One Way or Another

"Good bye house," I mumbled to my blue two story house as we pulled out of the drive way. Leaving this house ranked up there in being one of the worst days of my life. Never again would I run on that wrap around porch or see the white shutters that I helped paint with my father on fathers day. I wouldn't ever sit on the tier swing that my little sister Cara fell off of and broke her arm two years ago. What's worse about moving from my house is moving out of New Jersey where I had grown up, its where I was born and up to five months ago I had a pretty strong feeling that it was where I was going to die. I loved New Jersey, the people in it and the temperature. It evened out, in the winter it was cold but not as cold as some places and in summer it was hot but not the hottest it could be.

Five months ago is when it all changed. I can picture it like it just happened. My mother and father came into my room after my friend had just left and she took a seat on my bed as my father stood. Then they said it. Were moving. Just like that. No Honey we need to talk, or baby this might be a shock to you. She just flat out said it. And I guess it was for the best she did it that way because I hate it when she sugar coats things to make the situations not seem as bad, when they really are. Another thing that sucks about moving is that its my senior year in high school. The best year of my life, as many people have told me and now I wont even get to graduate with my class that I have spent four years getting to know and love. Its almost half way into the year and after getting used to everything with being a senior I have to get taken out and put into a new school and have to try getting used to the different things there and then leave right after. I don't know why my parents couldn't wait until school ended. It would be so much easier.

I've seen the house a few times and I do love it, but moving still sucks and I wont be able to get over that for a while. We already have almost everything down at the house, my car and my brothers car have been sitting in the drive way there for the last week and the rooms in the house are filled with boxes of things that need to be unpacked. There is a truck of furniture waiting to be unload when we get there. Were moving the first week of Christmas vacation, day two to be exact so we still have the rest of this week and next to get settled before going to school. I have a feeling I wont be that settled.

"Jillian.....Jillian...Jillian!" I snapped my head towards my little sister Cara.

"What?" I asked taking the buds from my head phones out of my ear halting the song that was currently playing from my I pod.

She looked pretty upset from leaving the house so I decided to be kind and talk to her. Usually she gets on my nerves but she's fourteen so its bound to happen. "Do you think mom will take us back here so we can visit our friends?" I was sitting in the third row with Cara and my brother was in the second. I look past the rows and to my mother to see her looking sadly at the passing trees.

"I think we can work something out, don't worry," I tried to reassure her as I flopped my arm over her shoulder. "And if not, whenever I come down to see my friends I'll bring you and drop you at your friends house."

She smiled and rested her head on my shoulder, "Thanks." She stayed in place as she averted her eyes to the window and without knowing, mocked my mother. Cara can sometimes be bitchy and annoying but other times she's good company and can be fun to hang out with. I think I feel mixed on it because she is a lot like me and our personalities clash sometimes. My sister and I are told that we look alike but we don't see it at all. We both have brown hair and green eyes but that's the only thing similar about us in appearance. She has straight hair where I have wavy and our faces look nothing alike. I mostly look like my twin brother Trevor, but he has blond hair and green eyes. Were all mixes of my parents Michael and Laura. I think the move is going to be really hard on Trevor because he was on the football team at school and he was looking forward to being seen by scouts for college, he's hoping to get into it professionally and now he thinks he wont have a chance because the new school might not let him join the team late into the year. That's something that he is going to be holding over my parents heads if it doesn't work out.

One thing that I am looking forward to is being closer to my cousin Michelle who is my age also and will be living down the street from us. So I am familiar of the town a little bit, its not like I've never been there before but they usually come to my house to spend family times because they say they like to get away from the country side like surroundings, makes me want to live there even more. Michelle has a friend Mary that she has known since she was in elementary and we have become friends over the years, so I'll at least know someone other then my family there.

The drive took two hours from Jersey to upstate. Once we got there it was around five and getting dark. There was Snow on the ground and coming out of the sky. I have been told that it snows a lot here in the winter and that something to look forward to. We pulled into the long driveway and up to the new house. It is bigger then the old one and instead of being blue its white. It's way diff rent from my old house. The car came to a halt and I untangled myself from the blanket I was sharing with Cara and I put my Ipod into my pocket. We all filed out of the car stepped onto the gravel that was now our driveway. Trevor pushed past our parents and used his key to get into the house, still pissed. I decided to go check in on my room and without saying anything I moved into the house. As soon as you enter the house your in the foyer and there is a stair case that comes down from the right and left and meets up about fifteen steps that leads to a hall where you can go straight, left or right. My room is to the right and next to it there is a connecting bathroom that also has a door in the hall where you can enter from but I'm deciding to keep that locked at all times.

I pushed the bedroom door open and walked into the electric purple room, all the painting in the house was done before moving in so all we had to worry about was furnishing. I made sure my furniture was in the room already and where I wanted it so that when I got here I could relax more. To the Right corner on the room there was a queen bed with a white canopy and across from it to the left was my dresser. Straight ahead of my bed was a stand and TV and across from that was a desk where my lap top would be set up. on the wall between my dresser and desk was the door to my bathroom.

