6 Cranbrooke Avenue

Chapter 7

We were soon back home and I changed into a t-shirt and shorts and jumped in a settee in front of the TV.  The remote was a bit far from the settee, so I groaned when I had to get up to retrieve it.  Nothing interesting was on, so I went outside to get a breathe of fresh air.  Devon was outside too so I waved at him.  He waved back and started walking over to me.  It looked like both of us had nothing at all to do.

"Did you hear about the party that is going to be at the community centre tonight?" He asked.

"No.  Who's throwing it?" I asked then remembered that it wouldn't have made it any better to know who was keeping the party as the only other person I knew in the entire community was him.

"The Salsan City Heights Community Association of Residents.  Everyone is invited, I think.  Our invitation came in by e-mail so your dad would have to check his e-mail for your invitation and his.  Well, if you were invited, but you should be.  I think."

"How far is the community centre from here?" I asked.

Turns out the community centre wasn't all that far.  I got permission from my father to go and Devon and I headed to the community centre.  We walked past house number six on the street and I stopped and looked at it carefully.  Devon noticed that I had stopped and turned around.

"Do you know who lives here?" I asked.

"I don't think anyone does.  Why?"

"Look at it.  Why wouldn't anyone want to?  It looks so...you know.  You understand?"

"Nope.  But let's keep walking." Devon said.

The community centre was just a few turns away and soon we walked through the huge open gates and saw a multitude of people gathered.  Some were casually talking, some were playing cards, dominoes, and ludo.  Some were fixing the place up for the party that night.  Others were on the basketball court playing basketball and the little kids were running around playing tag.  One ran into me and nearly hit me over.

"Sorry!" He screamed and started running again.

"Devon!" I heard someone shout.

Devon and I turned around to see a short dark haired dude in a chemistry t-shirt.

"I thought you weren't coming.  Who's this girl?  Your sister?" He asked.

"I actually wasn't going to come but Jordan," Devon pointed to me, "who is my neighbour not my sister, asked me to carry her here."

Devon's friend raised his eyebrows and then looked at me.  He greeted me and stretched his hand out for me to shake.  I shook his hand and said that he didn't need to greet me because his shirt already did.  He looked confused until he looked down at his shirt.

"Ah yes hydrogen iodide." He said.  "Anyways I'm Anthony."

He turned back to Devon and asked where his twin was and he said he was at home.  The three of us started walking around and Anthony introduced us to the rest of his friends.  Some were tall, some were short, but they all had a few things in common.  They were all science fanatics, they were all boys and their names were all hard to remember.

"So no girls?" I asked.

"We didn't choose that.  No girls talk to us by choice.  You're the first." Anthony said.

That was unexpected.  In Bloom Gardens, the famous kids were the smart dudes.  But it could have also been because they were really cute.  The second reason made more sense.

We spent an hour at the community centre then started our journey back to our homes.  When we passed house number six again, there was a car in front of it.  It looked like the Chevrolet Corvette C8 that I had seen on my way here the first day.  It was the same colour too.