She took vacations with her family each summer. They road-tripped across the southwestern United States, stopping at the Grand Canyon and Carlsbad Caverns. Her parents were always amazed at the sights and expected her to also be impressed. But that type of thing didn't make an impact on her.
She preferred the everyday scenes. She liked the diner where they stopped for lunch. A table of teens in the corner - those could be her friends if she lived here. The high school surrounded by dry grassy fields - she would go there.
When they spent a week at a beach house, she knew she had found her place. She loved living in her bathing suit. She packed a picnic every morning and didn't come home until the sun was going down. She knew that if she lived here, she could be somebody new.
They never left the beach so she didn't see the high school, but she could imagine it. She saw everyone's interest as she walked into the classroom as a new student. She knew they would want to get to know her, guys and girls alike because they had never met someone like her. No one ever moved to their tiny beach town.
But her family never moved. Vacations were just temporary getaways, and they always went home to the same place where her parents had lived for over twenty years. Her bedroom was the same as it always was, and she slipped back into her old skin.
When school started next week, no one would look at her, no one would want to get to know her. She was the same person she had been for the previous fourteen years, the same person she'd stay.
287 words
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