Four days had gone by and the unpacking was complete. It hadn’t been a long way to move, her old house was less then a half an hour drive from this town. Everywhere she went, Tallwood was written across every sign. She guessed the townsfolk didn’t want to ever forget where they were from. Her Mother had thrown most of their old furniture they bought with Dad in the garage, where Jackie planned to use it if she managed to make any friends. Everything was new.

“Glad you decided to wake up,” her Mothers soft drawl brought Jackie’s attention to the reasonably large kitchen. Tight blonde curls were lazily pulled into a makeshift ponytail on her Mothers head. Age lines marked her skin, her lips naturally thin and plump. She had lost a lot of weight from the months that had passed by. “I am not looking forward to when you have to go back to school.”

“It’s only eleven,” Jackie shrugged, pulling apart her toast, eyes cast again down at the new dinner table.

“Half past eleven,” her Mother corrected, walking into the dining room to join her. A worn in floral apron, that her husband had given her years ago, clung to her feminie figure. She sat down beside Jackie. “Notting starts at quarter to eight,” she placed more eggs on Jackie’s plate.

“I refuse,” Jackie growled, squinting menacingly at the extra egg.

“Too bad,” her Mother muttered back, beginning to chew on her own breakfast. The two ate in silence for a few moments. Both of them felt the tension that silence meant. When her Dad was alive, breakfasts were never quiet. “I was going to head into work today, do you want a lift to the middle of town? So you know how to get to the shops and the school.”

“I’m down,” Jackie nodded, poking her egg boredly.

“There is a really nice op shop here, I asked around,” her Mother tried, eyeing her teen. “You could do some chaotic good?’ a grin broke out across Jackie’s face, to her Mothers pleasure.

“Stop using my catch phrases,” she laughed, a pressure on her chest lessened as her Mother smiled back. “I want a good twenty.”

“I gave you fifty dollars last week and you didn’t spend that,” her Mother frowned, also squinting at Jackie’s egg. A beat of silence. “It’s in my purse.”

***

Jackie had never lived in a town before. Personally, she wouldn’t call it a town. It was almost like a suburban area that just so happened to have a “centre” that contained roughly fifty spread out places with goods to sell. They had driven past the school, which was a fifteen-minute walk from her house. And the school was so close to ice cream parlours, fish and chip shops, bakeries and other edible places. It was all local, no recognisable fast food branches.

Walking along the red brick sidewalk, people stared. Jackie always wore a façade of confidence, which she especially displayed in her walk. It also may have been because she was wearing a shirt that was clearly from the boys section. Or that her jeans were a little baggy. The few teens she had passed wore too many layers for the weather around them. Her Mother had said out here the temperature fluxed uncontrollably and could be hot one week and near snowing the next.

Crossing across the street with a quickened pace, she made it to the first clothing related store. Her nose scrunched up at the unattractive floral, walking past the store quickly. Lazily, her eyes glazed over shop after shop. A lot of people were out. But Jackie didn’t bother introducing herself to any of the teenagers that shamelessly gawked at her. So Jackie walked on, hands in her pockets as she thought about what she would like to do.

Boredly, she walked into the train station, reading the train times she found her interests peaked. Her hometown was almost a twenty minute train ride away. Her mind went back to the friends she had left behind. She had never had solid friendships. She was a social butterfly back in the city. There was no type she looked for or stuck too, it was both a good and a sad thing. On one hand she knew everyone, they considered her a friend, and on the other she had no one that would really miss her. She had numbers and people blowing up her phone, they still liked her social media posts – but she didn’t…

A fresh start, a new beginning, that’s what this was.

The only reason she would go back to the city would be for the shops, maybe even to rekindle and test the waters of her friends. But other than that, there was no reason to return to the place she grew up in.