"This is so stupid," Jade told herself as she pulled her green backpack and a red handbag out of the overhead compartments of the plane. It had been a long, cold, excruciating flight from L.A. to Beach Seaty on a nearly empty plane with a terrible selection of movies and almost nothing to do except looking out the window to see nothing but clouds.
But at least there were free peanuts and soda.
The horribly long flight was finally over, but the psychological torture was just about to begin.
She still had an hour drive south in the same car as her father to get to her least favourite place: A small town named Hallow Woods.
"I hate my life so much." Jade whispered, closing the compartment, "I came all this way for nothing!"
"I am! Not elite but... I act! Like I am and baaaaby... That's so sick..." A handsome guy was singing by her right, taking his black backpack out of the compartment behind her. His hair was dyed green with pink tips that may have been red at some point, his feet and hips moving slightly to an imaginary beat. And boy was this handsome guy a great singer! "I act! Like I'm so royal... I walk! Like I'm a model, baaaaby... That's not me. Doo-Dooroo-Doo-Doo."
He was so dreamy!
He was a strange mix of a typical, muscular football-playing frat boy and a bad boy cliché. Leather jacket, boots and ripped skinny jeans? Oh yes please! She would say yes as soon as he had the guts to ask her out!
He was also mysterious, with eyes as green as nature and lips as full as hers. Quite kissable.
Ooohhh! Jade could already imagine a whole romance story. If this were a book it would be called 'Love Ten Thousand Feet Above the Ground' or something like that.
She had been watching him during the flight, very discreetly, sending subtle signs so that he would make a move. A couple of cute blinks, moving her hair behind her ear, biting her lip. Oh yes! She knew what she was doing.
He surely thought she was a master in the art of seduction because he glanced once or twice at her.
She was totally into him.
He was a dream come true!
"Marry me," Jade whispered.
"You talking to me?" Mr. Leather Jacket raised an eyebrow.
"Oh! No, I... I just said I soooo came here for nothing," she replied, faking a rich girl tone. She loved watching 'Swimming Up With The Kardasharks' and she would make sure she looked as confident and perfect as them, "I came here to study a career that will sooooo very probably leave me unemployed at some point living with my mother or father wishing I had chosen a career in law or graphic design. That is just how bad my life is right now."
"You came here to study? That doesn't sound bad," he said, closing the compartment, "I'm in college, but well, I had to travel to L.A. because..."
"Yeah, but back to me," Jade said, and the guy looked annoyed, "I'm sooooo super angry because..."
"You've just 'sooooo super' interrupted me."
"Oh. I'm just... I just thought it would be good for you to get to know me better before we continue talking." She looked him straight in the eyes. Self-confidence was crucial when talking to men, "I'm just suuuuuuper interesting, you know? And super confident too. And totally..."
"Could you please stop..."
"Wow!" She frowned, "You interrupted me. So rude. Soooo Rude! SoOoOoOo RuUuUuDe! Nail polish emoji!"
"You're not texting."
"So rude."
"Yeah, rude." He replied, "And you are not talking the same now as you did a while ago when you were talking to yourself."
"Oh. I talk to myself sometimes because I am sooooo not like the rest and..."
"Well, everyone talks to themselves sometimes," he turned red. Was he blushing? Yes he was! She was a master of the art of seduction, period. "But I'll give you some advice," the boy stepped closer, so close, inches away from her face. Jade's heart was beating fast. She suspected that, perhaps, this was the start of a nice..."Stop complaining all the time and staring at others without blinking. You made me uncomfortable the whole flight."
Ouch.
"Excuse me? I was sooooo not..."
"And stop talking like you're a Kardashark," he continued, "It's 'super' annoying."
"It's super important to give an image of power and confidence." She replied, crossing her arms.
"So you're just pretending?"
Jade frowned.
"I'm not pretending. My family is like, super rich."
"And that's why you travelled in economy class instead of first class. Sure," he rolled his eyes.
And then he left.
Well, it was definitely not the beginning of a love story.
"Wow! So rude!" Jade grunted with her ears and face burning.
She sighed as she stepped out of the plane, and faked a smile when the flight attendant told her to have a great day and to fly with the company again.
So rude. She could have just told Jade to have a 'good' day instead of a 'great' day. Boy, were the people on this island so rude!
Whatever!
It was time to leave everything behind and start from scratch.
