Chapter 1.

Prologue:

My mom and dad decided to split. ‘Okay, cool’, I thought. ‘Two birthday, two Christmas’, two houses. This would be pretty cool.’
Too bad my mom forgot to tell me that we were moving half way across the planet. Well, not really that far, but still, moving from the hot, dry state of Texas, all the way to gloomy rainy Port Gamble, Washington was going to really hard.
I didn’t know anyone there. What if they weren’t into the same things my friends and I were into down here? What if no one liked me? Plus, it rains ALL the time, so I heard. When would I have time to take a walk or to read or write a story underneath a huge tree, while the sun beat down on me.
But my mom was looking forward to a fresh start and maybe I should, too. Plus. Its not like I was leaving anything too special behind, besides my dad of course. But no, I wasn’t leaving to many friends or a boyfriend. See, I wasn’t the hot, popular girl in school. I never was cool. I’d choose reading a good book over going to a party or a football game. I was considered a geek or a freak. So maybe a fresh start was what I needed.
But would I ever get used to all the changes?













Chapter 1.


“Got everything?” Dad asked.
“Yep” Mom and I said together.
Dad was so not ready for us, well me, to leave. But I promised him that I was going to come visit him ever chance I got.
“Okay, well, good” he said, sounding kind of gloomy. “Well, you guys better get a move on I heard traffic’s horrible on highway 130 around 5:00.”
He walked over to me, with, what looked like a tear in his eye. “I’ll miss you Stace.” he said, choking on the last word. Then he gave a huge and kiss on my cheek.
Then he walked over to mom and gave her a hug and told her to be safe and to call him every time we got settled somewhere. She agreed.
Then we hoped into our little blue Honda Accord and drove out of the driveway and then started our long trip to our new home.
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There was a long awkward silence for about the first three hours into the trip, nothing but the sound of our normal radio station playing softly.
Then finally it was broken. “You hungry?” Mom asked.
“Not really. You?” I asked back.
“No”.
Then silence was there again. But that’s okay. Sometimes I like silence, it gives me time to think about things. Things that were important like how dad was going to manage or how I was going to like it at my new home. Or I would thing about important things like how much longer our radio station was going to last or if I’d remembered to pack my favorite pillow.
This is how the rest of our trip seemed to go. Though, every once and a while, a good song would come on the radio and mom and I would sing it and laugh. But aside from that we didn’t have any conversations. We stopped four times in little hotels at night. I told mom I could drive while she sleep, considering I was 17 years old, but she said she wouldn’t be able to sleep anyways if I was driving.
But finally, after a car ride that seemed like forever we saw a sign that said ‘Welcome To Port Gamble’. It looked like one of those towns you see in movies. You know the ones that look very quant, but kind of old. As we passed through “downtown” I saw a pizza kitchen, a movie theater (with exactly 5 movies playing. I have seen 4 of them), a grocery store, a clothing store, and a bunch of other little shops that didn’t really spark my interest. Then we pasted a little book store. I was going to have to check that out sometime. There were also people walking around, in and out of stores, talking and laughing and waving at other people across the street.
Finally, we pulled into 1435 McBride Lane. Our new house was larger than I had excepted. It was in front of a large patch of forest. And right in the front yard we a giant oak tree, perfect to sitting under and reading a great book. The yard was nice, too. Very green. The house was red brick and was two levels. It had a massive porch that rapped around the house. It was ,to say the least, beautiful.
The movers were already there by the time we pulled in, with all our stuff.
“You go inside and look around, I need to talk to these gentleman about where everything goes in the house”, Mom said.
I walk into the large house. It was very open. The whole place was covered in hardwood flooring and white walls. The house was old, I could tell. Every door in the house that lead into a main room was French-style doors. The house was really lovely.
I made my way around the downstairs, and then worked my way up the massive
staircase. There were four rooms upstairs. One was my moms room, because it had the bathroom attached to the room. The next was a closet, for towels and blankets and things along that line. The room after that was my bathroom, it was a nice size. Very roomy. The last door on the far in of the hall was apparently my room. I opened the door to a room that was large and reminded me of a room I saw in a movie once. There was two windows on one wall and one on another. The ceiling came down at an angle starting from the middle of the ceiling. Of course the walls were white and the floors were hardwood, but it was still a lovely room.
