Berkshire’s Secret

When my parents told me and my brother, Ethan, we were moving to Massachusetts, I half-heartedly laughed. I thought it was a joke as we were only two weeks away before school started, and the news came out of the blue when they decided to tell us over breakfast at the local Pancake House one morning. It wasn't until four days later reality hit me.

It was Mom who needed us to move as her job required her to do so. She works as a head scientist at NASA. They recently had a breakthrough about some space stuff that I don't know a whole lot about.

Although, that's not the point.

The point is me being okay一which I am not, not yet一leaving my best friend and practically moving five thousand miles away from everything and everyone I've ever known!

Four days after the news, more than half of the house, my home, has already been packed and shipped to the new house. Dad arrived at the new house yesterday and is already unpacking the shipments that arrived early.

Our flight to Massachusetts takes off in less than five hours and Mom insists we leave early to ensure we can catch the flight in time. So, I'd be saying goodbye to my home in three hours. This morning I woke up way too early for it being summertime and found myself wanting to climb back into bed only to remember it was just packed up. I daydream about laying on the floor for a bit, wondering how comfortable falling asleep on the hardwood floor would be, and assuming having a sore back isn’t something I am looking for. Instead, I pack my suitcase with the few outfits I have left.

As I fold my last shirt and zip up my favorite sky-blue suitcase from Tumi I decide to check on Ethan. Walking across the hallway, toward my brother's room, I see a box blocking the doorway, and peering further into the room there are plenty more. Stepping over the box I ask, "You almost done? I just finished."

"Just a few more things and I should be good to go," he says with a smile as he stuffs a bunch of sweatshirts into his suitcase.

Unlike me, Ethan's excited to move and claims “'It's a great chance to make new friends and learn some real stuff'”. . .whatever that means.

Ethan and I are fraternal, or dizygotic, twins which means we share the same birthday but look nothing alike. While we are both tall the similarities end there. I have my long, natural, wavy brown hair and observant brown eyes while Ethan has short, wavy, dirty blonde hair and storm blue eyes. And to clarify, I was born first. Proudly born nineteen minutes before Ethan.

"Great, I'll bring my bags to the car and help carry some of these boxes down too."

"That's okay, I got it. They'll go in the last moving truck."

"Mk, tough bro,” my voice mockingly lowers with a humph of laughter, “suit yourself." We both know he’s too stubborn to ask for help. Ethan tries to hide his smile, but what comes out is a goofy smirk.

Back in my room, bags in hand, and looking around my room for the last time brought nonchalant feelings flooding back to me. Fifteen years of my life have been in this very room and I will miss it. The window I climbed out of to visit my best friend, the one floorboard that always creaked whenever it was stepped on, and the closet that I had at one point transformed into a comfy hideout, or nook. I told myself to be optimistic and there’ll be further opportunities with, of course, new people to meet. That change is for the better, at least, I hoped.

Struggling, albeit making it down the stairwell I walk out the front door and set my suitcases in the car. Checking my Apple watch it reads 7:29 am. We only have half an hour before we leave.

I walk back towards the front steps and through the kitchen to see Mom leaning on the island countertop scrolling through something on her phone. I take the liberty to be thoughtful and ask, "Do you need help with anything Mom?"

"No sweety, but thank you for asking. Did you have breakfast? We’ll be leaving soon too by the way."

"Yes, I had cereal." I had Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds, my favorite.

Bing! Mom's phone rang. It was a text, but I couldn't see what the notification was as I glanced over.

Mom quickly looks at the message and hides a smile as she quickly tucks back a lock of blonde hair that had fallen in front of her face. "I know it's been a little difficult for you to say bye, Grace, and I know this may seem last minute, but I may or may not have a surprise for you," she says with a twinkle in her deep brown eyes as she walks away towards the back door, leaving me to follow.

As soon as she opens the door I see my BFF outside waiting with a smile on. I leap out, "Amelia! What are you doing here? I thought you were too busy to come and say goodbye?" I look at Mom, happiness and most likely confusion written on my face.

"Sorry honey," she says with a grin, "but I asked Amelia if she could tell you she'd be too busy to say goodbye in person. . .Well, are you surprised?"

"Mooom! Yes, very. . .I can't believe it! Thank you for coming," I hug my BFF. We've known each other since 4k and have been glued at the hip ever since. Amelia could practically pass as my twin sister as we're like two peas in a pod.

"Well, I couldn't possibly not say goodbye to my BFF. I'll miss you. We'll have to text and call every couple of days if you’re not too busy," she squeezes me into a hug once more and pulls away, giving me a small smile accompanied with slightly glistening eyes.

"I'll miss you too. And of course, we'll call and text. Nothing can separate us."

We spend the rest of our limited time together until eight o'clock when it’s time to leave. As I wave goodbye to my home, to Amelia, to my old life, a tear rolls down my cheek; I quickly wipe it away with the sleeve at the end of my sweatshirt. After we turn the corner, I turn back around into my seat, put on my headphones, and watch as my hometown here in Nebraska rolls past the window.

