Monday, April 13th

I’m April Matthews, it’s my twelfth birthday today, and Mummy and Daddy got me this journal. I’m going to fill it in as much as I can and then when I’m old I can look at everything I’ve done in my life.

First I’ll put a bit about me:

So, I’m April, I’m 12 and I live in Winchester. It’s a small town in the middle of nowhere and most of the grown-ups here work on the farms. I love the colour red and my favourite food is pancakes. I live with my Mummy and Daddy and I don’t have any brothers or sisters, but I’ve always wanted a little sister.

My best friend is Charlotte Harris, but we all call her Lottie. She lives with her Mummy and Daddy and her big brother called Ellis, but he’s a bit older and I don’t really know him. Lottie says he’s annoying, but that’s what everyone says about brothers. Her favourite colour is red, like mine, and her favourite food is salmon. We love going to the park and playing on the swings, and sometimes plan what we’re going to do when we’re all grown up.

My Mummy and Daddy argue sometimes, but they love each other loads. My daddy works on a farm like most people here, and whenever they argue it's always about money, and they say they don’t make much. My Mummy doesn’t work though, so I don’t think we’re poor.

Me and Lottie hang out with my cousin Emily too. Her best friend is Dahlia Jones. I don’t really like her, but me and Lottie get on with her because we both like Emily. Emily lives with her Mummy (my aunt Lynn) and her sister Amelia (who is also my cousin!). Amelia is the same age as Lottie’s brother Ellis, and they have the same friends too. Amelia can be really mean sometimes, and aunt Lynn says it’s because she’s going through changes and me and Emily will understand when we’re her age.

I start high school in a year and a half, and I’m really excited about it! Elementary school is ok, but because our schools are in the same building, I see all the older kids everyday and it makes me jealous because they finish a whole hour earlier than us! I don’t understand it really because that means the bus has to go round the whole town twice in the afternoon.
So, I’m looking forward to that, but not to the homework! I think I have enough homework now, but Lottie and Emily say that Ellis and Amelia have loads more homework and it’s harder too!

Anyway, so today I had a birthday party. It wasn’t a very big one because we had school, I just had Lottie and Emily over for cake and we had a water balloon fight outside. It was loads of fun though! Emily only lives across the street from me so I see her loads, but Lottie lives up in the hills in the bigger houses. Amelia tells me that Lottie and her family are rich and that when we’re older she won’t be friends with me anymore. Emily says to ignore her, and I do because me and Lottie will be best friends forever!

Lottie had to go not long before dinner. Apparently Ellis had a sports game and Lottie had to go and watch, so me and Emily stayed outside and were playing in the sandpit when one of her friends came over. He's called Travis Ogden, and Mummy said he could have Lottie's serving of dinner, so he stayed. I don't really know him, but he kept making Emily laugh and the two of them kept talking about stuff that I don't know about because I wasn't there. He seems like a nice boy, and if it wasn't my birthday today then I probably wouldn't have minded so much.

At dinner we all had to sit in the living room, because we don't have a proper dining table. We have a foldaway one that we get out sometimes, but usually at Christmas we go to Gramma's in Bridgeport, so we almost never use it. Travis looked a little uncomfortable eating off his lap. Hah. Serves him right for crashing my birthday party!

After dinner, Emily went back to spending time with me, even if it was doing homework! Travis started talking to my Daddy about something, I don't know what. And Mummy started cleaning up. My Mummy loves having a neat house, and I do too. I think I must get it from her, because I hate when anything is a mess! Even when I was younger I used to put all my toys back in the toybox. I don't have my toys or toybox anymore, I don't think many twelve year olds play with toys! I still can't believe I'm twelve! I'm really growing up!


Authors note:
So, first chapter is up :)

I promise, stuff will happen as she gets older, and it will be a lot more interesting. This one is mainly an introduction anyway, and I should have the first 'real chapter' up soon.
Also, I apologise now for my bad pictures. It's partly because I play on a laptop with really bad graphics card, and partly because I'm just bad at taking pictures. I'm getting better, and hopefully it will show and by the time stuff really starts happening I'll be really good ;)
All the main characters are on the 'Characters' page linked at the top, I will add to it as more characters are introduced, and I'm planning on doing character summaries as the story progresses to remind readers what that character has done/is like.
Also, I was planning on changing everyones outfits daily, but my game seems to crash in CAS and stylist at the moment, so I'm just using them when I really need to. I will change outfits with the seasons, as they're all dressed for a hot spring/summer at the moment ;p

Ok, enough from me. Don't want my notes to be longer than the chapter! :|