The sun has barely appeared on the horizon when Chris heard banging on the door and a woman's voice brutally waking him up.

"Get up already, we're moving in an hour!"

"I'll be up in a minute, mom" he replied from underneath the lump of sheets on his bed.

After finally breaking free from a prison of his sheets, Chris sat on the edge of his bed, stretched out and yawned loudly, looking around.
Not that there was what to look at. His family's been moving to a new house today, so the room was almost completely empty. The only things left, except his bed, were a big duffel bag and his guitar case. Most of his thing's been already packed up and sent to the new place, waiting in the garage for him. But he'd never let anyone take his guitar, especially that playing on it was best way to clear his mind, and in the last few days he really needed that.

Moving to a new house is always very exciting thing, but even more stressful. Especially moving out few weeks before going to high school. Chris hated the idea of going to a completely new school, not only without any of his friends in it, but without his friends around at all. Especially that making new friends wasn't exactly easy thing for him.
Finally deciding to get out of his bed, Chris walked up to his bag and pulled out a towel, then headed for bathroom. Walking down the hall he could hear shouting downstairs "" it looks like his mom wasn't really happy with people taking out last pieces of her furniture. And getting on her bad side wasn't a good idea.
Giggling, he closed the door behind him and looked around. As well as his room, bathroom was completely empty. The only things left in it were some soap in the shower, a cup with toothbrushes and some toothpaste on the counter.

"Well, time for the last shower in my old life" Chris smirked to himself turning on the water and throwing his towel on the counter.

After getting the right temperature he started washing himself, savoring last minutes in his old house. Soon he'll be off to a new place, new school, new people...

"Enough of this daydreaming" he said to himself, shaking his head and turning off the water.

After leaving the shower and drying himself off, he walked to the counter, grabbed his toothbrush and started brushing his teeth, staring at his reflection in the mirror.
He was looking at a pretty high, 16 years old lion. What was making him stick out from the crowd of other lions was his fur color. It was white, thanks to rare gene in his mother's family. If he was to believe her, last person to have white fur was his grand-grandfather. This uncommon fur color was creating interesting mix with his green eyes and black mane. His body wasn't too athletic "" he didn't really liked spending hours in a gym, but some sports and martial arts classes kept him in a good shape.

After finishing his washing routine, he came back to his room and pulled out his change of clothes from the bag, leaving the towel hanging on a door knob to dry off. He put on gray trousers and his favorite black T-shirt with red edges, then closed the bag, put it on his back, grabbed the guitar case and went down. He peeked into the living room to see his mother giving someone a lecture about touching her white couch with dirty hands.

"Hey mom" he called.

"Oh, I see you've finally decided to get up. Are you ready?" replied Trish.

"Yeah, I think so, got everything out of my room, there's only bed in it there now"

"Good, I've made you and your sister some sandwiches, go eat them before they're gone, I'll make sure everything is done how it's supposed to be"

A horse in work clothes that was receiving a lecture from her crossed his arms and glared at her.

Chris dumped his things in the hallway and entered the kitchen to see his sister, Kate, finishing her last sandwich. She was 3 years younger than him, and unlike Chris, her fur was darker than normal. As he walked in, she looked up at him from her sandwich.

"Sleepy-head!" she taunted him.

The only response she got from her brother was a growl as he sat down and started eating. She decided not to give up so easily and sat righ in front of him,laying her paws on the table and tapping it.

"Don't you have something to do? Like, finishing packing?" said Chris, trying to make the annoyance go away.

"Already done. Unlike you, I got up an hour ago" Kate smirked and continued tapping her paws on the table, clearly enjoying annoying her brother.

"Then go see if mom needs some help, or something..."

But then Trish ran into the room and threw Chris' towel at the chair next to him

"NOW there's nothing left in your room. Finish up and pack your things into the car, trucks have already left." she said and left the room as sudden as she entered it, closely followed by giggling Kate.

Chris sighed, got up, cleaned up remaining of his sandwich, took his forgotten towel and went to put it into the bag, then headed for the car. His mother was standing by the door, talking on the cellphone, and his sister was already in the car, sitting on the front seat, sticking out a tongue at Chris. He threw his bag into the trunk and closed it, then placed his case on the back seat, making sure it's secured and won't open or fall down. He felt someone patting him on the shoulder and turned around to see a german shepherd standing in front of him?

"Dave! What are you doing here, buddy?" Chris said with excitement.

"Well you didn't think I'll let you go without a goodbye, did you?" replied the shepherd with a smirk.

"Heh, it's not like I'm moving to another country, it's just other side of this so-called city of ours. We still can meet on weekends and stuff." Chris chuckled.

"Well yeah, but it's not the same. I'll be missing having you around, pal"

"C'mon, cheer up. I'll call you as soon as we get there, deal?"

