It all started when DynaCorp decided to open a new office.
Mr. Johnson, Dakota's dad, was more than willing to take the job. Not only did it come with more money, but it also came with more power within the company. Access to better benefits, health insurance, yadda yadda yadda. On the downside, it required moving out of their little ranch-style rambler in Texas, and into this big seaside city called Daven's Port.
The thing is, nobody had even asked Dakota if she was okay with moving. One minute she was walking off the graduation stage at good old L. B. Johnson High School, and the next she was packing a U-Haul and explaining to all her friends why she'd probably never see them again. Her dad told her that it was for the best, and in the long run he was probably right, but Dakota had never been so miserable.
Making at least a few new friends in her neighbors had at least helped soften the blow, but to Dakota, Daven's Port could never be called home...
***
"Good morning sweetie!" came her mother's voice from further down the staircase, "I was just getting breakfast ready."
Dakota was an all-around average sort of girl. She was somewhat tall, with long brown hair that came down to tickle her back. She was thin, but not firm; her svelte physique had more to do with kind genetics than any interest in sports or gymnastics. Despite the reassurance of her mother, Dakota had yet to fill out into more than a B-cup. With her small hips and modest chest, most would consider her to look somewhat lanky.
Dakota parked herself at the dinner table and was greeted with a plate of Eggo's and syrup, an old favorite of her mother's that she had used to cheer Dakota up since she was a little girl.
"Eggo's again?" Dakota asked listlessly as she skewered her syrupy toasted treat, "Gawd Mom, at this rate I'm going to turn into a waffle."
Her mother, a well-kept woman of almost forty, leaned over and kissed her daughter on the forehead.
"Well at least you'd be sweeter." she said jokingly as she carried off the already devoured plate of her little brother.
Dakota's mother was a picture of what, hopefully, she herself would look like in twenty years. In fact, give or take a more impressive bust-line, Mrs. Johnson may as well have been Dakota in twenty years. She was still very spry, thanks in part to her strict yoga regime, and did a more or less good job at being the "cool" parent.
"It wouldn't kill you to smile, y'know." Mrs. Johnson said as Dakota picked at her plate, "I know you're still upset about moving—"
"This again?" Dakota whined
"—Yes, this. Again." Mrs. Johnson said in a motherly tone, placing the dirty plate on the counter, "Dakota sweetie, you've spent the last week moping around the house. I know you miss Texas, but you've got to face reality. For God's sake, I can practically smell the teenage ennui coming from upstairs—and that's with your brother in the shower."
Dakota let out a little laugh as her mother pat her on the shoulder appovingly.
"Atta girl." she said with a pinch of her daughter's cheek, "Now eat your breakfast, wash up, and at least try to have some fun today? I think those new friends of yours want to hang out with you."
"How do you know that?" Dakota asked, her mouth full of waffle
"Because they've been blowing up our landline since eight this morning." Mrs. Johnson said flatly, pulling out the un-plugged corded phone, "Please, for the love of God, give them your cell phone number."
...
Dakota emerged one hour later fully dressed, filled up with syruped toaster pastry, and bathed. She took one confident step out onto the front porch of their new townhouse, the city having awoken well before her as it bustled and buzzed around her.
"There she is!" came the call of Zack Tyler from what she supposed passed for a front yard in the city. He was her next door neighbor to the right, and lived an old boarding house with the rest of his family, "It's about time you got out of bed."
Zack was a shorter guy that was about Dakota's age. He had soft blonde hair, cut neat and trim, that hung pleasantly down to his eyebrows. He had actually been the first person that Dakota had met upon arriving in Daven's Port, having had the courage to actually come out and say hi to a Dakota who was still very much in the "anger" stage of denial. Despite their rocky first encounter, he and Dakota had more or less gotten along pretty well.
"Hey, it takes time to look this good." Dakota said playfully as she crossed her arms, staring down at the taller guy in bright blue shorts, "You'll understand one day when you're older."
Zack was still in high school, something that Dakota loved to beat to death whenever appropriate. This would be Zack's last Summer before his senior year. So they weren't too far apart in age, but the point remained the same—it was an easy way to pull rank and twitterpate the otherwise confident teenager.
"It's noon!" Zack announced loudly as she stepped onto their porch, "Don't tell me it takes you that long to throw on a t-shirt and jeans?"
"And flip-flops." Dakota raised one leg high in the air, "You gotta put them on the right feet and everything."
The two of them had proven to be fast friends. Despite her initial trepidation (and her father's displeasure) she and Zack had gotten along from day one. Well, day two. Maybe day three.
"Yeah, cut her some slack!" came another voice from further down the sidewalk, "You know it takes those country bumpkins, like forever to do anything, right? Left and Right are way above her Texas Education."
"Piper!" Dakota cried a bit more excitedly as she raised her hands high in the air, "I almost didn't hear you over the sound of the awful traffic and the horrible chorus of terrible people in this shitty city!"
Piper was a closer to Dakota in age than Zack. In fact, she was a little older. Piper was a tall, black-haired thing with a penchant for mouthing off and snooping around. She and Dakota had met when she found Piper in their back yard, playing an innocent (?) game of keep-away from some less than trustworthy friends. Despite the... oddity of their first encounter, Dakota found that it was nice to have another girl to talk to. Sure she had her friends back home over the phone, but on the off chance that Piper was down to hang around the house with her, things got fun pretty fast.
"C'mere!" Piper said as she wrapped her friend in a hug, towering over Dakota by at least a head, "Where have you been? I was getting so desperate for attention I was thinking about hanging out with Zack!"
"You poor thing." Dakota said solemnly as she pressed herself deep against Piper's chest, "Let's vow to never go that long without seeing each other again."
"Hey." Zack said from outside their embrace, "I'm like, right here."
These two were the first intelligent human interaction that Dakota had gotten since she moved to Daven's Port. Granted, that was mostly because she stayed inside while she worked on her homesickness, but the point remained: Zack and Piper were the closest things that Dakota had for besties at the moment.
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