Heyy guys :) So if you've checked out my profile, which I am on my way to do up straight after this, you know I am no stranger to fanfic, but this is my first Short Stack fanfic... I'm actually really nervous about, so any feedback is good feedback... I also like to hear thought on where the storyline is going, it can be really helpful when the writers block kicks in... anyway, I hope you enjoy and if you could review it would be muchly appreciated :D
DiscoHoney :P
-Chapter One-
It had that 'new house' smell.
I hated the new house smell. Seven times in two years made your head dizzy. Part of it was my fault, I knew that, but it wasn't my decision to move house every couple of months.
I walked into my newest room. The walls were a boring white and it's just a square box. I dumped the box of my things I was carrying in the middle of the room. Apart from my bed, it was the only thing I was planning on unpacking—even my clothes were going to stay in their boxes unless they were being worn.
I walked back outside and helped Matt carry more boxes from the back of the trailer so we could at least get the mattresses out for tonight.
"I hate this place," I said to him at one point. "I think it's my least favourite."
"Well, you should get used to it," he replied. "I'm hoping we'll be here more permanently than the other places."
"That's what you said last time, and the time before that," I pointed out.
"Please, just try and get comfortable, for me?"
I nodded in agreement. But truthfully, I had no intention of getting attached to this house, this town, or any of the people in it. I tried that before, and now I was left with a trail of friends on Facebook, Twitter, tumblr and so on, from Sydney all the way along the east coast, to the town I found myself in now, Budgewoi.
Outside I noticed a family playing in the front lawn. An older man, who must have been the father, was watering the lawn, while a little boy, two or three maybe, played around. I watched as his father sprayed him with the cold water and he giggled and ran away, only to return for more in an instant.
A woman with greying hair sat on the door step and watched and laughed along. I found myself giving a small smile as I watched them. After a moment, Matt came out and cleared his throat. Realising what I was doing, I turned away and went back to my task, feeling shy and slightly guilty for spying.
An hour later we called it for lunch. Matt drove down the road and out of sight in search of somewhere for lunch.
While I waited, I had nothing to do, so I walked inside and went looking for drink. Our fridge wasn't even plugged in, so we had nothing. After getting the fridge hooked up and on, I texted Matt asking for a bottle of coke and I gave him a list of a few basic things we would need for tonight and tomorrow morning. I made a mental note to go shopping tomorrow.
I walked outside and sat on the doorstep for a few minutes and looked at the garden. There were little gardens that were just dirt and dead plants where a garden used to be. It would be nice to grow some flowers and stuff. But what's the point, I thought. We won't be here long enough.
I walked back inside and wandered around while I waited for Matt. There was a knock on the door and I went to answer it. From the hallway, I could see a man standing there. It was the man I saw out the front of the house across the road earlier was standing there. "Hi," he said to me as he saw me approach through the screen door.
"Hello," I replied. I walked outside and shut the screen door behind me. I felt rude talking to him through the door.
"Just thought I'd come and introduce myself, I'm Richard, I live in the house across the road." He put his hand out to shake.
"Hi, I'm Ally," I said with a smile, taking his hand. "Matt's not here right now, he's just getting some lunch, sorry."
"That's fine," he says. "So you're just moving in today?"
I nod. "Yeah. We just came from, um, Noraville, we were right near Canton Beach."
He nods in understanding. "Would you like some help moving some of that heavier stuff in? I won't be able to do anything, but I have two young sons who could help."
"Um," I begin, "we probably could use the extra hands."
"Well, I'll send the over later on," he said as Matt came back down the road and pulled into the driveway.
He had hot chips and potato scallops, so I quickly introduced him and Richard, then took the food inside to grab some plates.
When I came back out the front, Richard was saying goodbye. "I'll see you later," he said to me.
I smiled and agreed with him as he wandered back over the road.
"What are you doing?" Matt asked, seeing me standing on the doorstep with our food.
I looked at the food, then back to him. "Um, I thought we could eat out here today."
He shrugged his shoulders in agreement and we sat on the grass. Hot chips and potato scallops were my favourite thing to have for they lunch—they were salty and greasy and delicious.
