I wake up to a room packed full of boxes. It's not an unusual sight for me, at least not for the last three weeks. Laura has been after me since the day we got here to unpack them.

"You need to make yourself feel at home, Jonah," she says every time she walks into my room.

"Well, I'm not at home, so why should I feel like I am?" I'd fire back.

"Jonah!" Dad would exclaim from downstairs. "Lose the attitude!"

Even now I can still hear his booming voice giving me those same warnings that will never affect me. He doesn't realize that anymore, I just don't care.

Sadly, I also wake up to an ironed school uniform. I look at it through groggy eyes; it's navy blue color blazer, khaki pants, a white button-up shirt, and a blue and white striped tie to go along. Could this get any worse? Not only did I have to move across the country and lose everything I had built up, but I also have to attend a school with almost twice the amount of students my last school had. More people to avoid.

I head to the bathroom and take a long shower, one that ends with Jordan pounding on the door for me to hurry up.

"You are prissier than a girl sometimes, you know that?" She shouts through the door. I ignore as I step out and wrap a towel around my face. I use my hand – not recommended by Stepmom's everywhere, but especially mine – to clear a path through the condensation so I can see myself. I run a hand through my shaggy and neglected blonde hair. After brushing my teeth and shaving my face, I open the bathroom door to find Jordan sprawled out on the hallway floor.

"It's about freakin' time, you idiot," she mutters as she pushes herself up and pushes me aside to get into the bathroom. I head back to my room and find my uniform in its same spot. I should have tossed it and pretended that I didn't get it, but Laura undoubtedly would see that coming and have ordered more than what I needed in the first place.

How many public schools have uniforms? I just don't understand. They aren't fancy – their lunches suck just as much as the education does. So why act like they're more than they are?

I pull on my pants and the shirt, then the blue vans that I've had for too long to go with it. The blazer isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but I can imagine walking to school in this through the California heat.

Then comes the tie. Oh, the tie. Out of all the formal events I've attended with my dad for his oil company, you'd think I would know how to tie a tie. However, that day has never come. My secret was using clip-on ties. Dad never caught on.

I pull the tie over my head and start the knot, but it gets completely jumbled up and I give up after my second try. I push it up so it's at least around my neck, but it is clearly not tied correctly.

I grab my backpack which is filled with a couple notebooks and whatever else Laura thought I would need and I pull it over my shoulders. Downstairs, Laura has set out a plate of breakfast food – the healthy kind, not the good kind.

I grab a piece of sliced apple anyway and toss it in my mouth as I take a seat at the bar. Boxes are still stacked in almost every room of the house just waiting to be unpacked. I pull out my phone and start scrolling through whatever social media app I see first. I have a few texts from Ana, but they're all about her friends and what they've all been up to.

If I do text her, I'm afraid I'll only complain about what's going on.

"Morning, Jonah," Laura says when she comes into the kitchen. "Are you enjoying your breakfast?"

I assume that she asks me this because I'm tossing the apples around the plate, looking for something else I might eat. Laura and I have a special relationship; one where we can be sarcastic with each other, but only to a certain extent.

"I'd rather be stuffing my face with pancakes, bacon, and more pancakes, but instead I'm stuck eating... this." I gesture to the plate of fruits and other foods that look healthy but not edible. "So, what do you think?"

Although I am completely serious, Laura still just shakes her head at me as she pours a glass of orange juice and sends it my way. Her old bartender skills have kicked in.

"I don't expect anything less from you."

I take a long swig of the orange juice which fights against the minty toothpaste I had just used. I set the cup down and stand up from my seat. I hear thundering footsteps come down the stairs and turn to see Dad dressed and ready to go to yet another meeting. The oil industry is apparently booming as of lately.

"Hey, Jonah. Ready for your first day of school?" He asks monotonously as he passes by me to hurry into the kitchen. Laura leans back on the counter and watches him drop a few pieces of toast into the toaster.

"It's not my first day of Kindergarten, Dad." I lean against the wall and pull out my phone to check the time. If Jordan and I are going to walk to school, she had better get down here.

"Did I ask for the attitude?" He deadpans, not giving me a look.

No, I think to myself, but you created it.

"Laura! What the hell is this?" Jordan shouts from upstairs. I see her standing at the top of the steps holding a bra that could hold a melon in each.

"Oh! I just thought maybe you'd want it for later on down the road. It doesn't fit me anymore," Laura replies after realizing what Jordan is hollering about.

Jordan flings the bra down the stairs. "I don't want it."

Out of the two of us, Jordan has for sure taken our parents' divorce the hardest. She fights everyone on it, especially Laura. I don't exactly like Laura considering she tries too hard to take the place of my mom, but she seems to deal with my personality better than Dad ever has.

I give her a hard time, she gives it right back. It's called balance.

Laura sighs and looks over her shoulder to see my dad's reaction. He doesn't have one because he didn't witness it at all. He's been staring at his phone this whole time. Even his toast is already popped out.

"Darren?" Laura asks. "Are you going to say anything?"

Dad glances up from his phone. "What? Uh, Jordan! Quit acting like you own everybody." Under his breath, he mumbles, "just like her mother."

He grabs his toast and tosses it onto a paper towel before grabbing the butter and taking his time to spread it over the toast. He glances up at me for a second and immediately notices my crooked tie.

"Jonah, I thought I showed you how to tie a tie." He scolds.

"Did I ever tell you that you're not the greatest teacher?" My hands fly up to my neck anyway because I don't want him to try and tell me how to fix it. Finally, Jordan comes down the stairs and I can finally leave the house.

Laura and Dad both shout goodbye's to us as we head out the door, but neither of us responds.

I think it's clear how we feel about this situation.

