REBELS

Episode 5

"I'm going to go ahead!" —I yelled in the middle of the room—They catch up with me later, I'm hungry —I added as an excuse.

I headed towards the exit when I didn't hear any objections from both of them.

"Don't leave the building, Mia ! " my father exclaimed, when I was about to open the exit door.

"Don't tell me Mia! —I told him with the same tone that he used, he thought it was fun to annoy me by calling me by my first name. The name that he always avoided mentioning. Rather, since I discovered that in Spanish it was a word of belonging.

At the age of thirteen I had suddenly become interested in that language, because of the ballads that I began to listen to, so I decided to study it. Fortunately, my parents were multilingual and knew that language, they paid me for online classes and now my command of Spanish was very good. I kept studying it and listening to a lot of music in that language as well as speaking it from time to time through social networks that allowed me to interact with Spanish-speaking people.

I headed towards the elevators and then got on one and went down to the first floor, while I was going down I checked the back pockets of my pants, I wanted to eat something and I forgot to ask my parents for money. Amazing.

To my relief, in my pants pocket I found $50 that my father had given me after stopping at a drive-thru. Well, he had only shown it to me for me to see, but he may have forgotten to give it back to him.

Yes, I wore the same jeans, it was one of the cutest ones I had and it was still clean. And how lucky I did, if I hadn't come back just to ask for money.

When I got out of the elevator, the first thing I did was head towards the direction where an arrow indicated that the restaurant was located. I discovered that it really was a resto-bar and that most of the people dressed very elegantly. I couldn't help but take a quick look at my salmon-colored sneakers, checking if they were still clean.

I started to move forward slowly, pretending that the looks I felt on me didn't bother me, I knew it was because of the coat I was still wearing. It was the custom. I still had to adapt to the change in climate.

"I think this is where I'm going to start my new life," I whispered after glancing around as people went back to their own business.

I just wanted my life to be like everyone else's: normal.

Luckily I would have a week to act as normal as I could and then start something called high school again, I just hoped that this time they wouldn't mess with me. Even though I wasn't alone now, but instead had Abby by my side, she was no longer going to be called the friendless loner.

Or so I wanted to believe, since I didn't even know where we were going to go next.

A small town four hours away didn't sound right to me.

I figured the journey would be long and tedious.

And so it was until something strange happened.

The next day, for the whole day, I was waiting for Abby and her parents to arrive, since she and I were both only children.

I spent the day watching television, I watched movies and entertainment programs to find out the gossip of the moment in the state of Pennsylvania. Also to reacquaint myself with English, in my family (my parents and I) we had gotten used to speaking in the language of the country in which we settled so that the language would not be difficult for us when it came to making conversations. That happened when the three of us were together because when that didn't happen and I was alone with my father we spoke German.

My young father was a handsome dark-eyed German, he did not fall into the category of blue-eyed and blond, the attributes that characterized those of that country. Although he was German, his parents were not, and that is where our last name “Dufour” came from. He had amazing black eyes, with classic cut hair of the same color, his features were handsome and rugged.

On the other hand, I conversed in English with my mother, she was a beautiful American with pale blue eyes, blonde with the slender body and face of a magazine model. Having done that with her throughout my life, I was calm and carefree, because in the country where I was, I could perfectly master the language. Unlike in Russia, being and staying there had been quite a challenge for me. That is why my parents tried to take me to countries where the language was not too complicated for me, languages ​​that I knew.

Now that I think about it, maybe I received so much scorn from my former classmates because of my accent. People are so cruel.

At five in the afternoon I left my room, quickly going to the living room to grab the access card and get out of there towards the first floor, since my mother had sent me a message letting me know that they were about to arrive.

I got outside the building and started looking down the street for my father's truck.

When I visualized it a few meters away, I was quite happy, I approached the street with hasty steps at the same time that the truck stopped on the shore. My friend was the first to get out of the vehicle, on the sidewalk, she adjusted the ponytail of her brown hair, which had apparently loosened, while she looked around her, hidden by her sunglasses. It didn't take long for her to find me, her corners curled into a smile, revealing her gleaming teeth. Just below her right corner, a small mole could be seen, one almost the same as the one that was located on her left eyebrow, just at the end, only this one was better distinguished.

"Abby!" I exclaimed excitedly when we were almost face to face.

"Rosy!" She,” she said with the same note of emotion as me, “you won't get away from me so easily,” she warned, amused, as she wrapped her slender arms around me.

She was a little taller than me, she had a slim and delicate build while my shape was more voluptuous, she didn't have the curvaceous body that everyone wants, no, she was barely 17 years old. But maybe in the future she would get my mother's perfect physique, of course, if she pushed me in my workouts and stopped eating nutella… a little. Abby was 16 years old, so we both had yet to fully develop.

"I missed you," I uttered in a whisper, reciprocating his affectionate gesture. I hadn't seen her in over twenty-four hours, and I did miss my best friend. Despite not knowing each other for years, we both appreciated each other as if it were.

"I don't know what you would do without me," he said with a slight laugh, removing the dark glasses from his eyes, revealing their green glow, "me too," he finally added. We break away from the hug and watch our parents get some things out of the truck.

"You had me very worried, Rouse." I fixed my eyes on her when I heard her speak to me again.

-Because? —I asked, a little confused, seeing her raise an eyebrow I understood what she meant. She's already her, and I'm fine...

"We better talk later." I have something to tell you —she sighed, now I was the one who tried to raise an eyebrow, she laughed when she saw my attempt to imitate her, finally I raised both eyebrows. Come on, you can wait a while. Help me carry my bags, partner from the “apartment” — she didn't let me say anything else because she took me by the hand and pulled me from there, taking me with her to my father's truck.

I greeted her parents with a light hug before Abby handed me one of her 4 or 5? suitcases. I had barely brought one with the necessary.

"We'll only be here a week. You don't have to unpack everything —I suggested noticing how she emptied her third suitcase on the bed.

We were going to share a room, the suite had all the necessary bedrooms. My father had taken it upon himself to register the Smirnov family at the hotel as soon as he did the same with us.

"You know that I like order," he commented, looking for something in the pile of scattered clothes. If I leave all or most of my clothes inside that suitcase they're going to smell, so come and help me.

When I understood that he was right, I approached until I was close to the bed.

"Now I'm going to have to unpack everything too" I thought.

The truth is that I was not very organized, I liked to see order but I did not like to fix my messes.

That made me very different from her, I preferred to leave my cup, of some drink, empty for a while on the side of my bed while I finished watching a movie or series while she got up and took it to wash: order. And it should be noted that "for a while" could be extended quite a bit.

My mother said that I inherited from my father the vice of leaving everything out there and being so disastrous in that area.

"How come you recovered so quickly?" I asked after a few seconds.