After some rest, we decided to get started pulling out the big stuff. I walked around to the back of the trailer looked at what we had left to lift and scrunched up my face. It was all heavy stuff. We started with the television cabinet. It was quite big and heavy and between the two of us it was proving extremely difficult to lift off the trailer. How we were going to get it inside was a whole other matter.
"Hey mate, you need a hand?" a male voice said behind me. I was on the ground with my back to them and Matt was in the trailer, lost from view. The voice gave me such a fright that I almost dropped the cabinet. Whoever it was ran forward and grabbed the cabinet from underneath, taking on a lot of the weight.
"Thanks," I said to the stranger. I saw someone else go around and ask Matt if he needed a hand, which he gladly accepted. The two men continued to help us get the cabinet off the trailer.
"Sorry for scaring you just then," said my helper to me as we lifted.
"It's okay, just try not to do it again," I replied.
"Sorry, no promises." I laughed at him as we walked through the front door. "Where does this go then?"
Being unfamiliar with the new house, I had no idea where Matt wanted it. Luckily, hearing the question, Matt spoke up, "Near that far wall, not against it though."
We moved a shuffled and made a sixty-three point turn, but got in exactly where Matt wanted it. I was utterly exhausted so I went to grab my bottle of coke off the kitchen bench. The two strangers were in the lounge room introducing themselves to Matt. The kitchen was quiet as I stared out the window.
"Hi," someone said behind me. The same someone who scared me outside terrified me for a second time. I jumped and spilt some of my coke on the floor. I almost dropped the bottle when I recognised who it was in the kitchen with me.
Andy Clemmensen.
Andy freaking Clemmensen was standing in front of me, in the kitchen, in the house I had just moved in to. And he had helped me move my furniture into said house. And the whole time I didn't even recognise him.
I grabbed a tea towel from one of the boxes on the bench and nervously started to wipe up the mess I had made immediately.
"Here, let me get that, it's my fault," he said, reaching out and kneeling down in front of me, trying to grab to tea towel.
"No, no, it's fine," I said to my knees on the floor. "See, all done," I said a moment later, looking up with a smile.
His face was really close to mine as we stayed kneeling opposite each other. He kept staring at me strangely, the good kind of strange. It made me nervous though, so I stood up quickly and he followed.
"I'm Andy," he started. He put out his hand and I took it into a light hand shake. "I live in the house directly across the road. My dad asked me to come over and ask if you wanted a hand."
"You're Richard's son?" I asked.
"Yeah, well, step-son, but we're all family over there."
I nod with a smile. "Thanks heaps. We probably would have been out there for hours trying to get that stupid thing in the house."
He laughed loudly. "Probably. You're welcome."
"Oh, I'm Ally," I said, suddenly feeling stupid for not saying so before. "Um, I'd offer you a drink or something, but we don't have anything, sorry."
"No, it's okay," replied Andy. "I only got up not long ago." I raised my eyebrow at him. He got a bit nervous and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, late one last night." He gave me a nervous smile and part of me wanted to melt.
"Enjoy it, I don't get many of those anymore." He gave me a questioning look and I decided to let him know something about me. "Moving house every few months means you don't spend a lot of time in one place—which makes it hard to make friends to go out with."
"Well, you're more than welcome to join us whenever you like," he offered.
"Thanks," I accepted, taking another mouthful of drink.
"You're boyfriend seems nice," Andy said honestly. I almost choked on my coke.
"Brother," I said quickly. "Matt's my brother."
"Oh!" Andy said, getting embarrassed and blushing slightly at his mistake. "Sorry, I just assumed because you're both moving in here and . . ."
"It's okay," I said. I started laughing at the mix up—something about it made me want to roll around on the floor. I did refrain and stood in the kitchen with Andy for a moment more.
"Come, I'll introduce you to my brother." He dragged me by the wrist back to lounge room where Matt was in the middle of a conversation with Andy's brother, who also needed no introduction, but I didn't want to seem like a massive fan-girl.
"Ally, this is my brother," Andy began.
"Bradie," he introduced. He took my hand as well to shake and I smiled.
"Ally," I replied, making sure I don't look like an idiot in front of him as well. "So, Andy says you live across the road?"
"Yeah, we do, so we'll probably be seeing you around," he said, smiling at me.
"Yeah, I guess so." If we stay, I finished in my head.
