The beginning

Damon

I can currently feel a warm sunray on my face while I'm just sitting on my seat, smiling for no particular reason. No, that's actually a lie. There are plenty of reasons why I'm grinning and laughing by myself but I won't admit them openly just now. My family is currently driving this huge and without any discussion ugly car and we are on our way to a tiny village called Flatville. Who even names a place Flatville?! Sounds horrendous. Anyways, the circumstances forced us to move out of our previous sparkling villa and we are now on the way to make a new start in a new place.

This decision was not voluntary but it was the most logical thing to do considering our situation. My siblings looked like their world was going to collapse when they heard the news and I pretended that it was the same for me when in actuality I couldn't be any happier.

Suddenly I feel a heavy weight on my shoulder and I looked to my left. Seems like my little sister Amelia has fallen asleep. Her face looks so cute with all the freckles and even when she's pouting like she did the last five hours of our car drive. She's still in primary school yet she already has many friends and I think she will be missing them a lot. I'm pretty sure she will find new ones though.  One reason why she's pouting at the moment is that her birthday party has been ruined. Her seventh birthday was last week but we couldn't celebrate it (because of the move) and now she's very pissed. If I'm already talking about my sister, let me introduce you to my little family.

Currently driving: My mom. She is the loveliest person I've ever met and she supports her children in every way possible. I'm so so thankful for her. It's impressive how she managed to bring up three children on her own, as a single mother.

Then, I've already mentioned my little sister and the only thing I would like to ad is the fact, that Amelia and I share a deep connection, we have a really strong sibling-bond.

Let's go on. Riding shotgun is my oldest brother. His name is Simon and I don't even know where to start. He is UGLY, unfortunately I'm not talking about his face but his awful character, he's pretentious and has the worst attitude existing on planet earth. Puberty hit him really hard and not in a positive way. Okay I'm exaggerating but who cares. Just now I can hear his music banging through the headphones and it's really annoying the shit out of me. I think my mom has the ability to read thoughts because I hear her comment

"Simon, would you mind turning down the volume a little bit?" Thank you mom… show him who's the boss. My brother just rolled his eyes but did it nonetheless. Unfortunately, it didn't help because a few seconds later I can hear him yell and I mean literally yell "How much longer do we have to drive?"

"About one and a half hours" my mom answered calmly. Maybe she still feels bad cause she is the reason we're currently driving to Flatville since otherwise I'm sure she would have already slapped the back of his head for yelling.

Now we have the trouble cause Amelia just woke up from the noise and started pouting and crying again.  "Woah Simon please let your five remaining braincells work… just because you have headphones on doesn't mean we can't hear you" I spat. I'm not that sure if I sounded angry because this situation is somehow hilarious or maybe I'm just to happy to really feel any kind of negative emotions right now.

Let me explain how I ended up in this kind of situation. To be honest the circumstances are everything but funny and that's why I'm currently pretending to be sad about the move in case you forgot.

It has been two years since my mom was diagnosed with some kind of lung disease. Unfortunately, there isn't really a cure at least not with medications or pills. My mother's condition isn't that horrible but it's difficult for her to breathe especially if she does any kind of sports. You may have already guessed it, the condition worsened over the years which leads us to our situation now. I think our mom really tried her best in keeping healthy mainly for us children. Yet, life is not easy and she couldn't keep up with her work and it was the Wednesday two weeks ago when she collapsed in her office.

Afterwards, everyone was in turmoil and I literally panicked the time I got a call from the local hospital.  I jumped out of my chair, ran out of school and sprinted to my sister's school which took me about five minutes. I breathed heavily when I entered into Amelia's classroom. I grabbed her arms tightly and carried her out of the classroom as I explained the situation to her teacher very briefly. My brother was already waiting with his car and together we speeded to the hospital. We entered my mother's room and as in a movie our jaws dropped at the same time. You now why, because our mom just sat there looking fine like nothing ever happened.  I don't want to admit it but I cried tears of joy that day.

