I wasn’t complaining anymore about being here, it was like living in luxury. I pretty much hadn’t let my room in three days except for dinner times which I had to sit at the table with mom and Christen for and for when I wanted a can of coke or something. I’d gone through the bags that were on my bedroom floor and it made things just that more amazing. I knew what Christen was trying to do though, he was buying my affection and since I knew he was it made accepting the gifts so much more acceptable. He’d gotten me a new IPhone 4S, cool purple headphones, an apple laptop that was black and purple with the personalized cover which had my name on it. He also gave me some new purple and black files with my name on for school, there were some new trainers in one bag which were cool; they were black and silver with purple laces with my surname on just to remind me that if my mom and Christen ever got married I’d still be a ‘James’. And last but not least, a small box that inside held a car key; I felt confused at first but then Christen took me down to his inside garage and showed me the four cars he had; one that was a black and purple Portia with E.James1 on the license plates. The car was black with purple flames on it and the roof came down when I wanted it to. It was great, he talked away telling me about how my mom had told him I’d recently learned to drive and got my license but didn’t have anything to drive so he’d just taken one of his cars and done it up for me because he figured I’d need to flash my style some way or another. I was glad he’d told me it used to be one of his cars, I’d of felt weird accepting it if he’d told me it was a brand new car that he’d gotten just for me. I was ecstatic though to say the least!

“Taylor, don’t you think you should go out and explore today?” mom asked walking into my room without knocking. I didn’t look up from the TV, I was watching the 15th episode of the OC; Christen had given them to me. He likes the program too so he said if I looked after them I could borrow them and then smirked and said it made no difference because what’s his is mine now, he seemed rather happy about the whole thing. He and mom had been dating 6 weeks, they’d already moved in together yet they weren’t getting married but Christen had gone to such lengths to please both of us. Does he really like mom that much that he’d do anything; pay anything to make her love him? And never mind that, what if mom does actually freak out and we have to leave. I’d have to leave all of this; no way. My new mission is to do whatever she says, if she sees that things are different here for even our relationship then maybe just maybe she’ll stay calm. I turned the TV off and stood up stiffly.

“Alright, I’ll just have a shower and get changed” I told her, she paused for a second confused as to what just happened before lingering and finally leaving my room closing the door behind herself; she could have at least said thank you but I suppose I’ll just have to get used to that. I went into my bathroom and took my clothes off, I showered quickly before towel drying my hair and brushing through it in the bathroom. It’ll dry and curl naturally, I picked up my clothes and walked out into my bedroom; looking for a basket or something to put them in. I paused, there isn’t one? I placed my clothes on my bed and grabbed a towel from the bathroom, I’m dripping water everywhere. I dried my feet and then dried the rest of myself off before drying the bathroom floor with the towel and putting the towel back on the rack. I went over to my walk in wardrobe and turned the light on, I went inside and looked at all my clothes on hangers; I chose a pair of white shorts and a white thin strapped t-shirt that had lilac purple flowers on it. I put some white underwear on, then the clothes and then finished off with pulling my white sandals onto my feet. I turned the light off and went to my bathroom, I took a white hair band off the shelf where I’d set all my hair accessories and make-up up on. I put the hair band in my hair and then put some mascara and pink lip balm on. I the turned the bathroom light off and picked up my dirty clothes, I carried them over to the door and flicked the switch so the TV turned off and went back into the wall; I watched as the wall went down and I smirked. I can’t get used to that, I peered our and frowned; is there nowhere for clothes? I sighed and went back into my room, behind the door was an intercom; I pressed the button and heard a clicking noise. I heard Christen laugh at how I was being pushed to actually use it; I still didn’t know my way around the house. Before I could say anything, his voice came through.