"You already know who we are, don't you?" Bradie said, turning on me. "I can always pick a fan, you are most definitely one." He gave me a wink.
"Oh, yeah," Matt interrupted. "Ally here is practically obsessed with Short Stack."
I could have died. I'm not sure how I reacted exactly. I wanted to yell at Matt, I wanted to hit him. I could feel my face going extremely red and I think I put my hand to my face.
"Obsessed, aye?" Andy teased with a wink.
I could see Andy and Bradie staring at me. "Matt's over exaggerating a bit. You guys are my favourite band, but I am most certainly not obsessed."
"She's right," Matt said, "I'm only teasing, but she does love you guys. She goes to pretty much any show she can."
My face got slightly redder. "You guys are really awesome," I complimented, trying to distract everyone from my embarrassment.
"Thanks," Andy and Bradie said, almost together.
"Hey," Bradie piped up suddenly, "would you two like to join us for dinner?"
Matt and I looked at each other and silently agreed to it. "We were probably just gonna go get Macca's or something anyway.
"Alright, I'll let Mum and Dad know," Bradie said. "I think Shaun and Brooke were going to join us too."
"Sounds good to me," Matt said. "Well, c'mon, we may as well try to get everything inside before dinner."
Once we got stuck in, everything seemed to come in so much easier—and the extra hands definitely helped.
"We'll see you guys in about a half hour," Andy said, walking out door after everything was inside where we wanted it.
"Bye Andy, bye Bradie," I called behind them.
I walked into my room where my boxes were laid out in no particular pattern and my mattress was lying under the window, the frame in pieces leaning against the wall in front of the wardrobe.
I walked through the mess kicking boxes aside creating a make shift path. I found a box labelled 'good clothes' and ripped the tape off it. I found a nice dress that was quite simple and blue and black in colour. I found another box labelled, 'pants/skirts' across the other side of the room and opened it to find my leggings sitting on top.
I had three full boxes labelled 'shoes' and didn't even know where to begin. I already had two pairs out that didn't get packed away—my joggers and my flats.
My flats were black with white toes and soles and a basic bow on top. They were actually perfect.
Matt was taking his time in the shower so I left him a note saying I was already across the road and walked out.
I knocked on the door and the elderly woman I saw earlier that day opened it and smiled at me. "Andy, Bradie," she called out.
They raced down the hallway and arrived at the door stumbling over their hello's. "Mum, this is Ally, she just moved in across the road," Andy introduced.
"Hi Ally," she said with a polite smile putting her hand out for me to take. "I'm Andy's mum, Emily." I noticed she said she was just Andy's mum. She obviously has a lot of respect for Bradie's mum. I took her hand with a smile and quiet hello.
"Thank you so much for having us over for dinner," I said to her.
"You're more than welcome, come in, meet the others. The boys said you have a brother?" She slightly stressed the word brother while looking at Andy, who blushed slightly and I gathered she must have heard about the mix-up.
"Yeah, he's still getting ready—he'll be over soon enough," I said.
"Great," she said as the two of us entered the kitchen and Andy and Bradie continued down the hallway. "Can I get you anything to drink?" she offered.
"Just water would be great," I replied. I hadn't had much to drink today at all.
She grabbed some cold water from the fridge and put some ice in the glass with it. After handing me the glass, she said, "Come, I'll introduce you to everyone."
I smiled and followed her to the dining room. "You've already met my husband Richard," she said, when Richard walked over and gave his wife a kiss on the hair. "And our son Chris is in watching TV, you'll meet him later."
"Ally," Andy called from the other side of the room. There was a knock at the door, so Emily went to answer it while I wandered over next to Andy.
When I got there, Andy was standing with another recognisable guy who had his arm around a blonde girl's waist.
"Ally, this is Shaun and his girlfriend, Brooke," Andy said. "But I'm sure he needs no introduction to you." Andy winked at me as I shook hands with Shaun and Brooke.
Bradie walked into the room with the child I saw playing earlier today. He waved and walked over to us.
"Ally, this is Chris," Bradie said, smiling. Chris shies away from me and I take no offense to it, he must only be two years old.
"Hi, Chris," I said to the boy with a small smile on my lips.
