The plane ride was boring.

Not horribly boring, but boring all the same. Greg (or Greggles to make fun of him) is in his 'rebellious teenage years' and his black hair and dark brown eyes helped with his whole look. But either way, he spent the whole flight either acting like the boring, lazy kid he is or listening to Panic! at the Disco, My Chemical Romance or Hollywood Undead and staring out the window like he was in a music video. Which I was fine with me cause they're awesome bands but he wouldn't talk to me so I got bored of him quickly.

Mum and Dad had bought some magazines at the airport and spent the time talking about the new house. I got excited about it for a while but then they started talking about school and how lovely it would be there. I tuned out after that.

The rest of the flight I spent listening to music, forcing myself to read some teen magazine Mum got me (ugh), or reading some of the random books I'd brought with me. When we landed we all made our way to the luggage pick up. I found my bright yellow suitcase before anyone else and by the time we were ready to leave it had been around 20 minutes. Mum had lost hers for 10 of those.

Outside was like nothing I'd seen before. The sky was blueish grey and, being Autumn, it wasn't at all warm. I pulled my jumper around me tighter, the wind blowing strong just as we took our first step. I guess my hat should have been the first thing to hold onto because the wind picked it up off my head and carried it away, the cap sailing along as I ran after it.

"Ugh! Damn it, I'll be back in a second!" I called to my family as I ran. A little way down, my hat began to fall down to the earth again and landed safely on the ground about 5 meters ahead. I sighed in relief but it was short lived, the wind picking it up off the ground.

"No!!" I called to the inanimate object. But as soon as it reached the height of 'too far away' it was plucked out of the air.

"This yours?" A voice, a male's voice, asked. The person who had caught it couldn't have been more than a year older then me. Short blackish brown hair hung lightly on his face, reaching only a little down his neck, ice blue orbs stared me down, reminding me of a raging storm over a summer's sky. His clothes were dark, a band shirt covered by a black hoodie and black jeans, red converse with a skull pattern finished it all off. A small frown sat on his lips.

"Y-yeah, thanks." I said, nearly frozen where I stood. Surprisingly enough, I'm not the best with new people, especially guys, and it doesn't help when they're attractive. After he gave me my cap, he turned and walked away.

"U-um, thank you!!" I called after him, however when he turned around I sort of wished I hadn't.

"Don't thank me, just hang onto your crap from now on." Was all he said as he continued to walk away. Rude... I ran back to my family just as they hailed a cab and began to lift their luggage in. I picked mine up and shoved it in with the rest of it before hopping in myself. We drove for around 45 minutes before we reached our new place. A little away from the main shopping area and school, was the street we were to live on. 222 Baker Road. The street was scattered with houses on either side, the backyard of each just visible.

Our new house was breath-taking. A two-story stone cottage sat surrounded by a lush, green area, vines and greenery creeping up the walls and archway leading towards the wooden front door. A little stone path led to the backyard which, even from here, you could see trees growing near the top of the house.

"Great." Greg's voice piped up. "I moved into an old lady's house. Just perfect."

I simply rolled my eyes and started walking towards the door. Mum and Dad followed soon after and Greg plodded along trying to show his disgust. Dad unlocked the front door and we all stepped inside. Suitcases were quickly forgotten as we all set off to explore the new house. I ran straight upstairs, searching for a room I'd like. I opened a few doors before I reached the one I wanted. Right at the front of the house on the second floor, was a room with absolutely nothing in it except windows on the far and left hand wall and a closet on the entrance wall. The windows were wide and reached nearly the whole wall, lighting the entire room. The window on the left had a very climbable tree outside it.

"MUM! DAD! CAN I HAVE THIS ROOM?!" I yelled for my parents approval.

"Any room except the main bedroom is ok with us!" My mother's voice called back to me. From the sounds of it, they were still downstairs. A squeal of delight and I ran back down to retrieve my things. I had to drag my bag back up the stairs because it was too heavy to carry and I was lazy, but Dad caught me about halfway and glared at me until I picked it up. After I had finally carried it to my new room, I sat down, leaning against a windowless wall and looking around. This was my new room. Its white, unlike the old yellow one. It has no furniture, unlike the old messy one. At least it's bigger? I sighed to myself feeling a little upset and recalling how we'd found out we were moving.

Mum and Dad had met me at the door on the last day of term four, Greg trailing a few meters back, with a smile on each of their faces. Greg and I instantly knew a change was coming, because Mum had a gleam in her eyes that gave everything away. They'd sat us down and told us how, Mum had gotten a transfer to another country and that we were moving as soon as possible. Dad worked from home most of the time anyway, so there really wasn't much tying us down. Greg objected instantly, saying he had friends he wanted to stay with, the fact that he'd just started playing the guitar didn't help either. Dad shut him down instantly, doing his freaky 'I know what you're thinking' thing. After that, he spent the whole time sitting in his room playing any song he could make resonate through the house.

