Chapter Text
Bonnibel opened the blinds in her bedroom and sighed. Even with the growing warmth of the early spring sun, it was easy to feel hopeless. The empty, stark white walls of her new room only contributed to the pit growing in her stomach as she looked around at the past seventeen years of her life packed in cardboard boxes. It was clear that no matter how much decorating she did, this would never be home. She hoped that with only a year and a half of high school left, she’d be able to keep her head down and leave without a trace.
Between the three hour time difference and the days of travel she’d only just put past her, Bonnibel was drained. Without even changing out of her travel clothes, she sunk down on her bed and exhaled into its familiarity.
Not much later, she was awoken by a knock at her door. Coming out of her exhausted haze, her mind cleared when she realized where she was. She offered a quiet “come in” as she sat up.
“I’m going into town to get groceries, is there anything you need?” her mother asked, lingering in the doorway.
“Maybe I should just come with you” Bonnibel decided. She had to get it over with at some point, and she knew sooner or later she would need something specific, so it was better to get the lay of the land ahead of time.
Warlington was a medium-sized, coastal town in Maine. As pretty as it was, everything seemed almost too perfect, like one of those annoying Hallmark movie settings. To Bonnibel, it felt like somewhere you would consider a weekend trip. Much to her dismay, this was not a vacation.
Her mom said that they were going “into town”, but the separation between shops and residential areas was minimal, and everything seemed to be scattered about.
As she looked out the car window, it dawned on her that she would need to learn how to drive. Back home in Seattle, it was easy to get around without a car, but she was trying not to think about that. Moving here was a good change of pace, right? Even if that meant she had to learn how to drive, which to be fair, was never part of her plan. She could only hope that as it got warmer it would be easy to walk places, and she could put off driving for as long as possible.
Bonnibel was quickly snapped out of her thoughts when the car stopped, pulling into a mediocre shopping center. Chained alongside the grocery store were a bunch of smaller shops: a pizza place, a florist, a nail salon, and an ice cream shop. Across the street, displayed in a significantly less corporate manner, there was a bookstore, a record shop, and a thrift store. These buildings were worn and clearly told stories older than the shops residing within them. Suddenly bored with the thought of grocery shopping, she decided to cross the street and head into the bookstore. She made a plan to be back at the car within an hour and said a quick goodbye to her mom.
As she crossed the street and made her way towards the bookstore, Bonnibel was trying not to think of the afternoons she would spend in her favorite bookstore back home. She only hoped that this new one would be just as comforting as the one she had to leave behind.
Lost in thought, she almost didn’t process that she’d walked right into someone. Not only that, but the girl had stopped and was staring right at her, smiling. “Hi! I’m Lady. Are you visiting family? I haven’t seen you around before?”.
She started to speak at such a fast pace that it was hard to keep up, and Bonnibel could barely even catch her name. Lady, Bonnibel hoped that's what she said it was, was tall and kind of lanky. She had long blonde hair with little pastel highlights in a ton of colors. Much like her hair, her entire outfit was eccentric and decked out in color. She was so… bright. Not that Bonnibel was ever one to judge, she basically only wore pink herself.
She snapped back to reality and replied “I just moved here. I’m Bonnibel, um, Bloom”. She expected a quick “nice to meet you!” in response and that they’d split ways, but much to her surprise, that was not what followed.
“Oh my god! Someone new! I’m so excited. We never get anyone new! Hold on, let me get your number and you can call me later. This is so exciting!”. While talking, Lady pulled a pink sharpie out of her tote bag, uncapped it, and handed it to Bonnibel. Then, she offered her wrist as a place for her phone number. “I have to go, but I am going to text you later! Count on it!”.
Lady began to walk away, but she was already rummaging through her bag looking for her phone to put in Bonnibel’s number.
Bonnibel was stunned. While Lady was clearly nice enough, she hadn’t expected to be making new friends only hours after moving. Maybe living here wouldn’t be so bad after all.