The Travel Master:

Book One:

Chapter One

I sit up. I glance at my glowing clock. The clock read six. I sigh.

Why did I always wake up so early? Every morning I wake up at freakin six. You would think I would get used to it after a while. I never do.

I lay back in bed hoping that I will fall back asleep. I just feel restless. I groan then roll out of bed and get ready for the day.

I walk slowly down the stairs. I hope that nobody else is awake yet,

I hear my mom humming happily in the kitchen. I sigh yet again. I walk to the kitchen. My mom looks up from her busy cooking. She smiles brightly at me and says,

"Hey, hunny! Good morning!"

I smile back at her as best I can then say,

"Good morning, mom."

"How was your sleep? How are you settling in?"

"Mom we've been here for a week."
"Yes I know, but you don't seem settled still."
I smile,

"I'm getting there."

She smiles then walks to me and gives me a warm hug. Then went back to making breakfast. I sit on my stool for a moment. Then reluctantly I stand up.

"Mom?"

"Yes, sweety?"

"How are you settling in?"

She looks up, she looks slightly startled.

"Well. I'm making due. I miss our...old home."

"Yeah...me too."

After I ate breakfast I went outside. It was hot and sticky. I look around at the houses surrounding me. They look so pretty. I smile briefly at this thought. I start walking away from my house and neighborhood. I don't really know where anything here is. I just hope that I will make it to somewhere cool. I start walking sort of numbly. After I make it out of my neighborhood, I start walking along a straight road. It doesn't seem like this road is going to end anytime soon.

After a while of walking, I finally see the small town I was aiming to find. My mom had told me about it, a week earlier, when we had first moved here. The first thing I spot is an ice cream shop. My mouth waters at the thought of ice cream. I start walking a little faster. When I finally stumbled inside the ice cream shop I'm sweating from the effort. It's worth it. The ice cream is delicious.

I am happy I finally decided to do something rather than just mope around at home, which is what I have been doing the past week, well that and unpacking. I get myself a chocolate ice cream cone. I lick my cone happily. I'm sitting at one of the outside tables. It was freezing inside. The ice cream is all the cold I can take.

My family has just moved here. We used to live in a nice place in Kentucky. No longer. My dad owns a company and he decided that his business... Well, that's all I listened to after I found out we were moving. We had lived in the same house my whole life. 

Everything I was accustomed to has changed. My mom is having the most trouble with the move. My brother, Brant, is the most comfortable about it all. He's probably already made friends. He has been gone quite a bit for only living here for a week. I have been, well, trying to process it all. The fact that we moved is new to me. I still haven't really let it sink in. I'm sure when it does, I will be devastated.

For now, I'm enjoying my ice cream. After I finish my delicious ice cream, my hands are all sticky and sort of brown, from the chocolate. I sigh satisfied. I throw away the wrapper from the ice cream cone and go on my way exploring. As I walk I spot a few cute coffee shops, I will have to go to later. They seem quite quaint. As I walk I find a boutique. I walk in and look at all the clothes and jewelry. I go to try on a cute dress, it's right past my knees and adorable. It's a pale bluish. I look over myself in the mirror. It will look good with a jean jacket and my brown boots. I look around some more, seeing a few things that I might come back to later. I purchase the dress and with the bag in hand go on my merry way. 

The whole town is beautiful. I will come here often, at least I hope I will. I smile at the thought of making friends here, or just coming to a coffee shop to do homework. As I walk I find an antique shop, it's small but I walk in to look around. There are dresses, hats and I even see mini figurines. I love figurines. I collect some, not many, but some. My mom even let me keep them when we moved, not all of them, but most of them. I walk to them. A lady walks to the front desk, I look up at her. She smiles brightly,

"Hello! Welcome! I didn't hear you come in. The darn bell needs to be fixed. Now, what can I help you with today."

I smile at her. She seems like a jolly person. I reply to her softly,

"I'm just looking around."

She smiles at this,

"So nothing specific? Say I haven't seen you, are you new around?"

I raise my eyebrow. Did she know everyone... I reply none the less,

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I am."

"You see hunny, I know I sounded like this is a much smaller town and I know everyone who walks through the door. But really I'm your neighbor and saw you moving, but I didn't want to... I honestly don't know why I didn't just say that a first. Now look at me going on and you don't even know my name. It's Annet. Well, most people just call me Ann. But you can call me either, or acutely whatever you want.

I smile as she says all of this,

"I'll just call you Ann, I'm Ivy." I walk a little closer to the front counter to put my hand out, she shakes it as I say,

"it's nice to meet you. You will be happy to know you're the first neighbor that I've met."

"I am happy to know!"

She seemed very enthusiastic as she said this.

I smile warmly, Ann and I will get along great... I hope. I don't know whether to go back to looking at the mini figurines or talk to her more. Or both. I shouldn't have worried, she began talking as if we are old friends.

"So dear, where are you from. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, I'm on your...well right, no wait my right your right. My house is on the right of your house when you're facing, no when your back is to your front door. There we go. We can have tea at some point, with your mom too of course. She seems so nice. I've seen her once in a while. I'm just so happy you decided to stop in today."

I smile back at her,

"Me too."

"Now you were looking at one of those figurines?"

"Yes, I collect mini figurines like this. I just love them. I have...well, I had a whole shelf full of them, but my mom made me get rid of a few of them."

"That's such a shame! Why did she?"

"Because she was scared they would break or something, we didn't really have enough room for all of them."

"Oh, I see. So if you bought a new one..."

"Well, I'm thinking about it."

Ann walks from around the counter to me.

"Well, you're in luck because of this one."

She picks up the one I was looking at, I want it so bad, it's a figurine of littlebowpeep sitting in her blue dress and leaning on her staff and two of her sheep with her.

"This one, well. I was going to say it is discounted, but honestly. It's yours for free. I was thinking of what I could give you for a housewarming gift, so I'm giving you this. Oh and don't you worry about it. I own this place. It's not gonna make much of a difference if one beautiful figurine is given to an equally beautiful lady. I hope you enjoy it!"

As she's saying this she is wrapping it in a bag and everything for me. I begin to protest, but she's already on the next conversation,

"Well anyway, hunny. When do you think we should have tea together. I mean if you and your mother prefer coffee we can have that too. I'm free most days, so I was thinking tomorrow acutely. But then I thought maybe that's too soon. But now I'm thinking, say no if you can't and we can find another day. So no biggie."

I smile,

"I will ask my mom when I get home. I think we can."

"But how will you convey the message to me?"

"Well, when do you get home from here?"

She hands me the bag as she says,

"Oh not too late, around four or five."

"Okay well, I will give you our answer after five."

"That sounds great!"

I smile then reply,

"Well farewell for now."

I wave to her, she waves and says as I walk out,

"See you later today! It was most delightful to meet you!"

"You too!"

I make it out of the shop and skip down the street. I was glad I had met her. She was very nice. I begin my walk home with my goodies. Won't my mom be pleased? I beam at the thought of mom meeting Ann, she will love her.