One of the first things that you are taught in this second life, is that you will never grow old. Most people would be overjoyed with this news. Who wouldn't want to look like a twenty-something year old at the age of fifty-five? However, when you hear from the people who truly do never grow old, it's far from that. For one, hardly any of the relationships that you form will last. Not a marriage, friendship, or courtship. 

So, the Wayward's, previously four, now five with me, move again. They moved from their comfortable, modern penthouse in New York, to wherever it is we're going. Matthias told me that they every ten years. 

Matthias is a professor of physics. He acts as the patriarch of the family. He is kind, intelligent book wise, and one of the most punctual people that you will ever meet in your life. 

His wife, Abigail, acts as our matriarch. She works as a nurse, says its because of her strong stomach, everyone else says its because of her big heart and love of chemistry. Boy, does she love science, and history, and the history of science. Dare I say, she loves and knows more about science than Matthias. 

My new sister is Emma, and my new brother is David. Both babies of the 90's- the 1890's. David is the biggest example of 'Big Brother Energy' there is. He's rough and teases the heck out of you, but does it from a place of compassion, and will punch anyone in the throat who gives you a hard time. 

Emma is kind, sort of like the Alice of our little clan. She is bright, and cheery, and kind, and filled to the brim with dad jokes. She is the embodiment of traditional femininity. She's always in pink, always has her hair done nice, always has her makeup done. 

Usually, the iconic brother and sister duo attend some sort of university, and in some places are able to put their many degrees to work. This year, however, it isn't their 'duty and responsibility' to make sure their 'sister' doesn't go ballistic in her high school.  

I keep on focusing my attention on the long window of the car beside me. I sit in the third row of the black Suburban, our most essential luggage in the back. The rest of it, I've been told, is already at the house. 

"Want to hear a joke about construction?" Emma asks, breaking the silence in the car.

"Oh no." David groans and puts his head up against the window closest to him.

"Don't ask me to say it, I'm still working on it." 

David groans, Abigail breathes out a laugh, and I can see the corner of Matthias' lips rise a little bit in the mirror. 

"Come, on Canada, you know that one's funny!" Emma turns her head to look at me.

Ah, yes, my name. Canada. I never formed a true opinion on it. It was a name like one else's, which I see-sawed on liking. It was fun in class, because it was promised that no one would have my name, but other days, I wished my name was Samantha. My parents lived in Canada for five years. In that time, my mother got pregnant with me, but I was born in the states. My parents then immigrated here, and promptly named my brother Detroit. Rest all of their souls. 

"When it freezes over in the winter, we can probably play hockey. Sound fun, Maple Leaf?" David asks. 

He's called me Maple Leaf from the start. He looked me in the eye at the hospital and simply said 'Canada? Like the country?'

"Sounds fun."

"You're going to really like it here. I'm sure of it." Abigail says, trying her best. 

"I'll try." 

"I know it's a little nerve wracking, but you've got this. You graduated in the top half of your class, and you have really great control." Abigail is able to comfort someone from 15 miles away.

"You're going to be great at this, it's easy for me." Emma offers from the middle seat.

"That's because you're a social butterfly, Emma. I, on the other hand am-"

"Introverted?"

"A shut in?"

"Private?" 

"Quiet?" 

"I was going to say, 'not'" I say once every body had a chance to interject in their own special way. 

"Try being more out there this time, maybe. You can always hang around me." Emma offers. 

"Why should I bother making friends? Leave no footprints, right?" 

"Well, you can always learn lessons from others." Matthias suggests. 

"I can always do that from afar." I say. "Let's just face it, I'm the lone wolf. I like being by myself. It's comfy when I don't have to make room for other people."

"If you would like to be that way, no one is stopping you." Matthias says. "No one is also stopping you from making friends." 

"I know." I sigh. 

"Look, we're here!" Abigail says, in a sing song voice. 

The house is huge, and looks as though it was there long before the woods. It's got three parts to it's exterior, one regular sized space on either side of a rectangle. The rectangle shoots up a floor higher than the other two to act as a clock tower. It's beautiful. 

It beats the penthouse suite if you ask me.

"Look at her, isn't she stunning?" Matthias asks us. 

"I love this one." Emma says. 

Emma isn't annoyingly peppy. I don't hate her at all. She's optimistic, and happy. A rarity for a girl who looks so young, but who actually is so old. She seems always finds the bright side in things. 

"This one beats the apartment." David says. Good, so I'm not the only one. 

"I'll let you head upstairs, get settled, it's clear who the rooms belong to, go ahead." 

"Actually, Canada, can I talk to you down here for a brief moment." Matthias requests quietly. 

"Oooh!" David and Emma chorused. Even though they're over a century old, they still act like 9 year old's. 

"Is everything okay, Matthias?" I ask, walking over to him. Still haven't lost the anxiety I get whenever someone asks me to stay back. 

