Aidan looked up from her place in her book. Outside the treehouse window was a moving truck followed by a car going down her street. They turned at the corner and disappeared out of sight. She wondered if the house on the next street over had been bought.
She climbed down the ladder and walked across the yard to the garage door which was slightly ajar. Inside was her father who was seated in a beat up recliner. He had turned the garage into a man cave a few years ago to escape from his wife and children when their silliness was too much for him.
"Aidan, is your mother calling for me?"
"Not yet, but I think she will soon."
Her father looked up.
"I think the house on Riverview street was bought. A moving truck just went down our street."
"Oh dear, should they know what to expect?"
"Mom is probably already over there."
Her father chuckled, "Well your mother is very eager to welcome and find new people to judge. I have no doubt she is over there right now welcoming them into the neighborhood." Her father lifted his magazine back up, "We will undoubtedly hear about it by dinner tonight."
Aidan kissed her father on the head before she continued into the house.
Inside her older brother, Dylan was cleaning the kitchen while her younger siblings, Xavier and Harriet were busy scramming to finish an assignment for class due the next day.
Dylan smiled at his sister.
"You were gone for a long time. Reading Pride and Prejudice again?"
"Actually it was Emma." Aidan put her hands on her hips in defense.
Dylan raised his hands and pretended to back off, "Oh sorry, I forgot you read things unrelated to Darcy and Elizabeth."
Aidan pursed her lips together and pivoted to the fridge.
"Mom visiting the new neighbors?"
"Yeah, she left a little while ago."
"So we should expect her back by six at night or we might have to pick her up at the police station."
"Aidan, mom isn't going to be thrown in jail. She might come off strong, but she isn't as bad as Dmitry, your stalker."
Aidan inwardly shivered, "Yeah, no one can beat him. He's on a whole different level."
Just then, the front door burst open and their mother came in. The twins stood up in anticipation of the news.
Their mother, Mrs. Bailey, walked over to the closet and set her hat inside. She went to the kitchen then to get a glass of water. All the while, the twins followed her around asking about the new neighbors.
"Well, mom, what do they look like?" asked Xavier.
"What are their names?" asked Harriet.
In the living room when she was seated, Mrs. Bailey began to relay what she had seen.
"It's a single women around Dylan's age. Very pretty indeed. She is here for grad school and is studying Psychology. She has a wonderful sense of humor and is outgoing. I made sure to invite her the neighborhood block bash."
Harriet lost interest as soon as she heard their new neighbor was a female. Xavier zoned out after he learnt that the new female neighbor was six years older than himself.
"We always get a bunch of old people in the neighborhood, we need younger people to liven things up a bit."
"I think having new neighbors can liven things up no matter their age." Dylan smiled and went back to cleaning the dishes.
Later that night when everyone was in their rooms, Aidan knocked on Dylan's door. She heard a muffled sound and she entered. Her brother was on his computer skyping Isaac.
Isaac was a good friend of Dylan and grew up in the same neighborhood as the Bailey's until three summers ago when they had to move. The friends however kept in touch and were as close as ever. Aidan would more often spend time with the boys then other girls. She grew up to be quite a tomboy and was better than both the boys in football and soccer.
"Hey, sorry to interrupt you guys." Aidan said as she pulled up a chair next to the computer.
"No problem, we were just talking about the block bash."
"Is your family coming?" asked Dylan.
"Yeah, your mom told mine so there's no way we won't be attending."
"That'll be great, I can show off my new moves in volleyball. I've been practicing my spike."
"Yeah, me and Dylan were going to hold off on the sports for the beginning part of the party." Said Isaac apologetically.
"Why?"
"I heard you guys have a new neighbor and Dylan is going to introduce me."
Aidan laughed, "How is my brother going to introduce you to someone he doesn't know, and he is so shy that you will probably be doing all the introducing."
"That hasn't happen since high school, I've changed since then."
Aidan put a hand on her brother's shoulder and only shook her head, "No, you haven't, the only thing you have changed is that you've turned into a robot when around girls you like."
"Have not."
"Sorry Dylan, but you kinda did that with the girl at the store last month." Isaac laughed.
"Whatever."
"So you're doing volleyball again this year, Aidan?" asked Isaac.
"Yeah, I've been practicing with some friends over the school year and even joined an intramural's team."
"Then of course you are going to do better than us. We were too busy with school trying become famous."
Aidan shook her head at Isaac, "You still need to enjoy school life because you'd be missing out on the important part, 'life'."
"Still working towards being a writer?" asked Isaac.
"Yes, are you still trying to be a director."
"Ouch, I'm almost there. I have a few people who like my work which is a good start."
"That's just a hard job to get in this industry. It's really competitive."
"That's weird coming from someone who is very competitive."
"Well you guys aren't competitive."
