I stepped off the plane and into the terminal, leaving all remnants of my old life behind. I was scared, unready to face a new, unfamiliar lifestyle. Yet, I knew it was the best thing to do. As I reached the end of the terminal, I began to look around, unsure of my surroundings. I followed the crowd and saw a row of people waiting for passengers. Each had a sign with a different person’s name. Reef. Johnson. Braxton. Smith. Wait, my last name is Braxton. I got a good look at the boy holding the sign. He was around my age, tall, blonde, and pretty good looking. I began to walk toward him. He noticed me walking to him and gave me that weird ‘up-down’ thing. I cocked my head and he smiled.
“Leah Braxton?” the blonde boy asked.
“Um, yeah, that’s me,” I managed, faking a smile.
“It’s great to meet you! My mom hasn’t stopped talking about you. I’m Keith Landon,” he said, then reached out to shake my hand.
“Nice to meet you,” I cleared my throat. “Should we go, uh, get my luggage or something?”
“Oh yeah, sure. I’ll bring you to our house, my mom got stuck at work, so she asked me to come pick you up” he started as we began walking toward the luggage pickup. “You excited to be here in Texas?”
“Yeah, definitely. When I was a little girl I used to dream about coming to Texas. I don’t know why, I just did,” I shrugged. I had to be nice; he obviously didn’t know why I was really going to be staying with them.
“Well now you’re here!” Keith chuckled. He grabbed my luggage off the machine and began to wheel it. “C’mon, the car’s out this way.”
We walked to the car in silence. The situation was incredibly awkward. It was worse than a first date. Soon, I realized that Keith had no idea who I was. No one did. I was a new person, why not make Leah confident?
“So tell me about your family,” I asked at an attempt to make conversation.
“Well, my parents are John and Kay, which you already know. I have three other brothers-Blake, Everett, and Harrison. My mom’s going to love having another girl in the house,” he chuckled.
“How old are you and your brothers?” I questioned.
“I’m 18, Blake’s 17, Harrison’s 16, and Everett is 5,” he replied.
“Well that’s an odd age gap,” I joked.
“I know. Mom and Dad really wanted a girl. Here we are,” Keith said. We pulled up to a huge house. When I say huge, I mean it. I got the impression that the family I was going to be staying with was pretty well off. The house had to be at least three stories, with a large backyard, complete with a pool. This was definitely not was I was expecting. I started to get nervous, what if they didn’t like me?
“Leah, are you coming?” Keith asked, tapping on my window. I didn’t even notice he had gotten out of the car.
“Oh, yeah, sorry” I blew out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding.
I thought the house was big on the outside, but it was even bigger on the inside. I had never seen a house so big before in my life. The foyer opened into a large family room, complete with a big screen T.V. On a sectional, leather couch sat a boy, with a younger boy sitting on his knee. Suddenly, the little boy ran toward me and clung to my leg.
“Hi, my name’s Everwett. I’m five. Are you Weah?” he asked.
“Hi, Everett! Yes, I’m Leah” I said, flashing him a smile.
“Come here, Ev. Sorry about him, he’s a hugger,” the boy on the couch said, walking over. “I’m Blake by the way.”
“Leah” I smiled, getting a good look at Blake. He was tall, with short, brown hair, and dark, blue eyes. He was definitely good looking, but he didn’t really seem like my type of guy.
Before Blake could respond, I heard a shriek. Confused, I turned toward the source of the noise. I realized it was Mrs. Landon.
“Leah! I am so excited to have you here! Sorry I couldn’t pick you up at the airport, I got stuck at work. John should be home soon, he has to pick Harrison up from football. Are the boys treating you okay?” she asked.
“Oh yes, of course. Thank you so much for having me. It means a lot” I replied.
“Of course, honey. It’ll be so great to have another girl in the house! There is way too much testosterone in this house if you ask me” Mrs. Landon laughed.
Mrs. Landon showed me up to my room. I was shocked, to say the least. The room was huge, probably two times the size of my old room. The walls were painted a soft pink, and there was small hint of the same shade of pink in the zebra print comforter on the bed. In the corner, near a medium sized window, was a white desk, with a white MacBook on it. Across the bed, a small, flat screen T.V. was mounted on the wall. In the corner opposite the desk stood a small bookcase, filled with paperbacks of all kinds.
“Mrs. Landon, this is crazy. I can’t accept all of this,” I whispered.
“Please, Leah, call me Kay. You deserve all of it, honey; you’ve gone through enough in the past few months. Just to let you know, John and I are the only ones who know about you’re “situation”. None of the boys know, so you won’t have to worry about anything at school. You’ll be fine,” Kay responded.
I muttered a thank you, and she left me alone to explore my new room. I got the new computer set up, and soon heard a soft knock on my door.
“Come in,” I said.
“Weah, it’s me, Everwett,” I heard a small voice say. “Bwake is being mean to me. Can I watch Blue’s Clues with you?”
“Sure, Everett! I love Blue’s Clues, hop up!” I said.
For just meeting me, Everett seemed really comfortable. Two hours of Blue’s Clues episodes later, I found myself unable to move because of the five year old asleep on my shoulder. I shifted carefully, not wanting to wake him. I noticed that Everett looks exactly like Blake. I wonder if people have mistaken Blake for his dad. But who knows. I didn’t know how long he would be asleep, so I decided to doze off with him.
I dreamt about my old life, back when my parents were still alive, and I was still a brunette. I was back in Nebraska, and everything was back to normal. I was with my best friend, Austin. She and I were hanging out at my house and watching movies. All of a sudden Austin screamed and pointed toward the door. A man with a gun was standing in the doorway. I opened my mouth to scream as he began to call my name.
“Leah, Leah,” I was jerked out of the dream to Blake shaking my shoulder. “Leah, are you okay?”
“What?” I asked, dazed. “Oh, um, yes, I’m fine. Sorry, bad dream.”
“I heard shrieking from my room next door, and it sounded too girly to be Ev. Of course, I see he’s still sleeping like a rock,” he replied, chuckling and glancing at Everett.
“Yeah, he’s been out for forever. He came in here and told me you were being mean to him. He sure warms up quick.”
“He loves everyone, especially new people. He was so excited when Mom and Dad told us you were coming.”
“That’s good. It’s better than the alternative,” I joked. “So, what do you do for fun here in Texas?”
“Well, there’s a lot to do, it just depends on what you’re interested in. My friends and I are hanging out tomorrow, you can come if you want,” Blake offered.
“That’d be awesome. At least I’ll know some new people before my first day.”
After talking a little longer, Blake went down to see when dinner would be ready. Everett was still asleep and showed no sign of waking soon. I carefully grabbed my laptop off the table and opened it up. I hoped all my old friends kept their twitters public. After the accident, I had no contact with any of them, not even Austin. When the agency said, starting over, they really meant starting over. Every aspect of my old life was gone, and I had to get that in my head if I was going to survive here.