Chapter Text
Raleigh Becket was thirteen when the white house with the rickety porch across their home was filled.
Growing up, he never really thought about the house as nothing but abandoned. It was the only house in their coastal village that was still made of some age-old wood because most had either been renovated or were destroyed by termites. To Raleigh, the house had simply been there. A wooden house painted white with some blue accents here and there. The porch had to be the highlight of it though, it was completely squeaky and he would recall the Halloweens when he and Yancy dared themselves to go in but ran back home after the first few creaks of floorboards.
“Do you think they’ll be nice?” Jazmine propped her elbows on the window frame as they watched the moving truck workers unload furniture and heave them into the house.
“I’m still awed that someone actually bought the place,” Yancy popped up from the kitchen to join them in the living room. He had a can of coca-cola and proceeded to slurp annoyingly to his younger brother’s discomfort.
Jazmine gave Yancy a good glare, indicating that she also found the noise irritating. The oldest Becket sibling raised both hands nonchalantly, one still with can, as a peace sign. Jaz returned her gaze to the other house.
“I hope they have a dog that’s nice and cute,” she smiled. She always wanted a dog but due to their mom’s conditions, the family wasn’t exactly sure if they could afford to have one.
“Or a super nice and cute daughter.” Raleigh heard Yancy mutter against the coke slightly pressed to his lips. Oh to be young and hormonal, Raleigh just couldn’t wait ‘til his endorphins spiked up. He rolled his eyes.
He honestly didn’t care who moved in though- as long as they weren’t some psycho murderer/mad scientist/alien/whatever that would turn his life into a living horror movie.
The three of them spotted a white van coming down the road with two mountain bikes on top, along with some boxes, and what looked to be a canoe. Jazmine made a bet that they had a son who liked to do extreme sports. Yancy insisted that it could still be a daughter, a pretty but fierce one to be exact. Raleigh said that they could just be a young couple or something that did those recreations and did not have a kid at all. The two other Becket siblings simply waved them off.
Raleigh wasn’t sure how it started but suddenly, they’re busting out what pocket money they had leftover from the week and were forming a betting pool. Then they realised that money wasn’t going to cut it since they practically spent their money on each other more than anything. They were close that way,
So they decided to bet on chores. Whoever won would not have to lift a finger the whole week while the other two will get a half each of the chore load that the winner was supposed to do.
“You boys are so going to lose,” Jazmine smiled as a racecar bed was pulled out from one of the two moving trucks. They sure had a lot of junk, Raleigh’s lips pressed into a thin line as the bed disappeared from his line of vision through the front door.
“It could still be a girl,” Yancy said in a singsong voice. He was usually the most mature one among them but sometimes; he was the most stubborn person in the world especially when he was just with Raleigh. But Raleigh was equally bothersome if not more.
Raleigh knew he lost the bet as soon as the racecar bed got pulled out but he was too obstinate to go down just like that.
“Raising the odds, they’d have a dog,” he blurted out then pointed to the dog bowl on top of a coffee table temporarily placed on the front lawn by the movers, “it’s going to be a bulldog.”
Jazmine nodded. She agreed. She was not the type to back down from a bet.
“It’s going to be a more sporty dog…great dane.”
“Maybe they’d have a family dog since they have a kid,” Yancy whispered that thought to himself but Raleigh had heard it- the Becket brothers had a weird bond that borderlined telepathic communication sometimes.
He recalled the times they had moved in close to perfect synchrony in their everyday lives. They would wash their father's car together and the other neighbours had found it weird when the two of them were tossing the soap, rags, hoses, and whatnot to each other in what seemed like a practised movement. It wasn't though.
“Golden retriever," the boys both said at once except there was uncertainty in Raleigh's voice. Yancy just gave him the thumbs up while Jazmine huffed about how the two of them should enrol at professor Xavier's school for the gifted.
They all looked at each other, waiting for someone to back down but all of their heads snapped back to the other house as soon as they heard the brakes.
The white van had parked in front of the house.
First out of the driver’s seat was a man, a really tall one with a figure that Raleigh would associate to their school’s football players. His hair looked ginger blond but aside from that, the Beckets knew nothing as he was facing the other way.
“Bet he’s a soldier,” Yancy said and Raleigh had to look back at the man. The way he stood had that military finesse to it.
“Betting’s closed.” Jazmine all but hissed at Yancy and Raleigh couldn’t blame her. She had toilet duty for the week. Of course, she’d want a way out of it. Yancy practically had no reaction to this, just took a quiet sip of his soda.
“Hah! I’m right!” Raleigh smirked in triumph as both of his siblings rolled their eyes. A woman wearing a robin’s egg blue dress stepped out from the passenger seat, a puppy cradled in her arms. It was indeed a bulldog.
“That’s only half the bet!” Jaz almost snarled at him. Yancy placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. For a ten year-old, Jazmine was feisty and the brothers sometimes think it’s their fault that she is. Then again, feisty was a good thing… sometimes.
The driver then opened the back door of the car to seemingly get something. He reached in to get it and when he pulled out, the man was holding a little boy with the same ginger blond hair who slept like a rock in the other’s arms. Raleigh thought he looked pretty adorable.
Jazmine turned to her brothers with a triumphant grin. Raleigh joined her with his own shit-eating smile and turned it towards Yancy who was biting his lower lip, knowing well that he completely lost and was about to shoulder majority of the housework for two weeks.
“Kids!”
They heard their mother calling them. They all walked towards the sound of her voice and found her in the kitchen. She didn’t smell like her usual self, the cigarette scent wasn’t as awful and there was the aroma of apple pie wafting through the kitchen.
She also looked better than she had in weeks ever since she was diagnosed with cancer.
“The pies are setting over there,” she pointed to the windowsill over the sink where three pies are laid out. Their mother had learned to make desserts in pairs for their family as they tend to like their sweets a lot. “Take one to our neighbours later. I would do it myself but I’m starting to get a headache,” their mother added and it was emphasised by the slight sway she had in her step and hand on her forehead.
Both boys were immediately by her side, supporting her weight. They two of them volunteered to take her upstairs but their mother insisted that someone had to go with Jaz to say hello to the new occupants across their house.
Yancy took their mom upstairs leaving Raleigh and Jaz staring at each other with worried eyes. They younger Becket siblings sighed and tried to pick out the best looking pie from their mom’s batch to give.