"Hey, this is our dream job. We won't let anyone walk over us."
Aidan looked at her brother who was laughing uneasily. Her brother was too nice to fight even for the last piece of dessert. How was he going to make it in an industry that had so much stress with no guaranty of a job in the future.
"Well I'll leave you two alone. Can't wait to see you this weekend, Isaac."
"Alright, see you later kiddo."
Each year the city, Oak park would hold their annual summer bash to begin the summer break. Families would bring their young children in wagons while the older children rode their bikes.
Aidan's family set up camp near the base of a tall tree so their mother could sit in the shade. The younger Bailey's ran off to sign up for competitions while Aidan and Dylan waited with their parents for Isaac's family to show up. It was decided two days ago, that their families would sit together and share the food that was to be brought.
When Isaac arrived with his younger siblings, Dylan and Aidan went ahead to meet them.
Aidan gave Isaac a big hug. He was a good foot taller than herself and was slender.
"I hope you came prepared to eat," joked Aidan, "our mom is determined to put some meat on those bones of yours."
"Then I better wait until your brother and sister ate a couple of servings before I start." Laughed Isaac. "So Dylan, where is these mysterious neighbors you told me so much about?"
"Mysterious?" questioned Aidan, looking at her brother.
"I only said that because Xavier and Harriet were trying to discover more about the new neighbors, but they could never get a glimpse of them, so I called them mysterious."
"I still don't know what they look like."
"Well you will today. There they are over there." Said Dylan with a slight nod of the head over to the main tent.
There was a young woman who had a good humored smile. She looked very pretty with her hair done in a messy ponytail, a plain white crew neck, and jean shorts. Her hand was on the shoulder of a taller man who stuck out like a sore thumb. He was dressed in a black dress shirt and jeans.
"Is that her boyfriend?" asked Aidan.
"Not that I know of." Replied Dylan, "Should we go and introduce ourselves?"
"You guys go ahead, I need to sign up for volleyball before it closes."
Aidan ran passed the tent and over to a little table set up for sport sign ups. There were quite a few options since last year that were new. Unfortunately most of them took place at the same time so she couldn't play more than three different games.
She decided on soccer, flag football, and volleyball. Her first game would be football which was followed by soccer and then volleyball.
While Aidan ran over to the field for football, the boys went over to introduce themselves to the new people.
Dylan smiled as he approached the tent. The woman also smiled as he approached and offered a hand to shake.
"Hello, I just wanted to welcome you into the neighborhood. My name is Dylan Bailey and this is my friend Isaac Robin."
"Sasha Graham, it's nice to meet you. Your mother came to visit earlier this week."
"Yes, she loves to welcome new neighbors."
"Well tell your mom that I love her cookies."
Dylan nodded and was about to turn around and leave when Sasha spoke up again.
"Sorry, my friend here is a little people shy, this is Oliver Weston."
Dylan gave a smile and offered his hand, but Oliver didn't take it until after receiving a nudge in the side from Sasha.
"So what is it that you do?" asked Oliver. He sounded if making small talk was almost painful for him.
"Right now I'm a student studying to become a director. Me and Isaac want to make movies."
"Interesting." His words sounded as if he wasn't impressed.
"Well I love it." Sasha said with a defiant look at Oliver. "So tell me Dylan, have you made any movies yet?"
"Only at school."
"What type."
"I do romance comedy mostly."
"You'll have to let us see one sometime."
"Of course, and sometime, I would love to introduce you to my sister. She is playing in one of the sports games right now I think."
"Well when she is done you must bring me to her. In the mean time would you like to dance?"
"Sure." Dylan said while blushing a little.
The two walked off to the dance floor, leaving Oliver to stand at his spot and watch. He watched for a few minutes before he got bored and decided to walk around.
He decided to see if he could find Dylan's sister. If she was anything like her brother, she would hardly be an interesting person to converse with. Oliver walked around the game fields trying to figure out which was sister to Dylan. He tried the badminton court and then tennis, but couldn't find anyone who looked like the young man.
Giving up, Oliver decided to go back over to Sasha. Crossing a field, he heard his phone vibrating in his pocket. Oliver pulled out his phone and pressed the receiving button. He had to cover his other ear because people began yelling. He looked over to a group of people who were making gestures at him. He brought the phone down from his ear and tried to understand what they were saying. Suddenly Oliver felt the air knocked out of the chest and someone land on top of him.
"Sorry about that." Came the voice of a female.
Oliver looked and saw that this woman was dressed in a t shirt with cut off sleeves and running shorts. Her hair was in a ponytail and she was covered in mud and grass stains.
She offered a hand to him to help him stand back up but he stood up by himself. He checked for bruises and was disappointed to see he got dirt on his shirt.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yes, no thanks to you."
The woman opened her mouth to say something, but Oliver never got the chance to hear it.
