new life

My name is Cynthia Crugga. I've recently moved to America to live with my dad. Before then I'd lived in London with only my friends and sometimes my best friend's dad looking after me. I was only five, so, even if I'd tried, I couldn't have made it on my own. Things were a lot more chaotic back then, then again, I'm only just settling in here.

My dad's the Commander of this big important base near New York. I'd moved there with him for two reasons: one, because I wanted to be with him; two, because there wasn't anywhere else for me to go. I never knew my mum, but just a few weeks before I left, I found I had an Aunt Rose. She was mum's younger sister, and even she doesn't know what happened to her. It's a bit of a long story. My best friend Jay had left his dad, 3 older sisters and older brother to come with me. I don't really know why.

His dad's so lovely, and gets along really well with all of his family. His brothers just had a baby boy, and two years before we left his oldest sister had had one too, maybe he just wanted to be with me.

We live in an apartment at the base. Dad's out working most of the time, but when he comes home, he sleeps in what he calls the study. I've got my own room right at the end.

It's not bad, but sometimes there are noises, maybe even voices, at night when I go to bed.

Jay shares a room with my other friend Sam. Sam says Jay's dad always calls him in the morning before breakfast. (He knows because it wakes him up). It makes me happy to know that they're still able to talk to each other though. I'd hate it if they fell out of contact and it was my fault. There's a girl that I call my older sister that calls me a lot. She lives with Jay's dad in Newark, which was where we grew up. And my Aunt calls me sometimes too. There are people at the base that I really get along with too.

Zee and James, I'd known back in England and they'd helped us out a bit there. (Her full name's Elizabeth but everyone calls her Zee.) There's this weird guy, Brain. The others think he's annoying saying things like "we call him Brain cause he needs to get one" which I just think is mean. I think he's funny. There's a posh girl with rich parents and a high-pitch voice called Cindy. I call her Cinderella. The others call her Cid, which I think is kinda cold because that's a boy's name. She doesn't seem to mind though.

Then there's this not very nice guy called Sky. I suppose he's not that bad, but he's just so serious and all strict and stuff like that. There's also this pet robot dog thing. It seemed to be hard for them to agree on a name for him. His full name was Richard, but they said that was too long and we should shorten it to a one-syllable name. Then they thought about calling him Dick, but thought that, seen as there were children, it would seem a little rude. In the end, there was a lot of confusion,

and they ended up calling him Rick. Some find him a bit annoying, and he has got a bit of a short circuit but he's alright really.

Then there's a woman that works with my dad, Cattily or Cat for short. She was the one who persuaded dad to come to London from America because of me. She seems to know a lot about my dad. (At least more than any of the others.) I know the name sounds a bit ironic, but it's really not. She's an alien. No joke either, nor problem.

I'm alien too, so's my dad and my friends. It's no big deal. There are quite a lot of aliens in America these days.

I'm slowly starting to get used to this new life here. Though I still miss my sister and aunt, and sometimes even Steev, Jay's dad, I'm happy to be with my dad. And when he's working, me and my and my friends just stay in the living room of the apartment playing either Mario Kart or Lego, and sometimes Minecraft.

And playing on the games console's always a plus side. At weekend we go round the city in dad's jeep, looking around at all the new things to get used to. That more than anything is helping with the new adjustment, especially since dad's jeep is an open top one. Though I do keep asking him if we can go see the Statue of Liberty.