Don't have a name for it yet, but let's call it The Elements

Hi, I'd really appreciate it if you could review this.

There isn't really any fantasy in this section, but my story is fantasy.

There may be a few typos - sorry

UNTITLED

By: Onceuponatim3xo

The Pilot came on the P.A. and told us we would soon be taking off. I knew that I should have felt either excited or upset, but I was neither. I just sank further into my seat and looked out the window. My parents beside me were speaking so quickly that I could not pay attention to what they were saying - not that I really wanted to. I heard snippets of their conversation that were actually comprehensible, such as “everything’s at the house” “I can’t wait to see our new home” and “New England will be beautiful”.

There was a ping and the picture above me of a seatbelt lighted up. I buckled and chewed on a piece of gum to prevent my ears from popping when we took off. The plane started up and moved steadily across the runway. I glanced at the sunny sky and palm trees one last time in hopes that I would remember them forever. When we took flight I felt pinned to my seat, the plane was almost at a ninety degree angle! All right, I’m exaggerating a little, but it definitely felt like it! Before I could start to panic, though, the plane leveled out and everyone relaxed and started talking. I stared out the window, part of me didn’t care about the whole moving business, but a more dominant part of me was wondering; wondering what my new house would be like, the new area, the new weather, the new school.

Moving from South-West United States to New England would be a big change, and I was nervous. How would I deal with all of the differences and new things! I’d heard that Riveroaks was a town, but I’d much rather hear the word city. All of my life I’ve lived in the city and I’m used to the bustling noise and the packed streets. I’m going to die of boredom in Riveroaks.

I tore my eyes away from the mesmerizing blue sky and looked down onto the cities. My eyes then focused to all of the upcoming houses. Blue splotches covered the land as far as the eye could see; pools. I was going to miss mine, it felt good to dunk myself in the cool water and escape from the heat. I sighed and leaned my head against the window in exhaustion. A ping sounded and the seatbelt light turned off. Several people got up from their cheap, uncomfortable seats and raced to the bathroom. I closed my eyes and rested to recover from my lack of sleep.

The next thing I knew, my mom was shaking me awake, whispering “Kirsten, wake up sweetie, we’re here” in to my ear. I groaned and rubbed my eyes, then looked around to see if anyone was getting up - they weren’t - so I stayed put and waited for further instructions. My brother caught my eyes and he started to mimic me sleeping in the most unattractive way. I turned away and rolled my eyes at the same time. Then the flight attendant came down the aisle and started ushering people off of the plane. I grabbed my carry-on and pushed through the crowd of people in the aisle then got off of the plane and into the airport. I walked down the hallway and out the door into the waiting area. My relatives were waiting in the long rows of seats with grins from ear to ear. I smiled half-heartedly. They ran up to my whole family and kissed and hugged us. My Aunt Evelyn pinched my cheek and spoke to me in baby-talk, Uncle Phil punched my arm like I was a boy, Uncle Flynn pat me on the back, and Aunt Matilda smiled and waved shyly. Unlike myself, my brother was enjoying all of the attention.

My parents and brother talked and laughed with my relatives. Aunt Matilda and I were the only ones not having a good time. I hadn’t seen my relatives in forever, but I remembered that Aunt Matilda always had a wonderful mood. I wanted to reach out to her and ask her what was wrong, but I held back, I didn’t want to get into her personal business. She was looking down and examining her shoes, she turned her foot this way and that. Her long almost gypsy-like skirt swaying as her legs moved. She was oddly dressed - as I had found every time that I came to visit - but, her kind personality made her clothes become unnoticed. After a while of studying her shoes, she looked up, turned to me, and smiled a little. She walked toward me, then stopped, and asked me how I was doing. I smiled a wide, corny smile, hoping that it would cheer her up a little bit, then said “I’m great, how are you?

“I’m well.” She said, although her face showed otherwise. “What have you been up to since I’ve last seen you?” She tried to make polite conversation.

“Not too much, well, I did get fifth place in the National Poetry Contest.” I said, trying very hard not to sound like I was bragging.

“Oh, that’s wonderful!” Aunt Matilda exclaimed, her face lightening. “I’d love to hear one of your poems sometime!”

“Alright, do you have an e-mail, I can try to send it to you.” I dug around my carry-on for a pen and paper.

“No, sorry, I like to use good old fashioned ‘snail mail’ as they call it.” Aunt Matilda laughed a little, showing her old personality.

I was glad that her mood was getting back to normal, I tried to keep the small talk going “so, what have you been doing?”

“A little of this a little of that, not very much. I did- “

“Come on everyone let’s get some food!” Uncle Phil shouted, he was a short and portly man with a gray mustache, Hawaiian shirt, and hat that dated back to the 1950’s. At his words we all weaved through the many rows of seats that were for waiting passengers and such. Through all of the commotion, we somehow managed to get down to the room where you pick up all of your luggage.

We waited for at least a half hour for the carousel to actually start moving, and then to find our luggage. Uncle Flynn and Aunt Matilda had gone to get the car so that we could get to the restaurant faster. Aunt Evelyn was picking at her nails and listening to my mom babble, while Uncle Phil was groaning about how hungry he was. My dad was on the lookout for our bags, my brother was listening to music on his MP3 player, and I was sitting at a bench, not knowing what to think about my situation.

