Chapter Text
The summer holydays have been over for a month, and Rose was bored, she laid in her bed, in her room, the curtains where closed and the dim light of a single street lantern shone into the room, she stared at the ceiling, it was covered in pictures and some flowers she made of paper, and a flag, some cars passed by houses are phew and far between, there were two houses that looked exactly the ame next to theirs, when you walk along the road there are five more houses, and when you drive about 2 hours there is there is the capital. A wall of phew pine trees and a thin fence are all that separated from the highway, she was supposed to be asleep ages ago. She looks over at her alarm clock, 3 in the morning. It was the first year in high school, her brother was one class above her, and she was already sick of showing up to it.
“fokk (fuck)”
She closed her eyes, she hated it when the flashing red lights passed through the curtains, and the noise they made, like a hungry bear. Eventually she wrapped herself into her blanket and fell asleep, cars stopped coming by eventually. Three hours later the alarm clock rang, Rose reluctantly sat up and turned it off, went over to the closet and got out her flower dress, and a pair of knee-high socks before shuffling over to the living room. She saw two suitcases, one closed and the other packed. Her brother sat on the couch with a bowl of cereal.
„þú gleymdir (you forgot)”
Rose tilted her head, her brother sighed.
“MAMMA”
„Hmm?”
„rós gleymdi að pakka! (Rose forgot to pack)”
„Jæja hjálpaðu henni! (Well, help her)”
„Uhhhrgg” Jamie grabbed Rose’s hand and the ampty suitcase and pulled her to her room with the suitcase in hand.
„pakkaðu öllu sem þú átt (Pack everything you got)”
„passar ekki (Won’t fit)”
„pá er nóg að pakka! (Pack enough then!)”
Rose threw a phew shirts, pants, socks and dresses along with some underwear, she gathered two plushes, a camera, some films, a tape recorder and her wallet and stuffed it in, she went t the bathroom and got the rest she needed
„búið (done)” She runs and gets a backpack already packed with stuff.
“Ætlarðu í alvöru að koma með það? Leyfir flugvöllurinn það jafnvel? (You seriously will bring that? Does the airport even allow that?)”
Rose shrugged and took some stuff out, then nodded, she got a pen, a rubber, a pencil, and a notebook then gave her brother a thumbs up
“Það tók mig fjóra tíma að pakka og þú gerir það á 10 mínútum (Packing took me four hours and you get it done in 10 minutes)” he sighs and made his way to the car.
Rose took a Walkman and took 7 tapes with her, she followed to the car and sat down in a seat. Their mom sat in the seat in front of them.
“Ready for travel?”
“Mom, we are still at home why are you talking English”
“Practice a bit while driving”
“Why do we have to go on this anyway?”
“Because I signed you up, which was not easy, there where a lot of others wanting to do this, besides, I come from there, you’ll have fun”Jamie rolled his eyes
“I don’t know anyone there, and we will stay at some ass home we don’t even know, New York would be fun but where somewhere in the middle of nowhere”
“Well, at least Rós doesn’t complain, or Rose, in english.”
“SHE DOESN’T TALK”
“Like I said no complaining…”
Roses mom and brother kept on talking for a while but she zoned out, and looked out the window, little homes passed by, trees, fields of grass dipped in a murky brown of autumn, she would miss this for the time she would be gone, but maybe something good could come of this, they drove for what seemed like eons, passing , three hours, three hours they passed through, this was a relative short time in the car for her, sometimes when they have to go shopping it takes up to double the amount of time. They made it through the airport, through some wonder Roses backpack didn’t get confiscated at the check.
They rushed through the airport; they were already running late.
“Hello? These two still need to board the plane”Brigette shoved Jamie and Rose.
“Ah, more exchange students for this year?”
“Yes, here are the tickets”
“Alright, on board you go” Rose and Jamie rushed into the plane with their hand luggage.
“Have a nice time you two! I will miss you very much!”
