1816 Crooked Oak Ct.

CHAPTER ONE

This car ride was so boring. Gregory Fife expected it to be boring, but not this boring. He always seems to misjudge things like this no matter how many things he would bring to entertain himself. Thank god he'll always have his Beatles music. They were always reliable.

"Gregory! Socialize with us. You're so boring just sitting there listening to your old people music."

Greg looked up, shaken from his train of thought. He turned to the back of the car from his front seat and glared at Emily. His youngest sister, at age fourteen, had somehow worked out a way to push each and every on of his buttons by the age of two whenever she pleased. She's lucky I love her. He thought

"Please, call me Greg," he said "politely" in a sarcastic tone, "If you didn't waste this poor planets oxygen with your stupid blabbering all the time, maybe the eco system wouldn't be falling apart so quickly, and by the way," he said matter of factly, "The Beatles are in a group of some of the most iconic bands that will ever be so shut it." Greg told her as he sat back in his chair. He heard his other sister who happened to be his younger twin, Jet, laugh. Her name was actually Juliet, but she's always insisted on Jet because she claimed Juliet was too girly. Whatever Jet preference was went in their house. She came out as gay? That was fine. When she was five she decided to change her name to Jet? That was acceptable. She wanted a dog? They got a dog. Except Jet's scared of dogs so it would be vise versa. Greg wished they had a dog.

"Ow!" Greg exclaimed as his mother playfully slapped him for being a pretentious butt to his sister. Mrs. Elizabeth Fife, or just Ms. Liz, was a short woman with long light brown hair much like Emily's, but had grey eyes like her twins. Much to her distastefulness, all three of her children were taller than her and every day they would tease her about it so she wouldn't forget it.

"We'll be there in about an hour and a half. Try to clean up a little bit would you? I'm tired of finding food crumbs and empty water bottles in my car" Ms. Liz said as she took a sharp turn, throwing all of them to one side.

—•—

They arrived in Westly, their new home, earlier than expected. Apparently this new town was much smaller in real life than on the maps. They pulled into the new drive way right about lunch time with the moving truck not far behind. With the four children all clambering out of the car Ms. Liz lead the way up the steps to the porch and handed them all a key. "Don't loose these" she said sternly to all of them before unlocking the door revealing the interior house.

"It's quite quaint, but I'm sure it'll make due," Emily commented trying to stay positive. It was a small place, nearly too small. Small as in if the five of them lined up with their arms spread apart they could touch each side easily. Not to mention it was quite a mess from the previous owner, but it was all they could afford with Mr. Fife gone.

Mr. Micheal Fife, or as Greg and his sisters knew him, Dad, was a nurse at the big hospital near town back where they used to live until late one night a drunk driver hit him and sent him and his car flying off the road. A bit of the whole family died that week.

They all went exploring the house, but not before Ms. Liz assigned bedrooms. Greg went to his room and was delightfully surprised. His room looked out on the street just like his old one. He could see many of the neighbors out and about in their yards too. Most of them had their own kids that were about as old as him or younger it seemed. He just sat on the windowsill and watched all the people.

The people who lived in the house before them heard about their father dying and how they were a bit broke and were kind enough to leave most of their furniture which included a couch, a table and chairs, a telly stand, and two beds which was great because they had to sell a lot of their stuff to afford a moving truck. He watched as the moving men helped his mom move things were she wanted them and through his door he saw Jet and Emily having a competition on who could clean more. Ever since his dad died it seemed like no one ever asked anything of anyone any more and they all just silently agreed to try to help pick up the slack left over. Most of the time Greg was very good at this, but sometimes he was just out of it. Granted that wasn't a good enough excuse to not help out, yet for some reason his family didn't say anything about it. Besides, if they ever needed a day off like how Greg did on that day, he would be more happy to help them clean or whatever else was needed as they would do for him. He decided to try to distract himself by watching the neighbors again.

"Greg, dear? What are you doing? Why are you sitting on the windowsill?" Ms. Liz asked softly, trying her best to not disrupt his train of thought.
"Just watching the neighbors," he replied absent mindedly.
"Well, here's the blow up mattress. Are you sure you don't want a real bed? I'm sure we could scrape up some money to get you one."
"I promise it's fine. Remember originally I was fine with just sleeping on the floor,"
"I know, your crazy. All your stuff is in the hallway, so whenever you feel like getting them out of my way, please do," and with that his mother left him back with his thoughts.

He looked out the window again and saw an old lady with a walker walking down the sidewalk and up to the door of the house two house down from them across the street. I wonder what's in all those bags. He thought to himself. 

He picked himself up again and went to retrieve all his belongings. He didn't have much, just a few boxes of clothes, and one box of personal stuff filled to the brim with books and other knick knacks of sorts. He'd need to put some selves in the wall and get a desk, but that could wait until he could get a part time job. A random box wouldn't make due unfortunately. He made a mental note to ask if his desk made the trip or if they sold it. That would him save a lot of time. He looked out his window once more and then left to help his sisters clean the rest of the house.

They cleaned for an hour, but about half way through Greg's mom left to pick up some lunch. On their way into town they spotted what looked like Chinese restaurant called Paran Hama. Chinese had been their father's favorite so it just felt right for that to be their first meal in their new home. When she returned they all gathered around excited to eat.

"So apparently that was a Korean place, but it's still Asian food so eat up," Their mother said with a half smile on her face. They all laughed because it wasn't the first time they wanted Chinese food but got a different kind of food. She did the same thing when the twins finished junior high.

A bit disappointed, but happy they finally got to eat (they were all starving) they took their to-go boxes to the couch sat around the coffee table from their old house when they heard the doorbell ring.