• When it finally stopped, I was standing in an empty street called Crossmans Way. I turned and vomited so violently that I fell to my knees, clutching my stomach. When the heaving finally subsided, I stood again, but very slowly and wiped my mouth. There was a small child walking out of the house to my left and I watched him shoulder his backpack and walk to the bus stop about a block away. I walked over to a house with a small car out front and opened the door to an empty front room. I reached out to the home and listened. An elderly couple lived here and they had no family to speak of. They were constantly sad by the fact that they had no grandchildren and desperately wanted one. Well, it’s their lucky day. I thought and changed their memories. Now, they had me, their only grandchild and I lived in the guest room upstairs to the right. My parents had been their only daughter and her husband who had died in a car crash last year. That part was true. I didn’t want to alter their minds too much, I didn’t know how much they could take. “Pop-pop? Grammy? It’s my first day at school, I have to be enrolled.” I called up the stairs.

    I heard movement and groans. “We’ll be down in a minute.” My new grandmother called.

    I felt the house slowly become joyful with memories of love. The whole house felt happy, as if it had been waiting for me all this time. I heard my grandfather mutter something upstairs and then he descended the stairs, making his way to me. “Are you ready to go, Joanna?” He questioned.

    I hoisted a black backpack that I had materialized full of books moments before onto my shoulders and replied, “Yep, ready.”

    He led me to a van and opened the drivers’ side, while I clambered into the passenger side. He started the vehicle and we sped off towards the school. When we got there, he parked the van and pulled the key out of the ignition. He opened the door as I stepped out and we walked together to the main office, and up to the desk. “May I help you?” the woman asked.

    “Yes. I’d like to enroll my granddaughter here for ninth grade.” My grandfather said simply.

    They took all of my information, and then asked for my transcripts. He looked at me and I said, “Oh, I got them in my backpack Pop-pop.” And began to materialize them in my pack.

    When I fished them out they were a bit crumpled, and I handed them over to her. She looked them over and inputted them into the computer system, glancing up at us every so often. She finally hit the enter key and gave us her undivided attention. She reached over to the printer and pulled off a sheet of paper, handing it to me. “This is your class schedule. You need to report to Mr. L’Amours’ class for creative writing, he’s in room three twenty one, and if you have any questions as to where your other classes are, just ask your teachers. Also, your bus number is six fifteen. Any questions?”

    I looked at the piece of paper and was slightly intimidated. I had five different classes in completely separate areas of the school. I didn’t know what to ask so I said, “Nope, I’m good.”

    “Well then, enjoy your first day at this school.” She said in a chipper voice.

    I walked out with Pop-pop and turned to him. “I’ll see you at home then. Have a good day sweetheart.” He said and gave me a hug.

    I returned the embrace and said, “Loves you.”

    He smiled and released the hug. He looked at me once more and then walked out the doors. I looked once more at the paper and thought; They should give you a map too. I walked down the hallway and followed the numbers until they led me to a staircase, and I climbed up two flights stairs to get to the three hundreds. When I reached my destination, I was winded. Man, how do people do this? I wondered as I opened the door. The teacher looked like something out of a western movie. He had longish wavy hair that was slicked back, glasses, tan skin, and a scruffy looking five o’ clock shadow. I was waiting for a horse to pop out of nowhere, him jump on it, and ride into the sunset. “So, you must be the new kid. Class, this is Joanna. Hope y’all make her feel welcome.” He said in a slightly southern accent.

    He motioned for me to sit and I sat next to a very tall blonde girl in the back row. On her other side, there was a much shorter black girl who she was in deep conversation with about the latest clothes she saw in a store window. The black girl had a slightly glazed over look in her eyes as she listened to the blonde talk about a certain shirt that she thought would look great on the other girl, as if she really didn’t care about it, but was too good a friend to tell her. The blonde finally noticed that I was taking the seat and looked at me with her blue eyes. “Hey. You new?” She inquired.

    I looked at her and said, “Yeah. I’m Joanna. You?”

    “I’m Rachel, and this is Cassie.” She replied, pointing at her friend. “You like clothes?”

    “I guess. I’m more of a practical clothes person though. Not much for fashion myself, but I can wear a dress if need be. Do you know of any good malls around here? I need to go shopping anyways.” I said.

    I guess the words ‘good malls’ was the magic phrase, because her eyes lit up and she smiled. “Know of any good malls? I’m the queen of shopping! Come with us today after school, I’ll get up straightened out.”

    “Oh, god. Another fix ‘em up case. Rachel, I’m going to have to cut you off of the malls one of these days.” Cassie joked.

    Rachel laughed a sweet laugh that reminded me of my mother, and I smiled. As the class got back into full swing, we joked about how the latest music was completely horrific, and some of the clothes were even worse. By the time that the class was through, we were talking about the shopping trip, while Cassie rolled her eyes.