Step Brother

Welcome Home

Pickering, CANADA
Scarlett Johnson

After landing in Canada we picked up a rental car and headed towards Pickering where our new life would begin.

Once everything was loaded up into the car we started the drive to our new home.

I sat quietly beside Aaliyah, with Shawn at her other side.

The entire drive was awkwardly silent, I mean all of us kids were sort of just thrown into this sticky situation.

  I didn't really know what to think about everything, just like that my entire life was flipped upside down.

  I sat quietly staring at the buildings passing by as we drove on, Shawn sat between Aaliyah and our thighs lightly touched during the drive.

  For some reason I was getting a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach, I slightly felt like throwing up.

It had to just be me getting carsick, it used to happen all the time was I was younger.

"Well this is it!"

Manuel called over his shoulder from the drivers seat of the car, as he pulled the five of us into the driveway of a nice suburban home.

It had been a long flight for all of us and getting our stuff to a different country wasn't a walk in the park.

I studied the house, from its tan brick siding and it's tall front windows, to the green trees that were planted on the even greener lawn.

"Wow Dad, well done!"

Shawn spoke up praising his Dad on his find, I glanced over and saw that Aaliyah had fallen asleep, her head slowly swayed on her chest.

Shawn noticed and he slowly lifted her head back up and tried his best not to wake her.

"What are you guys waiting for, go check it out!"

My Mom called, I opened the door and climbed out and Shawn followed not too far behind.

We both walked up the stone path to our new home and I noticed Shawn had a silver key in hand.

  The home had large oak double doors, they were quite beautiful and designed with a unique floral pattern.

  Shawn unlocked one of the doors and the both creaked open, Shawn stepped aside and allowed me to walk in first.

He came in after and closed the doors lightly behind him.

   We entered into a decent sized entry hall, a huge chandelier hung from the center of the ceiling.

White stairs with wooden tops curved up to the second floor and Shawn had flicked the lights on moments later allowing the beautiful entry way to light up.

We both began walking from room to room glancing in all directions, there was so much to look at.

It was also the first time I had ever seen our new home, everything was so new and it had so much space.

"It's huge."

I said loudly, Shawn suddenly appeared behind me after I entered the kitchen causing my heart to skip a beat.

"Ya, I can't believe we're actually going to be living here."

Shawn said, I grinned up at him and he was already grinning back, his pearly whites gleamed down at me.

"Shawn!!! Scarlett!!! Come help us start unloading!"

The two of us heard Manuel call from the front of the house.

We both quickly made our way back to the front door to see everyone had already started stacking boxes on the hardwood floor in the entry way, the moving truck had arrived.

"Scar, your room is upstairs second door on the left and Shawn yours is second on the right."

My Mom told both Shawn and I as we unloaded the last few boxes from the truck.

  How lovely, was the world just asking for something terrible to happen?

  There was obviously something lurking in the unknown, how was I supposed to avoid Shawn when he's going to be living right across the hall from me?

We both started to take our things up to our rooms, our parents room would be on the main floor along with Aaliyah's just down the hall.

I entered my new room, blank white walls surrounded me.

The first thing I noticed was I'd have my own bathroom.

I studied the window, it was one that looked like it would be in a movie scene.

It had a little bench with a cushion that looked out over the gorgeous backyard.

"Scarlett?"

I heard Shawn ask, I turned around to see him leaning in my doorframe a huge smile on his face.

"Ya?"

I asked him, he stayed put and didn't say anything for a short moment.

"Welcome to Canada!"

He said loudly in a prideful tone, I laughed.

"Thank you very much Shawn!"

I said with a giggle, he slowly turned and left me with the dumbest grin across my face.

   Things were changing and I had no clue what the universe had in store for me.