She would go to college now.
Specifically? To Hallow Woods University.
There was no more room in the dorms or sorority houses, so that meant she would live with her father for the rest of the school year. Erich sounded excited about the whole thing on the phone, genuinely pleased that Jade was going to live with him, and even got her registered for college, but she was more than disappointed to return to the gloomy town that she abandoned when she was still a child.
Since Jade was eight, she hadn't seen her father except on occasional video calls when she needed money, so she wasn't sure if he would be easy to live with or not.
Once she stepped out of the jetway, she took a second to try to control the anger she felt. There were very few people in the lounge area, sitting in rows of plastic chairs all immersed in their phones. Even the duty-free shops, bars, cafes, and restaurants were almost empty.
That was good.
Maybe it was just paranoia, but Jade always felt like the world was watching her every move. Even when she was alone she always thought there were hidden cameras around her, like a reality show.
Still, she felt safer here than back home, with only about a dozen people around her.
Then her phone rang.
It was her mother.
"Hi, Mum," she said, walking slowly with her head down.
"Hi, honey! How are you?"
"Terrible!" Jade replied, "You got me a seat next to the bathrooms."
"I thought it would be helpful if you had an emergency, Jade. I know you get sick on planes."
"You don't just hate me. You wanted me to die of suffocation by other people's farts." She replied quickly, "So rude."
"Oh sweetie. You know that's not true. I just hope you have a great day and..."
"Wow!" Jade stopped walking.
"What?"
"Can you be any more rude, mum?"
"What did I say?"
"Mum, you're at a ten, bring it down to a three."
"But..."
"I'll call you back when you're in a good mood because you're ruining my day," Jade said and hung up. "My God! Mum can be sooooo rude sometimes!"
"Bitch alert," she heard someone whisper in the lounge room and frowned, then looked around.
Damn! Everyone was looking at her, and not with friendly eyes. It was anger or even disgust.
Mr. Leather Jacket was there too, and he was the one who looked at her the ugliest. He was with a black-haired, very athletic boy. At least on this island there was eye candy.
Jade blushed and started walking quickly down the long white corridor. It seemed that even the people in the duty-free shops were judging her.
Maybe she should have been more careful not to yell into the phone.
Fortunately, Beach Seaty's airport was small with only eight gates in two passenger terminals, nothing like the gigantic airport in Los Angeles which had more than a hundred and fifty gates in nine terminals, so finding the way out was not difficult at all.
As Jade walked out the door, a humid heat greeted her.
The air was much thicker than back home as well.
Erich was waiting for her outside, smoking a cigarette against his old black car. His black compression shirt was so tight it would surely rip, just like his jeans. With those huge combat boots and ladiesman pose, he looked more like a college student than the father of a college girl, not to mention he wiggled his eyebrows and ran a hand through his hair when a flight attendant turned to look at him.
Jade rolled her eyes.
No wonder her mother left him.
Jade had been born with her mother's black hair, pale skin and tender face so at first glance, Erich didn't look like her dad at all.
And then he turned to look at her.
Oh no.
"Jade! Look how you've grown!" Erich gave her a bone-shattering hug, and the smell of cigarettes immediately made her nauseous, "Where's your mum? How's everything going?" He let her breathe and stepped back.
"She's fine in Los Angeles," That was enough information, he needn't know anything else. "It's good to see you, Dad. I'm glad to know that at least I have someone's support in this time of crisis."
He looked around her, then cocked his head.
"So, Jade... Where's the rest of your luggage?"
"I decided not to bring too many things because this stupid idea Mum had is already..."
"Stupid idea?"
"Yeah! The idea of coming here to study! I don't understand why she is so intent on ruining my life! I just wanted a gap year to deal with the disappointment of being..."
"But it was my idea," Erich frowned.
Jade gasped.
She couldn't believe it.
She was living in a world full of liars.
"Fine." She grunted, "Then I won't talk to you anymore."
"But you just did." He looked confused.
"Just to tell you that I won't be doing it anymore."
"Okay, I guess," Erich really didn't understand her, "Bring your stuff here."
"I only brought the essentials and some of my dolls so be careful," She replied.
"Monster High?" Erich asked and she nodded. "I should have known." He probably thought having a daughter who was a collector was weird. She didn't care what he thought of her anyway. She was too unique for anyone in this world to understand. "I'll put everything in the trunk."
