Chapter 7

Moving to Seattle wasn’t nearly as bad as Kiana had originally thought. Granted, it rained non-stop the first week they were there, and at one point Kiana thought she was never going to see the sun again, but overall she had to admit it was a nice place. Everything was lush and green (no doubt the result of the incessant rain). Their new house was in a small city called Mill Creek, which was about twenty minutes north of downtown Seattle, right off of Interstate 5. Mill Creek was contemporary and nice and Michael told her it was one of the most affluent areas in Snohomish County.

“Snohomish?” she asked. “What kind of word is that?”

“I’m not really certain. I think it’s Native American but don’t quote me on that.”

“I thought Seattle was in King County.”

“It is, but Mill Creek is in Snohomish County, which is the next county to the north.”

They spent a couple of minutes driving around Mill Creek’s downtown area, which was really just a series of fancy shopping centers, strip malls, and office buildings. The largest and nicest was called the Mill Creek Town Center and Kiana was immediately impressed. In many ways, it reminded her of southern California, with cute cafés, workout centers, tanning salons, restaurants, and even a trendy Yoga bar.

But one thing amused her more than anything else. The number of Starbucks stores. She had never seen so many Starbucks stores in her entire life. On their way from the airport to Mill Creek, which was roughly a thirty minute drive, she had counted no less than ten different Starbucks.

“Wait ‘til you see downtown Seattle,” Michael said. “There’s a Starbucks on every corner. People in the Pacific Northwest love their coffee.”

After strolling around the Town Center for a while, they stopped at a restaurant for lunch, then drove north and took a look at the school Kiana would be attending in the fall. It was in a wooded, residential area and Kiana liked it from the start. It was called Henry M. Jackson High School, and it was a series of large, brick buildings with a bunch of athletic fields directly to the east: soccer, baseball, track and field, and (of most interest to Kiana) softball. There were actually two softball fields sitting adjacent to one another, with a small building in between (later, Kiana learned the building was for storage, restrooms, and a concession stand). The field that was furthest from the road had long, covered dugouts and a digital scoreboard, so she assumed it must be the varsity field, and the other was probably for the JV team. Either that or the one field was for games and the other for practices. Either way, she would find out soon enough.

“What do you think?” Michael asked. “About 220?”

She glanced over, saw he was looking at the outfield fence, and knew instantly what he was inquiring about. He wanted to know the distance from home plate to the outfield fence.

She nodded. It looked like it was about 220 feet to her, and it might have been even less. It was a nice field, there was no doubt about that, but it wasn’t very big.

“You’re going to tear it up here,” Michael said. “You can hit 220 in your sleep.”

She chuckled. The comment was so predictable of him. There was nothing he liked more than watching her play softball, and hitting out-of-the-park home runs was his all-time favorite. She liked it too, since he gave her $100 every time she did it.

Overall, Kiana was happy with Jackson High. Everything, including the buildings and fields, was very modern, and Michael said the school was only about twenty years old which was amazing because Anaheim High had been much, much older. Jackson High was named after a popular senator from Snohomish County, its colors were black and green, and its mascot was a Timberwolf.

“I did a little research,” Michael said. “The athletic teams at Jackson are all good, but the softball team is the cream of the crop. They’ve won the league title eight years in a row, the district title the past two years, and they finished third in state last year. As such, you should fit in nicely.”

Kiana smiled. When it came to softball, Michael was unstoppable. She wouldn’t have been surprised if he had originally looked at other schools but had picked this one solely because it had the best softball team.

But the highlight of the day, however, wasn’t Jackson High. It was their new house. It was just a few blocks west of the school, almost within walking distance of it, in a nice housing development called Heatherwood. It was gray and white, with a small, fenced yard that was filled with dark red maple trees. It had three bedrooms, all on the upper floor, a kitchen, dining room, and sunken living room on the middle floor, and a family room, garage, and laundry room on the bottom floor. Kiana loved it the minute she saw it. It was twice as big as their house in Anaheim and much, much newer. She ran from one room to another, checking everything out, and it all seemed so exciting. The refrigerator even had a water and crushed ice dispenser built into its door.

“I get the master bedroom,” Michael said, “but you can have the other two. I thought you might use one for your bed, and the other for whatever. Or we could use it as a guest bedroom. It’s up to you.”

Kiana ran upstairs and took a look around. Michael’s bedroom took up one side of the floor, the one facing the back yard, and the other two bedrooms took up the opposite side facing the front yard and driveway. The smaller bedrooms were divided by a bathroom that had wall-to-wall mirrors on one side and a large whirlpool bath on the other. The bedrooms themselves were exact copies of one another, and each had a large window and a walk-in closet. The only difference between them, as far as Kiana could tell, was one was painted beige, the other light brown. Kiana liked beige better so she chose it as her bedroom, and she decided she would wait and decide the other bedroom’s fate at a later date.

The only problem with the house, however, was its current state. It was completely empty.

“When does our furniture arrive?”

Their belongings were being shipped by a moving company and, unfortunately, were still in transit.

“Should be here first thing in the morning,” Michael said. He was downstairs, taking a look at the garage.

Good, Kiana thought. She couldn’t wait to start unpacking and make the place her own. In the meantime, however, she decided she was going to go and give that whirlpool bath a try, and much to her delight she had her favorite bubble bath with her, since she had packed it in her suitcase with the rest of her toiletries.

She had never really wanted to move to Seattle, but at the same time, she was going to make the most of it.