We're All Full Of Lies

“Ow!” I screeched as the top of my head came in contact with car door window. I raised my hand to the location of the throbbing pain and rubbed against it gently causing my hair to knot a little in the area.
“Oh, whoops speed bump, sorry honey” My dad spoke genuinely concerned, looking over the top of his glasses in the rear view mirror to check my welfare. I pouted and pulled my earphones out of my ears, not bothering to stop the music that was playing. I shuffled slightly in the back of the car and tried to rearrange myself in a more comfortable position. My legs had gone stiff from being cramped up for so long.
My mother, noticing my movements turned and smiled, ”It won’t be too much longer, we’re almost there” she paused for a moment, uh oh, this wasn’t going to be good, “I know you’re not exactly happy about the situation-“
I cut her off before she had a chance to continue, “Don’t mum, I don’t want to start arguing again”
“But” She started, “No mum, nothing you can say will make this any better, you knew from the second you told me that this wouldn’t go down well, I don’t want to be here, I don’t want to be in this country, I want to go home, to my real home, where my friends are, where everything that was important to me was” I spoke harshly, perhaps a bit too harshly because the smiled had disappeared from my mother’s face , she looked upset but irritated at the same time.
“We had no choice Mirabelle” I shuddered at the use of my full name, “Your father and I’s work came here, we couldn’t stay in Australia, if we had we would be out on the street with no money” She spoke sternly occasionally turning her head toward me.
I looked out the window, a few decrepit houses and graffiti coated buildings flew by, “And so Belleville, New Jersey had to be the only place with work, there was nothing in Australia?” I spat back.
“The company shut down all of its Australian offices, honestly Mirabelle we’ve been through this a hundred times, and now there is no turning back, besides we couldn’t turn back even if we wanted to” My father decided to help my mother’s point, he was right, partially. We had had this conversation a fair few times before, I thought that the more I brought it up and annoyed them it might change their minds, but no.

My parents worked for a law firm, which meant I hardly ever saw them because all they ever did was work, I usually saw them as I left for school and again just before I went to bed at night and that was it. Most weekends I spend home alone because again, they were working. As to how we ended up here, well, due to ‘circumstances’ as my mother liked to say, the company closed all the Australian offices and opened new ones all over America and the UK. So my parents being the dedicated individuals that they are decided to follow suit. It was within weeks that we had our little beachside house completely packed up and our belongings shipped here to Belleville. I had to say goodbye to everything I loved, the warmth and sub-tropical climate of our town, my friends and the beach that I spent nearly every second of my free time at.

