What If

Chapter 2

My alarm went off as per usual. I slapped it off with my hand and tiredly squirmed underneath my sheets for a good minute before forcing myself to sit up. I yawned and rubbed my eyes open before staring in shock around me. The room I was in was nothing like my own room. The bed was a single and pushed up against the wall. The wallpaper was piss-yellow and my desk was on another side of the room. My mirror changed from full-length to a simple square one overlooking a different desk with makeup and hair supplies, which was also weird because I didn't wear makeup other than lip gloss and the occasional cover-up.

This isn't my room, I thought, slightly terrified. I pulled the sheets off of me to see a white nightgown that I had never seen before in my life. I just stared down at myself in awe, not really knowing what to make of the situation.

Then I heard a voice from downstairs. "Colleen, wake up! You don't want to be late for your first day of school!" The voice was definitely female, but that did not sound like my mother at all. "Your school uniform is in your closet!"

I slowly stood up with tons and tons of caution and walked over to said closet. All of my motions were slow, being very afraid and very careful. In the closet was a mountain of dresses, all squished together on hangers and in the middle stuck out this uniform that was a white dress shirt with a black tie and a navy blue overcoat with a matching skirt. I was confused by these fashion choices. You couldn't catch me dead in a dress and my school didn't require uniforms anyway.

But being too stunned to question anything at that point, I put it on anyway along with the required knee-high socks and dress shoes. I sat down in front of my makeup dresser and looked at myself in the mirror. I still looked the same. So there was that.

I walked downstairs to find a thin woman with brown hair pulled up tightly making some sort of breakfast. She was wearing a yellow floral dress and she had a big smile her face when she saw me.

"Good morning, Colleen," she said happily, putting a plate of muffins on the table. "How did you sleep? I know you've been under a lot of stress since your dad got transferred, so I hope you slept like a baby last night."

I did not recognize this woman at all. She wasn't my mom, or at least not the one I remembered, but she acted like it.

"Uh, yeah," I answered. "Yeah, I did. W-Where are we again? You know, the city?"

"Oh, sweetheart, I must've told you at least fifty times. We're in Liverpool. It's not that hard of a name to remember."

"Liverpool, New York?"

She looked at me very very strangely like I had just suddenly grown a unicorn horn. "No," she said slowly. "Liverpool, England. Colleen, are you feeling alright? How do you not remember us moving?"

England? I thought. When the hell did I go to England? I never answered her question.

"Oh, sweetheart, you'll want to get going. You don't want to be late. I put your class schedule on the counter along with directions to the school. It's within walking distance. I don't think you'll have a problem getting there. Have a good day. Tell me all about it when you get home."

"O-Okay," I said, grabbing my schoolbag and the schedule and directions and headed out onto the blistering cold streets of Liverpool.