Chapter Text
I gazed around the house. The new house. Maybe I'd consider it home in time. The door creaked open and I turned around to find my dad.
"Where's my room?" I asked.
"Upstairs and to the left," he grunted while cursing under his breath from the weight of the boxes.
Stairs, where were the stairs? Aha! I dragged my bags up the steps and marvelled at the large hallway. The left? I think that's what it was? The first door I opened belonged to a quaint little bathroom housing a shower tub. Nice to have a toilet close to my room. I moved on to the next door. The hinges creaked as I pushed it open.
It was empty.
Obviously. Whoever used to live here is gone now. I stepped onto the plush carpet. We'd already ordered a bedframe but it hadn't arrived yet so I'd be sleeping on a mattress on the floor. I set my bags down and pulled open the curtains.
I was about to see what the view was like when my mom yelled at me to help bring things in. I told her I was coming and sprinted down the hallway and stairs.
★
Once we lugged everything in , I went to see the yard. My little brother trailed behind me. The backyard was nice. The perimeter was circled by an aged wooden fence; though, some of the slats were prominently lighter in color than the others. There were also a lot of gaps and holes in the fence. Hopefully our cat wouldn't be able to get out. I briefly wondered if any of the neighbors had pets, before my tranquility was shattered by my brother pointing out an extremely climb-able tree.
"Kids! Pizzas here!" My mom shouted from the doorway.
Once I had eaten, I lugged my mattress to my bedroom. I started to unpack and make myself at home. I then remembered that I never really got to look out the window. It was getting dark so my vision was a bit limited. The view mostly consisted of our backyard, but I could see just a sliver of the neighbor's; though about half of it was obscured by an exceedingly leafy tree. On the side of the house I saw a basement window. There was a faint yellow glow coming from behind the blinds. Maybe the neighbors had kids too.
I put on my headphones and the soft lyrics of some unknown bedroom pop song filtered into my ears. I hoped it wouldn't be too bad here.
I woke up on the floor. My neck hurt like hell. I groaned as I sat up. Where was I? Oh. Right. New house. New room. New life. I pushed myself up from the sterile-smelling carpet. Then I wobbled my way through the hall and down the stairs.
"Do we have any cereal?" I asked groggily.
"Your mom's at the store," my dad replied.
"'kay," I yawned
"We're gonna meet the neighbors tomorrow,"
"Okayyyy..." I said warily.
"Do you want to make, like cookies or something?" My dad questioned.
"Not really,"
"Alright,"
The front door opened loudly,
"I'm back!" My mom announced.
As I dug into my cereal my mother looked up and said
"We're meeting the neighbors tomorrow,"
"Yeah I know, dad told me." I paused, " how many?"
My mom rolled her eyes
"Just the ones in the cul-de-sac,"
"Soooo.... How many?" She sighed.
"Ten- ish,"
",kay, thanks,"
I put my bowl in the sink and headed to my new room to do some unpacking. I hoped the neighbors were nice at least one of them had to be nice, right? I stretched a fitted sheet over my mattress; yeah, I hadn't done that last night, sue me.
While I was pinning up my posters I couldn't help but feel drawn to the window. I peered out of it, in the daylight I could see what looked like a garden in the neighbors yard. I decided to head outside, to see if I could get a better vantage point.
Once I made it to the yard, I peered through one of the larger gaps in the fence — the fence itself was about as tall as me , and this was easier than standing on my toes would've been.
However, instead of a garden, my eyes were met with a girl lying under the very tree that had obscured my vision from the window.
She had messy brown hair and eyes so light they looked yellow. Dappled sunlight fell through the leaves and onto her face, exaggerating her splattering of freckles.
And she was just, laying there. In the grass and clovers. I didn't dare to breathe. She lifted her arm to adjust her hair as she turned over. We made eye contact.
She stared at me long enough that I turned my head around to check if there was something behind me.
Apparently that was all the time she needed to disappear. How she left I'm not sure. The only door I saw was too far away to make it in such a short time span.