"Say, 'hi Ally'," Bradie said quietly to his brother.
"Hi Ally," Chris said smiling before hiding in Bradie's shoulder.
Emily and Richard re-entered the room a second later with Matt in tow. They were all carrying food with them, which signalled it was time to eat.
During dinner, Brooke and I were next to each other on one side of the table with Shaun on her other side. Emily and Richard were at the heads of the table, Emily sitting nearest me, while Andy sat across from me, Bradie next to him, Matt on Bradie's other side, and Chris was in a high-chair between Emily and Andy.
"So how old are you, Ally?" Brooke asked me while we were eating.
Shaun was deep in conversation with Matt and Bradie, Richard was quietly enjoying his meal, and Emily and Andy were busy trying to get Chris to eat his carrots—so Brooke and I had engaged ourselves in some small talk, with Andy piping in whenever he got the chance.
I was in the middle of a mouthful and finished it while I put my cutlery down to wipe my mouth before answering. "Seventeen," I answered honestly.
Suddenly there was a clinging of cutlery on plates as everyone stopped eating and stared at me—except for Chris who had proceeded to throwing his veggies on the table.
"You're only seventeen?" said a shocked Andy.
"Yes," I replied slowly.
"Are you still going to school?" asked an equally shocked Brooke.
"Um . . . well, it depends," I begin. "I technically haven't signed out of school, but I haven't been going much. I turned seventeen just before our last move before this one, and I was going to sign out but then we moved and I transferred, and now we're doing the same thing. If things don't work out here, I'll probably sign out in a week or two."
"So where will you be going, then?" Brooke asked as everyone went back to eating.
"Um, I'm not sure where," I said.
Matt mumbled the name of some high school he was taking me to tomorrow to get signed in.
"No way," Bradie exclaimed. "Andy, Shaun and I all went there."
"Really?" I asked, my interest now piqued.
"Yeah, it's a shithole," Shaun piped in. Everyone except Matt, Emily and Richard laughed at Shaun.
"It's not that bad," Andy said.
"Are you just saying that to make me feel better?" I turned on him.
"No, of course not," Andy answered me, trying to hide his sarcasm.
I giggled a little as I took a drink of water.
During dessert I watched Emily struggle trying to get Chris to eat his ice-cream. He was absolutely refusing to eat it from her. Then, when Andy tried, Chris ate it welcomingly.
Emily caught me laughing quietly at the scene and said to me, "I can never get him to eat. But as soon as Andy offers food, it's all go from there."
I laughed louder. "He just knows I'm the awesome one," Andy said, scrapping the last out of Chris' bowl. Cue more laughing from me.
"I have a cousin like that," I said. "Never eats for his dad, but when I offer, he can't seem to get enough."
"So you're good with kids, Ally?" asked Emily.
"Um, yeah, I suppose so. I used to babysit my cousins all the time." Looking at Chris made me realise how much I miss them all. My dad was an only child and my mum only had a brother, who only had kids about three years ago. He had a little boy who I loved so much. I saw him literally every day until he was two and a half. He'd be five soon and I'd seen him twice since we left.
A year ago, my uncle and aunt had another kid, a little girl. I'd only ever met her twice.
"Well, maybe you could babysit Chris sometimes, if you would like. You know, make some extra cash," Emily offered before taking a mouthful of her dessert.
"I wouldn't mind at all, if you would really like me to," I said as I finished my own dessert.
"No, of course not. With Andy and Bradie always going out and touring, it would be nice to have someone else around to look after him. Especially with another one on the way." I smiled at her. I didn't know she was pregnant, but I congratulate her and Richard and they both say thank you gracefully.
Just after dessert, Emily got up to put Chris to bed. I excused myself to the bathroom and after some direction from Emily I went in and cried for a few minutes, realising how much I loved my cousins and wanted to see them again. I splashed my face and wiped my eyes before heading back out. I even flushed the toilet unnecessarily so no one would be suspicious.
Walking back down the hall, I spotted pictures hanging on the wall. There was some of Chris and Bradie and Andy, and even one of the three of them together. They all had the most adorable smiles. I got to one of Andy in Primary School and started to have a giggling fit.
"Which one are you laughing at," Andy said, scaring me for the third time today. "Sorry," he said quickly.
