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Description
Chapter 1

  I remember when I was little I wondered what the stars looked like somewhere else. Maybe in some faraway land the sky might look different. Such a simple thought. So silly and pure. Childish. But when you grow up, looking at the stars doesn't fill you with the same warmth as it once did. The magic of it all gone. The mystery of space learned. When you're older, all you want to learn is the mystery of love.

------

   I never knew how depressingly hard it was to pack up the contents of my house until I was going to have to move. Well, it's not really my house, it's my parents. But my memories are being packed away, the house looking like an empty shell, and the loud sound of my older sister sobbing.
  My sister, Megan, was almost eighteen. She didn't want to move because she didn't want to leave her boyfriend. Personally, I couldn't stand the guy. He's was rude, loud, and he spilled coke all over my laptop the day I got it. I told her that he was a loser, but all she said was 'you'll never understand'. She's right though. I'm never going to figure out what goes on in that empty skull of hers.
  My parents said that she might be able to stay at our aunt's house so she can continue to go to the same high school, but she refused. She never explained why. So we all had to put up with her. I was actually starting to hate the sound of her weeping more then the sound of her voice at three in the morning flirting with her boyfriend. We all tried to comfort her, well I don't, and get her to calm down, but that's mission impossible.
  I really wouldn't have minded moving if I got to stay in the states, but since my father's job got moved to Australia, I wasn't so keen about it either. My dad worked with international affairs or something. Anyway, his boss thought he was amazing and Australia needed a guy like him over there to make deals. The reason my father is good at making deals is because he's a penny pincher. He's the reason we got our new house cheep. He's like a con man, but without the breaking the law part.
  My mother was pretty excited to move. She only liked it because she could rub her husband's new job in the face of Mrs. Miller and her army of drones. Mrs. Miller was, and still is as far as I know, your local town gossiping bitch who has nothing better to do than meddle into peoples lives and suck out any good feelings and replace them with paranoia. The Millers are just your normal family of rich, egocentric douchebags who kiss the asses of the ones higher up on the food chain then they are. Both my mother and I couldn't wait to leave. Too bad for us they have a vacation home in the same country we moved to.
  When moving day came, Megan had her group of friends surrounding her, crying with her and telling her not to go as if that would change everything. But me, I had my two and only best friends. I'd known them since I was in dippers. Hell when our moms were pregnant with us, they were setting up play dates. My two best friends in the whole world, Vince and Wendy, they were the only friends I'd ever had. And now I was saying what could quite possibly be my final goodbye.
  Well, it would be, if they weren't running late as usual.
  Just before we all got into the car, we all saw Wendy and Vince running like idiots down the street towards our car. Wendy was holding a big box wrapped in purple paper and Vince had some kind of book.
  "WAIT!" Wendy yelled as I got out of the car. "WAIT WAIT WAIT!"
  "Wendy, calm yourself down! Your asthma!" I said, shaking her by her shoulders until her franticness stopped. Vince handed Wendy her inhaler. "Well, it's about time you show up. We were about to go to the air por--"
  Vince clamped his hand over my mouth. "You're wasting time saying the obvious and not spending enough time on telling us how awesome we are."
  "Why am I going to call you both awesome. Not that you aren't, but you know," I tried to say, but it didn't even sound like words due to Vince not removing his hand. Wendy then handed me the box as Vince let go. "You guys really shouldn't have."
  "Just open the present, Krissy!" They both yelled.
  The box was wrapped neatly, so I assumed Vince did that part. Stuck on the top was a bow and a little piece of paper with a girly border of flowers and hearts which screamed Wendy. The paper said 'To Kristina The Most Awesome Person In The World! Love, Your Forever Hommies'. I started crying.
  "D-don't cry! You're going to make me cry!" Wendy sniffled, as she was crying long before I had. Vince rolled his eyes at her, then motioned me to open the box.
  I carefully opened the box to see a collection of books and movies I've always wanted but never got. They got me a book filled with the works of Edger Alan Poe, some Anne Rice, a crap load of Tim Burton films, and a black ribbon choker with a little bat pendant. That last one wasn't really something I wanted, but it was pretty cool.
  Vince saw my face when I saw the choker and snickered. "It's a gag gift! Though if you wanted to start over with a new image down under, you can go goth! Made it myself!"
  "Oh so manly of you Vince," I retorted. I'm glad Vince lightened the doom and gloom mood though.
  Just then my father honked the car's horn. "I don't want to cut your goodbye short sweetie, but we're going to miss our flight!"
  Wendy hugged me tightly. "Promise you'll write! And I don't mean promise then never write or even write but slowly stop writing all together!"
  "Wendy, that's what the internet is for. And telephones. No one uses snail-mail any more, except for bills, invites, and possibly eviction notices and court dates," I replied, hugging her back.
  Wendy wiped away a tear and sniffled, "You're always just a ray of sunshine, aren't ya?"
  I weakly chuckled, "I try."
  Suddenly, Vince handed me the book I saw him holding. "This gift is from all of us. Not your parents, but you know, the town. It's got pictures of everyone, everything, and you. Plus, people wrote down their final goodbyes."
  "You really did all this for me?"
  "Hell yeah we did! It was hard to hide this thing from you at school when we were getting people to sign, but it was worth it. We even wrote ours down, mostly because we figured we'd be late and wouldn't have time," Vince chuckled a little and started rubbing the back of his head.
  Wendy, jumping around like some kind of rabbit, yelled, "Please don't read mine! It's so bad!"
  "Well, then you shouldn't have written that if that wasn't what you wanted to say," Vince said coldly.
  Feeling uneasy being in the middle of there soon to be fight, I had to stop it. "Guys, don't make me leave knowing that you to got into another fight and know I won't be here to fix things again."
  They both ended their banter. The moment was quiet and still. The air was cold, the sky it's usual stone gray for the winter season. I never knew the town could get so silent. I never knew things could be that silent. In that still moment we gave each other our last hugs. The hugs were short and cold, as if I were hugging robots and not human beings. I felt hollow. As soon as the words goodbye fled my lips, the town was filled with sound once more. My father was honking his horn and yelling at me to hurry up.
  Before I could tell them how much I'd miss them, they were already on there way back to there homes. I just sighed and entered the car. I put the box in between my sister and I. The book with 'Memories' written on the cover in Vince's handwriting on my lap. My father started the car back up once more mumbling about how Wendy and Vince won't get too far in the real world by being late for everything, mother saying how they mean well, and my sister calling them losers. I was silent.
  I opened the book to it's first page, which had a picture of the three of us the day we went to the zoo and saw the poler bears. Under it was written 'Stay cool like poler bears! -Wendy' with a heart sticker by her name. I then understood why she didn't want me to read that.
  We had at last reached the air port and gotten onto our flight. Just before it took off I might add. As the flight attendant told us the plane do's and do not's and how to use things, I just spaced out. I've heard that crap before any way. I just couldn't get them off my mind. Then I realized I might not have given them their gifts, but then I remembered I gave them to them the day before, just in case they were so late they missed us. So I settled back into my seat and relaxed. The box and scrapbook were both safe above my head, my eyes hurt from all the tears, and I was tired. I almost fell asleep until my sister pointed out that I wasn't strapped in to the flight attendant. She kinda got pissed off at that, saying that she doesn't like hearing herself talk about the rules either but she has to say them because of people like me. I quickly followed her directions, and she huffed off.
  "Bitch," I muttered under my breath.
  "Kristina, that isn't a nice thing to call that sweet lady," she whispered.
  "Who said I was calling her a bitch? I was talking about you," I retorted.
  "GIRLS!" Mother harshly whispered.
  "Sorry mom," we replied.

