My bedroom consisted of a single bed which faced the window, and the length of the bed touched both walls. My bedroom small and plain, the walls beige and the bedding white. The only furniture I had was a wardrobe and a chest of drawers, no toys. My mum and I have not lived here long, we moved into Shaun's house. Before this, we had a lovely two-floor council flat. My old bedroom was big, had purple walls, groovy chick bedding and wallpaper and lots of toys. However, when moving into this house, we left a lot of stuff behind including our family cat Felix. Felix was the most loving and tame black and white cat, who had no typical cat instincts. Regularly, he would gently play and snuggle with two late mice we had as pets. But Shaun didn't like cats, nor clutter, which is why we parted with so much.
I started becoming aware of the startling screaming matches young but eventually grew to expect it as they fought often. I was unaware of what alcohol was at the age of six, and how much this was fuelling their relationship so often I would escape to my room. However, one day things worsened, and I was awoken by my mum telling me to get a few things and that we were going to have a sleepover at her best friend's house. Although, a sleepover sounded fun, I did know that something was wrong. A taxi was called, and I remember seeing my mum upset, but I was unaware of how drunk she was too. The taxi then arrived outside our once lovely two-floor council flat with the purple bedroom because my mum's best friend lived two flats down from where we once resided. Once we step outside of the car, the taxi driver began driving off forgetting that the only belongings we had were in the boot of his car. I remember my mum chasing the car down the one-way street whilst screaming frantically. He eventually realised, stopped, apologised and gave us our belongings.
I unknowingly had spent the last night at Shaun's house.
After a couple of days of being without my things and no school, my mum told me that we will be moving into a big house for a little while, she explained it to have a children's playroom and that there are many families there. During this chat, she began to tell me that there were certain rules at this house. 1), We were not allowed to tell anyone the address, 2), we were not allowed to stand by the windows and lift the netting, and 3), we were not allowed to open the front door unless the doorbell rang three times. I did not think much of the rules, but I was happy to abide. The first time I saw this house; it looked like an ordinary building on the corner of the street, nothing special and it was completely invisible to those passing by. I placed myself down on the sofa in the communal living room while my mum spoke to two ladies. The sofa was facing the door and there was a big, perfectly decorated Christmas tree in the corner of the room. My first night I met Ashley and Paige, they were older and liked practicing front flips on the extremely thick cushions in the playroom and suddenly learning how to do a front flip became the most important thing in the world.
I was content in this new home, I never asked why we were here, and decided to embrace the newfound company I had which I hadn't of been used to before. The only downfall was I had to move schools again, this was my third school at the age of 6 and although I usually found it easy to make friends, I struggled at the new school. The school was a long bus ride away and I always had a vague sense of insecurity when we were outside of the big safe house, and I did not like being at this new school. I did however make one friend, Laura, and she had the brightest ginger hair, and every single day it was plaited to the side. She had black glasses, a very pale complexion and freckles that overwhelmed her face and for some reason I remember thinking she had abnormally large hands. I joined half-way through year two and absolutely hated my new school.
After a few weeks, my mum explained that we were to move again, and it would be short-term home. It was a two-floor flat in a tower block opposite our old flat and I would be able to go back to the first school I ever attended and be close to the very first friend I ever made. This move came with mixed feelings because we moved back to a place that was familiar and I remember excitedly organising with my friend that I would wave to her from my bedroom window every day, even though that window was on the eleventh floor and being back at my first school was comforting too, nevertheless, home-life was rubbish. We moved into a poorly decorated flat and had no furniture. For weeks, my mum and I shared a single mattress placed on the floor in our empty living room. Due to leaving Shaun's house in a rush, we had even littler possessions than before. However, this temporary living situation ended up being very short, and before not too long we were told that we had a new permanent home to move into. This did mean another school change; however, it was back to my second school - the same school as when we lived at Shaun's and my favourite.
Things began to feel normal again, we had moved into a new big flat and were given decorating vouchers by the local council, so the flat was consumed by the smell of freshly painted walls, and the feeling of new carpet between my toes. The last few months had been a confusing time, and although I remember being aware of all the moving and weird situations, I remember having no curiosity to figure out why. Everything just seemed normal again, and for that I was thankful. I did wonder where Shaun had gone though, I had missed him. However, my wonder didn't transpire for too long, because when Shaun walked through the front door into our new freshly furnished home, I was elated. Things got better, I settled back at school and enjoyed telling all my friends how by the age of 7 I had moved schools five times already and even better, Shaun was at our new flat most days.
However, shortly after settling in our new home, Shaun wanted us to move again and suddenly Mum and I are visiting a flat which is closer to Shaun's house. I was aware that Shaun wanted us to exchange flats, however, when we walked into this flat, it was not like our current home. The carpets were grey, smelled stale and were worn down, the wallpaper was torn and old and this place hadn't been decorated in fifty years. I remember being confused as to why we would move from our lovely flat to this flat, but Shaun promised to fit a new kitchen and completely renovate it for mum. So, we moved again.
Shaun did fit a completely new kitchen, big white cabinets, chrome door handles and wooden flooring and shortly after we tore up all the carpets. The carpets revealed old lino, and once we cut into it, there were newspaper articles from the 1960's, and then lots of sand. However, Shaun had gone again. And our bare floorboards remained unoccupied for years.