I walked to the middle of the room and just stood there. I walked over to the window. There was another massive oak tree, just like the one in front of the house. It would be a great way to sneak out, if I ever worked up the courage to do so. ‘Not likely’ I thought to myself, with a half-smile on my face. I walked over to the other windows and looked out to the forest behind the house. It went on for miles, it looked like.
As I was looking down in the forest, something moved. It looked like a dog, only bigger. I looked closer, and it was just sitting there. It looked as though it was staring back at me. I wanted to look away, but it was like I was in some kind of trace.
I couldn’t help but keep looking at it.
“Where do you want this, little lady?” I heard a man’s voice come from my door way. I turned to see that it was two of the movers holding my dresser.
“Please tell us where you want this, it’s a tad bit heavy”, he said with a sense of strain in his voice.
“Oh! Sorry, right over there I guess will be good”, I finally said, pointing to a spot on the wall.
I turned around again to look out the window, but the dog was gone.
I stood there looking out the window for a few more seconds, looking around, but the dog was gone. So I turned back around to see the movers waiting at my doorway again with what looked to be part of my bed frame. I told them where I would like it, with out waiting on them to ask where I would want it. The rest of the process happened this way.
Finally, all of our stuff was moved in the house and arranged in a somewhat normal fashion. The mover ,that was what looked to be about 65, offered to stay later to help Mom get everything situated. His voice was flirtatious.
“Um, no thank you. I think we got it covered.” she said, holding back a chuckle.
Not me though. I turned a walked into the kitchen a busted into laughter.
After they left my Mom walked into the kitchen where I was still giggling to myself.
I didn’t think she wanted to talk about being hit on by an old man, so I changed the subject.
“I think we should paint the walls. They are really dull.”
“Yeah, I think your right. We’ll get over to the Home Depot tomorrow and choose some colors. Sound good?” she asked kindly.
“Yeah.” I said simply.
We went Downtown to the little pizza kitchen, which just happens to be called Pizza Kitchen, for dinner. It wasn’t as good as CiCi’s , but still good. While we were there I saw a bunch of people that looked to be about my age hanging out there, eating and laughing. They were normal looking, like I would be, hopefully.
I looked up from eating my pepperoni and cheese pizza and they were looking at me. A couple waved. So I waved back.
Then all of sudden a boy gets up and starts walking over to me. He was very attractive looking. About 5’11 maybe. Tan. Honey-colored eyes. Very muscular. He looked like he was a football player and a baseball player, or both.
“Hey. I’m Benjamin. You new here?” he asked, with a crooked-half smile on his gorgeous face.
“Hi, I’m Stacey, but everyone calls me Stace. And this is my mom. Yeah, we moved here from Texas.” I said, nervously.
“Good to meet you both. Texas? That’s cool. Do you want to come and meet everyone and hang out for a little while?” he asked.
“Um.” I shot my mom a glace. She nodded. But I ignored it.
“Um, I would, but we are still moving everything in. But maybe some other time?”
Why was a such a geek? I should have said ’Sure! I’d love to. You know your really hot?’. But I just had to go be a loser.
“Okay. that’s cool. Yeah, we will some other time. Hey, we’re all meeting up at the movie theater tomorrow night around seven, you want to come?” he asked, looking hopeful.
“Yeah that will be good.” I said with a smile.
“I could come by your house and get you. Save you a trip”.
“Sounds good.” I said still smiling. “oh, you need directions..”
“No, I know where your house is. You moved into a small town, so everyone around here knows everything.” he said chuckling. He looked back at his friends. “ Well, I have to go. But I guess I will just be around your house about 6:45?” he asked.
“Sounds like a plan” I said back. “See you then”.
Then he gave one last good-bye nod, then turned and went back to his friends.
They were all talking to him, and he glanced up at me smiling. I looked away because I, too, was looking at him.
Soon after, Mom and I went and paid and left for home.
Once we were in the car, my mom sat there and looked at me, smiling.
She finally spoke. “I knew moving here was a good decision”.
Then she started the car and we left.
Once we got home, I walked upstairs to my bathroom. I jumped in the shower, and washed my face. I went downstairs and told Mom good-night and walked back upstairs.
As I walked into my room, I flipped the light switch off, then walked over to where my night stand was and flipped on my lamp. Then I flipped my T.V on and started watching an episode of Boy Meets World. I was shocked at myself. I hadn’t even been here a whole day, and I already felt like a was home.
As I was almost asleep, I heard a howl come from the forest behind the house.
I got up and walked over to the window and glanced out, and there it was.
The dog. It was staring up into the window where I was staring back at it.
‘Maybe its owners lived here before us and moved without it. And it thinks its owners are still here. Yeah, that’s it. Its just a lost dog that keeps staring at my window.
Yeah.’, I told myself.
So I went back to my bed. And heard the howl again. But only once more, before I fell asleep.