  The flight went on forever. It was nothing but peanuts and shitty movies. I was glad to get off. It's not fun sharing one restroom with strangers. Or maybe that's just me. Who knows.
  When I walked off the plane I realized something. I realized that it must have been more than 90 degrees fahrenheit, and that I was in winter clothing. It was not comfortable in the least. People looked at me as if I were insane, both locals and tourists, and little kids were pointing and laughing at me. I wish I could just drop dead from heat stroke. I had to wear my gray turtleneck sweater, jacket, boots, and black jeans that day. I don't know why I didn't bring a change of clothes to put on on the plane, or at least not wear so much black.
  My father picked up our new car and drove us all around. Everyone was enjoying themselves, not even thinking about me cooking in the backseat.
  "Mom, I think Krissy's getting overheated," Megan blurted out.
  "Kristina, sweetie, I told you to dress lighter," mom pointed out, being a mother.
  "Can we just get to someplace cool now before I die and before you tell me I told you so? Please?"
  Mom was smug,"I think you learned that I was right all by yourself dear." I sighed. "Honey, lets hurry home. I have to use the restroom any way."
  "Okay, ladies! Off to our new house!" Dad exclaimed happily. Mom happily cheered while Megan and I both cheered sarcastically. I glanced at my new scrapbook and thought about Wendy and Vince. They would want me to be happy and make new friends.
  As we drove past the sea, I saw two surfers riding a big wave. They looked amazing. On the inside I hoped they were my age, or at least still in high school. My sister seemed to hope the same thing, for a different reason. She was over her deadbeat boyfriend, and I felt a need to get a surfboard.

