We finally reached the street and then I pulled into the wrap around driveway. The house was big, but it wasn’t like BAM-IM RICH. I liked it, well the outside that is. I saw a basketball hoop in front of the house next door, and there was also wiffle ball bats on the lawn. “ oh great, little kids.” I thought to my self as I grabbed my suitcase. Randi had Miranda on the leash and they ran into the house first. I noticed my mom wheeling her suitcase behind me, walking very slowly, and staring up at the house. I held back tears as I looked at how upset she looked, and the thought of what was probably running through her mind was unbearable. I waited for her to catch up, and when she did, I grabbed her hand, took a deep breath and said “ ready for this?” she faintly smiled, squeezed my hand and replied with a “ yes, as long as I got my baby girls.”

The house was just as gorgeous inside, as it was out. I stood in the front doorway and looked up at the double staircase, and laughed a bit while saying “touché Madre!” she stood behind me and all I heard was “ yeah, that’s right, I have good taste.” we laughed and then Randi yelled from the kitchen to come here. We walked to the back of the first floor and saw the beautiful backyard through the 2 French doors. It had a huge deck, and a even more huge in ground pool. After that we all ran upstairs to check out the bed rooms. Of course mom got the master bedroom, and the rest were basically the same. Randi and I grabbed the 2 rooms in the back of the house while we left the one in the front to be a guest room. Each room had their own bathroom, which was like a gift from god, that was always an issue back home when we had 4 people trying to share one bathroom.

It was about 7pm and we got a bit hungry so we looked through the phone book that was left behind and dialed the first pizza place that had the biggest ad and asked them to deliver. While we waited, we attempted to set up beds on the floors of our rooms. Which really wasn’t working out so well, considering we only had sleeping bags, and the thinnest pillows in the world. Luckily there was carpeting on the floors so it was completely horrible. The pizza came and we ate. And we were all super bummed because any pizza place you order from will never be as good as New York pizza. It was late, we were tired, the time zone was different. So we went to bed.

The following morning I woke up at about 9, my mom was up and scrubbing everything down and Randi was in the yard with Miranda throwing a ball for her. I got up got dressed in my blue plaid thermal van slip ons and dark skinny jeans, I didn’t have a clue if I would stick out like a sore thumb or what but anyway, I threw my oversized ray bans on , grabbed some money and asked if anyone wanted anything, that I was going to walk around the block to check out the neighborhood and then find a star bucks. I left the house and decided I would just literally walk around the block to see the rest of the nice houses. As I got closer to our house I got to the house next to ours, the one with the wiffle ball bats and basketball hoops, and I saw an older boy, maybe Randi’s age, so 19-ish, but anyway I got closer and he went to walk up the stairs but tripped! I let out a little giggle. But I didn’t realize how loud I was, and he turned and looked at me, as red as a tomato. “ I’m sorry, are you okay?” I said to him to make him feel better. “ nah its cool, I’m good, hey I like your shades.” he replied. “ thanks, I like your face…… (there was an awkward pause, then I laughed but continued) I’m sorry, that was my lame attempt for an ice breaker…., I’m Katie, I just moved in next store.” “ nice to meet you Katie, I’m Kevin, where’d you move from” “ uhm I actually moved from New York.” “ New York huh? that’s pretty far.” “ yeahh it’s a long story, but hey do you know where theres a star bucks around here?” I said avoiding any questions regarding why we moved here from New York. “ haha you definitely met the right guy if you looking for star bucks, but yeah theres one on the main blvd. you cant miss it, its huge.” he answered. “ oh sweet! Thanks Kevin, catch you later.” “ bye, nice to meet you.” I jumped in my car, and found my star bucks.