Starting Over,1985

This is a post that I wrote several months ago, when I was new to blogging. It answers some questions that my Bestest had about my time in Nova Scotia. I have decided to post it again, mostly because I'm feeling lazy, but also because this was one of the best times of my life. I hope that it doesn't bore you, and you'll indulge me just a little bit.
I spent 18 months in Nova Scotia, which may very well be the most beautiful province in all of Canada.I was sent there for a "visit" to stay with Betty, my bio mom, and my step-father,Stan.I hadn't lived with Betty since I was about 4, I don't even remember her ever being in the same house as me.She had moved out East about 5 years earlier,afterStan left a very lucrative job with a consulting firm inToronto.They left it all behind for the wilds of Cape Breton,surviving on about $300 a month.They were so far out that you had to step out of the woods to go hunting.Betty and Stan had neighbours with out hydro- sort of .They had hydro in the horse barn.
Luckily for me, by the time that I moved in, they had relocated to Dartmouth, a short ferry ride away from Halifax. I was 15, knew it all, had a bad attitude, and was resentful as hell. My parents had sent me away before I had a chance to write my final exams, meaning that I had an automatic fail in math and science.
I arrived on June 6,1985, 20 days before my sweet sixteen. That summer was brutal. Betty sent me to the library to make friends. She made me talk to every human being between the ages of 12 and 20 that came across my path. I even had to pay the paper boy.(Thanks for that one, Mum). I made a couple of friends, got drunk for the first time(since I was 11), and had an otherwise uneventful summer. About 6 weeks in to my"vacation"- which, incidentally, was my birthday gift-I phoned my dad and asked to go home. I magine my surprise to find out that I WAS home. My 4 parental units had decided that it would be "best" if I stayed in N.S.
So, Betty took me to the local highschool to register me. I had just finished grade 9 in Ontario.
The news was NOT good. It seems that in N.S.,highschool actually starts in grade10. Since I had failed two of my core subjects, Iwas destined to repeat the 9th grade.
Sigh............
The first day of school dawned bright and beautiful. I trudged to the new school, miserable. I was in 9B, Mr.Mac's class. The boys were all rockers (grebo's at the old school), and most of the girls were rocker chicks. They were all enthralled by the girl from Toronto, which was where you from if you came from Ontario.
Then it hit me. This is the chance of a life time! Nobody knows me, there are no preconcieved notions or ideas about me. I'm not so and so's sister, or the nerdy Sunday school teacher. I am BIDDIE,from T.O., cool girl, party animal, trend setter. That's when everything changed. For the better.
I made friends easily. This was when I was only shy, and not crippled by my depression/anxiety/bi-polar disorder.The girls all wanted to be me, and the boys all wanted me.It's true. I can hardly believe it myself, but it is true.
C.J. was my first friend. Shy and introverted, she came alive when we were at the shopping mall or listening to tapes in her basement. And go to the mall we did. It was at the mall that I first met Him, my 1st love, the boy of my dreams.
I didn't know his name, but he had a loppsided smile and sparkling blue eyes.He was everywhere that we were. If we were in the food court, so was he.If we were in Sobey's,the pet store,K-Mart, so was he.C.J. didn't know his name, but she knew him from the mall. We both wanted him. We both got him.
After a shopping trip with C.J. and her sister, Ann, we saw him, again. He was standing there, on the street corner,with 2 other guys,whistling at us.Me,actually. Ann yelled at Him, cursed Him out. His reaction was to laugh. He called us over. We went. He introduced us to his "crew". His name was Shane, his friend was Mark, and the other guy was his little brother,Percy. He smiled as he spoke, the same loppsided smile that I had seen a million times in my dreams. As we spoke we forgot about those around us. We laughed like old friends. I was smitten.
Shane told me that he and his brother had been watching me at the mall. They thought that I was beautiful,with gorgeous blue eyes and radiant skin.I couldn't believe my luck!This was great! He liked me. He really, really liked me. I thought that he was perfect. Then he told me about his brother,Blaine.His twin brother, the other brother, the one that loved me from afar.
I thought that he was full of it.OH, please! A twin brother!Why hadn't I ever seen them together?Liar or not, I wanted to know more, get to know more about him, the mysterious Shane.
It was right about this time that I realized that I had to go to the bathroom,desperately.This being November, I wasn't about to squat behind a tree. I needed proper facilities, now. Shane pointed to the bungalow across the street, a quaint house with white siding and huge bay windows,nestled in a quiet spot beside the neighbourhood duck pond.I didn't know this guy, not really, but I HAD TO GO. Bad. So, I followed Shane(if that really was his name) in to the unknown.
"The bathroom is down there", Shane told me."The door closes kinda funny 'cause we had a flood last spring.But don't worry, no one's home 'cept Blaine, and he's asleep."
Right. Blaine,again.
Shane went back back upstairs,and left me to my business. The door didn't close all the way, but I had nothing to fear except the fictional sleeping brother. I leaned back and closed my eyes, enjoying the warmth and the lemony smell of the soaps in the dish.I was sitting back on the toilet, smiling like an idiot, when the bathroom door flew open. There stood the fictional twin brother,mouth agape. I jumped up from the toilet, dropping my pants all the way to floor, completely exposing myself.
And that my friends, was how,and where, I met the 1st great love of my life. Blaine. The indentical twin brother of Shane. He later told me that it was love at 1st sight.