Death is never going to be something you can prepare yourself for. Even death you can see coming from a mile away. I look upon my fathers grave going over the short years I spent with him. My sister, Jaime, would probably never even remember him. It's a shame, she reminded me so much of him, I could never leave her side. A fathers responsibility is too protect their daughters, but now I guess that's the brothers job.

As I place a rose on the top of the headstone I feel a hand on my shoulder. "Griffin, it's time to go." I hear my mothers voice crack as I turn around and hug her. At this point I never want to let her go, she doesn't deserve pain. Why is it that only those who live feel the pain, when you die you feel nothing, you leave nothing but pain too those who loved you. I look back once more before leaving.

-1 month later-
"Do you really have to move Grif?" My best friends looked at me disappointed. We had always joked about me having to move away. I guess I never thought it would actually happen. If I just knew, could I have stayed? Could I have saved him? But who could have knew his car would go over the bridge that night? Its a tragedy, and tragedy is inevitable. My mom honks the horn as a small tear dribbles down my face. I hug my friends and get in car. California here I come.

The house was huge, at least seven bedrooms. It was a huge change from our old house on Wall Street. It would be a long time until I see Virginia again, now I live in California, this is my home. So how come it didn't feel like home? When I thought of home I thought of my parents dancing around the kitchen, my sister playing at the park across the street with her best friend Markus. I thought of my friends, Marie, Anne and Jeffrey. Will they even remember me? Will they keep in contact with me? I would hope so, but life goes on. They have their lives to live. Anne is going to be a champion barrel racer, Marie is going to be an artist and Jeffrey is going to play professional football. They will all move in and live a happy life, without me but hopefully together.. I'm going to be stuck in California. "Living the dream." That's the problem about this place. Everything you hear is that it is the place to be, the state they all want to be apart of. Well let me tell you this.. its all a lie.  The people were nothing like I imagined they would be, and from what i seen, they don't all seem to be living the dream.. or any dream as a matter of fact.

Monday Morning
my school was huge. It looked like a mansion, not a school. Beside the U.S flag there was a huge sign that read 'I.O Tech High School'. I guess I'm here then. As I was walking up to the main doors I started scanning around the school yard at the "cliques". I guess they were pretty easy to spot out. You could see the popular kids, the outcasts, the stoners. But they all seemed different then my school. Like they all had a secret and they were keeping it from everyone. Maybe I am just not used to these people, or I just don't trust them.. or maybe I'm right and everyone here has shade following their every move.

As I was scanning around I bumped into a girl, "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

"It's fine, are you new here?I haven't seen you around here before." she looked at me with a smile on her face. she had blue eyes and dirty blonde hair. (like most people I know)

"Uhm yea, I'm Griffin. Listen, do you mind showing me where the office is?"

"Yea totally, I'm Katherine Peters. Most people just call me Kat though." We made it too the office and I was pretty much set to get too class from there. Except my mom decided to call the school. She thinks I would "benefit" from a conversation with the principal because I am going through a hard time. Whatever.

"Hi Griffin, I'm Mrs. Waters. Your mom called me and told me about some of the things you have been going through and we though you benefit if you could talk about it a little bit."

"Yea yea, my dad died. He isn't the first person I lost. Can I just go too class please?" I sounded annoyed and really didn't mean to be rude. I'm just sick of people's pity. They didn't know my dad, and they didn't care about what I felt before my dad passed away. I don't need anyone's pity. I can do that for myself just fine. thank you.

I storm out of the office and into a classroom. it was filled with a bunch of kids and the second I walked in it went silent. You could see a group of people at the back of the room whispering. Everyone blocked me from sitting beside them so I was stuck sitting at the front of the room behind a girl who probably doesn't even know what deodorant is.

In the middle of our lesson a note gets thrown on my desk. 'Come find me at lunch -Kat'. I look around the classroom for her, I didn't see her when I walked in earlier. Probably because I was mad. She waves at me trying to avoid the attention of the teacher. I smirk and smile at her and wave. When she smiled back it was like my day changed. Her smile made you go from 'dead daddy issues' to 'not a care in the world' in five seconds. She was absolutely beautiful.

