One Thing After Another

Chapter One

"Fiona! Fiona! Where are you?" Fiona Pinn's mother, Jenise, called up the stairs.

"I'm coming, why do I have to go today?"

"I already told you last night, you are coming today to meet your new teacher and classmates. what's so awful about that?"

Fiona didn't answer. Fiona, Jenise, and Fiona's four month old baby sister, Ellen, had just moved to a small town outside of Edmonton, Alberta. Fiona was enrolling in a new school that morning which she hated the idea of. She had left her best friend, Sandra, behind plus all her other friends but worst of all, they had to leave their farm with all the horses on it. She had sold her old Shetland riding pony, Belle, and her Arabian mare, Sofi, that she had bought two years ago. The reason they had had to move was because their house and barn had burned down and they had no buildings left, but Fiona and Jenise managed to save quite a bit of their house things, They had nothing left besides it, but luckily all the horses had been out in the pastures so no one had gotten hurt. After the fire, they had had to sell all their horses so they could buy that house since they couldn't afford to have the buildings repaired even if they ahd sold the horses for that. It was a small house, but big enough for just Fiona, Jenise and Ellen. Fiona's father had left them the year before because he hated horses and wanted to sell the farm to move to the city, but Jenise wouldn't have it. Fiona was thirteen years old and liked to keep things to herself like school and her grades. She wasn't like most girls who liked to try on make-up, practically lived in the clothing stores or spent hours trying to figure out what to wear. She couldn't care less about make-up or fancy dresses and cute tank tops. When she bought clothes, she went to a tack store and got some western jeans and T-shirts. And instead of all those high-class high heels, she also wen to the tack store and bought a good pair of cowboy boots, as she found them much more comfortable than regular boots or shoes. When she got dressed in the morning, it took her about five minutes to pick out a pair of clothes to wear.

She dragged herself down the stairs trying to stall all the more. When she got to the kitchen, Jenise was pouring milk over a bowl of cereal. Beside her chair, Ellen was in her high-chair playing with the Cheerios Jenise had given her. Jenise looked toward the stairs and yelled up," Fiona, come and eat now! If we don't get hurry, we'll be late. Ellen quit playing with your food."

We can only hope that we'll be late, Fiona thought to herself. It'd be best. Ellen screamed and flipped her bowl of cereal upside-down on the floor. Cheerios flew every which way in the air. The plastic bowl hit the floor and rolled until it hit the cupboard then fell to a stop.

"Ellen! Why did you do that?" Jenise scowled at her. Elen only clapped her hands and laughed. Fiona thought it was hilarious, but she held back her laughs. She didn't want to go to Edmonton, but she had to, there was no way out.

Jenise finished cleaning up Ellen's cereal mess when Fiona set her own bowl on the counter and tied her hood.

"Let's go," Jenise said as she picke dup Ellen and got both their coats.

"I don't see why you don't want to go. You get to meet your teacher and some classmates."

Fiona buckled Ellen in her safety seat in the back of the car and she go herself in the passenger seat of the car.

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Walking down the hall of the school, Fiona nervously thought how much she'd like to run right back out the doors she just came in. The doors to the classrooms were so close together and there were so many, that it made Fiona sick to imagine how many kids went to the school. Edmonton was a rather big city so many people lived there. When Jenise turned into one of the many, many doors with Ellen, Fiona slowed down to stall more. But when Jenise looked back at her and gave her a look that told her that she'd better hurry up and not be like that when they met her teachers. Fiona rolled her eyes and caught up with her negative mother. Ellen was still clapping her hands and making noises. Looking into the door behinf the one Jenise had gone into, Fiona saw an older woman arranging a pot of daisies on her desk. She saw that on the door it said that it was the second grade classroom.

Fiona heard Jenise talking to a young woman with blonde hair and friendly brown eyes that seemed to dance when she smiled. when she entered the door.

"Hi Fiona, I'm your new teacher. My name is Ida Condy and I'm excited for the new school year, are you?" Miss Condy asked.

"I'd rather be riding my horse I had to sell," she mumbled. Jenise kicked her under the under the desk." ButI like school,too," she said against her will.

Fiona never really did understand her mother. She always wanted everything to be perfect and when she left her room mesy or didn't clean up her messes she made Fiona clean them up immediately. Once, when Fiona was nine, she was playing with her Collie dog named Candle and she accidently spilled a pitcher of milk all over the carpet and it smelled so bad that they had to replace the carpet. She was so scared of her mom finding about it, she threw a rug over it and it was two days before Jenise found out because there was such an awful smell.

It was half an hour before Fiona, Jenise and Ellen left the school. Fiona liked Miss COndy and acouple of her classmates, but she would still rather spend her year with Sofi in the fields, woods and trails.