Valence

Chapter 3

We drove onto the only street familiar to me, a long block of modern duplexes arranged in two opposite rows. It didn't take long for my mom to pull into the driveway of a cream-coloured duplex or since our stay in Australia was indefinite, I could as well call it our new home.

My mom handed me the house key and we had barely stepped out of the car when a plump woman strided towards us with a huge grin, waving at us as she greeted. Great a pest!

"Hello", my mom greeted in her sweet tone.

"Hi! It's so splendid to meet you". She still had that huge grin that made my innards twist.

My mom smiled politely while I had a frown on my face.

"My name is Heidi Murphy and I'm your new neighbor, I live there with my husband and kids", she said cheerfully, pointing to a green house next to ours.

"The pleasure is mine, Mrs Murphy. I'm Celyne and this is my daughter, Roxanne". My mom gestured to me but I didn't move a muscle, I just stared back.

My mom snapped her eyes to mine and gave me the 'What the heck are you doing staring like a cow for?" look. I rolled my eyes.

"Uh, Good afternoon?". It was more of a question than a greeting. My mom narrowed her eyes and I knew she was definitely saying, 'You can do better than that, gal'.

I put up a fake smile. "Good afternoon, Mrs Murphy. I'm Roxanne".

She let out a light chuckle and smiled at me. "Just call me Heidi, darling". I gave her a subtle nod.

"I saw you unpacking yesterday, I know how stressful that can be but you really made the right choice of neighborhood to stay in. I can say it's probably better than where you moved from in terms of the environment if that's the cause. Where is that?".

Instantly, I assumed her to be one of those 'Good, friendly-nosy' neighbors.

My mom clearly wasn't enjoying the topic of discussion. "Yeah, we used to stay at-".

"I'm just gonna go inside now". I interrupted and moved fast before my mom tried to stop me. I could feel her gaze on me, watching me leave her to deal with the neighbor. She was probably grimacing.

"Sorry about that. She's had a pretty rough day", I heard her tell Heidi before I disappeared into the house.

I marched straight up the stairs and into my room. Pulling off my boots and jackets, I fell heavily on the bed causing it to give a loud groan. The cool breeze found a way into my room and I just layed there, relishing in it. We had worked hard on Saturday, trying to settle in quickly but we were yet to fully unpack so some parts of the house still had boxes yet to be opened.

After a couple of minutes, I heard my mom enter. There were footsteps as she climbed the stairs and walked up to her room. Few minutes later, she was standing in my doorframe, already freshened up and now wearing sweatpants and an oversized top.

She scrunched her face at me because I was still lazily lying on my bed in the same outfit I wore out and I did not plan on changing that anytime soon.

"Girl, get your lazy bones up and come help me unpack. There are a few boxes left".

I groaned and rolled onto my side, away from her, "I don't feel like, this feels so damn comfortable and I'm not going to let you ruin it for me"

"Hmm, are you hungry? How about some pancakes before we start?". I snapped my head to her, her face was pulled into a mischievous grin. "Still a no, you are not gonna bribe me into this".

"Okay, suit yourself. Our nice neighbor left us some chocolate chip cookies, more for me then".

I jerked up immediately. "No! Don't you dare!".