It all fit easily.
"Dad, be careful when you close the trunk, my dolls are, like, super expensive," Jade said.
And then Erich slammed the trunk shut.
Jade's jaw dropped.
The trunk slowly opened again.
"Not again," Erich said, and he slammed it again, and again, and again until it finally closed.
"I can't believe it, you are so rude," Jade got into the car before her father, rubbing her temples. The car was not a Mercedes Benz, but at least Erich had cleaned it up, although the seats still smelled faintly of tobacco.
"I guess you still like monsters," Erich said when they were strapped in, "So I guess you also like that boyband... Monster Mash?"
"Are you seriously asking that?" Jade glared at him.
"Yeah, do you?" Erich wiggled his eyebrows.
No, she did not.
All she knew was that Monster Mash had the whole world crazy.
She had refused to even listen to a single song by them no matter how trendy they were, because they surely were a group of dumb men with little talent but a lot of marketing and hair spray behind them, nothing new.
It didn't take more than abs and handsome faces to make an average girl fall in love, did it?
Well, Jade was not average, nor did she fall easily for chiselled jawlines.
They annoyed her, period.
And to make matters worse, she had the misfortune to listen to one of their songs on her way to the airport back in L.A. because the taxi driver had the radio on and the music played way too loud, something that went like: I have seen the... I have seen the... I have SEEN THE FLA-AMES!
Like, what was that?!
When it was all over, the only thing that Jade asked herself was: Why were these boys so shouty?
Actively rejecting what Jade thought was empty and shallow 'teenage' music gave her the sense that she was somehow more informed than the people around her so no, she did not like Monster Mash.
"So, do you like them?" Erich sounded too excited in her opinion, "Because guess what? Do you remember the tall guy I told you about on the phone the other night? The one I coached and won the bodybuilding competition?"
"No."
"Oh, well... Do you remember the neighbours across the street then? Do you remember the boy you used to play with when you were a child, Jade?"
"No."
"Oh well. But do you remember the family that lived near..."
"No."
"Okay. Hey, do you remember I told you that there was a short guy in the chess club when I was in college? The guy who..."
"No."
"Well, I guess you don't remember much, but..." Erich stopped talking when Jade rolled her eyes, "Fine, you are not in a mood."
"I am not," she grunted, "I can't be in a good mood. The university I wanted, and my alternate options, all rejected me. They didn't even send me a letter to tell me 'Thank you, next!' because they hate me!"
"But I thought it was because you finished high school with bad grades."
"Oh my God! So rude, Dad!" Jade had had enough, "Everyone's always judging me and I don't know why! It's not my fault that the teachers at my school were terrible at teaching very difficult subjects."
"But didn't you also fail gym class?" Erich frowned, "That one's easy."
"Oh my God! I didn't know it was a sin that my body's a magnet for balls and Mr. Bullson liked dodgeball so much."
"I guess you're not very good at dodging then."
"Dodging is too tiring so I just stood there and everyone always threw all the balls at me because they hated me," she replied.
"You do understand the dodge part when playing dodgeball, right?"
"I wasn't going to sweat! It's disgusting!"
"And the other subjects you failed?"
"Oh my God, Dad! At least I graduated from high school! Why do you want to humiliate me?"
"I am just saying that you could try to focus more on your studies from now on," Erich said, because of course, that hadn't occurred to her before, "Hallow Woods University is a very good school. You just have to give it a try and forget about parties, boys, alcohol, boys, drugs, boys..."
"Fine! I get it!" She yelled, then dropped her shoulders, "You say that like I'm interested in dating. So not true."
"Oh, hey Erich," a voice made Jade turn. Mr. Leather Jacket was leaning on the car window. He gave Erich a fist bump and eyed her, "Oh. You." He wasn't glad to see Jade again, and she was dying of embarrassment. She couldn't believe that this guy was seeing her right now in this old car! Not after she had told him that her parents were millionaires! God! How embarrassing!
And worse yet! The boy knew Erich! But okay, okay. Maybe she could still say that Erich was an Uber driver or something.
"Oh! How's it going Zedrick?" Erich said, "This is my daughter. Her name is Jade."
Damn it!
"We've met before," Zedrick grunted, "She kept staring at me on the way here. We also had a fantastic conversation. Apparently she loves to travel in economy class, yelling at people on the phone and flirting with indiscreet 'serial killer' glances."
