Chapter 1:

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I lived in New York City for my entire life. All of a sudden my parents decided to quit their jobs and move to some small town in Kentucky. And of course I have to be 17, and still a minor, so I had to go with them.

I remember freaking out when they first told me. Well, actually, I was confused. At first I thought they were kidding because they had it all. I remember all those stories they had told me. How they met at law school and they both wanted to be lawyers in New York City—and not just any lawyers but lawyers for the stars. They fell in love and yadda yadda yadda.

So I couldn’t understand why the hell they would quit their dream jobs and move from their dream city to some small town in the middle of nowhere buying a barn on 10 acres of land.

I mean, seriously. If you’re going to move somewhere different, couldn’t you have chosen California or something, you know, somewhere I actually fit in? But, no. They have to make it difficult for me.

I grew up my entire life in the limelight with wealth and designer clothes. I was part of the popular crowd, partying all night on the weekends, and shopping until I fell asleep in the taxi going back home.

Now I get to start over in a small town, where my next-door neighbors are five miles away.

I just turned 17 only a week ago, on the last day of junior year of high school. And instead of giving me a car, like I wanted and asked for, they said, "Jessica, we have a surprise. Pay attention everyone! We decided that it would be wonderful if we were to move. So, we quit our jobs and we are moving to Kentucky next week!"

I think they were waiting for me to jump up and down with happiness because they had that eager twinkle in their eyes. Except I wasn’t happy, nor eager to move anywhere away from New York City.

But of course, I had no choice, so here I am…in small town Hawesville. I counted at least 36 tractors on the streets as we drove here…in our crappy rental car. So, not only did I not get a car, but also I won’t be able to drive my parents’ Jaguar or Mercedes Benz. I’ll have to wait for another two weeks…two weeks!

As we climbed out of our rental car, a four-wheeler whizzed by on the dirt road, leaving an enormous dirt cloud behind it.

I turned to look at the house. It was a large Victorian home with a wrap around deck. Its red brick stood out from the bland, wood barn behind it. I could just imagine all the dust and cobwebs inside of it. Next to the barn was a stable with a large pasture connected to it.

I walked into the house, leaving my parents to empty the car. I would have to unpack my thousands of boxes of stuff anyway. The house was empty and big. Hardwood floors filled the entire house. The rooms connected into one another through archways. When I returned back to the foyer, I walked up the big twisting stairway. Upstairs, I could see at least five rooms branching off from the hallway. I walked into one of them and saw a small balcony and hallway coming off of the room. I walked through the hallway that was only a few feet long, and came to a walk in closet, perfect for all of my clothes. I walked back into the room and looked out the window. I saw our land, which was basically the barn, the pasture, and a large field. The huge Victorian house with its precise details would have left a small child mesmerized in its beauty. But I wasn’t a small child.

"Knock, knock," I heard a voice say behind me. I turned around to see my mom standing in the doorway. I smiled at her, inviting her in.

"So, have you decided which room you wanted?" she asked.

"I’ve only looked at this one. But I’m liking it," I said in reply.

"I see. Is this the room with the closet?" she said.

"Um, maybe," I said with a mischievous smile. She smiled in return, giving me the approval of the room choice.

"It’s beautiful, isn’t it?" she said looking out the window with me.

"Um, I guess."

She eyed me suspiciously then said, "Don’t worry, it’ll grow on you. The movers will be bringing your things up here soon. I love you." Then she kissed my forehead and walked out the door. I knew the place wouldn’t "grow on me".

I took a long look back at the room before I walked outside. White walls and hardwood, just like the rest of the house.

When I walked outside, I saw my dad helping the movers and my mom taking food orders. I figured she was probably going to the McDonald’s we saw coming here. She came over to me to ask what I wanted.

"I’m getting the McChicken and your father is getting the Big Mac. What do you want, hun?"

"Um, just a salad," I replied very well knowing I wouldn’t eat it anyway.

"Okay. Oh, if you could, could you tell your dad to get the dining room table set up before I get back so we have something to eat on?"

"Sure."

"Thanks honey. Bye," she said walking to the rental car.

Once she turned out of the dirt driveway and drove off, I walked over to tell my dad. As I approached the moving van, I heard a loud crash.

"Ow," I heard a voice say.

"Um, everything okay?" I asked to the unknown voice.

"Uh yeah. Jessica, is that you?"

"Dad?" I said coming around to the back of the truck.

"What happened?" I asked looking at the mess on the truck floor, which happened to be my stuff, scattered all over the place.

"I tripped. Could you help me?" he said crouching down beginning to pick up my things.

Afraid of him ruining something I said, "Uh, I got it Dad. Besides, Mom wants you to set up the dining table before she gets back."

"You’re kidding. Dammit. C’mon guys," my dad said, rounding up the four movers.

