Family (WIP VERSION)

PART 2 - Tree Branch

The family had spent the last couple hours moving everything into the house, even the stuff from the moving truck that had arrived not long after Alexandra put all of her boxes in her room, and by then it was around late afternoon. Her room was covered in boxes, and there were trash bags all over the floor. Her bed was mostly set up, with the white sheets and purple bedspread all put together on the mattress, but currently, it was set on the floor because the frame was not set up yet. Her desk was also set up, mainly because it was never taken apart during the moving process. Everything else was still packed. Nobody worried about it too much; they had all summer to do that.

Alexandra looked in her backpack in her room, searching for the book she was currently reading. The bag is what she brought with her in the car, and carried her basic necessities like her toothbrush, her phone, and some paper and a pencil. She found the book and then went downstairs and out the front door.

Her parents wanted her and her brothers to spend more time outside, especially since they were now living on the beach. So, while her parents were gone looking around, she was going to spend some time outside in hopes that they would let her stay indoors when they got home.

She sat down on the steps of the porch, making it a point to avoid the damaged one, and took a minute to admire what would be her new home. It was surprisingly nice for what it was worth, and although the outside looked a little run down, it still looked in stable condition, and the yard was beautiful一there were flowers growing all along the wrap around porch, and bushes that were lining the property line near the road. There was a path leading to the front door and a fork on that path that connected it to the garage. In the far corner of the property, there was a huge tree that had low hanging branches and freshly grown out leaves.  Overall, the house looked well put together for how old it was, minus the actual house itself.

She saw her brothers playing in the tree near the edge of the woods. It was at the edge of the property line by the road, though it was still technically on their property. Raphael was in the tree, climbing the large branches and jumping around. Jackon stayed on the ground, he was afraid of heights, and avoided climbing anything he didn't have to. Which probably isn't a bad thing, somebody needed to be on the ground in case Raphael fell.

Alexandra herself was not one to enjoy going outside. She spent a lot of her time indoors, watching TV or reading a book. Which is what she planned on doing, just on the porch instead. Normally, she would go out quite often with her friends to restaurants or the arcade, but since she moved, she didn't have anyone to hang out with.

She got a couple of pages into her book before Raphael started shouting at her. She looked up and groaned, curious as to what he could possibly want. She tried to ignore it, but he kept shouting until she finally put the book down and walked over to where he was.

"What do you want, Ralph? Can't you see I am reading," Alexandra stopped below the tree and looked up. Her arms were folded, and her face showed clear annoyance.

"Look at me, Alex, I'm hanging upside down!" Raphael was swinging back and forth on one of the branches and had a huge smile on his face. She looked around, wondering where Jackson could be. She knew he would never let Raphael do this if he was around.

"That's cool, buddy, but you really shouldn't do that," she corrected. She watched as her younger brother whined and sat upright. "Where is Jack, shouldn't he be watching you?"

"He went to the bathroom." Raphael climbed down the tree and sat on the branch eye level to her. His black hair glowed in the sunlight, and made parts of it look dark brown. She looked over to the front door and realized she must have missed him passing by. There is a chance he even asked her to watch him, and she was so caught up in her book that she didn't hear him say that.

"Well that's fine, but next time, make sure you have someone watching you if you are going to play in the tree," she said before sitting down by the trunk of the tree.

Jackson returned not too long after and asked what Alexandra was doing. She pointed up towards the branches of the tree where their brother was goofing off. Jackson scolded him, saying he shouldn't have been up there without him around. Raphael said sorry and quickly went back to playing.

"I didn't know he wasn't supposed to be up there, I assumed you asked me to watch him and I didn't hear you," Alexandra said to Jackson as he took his place beside the tree.

"It's whatever," Jackson replied. Alexandra then stood up and went back toward the porch. She stayed there reading her book for a little bit, waiting for her parents to get home. This was going to be a very boring summer.