I finished packing up the last of my things and laid them tenderly into the large cardboard box that was sitting on the middle of the floor. I hated Moving Day, more than the doctor's, or the dentist. It meant picking up and leaving your life behind. And for me, that meant all of my friends and my school that I had been going to since Pre-k. I looked around my now empty room with the blank black and midnight purple walls and thought that it was funny. Even as a baby, my walls were this color, and I had grown to love it. My clothes, hair, iPod, laptop, book bag, everything was this color. Some of it was a dark color, but I didn't have any girly clothes. Well, maybe a few tight black skirts that only came up to my mid thigh, but that's where it ends.
I picked up the large box with difficulty and shuffled down the stairs to the moving van. Sliding it into place at the end of the vehicle, I sighed and made my way to the mom mobile or A.K.A the minivan. It wouldn't be a bad car if it was only silver, but my mom though it would be necessary to stick all the school bumper stickers to the fender of the car. You know the ones. The kind that stand out really bad and say cheesy stuff like "My child was caught being good." If only they made one for my crowd. They would say things like "My child was caught skipping school," or "My child was caught spray painting the gym wall." But nope, my three little sisters get all the glory, and I have been dubbed by every old lady in the town, the Bad Child, The Bad Seed, the non role model. So yeah, I guess moving is gonna get me away from one crummy town to another.
My little sisters slide into the back seat giggling and clutching stuffed animals, while my mom sat next to me in the driver's seat. I fixed my black beanie as we pulled out of the driveway, closely followed by the U-Haul guy that volunteered to drive the van to the new house. Oh, yeah, you might be wondering why I haven't mentioned a dad. The reason? No Dad. My mom did have a boyfriend but she left him once he lost his job and began to live off of us and my mom's tiny income that was barely able to support four kids. So now we are off to start anew with my mom getting a stellar job in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere called Whoville. We have a huge house and it gives me plenty of room to be away from my sisters, a room that is twice the size of my old room and multiple extra rooms which one will become my music room.
Alicia, my 9 year old sister, began to kick the back of my seat asking for the radio to be put on. I tried to ignore her; until my mom popped in the CD my little sisters lived off of, Hannah Montana. I gave her a disgusted look before putting in my earbuds and cranking the volume as Pump up the Party, wailed from the speakers.
I must have fallen asleep cause when I opened my eyes we were pulling up to a manor like place with a bright blue roof. I undid my seat belt and jumped out of the car, only to come face to face with a gangly adult who wore light brown pants, a royal blue shirt and an ascot with a pin stuck in it.
"Hello! You must be the new neighbors! My name is Ned McDodd and I live with my family next door. As mayor I greet every new family that comes into town, but I think we'll be seeing much more of each other!"
God, this man was a wacky one! Suddenly a gaggle of girls ran out of the house full speed nearly trampling the poor mayor.
"Oh, it seems my girls wanted to meet you now! These are my daughters-96 in all. And one son named Jojo, but it seems he's still in the house."
96 girls? I couldn't deal with 3 sisters most of the time. But for some reason, I really wanted to meet Jojo, mostly so I could tell him I felt sorry for him with all those sisters. The mayor had struck up a conversation with my mom and my sisters were surrounded by the McDodd girls. My mom paused long enough in the conversation with the Mr. McDodd and his wife, Sally, who had come out a few minutes after the stampede, to toss me the keys to the house and to tell me it was fine for me to go unpack my things.
I went to the trunk of the car and dug out my suitcases and my guitar case and went to unlock the door. Stepping in the foyer, I looked around for a few seconds before trudging up the stairs and dumping my stuff in the room that was destined to be mine. I was pulled from my thoughts when I heard a soft thump onto our roof. I pushed open the window slowly to avoid squeaking and slowly climbed up the roof. I nearly fell off when I saw a teenage boy, around my age, with a gray and black hoodie on with dark gray skinny jeans and black converse sitting criss cross on the blue tiles.
"Hey, who are you?" I said softly. He whipped his head around in surprise and almost tumbled backward. The boy scrambled to his feet and went to use this contraption connected to the two houses to make a clean getaway, but track star me, bolted across the roof to block his path.
"Hey, it's ok. I just wanted to know your name." I said the words awkward in my mouth. I rarely said anything to the people I knew, let alone the strangers I met on my roof.