I myself, was in shock. How they could decide that I should spend my last year of school away from everyone I know was beyond me. I'd put up quite the fight as well. Even though I say everyone I knew, it wasn't like we were friends. I spent my entire school life sitting in the library reading. My best friends were the librarians and a girl a year my senior named Jess. We'd chat but we didn't really hang out or anything. And I was fine like that. I spent the weekends taking pictures with my Canon EOS 70D, mostly of landscapes and parks or reading books. The closest thing I got to taking pictures of people was when I took pictures at the shopping centres. The whole moving thing mostly bothered me because change isn't something I actively seek out. But here I am, sitting in my white walled, floor boarded room staring at the trees outside.

I wonder if I could climb it.

The tree outside my window looked so inviting, so climbable. My suitcase once again forgotten on the floor, I walked towards the window, prying it open and looking out. The tree was only a few centimetres away and had enough branches to fit at least two or three more people. I reached out, holding one a little above my head before pulling myself up onto the windowsill. A light wind blew and the leaves rustled. Now or never, one foot left the window, then the other and I was standing in the tree. A light breeze blew again and I closed my eyes letting everything wash away. I could hear Greg playing some tune in the background, birds chirping in the distance and a few-

"HEY UP THERE!!!" A voice from below broke my train of thought and nearly made me fall back into my room. Startled, I looked down to see of it was me the voice was calling to. A girl about my age stood below me. She was a little chubby with wild, frizzy blonde hair and blue, polka dot bandana holding it all away from her face, with a blue beachy looking dress on that reached just up to her knees.

"Hi!!" She called again, a huge smile evident on her face. "You just moved in here?" It was posed as a question so I nodded, a little shocked as to why there was a girl in our front/side yard. "You gonna come down or not?" I stood there, she seemed nice enough and there were enough branches to make it down easily so I did. I hit the ground with a soft thud and the girl walked up to me.

"Hello! The name's Caroline! Caroline Hale! I live across the street, what's your name?" She spoke very quickly, barely giving a breath.

"Hi, I'm Millie Harris. Nice to meet you."

"Millie... Millie... I like it!! Your names cool!! Unlike Coraline, too long, too hard to say. Call me Coral k? Like the ocean plant. I just love the ocean. Do you?"

"I, uh... I've never been."

"WHAT!? Oh we are gonna have to fix that! Come on, we only live a few streets from it, let's go!" Coral grabbed my arm and started dragging me over to the road.

"W-wait! I have to ask my parents first!"

"Oh right!! Me too, meet you in 10?" And without even confirming, she started running towards her house, leaving me dumbstruck.

"Millie? Who was that?" Without me realising it, Mum had come outside and walked around the corner just after Coral had ran off.

"She said her name was Coraline Hale. She lives across the street and wants to know if I want to go to the beach right now."

"Oh really!? Sure honey, that sounds fun. Its only 3 o'clock right now, just be back before 5:30 ok?" I nodded my head and watch Mum start to walk back inside before climbing the tree again, grabbing my shoes and climbing back down again. Coral met me at the road and began walking towards the beach.

"You're gonna love it, the beach is my favourite part about this whole place." She'd said on more than one occasion. Coral became a fast friend, basically telling me we were friends over and over. It was a new experience but it was a nice feeling, having someone I might actually be able to talk to other then my books and 'the one year my senior' Jess.

"So how far'd you travel to get here?" Coral said after 5 minutes of one-sided conversation.

"From the other side of the world."

"Fudge, really?"

"Yeah... fudge?"

"Yeah... Mum doesn't like me swearing so I use desserts and stuff instead."

"Fair enough. How long have you lived here?"

"My whole life, born and raised here. You'll like it, I don't know anyone who doesn't. Well, except Aiden, but he doesn't like anything."

"Who's that?"

"Oh, just some guy from school... speaking of, where are you going?"

"Uh, I think it was called Promise Collage? But that can't be right."

"Unfortunately, it is. I go there too, it's supposed to be named after Bethany Promise, the founder of the school. But seriously, Bethany College or even Bethany High would have worked so much better the Promise College. But hey, if that's where you're going then awesome! You can attend classes with me, and I'll point out Aiden AND you can meet Taylor!! She's been my bestie since forever, and you guys will get along great!!"

If anything, Coral was energetic and infectiously happy. Just from being around her I already felt better about the move. She somehow distracted from all the bad in my tiny world.

"Just one more corner!!" Coral basically yelled as she grabbed my wrist and walked a little faster.

The beach was weird. It was lined with sand the wind blew against. I'd grabbed sandals which were just destined to be filled with sand so I took them off before we went down. Coral couldn't wait to get down there and ran a few paces in front of me. When my feet first hit the sand, I felt like running along with Coral, but I nearly tripped over, so I just kept walking but with a slightly faster pace. The sand was moving through my toes and little shells crunched under my feet. Coral had already reached the water and was splashing about with the water up to her knees.

"Come on!! It's not gonna bite!" She called from the water. Slightly nervous, I moved towards the water until it was up to my ankles. The water felt a bit different to the water in pools or rivers, it kind of stung, but not so much there was any pain.

Splash.

"Gyah!! What the-" I looked up to see Coral laughing her head off.

"Sorry you just haha, you were taking to long. It's better to just get in."

"You do realise it's Autumn and it's pretty cold right?"