"Sure, thing, I hope you can... Oh, hello Mrs McCalley!"

Chris turned around and saw his mother walking up to him, pulling car keys out.

"Good morning Dave, it's nice that you came to see us off, but we have to leave already."

"Alright ma'am, good bye." he bowed his head lightly ad Trish "And you buddy" said putting his arm around Chris' neck "I hope you can sneak out sometime soon so we can meet up."

"I'll try, but I can't promise anything." Chris replied with a smirk, freeing himself from his friend's grip. "Well, see ya!" he exclaimed jumping into the car.

Engine started and the car started backing away from the porch, then making it's way down the street. Dave stood there for some time, watching it trailing off, then sighed and headed home.
Chris buckled the belts and was now staring at the window. He hated this moving out. He and Dave have been friends for 5 years, and now he's stuck in this car, driving away from his friends and all he's known.
He didn't say anything, though. He knew his mother really wanted to get away from this house and memories it beared, and being a real-estate agent, finding new place was only a matter of time. Chris has never even seen his new home. He only knew it's supposed to be a 2 story house with an attic, where his room is going to be. His mother said that it's located at the very end of the city, with a view on a small forest from the garden. She said that he'll surely love it after getting used to new home. But he was sceptic about it. True, his old house wasn't in downtown either, but this....
Chris let out a low sigh as he watched cars and buildings pass behind the car window.

***

"Well, we're here. What do you think, kids?" Trish exclaimed getting out of the car.

Kate's already ran towards the house, and Chris was just opening his doors. He looked up at his new home, admitting that it was looking good. Their house was last one in a row, located at the very edge of the housing estate. Looking around, Chris followed his mother to the front door. Trish pulled out the keys and unlocked the doors, which was instantly smashed open by Kate running inside. Chris entered last, closing doors behind him and looking around.
Hallway wasn't big, but should serve it's purpose, unless someone decided to throw a party in it. Living room was just in front from entrance, kitchen and dinning room on the left, and stairways and doors to garage on the right. After a quick tour, he went to upstairs, where the master bathroom and his mother's and sister's rooms were located. When Kate was running around her new bedroom and his mother went down, no doubt to shout at people moving their furniture in, Chris went to the attic, curious about his room.
When he opened the door, he was amazed at how much room was actually there. No doubt, his room was bigger than his sister's. He smirked and went in, looking around. When he was satisfied with his inspection, he went to the window and opened it.

"Well, a forest alright" he said to himself.

His window was located at the back of the house, facing a small garden, separated from forest with a wooden fence. It wasn't too big, so he figured out he'll be able to climb it and wander around the forest some time later. After looking around some more, Chris turned away from the window and went down to get his bag and guitar from the car. He had to hug the wall in hallway to make room for people carrying his bed upstairs, followed by Trish overseeing their work.

When he got to the car and pulled his things out, Chris stopped for a moment to look around more carefully. Most buildings in neighbourhood were 2 or 3 stories high one-family houses, kept in a good state, with decent cars parked in front of them

"Well, at least the district is nice" he though to himself before carrying his stuff back to his room.

His bed was already in there, standing near the wall. So far it was the only piece of furniture found in Chris' new room. He dropped the bag on the floor and put the case on bed, sitting next to it and letting out a long sigh. Then he pulled out his cell, flipped it open and entered a number.

"Sup buddy, you already there" came from the earpiece

"Yeah, it didn't take long to get here, most people are still using the summer" Chris replied brushing his hair.

"Well then, how is it? As bad as you speculated"

"Not exactly. In fact, the house and neighbourhood looks kinda nice."

"So, now all you need is for us all to move there then." Dave chuckled on the other side.

"Smart-ass. Well, I'll certainly miss our old pack, but if people here will turn out as good as their houses look, I think it'll be pretty okay."

"Well, let's hope so, or every day I'll have to listen to your whining about how terrible it's there"

"Oh, shush."

"Heh, okay, give me a call when you have some time, so we can hit the city."

"Sure thing. See ya"

"Adieu"

Chris closed his cellphone and put it into his pocket. He sat like that for few minutes, thinking about how his life will change because of this removal and how things will turn out. After a while, he opened the case and pulled out his guitar. The amp was still somewhere in garage, probably buried under dozens of other things, but he wasn't really in a mood for looking for it, so he just decided to play without it. He checked the tuning, and after deciding that he's satisfied with it, he gripped the neck and played G9 chord, an opening of his favourite song.

He barely finished playing it, when his mother's voice could be heard from downstairs.

"Chris, dear, come here for a moment"

"Yeah, I'm coming mom!" he shouted back.

Carefully, he placed his guitar back in it's case, closed it and went down to help with moving the furniture in.