Saturday, January 07, 2006

Scene 1

Dorothea Watson didn't care what her parents said, she wasn't moving to Hopeton.
She'd made up her mind. She was going to move in with two of her friends, twin sisters Shelly and Kelly. Her best friend Angela's parents were getting a divorce, and Thea didn't think Angela's mom would let her stay with them. There wasn't really room anyway in their tiny one bedroom apartment.

The divorce had been hard for all four girls. They had all been friends since Kindergarten, and used to pretend they were all sisters. When one had troubles, they all did. The twins and Thea had rallied around their hurting friend, and had done their best to comfort her, and themselves.

Thea couldn't believe her own parents were doing this to her.

It was unbelievable; when she'd gone to camp, everything had been normal, and when she came home, their stuff was already half packed and they were moving to some town in Po-dunk, Missouri she'd never even heard of. The town didn't even have a website. When she looked it up on the internet, all she could find out was that the population was barely over one thousand. For the whole town. The entire school, K through twelve, had 600 kids. Her middle school had that many people with just three grades.

She had survived the sixth grade and being one of the youngest in the school, only to be moved to a school where seventh grade was part of the high school, and she'd be one of the youngest again.

Alone this time.

That was what scared her the most. She had never been anywhere without at least one of her friends. They did everything together, always had. Now things were changing so fast, Thea felt like she couldn't breathe. She couldn't do it. Wouldn't. Mom and Dad were just going to have to let her stay. Maybe she could visit on holidays and every other weekend like Angela visited her dad.

Thea flung her sleeping bag over her shoulder, grabbed Ellie and her suitcase, and headed for the door. She'd left a six page letter on the kitchen table explaining her decision, and had decided maybe it would be best to be gone when her parents got home. They'd gone to sign the papers that sold their house to some couple with an eight year old boy who had shot holes in the walls with his BB gun the day they had come to look at the house. Thea hated that kid. She shuddered to think what he'd do to her room once it was his.

Better not to think about it. It was time to move on.

1 comment:

lindsay said...

Shelbi, I already want to read the rest of it. Don't disappoint me, I hate bad endings, and NO ending would be a really bad one.

What's she going to do next? Is she going to get away with it? Is she going to move to Crapton, MO? Is she going to have a love interest? Seventh grade, probably not much of one, but it could have a first kiss scene! That would be cool. I had my first kiss in seventh grade - he gave me mono and I missed 3 months of school (you can use that if you want), and I also found out I was "The Other Woman" and his girlfriend wanted to kick my butt. That would be a good thing to happen to her next, new school, new boyfriend, new bane of her existance . . . or not. I think I already like the character, she has a bad attitude which is a good way to start - then she has something to grow into. Will there be any other characters we get to know well? Who are these friends? I had a lot of crazy friends who really did leave their parents and move in with other kids. (That was the house where I peed out the window).

I'm done now.