“I’ll be right there Taylor” he told me, I smiled a little; it was like I ruled the household. He came running at the press of a button and that worked for me, hopefully that will work for my mom as well. He wasn’t kidding either, he came straight away; usually people said ‘they’ll be right there’ and then finish what they’re doing before actually coming but no, he came straight away. He smiled at me as he poked his head through the door, “What can I help you with?” he asked.

“Is there anywhere I can put my clothes that need to be washed?” I asked, he smiled

“Yeah, I’ll ask Jenson so bring you a basket but if you’re ok for now I’ll just take them to the laundry room. It looks like you’re going somewhere” he winked, I smiled and he took the clothes off me before disappearing. They sure do want me out of the house today; I went over to my bed and made it quickly before grabbing my IPhone and car keys. I turned my bedroom light off and pulled the door shut behind myself, I walked along the corridor looking at the white walls that had silver frames on them with painting inside; they were all the same size and shape and all used the same sunset colors. I found myself in the open area once more; there was a fireplace with a sofa in front of it and a rug that made it look like a warm sort of area, which was just a little space by itself. I could see mom on the sun lounger by the pool. I walked over to the front door and opened it; I stepped outside into the sunshine and pulled the door closed behind myself. I walked down the steps; it’s easier walking down them than up them in this heat I must say. I got to the bottom of the drive and saw my car awaiting me already with it’d roof down, Christen must have a spare key; that’s good, at least if I do lose this one then there’s no big panic. I went over to my car and touched the smooth, hot surface. The bonnet and car doors are going to get hot because they’re black but at least I don’t have a roof so that should cool me down when driving.

I heard some voices muttered and I turned to see two boys sitting on the steps of the house next door; one of them looked away while the other smiled and waved at me. I wondered if I should just leave and go for a drive around town but my mom did tell me to make friends and maybe they can show me around; I really do need an escort of some kind. I put my keys in my side short pocket and walked out of the drive and around to the other house, the boy that had waved at me seem thrilled that I’d come over. He stood up and bounded down the steps to greet me at the bottom,

“Hey, I’m Leo” he smiled at me; he had a white and grey stripy t-shirt on with grey shorts that went down to his knee with white flip flops on too. His hair was brown and spiked up in some places, he was tanned and wore a wrist watch and white sunglasses on his head. His eyes were a light green colour, I guess having a lot of sun making everything look brighter.

“Taylor” I replied, he grinned showing his perfect American grin.

“Where you from?” he asked me, he looked curious for a split second; it wasn’t hard to guess. I would have told him if he was an adult even though I knew he was just taking the piss by asking but since he is my age and I want him to be my friend and escort I need to talk to him like I would to any ‘friend’ back home not that I’ve had many friends for a long time now.

“I’m sorry, was my accent not enough of a give away?” I smirked, he grinned some more. I glanced up the steps and the other boy; his cheeks were flushed like he was incredibly hot or something.

“That’s Jasper” Leo told me, Jasper glanced at me and then away like he didn’t want me here. Maybe I should go, after all this isn’t my house and I just assumed they wanted to be friends; I’ll go find some girls somewhere around here and befriend them. I turned slightly and took a step back,

“It was nice meeting you” I told Leo, I turned and walked back around the drive to my car. I got in the drivers’ seat and turned the engine on. I flicked through radio channels before turning the volume up a little so it wasn’t too loud but loud enough for me to hear it.

“So where you heading?” asked Leo, walking around the edge of the drive. He leaned against my car door when he got close enough and I smirked at him.

