Shouldn't be a Benefit

Prologue

I push the ball down, and it comes back up, so I can catch it. It's an easy thing, but score? That's something else. It's less easy, but I can do it. I'm surely not a professional basketball player, not at all - I would never get on a team -, but I can surely get that ball into the hoop sometimes.

I lift my arms, with the ball in my hands, and aim at the hoop. And... I throw it. Yes! Score!

When I run to the ball, I feel like throwing from far away - so I walk with it to the point of being ten meters away from the hoop. I don't even aim, I just throw it. Smart, isn't it?

Unfortunately, it doesn't go into the hoop - not even close. It ends up at the roof of my neighbors, then I see it rolling to the end of the roof, and then... eh. It falls off of it.

I sigh, thinking I now have to climb over the wall to get it back - but then I realise that I can't - I now have neighbors and I can't just climb into their garden. Six years ago was the last moment of my life I had neighbors there, so I was a bit used to the feeling I had no neighbors. But suddenly, two weeks ago, they moved here.

Ma'am Seyden, a politician from around here, was a good friend of mine, and had told that there lived about five guys; one of the age of twenty-five, one of twenty-two, one of nineteen, a boy from seventeen and one of sixteen. All brothers.

For a minute or two, I just standed there, hoping that Harry Potter would show up and would give me the ball with magic, or that the last things just didn't happen. Yeah. So much for hoping. It did happen.

So I lift my feet and start walking towards the home next to mine - my neighbor's.

When I push the doorbell, it's just a couple seconds of waiting - maybe four? - before it opens. A blonde guy, with blue eyes stood before me. He looked like a nice guy. First nothing happens, but then he smiles warmly and says with an accent: "What can I do for you?"

He was as tall as me, so it wasn't a problem talking to him. I guess he was younger. I made eye-contact and smiled also. "Is it right that a basketball just fell over your wall? I mean, i'm the girl from that house there," I said pointing to my house. "...house twenty, I was playing basketball, and my ball was a bit too high..."

"So you're our new neighbor? I haven't seen you around! We need to invite you sometime, inside, when we're ready with unpacking! It wouldn't be very friendly if we didn't introduce ourselves, would it?" He grinned happily at me. "But about the ball, that's possible. It was a bit loud here, so we didn't hear it, I guess. Come in! I'll get you what you need."

"Oh no, you don't have to invite me in now! I'll stay here," I say, as my eyes widen.

It doesn't matter to him, he just smiles and pushes the door wide open. "Don't be shy, neighbor girl! We are your neighbors! We'll see you around, anytime! What's the point of hiding now?"

"Okay then... But not too long, I need to make dinner..."

I set a step into the house that once belonged to Lisa Yickelson. I didn't have one hair on my head that wanted to be here. If I hated one person, it would be her.

"Do you live here for a long time?" He suddenly asks.

"Yeah, eh, from my birth."

"So you know the place, like, really good, huh? If I ever get lost, i'll call you." He grinned happily again. I don't know how, but he looked like the type that only saw rainbows and sunshine everywhere he looked, and no reality. Sometimes, that's a good thing, sometimes it definitely isn't. But I won't tell him. "Anyways, i'm Elias. But you can call me Eli."