Chapter 1: The Only One ...

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Chapter One:

“Nyah!” I heard my mother yelling from downstairs.

“What?” I yelled back.

“Come here for a minute. I need to talk to you” she said.

“Can it wait?” I was in the middle of taking pictures for art assignment.

“Now!” my mother yelled. I got up and heading down the stairs towards the living room. Our condo is pretty big. We have three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large living room, dining room and an office for my mother. My room is the attic area upstairs, which my mom renovated for me.

I walked into the living room where my mom was sitting waiting.

“What’s up mom?” I asked as I sat down on the leather couch across from her.

“Well I have some good news. Actually I have two things to tell you” she said.

“What is it?” I asked. I was kind of excited to know what the news was.

“Well, you know me and Eric have been dating for almost eight months now and it’s been getting serious between us and-” I cut her off before she could finish her sentence.

“Don’t tell me he proposed?” I asked.

She nodded a happy yes as a smile appeared on her face.

“And you said yes?”

She nodded again. “Isn’t it wonderful?” she asked.

I hesitated. Don’t get me wrong Eric is a nice guy and he makes my mom happy but I thought it would be a while until they started talking about marriage.

“Aren’t you happy for me Nyah? I thought I would never get married again after your father” she said

I was too in thought to answer her. My mother and father divorced when I was two years old and after that my father moved and I haven’t seen him since. Sometimes he sends me cards telling me how much he missed me but I just throw them away. If he missed me so much he would come and see me. He wouldn’t send me cards telling me about his wife and three kids.

“Nyah I know it will be a change but– Oh! I almost forgot the second thing I had to tell you” she said.

“So Eric’s job gave him a promotion and that means we can afford to buy a new house instead of moving into his apartment” she said, “ but we are going to have to move to California since that’s where his job will be” she explained.

Everything in my mind stopped.

“I’m not moving” I said. I know I was acting like I brat but this is my home. We lived in Bronx, New York my whole life and now she wanted me to move across the country because she wants to get married? I don’t think so. This is my home. This is where I felt safe and

where I knew I could always be myself and now it’s all over.

“Nyah stop being like that. Nothing you say is going to change this. I already found you a school, it’s very nice” she said.

“Is it a performing arts school?” I asked coldly. I’m a sophomore at a performing arts school in Manhattan and dance is my life. I dance at school from 11am to 4pm everyday on top of my academic classes. Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Hip hop, you name it I dance it.

But the look on my mother’s face told me I wasn’t going to be happy with her answer.

“There weren’t any close enough to where we would be living”.

“Please mom. Don’t do this to me” I pleaded.

“This is happening Nyah and there is nothing that will change that” she said.

I got up and walked away. I could feel the tears building up.

“Nyah” my mother said.

“What!” I snapped. Couldn’t she just allow me to be mad?

“I know you are upset but you will get over it. It may not be a performing arts school but there has to be some dance studios. Its L.A for

Christ sake” she said.

Even though she was right I was still mad.

I went up to my room and immediately grabbed my iPhone. I called my best friend Lena.

“Hey Nyah! What’s up?” she said.

“Hey Lena. I just got the worst news” I said fighting back tears.

“What is it?” she asked.

“It’s my mom, Eric proposed to her and she said yes” I explained.

“Well that’s not THAT bad” she said.

“No its not but the fact that his job is moving him to California is. And the fact that my mom said we are moving with him” I said.

“Oh No! You can’t move!” she yelled through the phone.

“Tell that to my mother” I said.

“Doesn’t she know this is the most important year of your life? The Julliard scouts are coming to the school performance show that you were in! This is a big opportunity for you!” she said.

I was so upset about moving in general that I forgot about that. It just makes this thing a whole lot worse.

“Um Lena I’ll call you back later okay?”

“Yeah, but call me as soon as you can” she said.

“Okay. And Lena do you mind keeping this between us until tomorrow after school. I don’t want Ian to know yet”

“Okay, I promise” she said and hung up the phone.

Ian and I have been dating for the last 6 months but we have known each other since the 6th grade. He attends the performing arts school also.

I already know that he will be so devastated when I tell him so I figured I would do it in person at school tomorrow.

There was no point in finishing my assignment since I wasn’t going to be in school much longer.

I looked at myself in the mirror. My eyes were all puffy from crying. I looked at my hazel eyes and they were so red. I’m only sixteen and I have so many piercings. I have both sides of my nose pierced and my septum pierced. I have the medusa on my top lip, both sides of my bottom lip pierced, and the surface bar on my inner bottom lip. And I have the industrial bar in my left ear. My mother doesn’t like my piercings but she allows me to get them because if not I would go behind her back.

My hair was in a bun so I let it down. Six months ago I dyed the front of my hair blonde and buzzed cut a fade into the right side. My hair was starting to grow back and I figured it was time for a change again.

A few hours later my mother called me down for dinner. She told me Eric was coming over for dinner so I wouldn’t be surprised if he was there already. I went down to the dining room and saw that my mom made meatloaf, my favorite.

She’s trying to get on my good side, I thought.

When my mom saw my hair she almost dropped the plates she was holding. That was the reaction I was expecting. My hair looked like orphan Annie’s but blonde. I loved it.

“If you did that to your hair for attention Nyah it’s a shame” she said.

“I didn’t do it for attention. Time for a change right?” I said taking a seat at the table. Just then Eric came into the dining room holding the meatloaf.

“Nice hair” he said to me.

I rolled my eyes. “Thanks” I said.

We all sat down and started eating. My mother made meatloaf, mashed potatoes and macaroni n cheese.

After a while of silence Eric spoke.

“So I guess your mother told you the good news?” he said.

“What good news? I didn’t hear any good news” I said.

“Remember what I told you earlier? About us moving and me and Eric getting married?” my mother said. She knew I remembered.

“Oh that? I didn’t think that was GOOD news” I said with an attitude.

“Nyah” my mom said.

Eric didn’t say anything and I went back to eating my food.

This was such awkward dinner. My mother knew not to talk to me since I was still mad and Eric kept trying to make small talk with me.

Talking about how great L.A is going to be and how his job will allow him to work from home and all this other crap.

I stopped listening after a while. But I did listen when he told me we will be moving on Monday so tomorrow was my last day of school and I only had this weekend to pack up my things.

I was sick and tired of hearing him talk so I had to excuse myself.

“I’m going to bed. I have school tomorrow” I said and walked into the kitchen to put my plate in the sink.

I could hear my mom and Eric talking about me.

“Alice, she’ll get over it” Eric said, “It’s just going to take time”.

“I know but I hate to see her like this” she said. Eric got up and hugged my mother.

Whatever, I thought and went up to my room. I checked my phone and saw that Ian had called and texted me.

Hey babe, what’s up? He texted

Nothing really. Just finished dinner.

Oh, did you finish your art assignment yet?

Um, no

You know that’s worth 30 percent of your grade right?

I know. But I’ll talk to you tomorrow. I’m really tired.