*Kisu POV*

“Kisu! Come on, we’re leaving!” I heard my mother call me. I turned to look at my room on last time. I didn’t want to leave it, or this house behind. I was leaving my friends, and everything I’ve known for years. I looked at myself in the full body mirror that was across from me.

“All because of my stupid face…” I said aloud as I stared at my face in the mirror with a frown.

“Kisu!” My mom called again from downstairs.

“Ah, coming!” I called back. I hurried out of my old room, and down the stairs, almost falling when I got to the end.

“Kisu, be careful. I don’t want you to get hurt.” She said. I looked at her and smiled. I’m pretty clumsy, so she’s always worried that I’ll hurt myself, but I don’t. Well, not all the time.

“I’m fine umma. Let’s go.” I said. She nodded then walked out of the front door, and I followed.

We got in the car, and she started it, driving to our new home. We had to move because I was having…problems, at school. Problems meaning I was being bullied. The reason being the way I looked. Apparently, I look like a girl, when I am in fact a boy. That didn’t stop the guys from my old school. It ended up getting bad, and my mom decided to move.

“Kisu, what’s wrong? You’re frowning.” My mom noted from the driver’s seat. I shook my head.

“Nothing…I was just thinking.” I told her. She glanced over at me and nodded. She obviously saw through that lie, but she didn’t push it.

“Well, don’t worry about anything. Everything’s going to be different. A fresh start!” She said optimistically. I nodded.

‘Unless the same old thing happens as before.’ I thought. I shook that thought away. Nothing good will come if I keep thinking negatively.

“Yeah. A fresh start.” I agreed with a nod. She smiled.

“Did the movers get our stuff to the house already?” I asked her, and she nodded.

“Yeah. And I showed them where to put everything, so everything is all set up. The only thing you’ll need to do is put your clothes in your room.” She said.

The other day, while I was hanging out with my friends for the last time before I had to move, she went to the house to make sure the movers where putting everything in the right places. Since I start school on Monday, and today is Sunday, my mom wanted to have everything already unpacked since I wouldn’t be able to help her unpack it all because of school.

