pages of doccument to be side by side - including the first page

his is a typical 'facing pages' document.

If you don't need facing pages and if your publications is not for print - you can go to document setup and turn off Facing Pages - this makes your document setup being single column in the Pages Panel.

If it is for print, it's strongly unusual for an odd page to be a left page (verso) that is all odd pages, 1, 3, 5, etc are usually all recto pages. 

If you really want this, you need to do the following:

https://creativepro.com/making-the-first-page-a-left-page/#:~:text=To%20make%20the%20first%20page,become%20a%20left%2Dhand%20page.

In the Pages panel menu and turning off "Allow Document Pages to Shuffle" and "Allow Selected Spread to Shuffle." Then they can manually drag page 1 to the left and then page 2 can be dragged to the right position.

Also, printers usually expect odd pages on the right, so it could cause confusion or unexpected results if they send it off to be printed. Keep in mind that this is non-standard for printed books and may cause issues with imposition if you are preparing this for a professional printer. If your document is for digital use (e.g. a PDF for screen viewing), this might be fine depending on how you want it to appear.

Your pages look fine to me. Pages I, II, and III are correct, then the back of page III is blank, and page 1 starts on a right-hand page which is exactly how it should be. It's not shown in your file, but if page IV existed, it would be blank anyway.

If you take two sheets of paper, fold them in half, and stack them like a magazine, you’ll see how this works. When folded, page I is the cover, then when you open it, pages II and III face each other. The back of page III would be blank, and the next right-hand page would be page 1. That’s the natural structure of a booklet or book.

Page 1 in any book is typically a right page - in book making a right page is called recto and a left page called verso. 

And all recto pages are typically odd pages.