Author's Note: This is set before Stormbreaker.
"Melody!" Jack yelled making Alex laugh.
Melody Starbright was Jack's niece and sister; Melody's parents were killed when Melody was young so she was moved in with Jack and her parents. Melody had dark hair that was wavy and laid on her upper chest and pale skin that made her bright green eyes pop. Melody was named because of her father's love for music, and it suited her.
Melody's mom was Jack's sister, Carly Hoover. Carly married Jake Hoover; they met through work and dated for two years before getting married. After a year of marriage they had Melody whom they loved tremendously. Jake and Carly worked at the World Trade Center and were working on that fateful day in 2001. Melody was only five and didn't understand what had happened; she was now fourteen and understood. Melody was very unhappy in D.C with Jack's parents because of the constant reminders of her parents's deaths.
Jack had asked Ian if Melody could take the extra bedroom and offered to pay for all her expenses but Ian said, "Jack, of course she can have the bedroom but I'll pay for her expenses. It's the least I can do with my being away so often." Jack was very excited and couldn't wait to spend time with Melody.
Jack embraced Melody and Melody dropped her bags returning the hug, "Hey, Jack."
Jack let Melody go and gestured to Alex, "This is the boy I look after here in London, Alex. His uncle, Ian, is often away on business so for the most part it'll be the three of us well, other than Tom but that's beside the point; welcome to England, Melody."
"Thanks, Jack," Melody replied laughing.
Alex held out his hand, "Hi, Melody!"
"Hey." They shook hands and the meeting was very awkward for the two.
"Ian is away right now so you won't meet him until he comes back. Here let's get to the house and get you settled." Melody often missed her aunt's enthusiasm; she brightened her day.
Jack took half her bags and Alex took the other half making her say, "You don't have to do that."
"Eh, I want to," Alex replied heading towards the exit of Heathrow.
They exited the airport and clambered into Jack's small car. Alex let Melody have the passenger seat and Jack took the driver's seat since neither Alex nor Melody were allowed to drive.
"So, Melody how's life been since I've seen you last?" Jack asked glancing at the teen.
"As it always is; terrible. I mean, I'm thankful for my life and everything but there's only so much reminding I can take," Melody replied shaking her head.
"Well, that's why you're here. I'm sure you'll settle in fine; you like soccer, right?" Jack asked Melody making her nod, "Well, then you'll fit in just fine."
"I'll show you around and take you to meet some of my friends tonight," Alex offered making Jack look back at him surprised.
"Wow, Alex. I'm proud of you," Jack told him coming to a halt in the middle of London traffic.
Alex stuck his tongue out at Jack and directed his voice at Melody, "You'll love it here; it's not much different than America. Well, except the cars and the accents but other than that!"
Melody chuckled as Jack maneuvered through traffic to get to the house. Jack managed to get home in twenty minutes time and they unloaded Melody's stuff into the extra bedroom.
"Can you help her unpack while I call my parents?" Jack asked Alex making him nod.
Jack jogged downstairs and left the two teens alone in the room and Melody looked at Alex, "So, you play soccer?"
"Uh? Oh, yeah. Sorry, we call it football here. I'm the captain of the boys team well, was," Alex replied grabbing a duffel bag and unzipping revealing bedding.
Melody was putting away her clothes in the closest and dresser while Alex made the bed with her sheets and blankets.
"I love soccer, or football, because when I'm on the field it's like nothing matters anymore," Melody told Alex blushing.
"Same here. It's amazing," Alex replied.
Melody shoved the black suitcase in the closest, and unzipped another. There was all her pictures and posters and a package of tape.
"I can use tape on the walls, right?" Melody asked Alex and he nodded.
