"Ugh! I can't stand him!" James and Nadine heard Sora scream to her friend through the phone.
"But SK, you don't even know him..." her friend responded. "You weren't even at school all day."
"I don't have to know him. He looks like that guy who skips class and probably smokes a lot of weed with his friends in the parking lot after school. Like... a man bun... in 2028? Get real."
"Hi, Honey, how are you today?" Nadine said sarcastically, still looking at her husband with an amused look her face. "Oh, I'm fine Mom and Dad. How's unpacking the rest of the house?"
Sora turned around and looked apologetically at her parents, pulling the phone away from her face, "Sorry, Tammy... gotta go. I'll talk to you later."
Ernie, their second child, came in lugging his saxophone case. His family watched him strategically lean it against the corner so it wouldn't fall down.
"Ate's just mad because she almost ran over someone today."
"Sora!" Nadine turned her head quickly to face her daughter. "That's the second time this week!"
"Okay..." Sora put her hands up in defense to her parents. "To be fair, he was skateboarding and he came out of nowhere. Ernie... is just being a brat because I had to get him first before going to school to drop off my enrollment papers so he couldn't talk to his little girlfriend."
"She's not my girlfriend. She's the band leader. And maaaybe if you could drive like a normal human being, we would've gone the normal route."
"I'll make you go the normal route through the back of the truck next time, you little --"
"Enough!" James cut them off. "Ernie, go upstairs and make your bed. Your mom and I already put up your guys' furniture."
The 11-year-old ran up to his new room with Sora trying to follow him quietly.
"Ah... sorry, Bub. You gotta stay down here. We had an agreement," James said, pointing at a chair for Sora to sit on. "Two incidents in a week means no car for two weeks. You have to take the bus to school tomorrow."
"But Dad!" Sora stayed standing before she even fully sit down. "It's my first day tomorrow. At a new school too. That means I'm the loser at the back of the bus."
"Not with that attitude," Nadine joked.
Sora looked at her mom in disbelief, "Mom."
Nadine shook her head while still laughing, "Look, Sora Bear. I know this move isn't easy on you. When we bought the house, we thought it was still in the same district and we tried to get you guys to stay in the same schools... But the district office said we can't switch you back since there's no public transportation available for you guys. It's only two years... you'll be fine."
"What if I can just drive us to our old schools?" Sora sat down this time, trying to bargain with her parents.
"Apparently, you can barely make it out of the school parking lot. What more 20 minutes on the highway? We had an agreement, Love."
Sora sighed and leaned back in her seat in defeat, "Do you guys need help unpacking?"
Nadine walked over and gave her a quick kiss on the head before patting her hair down. James shook his head in response.
"Just the dishes are left. Your mom's trying to decide what to put in which cabinet since there's some glass cabinet doors."
Their daughter got up and took the big serving platters out from a box and started putting it in the non-glass doored cabinets because there weren't enough to make it look uniform in the visible one. Nadine stayed where she was to get a full visual while James just went over to the freezer to get an ice cream bar.