"I just wanted to make sure you knew that beyond those trees-" He gestures his hand so point behind the house, "-There's a little old church that was turned into a library." 

"A library?" I ask, trying to make sure I'm still breathing. Who the heck is able to have their own personal library?

"Yes, once you get settled, check it out. I'm sure that you'll like it." Matthias says. 

"Thank you." I say. 

Emma and David took the rooms on the end, so I take the one in the middle. It's design is simple, not that I'm objecting. It's features a full sized bed, and a small desk and drawers. Above and beside the desk sits a few pictures of various things. One of a few monuments, the northern lights, a ball. 

Peaking into the other bedrooms, David's looks like a science lab, and features only the colors black and white. Emma's looks like it was made for a princess, which is what she pretty much is. It's pink, and fancy, and Perfectly Emma in every way.

The large hallway features a piano. The Vampire's make sure that they're all surrounded by art wherever they are. Well, that and languages, and knowledge, and every other thing that makes a genius. 

"Your room is a match, too!" Emma says as she peeks into my room. 

"Yeah." I nod. 

"Well, I'm going to go start unpacking." 

"Yeah. I should probably do the same." I say. I join her in walking downstairs, through the living room, and back to the car. I grab my two bags, and head back upstairs. I walk back upstairs, and put everything in it's place. 

I stop when I reach a sweater. A blood soaked sweater. I smell it a little. This was what I wore when we were on our way to watch a new movie, and slipped on the ice. What I wore as I watched the airbags knock my family around. When I was rushed to a hospital, where I would meet the nurse who would change my life forever.

I pretend like it still smells like home. That my mother had just ironed it. Like my dad had hugged me in it. Like my brother and I played in it. Like things never changed. 

"Hey, Maple Leaf," David calls from the other side of my door. I rush and put the sweater into a drawer. 

"It's open!" I call back. 

"Hey, Matthias and Abigail need you downstairs." David says, swinging the door open. 

"Okay, on it." I say. I walk downstairs again, and into the kitchen.

"So, what do you think, Canada?" Matthias asks. 

"It's really nice. You designed this one, right?" I ask. 

"I did." Matthias nods. "Anyways, think you can run to the store and pick up some eggs?"

"Uh... sure." I nod. 

"There's a nature trail that'll take you to town." Matthias says. "Here's some money." He hands me a few bills. 

"Have fun, don't talk to strangers, don't get followed, and control yourself." Abigail says. 

Abigail always tells us to control ourselves whenever we leave the house. We haven't lost it yet, but I think that she believes that it's her good luck charm. It always feels nice, though. It shows that she cares about us, and wants to make sure we know what she expects. We expect the same of ourselves, but now we have an accountability buddy. 

"I will." I nod. I leave the house, and sure enough, there's a trail. I follow it until I meet a side walk. I follow the sidewalk, and find the small store. It looks just like small stores do in movies. People's truck's sit in the parking lot, and I walk inside. I walk to the back, and grab a carton of twelve eggs. 

I walk to check out, to find a middle aged woman in her red apron signifying that she worked there. "Just these." I say, placing them down on the conveyor belt. 

"Mhm." She mutters. "I haven't seen you before. You renting here, or you living here." 

"My family and I just moved in." I say as quickly as I can. 

"Oh, did you buy the Tenor's property?" 

"No. I don't know who's property we're staying at." I say, avoiding eye contact. 

"Four dollars and ninety-nine cents." 

"Hm?" I ask. 

"Your total is $4.99." She says. 

"Oh. Sorry." I say, pulling out the bills Jamison gave me. 

She puts the money in, and hands it back to me. "Thank you for shopping here." She says, handing me my receipt. "I hope to see you around." 

"My family and I like to keep to ourselves." I say, before exiting the store. 

"The climate is changing! Join the charge! Sign up for donations and weekly emails from Save the Planet!" A boy calls out. He wears a green jacket that reminds me of high school in the eighties. He has on blue denim jeans, and hiking boots. 

"If the planet's so hot, then how come yer wearing a jacket!" An older man shouts back at him. 

"That's not how it works. If you sign up for our emails, or maybe even just look it up, I'm sure you'll have a better understanding of how-" 

"That was a rhetorical, son." The man says back. 

"Oh." The Save the Planet guy says. He looks about the age I seem to be fronting. "Excuse me, ma'am," He says, walking up to me now. I turn to face him. "Are you aware of the changes happening on our planet." 

"Um- I- Um..." 

"Global warming is causing ice to melt, water levels to rise, and it's expected that polar bears in the wild will be extinct by the end of the century. Not to mention, it will only keep on getting warmer and warmer. This could lead to the possible extinction of polar bears by the next century." 

"Oh." I just say. 

"I'm sorry, you probably didn't want to hear that. I took it too far, didn't I?" He asks. 

"No, you're fine. I get it. People are just trying to spill the word about their cause." 

