The next morning I woke up feeling groggy. Being the morning person I was, there was no way I was going to spend the whole day sitting in my morning stink. So I upped and showered, brushed away my morning breath, pulled my hair back into a simple ponytail, and chose my outfit for the day. I chose some new denim overalls I had gotten that looked like the bottoms had been cut-off jeans and slipped some black tights underneath it. The shirt behind my overalls was a simple gray "angel wing" shirt and some gray wedged boots that fit snug on the curves of my heel and had tie-able laces. Checking myself in the mirror, I slightly smiled. Raising a tiny bit of my confidence, I stuck my chin up and raised my shoulders. I walked into the kitchen that way, confidence high, but as soon as I had glanced into the kitchen, my attitude stopped flat. A man and woman were standing there, talking with my mom and dad. The man was extremely tall with plain basketball shorts and a t-shirt; black, buzz-cut styled hair covered his head with a stubbly beard. The woman was short and skinny with blonde hair tied back into a ponytail and green eyes. Mascara plastered her eyelashes. A young boy of about my age, maybe a year older stood looking at my mom and dad. Sometimes he made a casual remark, but he otherwise sat and rocked back on his heels. He had blonde hair like his mom's, but it was sticking up at the top edge and leaning to one side. He had on long, khaki shorts with lots of pockets and a short-sleeved blue and red striped top. Confused, I merely stood there and folded my arms over my stomach. I forced my mouth into a shy grin, feeling incredibly stupid. For some reason, whenever I did anything, I felt like everyone was watching and waiting for me to make a mistake. But alone, you never had to feel that kind of pressure. You could do whatever you wanted, and no one would be watching and waiting for your mistake to just happen. The boy who was standing in my kitchen stopped rocking on his heels. His parents continued to talk to mine, but he turned his head toward me and gazed lazily at me. Knowing that some stranger was looking at you has never made me feel comfortable. So I made it my objective to not do something stupid. I tried to act cool and lean on my heels, gazing down at my nails. Yes, study your nails, I told myself, very casual. The boy looked a millisecond longer and then smiled slightly. He turned back to the conversation at hand. Taking this as my cue, I decided to go up to my parents rather than stand there like an idiot. When I walked up to them, Mom and Dad turned towards me.
"Yes, this is Annalise! She's just turned thirteen today!" Mom beamed.
My eyes widened. I had completely forgotten my birthday! Forgetting I wasn't the only one in the room, I snapped back into reality and nodded my head. The boy's mom and dad gave warm smiles.
"These are our new neighbors, Annalise! We decided to invite them over for a bit," Dad implied to me.
I nodded again, trying to smile widely at each of them in turn. But my confidence was flailing with the sight of new people; they always took some getting used to.
"Of course, we are still planning on celebrating your birthday, but we thought it might be better to have the party tomorrow! What do you think?" Mom said gently.
I shrugged, "It doesn't really matter to me,"
I glanced to the side.
They began to get into conversation again.
"Oh, she looks just like her dad! And the brown hair and freckles adds to the appearance! She's a natural beauty, that's for sure!" rambled the boy's mom. To my horror, she winked at her son. I blushed fiercely at the comment aimed at me as well as the wink. The boy blushed, too. I could see he didn't really want to be set up first thing, and neither did I. But that's just the kind of thing parents did. We all settled down for some coffee after a while and I sat leaned over the table, never looking at anything besides my coffee. I knew my parents were simply trying to get me to make friends, but strangers in my house when I never expected it didn't exactly give me comfort. So I just listened to the parents' conversations and sipped my coffee for most of the day.