Melody took a pile of picture frames and set them on the dresser. The frames were green and purple and had pictures of her family and her best friend. She set the picture of her parents on her bedside table and set the rest on the dresser. She had a multiple pictures of her youth group, multiple pictures of her with her grandparents, multiple pictures of class trips, and multiple pictures of her with her best friend, Caleb. They pictures took up the entire dresser and she smiled at all the memories. They were seventeen pictures and she started taping up posters. She had six posters all consisting of song lyrics, quotes, singers, and a memorial to nine-eleven. One poster had the lyrics to the song, 'Stay' by Miley Cyrus, one had a bunch of inspirational quotes, another had John Mayer on it, one had the lyrics to 'Blackbird' by the Beatles on it, one had a a collage of inspirational words, and the last read, 'Remember' and had a picture of the Twin Towers on it. She taped them up and Alex had all the suitcases put away.
"Thanks," Melody told him.
"No problem so, do you want me to show you around?" Alex asked hovering in the doorway.
"Yeah! Let me take a shower but then yeah!" Melody grabbed a bra, underwear, shorts, and a tee shirt making Alex say, "It's cold out in the evening so you might want a sweatshirt." Melody nodded and reached into her drawer and grabbed a sweatshirt. She looked around and located the bathroom and entered. She stripped off her sweaty clothes and took a quick shower. She pulled her black and light blue athletic shorts on, her light blue soccer tee shirt and her grey Aeropostale sweatshirt on. She exited the bathroom and pulled her blue and gray Nike's on. She jogged downstairs where Alex was sitting on the counter talking to Jack.
"Oh, Melody... You're gonna freeze," Jack muttered.
"Then you can say you told me so," Melody replied.
"Let's go," Alex told her jumping off the counter.
He led her outside and looked over at her, "Fall comes quickly here so it gets cold fast. Well, I guess I'll take you to meet Tom first."
"Alright, so who's Tom?" Melody asked following Alex.
"He's my best friend and he's often over because his parents fight a lot," Alex replied making Melody remember Caleb.
"Crud, I was supposed to call Caleb when I got here!" Melody cursed herself.
"Here, and Caleb is your... boyfriend?" Alex asked handing her a cell phone.
"Naw, my best friend. We never had romantic feelings," Melody replied dialing the codes and Caleb's number.
"Hello?" Caleb's deep voice came over the phone.
"It's Melody," Melody told him.
"Mel! How's England?" Caleb asked her.
"I dunno! I've been here for like two hours, Caleb!" Melody replied laughing.
"Well, we have to talk every day. I miss you way too much," Caleb told her.
"I miss you too. I gotta go but I'll talk to you later on Facebook or I.M," Melody told him.
"Love ya," Caleb told her.
"Love you too," Melody replied hanging up and handing the phone to Alex.
Alex stopped at a small house and knocked; a small boy with dark hair answered and quickly came outside shutting the door.
"Alex! Thank goodness!" the boy screeched before noticing Melody, "Uh, Alex? There's a girl with you."
"Yeah. Her name's Melody and she's Jack's niece. She lives with me as of today," Alex told him.
"Hi, Melody. I'm Tom," Tom told her smiling.
"Hi..." Melody trailed off thinking about her life back in D.C.
"You wanna play some soccer?" Alex asked Melody.
"Sure," Melody replied throwing off her sweatshirt while Tom found a ball.
"So two against one? Melody, do you wanna be with me or Tom or by yourself?" Alex asked Melody.
"With Tom; I wanna see how good you are," Melody teased.
"Alright, let's go," Alex told her.
They ran to the side yard and got in position. They began playing and Tom passed the ball to Melody and she dribbled it up to Alex and started teasing him with the ball. She dodged around him and went for the goal but Alex caught up with her. Tom was behind her so she passed the ball to him and he dribbled it passed both of them. Alex and Melody ran at the same speed until Melody's foot caught Alex's and they fell. Melody tumbling onto the concrete sidewalk; Alex jumped up and helped her up. Her elbow and knee were scraped up making Alex wince.
"Let's go get you cleaned up," Alex murmured.
Tom ran inside his house looking for bandaids while Alex made Melody sit down, "You've been here for all of two hours and you already hurt yourself."