“Alright!” I said with a smile.

~~~~~~~

After a pretty long drive, we got to our new house. I had fallen asleep, so my mom had to wake me up when we got there. She parked in the driveway, and I got out, looking around the neighborhood, then at our house.

“So? What do you think?” My mom asked me, anticipating my response. I turned to her and smiled.

“I love it!” I said. The house looked like our old house! Two floors, same kind of windows, everything! I couldn’t wait to go inside.

“Well, come on! Let’s go inside so you can see~!” She said, taking me inside. I looked around in awe. This house looked like an exact replica of our old house!

“Can I go see my room?” I asked her excitedly.

“Of course you can, you don’t have to ask honey!” She said with a small laugh. I rushed up the stairs and to my room. This was the first time I had been to the new house, but since it was just like our old house, I felt like I was home already.

I opened the door to my room, and looked inside. It was just like my old room. I stepped out of my room and went back down the stairs and right up to my mom, and gave her a big hug.

“It’s just like home.” I said, holding in my tears. She patted my back.

“Mhm. I made sure it would be just like home. I know how much you love, and would’ve missed the old house, so I tried to get this house to look like the old house as much as possible.” She said.

“I love it.” I said, pulling away and rubbing my eyes. She smiled.

“Good. Now, come on! It’s not even noon yet. We can go grocery shopping!” She said. I nodded and followed her out.

After taking our things out of the car and setting them in the house, we drove to the nearby market.

“This is closer to the house than the old house. And it’s a lot bigger…” I said to my mom as we walked in the store. I looked around, noting it wasn’t very full at the moment. I only saw the people at the cash registers and a few older ladies shopping. I also heard what sounded like some guys somewhere in the store. I didn’t see them, but they were pretty loud wherever they were.

“It is isn’t it?” My mom said as she grabbed a cart to push, nodding in agreement with me.

“Can I go see what kind of sweets they have?” I asked her. I was a slight sugar addict, but it wasn’t anything too bad. She knew, and nodded.

“Ok, but don’t get lost! And be careful!” She said. I nodded with a big smile, and shuffled off in the direction of the sweets.

I went to the aisle that had the sweets, and looked at the choices they had to pick from.

‘Hmmm…I wonder if they have my favorite…’ I thought as I picked up a pack of chocolate cookies. I was so engrossed in finding my favorite snack that I didn’t notice someone was coming my way very fast, and was NOT looking in the right direction. Unfortunately for me, I noticed last minute.

“Ah!” I yelped as the body ran into me, causing me to drop the cookies to the ground and almost knocking me over completely.

“No!” I said to myself, as I saw the cookies on the ground. I just KNEW some of them were broken now.

“Watch where you’re going! You almost killed that girl!” I heard someone yell. I would’ve been startled, and upset for being called a girl, if I wasn’t busy mourning over the poor cookies that were just harmed in that fall.

“My cookies…” I mumbled with a pout.

“Hey, are you alright? I didn’t see you there.” The person said. I looked up at them, my small pout still on my lips. The person was a guy, which I could’ve guessed from how hard he ran into me. Just them, my phone rang, and I looked at it. It was my mom, no doubt wondering where I was.

“I’m fine. I have to go…” I said softly, feeling nervous with the way this guy was standing so close. He was looked bigger than me, but I had a petite frame for a guy, according to my mom. He opened his mouth to speak, but I turned and ran off, trying to get out of the aisle and find my mom, holding my cookies close so they wouldn’t fall again if I ran into another person.

“Kisu! There you are!” My mom said. She was right there as soon as I turned the corner. I dropped my cookies in the cart.

“So you-What’s wrong?” She asked me, looking me in the eyes.

“Nothing.” I told her. She gave me look telling me she didn’t buy that at all.

“Yeah right. Your ears are red. What happened?” She asked. I put my hands to my ears, feeling the heat that was radiating from it. I didn’t even notice my ears had turned red.

“Uh…I just ran into somebody. Or, well, someone ran into ME.” I said. She grinned at me.

“Oh~? Were they good looking?” She asked me, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

“No! Can we just go to the check out?” I asked her. I heard those guys again, and it sounded like they were heading in our direction.

“Come on.” I said, turning her around and pushing her towards the nearest check out.

The person scanned our items rather quickly and bagged them with the same speed. I took the bags and my mom paid. We left the store, and I kept my head down as we walked to our car.

“Hey!” I stiffened as I heard a shout.

I turned around quickly. Luckily, it wasn’t someone trying to get my attention, rather it was someone yelling at the same guy that ran into me and his friends. It looked like they did something since they were running out of the store, laughing loudly.

“What a ruckus..” My mom said as she walked to the car. I followed, and put the bags in the car. I turned back around again, against my better judgment, and saw the guys were walking and laughing. I looked at the guy that ran into me, and at that moment he looked in my direction. When we made eye contact, my eyes got wide and I ducked quickly, getting into the car.

“Kisu?” My mom called me from the driver’s seat. I turned to her.

“The person that ran into you was one of those guys, wasn’t it?” She asked with a knowing smirk.

“…….Yes.” I said. She laughed.

“I knew it. Since you jumped in the car when he looked over here, I’m guessing it was the one with the-“ I stopped her.

“Can we just go home?” I asked, sinking into my seat. She giggled and nodded.

“Ok, ok. We’re going.” She said.

After that she drove us home. Once we got home, I helped her put away the groceries and make dinner. We ate together, and when we were finished, I washed the dishes.

“So. Are you ready to start school tomorrow?” She asked me. I got a rush of nervousness at that question. I hadn’t thought about it until now.

“No…” I said lowly. I hate going to new schools. The first day is always the worst and most nerve-wracking. She patted me on the shoulder.

“Don’t worry. You’ll be fine.” She said. She gave me a kiss on the forehead.

“Go on to bed. You have to wake up early tomorrow.” She said. I sighed, but did as she told me.

I went up to my room, and got into my bed. I feel asleep thinking about tomorrow.