Hi! Just a warning, the only places within this chapter that aren't real are the schools. I made the schools up. But everywhere else is a real place. I would know, I live in the Wanneroo area.

--------------------------

            The police had interviewed Jade and I, but I could tell that we weren't much help. The dejected expression and sympathetic sigh were a big give away. So, I started packing up my things. Without our parents, Jade and I would be moving in with our Aunt Samara and our cousin Zak. This meant a long drive from our home in Dalkeith to Joondalup.

Sadly, that also means we have to go to a new school. Now, the Wanneroo area had plenty of schools, so that wasn't a problem, but they didn't have our school. We had friends, established enemies, and teachers that we liked. At a new school we'd be watched by everyone and have to reinstate our reputations. The only positive would be that at a new school there might be less guys trying to win me over.

I threw my bags into the boot of Samara's car and hopped inside. It took Jade slightly longer, as she tried to lift her bags carefully so that her fake nails wouldn't snap. I never understood why someone would risk pulling their nail off when they're perfectly capable of just growing them out.

Jade finally managed to get her bags into the boot and climbed into the front seat next to Samara. Those were the shotgun rules in our family. The oldest got shotgun. Bit stupid in my opinion, but it wasn't up to me.

I fiddled with the fraying threads of the bandages around my wrist as Samara started the car. The underside of my thigh, my palm and my forehead had healed, and my shins had scarred but my wrist would take a while. I had ignored Triston and Addison's repeated messaging and went as far as to block them. They still had questions about my whole bin jumping stunt. Clearly, they didn't think a small person could be so agile and somehow still take a tumble.

Samara sighed. "Alright guys, you know the rules," she said, "masks on."

Samara gave both Jade and I a mask before pulling one over her own face. Sharing masks seemed to diminish the whole point of them, but I still pulled it over my mouth and nose. Samara sighed again, fogging up her glasses, and pulled out of the driveway.

"So, I know this isn't ideal," her voice was muffled by the mask, "but the police are looking for your Mum and Dad as we speak, and I have every confidence that they will find them."

I don't know about that, I thought. Truth is, in Australia we have cases of missing people dating back so far that any photos of them are probably no help. Rather unfortunate, but it's the truth of the situation. So, I really didn't have much faith in the police being able to find them.

Samara put on her dreadful radio and put us through listening to old people music before letting me look through my bag to find some earphones. I connected them to my phone before playing some music. Honestly, the shit Samara listens to is terrible. I don't know how people with voices like those make it.

I could see from the mirror that Samara was talking, and I knew Jade was asking if I could get her earphones, but I pretended to not know. Jade forced me to listen to Dad's music enough times for this to be completely justified.

I looked out the window and watched the suburb I had grown up in fly past as we left it all behind.

Samara pulled into her driveway and stopped, causing me to knock my head into the window I had been leaning against. I groaned and rubbed the spot I hit, before peeling my eyes fully open and unbuckling my seatbelt. I pushed the door open with my foot and dragged a few of the bags next to me out.

"Hey Jade–" Jade ignored me and went to pull two bags out of the boot and wheel them inside. I narrowed my eyes at her and began to stumble towards the door, while Samara took care of whatever else we had and locked the car.

I could remember spending many lovely Christmas's at Samara's house. Grandma would always nit-pick about whatever was made. Dad would barely be seen without some sort of alcoholic beverage in his hand – although that was probably because he was an awfully slow drinker. Mum and Samara would be in the kitchen. Zak would spend the whole time with me just talking. Jade would usually ignore everyone. And Grandad would make all these jokes about how he never expected his son to get a girl like Mum. I didn't know much about Mum's family, the only thing I was told was that apart from her parents, Mum had no family and that even then, her parents had died a while back.

I walked into the living room and dropped the bags before getting tackled into a hug by Zak.

"Flo!" He exclaimed. "I know we saw each other a few weeks ago but it's good to see you again."

"You too," I smiled before Zak pulled away. "How have you been?"

"How have I been? How have you been?" Zak asked. "Look, I know by now you've been asked about your parents a million times – believe me, I know – but I hope you can trust me with all of your missing parents' angst."

My smile faltered slightly, but he was right. If anyone understood, it was him. He knew all about parental drama. Two years back his Dad had been arrested for murder, and even my Dad's excellent lawyering couldn't get him out of jail time. Apparently, kids had been teasing Zak about it and he lost a lot of his friends.

"Of course, Zak," I replied. "You're the only person that could handle all of my 'missing parents' angst'."

