Partners in Crime (Carl Gallagher Book One of the Ride or Die Series)

Young and Destructive

They were young and they wanted to set shit on fire

Hailey Ball was ten when she moved in with her Aunt V and Uncle Kev. The first person she met other then her family was Carl Gallagher, he was only six months older then her and they had a lot in common. Nobody was worried when they met, but if they had been worried then that concern would not have been misplaced. 

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Kevin Ball was sick of the Gallaghers always having his kitchen appliances at their house, his little niece had just arrived after something pretty traumatic and he couldn't even make her some fucking toast. Her father had died and the universe was so cruel that he couldn't even make her some fucking peanut butter toast. Her mother (his sister) was in the fucking wind probably od-ing somewhere and there was no god damn mother fucking toast. Kevin was about to lose his shit.

Hailey watched her Uncle Kev carefully, so far all the grownups in her life had been pretty lacklustre but she held out hope that he and Aunt V would be different. Right now she was kind of worried for him though, there was a vein throbbing in his forehead and he looked ready to burst.

"God damn Gallaghers, always stealing my shit" he grit his teeth together in frustration. Kev turned to Hailey and spoke softly changing his tone so he didn't scare the young possibly shellshocked kid who was suddenly living with him "I'm really sorry Hails, if we're gonna have breakfast we gotta get the toaster back first."

Hailey shrugged and followed her Uncle out the door and down the street as he marched up to a house not too different from the one she had just left, the house itself was a different colour and the lawn was littered with discarded toys but other than that they really could have been the same. She thought it was a bit of a fuss over toast stomping all the way down here when she could have had fruit, however, it was looking like there may be a fight and a fight was always good in her book. Kevin steeled himself for the chaos that always hung around the Gallaghers and stomped up the front steps and into a rather crowded kitchen with Hailey just a step behind.

Fiona turns at the sound of the door banging open to see Kev towering in the doorway. She doesn't notice the girl behind him at first, Kev's frame is so large he takes up a lot of the doorway but once she takes in the scene she sees a little blonde girl peering out curiously from behind his back.

"Hey, Kev who's this?" Fiona gestures at the girl and the other Gallaghers follow her line of sight staring at the new addition to their kitchen.

Kev huffs a bit his taster mission derailed slightly by Fiona's questioning "This is Hailey, my niece, she just arrived to live with us, and I was going to make her some toast but oh wait, surprise you guys have my toaster again" Kev spoke sarcastically.

Everyone in the kitchen shuffles to look at Carl who is busy attempting to use said toaster to melt two action figures together.

 The boy in question looks up at Kev "I'm trying to make a new superhero, melted man"

Fiona watches Hailey's eyes grow comically wide and for a second she thinks the little girl is going to freak out over the potential for fire that melting two action figures together in a toaster creates but the expression on Hailey's face isn't fear or worry... its awe.

A huge grin splits Hailey's face with a maniacal giggle she shoots a volley of rapid-fire questioning at Carl. "That's awesome, have you used a blowtorch yet, what about the oven or the pan, I bet if we put it into a microwave we could make it explode."  She gestures excitedly at the end of her sentence mimicking the action of an explosion.