“If you get in you can find out” I replied, he grinned and glanced back at Jasper. “He can come too if he likes although I don’t think I’m warming to him just yet” I added; he scoffed and rolled his eyes. I didn’t know what to make of the gesture but I didn’t ponder on it too much. He opened the door to the passengers’ seat and climbed in, he put his seat belt on and it reminded me to do the same so I did. I pulled out of the drive and put the break back on when we were outside the bottom of the other drive,

“C’mon Jazz!” called Leo, Jasper seemed to hesitate before walking down the steps in a more mature way and getting into the back of the car. He was quite good looking actually, his blonde hair was straight down to his shoulders and he had dark brown eyes; he was wearing a blue shirt with short jeans and blue sandshoes. He didn’t wear anything on his wrists but he had a brown wooden beaded necklace on around his neck which was quite nice. He was broader than Leo and his arms were muscularly so I can’t imagine what he looks like under his shirt. I drove through streets I didn’t know but I must have done it with confidence because neither of them asked me where I was going or pointed out that we were going in the wrong direction. It was actually very awkwardly quiet until Leo spoke up, “Park here, there’s a skate park around the corner” he told me. I looked at the sides of the roads and found a parking space. The others got out and I paid for a ticket, I put the roof back up and put the ticket in the window before catching up to the boys who were already walking up the steep bank. I’m not unhealthy but in this heat, a bank like this would have killed me either way. Once we got to the top, even Leo and Jasper were panting so I didn’t feel out of place.

“Surely we could have drove up that and parked up here” I muttered to myself, Leo smirked.

“You could have but it costs more to park up here” he told me, ah that makes sense; at least he was looking out for me already. He could have saved himself the journey and just told me to park up here not caring about how much money I paid; I was glad Christen had put some money in the side of the car door otherwise I would have looked pretty stupid asking to borrow money off of them. I smiled when we finally saw the skate park, there were a lot of people our age there; looks like this is where the hang out is. I walked closely behind Leo so I didn’t look so out of the ordinary but my skin being paler than everyone else’s made that happen anyways. People stopped and stared and I hated it, is this what’s going to happen until I tan?

“You’ll have to get used to the funny looks, you’re a little out of place darling” Leo told me, it felt weird him calling me ‘darling’ considering we looked about the same age. It occurred to me that I didn’t know anything about them, just their names yet I’d let them in my car and let them bring me to a place like this full of teenagers that I didn’t even know. I frowned; I didn’t want to be given funny looks everywhere I went.

“Oh great, where’s the nearest tanning salon?” I asked, he laughed and even Jasper smiled. They smiled at me like I was kidding, I wish I was. I’d rather being a strange coloured orange and walk around looking a little fake for a while then be a pale as milk and be stared at. I’m not good with situations like this, back home nobody even noticed me and in Paris I just looked like a tourist. Here I stood out rather obviously, surely there are hundreds of other tourists here as pale as me? Jasper watched me carefully for a few long seconds before walking over to a group of girls, well I guess he’s the stud or something around here; I wondered if I actually stood a chance with any guy from LA or am I just not LA pretty enough? Leo led me over to where a group of guys were; they all glanced at me and looked me up and down too. Everyone went back to what they were doing before and it got louder so I didn’t feel as awkward.

“I love it when you bring new toys with you Leo,” smirked a guy walking over to us, he was tall and had dark skin; his eyes were brown and he had braids that went down to the back of his neck line. He wore black shades on his eyes and was shirtless, he was very buff and he wore grey shorts that went down to his knees as well as grey trainers with white ankle socks. I didn’t really like being addressed as a ‘toy’, who does he think he is?

“Oh she isn’t a toy, she just moved in next door to Jasper. Christen’s new step daughter or whatever” he informed him, if we were alone I would have corrected him but it made more sense being called his step daughter than his girlfriend’s daughter. Well actually no it didn’t, I didn’t speak though; I just stood being patient because I really had nothing else to do.

“Oh, so she’s here with you?” asked the guy, Leo nodded. “Well I guess that makes a huge difference” he added. He went and sat back down and nobody really looked at me again after that, Leo walked back over to me and led me towards a shaded part with a tree and some grass I could sit on.