Obligingly, the doctor let us have 15 minutes of family time before he came back into the room and explained what was going on.

I would love to tell you about everything the doctor clarified for us that day but I was too stupid to understand a thing. Don't get me wrong I'm not stupid in general and my grades in school are passable but biology was and still is my least favourite subject. Nevermind… in short, the doctor told us that it would be a great idea to move out of the city and that it would be even better if we moved to the mountains. It seems like mountain air has some magical influence on the human body and like in these cheesy dramas everything turns out to the better after one little change. However, the doctor was the professional and nobody cared about my opinion which led us to where we are now.

By the way, if you ask me the trigger for my mother's condition, I would say it had been my father's death which was about eight years ago. Since then, my mother has been a victim of a decreasing psychological and mental health which ended up in her having a lung disease. To be honest I always thought my mom got over the death of my father but I was proved wrong. I mean who am I kidding, her better half died in a car accident without any warning.

Luckily, my brother and I were still quite young and we couldn't completely understand what was going on. I know we weren't babies so we were still quite devastated but at least we had each other and were able to move on after a few years. Amelia was still in my mother's womb I guess she's fine with our father's death and with her birth she helped my mother and us kids to regain our happiness.

Now I genuinely think my mother is a lot better now compared to the first year after the accident but maybe the loneliness and emptiness without her husband is beginning to crave a way into her heart.   

My thoughts are making their rounds, reminiscing the past as I am watching the trees passing by. Our car takes a turn and we are now driving on a rocky road. Maybe because our destination is the mountains one can have already guess it but Flatville is everything but flat. The whole village is on a huge hill surrounded by a large, dark forest. There are also a lot of mountains in this area.

We are already pretty near to our new house and even if we don't want it, excitement is now the leading emotion in our heads and we start noticing some inconspicuous things along the way.

'Oh, look at this meadow' or 'Omg have you just seen that deer'. Our eyes are glued to the outside world as we look through the windows and our feet are shaking.

My mother suddenly speaks "Ladies and Gentlemen we have officially reached our village and are currently just a mile away from our destination". My little sister screams happily when she hears that and I really want to join her screaming but refrain from it. A few moments later my mother looks in the rear-view mirror at my face "Damon, look to the right, I can see your school from here. The school looks gorgeous!" she says. "Omg mom I can't believe this is where my college life goes on" I spout out. I know this sentence has absolutely no context but I had to get it off my mind.   

"Wow" is the only word that's on my mind after I see our new house. 'Wow' is also the word that comes out of Simons mouth. The only difference is the way we speak. My wow was definitely a positive one, but not Simon's. The house is made out of wood and on the window shelf are many flowerpots with coloured flowers. I'm pretty sure I can recognise some daisies, carnations and multi-coloured chrysanthemums.

"Are we poor now just because we moved?" Simon spat out.

"Oh, come on Simon don't ruin the moment" I comment. I kind of understand him in the sense that the house is a lot smaller but I think that makes it more adorable and gives of a warmer feeling. I loathed the white painted walls in our old house, the flat roof and the extravagant architecture of the whole building. It was only for show-off. At least in my opinion.

As it is pretty close to dawn now, we start to heave all the old and dusty furniture into the house very quickly. In the inside it smells so refreshing. There is this heavy scent of wood and conifers and also a subtle smell of sandalwood. The scent is so heavy that I have to sneeze a few times. Maybe I had to sneeze from the dust that twirls around in the air. I don't know.

"Simon, Damon, do you mind to carry the remaining stuff inside while I cook some chicken-noodle soup for you?" Mother asks us.

"Yes mam!" we answer at the same time. I hate to say it but Simon and me do have a brotherly bond. Simon gives me a friendly smack while I stick out my tongue. By the time we finish carrying everything inside it's 8pm. Of course, not everything is in the right place but at least all the furniture is safe from the rain and maybe safe from some kind of weird mountain animals.

Our mother finishes cooking and asks us to join her at the table. I am the last person to join the dinner because I really needed to make a quick visit to the toilet first.