"Hey girl," I heard from the door and looked over.

A smile grew and I turned around to see my cousin, Michelle, standing with her arms crossed and a smile on her face. I walked over and gave her a hug. "Hey, you came quick."

She laughed and waked into the room, taking a seat on the bed. "Well I couldn't let you stay here alone, now could I?"

I shook my head," nope and I love you for that."

"I know you do," she smiled and leaned back. "So how's Trevor and Cara holding up? I didn't see them."

"We'll Cara isn't happy about the move. And, Trevor is really, really not happy about it. You know, with football and all."

"Damn that really sucks. Trevor! Cara! Come in here!" We waited for a few seconds and then Cara came walking through the door. She smiled as she saw Michelle and walked over to her quickly.

"Michelle! Hey what's up," she asked giving her a hug. Michelle smiled and tugged Cara down onto the bed to sit next to her. Cara loves our cousin. I think its because she is one of the only people in the family that does not tease her, except for my mother. Other then that she is free target because she is the youngest. Slowly but surely Trevor made his way into the other room and he had a small smile as he saw Michelle. They got along good, almost as good as her. They fight sometimes but it's like brother sister so it's okay.

"Hey trev, you doing good?" She asked as he leaned on the door frame.

"Eh," he sighed, "I could be better but you know, how's it going for you," he asked.

She smiled before answering, "We'll good for me but its going to get better for you."

He looked at her confused as she winked at Cara. "What, don't tell me you got some girl to date me out of pity of me coming here." She laughed.

"It's not out of pity! She saw you in a picture and thinks your cute!" He sighed and turned to walk out. Michelle stood and followed. "Trevor wait-" She exited the room with Cara following behind.

I rolled my eyes walked over to my bed with my clothing suitcase in hand, this was the last one that needed to be unpacked. I had brought all my clothing here over the last weekend we came to move things in and I left one bag with things that I would need until the big move. It was a good idea because now my family will have to do hard core unpacking when I have a little to do, then I can relax and focus more on important things. Like thinking of ways to see my sort of boyfriend. Were not really together, but we have something going on. The rules in our "relationship" is that we can see other people because we don't want the boyfriend girlfriend label, we just kind of hook up buddies. but everyone thinks were a couple. His name is Ricky, he took me moving pretty hard and he is a big reason that I didn't want to go. I think that now we aren't living close things will get hard. He said he still wants to see me but I really don't know how that is going to work out. I want to be able to be open to seeing other guys but our unspoken agreement is that we only see each other even though we have that option to do otherwise. I don't know if he can hold up to that though because girls are always all over him but he puts them off. Now with me gone now though I don't know if that is going to stick.

For the next couple of hours Michelle and I helped our family unpack and get the house looking like someone actually lived there. The kitchen was done being, according to my father, the most important room in the house. And the living room was coming together. My brother didn't want any help with his room, he wont let our parent look through his stuff, for good reason. We helps Cara with her room because she felt overwhelmed doing it herself. We didn't mind, mostly because she helped me with mine when I forced her to. I was returning the favor.

Michelle was sprawled out on Cara's floor, It was already nine and we were pretty tired. "Do you want to go sit outside I need some air."

I nodded, "sure, I'm getting all hot anyway." I took one look in the mirror across from me and checked over what I was wearing. I was in a tank top and some hip hugger jeans. Because it's winter I grabbed a hoodie from my sister room, "I'm going to borrow this kay?" She looked up checking which sweatshirt I was taking. It was her Black sweatshirt with New York plastered in white letters on the front with what looked like paint splattered over it. She nodded and went back to folding clothes.

Michelle and I made our way down the stair case and grabbed our shoes that were at the door. "Mom Michelle and I are going out, well see you soon!"

"Okay," she yelled back not really paying attention. She was too busy to really care. She wasn't worried about us exploring because Michelle lives down the street so she knows her ways up here.

We walked out the door and decided to go and walk to the park, there was a new one built and there was a pretty good view of a lake if you climb to the top of the rock climbing part. Me loving to see new sites decided it would be a pretty good idea and jumped at the offer. We began walking toward the direction on the ark when Michelle's name was called.

She looked back and smiled, "James hey," once he got closer she gave him a hug and then looked over to me. "This is my cousin Jillian, she just moved into that house," she stated pointing to the new place.

He smiled and put his hand out. "Hey, my names James," I took his hand and shook it. As I did I could smell his cologne, he was three feet from me and it was intoxication. I took a better look at him and saw that he had Blond hair that went a little past his forehead. His eyes were Hazel and they stuck out the most with his dark eyelashes. A scar was on the left side of his face next to his eye, it was pretty big but not to noticeable unless you were really looking, which I was. James, being much taller towered over me. I was a small five' three and he was an easy six foot.

"Well, a couple people are over, more are coming as sort of a party that was last minuet made. I went to your house and you weren't home, your mom said you were down the street so I came here to find you, are you ladies on?" Michelle looked at me to see if I wanted to go and I shrugged, playing it cool, and nodded.

"Sure we'll come," she answered.

He smiled, "Great."