Dad never allowed Lucas near the kitchen stove for that reason. That is also the same reason why he preferred to stay in the car while I run some errands for the family. He could never tell the difference between a rotten carrot to a good one, so tagging him along wouldn't have made my life any easier.
The local market had become increasingly crowded that I had to squeeze my way through to get to the stalls. I wasn't expecting the market to be packed with locals especially on a Thursday afternoon. Each and every stalls were packed with hungry customers. Customers who crave for their dairy products. I planned to get some missing ingredients for our first family dinner in nine years and regretted being there at this time of the day. Most customers are all squeezed in that little stall, and the stall holders are having an unpleasant time sorting out the customers who were paying for their products.
Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a group of boys running towards my direction, pushing pass customers with their rough hands. And soon after, they managed to run pass everyone but knocked a lady with her hands full of groceries in the process.
The lady let out a shriek of surprise as she lost grip of her groceries and gravity pulled her to the ground. The boys whom knocked her over didn't seem to notice of their actions and ran away as fast as they could without ever a word of "sorry" that escaped from their breath. I quickly ran over to the women to give her a hand.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes. Um.. thank you miss. Thank you," She commented as I held her up. The lady that looked about her early 40's dusted off her pretty blouse and gathered her groceries with her lightly wrinkled hands.
"Glad that you are fine, Miss..." I assured the woman, but hesitated with the lack of the knowledge of her name.
Her soothing voice ringed," Mrs Parker, dear. And thank you for your help too, Miss."
I smiled at her words, "Call me Elsa."
After a brief conversation about my first time in the area, Mrs Parker left, saying that she had something important back home. I too realised I had to get back with Lucas still waiting for me, so I quickly picked up all the things I needed to buy and headed to the opposite direction.
"That's it, Princess. Take your time." Lucas mocked as I loaded the trunk with my bags of vegetables.
"It would have been quicker if you came to help instead of watching me loading the trunk," I spat.
"It's only your first day here and this is how you treat your brother! I'm telling mom and dad. Let's see how you can treat me now!"
I punched my brother playfully on his arm. "Just drive."
The first night with my whole family was magnificent. The dinner table was full of the product of Mom's and Dad's excellent cooking skills. Although, Mom did most of the cooking because Lucas fondly missed Mom's famous dishes. The Tildens have finally became a whole again. My firefighter dad had grown himself a very handsome beard, thought some old-man-hair is starting to grow too.
That was about nine years ago.
At that moment, Mom and Dad gave two big announcements. One, that Mom is going to start her own café near town. Two, I am going to be attending California John's High School. Tomorrow.
Tomorrow?
Why did it have to be tomorrow? Everything was going too fast for me to begin with. I was only but a city criminal, and had only became Elsa Tilden just five hours ago.
School? A whole bunch of new friends. New school. New life.
Am I really up for it? For a new life. A better one.