‘ Your joking, right?’ Was the reaction Dave and Ros Bagley received when they told their 15 year old daughter their news.
They where moving, but not just to the other side of town, but all the way across the Atlantic to the United States.
‘ So your not pleased?’ Ros asked.
‘ NO!’ Their daughter yelled back.
‘ Well I’m sorry but you have no choice. Where going and that’s the end of it!’
Chapter One
Tampa, Florida:
I unpacked my last box and fell unto my new bed with exhaustion. I had been unpacking for the last two hours. Thank god it was finally over with. We had been in Tampa for three days and I had only just finished unpacking my bags and box’s.
There was a knock at the door and mum popped her head round.
‘ Hey mum, I’ve finished unpacking.’ I waved my hand around my new bedroom. ‘ What time’s dinner?’
‘ Where going out tonight for dinner.’ She said while sitting down next to me.
‘ You know my American pen pal?’
‘ Yeah, I think so.’
‘ Well, she just so happens to live down the street and she’s kindly invited us to dinner, wanna come?’
I walked over to my cupboard. ‘ Sure, what should I wear?’
‘ How about your black jeans with your black shirt?’
‘ Cool, I’ll be down in an hour, k?’
Mum smiled. ‘ Sure, whenever.’
I deciead to wear my dyed red hair ontop for a change. Mum always said I looked older with my hair up. Thin Strains of hair fell out at the front but it looked nice so I left it. I put on my stacks and headed downstairs. As I passed the mirror in the hall way I hardly recognised myself. I looked about three years older then I did. I think it must of been my hair, plus the extra three inch’s I had grown thanks to my stack shoes I was wearing.
‘ Oh, don’t we look grown up?’ My older brother, Liam, snared.
I laughed as he had made no effort to get dressed up. All he had done was changed his shirt.
‘ Don’t laugh at your brother Kate, you know how it upsets him.’ Dad teased.
‘ Ha, ha Dad.’ Liam spat. ‘ Anyway, it’s allowed at my age.’
‘ Since when?’ I asked.
‘ Since it was my birthday last week.’
That was all he kept going on about. “ Look at me! I’m 18!! “ Wow, he’s still the same old Liam.
‘ Anyway, I hear mum’s penpal has a daughter a little bit older then me.’ I told him.
Liam looked at me and raised an eyebrow. ‘ And?’
‘ And, you know, maybe you could get to know her. You need a girlfriend cause you know what? Ellen’s never gonna come back!’
Ellen was Liam’s old girlfriend back home. She finished with him a couple of weeks ago and ever since then he’s been moping around the house.
‘ That was bad Kate, Ellen still likes me. She told me.’ He tried to convince me and himself but it wasn’t working. We all know Ellen left him for someone else.
‘ So,’ I said, trying to get off the subject of Ellen. ‘ Do you know if she has any other kids?’
‘ I think she has a 10 year old son.’ Liam laughed. ‘ Hey, maybe you could get to know him!’
I laughed with him. ‘ Yeah maybe we could play Ninja turtles together!’
Liam turned and yelled to mum ‘ Has your friend got any other kids?’
Mum walked over to us from the kitchen, drying her hands as she went. ‘ She has a daughter your age Kate, a son and daughter Lucie’s age, another little girl aged 11 or 12 and a older son your age Liam.’
Liam smiled. ‘ Excellent! And there was me thinking I was gonna have to hang with a bunch of girls talking about periods!’
Mum playfully hit Liam on the arm. ‘ Not all girls talk about that.’
‘ No, that’s right. We talk about boy bands. That sort of thing.’ I told him.
‘ Don’t tell me. Crap groups like the Backstreet boys and Hanson!’ He started laughing, trying to do the Backstreet boys dance to “ Everybody “. ‘ Hey look at me girls! I’m gay just like the rest of the group!’
I whacked him on the arm as the Backstreet boys are so far from gay. I don’t know why but my brother has something against all boy groups apart from Oasis. Oasis are gods in his eyes. His real name is James, his middle name is Liam but he begged us to call him by his middle name and after awhile it sorta stuck.
‘ Oh come on Kate! We all know none of the boy bands can sing. Apart from Oasis!’
‘ Oasis, I don’t think so! Anyway, when we saw Backstreet boys live in concert, you told me it was a really cool gig.’
‘ Well, I’ve changed!’ He stuttered.
‘ Liam, it was last week!’
‘ Okay, it was a cool concert, but I don’t like them now.’
‘ Why not?’
He paused, thinking over just why he didn’t like them. ‘ Okay,’ He began. ‘ They don’t write their own music-’
I interrupted. ‘ Yes they do! They all do their fair share.’
‘ Okay then, that blonde guy, what’s his name?’
I rolled my eyes. ‘ Nick Carter?’
‘ Yeah him. I mean, man, he is so stupid! ** NOTE FROM AUTHOR= Please don’t got upset over Liam’s insults to Nick, remember, it’s only a story!** He can’t dance, he can’t act and man, he sure can’t sing! He sounds just as bad as his younger brother!’
‘ He can sing! And he can act and he can dance! Did you see him dancing last week? How good can you get?’
‘ Better then that! I can dance better.’ He stopped talking and started showing me his dance moves. They weren’t that bad, but of course, I’m not going to tell him that. Though he couldn’t get any big headed then he was already.
‘ Liam, get up and stop looking like a fool! Where going now anyway.’ I saw Dad get his car keys.
‘ Dad, can I drive?’ Liam asked.
‘ No, it’s a new conutry and a new car. Maybe in the week.’ Dad said in a stern voice. ‘ Please dad!’ Liam begged in a high, pathetic voice.
‘ Hey Liam, you sound like Nick!’ I joked. Liam threw me a dirty look and followed Dad out the door. Lucie, our younger sister, ran and jumped on Liam. Mum and I followed, not jumping on Liam’s back, though I was tempted to slap him round the head. We all climbed into Dad’s new car and headed for mum’s penpal’s house.
