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I stood there staring blankly at Sophie as she modeled her conniving smile. I could not believe what had just happened.

I looked around.

Everybody around us was doing nothing but staring, pointing, and laughing. No one bothered to ask if we were okay, or needed help, or even cared to stop Sophie.

It was echoing in my mind.

When my parents moved us here I may not have liked the thought, but I did think, and even hoped, that my senior year would be a lot better than this.

I didn’t think someone would actually go to great lengths to make me look bad in front of the entire student body. I looked towards Catherine and motioned her to follow me. We needed to get out of here. Get away from Sophie, away from the crowd, and away from all this drama.

I glanced to my right, and behind the crowd, I saw Tiffany and Sarah with their hands covering their mouths in shock. I turned and lowered my head and looked the other way.

I was speechless.

Even as we walked away I still felt everyone’s presence around me; them just pointing and laughing, making snarky remarks. I can’t do this anymore.

Sophie has done enough.

I know we moved here for my father’s companies but this is my high school life we’re talking about.

I’d rather not go around school with Sophie constantly putting chili or soup in my shoes after gym class every day.

Catherine and I huddled around the paper towel dispenser in the nearest bathroom wiping the ketchup off our clothes. I never went into the bathrooms in our high school or any public area for that matter.

I always found they were dirty, unsanitary, and very unhygienic. But there was nothing else to do, plus this was the only spot we could hide for a little bit before heading to our next class.

“I can’t believe she did that. Sophie has changed; changed entirely. She really is a witch now.”

I snapped back to reality as I looked up at Catherine as she handed me some paper towels, grabbed some for herself, and started wiping the ketchup off her clothes.

“She’s gotten a lot worse. She used to just talk about us behind our backs, but now she is actually going as far as dropping ketchup on us in the cafeteria. What’s going on in her mind? Does she really look at us as the enemies?”

Catherine handed me more paper towels.

We had ketchup everywhere. I knew after denying Sophie the chance to work with my father and have him become her agent she’d have it in for me, but not this bad.

I now know that she is very determined to ruin my last 3 months of school. To make matters worse, she hates that I’m friends with Catherine, Tiffany, and Sarah. But things were never this bad. Things between Sophie and I were great; we were friends, maybe even best friends.

Sophie and I met the first day of school after I moved here. I used to live in a nice town; not too small though, there is about 50,000 people living there, and my parents liked our little town a lot because it was very safe, everyone knew everyone, and they could get away from the world; pretty much have as much space as they wanted, and only have to go out when they had work to do, or meetings to go to, or events to attend. But as my father’s companies started getting more clients, there became a higher demand for him to work more. His companies are located in the city; a full 4 hours away, so my dad had to do a lot of driving and planning when it came to his work and the things that needed to be done.

My parents were deciding to move to the city permanently, but they knew it was going to be hard for my younger siblings and me. I knew they were talking about it for a while, as I always heard both of them whispering ideas and opinions to each other, and when they felt the time was right, they told us how any other parents would tell their children about moving to a new place... during dinner.

They started off asking us about our day, how school was, and if we were excited about summer. Parents always make sure they ask you the same, obvious questions during dinner before coming out with the real content they want to discuss; hitting you with the real question. It’s almost like a trick, a way to suck you in so you pay attention to what they really want to discuss.

“So, your father and I have been talking about something.” My mother said as she passed the potatoes down the table.

My mother is beautiful; she has the most gorgeous green eyes and shiny blonde hair. Her skin’s very pale, and looks like porcelain. She’s in her mid 40’s but people always say she looks more like she’s 30. I’m a spitting image of my mother, something I don’t mind in the least since she looks like a Greek goddess.

My twin brothers and younger sister on the other hand look entirely like our father. Our father is a very handsome man with black hair, brown eyes and well defined facial features.

He’s been growing out his moustache and sideburns for a while. He says it makes him look more ‘older and wiser’, which will make people take him more seriously. Truthfully, I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t want to work with - or for -my father.

My parents were high school sweethearts which, even ‘til this day, I think is very romantic. My father owns a production company and a talent agency with his long time friend Mark Adams. Mark Adams’ wife is the Hilary Adams. She’s a famous author and fashion designer. Hilary has worked with my mother on many projects for years now. They have both grown very close; they do everything together.

“And what would that be mother?” Jordan asked pretending that he was paying close attention to what our parents were talking about when it was very clear that he was too busy texting his friend on his new phone.

“Well, as you know the companies are getting more clients and offers for projects and work, and because of this I am a little busier...”