"It's okay," I said while still laughing.
"Now, seriously, which one are you laughing at, is it the one of Bradie in year nine?" His sentence trails off as he realises I'm looking at one of him. "Bradie must have switched the photos 'cause that one doesn't normally hang there."
"It's adorable," I say as I recover myself.
"No, this is more adorable," he points to his own face and my laughing starts all over again.
"If you say so," I say.
He stares at me for a minute and then says, "Come with me, I want to show you something."
He grabs my wrist and leads me down the hall away from the dining room. We walk into a bedroom which I assume is his and he tells me to sit on the bed.
I do and he tells me to close my eyes, so I do that as well. It takes him a minute to get organised and when he does he says, "Okay, you can open your eyes now."
I do and I see him standing in front of me with a box in his hands and a stupid grin on his face.
"What's this?" I ask.
"Just a present from the three of us," Andy answers, handing me the box and sitting beside me. We were angled towards each other and his knee was lightly brushing mine, he was also leaned forward a bit pretending to be interested in what was in the box, even though he already knew.
I started to rip away the tape when Shaun and Bradie stick their heads in the open door. "What do you think you're doing?" said Bradie.
I looked up suddenly, my smile never faltering, but Andy moved back suddenly, even if it was only an inch. "Opening my present," I informed the boys.
"Not without us you're not!" Shaun said, entering the room. "That present is from all three of us and we were supposed to give it to you together."
"Andy!" I exclaim, turning on him with a look of shock.
"What?" he says like he thinks he's done nothing wrong.
"That was very selfish of you."
"Damn right, mate," Shaun says.
"Enough, Ally open up the present!" says Bradie. He looks very eager for me to open it and find out what's inside, so I go ahead with it.
Shaun sits on the desk chair so Bradie sits down on my other side on the bed while I wrestle with the sticky tape. When Andy tries to help me I wack his hand away, insisting that I can do it myself.
I open it up and there is a 'Shaun Stack' t-shirt inside. It makes me laugh. Then I see it's signed with silver Sharpie and the teen girl in me wants to squeal. "Thank you, I love it," I say to Shaun as I walk over to give him a hug.
"It's nothing really," he tells me as I take my place on the bed. "Andy and Bradie told me about how you're a fan and that you've had to move a lot, so we thought we'd do something nice."
I was blushing and biting my lip, I hated when I did that.
"But, wait, there's more," Bradie said beside me. I look in the box, and sure enough, there's another shirt.
I put Shaun's shirt down between me and Bradie and pull out the next one. It's a 'Sway Sway Bradie' shirt, also signed with silver Sharpie and again, I resist the urge to squeal.
"Aww, that's so awesome, I love it too." I turn to Bradie and hug him as well. "Oh, and another one," I exclaim, seeing what I hope is the last shirt.
Bradie's shirt goes on top of Shaun's as I pull out the third t-shirt. It's the 'I heart NY' shirt that has an 'A' and 'D' scribbled on it to make 'I heart ANDY'. I laugh really hard at this shirt.
"Ha, no love for Andy," Shaun jokes.
"It's not that, this is actually one of the few Short Stack shirts I've already bought. But this one is signed, so I think I'll just put the other one on eBay." We all laughed at that and when we recovered, Matt walked in.
"Ally, I think we better get going, I'm taking you to school tomorrow, but we have to leave early because I have work."
I nod and reply, "Okay, you go home, I won't be long." He looks at me like he doesn't believe me. "I promise." I see the time is nine-thirty. "Five minutes, I swear."
"Okay, five minutes," he stresses.
"Alright, alright," I answer.
He leaves the room and I listen as he says goodbye to Emily and Richard, thanking them for dinner, and walks out of the house.
"Well, thank you guys for the shirts, it was really nice of you," I told them. "I should probably get going though. Matt will be ringing me any second."
"Yeah," Shaun piped up, "me and Brooke might head off too."
We all stand together and Shaun walks over to hug me goodbye. "Nice meeting you, Ally."
"The pleasure is all mine," I said to him. Next is Bradie, his bear hug is gripping and when I know I'm about to pass out, he let's go.
"I'll see you around, hey Ally?" he asked me.