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a tiny notepad and quickly jotted down in neat clear scrawl, 'Jojo'. So this was the mysterious Jojo Ned had talked about. I glanced over the edge of the roof to see our parents were still absorbed in the conversation. When I turned back around, the dark haired teen was gliding over the wire strung between the gutters into an open window.
"Well, Jojo," I muttered as I swung myself into the window that I had come out of. "I think I'm gonna be seeing more of you."
I had just finished making my bed and putting up my posters when my sisters bounced up the stairs with four McDodd girls at their heels.
"Hey Robin! Did you bring our stuff up?"
I rolled my eyes. "Why would I bring your stuff up? It's your stuff." I went back to pinning up my poster of Black Veil Brides, making sure it was straight.
One of Jojo's sisters scampered into my room. "Jojo has the same poster in his room! I'm Hanna by the way! And that's Holly and Harley and Hildy."
I could only stare blankly at the energetic girl. I didn't know her at all and therefore didn't feel comfortable speaking directly to her. Though in the back of my mind, I thought, 'Well, you did talk to Jojo after seeing him for twenty seconds.' Hanna just shrugged and skipped off down the hall to play in my little sister Megan's room. I had just noticed that each of the Mc Dodd girls had a small bag of toys with them. As from where I was in the room, I could see a few Barbies and a single Ken doll sticking out from the cloth bag. I closed my eyes for a few seconds before plugging in my flat screen TV and DVD player in. My dad, before he left, had bought me the TV and DVD player for me when my 7 year old sister Ally was born. After that, he got me a different horror movie every time something had happened to me, good or bad. Like when my boyfriend of three years made out with my best friend, he had bought me Chuckie, which granted wasn't the scariest thing I've ever seen, but it was the thought that counts.
I reached into my box of books and stuck them all neatly into my new bookcase. Even though I was labeled an emo I was known for carrying a coloring book and a 64 pack of crayons in my backpack every day. My crew would color in pictures of unicorns and kitties stuck in trees, and during my Harry Potter phase, my best guy friend, Chris, bought me a coloring book with pictures from all of the movies in it. I still have it and most of the pictures aren't even colored in. I carefully tucked all of the coloring books into the last shelf so none of them would fall down.
Satisfied with how my room came out, I looked at the clock and found it was time for dinner. Bolting down the stairs, I was prepared for the lecture of being late for dinner, but instead I saw my mom in kinda niceish clothes and was helping my littlest sister Megan (she's 6) put on her sneakers.
"Oh, I'm sorry Robin! I forgot to tell you! Ned McDodd and his wife Sally invited us to dinner at their house as a welcome to the neighborhood thing. So go get ready, we leave in a few minutes."
I sighed before climbing the steps and fixing my eyeliner in the vanity in my room. I ran a comb through my hair and fixed my bangs over my eyes before throwing on a hoodie. I snatched my IPod and cell phone off my desk before sitting on the railing and sliding down. When I landed, I followed my mom out the door to the neighbor's house. She knocked on the door and the door was opened to reveal none other than the mayor of Whoville.
*****Jojo's POV*****
After I had run away from the new neighbor, I had sulked in my room for a while.' I could have said something' I said in my head as I mentally kicked myself. But no, I had to give into my fear of making a fool of myself and stayed mute like I did every time I met someone new. Then again, I did stayed most of the time. But I hadn't used my notepad in such a long time. But this was a little different. She was…. Cute. 'What? Jojo! Get a hold of yourself. You just met the girl, and you didn't even talk to her.' I shook my head. Who was I kidding? I was Jojo McDodd, the freak of the school. Mr. Mute. Emo freak. Creeper guy in my gym class.
I glanced over into the corner where my acoustic guitar was and noticed that the strings were cut again. God, my sisters were so annoying sometimes. And I knew who had cut them too. My five year old sister Heather was mad that I didn't read her a story at nap time yesterday. But I had to finish my tweaks on the Marble Racer. The little sliding door that held the marbles inside the extra large bin was about to give and it needed to be fixed. It was a chore and needed a lot of brain power to figure out but I did it. When I had come back, the girls were asleep and I hadn't for filled my promise to my little sisters. I mean, I felt kinda bad, as I don't like to disappoint them but I like to do things too. I picked it up from the stand and laid it on my bed. Removing the strings, I quickly and efficiently restrung and tuned it. I kept all the broken strings in a bag to use in a project I was working on in the observatory but having to fix my guitar whenever the girls had a tantrum was annoying.
