"Daaaddd!!!! I can't find my boots!!" I searched the span of my new room, filled with boxes, for my brown, leather cowboy boots.
"I don't know, Nat! Wait...hang on!" My dad grunted and he lifted up some heavy boxes.
"Your shoes are in here, sweetie." Dad walked in, holding my boots in his hand.
"Thanks, Daddy!" I smiled at him and he smiled back.
We just moved here. To Point Place, Wisconsin.
And it looks boring as all hell. But Dad told me that our neighbors have two kids who are about 18 or 19.
I sighed as I slipped on an old Led Zeppelin shirt.
Maybe these kids had good taste in music?
I rang the doorbell of the house next door and looked around.
There was a basketball hoop and a Vista Cruiser in the driveway.
Man, that car has gotta be older than me.
The door flung open and a short, older woman stood before me. She had short, bobbed gray-blonde hair.
The lady bounced up and down. "Oh? Oh! Red! Red! It's the new neighbor's daughter! Boys!! Steven! Eric!! Come meet the new girl!!"
Oh. Boys. Goodie.
A curly haired boy in a Grateful Dead shirt with sunglasses on walked through the living room door.
"Mrs. Forman, I don't really think that-whoa. Sweet Zeppelin shirt dude. Uh. Girl."
"Hey thanks man. Yeah. It was my dad's. Zeppelin rules."
"Totally." The boy looked a little confused. "You wanna come hang with us in the basment?"
"Sure." I shrugged. I followed the curly haired boy. "It was nice meeting you!" I shouted back to Mrs. Forman who opened the door.
"Oh, you too dear!" She had quite the high voice.
"So are you...Steven?" I looked up at the curly haired boy.
"Yeah, I'm Steven. But call me Hyde. That was Mrs. Forman. She's a bit much sometimes but she means well.
"I can tell." I mumbled. "So...you live here?" I asked Hyde.
Hyde nodded. "Yeah man. Forman's took me in a few years ago when my mom skipped town. Been living here ever since. Red's a pain in the ass but you get used to it."
He adjusted his sunglasses as he opened up a door that led down a small flight a wooden stairs. "The gang's all down there."
The basement was old and dusty but it looked really cozy. There two other boys and three girls.
Both boys had somewhat long, brown hair. One boy was significantly muscular than the other. "That's Kelso." Hyde told me.
The Kelso guy grinned very childishly. " I got some bottlerockets today!! I'm gonna try and strap one to my arm and fly later!" Not the brightest bulb on the tree, I see.
"No no no, Michael." A shorter girl with short, dark brown and purple hair smacked him gently on the arm. She had an accent. English?
Hyde pointed to the shorter girl. "That's Sophie. She's Kelso's girlfriend. She's pretty cool, man. Moved here years ago from England."
The other boy was really skinny and not exactly tall. He was talking to a girl sitting next to him with his skinny arm around her shoulders. The girl had dark brown hair with a bright red fringe.
"That's Eric," Hyde pointed to the skinny boy. "And that's Nicole, Eric's girlfriend. We were surprised he could get could a girlfriend who could talk Star Wars with him."
"And the bitchy girl watching TV is Jackie, my girlfriend." Hyde motioned towards a very short girl, shorter than the Sophie girl, with brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. She appeared to be watching the tv.
Upon hearing their names, they all turned around. "Hyde, who the hell is she?!" Jackie shrieked. I covered my ears. Ow.
Hyde sighed. "Jackie. Would ya calm down?! This is...oh crap, man. What's your name again?" Hyde smacked himself in the forehead.
"Hey guys. And bitchy girl in chair...I'm Natasha. You can call me Nat. I just moved in next door."
"Oh, cool! A new girl! We were running out of stuff to do anyways." Kelso smirked. Sophie shot him a glare.
"Nah, man. When we run out of stuff to do, we just do what we always do!" Hyde smiled impishly.
*a few minutes later*
"Now THIS is what we do when there's nothing else to do!!" Hyde exclaimed, stretching out his limbs.
That bitchy girl, Jackie had left. Hyde, Nicole, Eric, Kelso, Sophie and I were sitting in a circle around the table, inhaling wonderful smells and smoke. Nicole was sitting on Eric's lap, while Sophie stood behind Kelso with her arms hanging around his neck. Kelso had donned a Green Bay Packers helmet.
Go Pack Go. ((That's a thing we say in Wisconsin. Take it from an expert.))
"So..." I giggled. "What do you guys usually do here?"
Nicole looked up at the ceiling, as if the answer was up there. Sophie answered. "This!" She smiled and giggled. Sophie began to play the bongos on Kelso's helmet. It sounded like Sophie was playing real bongos in the Caribbean.
I'm so stoned right now.
Heehee.
"Ow! Hey! Watch it! It may be a helmet but it doesn't protect me very well."
I sniggered. "That's what a helmet is FOR, dumbass!" I clutched at my sides, laughing harder than I normally would be if I weren't in this state of mind right now.
I twitched my head. Was that a dragon?!
"So who else there that I should meet?" I looked to Hyde. He was my resident expert on this right now.
"Well...let's see. There's Donna...aaaaaand Randy, Fez and his girlfriend, Anna. Oh and there's Leo, man! There all probably down at the record store! We can go there if you want, man!"
"Hell yeah, man! Love record stores! Let's go!"
So in our impaired state, Hyde and I left the circle to go to the record store. I was really dazed.
