Liverpool, 1998

Millie's POV

"Amelia! Thomas! Come down please! We need to talk!!"

My dad's voice startled me, what now????? Ugh! The last time he said we needed to talk, my grandpa had died. Not a good thing. Actually, one of the worst days of my life.
I opened the door of my bedroom and walked out bumping into my brother coming out of his bedroom with a worried expression on his face.

"It's bad news, Mills. The last time he called us by our actual names it was bad"

"I know, Tommy. I know"

I sighed and embraced my self for the news. I was expecting anything, like 'your mother and I are getting a divorce' or 'your grandma has passed'. Anything but the words that came out of his mouth while my mom was holding his hand nervously.

"Kids, we're moving to Ireland"

"WHAT???!!!!!?????"

Tommy and I said in unison. This has to be a joke! Ireland?? Why?? What did we do??? I tried to look into my dad's expression for any sign that this would be a bad joke, but his expression was dead serious. This is bad, super bad! And then I knew it was final when my mom spoke.

"This has been a tough decision. We've talked about it. It's a great opportunity for your dad's career and we are going! It's final! You may start packing, we're leaving in a week"

"A WEEK????!!! Noooo mom! Please!!! We have all our friends here!! Please!!!!"

My mom sighed and this time I saw sympathy in her eyes.

"I know sweetie, but you guys will be just fine, you have one another. I'm sure you can make new friends in Ireland. This experience will only be a positive one"

She was right. I will always have my brother by my side. Tommy was adopted when I was five and let me tell you, the previous years were the loneliest years of my life before little five year old Tommy came to our house. My mom was working as a nurse in the Alder Hey Children's Hospital when she met Tommy, he was involved in a car accident where his parents had died, she took care of him while he was healing his broken bones and she fell immediately in love with him so she told my dad that she wanted to be Tommy's mom because he was my age and she would like it if someone would take care of me with love and tenderness if I was in Tommy's place. My dad was a bit scared at the beginning but when he met Tommy his heart ached for the little boy and he promised to always take care of him. I remember clearly when I met Tommy, I think it's the first memory of my childhood. It was winter, very close to Christmas and it was snowing, I was helping my grandma to make some cookies when my parents brought this little boy with green eyes and dirty blond hair, he was scared to come into the house but my mom took his hand and he trusted her. When he saw me, he smiled because I had flour in my hair and it made it look as if I was growing grey hair. I offered him a cookie and he took it immediately, my parents had turned the guest room into a boy's room so I took him to see his new bedroom, I raced him up the stairs and he won, he was very proud of himself and was all smiles until we reached his new bedroom, then his smile turned into tears of happiness and he gave me a hug and said 'I want to be your brother' since then he's always been my protector, my best friend. We tell each other everything. We're soulmates and I am thankful that my parents adopted him. We are physically very different from each other, he has dirty blonde hair and I have brown hair that match my eyes while he has beautiful green eyes, he's  tall while I'm petite, he's very athletic and loves sports while I am too skinny and love to hide myself in books, not to mention that he's very social while I have only two real friends. We've always been in the same class and shared everything so I knew deep inside that even if we were going to be in a new school, a new city, a new country, Tommy will be there to hold my hand and go through everything together.

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

Belfast, August 1998

Millie's POV

A week later we were already in our new home in Belfast. I can't deny it is a beautiful place, the house was a beautiful two-story house, with four bedrooms, a full kitchen with a breakfast bar open to the living room where a gas powered fireplace was sitting in the middle of the room. Our house in Liverpool was nice but I have to admit, this house is just perfect!!! I guess dad's new position as Director of the Oncology Department of Ulster Hospital is paying off. The position was offered by his college friend who was the Director of the Maternity Ward. My mom, who is a nurse will be working in such hospital in the Pediatric Ward. They have everything planned, even our school, so I guess the decision of moving to Ireland have been planned way before our one week notice.

Mom and dad had hired a company to help us unpacking our stuff but of course she left our rooms for ourselves, as she always says, 'our room is our responsibility' but since I am an organizational freak, I already had my bedroom perfectly neat and organized while poor Tommy was struggling with his.

I was feeling bored and decided to take a walk. I grabbed my discman and put my Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill CD and called out my mom.

