AllFreeNovel
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2009
“I love this town!” Brandi said in the seat next to me.
I had my own face pressed against the glass, gazing out at all the houses passing by as we drove through the neighborhood. I didn’t have much worldly experience at age ten, but so far it was obvious that Florida was a massive improvement over Georgia. At least, Clearwater was.
“Look at that one!” Brandi exclaimed. “It’s three stories!”
“Wooow.”
“Pipe down back there,” my mom snapped, pausing to take a drag from her cigarette. “I can’t concentrate on the road while you’re both yapping away. I don’t know why you insist on sitting in the back, either. I’m not your chauffeur. Next time we move, I’m making one of you sit in the front.”
Brandi and I glanced at each other, then rolled our eyes, which set us into a fit of giggles. Mom had complained about being our chauffeur at least a dozen times during the drive down from Atlanta, and we had discreetly rolled our eyes each time. We weren’t the ones who chose the back—she had put the dog bed in the front seat so Duchess, our Golden Doodle, could sit there.
But we were used to her blaming everything on us. It might have been tougher if we were alone, but Brandi and I had each other, which helped us get through it.
“Is that it?” Brandi suddenly asked. “Is that our house?”
“There’s a moving truck in front of it, isn’t there?” Mom muttered.
My jaw dropped when Mom pulled the car into the driveway. It was a simple one-story house, with a garage and clean white paint. But to our eyes, it was a mansion. Especially compared to the apartment complex we had come from.
We ignored Mom’s complaints, jumping out of the car and rushing inside, dodging the two moving men who were already at work. We had spent much of the car ride discussing our new room and how we were going to decorate it, which was an extremely serious topic, but it was mostly hypothetical since we didn’t know what our room looked like. The first two bedrooms were small, although one had a bathroom. When we discovered the primary bedroom in the back of the house with Mom’s four-post bed already moved inside, we rushed back to the first two rooms.
“Why are they moving our boxes into that room?” I asked. “This is the one with the bathroom.”
“Mom!” Brandi whined. “Which bedroom is ours?”
She stepped through the front door, removed her sunglasses, and sighed happily. “The one with your stuff in it, silly.”
“What about the other room?” I asked. “With the bathroom?”
“That’s my office. I need the room for all my fabrics and work. Your bedroom faces the front, so you’ll get to look outside more. And before I hear any more complaints about the bathroom, there’s one in the hall. You don’t want to hear your sister peeing five feet away, do you?”
Even at eleven years old, Brandi and I were already used to Mom being a pain. We knew that arguing with her would be pointless. But more importantly, we weren’t going to let this ruin our excitement for a new house. This was our fresh start.
“I love it!” I said as we took in our room. “There are two windows, one for each bed. Then we’ll each have our own.”
“Good idea!” Brandi replied.
“Excuse me, little ma’am,” one of the movers said. “We’re bringing your beds in now.”
Mom’s sigh could be heard from the other room. “You two are always in the way. Why don’t you go play outside so you’re not bothering these nice men. Go make some friends in the neighborhood. We’re close to your school, so there should be lots of kids around.”
Our bikes weren’t easily accessible in the moving truck, but the movers were nice enough to unload a few items onto the lawn so they could get the bikes. The tires were still full, so we hopped on and began riding. This neighborhood had a nice paved walking path, so we didn’t even need to ride in the street!
The two of us were happier than we had ever been in our lives. We had a new house in a new state, the sun was shining, and the future looked bright. We rode up and down every street in the neighborhood, pointing out the houses where it looked like kids might live.
Brandi and I had always done everything together. Being twins meant we were never alone. That was a good thing, but it meant we didn’t always try hard to make friends. Brandi and I had agreed that we would do our best to make new friends in Florida, and we weren’t going to waste any time.
After riding for a while, we came upon a house three streets over with several kids playing on the front lawn. Brandi and I exchanged grins and pedaled faster. There were three boys throwing a baseball around, and two younger girls who were sitting in the grass rolling a soccer ball back and forth.
Brandi was the more outgoing one, so she immediately waved and said, “Hi!”
A lanky boy with sandy-blond hair made a face at us. He was closest to our age, while the other two boys were younger. “Hi rhymes with bye. As in, get lost.”
I didn’t understand what he meant, so I hopped off my bike and approached. “Hello! I’m Alyssa, and this is my sister, Brandi.”
“Hello rhymes with yellow,” the boy said, “which is the color of pee.” The boys all laughed like it was the funniest joke in the world.