"Finally, someone gets it!" He says comically. I don't know if I should laugh or not. He's laughing now, so I guess I should. I try a little. It was pathetic, but I think it got the point across. "I'm Gayle. It has some trace back to Earth." 

"I'm Canada. Like the country." I say. 

"Oh! Is that where you live?" He asks. Man, he asks a lot of questions. 

"Uh... no-"

"Oh, sorry, I keep on going to personal. I need to abide by the limits of these things." Gayle says, cursing himself a little. 

"It's okay." I say. "Since you were wondering, I just moved here." 

"Oh, nice, are you on the Bass' property?" He asks. 

"No, I don't really know who we got it from." I say. 

"Do you need any help unpacking?" He asks. 

"Oh, no, I don't need that. We're all unpacked." 

"Great." He says. "Can I interest you in a pamphlet?" He asks, holding one out. 

"Sure." I say, I grab one, our hands brushing. I look at his face. I've done it now. He's felt me skin. He's felt the ice coldness that is keeping all of my organs inside of me. Great, we haven't even been here a night and we have to move out. 

He looks at me with worry in his eyes. "Your hand is freezing." 

"Hadn't noticed." I say, starting to bounce on the balls of my feet. No matter how inhumane I might be, anxiety and adrenaline will always course through my veins. 

"Are you okay?" He asks. 

"Yeah, you know what they say about cold hands." I say. I don't. I've heard there was a a saying, but I don't remember that.

"Cold hands, warm heart?" 

"Yep, that one exactly." I nod. I wonder if I'd had a warm heart when I actually needed my heart to function. 

"Here, you must be cold, you don't even have a jacket. Here, take mine." He says, unzipping his coat off of his body to reveal the same logo on the jacket, but on a shirt. 

"You're going to freeze, though, and I just have a short walk to my house. I'll be fine." 

"My shift is about to end, anyways, and I have a car. I'll be fine." He says. 

"Are you sure?" I ask.

"Yeah, take it. Use while you can because, you know, climate change." I slip on the over sized jacket.

"Yeah. See you around, Gayle." I say. 

"See you, Canada." Gayle says. I turn around, and walk back down the path. Finally, I see my little oasis. I shouldn't call it little. It's practically a mansion. 

"I'm back." I say, walking through the front door. 

"Hey." David says from the living room. "Wait a minute." He says, walking out. I ignore this, and keep walking into the kitchen. 

"Nice jacket, Canada." Emma says. 

I say nothing, just keep my head down, and put the eggs into the fridge. "I know I didn't give you enough money to buy a jacket, and even if you were able to, that's too big for you." 

"It looks nice on you, regardless," Abigail says. 

"Hm." David says, lifting the fabric of the jacket with two of his fingers, sniffing it a little. "Smells like humans. A boy, namely." 

"A boy?" Emma cries out, speeding her way into the kitchen.

"Curse you and your accelerated sense of smell." I say. "And curse your super speed, or whatever it is."

"If You don't like it, you can go find a non-vampire family. Until that day, your stuck with us and our enhanced abilities, Maple Leaf." David says, mushing my hair around a little. 

"Still haven't told us who this boy is." Emma says, squeezing my shoulders a little bit. 

"Fine, his nae was Gayle, and he just works for a charity about ending climate change, it's called Save the Planet." I explain. 

"I could see that. It's on the jacket." Matthias says. "Where else are you going to speak to this suitor?"

"Matthias, I just met him. We didn't even speak for five minutes. I assume he goes to my high school, but I don't know." I explain. Here I am, once again, on the defense. I'm usually like this at school, but here I am, at home, defending myself. "He's still a perfect stranger." 

"Ooh, you said that this boy was perfect." Emma says. 

"Whatever." I mutter, trying to fix my hair. 

"If you're all done bickering, dinner is ready." Abigail says, breaking us all up.

 We all take a seat at the dinner table. The deer is cooked, covered in a squash and blood sauce. We've evolved from eating people. After eating people, it was live game, then it was this. Blood coated, long dead food. We still hunt it, though, it's the best way to make sure you get the most blood. When I arrived, they had just gotten off of live game. 

"Are you excited to start high school tomorrow?" Abigail asks. 

"Tomorrow?" David asks. "That's the shortest period we've had to adjust." 

"I'm just happy we finally get to start off a school year, and not be shoved in the middle of it." Emma says. 

"Canada?" Abigail asks. 

"Hm?" I ask, looking up. 

"What do you think?" 

"Oh... I guess there are some benefits to this, academics wise." I say. 

"What about friend groups?" Abigail asks. 

I just shrug my shoulders. A sign that usually means 'I don't know' but do I know my answer. I don't care. What's the point. I'll save myself the heart brake, and plus, that usually means more people to question why you look so young. Besides that, I like being alone. Being alone means that you have more time do homework, or to read, or not talk to people.