Jade sank in her seat.
"You were saying?" Erich glared at her.
"Anyway, Felix came to pick me up and you know he's very strict with his schedule. Nice to see you, Erich!" Zedrick stepped back, "See you at the gym!"
"See you!" Erich waved and turned to look at Jade with a frown, "Were you flirting with Zedrick?"
"I was sooooo not flirting," Jade lied, "I was just getting pneumonia from smelling other people's farts and my eyes stayed fixed on him while one of my lungs was collapsing. I hate socializing and even more so flirting."
"If you say so," Erich sighed, and then started the car.
There was a sound like an explosion that startled her. Of course, an old car like this would have a loud exhaust.
"Your car is like, super loud," Jade said.
"And it will be yours from now on." Erich said. "Hallow Woods is very small, so I can walk to my gym if I leave the house ten minutes earlier so you can drive to school everyday."
"Thanks for wanting to ruin my social life," Jade replied.
"But didn't you say you hate socializing? And why are you talking like you're a Kardashark?" Erich grunted, "Does it look like we're rich to you?"
"What you just said is soooo rude and soooo not true! I've always spoken like this."
"Jade..." Erich sighed, "Stop it. It's 'super' annoying."
"I just think it's important to give an image of power and self-confidence."
"More like self-sabotage."
"Fine, I won't do it anymore!" She replied with her normal voice tone, "Damn it, everyone judges me all the time."
They exchanged a few more comments on the weather, which was surprisingly warm in the daytime but cold at night, and then he began talking nonstop about his job as a personal trainer in the only gym in Hallow Woods, which was his, and he also began to talk about how much he had saved over all these years so that she could attend the university where he studied when he was her age.
Jade knew that Erich had always wanted her to grow up and study at Hallow Woods. One of those two things was apparently bound to happen.
He also started talking about how proud he was of how much weight he could carry without too much strain, and talked about his need to make his arms bigger as if he didn't already look like a mountain. Sometimes, Jade thought that Erich never stopped being the college jock that her mother fell in love with.
Jade spent most of the time just nodding when Erich began asking the occasional question about how her mother was doing in Los Angeles and if she still thought men were cute in jeans. Jade tried as hard as possible not to answer anything or mention her mother's new boyfriend.
The hour in the car flew by for Jade.
The first thing she saw as they entered the town was the wooden sign reading:
'Welcome to Hallow Woods, founded in 1915'
'Population: No idea, count them yourself.'
She kept on looking out the window at the orange leaves of the many trees that surrounded the road, watching the many purple and black painted stores and houses pass by.
When she was a little girl, she used to say that Hallow Woods was 'The Official Halloween City' because of course, for a child who had never seen a real city, this was huge.
Jade now realised how wrong she was.
There were barely any people living here, and they all knew each other. Every family owned their own house, their own store, and Hallow Woods was so small that you could literally walk from one end to the other in a matter of two hours.
The vast majority of the population in recent times were foreign university students, who rarely left the campus grounds which were arguably a town in themselves and much larger than Hallow Woods, and with too many students from different parts of the country all in one place.
"Home sweet home!" Erich exclaimed after driving for a long time along the road that crossed the town, and turned the car to the right to enter a narrow street full of old houses. Everything was next to the road in this place, so at least Jade wouldn't get lost in case she had to walk back home. "Hey Jade, there have been micro-earthquakes in the last few months so I hope you'll follow the school staff's instructions in case..."
"An earthquake struck southern California four years ago, Dad," Jade replied, "I can handle a tremor, but this house? I'm not sure."
Erich still lived in the old two-story house that he'd bought with her mother. There was a rocking chair on the ridiculously large porch that was barely standing, and an ashtray on an old wooden railing.
Jade now understood how much her father had cut back on expenses to have savings for her college.
The house was falling apart!
"If you don't like it, or feel uncomfortable, I can ask the owner of the Hallow Inn to rent us a room for you during the weekends," Erich said as he parked, "In case you don't want to spend too much time here."
"Hallow Inn?"
"It's relatively new. Do you remember the old castle that scared you when you were a child? Darktide Fort?"
"Yes," Jade shivered, "We passed it a while ago on our way here, didn't we? I think I saw some of its towers in the distance."