"Aidan, come on we need you out here." Came the voice of another woman on the field.
"Coming!" she called. The woman gave one last look at Oliver before she turned and ran back on the field.
Oliver stalked back to the main tent where Sasha and Dylan had sat down and were talking.
"Olie, Dylan and I were just talking about seeing the movie, "Best of Me"."
"I didn't know you wanted to see that movie." Said Oliver.
"Well of course not with you. You would critique the whole movie."
"If that's the case, my sister should come. She loves a good debate."
"Sounds like is very opinionated." Laughed Sasha.
"She can be on certain points. She sticks to her beliefs and can hardly be persuaded. You have to be really special to make her change her opinion."
"When will I get the chance to meet her?"
"We can walk over to find her if you wish. She should be over by the fields."
They all began to make their way over to the fields and stopped at the edge. Dylan pointed his sister out to them as the girl wearing a t shirt that had cut off sleeves and running shorts. It was the same girl that had collided with him earlier.
After sacking the man from earlier, Aidan tried to watch out for anyone who was not wearing a flag. It really wasn't her fault that he crossed the field right when she made that jump catch and land on top of him. He shouldn't have been on the field in the first place, and what was up with him wearing a dress shirt to a block party. He looked like he was supposed to be attending an elegant dinner. At the end of her game, she saw her brother waiting at the sideline with a woman. Aidan gave a huge grin and jogged over to where they were at, but to her astonishment, the man in the black dress shirt walked up behind them. Aidan's face fell for a moment as she just got to where they were waiting for her.
"Did you have fun?" asked Dylan.
"It would have been more fun if you were out here, but I see you had better company."
"Sports really aren't my thing." Admitted Dylan, "So this is Sasha, she is the new neighbor in the street over from us."
"Hi, my name is Aidan." Said Aidan offering a hand to Sasha who took it.
"And this is her friend Oliver." Dylan added.
Aidan gave a slight head nod towards Oliver. The taller man made no attempt at conversation and so Sasha decided to pick one up.
"So Aidan, love your name."
"Thanks, my father gave it to me. Mom chose Dylan's name and dad chose mine, and so on with my other siblings."
"Did your father think you were a boy at first, or did he not care and decided to name the child whether it was a boy or girl?"
"As rude as a comment that was, I will answer it. Aidan is a unisex name so it didn't matter the gender. He also thought names like Elizabeth, Hannah, Claire, and Anne were too common so he gave me a name that was less used."
"So," Sasha said, trying to turn the conversation back to herself, "you like football?"
"I like many sports; soccer, volleyball, swimming, lacross, rugby, football."
"That's really impressive, so that means you're better than half these boys out here."
"I've had some losses in arm wrestling before, yes, but it didn't happen without me giving 110%."
"What she means is, she's broken and fractured bones trying to prove she is stronger." Dylan explained.
"Are you looking to join the army?"
"No, I actually want to be an author."
"Really?" asked Oliver. He looked surprised.
"Something about that you find unbelievable?"
"You just don't seem like a writer."
"And what is that, intelligent looking. Dressed in black with a rod up my—"
"Okay, why don't we go over to mom and dad for lunch."
Aidan stalked off to the tree where the blanket was already set and her father was laying down with a book.
"What, did the games end badly, did someone score on the other team?"
"No, the new neighbor's friend is a tool."
"Oh really, did he make some comment on your person?"
"Sort of, he thought it was strange that I wanted to be an author. Something about the way I dress."
"What about the way you dress? You dress like you were playing a game."
"Exactly, he probably thinks that everyone needs to dress to the occupation they want or have all the time. Where's the individualism in that?"
"Sounds like you've met an interesting man."
"You can hardly call him interesting. I bet he drinks a protein drink every morning."
Her father chuckled and they talked on until the events began to end and families began to start packing up.
When the Baileys reached their house, Aidan went up to her room, grabbed her laptop and threw herself onto her bed. She flipped it open and her blog appeared.
Today I met the biggest douche bag to ever breathe. I never thought one exist that was so infuriating, but apparently they do. There I was minding my own business playing a game of football when he came slammed right into me. I mean what idiot walks onto a field where people are playing and is on their phone. Can I please talk about what he was wearing, did he think this was a cocktail party. No, this is a block party where people get wet, get dirty, get prizes, and eat amazing food.
He hovers over his friend like some creep. He probably has no one else who would let him linger around him. If it couldn't get worse, he makes a comment on my career based on my dress. I'm sorry if wearing cut offs is too much for your brain to handle, but I'm not going to be wearing a dress or a suit in 98 degree weather.
This has been The AidinBay follow on twitter and Facebook.
A/N: You are all wondering why I didn't continue the other and why this has similar parts. I decided not to give them similar names and change things round a little. Bare with me. Tell me what you think and as always, I love reviews.