I looked around at the place surrounding me. Trenton, New Jersey. I'd been born and raised here for the first fifteen, almost sixteen, years of my life. Now I was moving. Moving from Trenton, New Jersey to Los Angeles, California. I wasn't too nervous about it. It's not like I'd be leaving anything important behind. I didn't have friends anymore, I'd distanced myself from people long ago. I didn't have any amazing memories that had taken place at a special place in this town, most of my memories weren't good ones. The only thing I was worried about was the four hour flight I'd be taking from here to California. I'd never been on a plane before so this was quite a nerve-wracking thing for me. However, even that didn't worry me as much as I had expected it to. The move itself didn't worry me as much as I thought it would. In fact, I was ready to move, excited even. Maybe in California I could start over. I could finally make friends. After all, Los Angeles had a population of over four million people and only one of those people (my mother) knew who I was. 

"Angelina!" I heard my mom call. "Oh there you are dear! I see that you're ready," she said. 

I nodded my head and smiled at my mom. Things had changed a lot since she kicked my father out of the house. Things between her and I were better now. However, my older brother had never forgiven her for what happened and so he had moved out. He moved out of the state altogether. He'd cut off all connections with my mom and even with me. It had hurt at first, it still hurt even now, but I understood why he had done what he did. It made sense in a weird sort of way. 

"Well come on then, let's get to the airport!" my mom said with her cheery smile that I found contagious. 

My mom and I placed our few suitcases in the car, the rest having already been shipped to California, and then moved to our seats. The drive wasn't a long one, or at least it didn't feel like it was. Not when my mom let me have control of the music we listened to. The two of us sang along all the way to the airport and fell into fits of laughter when we stopped singing. 

I was ready for a new start and I could tell that my mom was too. We were both ready to leave behind the place where so much had gone wrong... 

~ooo~

After a four hour flight that felt like four days, we finally landed at the airport in L.A. Stretching my muscles out, I followed my mom off the plane. 

"Don't forget to set your clock three hours back. The time is different here," my mom reminded me as she changed the time on both her watch and phone. 

I looked at the digital clock on my phone screen. It read 8:00 pm which meant that here it was 5:00 pm. 

Time travel, I thought with a smile. 

"What are you smiling about there Angel?" my mom asked with a smile of her own. 

"We traveled in time," I replied. 

My mom laughed quietly and shook her head in an amused sort of way. The two of us made our way out of the airport building to where the standard airport taxis awaited their patrons. My mom lead us to one of the many taxis and asked if they were available for passengers. When the driver told us to hop in, we followed orders and did so, my mom giving the driver our new home address. 

The ride was about fifteen minutes long and before I knew it, we were stepping out of the taxi cab and onto the sidewalk of our new street. 

"Thank you!" I said to the driver as he pulled away and then returned my gaze to the house in front of me. 

My mom never had told me what kind of house she had bought, not even a picture. It was a quaint home painted a light shade of mint green. It was two stories and had a great curb appeal. 

"This house is adorable!" I said to my mom in excitement. 

"Isn't it?" she asked rhetorically.

The inside was even better. Open concept and modern, completely my mom's style which also happened to be mine. 

"Your room is upstairs, dear," my mom said with a secretive smile on her lips. 

I looked at her quizzically for a few seconds before she ushered me off to find my room. I climbed the stairs and immediately knew which room was mine. Somehow, my mom had managed to get someone to paint an calligraphy-type A on the door. 

"It's beautiful mom!" I yelled to her from the top of the stairs. 

I couldn't see her, but I could tell that she was smiling and shaking her head. 

Pulling my suitcase along beside me, I opened the door and stepped inside the bedroom. My breath left my lungs as I looked around at the room before me. My bed had already been set up and three of the four walls were painted my favorite shade of carmine red. The fourth painted a medium gray. 

I was already forming a plan of what I would do with this room, how I would make it my own and I couldn't possibly have been more excited. 

I raced down the stairs shouting to my mom as I went. 

"This place is amazing, Mom!" 

She let out a laugh and smiled gratefully when I appeared by her side to help unpack. She had already told me her plan for how things would get done. 

Living room first, kitchen second, and bedrooms third. I had been disappointed when she told me that the bedroom came last, but she had explained that as long as we had a bed to sleep in, we would be fine. 

At the time, I still hadn't really understood why the bedroom had to come last, but now I did. I'd spend all my time decorating my bedroom and my mom would have to do the rest of the house by herself. Both of us knew how bad of an interior decorator she was. 

"You know, sometimes I think you only keep me around to help you decorate," I teased my mom as I rearranged the things she had placed on one of the many shelves in the living room. 

"Ha ha. Very funny," she replied sarcastically.

~ooo~

By the time we were done with the living room it was already 8:30. My mom decided it was best that we had take out for dinner so she ordered a pizza. It seemed that my mom had done a lot of research about the best places to get food here in L.A. because the pizza we had was the best pizza I'd ever had. 

I went to bed that night with way too much food in my belly and enough exhaustion to put me to sleep for days. Unfortunately, I had my first day of school the next day. 

I fell asleep quickly and into such a deep sleep that when I woke up the next morning, I couldn't remember any of my dreams. That may have been normal for some people, but for me it wasn't. I always remembered my dreams in vivid detail the next morning. 

However, I didn't have time to ponder the dreamless sleep for long because I had to get ready for school. Pulling a random set of clothes out of my suitcase, I gave my teeth a quick brush and then leapt down the stairs and to the kitchen where my mom was already waiting for me. 

"I went out early to get us breakfast," my mom said, handing me a bag with a heavenly smell radiating from it. 

"Cinnamon rolls..." I opened the bag to find two there waiting for me. 

"Yes, yes they are. From the best bakery I've ever come across," my mom said with a smile. 

The two of us walked for the door and got into the car my mom had had shipped here along with our other belongings. The drive to school was quiet with only the sound of the news playing on the radio filling my ears. 

"Have a good day at school today!" my mom said as we pulled to a stop in the high school parking lot. 

I smiled to my mom and said, "Of course." 

She waved and drove off, leaving me to find the front office and get my class schedule and hopefully a map of the school. A knot of nerves formed in my stomach, but I pushed them away and began my "mission".