The Loner and Her

Chapter One : Oakwood

There was no music playing in the car. The silence wasn’t awkward, because both women had a lot on their minds and didn’t even notice the lack of noise in the small S.U.V.

       The young woman in the passenger seat, Gia, stared out the window and watched the cars that passed by and flashing city street lights. Her dark hair was pulled up into a messy bun and her deep gray eyes were wide and awake, but slightly dull with dark circles under them. It was three in the morning. She kept chanting the time in her head. Now she'll be up for the rest of the early morning. Due to her insomnia.

        Her mother, Rosa, turned her head slightly to the right. With a deep sigh, she tried to explain herself, "I’m sorry. I know this is very abrupt. I didn’t plan on leaving like this- "

        Gia rolled her eyes before shutting them and leaned her head back against the black leather seat. "I’m just really confused, and tired-very tired, but mostly confused. Like, why did we have to leave? And why now? I mean, it’s three o’clock in the morning, Mom. What’s going on?”

        Rosa was silent for a moment. She seemed to contemplate whether or not she even wanted to reply. “I- I got a job at this hospital, and they needed me to start as early as Monday morning. The pay is good, really good. I didn’t know I had gotten the job ‘til last night. I know, I should’ve told you, but I had to think it over first. Had to weigh out my options, you know. See if the move was even worth it or not.”

        "You never told me you were looking for another job,” Gia couldn’t help but reply.

        Her mother sighed, again. “I was going to mention it, but I got a call back from the hospital so fast, that I didn’t really have the time. I interviewed with them a couple of days ago. I didn’t want to tell you about the interview incase I didn’t get it.”

        Gia was silent. She wasn’t sure of how to take the situation. She felt in in her gut that her mother wasn’t being one hundred percent truthful with her, which was strange since they both had a tight knit bond and tended to tell each other everything. They were best friends. But Gia knew better than to push for more information, she did get her stubbornness from her mother, after all.

        The seventeen-year-old girl, who was now a senior in high school, didn’t mind the move, actually. She wasn’t leaving anything behind in New York besides her family. At the school she was attending to prior, she didn’t have any real friends. They had been more of acquaintances of sorts. Most of them were rich, who used their parent’s bank accounts to get by on anything and everything.

       There were students who could barely read at fifth grade level, but were taking Honors English. Kids who couldn’t even catch a football were on varsity, because their dads knew the coach. Almost every person in that school bought or bribed their way in or out of something. Which wasn’t Gia’s cup of tea.

       She grew up with wealthy grandparents, which was the reason why she went to a private school in the first place. Although, they are loving, they can be very controlling, for lack of a better word. She was forced to attend the school, even though she did not want to.

   Academically, she did just fine at the school, passing with just the right grades to graduate on time. She’s smart. Very, smart. But school was boring to her, so she never tried to excel and achieve more than a 3.4 G.P.A. Which wasn’t bad at all, but her grandparents expected more from her.

    Oakwood wasn't too small of a town, but it also wasn't as big of a city like New York.

    "So, the pay is nice, you said?” Asked Gia, who was curious of this new job her mom was starting almost immediately.

Rosa nodded her head, “Way more than what I was getting at the office.”

    Her mother had worked at a sketchy doctor's office that Gia didn't trust the second she stepped into it. Her mother only worked there for two years until now.

    Gia tilted her head to the left, now facing her mom, “But why Oakwood? You love the city. There’s plenty of nursing jobs you could’ve found there, too.”

    Rosa brushed her long brown hair out her face as she turned the left blinker on her car, getting into the other lane. She replied after a long moment, "I just wanted a change. You hated Parrington, anyways. Now, you have an excuse to go to a public school."

    Although, Rosa wasn’t wrong, the whole thing was still out of the ordinary. And Gia was having a hard time mentally letting it go. Still, she hated that school and going somewhere nobody will know who she is did sound quite refreshing.

   It was only a month into her senior year, meaning it was October. So, she still had all the way until June before she'd be done with school. She had no idea what she wanted to do yet, but college applications were due soon and she hated just even thinking about it. She didn’t know if she wanted to go to college, but she was worried about disappointing her mother and angering her grandparents.

   Rosa was young. At just thirty-seven, she could easily pass for ten years younger. Men fell at her feet, because she was so naturally beautiful with her long dark hair that was identical to her daughter’s and her bright round brown eyes.

    Gia barely knew her father. He and her mother broke up when she was four-years-old. Then he left and moved all the way to California. He calls once or twice a year-if she's lucky.  She knows she has two half-siblings, because of his current marriage to his new wife, Anne, but she had never met them. She didn’t even remember their names or know if they knew about her.

    "Oakwood will be great for us, Gigi. A fresh start." Rosa spoke with determination as Gia turned to face the open highway.

    She shrugged her shoulders in return, "A small town won't be so bad, I guess." Gia then turned out of her seat and reached into the back of her mother's car. On top of a box filled with some of their things, sat a pile of three blankets. Gia took one from the top, sat back into her seat, and got comfortable.

