Chapter One

Leanne Maple moves to her brand new house with her sister and father. She also meets her first friend.

    I stepped out of the car to look at my new home. As much as I wanted to hate it, I just couldn’t. It was a beautiful cape. The siding was a sage color, and the shutters were gray. The pathway was lined with well kept tulips, and it was surrounded by tall, green, trees. Still determined to hate it, I searched for flaws. After a few minutes, I noticed that the paint on the bottom step had a small chip. Aha!
Pleased with myself, I took my bags and walked slowly down the path to the front door. My sister raced ahead of me, excited to set up her furniture. It had all been delivered the day before.
I followed her up the stairs and turned left to my room. Everything was in a cluster in the middle of the floor. I set my bags down and went to go help my dad.
He handed me a few boxes and I brought them inside and set them on the table.
“Lenny, don’t you just love this house?” he asked when he walked in. I nodded halfheartedly.
    “Yeah, it’s great.”
    “You go set up your room, I’ve got everything under control.” I ran up to my room, faking enthusiasm. I didn’t want to move, but I was intent on keeping the peace. The fragile peace.
    I looked into my new room. It was pretty spacious, with wood floors and purple walls. There was a dormer window with a chest in it, that could also serve as a seat with some cushions. I had two closets, one walk in, one not, and a ceiling fan that would never get used (I am terrified of them).
    Then I started to push my furniture into place. My father had put cloth under all of the corners so it slid right along. My sister knocked on the door.
    “Lenny, give me a hand. I can’t find my tacks.”
    “Will you stopped calling me that? And didn’t you label your boxes?” She sighed.
    “Fine grump, and no, I didn’t label my boxes.”
    “Dad told you to, and so did Aunt Cindy.”
    “Well I didn’t listen.”
    “That’s your fault! Find your own damn tacks.” I got up and slammed the door in her face, and then clicked the lock shut. So much for keeping the peace, but this was the relationship that my sister and I had. She’d do something stupid and expect me to pick up the pieces. And then we’d yell and fight. Nothing would change, no matter where we are.
    I continued pushing everything into place. When I was done, I looked at the pile of boxes stacked in one of my closets. It was my first move and already I hated it; so much to do.
    There was another knock and I turned around to see my dad. “Hey Lenny, what do you want for diner?”
    “Dad, please, stop calling me that. It’s not my name,” I whined.
    “I know, but we figured it was better than your old nickname.” I blushed. I’d rather not people remind me of my name at my other school. They called me Squirt because in second grade someone made me laugh while drinking apple juice.
    “I’ll give you that, but why can’t people just call me Leanne?”
    “Because this is more fun.” I rolled my eyes and walked over to the closet. “Anyway, what do you want for dinner? I’m going shopping tomorrow but… I was thinking Chinese food.”
    “Sounds good.”
    “Bye Lenny!”
    “Dad!” He laughed before walking out of the door.  I shook my head and made my way to the boxes.
    I sat there unpacking for about twenty minutes before I heard the door open and got a whiff of pork fried rice. I immediately dropped the stuffed animal I was holding and flew down the stairs.
    Cheyenne followed me to the kitchen where we grabbed plates and forks. We filled up and departed like we usually did to our rooms to eat alone.   
    “Wait! Don’t you want to sit at the table?” Cheyenne and I looked at each other and laughed.
    “Dad, we haven’t eaten at the table for years,” I said.
    “I know, but I figured maybe we could. Plus, that dining set cost a fortune.” We groaned. “Please? At least for just tonight?”
    “Okay Dad,” we said in unison and headed to the table.
    Dad sat at the end and we sat on the sides next to him. We started eating in silence. Awkward silence, that is. We stared at each other stupidly, waiting for someone to start conversation.
    “So, what do you girls plan to do tomorrow?” he asked.
    “What is there to do? There’s still school here for like, a month,” Cheyenne said angrily. “Couldn’t we have waited until there was at least something to do?”
    “Nope. Thompson wanted us out by yesterday.”
    “But Dad, Cheyenne has a point. Everyone’s going to be in school so even if we wanted to walk somewhere, we’d be lost and alone.”
    “Well the town is at the other end of the road. You guys won’t get lost too badly.”
    “He said to his directionally challenged children,” I muttered. He laughed.
    “You’ll be fine.” We looked at each other, rolling our eyes.
    “What are you going to do Dad?” Cheyenne asked.
    “I’m going food shopping and I’m going to look around for a job.”  We nodded and I shoveled my last forkful into my mouth.
    “Bye Dad!” I said, standing quickly. He watched me dump my plate in the sink and run upstairs. I heard Cheyenne follow suit.
    I went back to the box I was unpacking and finished that one. I didn’t bring a lot, wanting to make this ordeal as easy as possible. Then I went to the next, which was a shoe box full of pictures. Most of them were loose but I had two of them framed. One was a picture of all my friends from my old school. The other was a family portrait, taken a mere week before my mom died.
    It wasn’t the most attractive picture, but it was such a fond memory of mine. We went to take a professional picture at the park and just when he took the picture, a squirrel jumped out and attacked Cheyenne. She started freaking out and then the squirrel went and jumped on all of our heads before running away.
    I smiled and brought my pictures to my desk, where I set them up next to my computer.