Description
Chapter 1

  I remember when I was little I wondered what the stars looked like somewhere else. Maybe in some faraway land the sky might look different. Such a simple thought. So silly and pure. Childish. But when you grow up, looking at the stars doesn't fill you with the same warmth as it once did. The magic of it all gone. The mystery of space learned. When you're older, all you want to learn is the mystery of love.

------

   I never knew how depressingly hard it was to pack up the contents of my house until I was going to have to move. Well, it's not really my house, it's my parents. But my memories are being packed away, the house looking like an empty shell, and the loud sound of my older sister sobbing.
  My sister, Megan, was almost eighteen. She didn't want to move because she didn't want to leave her boyfriend. Personally, I couldn't stand the guy. He's was rude, loud, and he spilled coke all over my laptop the day I got it. I told her that he was a loser, but all she said was 'you'll never understand'. She's right though. I'm never going to figure out what goes on in that empty skull of hers.
  My parents said that she might be able to stay at our aunt's house so she can continue to go to the same high school, but she refused. She never explained why. So we all had to put up with her. I was actually starting to hate the sound of her weeping more then the sound of her voice at three in the morning flirting with her boyfriend. We all tried to comfort her, well I don't, and get her to calm down, but that's mission impossible.
  I really wouldn't have minded moving if I got to stay in the states, but since my father's job got moved to Australia, I wasn't so keen about it either. My dad worked with international affairs or something. Anyway, his boss thought he was amazing and Australia needed a guy like him over there to make deals. The reason my father is good at making deals is because he's a penny pincher. He's the reason we got our new house cheep. He's like a con man, but without the breaking the law part.
  My mother was pretty excited to move. She only liked it because she could rub her husband's new job in the face of Mrs. Miller and her army of drones. Mrs. Miller was, and still is as far as I know, your local town gossiping bitch who has nothing better to do than meddle into peoples lives and suck out any good feelings and replace them with paranoia. The Millers are just your normal family of rich, egocentric douchebags who kiss the asses of the ones higher up on the food chain then they are. Both my mother and I couldn't wait to leave. Too bad for us they have a vacation home in the same country we moved to.
  When moving day came, Megan had her group of friends surrounding her, crying with her and telling her not to go as if that would change everything. But me, I had my two and only best friends. I'd known them since I was in dippers. Hell when our moms were pregnant with us, they were setting up play dates. My two best friends in the whole world, Vince and Wendy, they were the only friends I'd ever had. And now I was saying what could quite possibly be my final goodbye.
  Well, it would be, if they weren't running late as usual.
  Just before we all got into the car, we all saw Wendy and Vince running like idiots down the street towards our car. Wendy was holding a big box wrapped in purple paper and Vince had some kind of book.
  "WAIT!" Wendy yelled as I got out of the car. "WAIT WAIT WAIT!"
  "Wendy, calm yourself down! Your asthma!" I said, shaking her by her shoulders until her franticness stopped. Vince handed Wendy her inhaler. "Well, it's about time you show up. We were about to go to the air por--"
  Vince clamped his hand over my mouth. "You're wasting time saying the obvious and not spending enough time on telling us how awesome we are."
  "Why am I going to call you both awesome. Not that you aren't, but you know," I tried to say, but it didn't even sound like words due to Vince not removing his hand. Wendy then handed me the box as Vince let go. "You guys really shouldn't have."
  "Just open the present, Krissy!" They both yelled.
  The box was wrapped neatly, so I assumed Vince did that part. Stuck on the top was a bow and a little piece of paper with a girly border of flowers and hearts which screamed Wendy. The paper said 'To Kristina The Most Awesome Person In The World! Love, Your Forever Hommies'. I started crying.
  "D-don't cry! You're going to make me cry!" Wendy sniffled, as she was crying long before I had. Vince rolled his eyes at her, then motioned me to open the box.
  I carefully opened the box to see a collection of books and movies I've always wanted but never got. They got me a book filled with the works of Edger Alan Poe, some Anne Rice, a crap load of Tim Burton films, and a black ribbon choker with a little bat pendant. That last one wasn't really something I wanted, but it was pretty cool.
  Vince saw my face when I saw the choker and snickered. "It's a gag gift! Though if you wanted to start over with a new image down under, you can go goth! Made it myself!"
  "Oh so manly of you Vince," I retorted. I'm glad Vince lightened the doom and gloom mood though.
  Just then my father honked the car's horn. "I don't want to cut your goodbye short sweetie, but we're going to miss our flight!"
  Wendy hugged me tightly. "Promise you'll write! And I don't mean promise then never write or even write but slowly stop writing all together!"
  "Wendy, that's what the internet is for. And telephones. No one uses snail-mail any more, except for bills, invites, and possibly eviction notices and court dates," I replied, hugging her back.
  Wendy wiped away a tear and sniffled, "You're always just a ray of sunshine, aren't ya?"
  I weakly chuckled, "I try."
  Suddenly, Vince handed me the book I saw him holding. "This gift is from all of us. Not your parents, but you know, the town. It's got pictures of everyone, everything, and you. Plus, people wrote down their final goodbyes."
  "You really did all this for me?"
  "Hell yeah we did! It was hard to hide this thing from you at school when we were getting people to sign, but it was worth it. We even wrote ours down, mostly because we figured we'd be late and wouldn't have time," Vince chuckled a little and started rubbing the back of his head.
  Wendy, jumping around like some kind of rabbit, yelled, "Please don't read mine! It's so bad!"
  "Well, then you shouldn't have written that if that wasn't what you wanted to say," Vince said coldly.
  Feeling uneasy being in the middle of there soon to be fight, I had to stop it. "Guys, don't make me leave knowing that you to got into another fight and know I won't be here to fix things again."
  They both ended their banter. The moment was quiet and still. The air was cold, the sky it's usual stone gray for the winter season. I never knew the town could get so silent. I never knew things could be that silent. In that still moment we gave each other our last hugs. The hugs were short and cold, as if I were hugging robots and not human beings. I felt hollow. As soon as the words goodbye fled my lips, the town was filled with sound once more. My father was honking his horn and yelling at me to hurry up.
  Before I could tell them how much I'd miss them, they were already on there way back to there homes. I just sighed and entered the car. I put the box in between my sister and I. The book with 'Memories' written on the cover in Vince's handwriting on my lap. My father started the car back up once more mumbling about how Wendy and Vince won't get too far in the real world by being late for everything, mother saying how they mean well, and my sister calling them losers. I was silent.
  I opened the book to it's first page, which had a picture of the three of us the day we went to the zoo and saw the poler bears. Under it was written 'Stay cool like poler bears! -Wendy' with a heart sticker by her name. I then understood why she didn't want me to read that.
  We had at last reached the air port and gotten onto our flight. Just before it took off I might add. As the flight attendant told us the plane do's and do not's and how to use things, I just spaced out. I've heard that crap before any way. I just couldn't get them off my mind. Then I realized I might not have given them their gifts, but then I remembered I gave them to them the day before, just in case they were so late they missed us. So I settled back into my seat and relaxed. The box and scrapbook were both safe above my head, my eyes hurt from all the tears, and I was tired. I almost fell asleep until my sister pointed out that I wasn't strapped in to the flight attendant. She kinda got pissed off at that, saying that she doesn't like hearing herself talk about the rules either but she has to say them because of people like me. I quickly followed her directions, and she huffed off.
  "Bitch," I muttered under my breath.
  "Kristina, that isn't a nice thing to call that sweet lady," she whispered.
  "Who said I was calling her a bitch? I was talking about you," I retorted.
  "GIRLS!" Mother harshly whispered.
  "Sorry mom," we replied.

