My Lovely Life - The Story of Ethan Bennett

Chapter one - Morning Hysteria

Hi. My name is Ethan Bennett and I... Well, this is my life.

I am the youngest of three (or four, depending on how you count it), but my two older sisters have moved out and are currently attending college. I live with my mother, who everybody - mainly older people - tells me I look a lot like. Her side of the family origins in Guatemala and our ancestors were Maya peoples, and I have inherited my brown hair and dark eyes from her, although mine has a hint of green in them, inherited from my father. My mother wasn't born in Guatemala herself, but we regularly visit that part of our family and own a small summer house over there as well. I haven't quite grown out of my childhood chubby cheeks just yet and she loves to remind me of it as well as pinch them. But just this summer I passed her height, so I guess the cheeks are next. Her name is Mary and she married my father Charles when she was about twenty-two years old. They got divorced when I was little and to be honest I can only vaguely remember living with him, except for the occasional weekends I was forced to spend with him when I was younger. Quite instantly he got remarried to a woman named Claire, whereas my mother has remained an independent woman.

We live just outside Richton Town, or as I prefer to call it, Rich Town. It is a densely built area, surrounded by orange sand and stone cliffs. From someone who goes to school in that town, I can tell you that the people in it aren't actually different from anywhere else, but from the eyes of the outside world, it's almost like an upper-class daydream. Of course, not everyone is loaded with money, but most people around here have more money than they can waste.

It was founded by Haroldine Richton, who was once a groundbreaking minister in the parliament. Rather than running for President, she retired and built herself a mansion outside her favorite place in the world, Beach Town, which still stands today. Haroldine's mansion later became the Mayor's Office and her garden has expanded into a big park. I'm not sure why people decided to come and live here but the area attracted a lot of people and eventually became Richton Town. In modern times, it's been divided into four large areas, the first being the Mayor's Office, the oval park, and two dozen houses surrounding it. The second area surrounds the first and is newly built. Three roads are leading out of the first (or inner) area, one that leads to Beach Town (and before that, my house), one that leads to the High School, a third one leading to a bunch of big mansions. I went to school in Beach Town when I was a kid, but then they discovered mold in the building or something so the Beach Town kids had to go to school in the next town over, but since I did live within Rich Town's school district I had to go there instead. If it were up to me, I'd never leave Beach Town, but I was forced into the superficial that is Richton Town against my will.

My third year of high school started about a week ago and I... Well, my morning attendance hasn't been the best because I have been late... A couple four times. It wasn't my fault, truly. First off, my alarm clock broke. Then I missed the bus since my mom didn't have time to drive me. And then Matthew, who was supposed to give me a ride to school, showed up late since he also had to drop his sister off at the middle school at the other end of the town. So it really wasn't my fault, which I explained to the principal when I got sent to her office. Instead of giving me detention, the principal took pity on me and thought it'd be a fitting punishment to show the new kid around. So I got their number and we'd been texting over the weekend. His name was Jones and he was moving here from somewhere in Virginia. But from what I could gather he had also been living in New York for a while but was originally from Scandinavia. His father was a successful businessman, so he had been relocated a couple of times during startups of new companies, and so on.

It's about eleven o'clock and I have barely gotten any sleep all weekend. Matthew had insisted on us going to a party on Saturday and then my youngest older sister Laura had shown up out of nowhere and cried all night because she hated college. We figured out it was all because of a boy. So my mother made one of her famous speeches about independence and a couple hours later Laura was happier than ever. Oh, and I have also been working double shifts over at a restaurant in Beach Town, covering for my good friend Brandon...