    "I'm freezing,” Said Gia, who began to shiver as goosebumps trailed up and down her arms.

    Rosa chuckled, before turning the heater in the car up a bit more.

    Gia's eyebrows furrowed slightly as a sudden thought came to her. She, then, asked her mother, "Mom, whatever happened to that guy you were seeing? Greg?"

    She realized that her mom hasn't talked about him in a while and she thought it was strange. Especially, since her mom seemed to be really into him. She remembered how happy her mom was after her and Greg's first date. She didn't understand what went wrong from a couple weeks ago to now?

    Gia noticed her mom tighten her hands on the steering wheel. She cleared her throat as her eyes looked down the road, and watched the very few cars in front of them drive very slowly.

    "He just wasn't the one, Sweetie."

    Gia didn't want to question her mom any further. It seemed like Rosa was a closed book that night and Gia needed to respect that. Hopefully, her mom would open up when she felt ready to.

    Gia asked her, "How do you know when he's the one? Or if he's not?”

    Rosa laughed again, a small smirk etched onto her lips, "Gigi, trust me, you'll know when he's not the one. Whether it's right away, or sadly and hopefully not in your case, years later, but it won't be a mystery...You'll know he's the one when he can look you in the eyes, tell you he loves you, means it, and there is not an ink of doubt in your entire body."

    "You've never had that, Mom?"

    "I thought I did. Once. But I was wrong. I was so sure he meant it, but he didn’t. Sometimes you have to ignore your heart and just listen to that brain of yours.”

   Gia didn’t want to ask, and Rosa didn’t want to answer.

Gia actually liked the small two-bedroom house her mother had gotten for them. Their neighborhood is small, but charming. Next door to the left of them is an elderly couple with fourteen grandchildren, and to their right is a young couple who had just recently gotten married.

    She didn't notice any teenagers her age living on her street. It was a shame, really. She would have liked to get to know at least one person before she started at her new high school. Oakwood High, that is.

    During her and her mother's first week, they settle in as quickly and comfortably as possible. Her mother, somehow, had furniture in a moving van parked in their new driveway just waiting for them when they arrived.

    Gia remembered her mother waking her up at exactly two-fifty-two in the morning. She was rushing around Gia's room, grabbing her suitcase from the top of the closet and slamming it at the end of her bed.

    "Come on, Gi. Get up, pack, and then meet me downstairs."

    Half asleep, Gia grumbled groggily, "Mom? Shh. I'm sleeping."

    Her mother would have chuckled, but she was in such a hurry she didn't have time for that sort of thing. "Wake up, Gia. We don't have a lot of time and I want to get on the road soon. Really soon." She spoke the last sentence mostly to herself, but Gia had heard it when she started to gain consciousness with the world.

    Pulling herself up and leaning against her headboard she squinted her eyes at her mother who was rummaging through her drawers and throwing random clothes out of them and onto the bed.  "Mom!" She exclaimed and quickly stopped Rosa. "What're you doing? Why are you rushing us out of the house? Mom, what's going on?"

    Question after question just kept flying out of her mouth, but she couldn't help it. She had never seen her mother in such an anxious and slightly crazed state before. Gia had always known her mother as someone who was calm and collected.

    Grabbing Rosa's arms and shaking her slightly, she was able to grab her attention. Rosa snapped out of her fast movements and looked to be more calm now. "Oh, dear. I'm sorry, Sweetie, but we must go."

    Gia's eyes widened in alarm, "But, Mom, where are we going-"

    Rosa ignored her swiftly, "Just pack as much as possible and quickly. Don't worry about leaving anything. We'll buy new stuff in Oakwood."

    "My furniture- "

    "I have stuff already on its way and we'll just buy other stuff there-like I said."

    Gia was brought out of her memory by the slight and sudden shake of her shoulder. Looking up, she found her mom beaming down at her. "Gigi, aren't you excited? It's your first day at your new school."

    Gia smiled with fake enthusiasm, "Sure, Mom."

    Rosa sighed as she took a seat across from Gia at the kitchen table. She leaned over and grabbed the box of cereal that Gia was having for breakfast. "This is my favorite cereal." She mumbled as she poured the cereal into the bowl along with milk.

    Her mom wasn’t one for cooking. She burned everything she made and over or under bakes anytime she has ever tries making cakes or cookies. So, Gia had learned to fend for herself when it came to food, which meant eating cereal and instant oatmeal for breakfast and takeout for dinner.

    Although, over the past couple of years, Gia had learned to get more into cooking knowing she can't live on pizza and frozen dinners forever. After watching millions of cooking shows and learning new cooking techniques and recipes online, she became the one who makes dinner some nights and for every holiday or special occasion they spend alone together.

    Gia smiled, "I can go grocery shopping after school, if you want."

    Her mom was wearing her scrubs and ready to start her third day at her new job. Rosa has gone on and on about how much she loves this job and everything about it so far. Gia was really happy to hear just how excited her mother was.