At the airport, Ethan and I buy early lunch. I pay for a vanilla cappuccino, burger, and fries, my favorite meal, although pizza is very high up on my favorite food list too, and Ethan got a sub. Mom had breakfast with intermediate snacks here and there.

Once seated in our seats on the plane, I began to realize how risky flying on a plane could be. There's less of a threat with it sitting on the ground than it being many many thousand or so feet up in the air. Anything could happen.

I take a deep breath while looking out the window and relax when Mom, noticing how tense I am, assures me everything will be alright. I nod and grab three pieces of gum from my bag and hand one to Mom and Ethan, saving one for myself. This is both mine and Ethan's first time on a plane and since it isn't Mom's first time, she tells us chewing gum will help level out the pressure in our ears. I sit back in my seat ready for take-off.

The angle that sets us back into our seats almost feels like traveling up the tracks of a roller coaster, and the amount of force pushing us into our seats is equivalent to feeling the thrill of flying down a roller coaster. The plane eventually levels out and there’s a certain normalness in the air as if commercial planes didn’t just start transporting people only a hundred-some years ago. Through the porthole, I see the grid-like patterns of cities, towns, and farmlands. At one point we even fly in-between clouds with a layer above and below the aircraft, which I find amazing.

After an hour of awe looking out at the beautiful sights, I find my tiredness has caught up to me from this morning; I fell asleep for the last two hours.

I wake up to the plane landing, skidding on the runway, and gather my belongings as the plane rolls to a stop. After grabbing our suitcases from the conveyor belt, we head outside the airport and meet Dad waiting for us by the car. I run as fast as one can carrying two suitcases and a duffle bag, drop them to the side, and hug Dad. "I missed you."

"Ha, I've only been gone for a little more than thirty-six hours, but I missed you too. All of you," he says as he moves to ruffle Ethan's head and kiss Mom, Lilly, on the cheek. "Now, let's see our new home!" he announces with a spark in his gray-blue eyes.

“Yes!” Ethan shouts. "I call shotgun!"

I roll my eyes. "Brother. . ." I mumble.

"We're here!" gushes Mom. "I'm so happy we found this house."

I sit up straighter and look through the window of the navy blue SUV Dad had driven to the new house so he could start unpacking early and pick us up from the airport. The new house is quite spectacular as I see it slowly come into sight. I've seen what the house has looked like in pictures, but there's nothing quite like seeing it, or anything for that matter, in person. Mom and Dad also picked this house as hopefully their forever home, so it'll be nice to have in the family. However, with my brother and I attending a boarding school, the new home will sort of feel like a vacation house until we're out of high school.

Speaking of boarding school, that's a whole different topic. One I'll save for later.

Dad parks the car and we all climb out and grab what we can carry out from the trunk. With the sun out, blotches of sunlight dance on and around the car, portraying images. Like, how you would look up into the sky on a clear, summer day and see Cumulus clouds. The type where you would try and imagine the objects, or creatures, a particular cloud portrays the most. I haul out one of my suitcases that just so happens to be wedged underneath what feels like one of Ethan’s heaviest suitcase.

"Wowsers," Ethan says, looking around and then jogging up to the front door, leaving me behind to struggle pulling out the rest of the bottom half of my suitcase. "I can't wait to set up my room. Dad, you got the keys? It's locked." He jangles the door knob.

"Yeah, right here," he replies whilst jangling the keys. With a couple strong tugs, I finally pull my luggage free and set it on the ground beside me.

Taking a quick breath from the suitcase hassle, I walk up the steps and through the double glass French doors. I look up and my eyes land upon a petite yet pretty chandelier. To my left, there is the dining room with the table and chairs already set up. Strolling further into the room is the kitchen and a backdoor leading to the backyard where I spot a glimmering pool. A pool waiting for someone一me一to sunbathe in.

Retracing my steps, I find to the right of the house is the living room where I bet I can pinpoint Ethan playing his PC whenever we're home. But right now there are boxes all spewed across the floor. Dad and Ethan are not much of organizers like how Mom and I are.

Traveling to the second floor, I picked a room with windows facing the backyard as my bedroom. Ethans' room is next to mine, but we share a large, yes, shared bathroom in between us so I shouldn't be able to hear him through the walls if he stays up late playing games, or making TikTok's. Our parents' room is further down and across the hallway. There's a fourth room that we have designated as the guest bedroom and office space.

I set my suitcase into my new room, gladly noticing it’s bigger than my old bedroom. I had so many things that it could feel a little stuffy at times. But now I have plenty of space to set up my bookcase, desk, and cushions.

I can already tell it’ll be fun decorating. Splashing some light purple on the walls will look pleasant. An activity that will keep my mind from wandering about Amelia who is now so many miles apart from me. I wasn’t able to paint my walls back at home as I never really wanted to take basically everything outside of my room to change a wall color that I was still okay with. But now I can!