Lunch
The cafeteria was filled with a bunch of kids, they mostly all dress the same. I think it is cool when someone has their own style. Why does everyone thrive to be like everyone elose and then call themselves unique? I spot Kat in the middle of the lunch room with two other girls and a couple other guys. I hate new people, not because I hate them I just hate the small talk they try to pull with me. Seriously though, do you actually care about how many siblings I have? No you don't, so don't ask. I approach the table and smile at Kat. She introduces me too everyone, let me think there was Denise, Cole, Brandon and I think it was Lola. I don't remember her name exactly, it was odd but still cool. I did however remember her face. it wasn't one you could forget. She gave off a very hipster feeling. With eyes that could take you too another universe. It was like she was a jewelry box with a lock, beautiful on the outside but on the inside she was just a mystery. I like her. She was that type of unique that I was talking about.

After School
"Griffin! Get in!" I hear Kat yelling at me while a I was walking home. She was in a rusty old car with Lola.

"Where are you going?"

"Just get in Griffin, come on it will be fun." Lola looks at me while I hesitate to decide. Something about her looking at me made me want to go with them, and never look back. I knew that my mom needed help with my sister but I didn't care, her eyes put a spell on me and at that point there was no way I was gonna be going home anytime soon.

"uh, okay." The car was very dusty and there was beer cans all over the back seat along with a bunch of other junk. Kat looks at me and smiles. I smile back. and then stare at the mirror on the car roof. Lola was driving. She seemed focused on the road but every once in a while she would look at me through the mirror and grin.

We drove up too an old house, the white paint was chipping off the walls and all the windows were broken into pieces. There were no lights in the room but you could see that there were other people inside holding candles. I could hear some music playing faintly as we walked up too the door. Lola knocked on the door and a guy opened it. "Lola! Welcome."he put his arm around Lola with a red solo cup in his other hand filled with who knows what. Lola looked back at us, smirked and motioned us too come in. She hasn't said a word since I met her. I long too hear her voice. I imagine it being very high pitched and feminine. Like she has a dark outside but when you hear her voice she is nothing but darkness. I'm just imagining things though...

The night went on and the three of us separated. I met some cool guys by the ping pong table, but I didn't bother to remember their names. When I was talking to them it was like they were totally disconnected and only focused on one thing.. the game. I gave up on socializing, parties are lame. The music sucks, the people are full of themselves and the food is disgusting and probably filled with some drug that may get you killed that night, if not in the future.

I decided to get some fresh air. I sat down on an old park bench not too far from the house. The house was right beside Lake Mahogany and you got a perfect view of it from the bench I was sitting on. I sat on the bench for hours before Lola walked outside and sat down beside me. We didn't say a word too each other for a good ten minutes before I started the conversation "The lake is beautiful at night," she took a sip from her cup and didn't say anything. "I love how peaceful it is and the sounds it makes when everything is quiet." I finished but Lola still said nothing.

After a couple minutes, Lola finally spoke.. Her voice was quiet, deeper than I expected it too be, but it was sweet. "It used to be quiet here. There were houses all along the coast of the lake and everyone used to come out too their docks and watch the sunset before going to sleep. I remember every night after my grandmother tucked me in I would listen to the animals so that I could fall asleep."

"this is your house"

she nodded "it was.."

"what happened?"

"My grandma got old, my mom became more distant from the family. I guess everything just faded away. Everything eventually does."

I looked over to Lola, I admired her long brown hair, I memorized almost every detail and line on her face. She was gorgeous. "LOLA!" a man called as we were sitting, he sounded drunk and from what I seen he was sort of a dick.

"Hello Raz"
"Get your ass inside, Your needed in bedroom one immedia--" the man paused for a second "who is this?" He looked at me up and down before grasping onto Lola's arm and turning away. "
"Lola I'm sick of you bringing nerdy little boys to these parties" Lola turned back at me and smirked, just like she had done in the car on the way here and just like she did when she walked into the front door.

I texted Kat and told her I was leaving, I hitched a ride from some weird Irish kid who was driving an old dodge truck. When I got home I had a message from Katherine Peters

"Hey, so how was your first day new boy"

"It was fine, you really helped out a lot.. I wouldn't have made it through without you though (: ". Kat and I talked for hours before I fell asleep that night. Katherine seemed so perfect for me, just like the girls were back home. Yet, that night, I still dreamt of Lola.