I had to laugh. Zak had a way of shining a light in even the darkest of times. He had always been able to cheer me up, even after our old neighbour – remember Jade's boyfriend, Terrance Gilroy? – Enzo Gilroy accidently let their dog loose and it mutilated my stuffed bear. Poor Mr Snuggles didn't deserve that. After that incident I declared that I would forever be an enemy to the Gilroy family. No matter how hard Enzo tried to get me to go on a date with him.

Samara only had one storey to her house, however, she did have four bedrooms. The house itself was an easy-to-understand layout. You walk in and to your left there's the master suite, to your right there's the main living area and at the back there's a hall with three bedrooms, a laundry, and a bathroom. The house was way too white and blue for my personal liking, but it seemed that Samara really liked the airy feel of it all.

I went into what was going to be my room for however long we ended up staying. It was a nice size – but by my standards that was slightly smaller than average – with a large window looking out at the garden. The bed was raised off the ground, high enough to fit a desk underneath so that space was saved. On the adjacent wall to the left there was a bookcase with a few trinkets already on some of the shelves and at the complete opposite end of the room, a door leading to what I guessed was a closet.

I dropped my bags onto the wheat-coloured faux fur rug before beginning to unpack. I put all of my school things onto the desk and filled some of the bookcase with my schoolbooks and other things. I then began to organise all of my clothes and put them away in the closet. Jade had always been confused by the types of clothes I wore. In her words, "green and brown are colours for gardening, not living." She was also confused by my choices in what is a suitable amount of black.

The closet itself was also decorated according to what Samara thought I might like. Really, it was just a mirror with three bits of string hanging above it. Each string had an assortment of pictures of me she probably had lying around. It was a nice gesture, but I didn't think it was necessary.

Once I finished putting everything away, I brought my bags into the closet to put them on the top shelf. I got onto the tips of my toes – and I mean tips – and stretched to get the bags over the shelf.

Once I completed that mission, I had to do the annoyingly laborious task of making my bed. Honestly, if there was a way to snap my fingers and have it be made for me. It would be a dream come true. It was just such a tedious job to strip your bed, and then get other sheets, and then remake the bed.

I had heard the story about the first time I had to help a million times. Turns out I sat on the floor and stared at Mum until one of us caved. Although I was already in a mood from Enzo murdering Mr Snuggles. Eventually I caved and helped put the sheets over the corners of the mattress. I had still gotten in trouble after the stunt – which was definitely unfair because I did help make the bed eventually – and wasn't allowed to go meet my friends for a week.

As I put the last corner of the sheet over the mattress my mind wandered to my parents. I had never really gotten along with them; Jade had always been the golden child. Whatever Jade wanted, she usually got. She was always so perfect and didn't seem to be able to do any wrong in their eyes. I on the other hand, could do a whole lot of wrong. The number of times I was grounded after getting detention for starting a fight is ridiculous. Especially considering I never started any of those fights. I just won all of them.

Jade would pretend to not love when I got in trouble, but all of the fights I had gotten into were completely justified. Guys thinking, they were all that and a bag of chips, girls getting annoyed that the guy they liked, liked me, people dumping all sorts of shit into gardens, really, I was doing the world a favour. But that's not how the teachers or my parents saw it. They saw a bratty little girl, starting fights with seemingly great people in an attempt to get some attention.

I only had one teacher that I actually liked that didn't hate me. Because I was nice to all of the teachers, rarely caused trouble in class and got all of the work done, it was just that I had a bit of a reputation. I had tried to ditch it multiple times, but no matter how much I wanted to stop being 'Feisty Fickle,' nothing ever changed. Ms Standan was one of the Science teachers at my old school, and the only one that listened. Her speciality had been earth sciences, botany, and biology, and because I really liked her those sort of became my strong points.

I was devastated in year eight when I ended up with Mr Revenson. I then had him for another year. That man gave me strong paedo vibes but also strong "you are my least favourite student" vibes. I had checked, I was supposed to have Mr Revenson again this year, which I had not been looking forward to.

But even so, despite my hatred for Mr Revenson and my dysfunctional relationship with my parents, I think I'd still rather take Science with that jerk and constantly fight with my parents over the truth of the situation.

I fluffed my pillow, placed it on the bedhead, and dropped onto it so that I was in a lying position. I turned my neck so that my face wasn't mashed into the pillow and hugged it. I let out a long sigh and watched as the outside light stained the floor orange, closing my eyes and letting the turmoil in my mind settle itself out.

Moments like these were when I thought about everything. When I could unwind the tangle of thoughts in my brain from the stressful day. It was therapeutic, but in no way was it relaxing. I didn't feel any less stressed afterwards, I just felt lighter. The worries I didn't have time for during the day could be sorted out and my logical side could help figure out the best way to deal with things. With the stress of my parents going missing and moving in with Samara and Zak, I hadn't had enough time to sort through any of my anxieties. Up until now that is.

