Chapter 3

London, England 2024

Verayna

Sunlight spilled into my bedroom. I slowly opened my eyes, I rolled lazily onto my stomach peering at the clock on my dresser. It was eight o’clock, I was supposed to be ready by ten. I groaned, I didn’t want to get up, but I needed to if I wanted to be ready on time, I didn't want to make a bad impression. I dragged myself out of bed and over to my bathroom. I looked at my reflection, I looked sick. I had huge dark bags under my eyes, my cheeks were sunken in from my lack of an appetite, and my hair was an unruly mess of thick waves, all frizzy. I sighed and started the shower. I took my clothes off and stepped into the warm water, enjoying the feeling as it ran down my body, I lathered the shampoo into my hair and a vanilla smell filled my nose. I quickly did the conditioner, then relaxed for a few minutes before finally stepping out and wrapping a fluffy towel around me. I went back into my room to get dressed. I stared out the window, it was dark, grey, and raining. Perfect, it matched my mood. On the tree outside my window, there was a falcon sitting on one of the branches, staring at me, I took a few steps closer and opened the window, not caring that rain was coming in. The bird landed on the window sill. “Hey, what are you doing here?” I whispered to the bird, then immediately felt weird for talking to a bird, what was wrong with me, I was turning into a looney bin. The falcon cawed at me, then flew away. “Bye bird.” I whispered to nothing, then I backed away, shutting the window. I needed to get dressed. I picked the clothes off my bed and went back to the bathroom. I picked out a simple black skirt with a warm grey long-sleeved pullover sweater, I had black knee-high socks and black boots. I did my makeup, just some mascara, lip gloss, and eyeshadow. I carefully brushed my hair and blow dried it, it was thick and wavy, but not frizzy, so I just left it down. Satisfied with my appearance I went to gather my stuff, I didn’t have much, just one suitcase. I was trying to leave my past behind, new town, new school, new wardrobe. I grabbed my suitcase and walked out of my room, stopping at the entrance and looking back one last time, then I hurried away before I burst into tears. I slipped out the front door, but before I left I whispered. “Goodbye home.” Then I closed the door. A black limo was waiting on the road, gees how rich were these people. A tall, buff man stepped out of the driver's side and approached me. “You are Verayna Sato?” He asked. I nodded, then the man took my suitcase and opened the door. “I’m Victor.” He said. I climbed in, embracing my new life, I didn’t really have a choice. Soon the car started moving, and we left the neighborhood, passing Joclyn’s house, which I would probably never see again. Apparently, I had an Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Luka at a small town on the coast called Croyde, Aunt Elizabeth was mom’s sister, and I had never heard of her or even met her, I wondered why, why hadn’t mom told me she had a sister? Why was I only just meeting her now? It wasn’t fair! I had to leave behind all my friends, my home, two of my best friends. All to go to some people I didn’t even know. I relaxed against the window it was going to be a long drive. About after an hour, all I could see was the countryside, farmland, for miles and miles, and it stayed like that for another two hours. Eventually, we reached the coast, the endless ocean of blue. Coming up was a massive house, actually, a house was an understatement, I don’t even think mansion would cover how big it was, it was dark, with Victorian architecture. We stopped at the front of it, along with wide white marble staircase leading up to the doors. Victor opened the door for me and led me up the stairs and into the mansion, my suitcase in hand. The inside was even more spectacular than the outside if that was even possible, a grand staircase with what looked like golden railings, a large crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, china decor was dotted around and gorgeous mahogany wood made up the floor. Two people stood before us, a woman who looked like a younger version of my mother, she had coal black hair streaked with brown highlights and was wearing a classy grey dress that hugged her slim body. Next to her was a man, in a slick grey suit with dark brown hair, gelled into perfection. They both had smiles on their faces. “Hi, Verayna.” The woman said. “Hi, um.” I said not sure what to call them, I was pretty sure they were my aunt and uncle, but I didn’t know what they preferred. My aunt filled in the blank I left. “Lizzy and Luka, I like to skip formalities.” She said gesturing at her husband. I nodded. “I go by Vera.” I said, just to let them know. “Ok Vera, follow me.” Lizzy said. I followed them up the grand staircase, and down one of the many hallways. We stopped at the first door. I peered inside, it was fit for a king. A huge bed with velvet and silk sheets, a small crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, an embroidered carpet covering most of the ground. Victor went in and put my suitcase on the bed, then left without saying a word. “This is your room.” Lizzy said happily. “Wow, thanks.” I said quietly, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad living here. “Tomorrow we will go shopping for back to school clothes, today you can rest and get settled in.” Lizzy said, then turned and exited, closing the door. I sighed and collapsed on the soft bed. In a few days school started back up, summer went by so fast, it seemed like it had just been a few days. I had spent the whole summer packing and preparing for the funerals, oh and in the hospital, what a fun way to spend my summer. I went over to my suitcase and unpacked the few things I had brought, then changed into pajamas and crawled into the luscious bed. Eventually, I fell asleep and instead of my dead friends and family plaguing my dreams, there was a new face, the boy from when I first awoke after the crash, I could still see his stormy grey eyes and wine red hair, almost black, he was certainly unique, but strikingly handsome, too bad he wasn't real.