"Yeah, of course," I answered. I manage to keep my smile in place even though I want to drop it because I just know we won't be staying in this town forever.
Andy comes up and hugs me from behind saying, "Don't forget me." He laughs and squeezes me tighter. "How about we kidnap her Bradie, and make her live with us forever?"
"Sounds good to me," Bradie says back and he goes in for a hug as well, sandwiching me between the two of them. Shaun can only stand and laugh at the sight before him.
"Hey," Andy begins as him and Bradie let go of me, "do you wanna come out with the three of us tomorrow night?"
"What day is it tomorrow?" I ask, more to myself as I try to remember.
"Friday," Bradie answers.
"Yeah, sounds great," I agree. "Just remember, whatever we do, I'm not eighteen for another two months."
"You're birthday isn't until April?" Andy says.
"Yeah."
"Wow, and you're in year twelve?" Shaun asks me.
"Yes." This conversation was just getting stranger.
"So you're young for your age?"
"Yeah, I started school a bit earlier, that's all."
"Andy's an April baby too, but I bet you already knew that," Shaun says with a wink at me.
I blush and avoid the question. "I should really get going, Matt's probably getting worried about me by now."
Shaun notices my diversion, but says anyway, "Good idea, let's go."
Shaun and Bradie exit the room first and I follow behind them before Andy grabs my wrist and pulls me back. He pulls me so that I'm standing quite close to him and I can smell his musky deodorant.
"Before you go, I need to tell you something, it's kind of important," he says. I know I should be going, but I'm curious. "It's about you," he begins.
But he's cut off when my phone buzzes in my right dress pocket to tell me I have a new message. I sighed and said, "That'll be Matt. I really should get going, but I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"
He nods. "For sure, I can't wait to go out with you tomorrow night. We'll party it up." He gives me a grin that I've seen plenty of times before, in pictures and videos and stuff, but seeing it in person, so close, it's even more brilliant.
"Where's your phone?" he asks.
I pull it out of my pocket and show it to him. "Here." It's a basic phone, texting and calling is all it's good for, and that doesn't bother me one bit.
He pulls out his own, fiddles around with them both for a bit, and then hands it back to me. "Now you have my number," he says, smiling at me.
"And do you have mine?" I ask.
"Nope," he says shaking his head. I give him a confused look. "Because if you're really interested in me, then I'll know when you call me first." He winks at me and I know he's joking with me.
I sigh. "Whatever. Are you gonna let me go home now?" He nods and we walk into the main hall and out the front door where Shaun and Brooke are saying goodbye to everyone.
Andy and Bradie offer to walk me the whole fifty metres to my front door after we wave goodbye to Shaun and Brooke. I humbly accept after hearing mutterings of 'because we're proper gentleman', and 'it's the responsible thing to do'.
I walk inside by myself and leave the boys to go back home together. I'm in my own world as Matt tells to me get changed ready for bed. While I'm brushing my teeth Matt comes in and stands in the bathroom doorway, staring at my face in the mirror.
"So, the Short Stack boys seem really nice," he says with his arms crossed as he's leaning against the doorframe casually.
I spit to empty my mouth and say, "Yeah," before I continue brushing.
"Mmhm, and you really scored with those shirts," he says.
"Yeah, it was so nice of all of them to do that," I say after spitting again.
"So, we have some new friends then?" Matt asks. I realise what he's trying to do, and I don't like it. He's trying to get me to admit I've made friends in hopes I'll want to stay and won't screw this up again for us.
"I think they're my friends," I say with my toothbrush in my mouth because I'd grown tired of spitting every few seconds to talk. "They've invited me out with them tomorrow night, is that okay," I say to his reflection in the mirror.
"Fine by me, just remember we'll be doing more unpacking on Saturday." Matt wants me to unpack my boxes specifically, since I haven't done so in a while.
"We'll see," I say.
"Anyway, I'll see you in the morning," he tells me, standing up straight and walking away.
"Bright and early," I say quietly.
I look down at the toothpaste sitting in the basin, waiting to be washed away down the drain. I stood there for while, thinking about some of the things Matt said. Would Andy, Bradie and Shaun be my reason to stay?
Once I was ready for bed and about to read a book, I realised how tired the long day had made me, so I skipped reading for the night and went straight to sleep.