The fence. phanfiction

Water balloons, ponies and the boy next door. Prologue.

**PHIL**

"Watch out! A wild Mamrie behind you!" Chloé" shouted from a few feet away in a high-pitched voice. I turned around quickly to see Mamrie and Allison, ready to attack. Before I could blink, they pelted me with multicolored water balloons. The balloons exploded on my chest and my tummy, drenching my upper body completely.

I hate it when my sisters take advantage of me. Just because I'm the youngest makes me automatically the easy target. In the shows girls are always being nice and playing with baby dolls... I think my mom adopted them from the zoo. They are literal animals.

I was just about to throw my remaining water balloons when our mom called us into the kitchen. She stood at the backdoor, holding a fresh stack of towels. Her warm smile welcomed us back inside for tea.

A normal mom would be mad at such a messy playtime, but not ours. She encouraged it by buying a full pack of rainbow coloured water balloons and even giving us access to the waterhose.

There was a strawberry smoothie waiting on the tabletop. The sweet smell of strawberries lingered in the kitchen, my favorite fruit. With a glass of deliciousness and towles wrapped around us, we sat in front of the TV to watch Cartoon Networks. I sat in the middle, while my sisters cuddled me up on each side.

I have four sisters: Lily, who is eighteen but acts twelve;

Mamrie, who is fifteen and claims to be the most mature;

Chloé, who is thirteen and suffers from the major middle child syndrome;

and Allison, who is ten and really can't wait to be a teenager like her other sisters.

I love them all to bits, even though they can be very overprotective at times. They never let me do cool stuff like go outside on my own or climb trees. It's not like I would ever dare to do that.

I know well that without them, I'd be pretty lonely with no one to play with. They always let me play with them. We play house together, dress up barbies, have tea parties and dress ups. They never make me feel different just because Im a boy. The oldest ones, Lily and Marmie pretty much stopped playing now. Mom says they are very busy with school.

Mom is also one of the girls. She knows how to give my sisters pretty hairstyles and how to paint their nails. She has to do it all on her own, too.

An hour later, Marmie got bored off cartoons and went to the cabinet to look for some movie dvd's. At this point I started to feel very tired. As my eyelids grew heavy, I remembered I left my favorite toy in the backyard. Fearing my small pony, Kiki, might get wet from our water balloon fight, I slipped off the sofa and ran outside. Luckily, Kiki was on a dry spot by our wooden fence.

When I picked it up, I noticed movement through the holes in the fence and heard muffled voices. This is very strange as our neighbors were an old couple who rarely left their house. It seemed unlikely they were the ones outside.

Curiosity got the best of me, and I peeked through the openings. What I saw was unexpected: a boy, about my age, sitting against a big oak tree, playing with toy cars. He was mumbling something to himself, but I couldn't hear it. I could only see a little bit of what he looked like. His short brown curls kept falling into his eyes, and his tan skin looked almost gold in the setting sun. It's an unusual sight since most boys around here are as pale as me. His Winnie the Pooh shirt made me giggle; the last time I watched Winnie the Pooh, I must have been five.

Unfortunately, my laugh was too loud. The boy's head jerked up, and his brown eyes locked onto mine. I felt my cheeks flush as he waved at me. I didn't wave back; I just closed my eyes and ran back inside.

Before I could forget the boy, Lily gave me a knowing look. She ruffled my hair, making me even more embarrassed.

"I see you already saw that boy next door?" she teased, wiggling her eyebrows.

"How do you know?" I whispered, confused, always suspecting she could read minds.

"Your cheeks are redder than mom's lipstick," she said, ruffling my hair one last time before heading back to the kitchen.

Yeah, my sisters are crazy.