The rest of the day we spent unboxing and placing the furniture around the house. I was able to convince Dad to take me to Menards and pick up the Mauve Light Purple paint color I had picked out for a while now. We took a much-needed break at dinner and then continued afterwards until ten at night. It only took the next two days to be completely unpacked, thankfully. It started to feel like an endless sea of boxes and bubble wrap, threatening to swallow someone up whole.

Early Monday morning I put on my two-piece swimsuit and jumped into the pool. I do a couple of laps around the pool then swim to the donut inflatable and climb up. I finally have time for some peace and quiet, allowing the floatie to drag me across the water from the light breeze as I listen to the leaves rustle.

A while later I get out of the pool and text Amelia.

Me: Hello, I wish u r here. 😕 Finally have some free ⏲. Wyd?

Amelia: Same.

Watching TV. I'm sooo hooked on Chicago 🔥 rn.

Amelia hasn’t been able to stop watching Chicago Fire. Not after she realized she‘s interested in pursuing becoming an EMT. Which I support! But, I could never. I would never be able to register all of the medical terms all doctors have to understand.

Me: Still watching that show? 😂 I feel like you've been watching it 4 ages.

Amelia: Lol, well the show is still active and the 11th season just aired. I'm on 8

Me: Good lord

Amelia: 🤣

Laying belly down on the sunlounger, from the reflection of the screen on my phone I see something no, someone, run behind me and jump into the water. The radius of the splash is large enough to get me wet again. I turn around and see my nimrod twin smiling back at me. "Ethan! Couldn't you have jumped into the pool somewhere else," I half yell. "I was drying off,” I say slower.

"Sorry sis, didn't see you there!" he calls now at the other side of the pool.

I huff, "Yeah right." I have a bright pink bikini on, surely he saw me.

Buzz. Buzz. I look down at my phone.

“'So how's it like over there?'” Amelia texted.

Me: The 🏡 is nice, quite a cool place. I'm starting to realize what's changed is what I need to accept.

Amelia: Stay positive!

Me: That's what I've been doing! 😅

Dad then calls us in for lunch.

Me: I've gtg

Ttyl!

Amelia: Bye!

The last week of summer vacation flies by like a wink of an eye. It seems like we have all accustomed to living in the new house. I am able to sleep well, yet sometimes I wake up at night realizing where I am.

Then, the day before Mom and Dad said goodbye to us for the school year came. I gather my school supplies and organize them into my backpack一a Jersey gray/Onix gray with Rose Gold zippers from Adidas.

That night I slept rather well but got awoken at 5:15 in the morning. We had a long trip before we arrived at the Academy.

Berkshire Academy is the name of Ethan and I’s new school. At this point, I wasn’t surprised anymore as moving into a new house in a new state meant going to a new school. Gladly, I find I'm optimistic in this ungodly hour in the morning, yet I'll still miss my friends back home.

The school is about an hour away and I gave myself an hour to get dressed, eat, and do my hair and makeup. What girl doesn't want to look at least somewhat presentable, especially on their first day of school? With meeting new people, first impressions are key.

School starts at seven a.m. and ends at three p.m. I already have my schedule printed out so I can have it with me when I look for my new classes. I'd be hopeless without it. I'm enrolled in six classes: Accelerated Geometry, Chemistry, Modern US History, Personal Finance, Gym/Health (which is longer than the other classes by half an hour), and Honors English. We arrived at the Academys’ gate fifteen minutes early. It’s open so we drive through to the first building where Mom and Dad check us in.

Eventually, we went back outside to grab our bags from the car. As Berkshire Academy is a boarding school we'd be staying here for the school year.

"I'll miss you both," Mom says as she hugs Ethan and me.

"Not as much as I will," says Dad, joining in on the bear hug.

"Don't worry we'll be fine," I say with as much courage as I could muster. But, my heart is literally pounding. "And besides, I've got Ethan."

"Yes, I'm sure we'll both make plenty of friends in no time, at least, I know I will," says Ethan jokingly.

"Boy oh boy," I sigh. I hope I can make friends just as easily as Ethan thinks he can.

"I love you!" Mom calls from inside the car with the window down.

"Love you too!" I say at the same time Ethan does too.

We watch them drive away for a moment. "See you in gym class," I smile. We have gym the same hour.

"Yes, see you later," he says with a hint of sarcasm. I take that as him not wanting us to be in the same class however, I'm okay with that because I will at least know one human being in gym class. . .if he even acknowledges me.

We both turn around and head our separate ways. The boys' school is on the right side of the lake一Ivory Lake, as I saw on the campus map一and the girls’ are opposite.

There are other students who are coming and going. I assume they are looking for their first classes as I'd be doing soon too.

I take a deep breath, exhale, and head into Berkshire Academy.

*Word Count: original 2,638 new 3,214