“That’s Damien; he pretty much makes the rules around here. He’s a nice guy when you get to know him” Leo informed me, so this is like a gang? Well my mother would be ecstatic if she knew a gang lived on our doorstep. I sat down and crossed my legs and Leo sat next to me with his legs stretched out forward, he looked comfortable so I guess there was no need to tell him that there were seats over by Jasper not that Jasper probably wanted to sit with us, I mean me. “So what brings you here?” Leo asked, I thought about being a smart ass and saying ‘you brought me here’ but I knew that wasn’t what he meant.

“Alison met Christen in Paris and after 6 weeks of dating Christen asked her to move in so here we are” I replied dully, not really much of a story. Leo looked at me as if unsure how to respond to that which was good because it meant he was actually interested; I think.

“So Alison, she’s your mom?” he asked me, I nodded. “You don’t call her mom?” he asked again, so what? Big deal, I don’t call her mom; a lot of children don’t call their mother’s mother or mom’s mom. I knew that wouldn’t make sense to him though, he wanted to understand my story and I guess that was my mistake with all the other people I tried to make friends with in different countries; I never bothered to let them know me because they’d forget me once I’d left. I wonder if this time is different, will mom really want to stay here for the rest of her life…

“No not really but that’s all boring stuff, what about you? You lived here all your life?” I asked, he knew I was purposely moving the conversation away from my life and he was nice enough to not pressure the rest out of me like my friends back in London would have if I was keeping a secret. Leo smiled to himself and stretched before sitting cross legged like me.

“No, I’ve lived here for about 7 years now. I was brought up in Texas like Jasper, that’s why we’re such good friends; we have all this terminology that nobody else really seems to understand. It’s great, call us childish but it makes us feel like we have something special nobody else can do” he grinned to himself, he certainly looks happy here. I couldn’t really hear the western accent in his voice but I guess being here washed it out of him.

“You don’t sound like you’re from Texas” I pointed out, trying to keep the conversation going on him. He smiled some more but this time at me,

“Nah, been here too long and my dad’s new wife Cassie is from here so I guess I’ve been around it a lot. Heck, even my dad who lived in Texas all his life is losing some of the tones. But Jasper just moved here last year, he like you in paleness but the sun soon saw to that” he informed me, maybe that’s why Jasper doesn’t want me here. Because he wants to remain the newest member of this little cult thing going on,

“Well hopefully I’ll tan soon, not really a fan of being out of the ordinary” I told him, he smiled and nodded like he understood. Then my phone started ringing and people glanced at me, I answered it quickly and put it to my ear. “Hello?” I asked, I need to get number put in here. It was mom, “I’m at the park” I answered, “with Leo” I answered again. “You told me to go make friends” I pointed out when she complained about me being with a boy, “well you didn’t specify girl friends” I replied bored with her already. She wanted to tell me Christen was taking her to his office to meet his work friends and that if I wanted to come I could but if I didn’t then I had to wait and stay out until she and Christen got home. Somehow going on a fun family adventure with the two of them sounded more like hell, “I’ll just stay out, I’m sure I can find somewhere to drive to or sit for the next 4 hours” I told myself more than her, she went on about how it wouldn’t kill me to spend some time with Christen. “I live with him, surely that’s enough time spent considering I haven’t seen my actual dad in the last 2 years” I replied sarcastically, “Yeah I had a feeling you were going to hang up now” I muttered hanging up on her ranting about how we don’t mention dad and all that other bullshit she tells herself.

“Take it that was Alison?” Leo asked with a smirk on his face, I smiled a little.

“Bingo” I sighed in almost a fed up style, he scoffed. “If I did that to my mom she’d beat me to an inch of my life” he told me, I guess my mom really isn’t like other mom’s.

“Pft, please; Alison isn’t even allowed to tell me what to do these days. She hasn’t exactly been a good parent” I muttered, I didn’t really mean to let that slip but this is what conversation was all about. Leo smiled at me and shrugged,

“There’s no such thing as a perfect person amigo” he smiled, I shrugged. It’d be nice if she could at least try to be a good person towards me, “So, 4 hours?” he asked when I didn’t respond to that. I wondered if he actually wanted me here or was just being polite or maybe he just needed a lift here and didn’t have a car. Maybe that’s why they waved me over and started speaking to me; maybe Jasper didn’t talk to me because he knew Leo was just using me for the ride. If that was the case, why was he still talking to me? I realized I was ignoring him when he scoffed again.

