New York to Nevada

She was in her room. Her nightlight she still used, still scared of the dark at age 9, glowing bright. Somebody opened her door. She knew who it was just by the feeling she got. What was her mom doing up this late? She could feel her staring at her. She tried willing herself to sit up and look at her mother, but she found she couldn't. The door started to close slowly, letting out a loud creak. It suddenly hit her like a semi barreling into her. She tried to shout, scream, or move a muscle. She needed to show she was awake and alive, but something was restricting her from doing that. Just when the door was barely a crack open, she finally shot up like a rocket.

"MOM!"

. . . . . one blink . . . two blinks . . .

No.

She wasn't in New York, she was in Nevada.

She felt cold sweat dribble down from her forehead. Her door opened and a man about to enter his 50's came in, and even in the dark she could see pure concern etched on his face.

"Tanya? Sweetheart are you alright? Was it those dreams again?"

Tanya sat up and pondered a bit, her father moving to sit at the edge of the bed, and shook her head.

"No, it was a new one. . . actually I think it was a memory, of  the night that Mom left. . . "

Noah stiffened ever so slightly.

"She opened my door, looked in, and started to close it. The whole time I tried to sit up and shout at her to stop, but I couldn't. . . "

Eveytime they talked about her, it always got quiet. Eventually it was broken when he cleared his throat.

"Well, we need to get our sleep. School starts for you, and so does my job. We still need to adjust to the timezone."

Tanya only nodded and whispered a goodnight as he got up to leave. He hesitated at the door, and turned back to look at her.

"We're starting over here, what happened in New York stays there. We can't wallow in the past forever."

Tanya smiled and nodded. He smiled back and closed the door.

Everytime this happened she was always afraid that she'd seen her Dad for the last time.

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Fifteen minutes passed before Tanya deemed it safe enough to sneak out her bedroom to the garage. Even in the dark, she could still see the cherry red of her beautiful electric scooter. She tip-toed over to him, and tapped his headlight a few times.

" . . . Well I am now."

Quickly the scooter started to shift and twist and grow until out of it formed a body; a robot. He glanced down, his eyes shining a faint blue and piercing the black, and knew something was wrong by the look on her face.

" . . . Nightmare again?"

She only nodded.

" . . . Was it different than the other ones?"

Another nod. She stepped forward and started tapping his knee.

'It was a memory this time. She opened the door and looked in and started to close it. The whole time I was trying to do something, ANYTHING.'

" . . . This was the night she left?"

Tanya seems to like nods, which is what she did again.

" . . . Something about it that bothers you?"

'. . . I feel like I could've done something. Like, if I had just been able to make a sound, move my head, anything to show her that I was awake, I could've stopped her. We could've lived together as a family.'

" . . . Eh, she's a bitch. Bet she's sorry now of ever thinking of ditching you."

A smile spread across her face. Remy always knew what to say or do, whether it concerned her fears and nightmares or opinions on what to do or what to wear.

"Don't you have to sleep? It'd kinda suck to be really tired on your first day of jai-imean school."

Tanya supressed a giggle this time.

'Thanks for that.'

Remy gave his own smile, which was just a smirk.

"No prob. Now buzz off, we both have to get up early, and I don't want you to be the reason I'm such a dick in the morning."

She let her giggle out, and left to the door.

The nightmares always sprang at random times, but Remy was always there to catch Tanya when she fell.

Always.

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The sun was barely peaking over the far-off desert, but it was up enough where Tanya didn't have to have Remy turn his headlights on. They were both off to the first day of what Remy calls 'Jail' AKA school. Remy would be forced to hang in the parking lot while Tanya would have to cram her head full of stuff she already knew or had yet to learn. Due to the nightmare the previous night, talking with Remy, and still trying to adjust to the time zone change, she was one scary person when her alarm blared. Her father had been wise enough to give her some money to make a quick run to a coffee-joint to grab some caffiene. The smell was itching at her nose, but she had to keep up to her father's promise of having her focus ONLY on the road when she first got her license. The smell wasn't the only thing distracting her, one other thing stirring in her mind as well.

Bullies.

She hated them with a fiery burning blazing passion and wanted to kick every single one of them off the face of the Earth. She always had concern of her late baby brother having to face them and it still remained, which probably came from somebody she knew back up in York. She used to volunteer at a shelter, and one day somebody came who had been forced to run away because of a bully. The bully had threatened to hurt their family and they didn't want to take chances, since the bully was a leader of a gang. After that she had some permanent bully radar constantly going, not wanting such a thing like that happening to anybody else.

The school came into sight, Tanya directing Remy in and taking the first spot she saw. She removed her helmet and tied her hair up in a quick bun, and took a grateful gulp from the caffienated beverage in front of her.

" . . . So, go learn stuff? Just know it sucks to be you, I get to sit out here and nap in the warm sun."

'Shaddup. I got coffee. What now?'

" . . . Jus git off."

Tanya rolled her eyes and smirked, dismounting off Remy and adjusting her bag before tapping goodbye to him and walking off. Good god HER COFFEE SMELLED SO DELICOUS. She took another sip when her Bully Radar magically went off, having been covered by the haze of coffee-need. She darted her head around and found the commotion. It was a stupid typical 'I'm gonna hold your stuff over your head and not give it back!' situation, a tall red head holding a backpack over what looked like a middle-schoolers head. He was jumping and fruitlessly trying to grab it, and seemed to be loosing hope. Before Tanya herself registered what she was doing she was already tapping the perpatrators shoulder. His head whipped around, green eyes boring into her, almost demanding what the hell she wanted without saying anything. Suprisingly (Not) those were the words that came out of his mouth.

"Not exactly making a good first impression with me, if what your actions are already don't tick me off."

"New girl huh?" His eyes roamed up and down. "Not as bad as the other one."

She gave a fake sweet smile.

"Aw, how sweet," Her face then morphed to one of 'Do as I say' "Mind giving the backpack back to the kid?"

Said kid was glancing between all three things, the two present and his bag. He fidgeted wiht his glasses out of pure nervousness at the fate of his item.

Red head scowled.

"Just as much of a talker as the other one though."

A simple raise of her eyebrow was her reply.

"Problem with that?"

A staring contest went down, before he scoffed and let the bag drop, the poor kid scrambling to prevent the bag from smashing to the ground.

"You're lucky you caught me on a good morning, next time you won't be so lucky."

He walked off, Tanya glaring at him all the way before she turned back to the kid, who seemed to be checking that nothing was damaged in his bag, and softened her look.

"You alright?"

He nodded real quick and strapped the bag onto his back and mumbled a small thank you and tried to walk off. She threw out a hand and grabbed his shoulder.

"Whoa hey, I'm not gonna hurt you. Just moved here and I'm not missing my first oppurtunity at making a friend."

He glanced up in an almost 'Who, me?' fashion.

"You, really don't mind that your first friend after moving is a middle-schooler?"

"Nah, as long as I have somebody to talk to. So you are in middle school?"

He nodded.

"Well, guess I can do that whole 'Adopt-A-Middle Schooler' thing." She gave a quick laugh. "I'm Tanya."

"I'm Raf."

"Well, nice to meet you Raf."

The bell gave a shrill ring, other surrounding students filing to the doors. Tanya smiled down at Raf,

"Well it's good to know that I already made a friend, see ya around Raf!" She waved and started to walk off, Raf doing the same and walking to his respectful building.

" . . . This isn't as bad as I thought it'd be."