"The dinner's great mom" I comment. "Thank you sunny-boy" she replies and I roll my eyes at this. I hate it when my mom calls me that name but there is nothing I can do to change her. She turns a deaf ear to my complains about the name.

We continue enjoying our food and the rest of the meal passes by without any major issues or interruptions.

After dinner we write our names on a piece of paper, except Amelia's, and mix them together in a cup. Then, my mother draws out a name out of the cup and the name written on the paper has to do the dishes. Normally we wouldn't go out of our way just for this little matter but this day felt like it 100 hours long and fatigue is hitting us really hard now.

Having bad luck is basically the story of my life so I am definitely not that surprised when my mum draws out my name. I'm complaining a little but start right away. I see that my family getting out of their chairs ready to go to bed. I whisper "Good night everybody, have a great first night here" and waved at them. My mother smiles at me while she lifts up the sleeping Amelia in princess style ready to carry her to bed.

I finish as fast as I can and then I run up the stairs to my suitcase. Without any hesitation I grab my vanity bag looking for my toothbrush. I stroll to the bathroom, quickly brush my teeth, change into my pyjamas and jump under my covers.

Right now, some random thoughts are popping in my head. I'm really glad that we managed to find a good house in the timespan of two weeks where everyone has his own bedroom. I honestly like to be alone sometimes and this room gives me the opportunity to do that. What's more is that the whole house is soundproof! I have never thought about that, given the fact that it's made out of wood. Maybe it can help my mother to calm her down and it could also improve her health.

I suddenly realise that I still have to turn off the lights so I need to go out of bed again. Annoying. Time passes really fast. It's already late in the evening and I just can't seem to fall asleep. Today I saw so many new things and this place filled me with impressions.  My head is full of different things but there is one phrase which dominates above all other thoughts…

'St. Marcis College' The name of my new school. The start of my new journey. The path that hopefully leads to a happier life. I really really really pray that I can be cheerful and content in my new school. I think if people heard my thoughts just now, they would think I'm a weirdo.

The thought itself isn't a weird thought, it's just that people think I have what you call 'a perfect life' and have no right to complain about anything. The reasons for that are: First, my family is filthy rich. We own a company since generations and I already inherited a huge amount of money from it. We are also the owners of many properties and have a watch-brand. Second, I am handsome. I don't intend to brag about it but my classmates were drooling over me. The Boys were jealous of me and the girls always tried to flirt with me. People say that my eyes have the colour of an emerald and they get lost in my eyes blablabla. All these compliments are just disgusting if you ask me.

Last but not least I am famous. The good genes run in the family and my siblings also look like models which made us well known all over the campus. We were 'the Wilson-Siblings'. Additionally, I have been a jock since I entered high school and in my freshman year of college, I was chosen to be the captain of the American football team. My life seems perfect, doesn't it?

Believe it or not, I was so fed up with everything. People coming for me for the fame, people grinding their body into mine in hope of gaining my attention.  People wanting to become my girlfriend just for the money and rubbing some random, baseless compliments into my face just to become my friend.

'Let me breathe please' is, was I used to scream out of my window every evening.

My brother really enjoyed being famous and I think he would try to become something again in the new school. Fortunately for me, he got his college degree last year and I couldn't be happier about that. And I really love Amelia but even she used to like the fame and wouldn't be of any if I want to become a normal person.

And a normal person is what I wish to be. Here in Flatville, seven hours away from my previous place of residence, a chance to start again. This is the reason for my happiness now. Escaping this prison filled with all these two-faced people. I finally made it out of this living hell. This is also a reason why I was joyful to see the new house. It blends in well with every other house. It's invisible, people will walk past it and I'm smiling just thinking about it.

As for my look I have the perfect plan to cover it up. Fake it 'til I make it. The moonlight shines through my window's and it reflects on the thick black glasses on my table. I smile at the sight of them. They are waiting until they come into action on Monday along with some other things.

St. Marcis School, I'm ready for you…