"That's right." Erich sounded too excited, "An old friend of mine who went to college with me bought the castle. He made a business alliance with the famous Norm Bates and turned it into a five stars hotel. He has a program for low-income students in conjunction with Hallow Woods University. The students literally go to college for free and he also lets them stay at his hotel in case they can't afford a dorm. He only asks that they be exceptional students and..."
"Your house is just fine, Dad," Jade was tempted, but she didn't want Erich to spend another cent on her, and she wasn't a good student anyway.
It all felt almost like a paranormal romance book. New girl, old town, kind father the protagonist treats awfully... Tourists across the street? What?
"Erich?" Jade asked, pointing to the huge old house across the street. He looked where she was pointing, at a group of people taking photos as if that residence was a wonder of the world, "Is that normal?"
"Yes, there are guided tours of the city almost daily around here, but I don't think you're interested in the reason," Erich replied, "Anyway, shall we go into the house?"
It took only one trip to get all her stuff upstairs to the bedroom that faced out over the front yard. It was just as she remembered it.
The polished wooden floor, the green walls, the low ceiling, the red curtains... It seemed like this was the only room Erich had spent enough money on to keep it from collapsing in a storm, because the rest of the house had peeling white paint on the walls and leaks.
The desk held a second-hand computer, the closet was a bit old, and on the bed was a teddy bear holding a 'Welcome' sign.
Jade had to smile at this.
It was good enough, to spend her afternoons doing homework at least.
In retrospect, it was good to have her own space instead of being forced to live with many girls in a small dorm room. She wasn't good at socializing with people her age, period.
When Jade finished putting her clothes in the old closet, and her second-hand Monster High dolls on a shelf like back home, she took her bag of toiletries and went to the bathroom to clean herself up.
There was nothing special about that bathroom, just a shower stall and a sink. It was old, but at least it was very clean, and she was glad there was only one, very small mirror.
Jade hated looking at herself in mirrors so she did her best to brush her teeth without seeing her pallid reflection. She hated her fish-like lips the most, and that's why she hated pictures too. Facebook and Instagram were practically useless for her, and she occasionally uploaded a photo after a long process of selection and editing. She never had more than two likes though, and it was most of the time her mother doing that to embarrass her. She was even more popular than Jade with her Feng Shui YouTube channel, which was already monetized.
Jade shuffled back to her room, tired from sitting for hours on a plane.
"Jade?" Erich was suddenly at her door with his hands behind his back, "Your mum told me that..."
"That she was really rude to me on the phone?" Jade grumbled.
"No." He handed her a white box. Jade raised an eyebrow, slowly opening it, "Your mum told me that you wanted this and sent me some money to buy it. This is not second hand, it's new, I bought it at the mall yesterday."
"Did mum buy this?" She asked, pulling a tablet out of the box, "I didn't know that... Wow."
Her eyes watered.
Maybe this whole failed attempt at being the protagonist of a vampire book had backfired.
"Anyway, goodnight, Jade," Erich said, stepping out of the room.
"Bye, Dad," she said, swallowing hard.
She had a lump in her throat.
Before going to sleep, Jade lay down on the bed and called her mother.
Maybe she wasn't awake anymore or maybe...
"Hey honey! How's everything going?" Her mum picked up quickly.
"Mum, everything is..." She paused. Then she closed her eyes, "Perfect. I just..." Tears began to fill her eyes.
"Honey, are you okay?" Her mother asked.
"Yeah."
"Are you sure? Because you're not talking like a Kardashark anymore."
Jade laughed.
"No, I won't do that again, mum. I just wanted to say I'm sorry, I was rude to you earlier," Jade sighed, "I was stupid and overly dramatic and, I don't know, I miss you already."
"Oh Jade! I miss you too." Her mother said, "And I'm glad you talk normally now. You sounded 'super' annoying before."
Jade laughed, wiping away a tear.
"Hey, mum. I wanted to ask you a couple things," Jade looked at the tablet with a smile, "You're a very sociable woman, so do you have any tips for me? To be, I don't know, like you?"
"Oh, honey! Of course!" Her mother replied and Jade smiled, "I'm going to help you become the most popular girl in school. Do you have a pen and paper?"
"I've got a new tablet," Jade said.
She hung up at three in the morning, so there wouldn't be much rest for her but hey! Maybe now she would finally have friends or at least someone to talk to unlike her days in Los Angeles, because tomorrow would be just the beginning of a new life.
It would be the beginning of a new and much more authentic Jade.