Finally my dad smiled widely and shouted to my brother “hey , Sam give me a hand with this one before it gets away!” He started to grab at the suitcase and my brother helped him drag it off of the carousel. This happened several times before we had all of our luggage. The suitcases were lined up one by one and my dad, Uncle Phil, and Uncle Flynn (who had come back with the car) were all piling the suitcases into the trunk of the car, while my brother resumed listening to his MP3 player.

After all of the suitcases were in the trunk we got into the SUV and took off. For a while, all that I could see were airport buildings and a wide road. Then the amount of buildings grew smaller and smaller, and I began to see the actual landscape of New England. There were several oak trees with orange colored leaves and the ground was littered with orange and yellow. Being only the beginning of Autumn, I could still see the lush green grass. I rolled down my window and stuck my head out. I breathed in the damp air deeply and slowly exhaled. The air was fresh and, as I looked out onto the land, I noticed upcoming orchards of apple trees.

A long while later we came to a small downtown area, a large sign greeted us, “Welcome to Riveroaks”. I looked at the small shops in disappointment, I said it before, I’ll say it again, I’m going to die in Riveroaks. “Aunt Matilda, how far is the nearest shopping mall?”

“Oh, sweetie, that’s about fifty miles from here. Riveroaks is a big town in the middle of nowhere.” She replied, sympathetically. I stared at her in shock and disbelief. There was no way that I’d even be able to go there occasionally. I officially hated Riveroaks!

“We’re here!” Uncle Flynn pulled into a parking lot and we all scrambled out of the car to stretch our legs. Then everyone headed to the restaurant with hunger growling in their bellies, I followed, even though I wasn’t hungry, I was too full of bitterness toward this stupid town. As soon as I walked into the restaurant, though, an overwhelming and delicious smell of pizza overpowered my fullness, and my belly growled too.

A waitress sat us down at a long table and we ordered a round of cokes, except for my mom, who ordered a diet coke. Even though she was most definitely slender, she thought that she was the complete opposite. She always crossed her arms over her tummy, self-consciously when she talked to someone new.

When the waitress came back with our drinks, we ordered our pizza and my aunts and uncles started talking about what there was to do in Riveroaks, and believe me, that conversation didn’t last long at all!

I decided to look around and familiarize myself with the faces in the restaurant so that I could recognize them later on. There were a couple in the far, back end. They were looking deeply into each others eyes. I smiled inside, it was a cute thing to see. Then, farther away from the couple was a stout elderly man and a shriveled up old woman with a stony face. They were staring at a young man, about the age of thirty. He looked nervous under their glare, I wondered what the story was with them. In the other far, back corner was a family of six. The wife was busy wiping her baby’s face, while the husband was attempting to make his two toddlers sit still. And closest to my table was another family, this one of four. The wife and husband were intently reading the menu, while their daughter was reading a large book, and their son was - looking at me.

Our eyes locked, and I didn’t dare look away, neither did he. His face was tense with certain hatred. I felt my eyebrows raise in confusion, he still gave me that cold hating glare. We stayed like that for an immeasurable amount of time. Suddenly our stares were interrupted by a pewee soccer team passing by us, shouting for pizza. When the team cleared the area, the boy was no longer looking at me, and I found no reason to look at him anymore either. I stared at the red and white checkered tablecloth, extremely confused, what had just happened??

The pizzas came, but I was so deeply lost in thought that I didn’t even taste them. After we all finished eating, the waitress came by with the bill. We paid the bill and left. When climbing into the car, I saw the boy and his family come out of the restaurant doors, I quickened my pace getting into the car and slammed the door. We left the parking lot and headed toward my new house.

After many fields and the random house passed, we finally came to more close together houses, yet we still didn’t stop. We passed mine and Sam’s new High School, and then, a few blocks later, we started driving up a hill. The road on the hill was bordered with trees and a while later the road diverged into two, we took the one on the left and drove up the hill even more. I started to think that we were on a never ending inclining road, but then I saw a gate. It was a large, old black gate, with peeling paint and sharp points at the top. Uncle Flynn stopped the car a few feet away from it. Then he got out and opened the gate, enough to drive past. He got back in, and we drove on. We drove on a winding drive way, still inclining. Then the ground leveled out and I could see the house.

It was a two-story, white, colonial house, with black shutters, a black door, and ivy growing on the side of it. There was a sycamore tree with a make-shift swing hanging from it. There was also an old apple tree with several apples on the ground. In the distance there was a forest bordering my house. The house wasn’t in bad shape, but it definitely wasn’t in good shape either. The car stopped on the gravel driveway with a crunch and everyone got out. I walked around the lawn after telling my parents that I was going to take a look around. I walked toward the backyard and discovered that there was a large garden with old, chipping statues and a long-since broken fountain. I sat on a cracked and weathered bench and studied my surroundings.

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I hoped you liked it!

Oh, and please don't be extremely harsh, i'm kind of fragile with this type of thing. Constructive criticism is fine, but please don't flat out say you hate it!

Thanks,

Onceuponatim3xo