The Funny Story

A new Beginnings

The last few days of summer were always the most difficult for me because there was a mental countdown in my head and I dreaded having to start Junior year at high school.I looked out of the window and it was raining and I realised that this has been the worst summer ever.Not only did I have to start senior year at high school with my best friend Becca moving away this summer but to top it all off my parents decided to take a break from each other, its not like I got the details of what went wrong but I suspected cheating. I knew that there was a rough year ahead of me .Lost in thoughts I hardly heard my mother yelling my name. "yeah I'm coming.Stop yelling"I screamed and went to meet her. " Jess Are you planning to live in your room for the rest of your life? Get out once in a while its not healthy.. get some fresh air"I knew I had to cut her off before she went on with her healthy living lecture "Mom its raining and I have windows in my room which do their job pretty well." "Young lady I'm letting you off the hook this summer because its been pretty rough on our family,but when school starts I will not hear any excuses and I want things to go back to what they were, just because you are starting school ,the rules of the house don't change" my mother charged back.The rules of the house were something my mother laid down when I started middle school and its pretty standard:

Rule 1 : No boys in the house ever.

Rule 2: curfew at 10 on school days and 1.30 a.m on special days.

My mom was pretty adamant about the rules and I had never broken them and was there ever any need in my life to break them. "Mom you called me to lecture" I retaliated in irritation while rolling my eyes at her. "Well that's not the only thing. Do you remember my friend Susan Thomas .. anyways she is a very good friend of mine since college and though we lived in different cities we made it a point to keep in touch and I think you have met her at your aunt Caitlyn's wedding... I'm sure you remember that wedding, it is pretty hard to forget when" my mom went before I interrupted her, "Mom get straight to the point.. and ya I don't think you can forget a wedding where the bride marries the best man.." I said thinking about the crazy events of that wedding day. My mom sighed and went on "well Susan is getting a promotion and is transferring here .. she was supposed to settle in by now but it might take a month or 2 now .. she has to wrap some loose ends.. But she has a son named Chad who will be going to your school and since her move is getting delayed and he wants to try out for thefootball team , apparently he is a very good player.He is planning to move here before his mother and ofcourse I had to help Susan out and I invited her son to stay with us and that you would help him around here until she moves to the city," she finished and carried on unpacking the groceries like nothing just happened."MOM! you are breaking the no 1 rule you laid out yourself and anyways if he is a football player I doubt he will need my help and cant we just help him find an apartment or something?"I said. "well no he is only 16 and he cant get an apartment . we have a big home ,once you move upstairs he will have plenty of room here." She said. "Wow and this summer cant get any better " I replied sarsactically.The last thing I needed was some soon to be popular kid living in my house while I probably get bullied by his friends in school.

The last week of summer finally arrived and I had a ton of work left... between shifting my room , which was actually an advantage.My old room was amazing but I had outgrown it and I hardly had any closet space left and even though my new room doesn't have attached bathroom , it did have a biiger space and a great view of the backyard and the pool. My mom had gone to the airport to pick up chad and I decided to clean the last of my few things I left in my old room.

I was surely going to miss my old room but I told myself that the future holds a lot better things. I donot know if it was the summer or the fear of starting school , tears started rolling down my face and the first time since my parents split a month ago I missed my dad. I was used to my dad not being around he was busy at work and had to travel but today the tought that my dad would never spend a night in this house hit me and all that I could do about it was cry. I barely put the last of my things down when the door bell rang.I quickly wiped my tears and looked in the mirror to make sure my eyes didn't give me away but I couldn't do anything and I just took heavy breath and went downstairs to open the door. "honey what took you so long? We need help.Chad is getting some of the things out of the trunk , go and help him". She said and carried the small suitcase into my old room. I stepped out to go to the car. I was kind of excited to see him and he was standing with his back to me talking on the phone. He had already unloaded all the rest of the luggage from the car. "yeah we just reached here and I think I lost my ATM card , its not in my wallet.. could you check my room and mail me?" he went on , I knew I shoudnt but I took my time to walk to the car. "WHAT?! MOTHER ... I'm calling DAD!" and he hung up the phone. His little outburst scared me and I stopped dead in my track and he turned around. "HI... I'm Chad " he flashed a half hearted smile and went back to his phone. "hi I'm Jessie" I said with no smile and took the bag which I thought I could carry and started walking back to my home . Almost halfway through the driveway the luggage left a lot lighter and I realised that Chad had taken the luggage off my hands . He was wearing a large backpack and now carry 2 huge luggages in each hand. "are you sure you can carry it all? Let me give u a hand there" I suggested and went to take a bag but he rebuffed. "Oh no please, they are not that heavy and I'm sorry back there my mother was getting on my nerves. So I'm Chad" he stopped and held his hand out. My heart felt lighter that he actually apologised and I took his hand to shake it " I'm Jessie" I smiled . At the same minute my mad next door neighbour dog which was a huge great dane started barking furiously and was already entering our drive way at a carzy speed. Before I even had a chance to think, Chad took my hand and dropped the luggage in his other hand and we were running towards the door.We had a very narrow escape by the time we locked the front door. "What is going on" my mom came out of the kitchen wondering what all the commotion was . Chad turned away from the door and finally get go of my hand " there is a crazy dog in your neighbourhood chasing people" he said looking out the Glass of the door. "OH you guys scared me! That's our neighbour's dog "Bird".He is harmless .Did he free himself again?" my mom convinced him and opened the door and bird came running towards me and started licking me. "I need to run to the store , I'll be back in 15 mins tops. Chad , jess will show you around the house " and she left. "He is called bird? And could you hold him till I put my luggage in the room." He said with a bit of panic iced in his tone . "Don't worry he is a little chicken .. Aren't u bird ... u big bad boy.." I went back to cuddling bird. Chad came back with the rest of the luggage. "That bed room next to the stair case.. that's your room you can put our luggage there." I said still holding bird and cuddling him. Chad put his luggage and came out a few minutes later. "how long is he going to stay here?" he asked calmy trying to hide the panic in his voice. "are you scared of dogs? I'll just go and drop him off now." I said trying to hide my smile. "Come boy we'll get you home...."I said and took bird to my neighbour Randall's House. I rang the door bell and Steve opened the door. "Hi Jess... He got away again?? Bird you cant keeping running to this pretty lady's house everytime..Bad boyyy... Come on go in.." he shooed the dog . Steve! He is the cutest Boy in our class and he is my neighbour and my heart was racing at the harmless pretty lady comment and I was now smiling from ear to ear like an idiot and dreaming about my future wedding with him when he inturrepted. "sorry for the trouble"he said. "No please we Love him.."I said and stared at him awkwardly for a few seconds.Just as I thought I should turn around now and leave , " so all ready for school then.High school can you believe it?"he said . "kind of .. I know it seems like yesterday we started middle school... I have a guest over. I should go now. See you in school." I said and turned and started walking back home. "Bye jess" he said and closed the door.