The next morning I woke to someone lightly knocking on the door. “Vera, honey get ready, we’ll be leaving in about an hour.” I bolted up, an hour? My shower usually took an hour. I sprinted to the bathroom and opened the drawer, but then remembered I wasn’t at home, but I found enough makeup to supply a store. I turned the shower on and finished in record time. I left my hair in its natural waves but did a braided halo, then applied some makeup. I changed into some cute jean shorts, a white blouse, and my black converse shoes. I checked the clock, it was quarter to ten, it had been nine o’clock went Lizzy came knocking on my door, so I had fifteen minutes, I grabbed my purse and stuffed my phone in it. Then went over to the stairs and made my way down, it took me a few minutes to find the kitchen, I grabbed an apple and walked over to Lizzy, who was sitting in the living room on a chair, the living room connected to the kitchen making the whole space huge. “Hey,” I said greeting her. She smiled brightly at me, standing up and grabbing her purse. “Ready to go?” I nodded and we headed down a different hallway and through a door. I gasped, there were like fifteen cars in the garage, there was a 2018 Porsche 718 Boxster, 2017 Lamborghini Huracan, 2019 ford mustang, 2018 Acura NSX, 2018 Audi TT, 2018 Lexus LC, 2019 BMW M5, 2019 Mercedes-Benz SL class, 2018 Ferrari 488 GTB, and a 2019 Chevrolet Corvette, but that wasn’t even all of them. “Is that a 2017 Lamborghini Huracan,” I said gesturing toward the baby blue car, that was my dream car, I loved sports cars. Lizzy smiled. “Yep and she’s all yours if you want.” “Are you kidding me?” I exclaimed. The more calmly said. “Are you sure?” She nodded. “Whatever’s ours is yours.” I ran up and hugged her. “Oh thank you so much,” I said, I barely knew my aunt but I immediately loved her. After a brief hesitation, she hugged me back. I pulled away. “Do you want to drive it to the mall?” She asked. I shook my head. “Not today.” “Ok,” she said, then walked over to a red Porsche and got in the driver's seat. I got into the passenger's side, admiring the white leather seats. She opened the garage and drove out. We sped down the highway, and in about twenty minutes we arrived at the mall, it was pretty big considering this was not a very big town. My mouth dropped once we got inside, all the stores were name brands, Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Channel, and much more. Wow, what was up with this town, were they all secret billionaires, I mean I had seen more mansions on the way here, but also a few smaller homes. Lizzy dragged me straight toward one of the stores and immediately had me try on, about everything. Bye the time we were done, she had spent about twenty grand on me. Goodness gracious how rich were they, I mean it wasn’t like I was poor before, but I wasn’t rich and these people were like billionaires. After we picked out a whole new wardrobe, we went to the salon, a kind looking woman with tan skin and chocolate brown hair greeted Lizzy with a kiss on both cheeks. “Lizzy!” She exclaimed. I guessed she came here regularly. “What can I do for you today?” She asked. Lizzy smiled widely and turned to me. “Carolina this is Vera, my niece.” “Hi,” I said. Carolina approached me. “My, you are beautiful, we can do a lot of things with you.” She said fingering my hair. I hadn’t really done anything like this before, other than dying it black, it was naturally blonde, which was kind of strange since the rest of my family had black hair and I had felt like an oddball so I dyed it, but I was still different, they all had dark brown eyes, mine were teal, when I was younger I had wondered why I looked so different, but now I didn't really notice anymore. I wouldn’t mind changing my hair up, it had almost always been long, wavy, and dark. “Come,” Carolina said, ushering me into a chair. “Ok, what is the look your going for?” She asked. Hmm, I haven't done this before, I didn’t really have a “look” so I didn’t really know what to do. “You can choose, whatever looks best,” I said. Carolina squealed in delight. “Most of my clients don’t let me do this, oh I know exactly what is perfect for you, no peeking till I’m done, I want it to be a surprise, oh your going to love it when I’m done!” She exclaimed, then laid me down. First, she dunked my hair in water and washed it up, then she started cutting it, I watched the dark strands fall to the floor. Next, she started the dye, I wondered what color it was and how it looked. While we waited for the dye to settle in Carolina did my nails and toes a pretty green-blue color. After about an hour or two Carolina finally turned me around and moved the chair up. I stared at myself in the mirror. I loved it. She had cut my hair to just below my shoulders, washed the black dye out so it was back to my natural golden blonde color, and added a teal ombre that matched my nails and toes, it looked awesome. I beamed at Carolina. She clapped her hands together. “You like it? I was going with an on land mermaid kind of look, and the teal looked fantastic with your natural blonde hair, which I realized when the black started coming out when I washed your hair, and it matched your green-blue eyes, so I did your nails the same color.” She said. “Thank you, it’s fantastic,” I told her, it really was, it looked great, she had also done my makeup, which made everything look better. Suddenly, Lizzy grabbed my arm and dragged me to Chanel, but before we dashed out she thanked Carolina and paid, by handing her a wad of cash. By the end of our shopping spree, Lizzy had spent five thousand dollars more and I was wearing a different outfit than I had come in with. Now I was wearing a cute white dress from Gucci and black platform heels from Prada. As we drove back to the house I thought, perhaps this change won’t be so bad, I had a nice family that treated me well, correction, very well, maybe too well, and the town was pretty. I loved how it was near the ocean, I had always wanted to live near it, maybe I could learn how to surf. That would be fun. Once we got back home, we set up all the clothes in the armoire and drawers, then I found some cute pajamas and went to bed. I would eventually get used to all of this, and it would all be ok.