Chapter 1
- Arthur POV -
The cold breeze was refreshing, it didn’t annoy me like it usually did. I was surprisingly not in a bad mood today. Despite all the change recently I for once felt like I had a home.
We had just finished moving house, from London to a small village known as Cullen Bay. It was a new experience and something I was afraid of, going from the capital city of England and the UK to a small village on the north-eastern coast of Scotland.
The accents would definitely be the hardest thing to get my head around.
- Narrator -
“How are you doing Arthur? You’re being awfully quiet” Sarah asked as she slowly turned the car onto the only road into Cullen Bay.
“Yeah mum, I’m all good. Just enjoying the view” replied Arthur as he noticed the harbour coming into view.
It was the perfect summers day as they came upon the vintage but elegant townhouse that’d serve as their new home. They hadn’t seen much of it, buying was a decision made in haste to get away from city life that they had started to hate.
“Well, it’s as nice as it looked on the pictures isn’t it?” Sarah said with a slight smirk. She always had a keen eye for a good deal.
- Arthur POV -
“It’s... nice. I’m sure it will grow on me” I replied, with an optimistic smile.
“It better, this is it for me kiddo.”
Mum was always so positive, it kept my hopes high for starting in a new school. Something I wasn’t particularly excited about but I knew I had to get on with it otherwise I would never settle here. I was trying to stay as calm as possible, it couldn’t be all that bad! I mean, my old school had well over 1,000 students. I doubt my new school will even come close to that.
Getting the things from the car was possibly the most tedious task of the day; everything was so heavy! Mum over-packs. She could probably shield the house from a nuclear blast with all this stuff. That would probably save us a lot of unpacking actually.
Mum swung open the door and revealed a small corridor. It wasn’t what I was used to but it sure was nice to experience all the new surroundings. The stairs were relatively close to the entrance and led up to the second floor. I took the box labelled “kitchen stuff” and placed it on the floor before running out to grab some more boxes.
We had figured out a pretty good system; I took the boxes from the car to the front door and my mum took them through to the right place. Despite me working a bit quicker than her, we managed. As I finally unpacked the last box, I closed the boot and headed towards the gate that opened up to the compact front garden. Avoiding the cracks in between the paving stones kept me entertained, as I finally placed the last box on the floor. I turned around to lock the car and made eye contact with an elderly couple walking past.
It was an awkward stare that I attempted to end with a short smile but they just continued to look at me in awe. They clearly hadn’t seen a new face around here for a long time.
I double clicked the lock button on the car keys and closed the front door behind me, making sure to put the latch on the door to avoid any elderly couples wandering into our house.
Mum had made good progress in the kitchen, most of the important boxes were unpacked so that we could function.
“Why don’t you go and unpack? I placed all your stuff in your room. It won’t take long and then you can come and help me finish everything else,” mum said with a cheeky smile. She always wanted me to do my part, and I was more than happy to do so.
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It took me around two hours to finally get everything done and set up in a way that I liked. The view was incredible from my window. There was a small ledge at the window which I could comfortably sit on and look out to the ocean. I’d definitely end up over-using this.
There was still a calm breeze entering the room as I laid down on the bed. It was just as refreshing!
“I could get used to this.”
- Narrator -
Arthur sighed as he laid back and took a small five minute break after finishing his room.
3 hours later...
“Arthur... Arthur... Wake up kiddo, I got us some dinner!” Sarah softly whispered into Arthur’s ear to try and disturb his sleep.
His eyelids every so gradually opened up as he caught on to the smell of the dinner coming from the kitchen.
“I got us a Chinese, it was the closest place in a 20 mile radius” she chuckled as she practically pulled him out of bed.
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They sat down at the kitchen counter and tucked into their meals. It had been a while since they both ate so it was a good refresher.
“Wow mum, you’ve made progress here,” Arthur chuckled.
“I know right! I try my best.”
Almost everything was done, all that was left to do was adding the final touches and getting the Wi-Fi sorted, an utterly vital part of their lives. Then their house would become home even though they had a welcome mat already.
“So kiddo, are you nervous for school tomorrow? Your first day and all! I’m so excited for you.”
“I haven’t thought too much into it... I think I’ll be fine once I’m there and settled. Not much could go wrong.”
“Exactly sweetie! You’ll love every second of it. You’ll pick it up quite easily, you’re clever like that. Just like your father,” she smiled and took another bite of her chow mein.
“Thanks mum. How about you? Ready for work?” He took a quick bite of his stir fry, trying to get through the mild spice.
“I’m looking forward to a fresh start. It should be fun to get to know some people. Hopefully it goes smoothly, the interview over the phone gave off that they desperately need some help in that place.”
“I know you mum, you’ll go in there and swing that place around!” He laughed as he sipped his water to get through the heat.
“These noodles are so spicy, what did you get me?”
Sarah responded with a laugh and patted him on the back before kissing him on the cheek.
Everything will be okay kid, I know it will be. I promised him.
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Author’s Notes:
Well it’s been a long time since I’ve written on here so I really hope you’ve enjoyed this chapter, it was a very minor story builder. Any constructive feedback would be highly appreciated and if you’d like me to read something of yours please don’t hesitate to DM me! Hopefully it won’t be long until we get to the character building chapters and the story can finally begin. See you soon!
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Hi, you've made an interesting start on what promises to be an exciting story. A few tips may be helpful: it's difficult to understand how many people are involved, whether it's just Arthur and his mum, or someone else called Sarah is involved. It may be helpful only referring to his mum as Mum, when he speak to her, or my mum. You don't need to mention when you are changing POV in the story, because actually you stay pretty much with Arthur's POV all the time apart from the very last sentence. If you mean to change to Sarah's POV try doing this is a new chapter. You also don't need to add Narrator to this story. We like the idea of the big change in lifestyle, from city to raw countryside, and we think you might be able to make a bit more of his excitement (reasons for it) as well as his fears about the move. We would end with a cliff hanger, something that draws attention to what the problems of the future are going to hold. Good characters that obviously have a close bond, and the dialogue between them is solid. Well done.
There's nothing I like better than having the opportunity to describe the weather, and you did it nicely in this chapter.