The Backyardigans Return

The New Girl

Grey melded into green right before Romy's eyes. Her head leant against the backseat window, feeling the thrumming of the car through her fur. They had officially left the concrete jungle and were now driving through the open grassy calmness of the suburbs. 

"Wow! It all looks so bright and pretty!" her little sister Cassidy marvelled at the scenery around them, but Romy was too deep in thought to notice, her heart having sunk to her stomach about half an hour ago. Both Cassidy and their mother, Lycan, noticed how disheartened she was, "I'm glad you like it, sweetheart. A nice fresh start in a nice fresh environment." 

Her words did nothing to lift Romy's spirits, as she simply huffed and closed her eyes to avoid looking at this disturbingly bright, unfamiliar new world. 

Lycan sighed in defeat, "Look honey, I'm sorry that we've had to move at such short notice, and I'm sorry that we're moving into a new area, but I only have your best interests in mind. A new area that's a lot more quiet and calm, with an opportunity to meet new people and make new friends..." 

"I'm not concerned about making new friends, mom. It's just that we were gonna look at the Pig War, the only war in history where the only casualty was a pet pig." Romy finally spoke, sitting up from her leaned against the window position. 

"Really? That's what you're upset about? I know you love your history, but I thought that moving away from your school, your home, your friends and... your father... would be the thing you were upset about." Lycan asked her, genuinely surprised about the topic of her sadness. 

"Just because I enjoyed doing history doesn't make my school any better, especially the bratty kids that went there, and you know full well that I never had any friends. Besides..." Romy lowered her voice and leaned forward so only Lycan could hear, "...home never felt like home, especially because of dad. And honestly, I'm glad you got us out of there when you did." at the end of her sentence, she nodded in the direction of Cassidy, who was too fixated on the landscape to even pay attention to what was happening next to her. 

This made Lycan smile. "I'm sorry for being so grouchy, mom, it's just a lot to take in at once." Romy apologised to her, her cheeks lifting a little as a smile started to creep onto her face. 

"I understand, baby. But, we'll get through this together, as a new family." All three wolves in the car were smiling at this point, and the atmosphere in the car was a bit more lively than before. 

Fifteen minutes later, the car had pulled up to a gorgeous looking, two story lavender house. "Woah, this is a lot better than what I was expecting." Romy commented, surprised at the lovely house that was now theirs. "How did a divorced mother of two manage to acquire this?" 

Lycan didn't say anything, she simply winked and tapped her nose twice, leaving both her daughters understandably confused. 

They all got out of the car, and made their way to the front door. Lycan unlocked it with a key she pulled out of her pocket, and all three stepped into the new house, both daughters gasping at how nice it was. Open and spacious, with lavender walls and white furniture to compliment them, dust free and untouched, three two-seater sofas in the living room surrounding a big tv, counter tops in the kitchen made of speckled marble, an island with white chairs in the middle, and plenty of room around the island to move around the kitchen. 

"Mommy I love it!" Cassidy squealed, hugging Lycan tightly, while Romy smiled, but there was a sad look to her eyes that clashed with her smile. 

A sudden truckhorn shook them out of their awe, "Ooh, the moving truck, our things are here. C'mon girls, let's go unpack." 

As there wasn't any furniture to move in and there were only personal possessions, it was a decently quick procedure. As the matriarch of the family, Lycan had naturally taken the master bedroom, with Romy and Cassidy picking their rooms from the two remaining, Cassidy being kind enough to let Romy have the slightly bigger one as the older sister. ("Thanks, Cass.")