“Sorry, was in a whole world of my own there. Erm, Alison’s going to Christen’s work or something so I have 4 hours to kill” I replied back to him, he smiled. He smiles a lot; surely he’d just not respond to the comment but carry the conversation going like my friends in London would do. I guess they’re not really my friends anymore; they probably replaced me with someone else at school.

“Well if you want, Jasper and I could show you where places are?” he asked, that sounded nice and actually helpful. I suppose he wasn’t just in it for the car ride after all, or maybe he needs me to take him to the shop so he can get some shopping in for his mom. For some reason I felt awfully tense about befriending him all of a sudden but it can’t do me much harm especially when I’ve so much time to myself.

“That sounds good” I told him, he looked over at Jasper and so did I; he was staring at us. Does he really have that big of a problem with me? Does he want me to leave? I doubt he’ll actually want to come with us in the car considering he doesn’t even like me, he hardly knows me; it’s a bit unfair.

“You go start up the car, I’ll get Jasper. I have a feeling he wants to talk” Leo groaned, I didn’t know how to respond to that so I just stood up and walked back the way we’d came and down the steep hill. I got to the car and put the roof down; I really need to put some sun cream on. I then got in and started the engine so that a little bit of air would pick up. The radio came back on singing ‘Starships’, it was an alright song so I left it on. The boys took 10 minutes but then came down to the car, Leo looked incredibly frustrated now and got in the back whereas Jasper looked the same as before; emotionless as he got into the passenger seat. I waited for someone to tell me where to drive and after a few long silent seconds I just pulled out and drove anywhere; it was interesting seeing all the places and buildings. I loved the smell of the foods and it all sounded happy and busy as people went about shopping.

“If you take a right here you’ll come to a service station” Jasper told me, I looked at him with a blank expression and then he pointed to the fact that my car didn’t have much petrol left. I guess Christen forgot about that but in a way I was glad, at least someone was still talking to me. I turned right at the traffic lights and drove till I found indeed a service station. I parked and got out to put petrol in the car, Leo got out too and went into the little shop. I figured I may as well ask Jasper,

“Is he alright?” I asked, Jasper didn’t turn his head to look at me. He sighed and shrugged,

“He’s fine, just being an ass like usual” he replied eventually, I put the pump back and closed the hatch. I frowned at the answer, in my opinion; Jasper was the one pretty much being an ass. I wanted to tell him that Leo was happy before he went and said something but I didn’t want both of them to walk away; I wanted company. Even if it was silent, ‘boys being boys’ company; I went over to the little shop and walked inside. I saw Leo waiting over by the drink and I walked over to him, he smiled at me slightly.

“You ok?” I asked, he smirked and nodded.

“Yeah, just us mates disagreeing; we do it a lot. Anyways, now your car is up and running again we should go to the beach or something. A group of people from school are down there and there’s never a better time for you to make friends with the people you’ll see every day at school” he smiled happily again, he confuses me. I smiled a little and went to pay for the petrol; the shop was small and had two isles which consisted of sweets, magazines, drinks and cards as well as the usual chewing gum and car accessories. The man behind the counter was quite old and he wore a red checked shirt with light blue jeans, I couldn’t see his feet from where I was standing. Surely he’d be hot in those clothes; I’m hot even in these clothes. Leo came over and leaned against the counter, smiling at me. A for a split second it was as if I knew why he was doing it but I pushed the thought away from me, it’s just silly. Jasper doesn’t like me in the slightest; he’s just here because Leo has him worked up over something. There problems or little arguments have nothing to do with me, I got my change and went back to the car; Leo close behind me.