A Life With Boys

Chapter 1

It must have been something like the twentieth house we came to look at. My mother was way too critical: one house was too big, the other too small, another one had too many rooms, etcetera. Adding up to that, she also listened to my sister Danielle's opinion, who had the age to move out and live by herself. Dani judged every house as if only she had to live in it.

I got tired of looking at so many different houses that all looked fine to me. I didn't mind moving to Louisiana, because I didn't have many friends back in Boston. Besides, I hated living in such a big city.

Three years ago, my dad died quite unexpected. He had cancer, but the doctors found that out when it was too late already. After they found the cancer, he had just one week left. His death literally tore me apart. I was a total wreck and looked like hell for about three years. Then my mother decided it was time for us to move on - I knew she ment me in particular.

On top of me living like I was some sort of lifeless zombie, the rent of our house was way too expensive for my mother to pay. She worked as a nurse but my dad had been the one with the highest income in our family.

So, here we were: my mom, Danielle, me and little Ty. Just before my dad got hospitalized, my mother found out that she was pregnant. She didn't want a third child and she planned on having an abortion. But when my dad died, she suddenly wanted to keep the baby. By now, Ty was almost three years old.

It was rather strange sometimes having such a young brother. I was thirteen when Ty was born; Dani was seventeen. Dani tended to think Ty was her own baby at times and she cared for him whenever mom was away. I guess my sister used Ty as a distraction from the constant grief of missing dad.

While mom and Danielle were constantly busy with Ty, I was left to myself. Dani had always been closer to my mother, I had had a closer bond with dad. I felt more and more lonely every day and didn't talk to anyone for two months. After a year or so, I still missed dad, but missing him wasn't the reason why I was so sad anymore. I was being sad for the sake of being sad - or depressed, actually.

The past few months, things were starting to get better with me though. My mother forced me to talk with a psychologist which (and I don't like to admit it) helped me a lot. I didn't have any friends I could talk to, so the psychologist was a good idea.

"What do you think?" mom asked as she gestured to the space around her. This was the first time she ever asked me what I thought about a house we came to see. Probably because it was also the first time that I refused to come along. But we "needed to do this as a family" and mom insisted om me joining her, Dani and Ty.

"I could live here."

Eventually, my mom bought one of the first houses we had visited. It was somewhat smaller than our previous house, but that didn't matter. I had expected we'd move to a much smaller house but luckily we ended up here, in Minden, Louisiana.

I don't know why mom chose Louisiana out of all states, perhaps it had to do with her past. Although she seemed an ordinary, well-mannerd woman, she was a runaway. I didn't dare asking why she ran away from home but Danielle probably knew. My mother and sister told eachother everything. Literally everything. When Dani still had her boyfriend, she told mom the nasty details of her sex life.

Dani's boyfriend had been a real sweatheart and they made a nice couple. When daddy died, my sister got a lot of support from him. But after Ty was born, Danielle spent so much time with her little brother that she and her boyfriend grew apart. He broke up with her, she cried over him and after a month or so, he was forgotten. Dani was way too busy with Ty to pity her breakup.

Right now, we entered our new house, which was still empty. Our furniture hadn't arrived yet and the white walls looked boring. I went to see my own room. Of course, my bed and desk weren't in there, but I somehow felt at home.

Through the window, I had a nice view of our street. I thought about my new school and that I had no idea how to make friends. My mom called me to the living room with the plan to introduce ourselves to our neighbours. I rolled my eyes while Dani nodded her head in agreement to my mother.

After the three houses closest to ours, I had enough, but mom wanted to "get to know our entire neighbourhoud". Great. While my mother and Danielle were talking to another neighbour, I stayed on the background observing the garden while holding Ty's little hand.

This conservation between mom, Dani and the neighbour took longer than the others. "Would you like some coffee, Miss Davies?" the neighbour asked.

Davies was an English surname typical for Gloucester, where my mother came from. She ran away when she was eighteen and never returned. As a result, I didn't know half of my family. And about my father's family: most of them lived in Canada, except for my grandparents who lived in Boston like we did. We visited them once in a while but I always got the impression that they wouldn't mind if we didn't visit anymore.

We entered the house of the neighbours and went into the kitchen. At the kitchen table sat a girl with a friendly expression. Across from her sat her male replica who had a kind smile. They were obviously twins.

"Hi," the girl said directly to me. "So you're the new kid? I'm Amber."

I shook her hand. "Giselle."

The girl took me in and said: "Why don't we go shopping tomorrow? You need to shine on your first day of school to make a good impression, right?" Then she winked and turned around to introduce her twin brother Evan.

My mother and the neighbour were still talking about some stupid inherited necklace. Danielle pretended to be interested at first, but then started talking and flirting with Evan.

"Why don't we go shopping right now?" I asked Amber.

She smiled. "It's never too early to go shopping!"

I figured out that Amber went to a different school in another town, but Evan also went to Minden High School like me. Amber made me try on black yoga pants which in my opinion looked ridiculous, although I haven't been into fashion the last three years. I wore jogging pants for most of the time.

Amber picked out some other clothes for me and I ended up with two bags full of clothes. I thanked Amber for her help and hurried to my house before the pantachnicon van would arrive. Amber and Evan offered their help with moving the furniture into the house, which made me wonder if they were my friends now.

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Hi everyone!

This is my first book in English so please correct me when I make a mistake. I would really appriciate it if you left a comment with tips or your opinion on the story so far :)
I know this chapter was probably a bit boring but I had to introduce the characters. Next chapter will be Giselle's first day at her new school.
(Picture is Giselle's new house)

xxxx Lotte