    Then I spent the rest of the night hanging pictures on my wall armed with a level and a ruler. Everything had to be perfectly an inch apart. By the time I was done with that, it was midnight. Everyone had left me alone, I think we were all unpacking our stuff.
    I looked out of my window at the dark sky. The moon wasn’t there tonight, but the stars looked beautiful. I’ve always felt somehow connected to the night, like the complex patterns and silvery light were part of me.
    I opened the window and stepped out. The roof wasn’t too steep but I didn’t quite feel safe so I crawled up and onto the dormer. I sat at the edge near the roof and laid down on my back.
    That picture made me think of what things could be of Mom didn’t die. We’d still be living at home happily. Cheyenne and I probably wouldn’t fight as much and Dad wouldn’t be so alone. But she did die, and Dad couldn’t handle the memories anymore so we came home on the last day of school to a house full of boxes. “We’re leaving,” he had said. We finished packing the next few days and tadah, here I am.   
    I felt overwhelmed. The town looked nice enough upon driving by, but I knew that my lack of social skills was going to be a problem. The chances of me making friends before school starts matched those of friends falling from the sky.
    But for now I was content. I had silence and I had the stars, which was all I needed. It would have been nice for the moon to make an appearance though.
    I snapped into attentiveness as I saw my neighbors front light come on. Not wanting to be seen  on the roof, I started to climb down. When I was about a foot from my window, I slipped.
    I slid down until I was gripping onto the gutter. I cursed under my breath and looked down. I wouldn’t die if I fell, but I was sure it wouldn’t be pleasant. I heard my neighbors door squeak open and I turned. Maybe I could get their attention. My dad was a pretty heavy sleeper.
    “Help,” I said.
    “What?” I heard. “Who’s there? Where are you?”
    “I’m slipping.” I heard footsteps approaching.
    “What the hell? How did you manage that?”
    “I just did. Can you help or not? It’s giving way and if I break my new house my dad will kill me.” The person below laughed.
    “Um, hold on, let me tie my dog to your porch.”
    “I don’t have much of a choice.” I heard a creak and felt the gutter starting to tear away. “Um,” I said nervously.
    “Okay, um… I can either climb that tree and pull you up or you can just fall and I’ll catch you.” I looked down. It was a boy, he didn’t look extravagantly strong but he didn’t look too weak.”
    “There’s not enough time for you to climb, are you sure you can catch me?”
    “Um, I think so but we’re running out of options.” I heard another small ripping sound and felt it give in a little more.
    “Let go!” I released my fingers and closed my eyes.
    It felt like I was falling for a long time, although I knew I wasn’t. I landed on top of the person, felt his knees give in, and got a mouthful of grass. I rolled off of him and looked up at the sky.   
    “You okay?” I asked.
    “Yeah, I think so. You?”
    “Yeah.” I rolled over. “Thanks, that could have been messy.”
    “No problem, I would of hated to have met you at the hospital instead.”
    “You spend a lot of time there?”   
    “Well, my dad is a doctor. I have a job there behind the desk. I chat with some of the patients, I probably would of said hi to you.”
    “Why?” He blushed in the dark.
    “My name is Jake.”
    “I’m Leanne, and that didn’t answer my question.”
    “You don’t look much like a Leanne to me…”
    “So I’ve been told. My dad has taken to calling me Lenny.” He smiled.
    “I like it.”
    “I don’t! It’s a dude name!”
    “But it suits you. Not that you look like a dude or something, it’s just…”
    “Just what?” He had just dug himself into a hole. I was interested in seeing how he would get out.
    “Well, usually pretty girls don’t talk to me.” My mouth dropped.
    “Very nice, but that can’t be true.”
    “No, it’s not.” He laughed. I did too.
    “So your girlfriend…”
    “Is non-existent.” I nodded thoughtfully, glowing on the inside. This guy was cute, he kind of reminded me of Light from the anime Death Note… Except I had a feeling he wasn’t quite as crazy.   
    “Oh,” I said casually. He smiled and I heard his dog whine. I looked over and saw he had a yellow lab.
    “I think your dog has to poo, and I’d rather it not be  in my yard, seeing as how I apparently end up laying in it.”
    “I suppose.” He stood up and offered me his hand. I took it and he pulled me up.
    “So, Lenny, it was nice meeting you, are you going to school?”
    “No, mine finished already.”
    “Really?” I nodded. “You’re lucky.”
    “Eh, I’m going to be bored.”
    “Go out to town.”
    “Well I don’t know what to do or anything.” He smiled.
    “Well then how about me and my friends show you around Friday night? It’ll be fun.” I grinned.
    “Sounds like a plan.” We stood there and gazed at each other until his dog barked.
    “Oh, I’ve to got go, I’ll see you around.”
    “Okay.” He untied his dog and it took off, dragging him behind.
    I climbed up the tree next to my window and crawled up the roof carefully and into my window.
    I closed it and grinned. I had a friend, and a cute one at that. At my old school, there weren’t many options as far as guys went. They were all very cliquey and not my type.
    I tossed back the covers and changed into some shorts to accommodate the early June weather and switched off my light. I crawled into bed and smiled. I had a feeling that maybe this whole move wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all.

:::::

Courtney Shaddock

Author's Note

Tell me what you think, and if you notice any spelling/grammar errors let me know.

Reviews

[Ben]

This is very good! I didn't see any grammar mistakes. (Though I'm not the best at it, lol.)