I had been looking over my blueprints for the new invention till dinner, when my mom called me down. Rolling them up and storing them in a bin under my bed, I walked down the steps, hands in my pockets. I loved my family sometimes, but I hated the large meal times. Even though the chairs didn't turn for lunch and dinner, it was still really, really loud and gave me a headache all the time. I found my way to my seat and sunk down so only the top of my head was visible. It took me a while to figure out there were a few extra seats at the table and when I had, I realized my dad had invited the new neighbors to dinner. Great. I glanced up to notice my mom was listening intently to my four nine year old sisters story about their play date with the three younger girls next door, and that my dad was leading the new family into the dining room, gesturing for the girl I met on the roof to sit next to me. I fidgeted in my seat uncomfortably as she sat down, and I mentally kicked myself again as she said "Hello."
I didn't know what to do so I gave her a tiny smile and a little wave. I knew now that the old neighbors were gone; I had to take my runner down from the gutters. The old family was like a second family to me and I spent many hours on that roof with the kids that lived there. She smiled back at turned her attention to my dad who was asking her some questions.
"So, Robin, what grade are you in?"
"I'm a freshman, Mr. McDodd." She said it so quietly it sounded like a whisper. So she was in my grade…. 'No Jojo, you can barely talk to your other friends! Why would she want to be friends with you?'
"Just like Jojo! Maybe you'll have classes together! That would be great! You could come over and do homework together!"
I mentally face-palmed myself. 'Dad, stop embarrassing me!' I thought furiously. I picked up my fork and nudged my peas around my plate, face red. Robin nearly choked as she took a sip of her drink.
"What did I say?"
*****Robin's POV*****
After I almost died drinking my juice and dinner was finished, the adults went into the living room with coffee. The ten girls that were in the room were kicked out, and were now sulking at the kitchen table next to the sink Jojo and I were doing dishes. Ned and Sally insisted I didn't have to, but as soon as they left the room, I was elbow deep in suds. Jojo was perched on a large footstool, hunched over concentrating on scrubbing the leftover food off the plates.
"So, you don't talk much do you?" I fought down a violent blush as I realized I said it out loud. He looked at me with a soapy bowl clutched in his hand and nodded.
"Why? If you don't mind me asking that is."
Jojo just shrugged before passing the bowl to me to dry. I swiped at the water left over from the violent shaking my silent companion had just done before tucking it into the cabinet with the other bowls. After a half an hour and the mayor coming in to refill the coffee cups twice, we found ourselves outside on the large swing set just swinging a little with our feet still on the ground.
I felt like I should have said something else but I couldn't think of a thing to say. After a bit, my mom peeked her head out the door and called,
"Robin! We're going home darling!"
I wrinkled my nose at the pet name and heard Jojo snigger a bit at my mortification.
"Shut up." I muttered as I pushed his shoulder a little. He hip bumped me after he pulled me off the swing, making me stumble a bit. I growled deep within my throat before chasing him across the large backyard to the door.
"Jojo! Imma KILL you!" I watched him trip over one of his sister's toys left in the yard and almost stopped. ALMOST stopped. I managed to tackle him just as we got to the door and he began to laugh silently as we lay next to each other on the ground. He stood after a few minutes and pulled me to my feet again before walking around the house to the rest of the family.
I was starting to walk away to my house when I heard the soft whisper of a male voice say,
"Bye."
I turned to look back at him before waving energetically at him. I realized as I took my shoes off and stuck them in the closet that I couldn't wait for school on Monday.
Alrighty, I know I have a story already started, and I haven't forgotten about that! This just came to me after reading another fan fiction called 'another cliché of a love story' by hitsukainluvr. If you haven't read it, go check it out. Some parts kinda sound like her story but I take no credit AT ALL. There will be significant differences later on in chapter two, which will be posted later in the week, (hopefully). Another point. I know I haven't posted Chapter 5 in 16 and Pregnant yet and I mean to after I finish it. I'm having writer's block really bad right now! : / So bear with me, and please read it! It would mean the world to me!
