{Chapter 2}

My name is Karina Longly, and I'm fifteen. I have blue eyes, and blonde hair, and a fair complecxion. I suppose I look like a porcelain doll in a way, although not nearly as pretty. For years my family had been travelling, trying to find just the right place for us to live. Eventually we settled in the North of Scotland, along the coast. This was a huge change, and one I knew that mum had always wanted to make. Through all our travelling, and flitting from home to home, we had always been situated in the city. John was a rather succesful business man, and he needed to be near his contacts. But one day, he came home, a huge grin on his face, and told spoke the words mum had always longed to hear him say. "This city has no appeal for me anymore. We're moving. And this time, you get to choose where we go."The look on mum's face when he said those words was priceless, and how I wished I had had my camera. She flew into his arms, her eyes shining and she laughed my favourite laugh. She kissed him full on the lips and was momentarily lost for words. She now had everything she had ever wanted. A family, her dream man, and her dream home. She even had the job she had always dreamed of.It was that moment I knew her and John would be together forever. She was still head over heels, like a teenager who had found her first love, and although he didn't show it, John was the same. That moment has stayed with me forever, for it was the moment that we no longer knew what the future held, only the direction we were heading. It was a fresh start for all of us, and one much needed. John had quit his job that day, and vowed he would never do anything that would make him, or anyone around him, unhappy. And so, for the rest of the week, he and mum searched the web, and local agencies for where we would be living next. There was no competition really. Mum knew the area she wanted, what she wanted, and knew how to get it.Within three days she was talking about how the cottage was ours, and how she would spruce it up when we arrived. And two weeks later, we were travelling towards it. It needed a lot of work, true, but John had a knack for interior design. And he didn't disappoint. He spent our first few days there working on the building, while mum worked on the garden. I spent my days progressivly also, exploring the village down the road, learning the best routes to where I would need to be when the holidays were over. And eventually, we had the perfect home, in the perfect area, with the perfect life.