The Boy Next Door

hello, boy next door

Our house is huge. It looks so cute and welcoming, a pale blue with a dark wood front door. I look at our yard and the houses near us. There are two little girls doing cartwheels in the front yard next to ours. An older one, maybe nine or ten and a younger one, maybe six or seven. We pull in and Joseph jumps out of the car.

"Ebony LOOK OUR NEW HOME!" He shouts. This gets the girl's attention. Both their heads snap in the direction of us when they hear his voice. The stare at us, wide eyed and continue to stare as Mum, Dad, and I get out of the car and walk into the house. There's a big entryway and a staircase going upward with a banister that you can peer down at people walking below from. To my surprise, most of the boxes are unpacked and the furniture is mostly in it's place.

"I had these designers come decorate the house once the boxes came the other day!" Says Mum. "Well, find your rooms why don't you! Your beds are all made! Joseph and I run upstairs to find our rooms. Mine is a dark wood floor room with my rose pattern Cath Kidston bedding and Mum even got matching wallpaper. There's a new white rug and vanity table where the house designers set up my makeup, perfumes, and hair products by color. It's so cute! I take my favorite scent, pink chiffon and spray it into the air and run through it. Then I rebraid my hair and put on a pair of shorts and one of my favorite pink tanktops. Then I unpack the few boxes on the floor that contain a few personal items, like diaries and a few old stuffed animals I throw on the bed. Then I run to Joseph's room which is themed football, or soccer as they call it in America.

"Let's go look around the house!" I say. And we do. It's huge! Mum and Dad's room has a sofa in it, and we have a big screen television! The basement is a little bit creepy, but we have a sun room that's so gorgeous and a modern looking kitchen with an island in the middle. There's a couch shaped like an L in the living room and the shower in the downstairs bathroom is huge. Joseph reckons we could fit a car inside. Joseph wants to go swimming in the river behind the house, which is very pretty and I can see from my room, and I go up to my room and watch Tyler Oakley videos. He's my favorite youtuber, and makes me laugh so hard. Then I watch a few Zoella makeup tutorials and try them myself. My face ends up full of makeup that turns out better than I expected. I take my hair out of the braid and let it fall past my shoulders in a curly curtain. Then I grab the book I'm reading, Girl Online By Zoe Sugg, and I head outside to read and maybe tan a bit. I see Joseph splashing around in the river and laughing. I can't wait to go swimming, but I don't want to right now because Mum hasn't bought makeup remover yet and if I went swimming the eye makeup would run like crazy. I lean against a tree near the neighbor's house and read. Suddenly, there's a girl standing behind me. She's the older one who was doing cart wheels. She has straight brown hair and brown eyes.

"Hi!" She says. I stand up and turn around to face her. I'm only a couple inches taller than her. God I'm short. "I'm Annie LeBlanc!"

"Hello Annie, I'm Ebony Shields." I say.

"How old are you?"

"Fourteen, you?"

"I'm eleven. Why do you sound like that, Ebony?" She asks.

"Like what?"

"Like this!" She says, doing a mock British accent. I laugh.

"It's because I'm from England!" I say. She cocks her head and frowns, confused.

"Then why are you in Maryland?"

"I-" I begin, but I'm interrupted by the younger girl doing cart wheels dragging a boy my age behind her, headed towards me.

"Baked po-ta-to, baked po-ta-to, baked po-ta-to!" She chants. Annie chimes in and they're both chanting it as they drag him over to me. What's a baked potato, anyway?

"Ebony, this is my little sister Hayley and my big brother. He's a BAKED PO-TA-TO! Oh yeah, and he's fourteen also!" She yells, and the two sisters run off, laughing and begin to chase eachother around the yard. The boy blushed deep pink and turns to look at his sisters and then turns back to me, clearly very embarrassed.

"Hey..." The boy begins. He's really cute...

"Hi... baked potato?"

"Oh um... no that's... that's... not my name. I'm Caleb." He says, blushing ever deeper pink.

"Ebony. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you Ebony. You're really cute... wait no... I mean... your accent's really cute... I mean pretty... I mean are you from England?" He says really quickly, and blushes red.

"Yeah, I just moved here from England." I say, smiling.

"Really? That's great! Why?" He asks, the blush fading.

"My dad took a job here, he's a photographer."

"Wow, I've never been to England."

"And I've never been to America, well, not until now." He laughs. One of the sisters, Hayley, comes running up behind him.

"Everybody sing along!" She shouts, grinning. Annie runs up behind her and does a cartwheel.

"I am a....." They both sing. "Baked po-ta-to, baked po-ta-to, baked po-ta-to!"

"Okay, okay guys. We get it." He says, smiling. He looks really adorable when he smiles.

"What?" I say, returning his smile.

"Oh, it's something I came up with when I was really little and Hayley and Annie like to sing it sometimes to uh... embarrass me." He laughs nervously, the smile disappearing.

"That's totally something my little brother would do. But I have one question." I say, pointing at Joseph who is still swimming. He smiles again.

"What's that?"

"What is a baked potato?"

"Are you kidding?" He laughs.

"Um, no... Is it obvious or something?"

"A baked potato is like a potato that's been cooked, and you sometimes put like... Sour cream or cheese or butter on it." Does he mean a jacket potato?

"You mean a jacket potato?"

"What's a jacket potato?"

"You know, a potato with the skin on it and you put butter and things on it. You know what? It must be British slang."

"Oh, that makes so much more sense." He says laughing.

"Ebony!" Yells Joseph from the river, "I've just spotted a snake! Are snakes in America poisonous?"

"Ummmm...." I look to Caleb.

"I don't think we have any around here." He says.

"No, you're fine, Joey!" I yell, and he nods and jumps in again.

"So, have you gone swimming in the river yet?" He asks.

"No, we just got here around 10:00, so I haven't really had time to do much more than explore our new house. Joseph seems to be enjoying it though." I say.

He brushes some of his brown curls off of his forehead. "Well how about we go now?"

"That sounds lovely!" I say.

"So... meet out here in five?" He says, grinning. His dimples are so cute.

"Yeah, that sounds great." I say, vaguely aware I've been staring at his dimples for the past three minutes.

"Alright." He says.

"Brill!" I say.

"Brill?" He raises his eyebrow.

"Yeah like... brilliant, cool, nice, set, you know? I guess it's British slang"

"Oh... well, brill!" He says, and heads to his house.