I Have To Share A Room With This Strange, Delinquent, Gorgeous Boy? WHY ME!?(1)

1) I Have To Share A Room With This Strange, Delinquent, Gorgeous Boy? WHY ME!?

“Oh my God, Hero, I’m gonna miss you so much!”

“I’ll miss you too, Gracie!”

I desperately tried to hold back tears as I embraced by lifelong best friend for the last time before I moved.

“Promise you’ll e-mail me every day?”

“Promise”

“Promise you’ll come visit as often as possible?”

“Promise”

“Promise you’ll talk to me on Skype every night?”

“Promise”

“Promise you’ll tell all your new friends about me?”

“Promise”

“Promise you’ll introduce me to all your new friends?”

“Promise”

“Promise you’ll keep me updated on everything that happens?”

“Promise”

“Promise you’ll send me birthday presents?”

“Promise”

“Promise you’ll celebrate all our own made up holidays?”

“Promise”

“Promise you’ll keep Rocket out of trouble?”

“Umm…Gracie…you know I can’t promise that” I said slowly.

“You’re right…but, please just try…for me?”

“Alright. I’ll try” I nodded. She smiled weakly, before swallowing me up into another one of her suffocating bear hugs and crying hysterically onto my shoulder. I stroked her soft blonde hair in an attempt to comfort her, even though I knew it wouldn’t work. Gracie had always been way too over-emotional. She cried at the movie Anchorman.

We weren’t moving far; only to a different state. But school and exams would make it very difficult for Gracie and I to visit each other, so the separation was going to be difficult for the both of us, especially since we had practically spent every waking moment with each other ever since we met twelve years ago. She was like my sister. But unfortunately, my extremely weird family decided that we were just too weird to live in this large suburban house on a pretty rich estate. So, they went and bought a villa on the coast of California. Not that I’m complaining about our new location, I’m just sad to leave Gracie behind. Luckily, Gracie was pretty much my only friend at my previous home, so only one goodbye was necessary. Now I think an explanation as to why I referred to my family as “weird” is in order. You see, I live with my parents - and my parents best friends. They have some complicated story that took place back when they were in high school where my Mom met my Dad and then my Mom’s best friend met my Dad’s best friend and they all got together and blah, blah, blah; but, long story short: they all ended up moving in together. Madison and Trevor (my parents friends) often treat me as their own daughter, so technically, I have four parents. Clearly, this isn’t a particularly normal thing to do, which may be the reason why they thought it was a good idea to name me Hero, after one of the main female characters in Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” (My Mom is a HUGE Shakespeare fan. She was torn between calling me Hero, Juliet or Ophelia. Juliet committed suicide, Ophelia went insane, then committed suicide. Hero just pretended to be dead for a while, then got the guy in the end, so I guess I got the best name).

Anyway, about four years ago, my four parents decided that I was lonely, so Madison and Trevor adopted a son one year older than myself. I was told to refer to him as Rocket. For reasons I am unaware of, I still don’t know his real name. We call him Rocket because, when we brought him home that day, his bag had a cartooned picture of a rocket on it.