“So we decided because it’s a little hard for your father to drive back and forth, that we will move to Toronto.” My mother adds as she cuts my father off.

I stared blankly at my mother before breaking the silence.

“What about our lives here?” I asked as I put down my fork and gave my parents my full attention.

“Oh Riley, you’re still young you can just make new friends in Toronto. It’s not that hard.”

I didn’t respond. I knew this day would come, but I hoped it would be after I graduated; now I won’t see my two best friends again. My father looked up at me from his book.

“Riley, you know this is for the best. We don’t mean to ruin your life; no parents ever mean to ruin their children’s life or move them away from their friends.”

I looked up from my plate. I wasn’t too hungry after getting the news; I just moved my food around.

“I know father.” I said “So, when are we going to move?”

“We have decided to move on the last day of school.” My mother smiled at me.

“But that’s next week, I mean, this week and next week is already too busy for me with my final exams!”

“You can get through all your stuff, Riley. Your dad and I will deal with all the moving details. We will leave some boxes in your room so whenever you have the time to pack like before you go to bed or after your exams, you can.”

“Okay, but why are we moving so soon? Why not later in the summer?” I asked.

“Well, we decided that the earlier the better. It will give you guys enough time to get used to the new house, the new area, and maybe make some friends around the neighbourhood.”

I couldn’t believe it. My parents were so serious about this move. They even had a house bought already. The next week was nothing but packing and getting ready to move.

The last day of school was very emotional for me. I stood there at the bus stop with my friends; we cried and hugged; we’re such girls. We promised to stay in touch and that we would email each other and message each other on Facebook whenever we could.

Then before I knew it, I was standing there in my empty room, remembering all the sleepovers with Natalie and Joanna. I picked up my last box and carried it downstairs to the moving truck.

“Are you excited?” My mother asked me as she was getting ready to lock the door, and put the keys in the mailbox.

“Yeah mother, I am so excited.” I rolled my eyes.

“I sense some sarcasm.”

I looked at my mother. “How could I be excited mom? We’re moving away; to a city I’ve never even been too, nor know anything about.”

My mother motioned me out of the house. “Riley, people move because of their jobs all the time. It’s not like this is only happening to you. How do you think Jordan, Robert and Haylie feel?”

“They’re excited mother. They’re glad we’re moving.”

“Then maybe you should take some cues from them. I don’t want you to be depressed the entire way driving there.”

“I won’t be.”

But I knew I would be depressed and upset, at least for awhile. We all got in the car and said our final goodbyes to the house that my siblings and I grew up in. This was the first house my parents bought and it was all I knew. The area we lived in was beautiful it was right near the Lake, and was so safe, nothing ever happened. I think the only ‘tragic’ and shocking thing that happened was when pictures of our Mayor were leaked to the newspaper of him with his alleged ‘mistress’.

I’ll admit that driving to the big city was relaxing and fun. We drove through some very nice towns. I never knew father had to drive this long. I knew it was 4 hours. But he had to drive through what felt like 100 towns.

Whenever I could, I’d write down the town’s name, as well as any other words that rhymed with it, and even gave the towns some new names. Brantford? Yeah, now it is known to me as Brantfart. Burlington? Nope, not anymore; now it’s Barfington.

I also did not know that there was a London in Ontario. I will admit, when I saw London pop up, I was highly confused and for a split second I thought we were in England. But it wouldn’t make sense since we didn’t drive over a big bridge from Newfoundland and Labrador to the United Kingdom. Also we’d have to drive through Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador, and the towns wouldn’t be around 100, it’d be more like 300 or something crazy like that.

After another hour we finally arrived to the city. I saw the sign that read ‘Welcome to Toronto’. Yeah, right. More like Toron-lame-o. I kept saying it in my head. To-ronto. Tor-on-to. Every time I said it, I’d get shivers up and down my spine. I already knew this was a terrible place, a dreaded new place that I would now call my home. I already knew one thing, the traffic here was terrible.

No, worse than terrible.

It was pathetic.

Some cars would even stop right in the middle of the intersection so when the lights would change the other cars wouldn’t be able to get through. It happened to us while we were driving to the new house about three times.

My dad just laughed and said “This is the city. You can’t expect much else from here.”

But I still couldn’t believe it. Cars kept honking their horns, and yelling out the windows; the people who were walking around were rushing everywhere; pushing and shoving. Is this city life? People actually live like this? How awful!

I started feeling out of place. I knew I didn’t belong here. Not one little bit.