The Girl Next Door.

Part One - Jobs

The Girl Next Door

PART ONE

SUMMER.

June the eighth was when he first noticed me. Well...properly. I live next door to him, he lives next door to me, the standard issue of neigbour placing. To him I was usually the quiet girl with not much to say, the girl at the front of history class, always taking notes. To him I wasn't anything special. Until June the eighth.

We had been living next door to each other for over a year when the day rolled around, he had moved from Bakersville, California. Quite a nice sounding place, what made him move? Well he moved from there to here, Columbus in Ohio. The glorious town in the middle of nowhere with an average of 138 days of rain per year. Real nice. Well, dad had been offered a new job as the headmaster in Beechcroft high school, which was good because I went to Bexley high school, so if I got into trouble at leaSt I wouldn't have to face my father. So to celebrate the new position, which he started next semester in September, we had a barbeque. The weather was supposed to be nice so we decided to give it a shot. And in all honesty the weather was gorgeous. so that made it only ten times better. Since it was so hot outside I decided to wear some light clothes. A pair of denhim mini shorts, a floaty camisole in an ethnic print. And a pair of gladiator sandals. I had a  small purple cardi with me incase it did get cold. And besides, it looked nice, I wanted to look nice. Especially if he was coming over. 

I sat on the sofa in the living room waiting for the bell to ring. I bounced my legs up and down in antcipation. When was he going to come? 

At about 2.25pm I heard the door. I was instantly on the case. Pouncing like a lion on an antelope. But it wasn't anyone special at the door, just people I never really met. Mom would occaisionally chat to them in the street when I was younger, but since the age of eleven I hadn't seen them very much. I let them in 

"Good to see you Gabbrielle, my you've grown so much." They exclaimed beaming from ear to ear. 

"Standard rate" I replied giving a smile in return. 

"Where's your brother...Robin?" 

"He's gone to New York University, to study, he wants to be a director once he graduates"  mom said calling through from the kitchen. 

"Ooh, how lovely." the neigbours replied. What were there names? I let them continue nattering on with mum when I went upstairs to make sure my make-up was right.

When I had came down again, after about eight rings on the doorbell, there were quite a lot of people there, I couldn't say I knew many of them. I wasn't very "social" with my  neighbours. But there I saw him. His blonde hair fell over his forehead and sweeped into his eyes. His slightly tanned skin radiated in the afternoon sun, his green eyes glimmered. He nodded along to his father, while he was getting told about starting to find suitable colleges. He was only sophmore, as was I, yet his father was ambitious. People said he was living out his dreams via his son. I didn't think that was true, because if that was the  case then he wouldn't have three D's on his report card, or a permanent recored that was not unscathed. I watched him, his head was buried in a book, it was called "I Am Number Four", I wondered what it was about.

"Could you help with the coleslaw?" mom said through the kitchen window. 

"Sure mum." I looked back at him "give me a minute." I walked into the kitchen still looking out across the garden. He didn't seem to be interested in his dad's speech anymore, because he was beginning to plug a pair of earphones  into his head. He fiddled about with his MP3 before starting to nod out a beat. I smiled. 

"What you so happy about?" mom asked walking over with a bowl in her hand. 

"nothing" I replied. 

mum handed me the bowl, I looked at it. Mum then pointed to a pile of vegetables and  mayonnaise. I frowned. but continued over to the food. I picked up a potato peeler and got the skin off the carrots, I chopped them up along with cucumber and pepper before covering it all in the mayo. 

"Not all of it Gabrielle, I need it for the potato salad." mom exclaimed pulling the pot out  of my hand. I looked out the window, he was still reading. dad was on the barbeque and I saw that a few of the sausages looked a little bit burnt, or cremated. 

"You can go now." mom shooed me out. I quickly grabbed a cola and a strawberry before  getting out of the door. I located myself and walked to a table. the table where he was sat, the table that I wanted  to sit at all through the barbeque but never got the chance to. 

"Hey." I smiled at the family, I kept my eyes on him. 

I was about to get better acquainted.