Neighbor Wars

Chapter 2- May

My favourite song is my alarm that goes off at 6:30 every school day, and even on my birthday I hit snooze. I am not so lucky because after about the fourth time I hit the snooze button my 25 year old brother tackles me and yanks the blanket off of me. 

“Wake up. You only have to get your smart ass out of bed. You only have 30 minutes to get ready!” I jump out of bed, and rush to the bathroom. I ignore my brother's profane language most of the time, I mean it is totally natural for grown men to talk like that. I brush my teeth faster than usual, don’t brush my long blond hair, and don’t wash my face. Since makeup isn’t allowed, I don't ever put any on anyways. I rush back to my room and pull on a totally random t-shirt, like I always do, and pull on a generic pair of dark blue jean shorts. 

“I put a waffle in the toaster for you sweet heart, have a good day at school. The bus will be here in two minutes. Hurry up.” She instructs me as she leaves for her job as a nurse practitioner at the local clinic in town. “Alright, Bye mom.” I yell from down from my room, and seconds later I hear the door slam behind her. I remember that she has a late shift today and won’t be home till 12:36 pm. 

I run down the stairs, slip on a random pair of shoes, grab the waffle from the toaster, and bolt out the door. I have to rush back in when I reach into my back pocket to find out that phone is still plugged in on my nightstand. 

At the bus stop four people wait for me and the bus that now rounds the corner. Giuliana has her perfectly polished skin with short wings of eyeliner that outlines her vibrant blue eyes. Her hair sits perfectly in a high pony-tail where her black, italian hair cascades in controlled curls. It makes me wonder how early she woke up. Her twin brother Brady, wears a normal pair of basketball shorts, Air Force 1s that are perfectly white, and a Celtics jersey. He has blue eyes like his sisters, and his curly black hair hides under the brim of his baseball hat.

Staring at Giuliana is Ryan, my other next door neighbor. Ryan Codwell (aka. Bleach Boy, I like to call him, referring to the color of his hair) is wearing his classic beanie that covers most of his hair except the little strands that peak out from the bottoms. His brown eyes are covered with aviator sunglasses, but he smiles all the same. “Hey Papadakis!” Hey shouts to me from down the street. Everyone there looks at me except for Giuliana whose eyes are buried in her phone as she endlessly scrolls through what looks like a buff shirtless guy’s Instagram stories. “You're late again!” Ryan says, instead of yells because I have just gotten close enough for him to actually talk like a normal person. 

Leo slaps his best friend on the side of the head. He glared forcibly at his friend as if to say, shut up you stupid head. I laugh a little, but explain all the same, “I had a lot of homework last night, and Alex wouldn’t let me get back to sleep because he was sitting on the edge of my bed and kept sighing. He is so stupid sometimes!” At the mention of Alexander, Giuliana puts away her stupid phone for a second, but she doesn’t have time to comment on my brother because the bus pulls up behind us. 

I let everyone else file onto the bus, but Giuliana waits for me. “Marley, Can I talk to you during lunch?” she whispers in my ear. 

“Sure.” I answer shrugging, and then she walks right past me to go sit in the back of the bus with her friends. I find my normal row 11, not too close to the front and also not to close to the back either. I sit closer to the window, leaving room for my two best friends to come onto the bus. 

While I wait I pull out my phone. 19 messages in the matter of 4 minutes at least. All from various cousins, aunts, and uncles. My dad has a very Greek family, and is the second oldest of 5 at the age of 49. Which gives me 4 aunts and uncles and roughly 20 some cousins (and let’s not even get started on the second, third, and fourth cousins). And that is just on my dad's side.