I start walking at a quick pace as my fingers twist through the knots I've made in my tie, but I can't fix it. I decide that it feels like maybe it looks okay so I leave it and try to forget about it. Behind me, Jordan stays a good five feet away from me though I know she's watching me like a hawk. To be honest, I don't want her out of my sight in a place where I know no one and nothing.

But I would never tell her that.

My sister and I don't speak during our trek to school. I don't need her to say anything to know that she hates this as much as do. When Dad broke the news to us that we'd be moving clear across the country, we didn't have much say in it. Of course, we argued our points. I even offered to buy my own apartment for Jordan and me to stay in so I could at least finish my high school career where I had started it.

Dad proceeded to remind me that my money is his money because it literally is his money.

So, that's where my arguing stopped. We have a few aunts and uncles from both sides back in Tennessee, but I wasn't willing to live with them for a whole year.

And now we're here.

I look up at the tall school building and sigh. This place is huge and the student body pouring into it is even bigger. Jordan steps up beside me, her hands looped through her backpack straps as she stares at the monstrosity in front of us.

I begin the math calculations in my head and decide that maybe this school is only a little bit bigger than our old one. Where my Tennessee high school took up more square footage, this one stretches up higher into the sky.

"I hate my life," Jordan sighs, blowing pieces of her blue hair out of her face.

I glance down at her school uniform. "You wore combat boots with a skirt? And you can't even tie them up?"

She shrugs and glares at me. "Why do you care again?"

I shake my head at her as she stomps into the school, disappearing into the crowd. I realize that we both have to go to the front office to get our schedules or whatever, so I move to catch up with her. She's more likely to find it before I do.

We find it together a few minutes later after the swarm of students has calmed down. They don't line the hallways, though. Instead, most of them scatter in through auditorium doors that are close to the front entrance.

All of them are dressed alike. Well, I guess now all of us are.

The giant wooden door shuts behind us once we're in the office, shutting off all the racket being caused by the rowdy students on the first day of school. The office is even buzzing with people, ringing phones, and blabbering parents as they sign papers or talk animatedly to people who look like they may work here.

I look around for someone, anyone that could possibly help us get this day over with sooner rather than later.

Luckily, one of the parents finally finishes up their conversation and I jump in their place. "Uh, we're new here and we need schedules or... something."

Jordan waits beside me and pounds her fingers against the counter. Her nails are chewed down, a habit she's had for a while now. The woman in front of us gives us a warm smile and asks us our names.

"Jonah and Jordan Woods," I tell her. "Senior and freshman."

"Okay, just take a seat and the vice principal will call you in just a moment. Have a great first day!"

Jordan turns around swiftly and plops down in a seat against the wall near the door we had entered through. I sit in the corner since all the other seats are filled.

I look around at the place now. Old, dark oak makes up most of the structure, then there are either tiled or wooden floors making up the floor. Intricate designs are carved into the wood in certain places. All around the room are hanging pictures of seniors in their caps and gowns with a small golden plaque under each. I can't read any of them from where I sit, but I can imagine that they each stand for something special.

As my eyes continue to scan the room, they land on something familiar sitting on a wooden bench outside the VP's office. She holds a pair of glasses in her hand I realize it's the same pair that I saw her wearing a week before.

It's the girl from the old building, only this time her brown hair is curled and hanging at her elbows, and she has a uniform like Jordan's on. The solid navy blue skirt she wears comes to above her knees and she's careful to keep her legs crossed. Unlike Jordan, this girl has on a pair of mid-calf navy blue socks on and a pair of black flats. She also has a blazer and white button-down that is buttoned all the way up except for one button.

Her glasses are missing, but I find them resting in the palm of her hand, her fingers curled tightly around them. She looks around curiously, innocently.

Then her green eyes land on me, and I quickly shift in my seat and look away. I know already that she saw me looking at her but I try to act like it didn't happen.

I see her stand up out of the corner of my eye, but she turns to go into the VP's office and I realize she must have been called in.

Two more minutes feels like an hour when I finally hear Jordan's name called. She stands up and heads to the same door that the girl had just gone into, only this time the girl is coming out. And she's looking right at me with a smile on her face.

The glasses that were in her hands are now back on her face. I see a piece of gray tape wrapped around the right temple of her glasses. As she stops right in front of me, I can't help but be curious.

"Hey there, stranger," she says with a friendly tone.

I quirk an eyebrow. "Hey."

"Are you adjusting to the city? I know it can be kind of a pain in the butt to navigate when you aren't sure how everything works."

"What makes you think I don't know how to navigate the city?"

She pauses for only a second. "Just an assumption." The smile, only a smaller version, returns.

I don't say anything to her, but my eyes land on her glasses again. She automatically begins to explain herself.

Her smile falters. "Oh, I dropped these while I was navigating that crowd of students. Snapped this part right in two. Mrs. Shultz always has tape, so..." She trails off when I look away. "Anyway, she's nice. She's the VP. You'll like her."

"Thanks."

Behind her, my sister walks out of the office and jabs her thumb behind her to let me know I'm up next.

"Jonah Woods," someone from inside the office calls. I stand more abruptly than I'd meant to and end up right in front of the girl.

She reaches forward and her hands latch around my tie. "Here, your tie is crooked and, trust me, Mrs. Shultz likes our uniforms to be nice and neat." I don't know why, but I let her fix it. I freeze under her as she adjusts it.

"At least for the first day," she adds with a chuckle.

It only takes her a second to fix my tie but it feels much longer.

"There," she says. "Much better."

The girl backs away and steps to the side so I can walk past her. "See you around, Jonah Woods."

And then she walks away.

_______________________

How do you feel about Layla? What's your opinion of her?

Hope you enjoyed reading!!