Silence drifted through the car and I decided to put my earphones back in. Iron Maiden was playing and I let out a small sigh, my love for the music was quite the contrast to my detest for my situation. I let my head fall back and rest against the back of the car seat, the music drifted into my ears and my thoughts were swirling around in a mini hurricane. I had moved schools before, but this was completely different. I had no idea how the whole American schooling system worked, I didn’t even know the difference between what ‘freshmen’ and ‘juniors’ and ‘seniors’ were, and what category did I fall into? I presumed that because it was my last year at school I must have fallen into the senior category, but maybe I was wrong.
I had been to both private and state schools so I had known nothing other than always wearing a uniform to school (all Australian schools all have uniforms), but the school I was supposed to be attending tomorrow; Belleville High School, had no uniforms. And from what I had gathered it had very little rules when it came to dress code and behavior. I mean it's not like I'm a goody-two-shows who follows the rules all the time but I was hoping that this wasn't going to turn out to be like some stereotypical school where bullying is serious issue and people are shoved into lockers. Looking down at my body I figured I would probably fit into one of the lockers, considering I was on the short side, but I’d rather not find out.
I must have drifted off because I woke to my dad lightly shaking my shoulder, “Wake up Mira, we’re here” He had the stupidest grin on his face as he spoke. I let out a deflated groan and pulled myself from the car. I looked up at the house before me. Two story painted white with a deep blue tiled roof. The garden was well maintained with Forget Me Not’s, Peony’s and hedges lining the fence. Well I always liked gardens so I suppose this is a good start. The small smile that had crept its way onto my face quickly disappeared when a ball made contact with the back of my head.
“What the hell” I bent down and picked up the relatively grotty rubber ball, “Are you serious?” I was even more irritated now.
“Hey, oh gosh I’m really sorry we weren’t watching what we were doing” A boy ran up behind me and spoke softly; he was extremely thin and tall with glasses. He pointed to a guy running up behind his hair a tangled mess of curls flying around his face “Ray’s a bit of an idiot sometimes” He giggled, and I offered a smile in return.
“I heard that” The boy whose name I now know as Ray said playfully punching the boy with glasses in the arm.
“Mikey’s the only idiot here” Ray smiled and held out his hand, I shook it “I’m Ray and this is Mikey” he glanced over to the car filled with boxes “I’m guessing you just arrived here?”
“Oh uh yeah, my names Mirabelle, but I prefer Mira-“ I was cut off from the two boys who looked to be just a bit younger than me, maybe 16, trying to stifle their laughter. “Sorry, did I miss out on some joke or something?” I said raising an eyebrow in confusion.
“Oh no sorry, it just, sorry, your accent, it’s awesome but funny” Mikey said still laughing.
“Oh, erm yeah, it’s a bit different than what your used to I’m sure” I didn't know whether to be offended or not. “Here’s your ball by the way” I said tossing it to Ray.
“Thanks, so uh are you going to Belleville High?” He smiled, Mikey was still giggling every now and again.
“Yeah, although I’m no too sure whether I fall into the senior category or not, the American schooling system is very different to the Australian one”
“How old are you?”
“17, this is my last year of school”
“That means you’re a senior, same as us” Mikey answered.
“Mirabelle! Can you start bringing some of the boxes inside please?” I heard my mother’s voice call from somewhere inside the house behind me.
I let out an irritated moan, “It was nice meeting you guys, I suppose I’ll see you tomorrow at school” I forced a smile, I was happy to have met them but not happy about the school part.
“Yeah same to you, see you later Mira” Ray said before punching Mikey again and then taking off down the street, Mikey trailed close behind yelling at his friend.
I turned to the car and grabbed two boxes that were labelled ‘Mira’, I stacked them on top of each other and walked along the stone pathway and up the front porch steps.

“Upstairs and first door on the right is your room, you’ll like it, it even has an en-suite” My dad smiled and pointed at the staircase.
“I suppose an en-suite does sound nice” I let a small smile creep onto my face as I began to head up the stairs.

I kicked the door to my bedroom open and was pleasantly surprised, there was already a bed, desk and bookcase set up. All I really needed to do was customize it with my posters and books and other miscellaneous items. I spent the next few hours bringing up the rest of the boxes and unpacking my stuff.

Once I was happy with everything I joined my parents who were sipping on cups of coffee in the kitchen. I caught them exchanging glances every now and again and I knew something was up. Finally it got too much for me to bare, “What?” I asked putting my mug on the counter.
“Hmm?” My mother was playing dumb.
“What is going on, and don’t say nothing, I saw the glances” I stated.
“Don’t be silly, we weren’t ‘glancing’ at each other, you’re paranoid Mira” my mother turned away from me collecting the mugs and placing them in the sink.
“But I saw-“
“Paranoid” My mother cut me off.
“Ugh, whatever, I know what I saw, I think I might go to bed” I pushed myself away from the island I was sat at.
“We haven’t even had dinner yet” My father said looking concerned.
“I’m not hungry” I said walking out of the kitchen.
“Goodnight!” He called after me.
“Yeah goodnight” I mumbled.

I showered and let the hot water pierce my pale skin; the water ran across my skin slightly black in colour from my eyeliner. I didn’t think I had that much eyeliner on, oh well. I dried my hair and body, pulled on my batman pyjamas and slid into bed. My mind was inundated with a thousand different scenarios about what would happen tomorrow. Some good, some bad and some that were so horrible I had managed to completely terrify myself about going back to school ever again.

Notes

Hey guys! So this is my first fic, I really do hope you like it! Please leave comments and all that so I know if you guys like it or not or if there is anything I need to work on, constructive criticism is most welcome! And thank you so very much for reading! I really appreciate it! :D
Sorry for any typo's, spelling or grammatical errors :)