Neighbor Wars

Chapter 1- See What I'm dealing with Here

I have always lived next door to the biggest idiot to ever walk the planet. I swear Leo Martin waits till I settle down to do my homework in my room to start blaring his stupid rap music and rev up the engine of the loud dirtbike. I sometimes risk a glance out my window to see his light mix of brown and blond hair looking up into my window, waiting for me to react. 

This time I don’t give him that pleasure. Sometimes I stick my tongue out or open it up and throw something at him. It usually ends back up on the doorstep again. 

I am too busy right now, and so should he. I spent the whole bus ride home running through my to-do list over and over again. Read Act 3 of Romeo and Juliet for Language Arts class, do the Algebra homework, we have a Science test of the Periodic Table tomorrow, and we also have our Spanish final. It is early May of our eighth grade year, almost into High School. We have lots of tests and homework because teachers are trying to squeeze as much information into our small brains as they can. 

Leo spends all of class goofing around in the back row with his best friend Ryan. He is most likely going to be voted class clown at the end of the year. I am not even sure how he made it into seventh grade because I swear he never listens. 

I don’t really fit into a certain group. I know some of those popular dudes who think they are way better than everyone else, I sit with them sometimes when I need a good chance to punch something. Giuliana Armanio is your classic popular princess, pretty, nice, and super likable. She lives around the block from me, our parents are friends, and I'm pretty sure we frist met by switching binkies as babies. I have a group of friends who one would consider to be ‘nerds’ because of their love of reading and the fact that they get decent grades. The skate park is just a block away from my house, so most of the ‘skater boys’ from my school try to teach me to go down on the turn-pike. Point is I don’t really fit anywhere. I am not popular, but I am not a nerd either. I'm an inbetweener, and I like it that way.

I was almost done with my homework when my phone right next to me lights up. The ringtone is a generic ring probably cause I haven't bothered to change it. I remember when we used to hangout and call each other every single day using our parents phones. That was before sixth grade, almost three years ago. His profile picture, an old picture I sent to myself from my mom’s phone that is of his squinting in the sunlight when we were five, eventually goes away after I let it ring. Only two seconds later my phone lights up again, is he trying to annoy the hell out of me? 

Leo-What are you doing that is so important that you can’t answer your damn phone?

Me- When are you going to go back inside your damn house and stop it with music and engine and do your homework?

Leo- already did it, you haven’t???🤣

Me- How???????????

Leo- finished the reading yesterday night, and finished algebra in health

I don’t answer, but he doesn’t take the hint. Then the music outside gets louder. I roll my eyes so far back, I feel strain in my eyes. At this rate I might finish by 1:00 pm. 

I dream of a distant memory from back when I was four on the Fourth of July. The crazy lady bug bomb thing that spins around in circles when lit up. I see a memory of Leo getting chased by the lady bug bomb. Four year old me laughs, and the image changes to something from later that day. He is chasing me with a sparkler, and I am running for my life. I remember it vividly, he tripped and lit my hair on fire. 

Next I ended up earlier that afternoon, when I was playing in the park with all of the neighborhood boys. I was on the same team as Leo, Jack Callighan, Bryce Eversteen, Ethan Burns, and Brady Armanio. Brady is Giuliana's twin brother. I am standing, ready to bat on home plate. We do this every year, and have had the same teams for as long as I can remember. It was always our street, Sharma Way, which is on the left side of the park. And Charlies Road, which is on the right side of the park, is the other team. We go to school with most of the people on that side of the street, but we still make it a competition anyways.

Drew Morris, the only other girl that plays these games, and the only girl on the Charlies Road team, pitches one of her signature curveballs. I hit far to the outfield, resulting in a grandslam. I high five everyone on the team bench. We won the game because of me. 

My older brother Alexander cheers for me from behind the plate. Alexander was 15 when I was four, I know you are probably asking but that is a 11 year age difference. To tell the whole story, my mom had him in highschool, eloped with her boyfriend when they found out at the age of 18, ran away from home, had him, eventually they broke up, and she got custody of him.  

I had always hung out with the boys, at least until I turned twelve. And from that point forward everything changed.