"MOM! I'm going for a walk!!!"

My mom was making dinner so she yelled back.

"Are you going by yourself?"

"Yeah! Tommy is still organizing his room!!"

"Ok honey! Have fun! Don't be late for dinner!!"

"Ok"

And I was out of the door, pressed play on my round silver discman and the harmonica sounds of "All I really want" started. Ever since I discovered Alanis Morissette back in 1996, I had fallen in love with the entire album and although I wasn't a rebellious teenager, I could relate to every song of this album.

I walked without paying attention to where I was going, back in Liverpool it was exactly like that, I would walk around without thinking, just enjoying the music. When the cd was playing "You Learn" I knew I had played half of the cd and I looked around and didn't recognize my surroundings. Oh no! I was lost! Bloody Hell! I was supposed to be in a park with the statue of three doves, I paused my discman and looked around to see if I could find a park....nothing! I don't even know my address!! How could I be so irresponsible!!! I decided to walk a little farther before panicking, not too far from where I was, I could see the green grass of a park, uffa! I was saved! I pressed play once again and started my way towards the park which is supposedly to be next to my house. The closest I got to the park the clearer my vision was, the park had neither children nor doves. There was no statue!!! This was a different park! I was totally lost!!! I was surely panicking this time, when I saw the figure of a guy sitting on top of a picnic table, his back was to me and he was obviously listening to a Walkman just like I was. I approached him and cleared my throat trying to get his attention but nothing, no reaction from him. So I decided to tap his shoulder, a stupid move, apparently, because I startled him. He spun around so fast that he almost fell off the table. I looked at him and my stomach made a full flip. Holy cow! This guy was just gorgeous! His blue eyes were sad but cut through my soul, his lips were full, his nose a bit crooked but cute, everything was perfect in him!

 I guess I was staring for a bit longer than what I was supposed to because he lowered his gaze.

"Oh! Sorry for scaring you!"

"You scared three lives out of me!"

"Sorry!"

Suddenly I felt self-conscious, it was my turn to lower my gaze.

"It's fine, how may I help you?

I brought up my eyes to him.

"Right! hum... I might be lost"

He frowned but a smile was creeping.

"You might be lost or are you lost?"

I smiled. Somehow I was feeling safe and I wasn't worried about being lost anymore.

"I am lost"

"You're English, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am. I've just moved in and I went out to take a walk and got lost"

I rolled my eyes dramatically and he smiled while nodding. Then, he put his discman into his backpack that was sitting next to him.

I watched his every move mesmerized.

"Do you remember any particular place?"

"I am supposed to be in a park with the statue of three doves"

His smile was back.

"I know where it is, it's like ten minutes from here. Come on! I'll walk with you"

I sighed in relief.

"Thank you so much!"

He stood up and started walking with long strides, he didn't even turn to see if I was following, so I raced after him, we walked for a couple of minutes in silence which was making me uneasy.

"So, do you live around here?"

My voice came out a bit breathless and I guess he noticed that he was walking too fast, so he slowed his pace down.

"Yeah, actually, I live in front of the doves park"

"Seriously??? How convenient for me! But why were you in the other park when you have one right in front of your house?"

He kept silent and shrugged his shoulders.

The rest of our walk remained silent. Once we reached the Dove Park, I thanked him and started walking in the direction of my house. He grabbed my hand so I turned around.

"Wait! Do you want me to walk you to your house?"

I looked at my hand that was connected with his and looked at him. He let go of my hand and step backwards. His gaze was down again. This boy is so confusing! One moment he wants to help me, the other he doesn't even look me in the eyes. 

There was a sound of thunder, announcing a storm.

"Nah, I'm fine. You're closer to your house, I know where I am now, I'll run for it" - I pointed the sky.

He nodded but looked a bit disappointed.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive! Now let me run before it rains on me! Thank you very much! See you around!"

And I ran off trying to get to my house before the rain fell.

*** Hello my dear readers! I hope you've enjoyed this new chapter, it's a bit short but I promise the future ones will be bigger, please let me know what you think and spread the word about it. Thank you all for reading this and I would really appreciate your comments and votes!! Song of the day: 'All I really want' by Alanis Morissette. Enjoy! Xoxo-Z***