Part 13: In With The New
At a party during the summer before grade twelve, someone decides to play this horrible game. It was kind of a thing to play horrible games at these parties and make horrible choices, but we kept doing it. For this particular game, someone asks someone else a question. In this case, someone asked one of the girls who their least favourite person at the party was. Then if those two people say the same number at the same time, they have to reveal what the question and answer were. So she's asked who her least favourite person at the party was, they said the same number and she revealed in front of the whole party that I was her least favourite person there. I look to Gaston for help and he's laughing hard. He does pat my back to comfort me but everyone in the room had mixed reactions of laughing, cringing, and standing up for me. The girl texts me privately and apologizes a lot. But ouch, I already didn't like myself so it stung a bit to know that my "friend" also didn't like me.
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During the summer of 2018, we received word that the rumours were true and they were enforcing the school catchment boundary rules. My family lived in West Abbotsford and the schools we attended were in East Abbotsford. It was a fifteen minute drive across town and if we didn't move within the boundaries, we wouldn't be allowed to go to our schools anymore. We would have to go to the middle and high school in West Abbotsford that were crime ridden and run down. My parents begged and pleaded with the schools to let us stay, but they refused and we had to move.
Our family had been outgrowing our house on Bedford Place. We were growing up, getting bigger, our family was a bit more comfortable financially and it made sense for us to move into a bigger, nicer place. However, the way it works in the LDS church is that those catchment boundaries also apply to church and where you live depends on what time you go to church and who you go with. So us moving to East Abbotsford meant that I wouldn't be going to church or bible study with Gaston anymore, or any of my friends. Not only would Gaston and I be seperated, but the new group we would be going with was full of people that I did not like. Gaston told me that if I moved he would miss me but it wouldn't change anything because we were getting older and more serious and we could see each other more if we wanted to.
When it becomes official and our house is put up for sale, I am a wreck. It actually pains me to write this story in hindsight because there was really no reason to stay on Bedford Place. My parents were doing what was good for our family and I was so mean to them. But this story is a part of my story so it has to be told. Anyways, our house is put up for sale and my mom takes us on a drive to see the new house we were going to move into. It's a beautiful house right up the street from my high school. It's in a quiet cul de sac and has a beautiful back patio with a mountain view. All five kids will get their own bedroom, there are two living rooms, a bigger kitchen and it's on a better side of town. I refuse to even look at the new house. I sit crying in the back seat of our minivan (did I mention I am almost seventeen at this point) and won't lift my head to look.
When we get home, I can't even look at my mom. I am convinced that she and my dad are trying to ruin my life and they're making us move just so that Gaston and I will stay apart. Can't they see that we love each other and nothing will keep us apart? It doesn't make it any easier to not be able to be in the same bible study class or youth group anymore. I go sit on the back deck and cry. I don't understand why everyone is so excited about this move. My parents tell me that if we don't go I'll have to switch schools and then I definitely won't be happy. But I'm already unhappy... so what's the point?
I go down the stairs from the deck to the backyard and leave our house to go walk to the park down the road from our house. I leave my phone at home on purpose because I want my parents to be worried about me and see what they've done. I walk down the road to the park and sit on the swing. I think about how bad my mom and dad would feel if someone kidnapped me and I died, how they must be so worried where I am and how they'll feel so bad for making me so upset. Now they'll really care about what I have to say. After about a half hour, I'm bored without my phone and I start to walk home. I fully expect the police to be there, for them to hug me and ask where I was and apologize for making us move and change their minds about the whole thing. I walk in the front door of our house and my mom says, "Dinner's ready." No cops, no fuss, no apologies. They hadn't even noticed that I had gone. It left me feeling like a very unimportant member of our family. But I also realized that there was nothing that I could do to change their minds. While they were praying for our house to sell, I was praying for it to not sell. My plans didn't work and our house was sold that summer.
We move out of Bedford Place and into East Abbotsford right before I go into grade twelve. At our last church camp with our OG group, I get the worst cramps I've ever had in my life and pass out on the drive over to the camp. This limited the things that I could do at the camp so while everyone went to the lake to swim, I got to sing in front of the camp director. They were having a talent show at the camp and I hadn't signed up, but after the camp director heard me sing "Never Enough" from The Greatest Showman, she told me that I had to sing it at the camp. As I sang the song and looked to the girls that I had grown up with, I was overcome with emotion thinking about how everything was going to change. Everything did change, and it was hard for awhile but it all ended up okay in the end. I just had to wait a little while.
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