As they walked into the house, I looked down at the mess. I saw the box that had held the things; it was ripped in half. That’s my clutz of a dad for you. I went off to salvage an empty box.

After about fifteen minutes of searching, I found one in what I assumed would be my parents’ bedroom.

On my way out I saw my dad and the four muscular movers struggling with the dining table. That’s what you get for buying a table and chairs from Italy with directions in Italian, I smirked to myself. I was inside the moving truck when I heard my mom drive up. She hurriedly walked inside with her arms full of McDonald’s food. I rolled my eyes and bent down to begin cleaning up my things.

Closing the box, I decided to save some time and grab another box. I stacked the boxes and steadied myself against the side of truck then walked slowly out.

All of a sudden, my Sidekick started furiously vibrating in my back pocket. I jumped and the boxes started losing their balance, swaying back and forth in my hands. Before I could do anything, they toppled over and scattered everything onto the dusty driveway.

I swore loudly as I bent down to clean up my things—again.

As I was picking up my Tiffany’s jewelry box, I saw a pair of dirty, scuffed boots stand in front of me. I looked up to see the person that the boots belonged to.

He was young, yet looked exhausted. His brown eyes were bright and seemed to be smiling at me.

"Need some help?" he asked his voice soft but strong.

"Um, yeah," I said as I looked at his muscular arms, which hinted to me that he must have been one of our movers.

He bent down and began gently placing my things back into the boxes.

"Thanks. Could you just put it up in my room please?" I told him.

He had a puzzled expression on his face. He replied, "Uh, sure, but where is it? Shouldn’t your movers do that?"

"You don’t know which one’s my room? You’ve been moving my—wait. You’re not a mover?"

"No."

"Oh. Sorry," I said as I felt my face heat up. Who was this guy?

"I came to introduce myself. I drove by earlier on my four-wheeler and saw the trucks. So I figured hey, why not go be the first person the new people meet? It’s not everyday someone new moves in so why not take the chance," he said.

"Oh, I see," I said looking down at the driveway.

"So, let’s try this again, shall we?" he suggested.

I nodded in response and looked back up at him kind of wishing to be inside right at that moment.

"Hi. I’m Travis Humphrey. Welcome to Hawesville," he said holding out his right hand and smiling.

"Hi," I said grabbing is gently, "I’m Jessica Baliegh. It’s a pleasure to meet you."

It was the first time since the beginning of our pathetic exchange that I had really noticed his features. His brown hair was tousled and a little bit was hanging in his face. He had amazingly intense brown eyes, except they were soft at the same time. He was a little flushed but had an adorable face, one that would make all of my friends weak in the knees. To add to it, he had muscular upper arms that made me want to just reach out and touch them. However, I refrained.

I let go of his hand and bent down to grab my things.

"Here, let me take this one for you," Travis offered picking up the other box.

"Um, thanks," I said figuring that I would need his help anyway with the boxes.

I led him into the house. As we walked past the dining room, I glanced into it to see my parents and the movers sitting on boxes with the table parts scattering the floor. My mom didn’t look too happy. I could understand why, she was eating McDonald’s on cardboard boxes rather than on her expensive, Italian dining set.

I led Travis up the stairs and into my room.

"Just put it over there," I said nodding my head in the direction. I set my box down by the window as he was setting his box down.

"Nice room," he said, obviously trying to make small talk.

"Uh, yeah," I said looking at the ground and seeing that my hundred and seventy dollar Pumas were covered in dust.

"So um, where did you move from?" Travis asked, interrupting my thoughts of my shoes.

"New York City."

"Oh. Wow, that’s a change."

"Yeah, ever been there?"

"No. Only been here, forever. Everyday of my life," he said, I just caught on to his country style accent.

"Oh. You make it sound like a burden," I said. It’s been a burden for me since I got here, and it’s only been a few hours, I thought to myself.

"No, not really. I love it here," he said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Yeah. Well I better get more boxes. I have to unpack my clothes soon so I can have some things for summer," I said wanting to end this conversation. I wasn’t planning on making any close friends anytime soon.

"I can help you. I’m done with chores around the barn, besides I have nothing else to do."

"Um, if you want. You really don’t have to," I said trying to hint that I didn’t want him to, but he didn’t get the hint.

"I will. If you don’t mind. Always willing to lend a helping hand," he said flashing a toothy smile.

"Great," I said putting on a fake smile, but he bought it.

We walked down the stairs and met my mom at the bottom.

"Hey, I thought I heard you talking to someone," my mom said, glancing at Travis.

"Mom, this is Travis-er-"

"Humphrey, Travis Humphrey. Nice to meet you," Travis said flashing his boyish smile. That same smile could get any woman or girl weak in the knees.