“Miss you too Ma!”
They made it into the plane and in their seats, two students were picked for each high school year, eight in total. Rose sat at the window seat, Jamie next to her, as the plane started Rose held her ears shut, Jamie took his backpack and gave her a pill, she swallowed it and leaned back.
The stewardess spoke some stuff about flight safety and things to do in case of a variety of emergencies. Rose turned on her Walkman and listened to her music.
Six hours, six hours till they would land, no turbulences, no problems, the flight was good, Jamie read a book and made some notes, some of the students talked a bit, everyone of the eight had a partner two students were going to different states, they would be picked up by the guest family and drive to their homes for the next school year.
Two would go to Massachusetts those had the longest drive poor souls Rose thought, the two are 16-year-old girls Juniors, from the same class, friends.
Two to South Dakota, a boy, and a girl, one was 15 the other 17, a freshman and a senior.
Two to Florida, two boys, they were siblings too. Rose slept through the flight; Jamie shook her awake “Voru hér (We’re here)”“Hm?” she blinked confused
“Come on gotta get out and get the luggage”
He shoved her backpack onto her “Come on”
They wandered through the airport, all the signs in English are confusing to Rose, sure she understood most of them but others…she had problems with.
“Not ours, not ours, not ours, not ours,” Jamie tapped his foot on the ground in a rhythm and was sing-talking
“Yours, would you go get that, or we’re going, to be late” Rose shuffled to her suitcase and pulls it off the conveyor belt, Jamie saw his luggage and grabbed it as well, they went outside, they looked around a bit. A man ran up to them he seemed to be out of breath and was panting
“Hello? Are you the exchange students? Jamie and uhhh, how to pronounce this-”
“Yes, we are, I’m Jamie and this is Rós, but you can call her Rose”
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, I’m Henry” He held his hand out, Jamie shook it and Rose stared at him, he had brown hair with grey streaks, it was mid long and kind of messy he had a beard,, he was wearing a grey tank top, he was heavier set, he had orange and green training shoes, they looked dirty, as well as a pair of green sweatpants. He held his hand out to Rose to, she stepped back.
“Sorry, she’s shy” Jamie gave her a little push
“Don’t be rude”
“Oh, that’s alright, if she doesn’t want to its fine by me” my car is parked over there so we need to walk a bit, should I take any of your luggage?”
“No thanks”
Rose shook her head
“Just tell me if anything gets to heavy”
He smiled Rose followed him and Jamie, they got to a green car, Rose sat down in the back with Jamie, there were some bobbleheads in the front of the car, along with some others figures, it smelled like dog, not in a bad way, in a “Oh, this person owns a pet” way.
“You have a dog?”
“Yeah actually, I have a Chow-Chow, he is a bit aggressive sometimes but after a while he is friendly, anyway the drive will be long, but it will be worth it, promise, you have to be at school earliest in two days, so you have time to explore the place”
“Chow-chow” Rose whispered to herself as she smiled under her turtleneck
“Sounds like a plan”
“I’ll order some Pizza for you guys”
“Thanks, Rose loves Pizza”
Rose nodded
“Then we’re off”
It was a long drive Rose took off her blanket and fell asleep in the back, hours later they arrived at his house in southern California, a green house, wooden outside, a white door with a white door frame and window frames, a nice porch with a dog bed on it along with a phew flowerpots filled with different colored well, flowers. Rose looked outside the window and thought to herself “This looks like the most cliché American suburban home of all time.
“So, I have two rooms, sorry but one of them is the attic-”
“ME!” Rose shouted so loud Jamie flinched
“Wow, you never been this loud before”
Rose jumped out the car and grabbed her suitcase form the trunk and ran to the front of the house, Jamie sighed and exited the car and got his suitcase.
“Rose wait up, we have all year no need to be hasty”
Henry laughed and got his keys “Just let me open the door at least” he got out the car keys and walked to the door, he opened it and clicked, the door creaked as it opened.