I had managed to sort through a fair amount of my thoughts when Zak came in.

"Hey Flo," he greeted, "dinners ready."

I sighed before clambering to the floor and sauntered into the dining room and took my place next to Zak. The table was glass – are you really that surprised? – and Samara placed the food in front of us. The steam fogged up the glass and there were already a few fingerprints here and there. And that's why we had wood at our house. It wasn't heat resistant against burning pots, but at least it didn't fog up or smudge.

Samara sat at the head of the table, and I looked at the meal. Samara's specialty had always been stir fry, and that was quite clear by the number of variations she had made in the past. I could see bits of red, green and variations of brown in the brown sauce. And next to that was a dish of plane rice. I never understood why she didn't just put them together in one dish. Everyone always put the stir fry on top of the rice and mixed it together.

We began to put the food on our plates, piling them as high as we thought our stomachs could take so that there wasn't still half of it left the next day. Jade and Samara both had fairly respectable servings, I on the other hand could eat a personal buffet and still have more room. Zak was strangely similar to me in that way, supernatural metabolisms almost.

"So, for school you will be attending Nangidon Secondary College with Zak," Samara went on to explain. "You guys brought the school supplies you were going to use at Sacredooka right?"

Jade and I nodded.

"Oh good," Samara smiled and started mixing her rice and stir fry together. "We will have to get you new uniforms tomorrow as well. Now, being that Nangidon isn't a private school like Sacredooka was, you won't have to deal with the preppy uniform. It's also not navi. It's gold, black, and white."

Samara continued to go on about Nangidon and how different it would be to Sacredooka. I don't think she's ever really been to a private school because they didn't really seem all that different the way she was going on about things. The only real difference was every incident was more publicised, we wouldn't have to do Bible Study, and the teachers wouldn't be breathing down our necks when it came to ATAR. The last two seemed more like bonuses to public school for me though.

Jade had an expression that made her inner protests quite obvious. She had liked going to Sacredooka. She had lots of friends, everyone knew who she was whether they had actually met her or not – not everything they said about her was nice though – and she was going to have all of her favourite teachers.

Meanwhile, what terrified me the most was the prospect of not getting any extra classes that I'd enjoy. I was going to be taking Finance and Entrepreneurship, Vocational Food and Woodwork. I know Nangidon has similar classes, but what if there wasn't enough people, or if there were too many people? Where would I end up then? Taking Performance and learning how to play an instrument I would never pick up again? Who knew, I certainly didn't.

Zak nudged me with his elbow and whispered, sensing my distress.

"You know," he started, "the classes at Nangidon have to have a minimum of ten students to go ahead. I don't know about the other classes you were going to take, but Woodwork only got thirteen."

There goes Zak again. Knowing exactly what to say in the most complicated situations. It wasn't a shock to anyone when he decided he wanted to be a psychologist. There weren't any classes at Nangidon that really qualified a person for that, so he just took classes that he thought would be useful or fun.

Jade had been taking classes that she heard were easy to pass or she thought would be fun, nothing extra that she figured would help her in life. Honestly, the only classes she was good at were Hass, Math and Drama. Probably because she's a drama queen. She had been one of those girls that lied about losing her virginity when she was fourteen. You know, the ones that come up with these surprisingly possible stories but changed them from person to person. Somehow no one figured out she had lied.

Unfortunately, I had to walk in on the actual time she lost it. Seeing my sister and her boyfriend naked together was something that forever etched itself into my memory. Again, unfortunately.

Dinner continued with lively banter on the Samara and Zak front, attempted conversing on my part and Jade listening to it all, wishing she had access to her phone. Samara and Zak finished before Jade or me, and waited until we did, still talking about all sorts of things. Eventually makeup. Not quite sure how the conversation ended up there, but it did. Soon Jade and I finished our dinner and Zak stood up.

"I'll clear the table," Zak said, taking my plate away from me.

"Oh, you will also be expected to do chores after a while," Samara explained with an air of calmness that put me off. "However, I think it's only fair that since this is only your first night with us it can wait. Tomorrow you can clear the table," she pointed to me, "and you can do the dishes," she pointed her finger at Jade. "For now, just go have your showers."

"I bags first shower," I cut in as Jade began to open her mouth.

"No fair!" She whined. "You always have the first shower."

I hummed in response. "That's because I always get there first."

I smiled smugly as I left a disgruntled Jade behind and went to collect my pyjama's. 

-------------------------

Wow! 3150 words! And that's not even worth a dozen pages!