  The flight went on forever. It was nothing but peanuts and shitty movies. I was glad to get off. It's not fun sharing one restroom with strangers. Or maybe that's just me. Who knows.
  When I walked off the plane I realized something. I realized that it must have been more than 90 degrees fahrenheit, and that I was in winter clothing. It was not comfortable in the least. People looked at me as if I were insane, both locals and tourists, and little kids were pointing and laughing at me. I wish I could just drop dead from heat stroke. I had to wear my gray turtleneck sweater, jacket, boots, and black jeans that day. I don't know why I didn't bring a change of clothes to put on on the plane, or at least not wear so much black.
  My father picked up our new car and drove us all around. Everyone was enjoying themselves, not even thinking about me cooking in the backseat.
  "Mom, I think Krissy's getting overheated," Megan blurted out.
  "Kristina, sweetie, I told you to dress lighter," mom pointed out, being a mother.
  "Can we just get to someplace cool now before I die and before you tell me I told you so? Please?"
  Mom was smug,"I think you learned that I was right all by yourself dear." I sighed. "Honey, lets hurry home. I have to use the restroom any way."
  "Okay, ladies! Off to our new house!" Dad exclaimed happily. Mom happily cheered while Megan and I both cheered sarcastically. I glanced at my new scrapbook and thought about Wendy and Vince. They would want me to be happy and make new friends.
  As we drove past the sea, I saw two surfers riding a big wave. They looked amazing. On the inside I hoped they were my age, or at least still in high school. My sister seemed to hope the same thing, for a different reason. She was over her deadbeat boyfriend, and I felt a need to get a surfboard.