"Well, Travis, I’m Jessica’s mom, call me Vicky," she said obviously thinking she would see Travis around a lot. "I have to go assist your dad, Jessica, with the table. You see, Travis, I’m educated in Italian while Richard, my husband, is not. He took Latin. That did him a lot of good, didn’t it?" she added before turning away.

I rolled my eyes at my mom’s ridiculous story.

"Sorry you had to go through that," maybe my mom would scare him off.

"Ha, no problem. My mom’s the same way, she could talk for hours."

Great.

When we got to the truck, I pulled two boxes down and took one.

"You can take that one," I said.

"Okay. These are going to your room, right?" he asked steadying the box.

"Uh, yeah."

I walked out with him following behind me.

"Those are my clothes so we can put them into the closet," I said when we got to my room.

After setting down the boxes, I heard an obnoxious ring tone. I looked at Travis and he pulled a junky Nextel flip phone out of his pocket.

"Hello? Oh, hi Mom. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Bye."

He closed the phone and jammed it into his pocket.

"Sorry, I gotta run. Dinner’s ready. Um. You got a cell phone?"

"Uh, yeah," I said taking out my adorable pink Sidekick and remembering the text message I got earlier.

"Cool, I’ll give you my number so you can call if you want help tomorrow or if you wanna hang out or something," he said ripping a piece of cardboard off of one of the boxes and pulling half of a pencil out of his back pocket.

Dang. This guy wouldn’t give up.

He handed me the cardboard then added, "Can I have yours?"

He had guts; I’d give him that much.

"Uh, sure."

I wrote my number on another piece of cardboard and handed it to him.

"I’ll talk to you tomorrow," he said walking out.

I didn’t bother to say bye and opened the text message:

how’s it in hillbilly hell?

It was from Sarah, my best friend in the entire world. We basically grew up together and spent almost all of our time together.

o, jst frckn fabulous

Submitted: July 09, 2010

Young Adult moving teen rich new town

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Comments

cmore

HAHAHAHA...HA!!! Welcome to the contry filled with tractors and hot cowboys!!! Update soon, this is a great story I'm lovin' it!!

Fri, July 9th, 2010 7:51pm

Author
Reply

Hehe! Thanks! I will, I've got a couple of chapters lined up, but I wanted to get feedback first! :D

Fri, July 9th, 2010 1:05pm

BrownEyedBeauty

cute;can`t wait to read more. so update soon!

Fri, July 9th, 2010 8:03pm

Author
Reply

Thank you!! Will do, for sure! :)

Fri, July 9th, 2010 1:06pm

reneexy

update me! :)

Fri, July 9th, 2010 8:23pm

Author
Reply

of course! :D

Fri, July 9th, 2010 1:41pm

BehindMyWords

Ohhh, I love this chapter :D Definitely keep me updated

Sat, July 17th, 2010 1:17pm

Author
Reply

Will do for sure! :D

Sat, July 17th, 2010 6:28am

Irishteenagegirl

Awww Travis is so nice!!
Can't wait to read more :) Sarah xxx

Sun, July 18th, 2010 11:30am

Author
Reply

Yes yess!! thanks for reading! :D

Sun, July 18th, 2010 1:39pm

Bleeding Ink

I don't know what to say!!!!!!!! it really is a masterpiece......... i just notice something about you, do you have some connection to new york city???? don't answer it if you don't want too........ i'm really fascinated by how the cowboys wear their clothes and how their culture are....... i told myself that once i grew up, i will travel around the world and i will stopped by to texas........ you just made my dream a little bit closer for me to reach....... thanks....... really good!!!!!

Thu, July 22nd, 2010 8:13pm

Author
Reply

You know, funny you should mention that. One day when I was writing this or posting one I realized that BOTH of my stories had something to do with New York City...and the funny thing is I have never been there, I don't know anyone who lives there. It's just odd. Lol.
Why you are welcome! I'm glad I could help :P And thank you, I appreciate that so much.

Thu, July 22nd, 2010 1:19pm

unknown girl

HAHA. It's awesome and frckn fabulous. Hehe. I liked it:). You're a great writer. keep the gd work:)

Fri, July 23rd, 2010 3:03am

Author
Reply

Ohh, thank you! I appreciate that so much! :)

Fri, July 23rd, 2010 12:05am

Bleeding Ink

Maybe it's your dream or something to go to New york and live the fast life!!!!! Keep writing............

Fri, July 23rd, 2010 9:56am

Author
Reply

Haha, possibly! I will!

Fri, July 23rd, 2010 3:24am

DreamerKS

Haha that's funny. I feel bad for her because I love the city. I'm not in New York but Moving to the country doesn't sound so fun. But I can't wait, now onto the next chapter! XD

Thu, August 19th, 2010 11:33pm

Author
Reply

haha! Yeah, I would rather live in the city too, lol. THanks for reading! :)

Thu, August 19th, 2010 10:03pm