"Is it? I don't know. Mum says I live in Summer and for Summer. I never really get all that cold."

"Lucky. The water's freezing." She just laughed again and I found myself laughing with her.

"Come on then shiver-butt. Let's get you home and wearing a jumper or something."

As if my body needed to make a point of it, I sneezed. Coral just laughed at me and led me back towards shore. On the walk home, Coral talked some more and I managed to actually make conversation back. Apparently, Coral's the type to open up to someone after only speaking to them for a while. I found out that she only had a Mum because her Dad had moved out with a younger woman, only to break it off with her three months later and come crawling back. Her Mum was apparently the strong, independent type anyway, so she kicked him to the curve instantly, not caring at all about money. Not long after that, she'd gotten a promotion anyway, going from office worker to fully fledged Police Officer.

Coral also liked the colour blue, because it reminded her of the ocean, her favourite food was peanut butter and jam sandwiches, but she wouldn't have jelly cause she thought about jellyfish being blended up whenever she heard the word and she couldn't go a single day without a spearmint milkshake. She also told me her dream was to become a Marine Biologist.

"Hey! Does your new place have any furniture yet?!" Coral interrupted herself mid-conversation again.

"Um, no actually. We're going out furniture shopping tomorrow, just for the basic things. We have a few mattresses and a blanket and pillow each but that's it. We had to sell most of our stuff before we moved."

"Awesome! Wanna sleep over tonight?"

"Wha- um, maybe. I'll have to ask my parents, but if they say so then... well, sure." I smiled. I'd been to one sleepover my entire life. 3rd grade, for a birthday party. Her name was Penelope Flynn and I'd thought we were friends but she stopped speaking to me after I accidentally tripped and got Strawberry Milkshake all over her favourite top halfway through 4th grade. Mum said she was always a little so-and-so anyway.

At our driveway I'd expected Coral to go back to her own house but she just followed me down the path to mine.

"Always ask for things with someone you're not related to, they give in easier." She'd said.

I had a feeling my Mum would be okay with it anyway, considering she kept asking me if I'd made any friends (even though both her and Dad loved the fact I read all the time).

____

If Coral was an object, she would be a magnet. Like one of those really big ones from children's cartoons. My parents liked her in the first second she spoke, probably before that. Even my Dad, my-shut-off-from-every-human-being-except-Mum-and-his-best-friend, Hamish Ormond, Dad, smiled at her as she spoke. Smiled.

As we both predicted, in our own way, my parents agreed (Mum more excitedly so), when she finally asked if I was allowed to stay at her house for the night.

"You'll only need your PJ's." Coral said, laughing when I started packing a pillow and two changes of clothes.

We said goodbye to my parents, Greg stood behind them scowling and secretly wishing to come too (he totally wanted to), and walked over to Corals place *cough crossed the road cough*.

I quickly found out Coral doesn't knock, at least not on her own house.

"I'M BACK!!" She all but screamed.

"Coraline Hale, how many times have I told you not to- oh! Hello, you must be Millie." A woman came around the corner wearing an apron covered in flour and other condiments. She had a warm smile, the kind that made you want to hug them and tell you all your problems. She was undoubtedly Coral's mother, her hair was shorter and in a half up half down style, but it stuck out just like Coral's. Even their wide, light brown eyes were the same.

"Hello." Step one, engage in conversation. Check. "My name's Millie." Wait she already said that. "I like your house." Nice recovery me. Mental high-five.

"Aw, thanks sweetie. Coraline, why didn't you tell me you were having a friend over tonight! I would have run down to the fish and chips store!"

"Did you burn the veggies again?"

"That's not important right now."

"There's five packets of Doritos in the cupboard, salsa's in the fridge, don't forget the sour cream and cheese again. I'll show Millie where we'll be sleeping and stuff." Corals Mum looked like she had just accepted the mission of the century and ran back to the kitchen.

"Sorry about that, I swear, she could take out a gang by herself, but ask her to cook anything?" Coral made siren noises. "Hello, fire department?" She sighed, smiling at me. "My Mum. Well, ON WITH THE TOUR!!"

"NO YELLING!!" We laughed and started walking.

____

After seeing basically every room in the house, we all settled in the lounge room around the TV. There was a movie on, apparently a 'Friday Night Special'. The movie was great, lots of dancing, BALLROOM dancing. It was called 'Take the Lead' and I will never question if people can three people can partner up for a tango ever again. Magical.

"Millie. I don't know if you know, but you've got that look cartoon characters get when their eyes sparkle." I blinked away the shining lights surrounding me and blushed.

"Sorry, I get it from my Mum."

"Why are you sorry, that was cute as Shiitake Mushroom."

"Shiita-"

"Food over swearing."

"Right."

After we finished off the Doritos and shared a bag of banana lollies, we all went back to our respective rooms to turn in for the night. A mattress had been put out on the floor of Corals room, along with a pillow and a duvet with "Sleep Is Why I Wake Up Every Morning" written on it with cute little moons surrounding it.

We said our goodnights and the last thing I remember thinking before I fell asleep was; This is not what I expected this day, this town to turn out like.