    "You don't have to worry about that, Gigi. I'll do it after work. Besides, you'll probably have homework and I don't want groceries to get in the way of that."

    Gia nodded her head and went on to finish eating her cereal.

    After she was finished, she washed her plate quickly and put it in the dishwasher. Walking back towards the table, Gia grabbed her book bag that laid in the seat beside the one she was sitting in before. "I'll see you later, Mom."

    Rosa stood up quickly. She made her way around the table and pulled Gia into a tight hug. Kissing her forehead, she told her, "Have a good first day, Sweetheart. I'll see you after work."

Oakwood High School is the complete opposite of Parrington. It had normal kids, in normal clothing, with reasonably priced cars in the student parking lot. Her high school was only a half a mile away from her home, so the walk wasn’t that bad since she didn’t have a car.

    Gia couldn't help but admire the normalcy of everything around her. The school only has three buildings from what she learned from the school secretary after she entered the Main building, heading straight to the main office. The three buildings are, the Main building, the Arts building, and the Science building which is filled with labs for science experiments in classes. There is also the gymnasium and auditorium.

    Looking down at her schedule after finding her locker, which is set in the Arts building, she couldn’t help but realize how easy it was to get lost in a place like this. She placed her textbooks she got from the school librarian in her locker-she decided to go there first to get everything she needed then go to her classes. Yet, now she realized she has a dilemma of not being able to find where exactly her next class was.

    A girl with long brown hair and olive tanned skin walked by her. Swallowing the nervousness that had taken over her, Gia cleared her throat, getting the other girl's attention.

    "Um, excuse me, can you show me where my first class is?" She asked the girl, awkwardly.

    The girl smiled in return and shrugged, "Sure."

    Gia handed her the schedule and watched as the girl took it from her and looked down at it with a thinking face.

    "Oh, yeah. Mr. Rockford. He's on the second floor in the Science building. That’s on the way to mine, so I can show you the way.”

    Gia thanked the girl and in return the girl stuck out her hand, "Hi, I'm Alexis."

    She shook Alexis' hand, "I'm Giuliana, but you can call me Gia."

    Alexis towered over her about a good four to five inches. Gia was used to that kind of thing. She'd always been one of the short ones out of her "friends", but it never really bothered her.

    Alexis smiled "Well, everyone calls me Lexie, so you can call me that, as well."

    Gia could tell by the way people who passed by stared at the girl in envy, that she was quite popular. She wasn’t used to making friends with the "popular crowd".

    "Do you know anyone here?" Lexie asks her, curiously.

    Gia shook her head. "No, I just moved to Oakwood last week, actually."

    Lexie raised her eyebrows, "Oh. So, you're a new, new kid. Not just transferring schools. Well, that's cool. We don't really get out of town kids much. I guess, this town is too boring for most people."

    Gia chuckled in response. The first bell rang and she closed her locker, then turned back around to find Lexie looking at her expectantly.

    "Where are you from?" Lexie asked Gia, walking beside her as they both headed towards their first period

    "New York."

    Lexie's eyes widened. "Wow. And you moved here? Are you crazy?" She joked, but her voice held slight envy.

    Gia shrugged, "My mom wanted a change."

    Lexie kept asking Gia questions along the way. The questions got more nosier the farther they walked.

    Luckily, they don't have the same first period, Lexie's class is on the third floor of the Science building. Gia sighed in relief as her and Lexie went their separate ways.

    Lexie had made sure to invite her to hang out with her and her friends at break, though. Gia wasn’t sure if she wanted to, but she knew she should give Lexie and her friends a chance.

    As she sat in her Physics class, listening on to Mr. Rockford go into the lesson, Gia heard a knock at the door.

    The people in her class kept glancing in her direction. They all wanted to know the new girl and it made her feel self-conscious and uncomfortable. Luckily, no one had tried conversing with her yet. With the way they all kept staring at her, she didn’t want to talk to someone who looked at her like she's an Alien.

    Mr. Rockford grunted at the interruption of his lecture. He walked towards the hardwood door and swiftly opened it.

    A six-foot-tall boy with short thick black hair, and a black zip-up jacket enters the room. Everyone suddenly became quiet.

    Mr. Rockford sighed with dissatisfaction, "Mr. Kane, what a pleasure it is to see you today." He was obviously being sarcastic.

    Most students would normally laugh when a teacher was trying to joke about a student, but no one else did. Everyone continued to be as silent as ever. It made Gia wary of the boy, now.

    The boy, known as "Mr. Kane" simply glanced in Mr. Rockford's direction, before walking passed him and heading to a seat in the back of the class.

    Mr. Rockford sighed again, "You're tardy, Mr. Kane."

    The boy didn’t acknowledge him. He opened up his textbook to the page number written up on the board and remained silent.

    Gia found herself frowning as she glanced behind herself at the boy once more, before turning back into the direction of the teacher.

    Who is that guy?