You looked up from your book to stare at the kid sitting in front of you. You knew him well. Everyone did. After all, he was the coolest kid in school. With extremely blond hair, slick shade's, and an attitude that pissed all the teachers off, if you could call no emotion an attitude. Everyone at school just seemed to like him. Everyone but you. Of crouse no one knew that. You had never had time to make friends, or keep them. The only person you really knew was the Ms. Addison who lived above you in your apartment building. That and your two-year-old sister you lived with. Of crouse those where the people who knew you as well.
You were pulled from the thoughts of retelling your life story when the school bell went off. 'Thank god' you thought as your reached down to grab your stuff. As soon as you had your bag you raced off to your next class. Thankfully the last one of the day, but sadly the one you hated the most. Why? Oh, that's right you never got to thinking of that in the last class. It was because it was science. Not that you had a thing against the subject, it was your partner in the class. Yes, it was Dave. Now the reason you "disliked" the young Strider was because he was your fucking neighbor. The kind that played music too loud late into the night, and you swear to god that every time you brought home groceries or packed something heavy up the stairs all the Strider's had to come out and block the hallway.
Once again you brought out of your thoughts only this time not by the bell, but instead by Dave. "Hey, are you listening? The teacher gave us our assignments fifteen minutes ago and you haven't moved." "No, I was not. What was the assignment?" You asked. He then pushed a piece of paper in front of you and went back to his own. You quickly looked over the paper and started it. Before you knew it the bell was going off and everyone was leaving. Of course, everyone was moving slowly. You wanted to scream at them to move faster as you tried and failed to race to your locker. Once you had your stuff you raced out of school and ran to your apartment building, because you lived close to school, went up six flights of stairs and one more, because once again the Strider's went over bored this time breaking the elevator, to go get your sister Clea. You then went back down one floor to get to your apartment. Once there you put all your stuff down before placing you younger sister on the floor with some coloring books.
No, you were not the person who walked in yelling to your parents that you were home, mostly because your parents were never home. Why? They both had jobs over sea's at some huge company and decided to leave both a 12-year-old and a month old baby at the time, alone. Of course, you saw them on holidays and birthdays, and they were nice enough to give you money to keep things going, pay the bills for you, but it still sucked. Sometimes they could be a real pain in the ass, but sometimes you wished that you had the same bond that other parents have with their kids. Not that you were complaining. You were just a fourteen-year-old with a lot of responsibility.
Now no matter how much you like to dwell on these things you need to get back to your life. At the moment, you are putting together your younger sisters dinner. Lightly mashed vegetables and small chunks of apple. For you, leftovers from last night when you made a salad. And that's when it starts. The loud music from the next door neighbors, the Striders. Your younger sister looks up at you from her spot on the floor where she was coloring. You quickly set the food on the table and race out the door, of course, your younger sister stumbles after you as you head next door. As you start pounding on the door it swings open to the eldest Strider staring at you. You cross your arms and tap your foot staring him down even though you are only 5"3 and he is well over a foot taller than you. Your sister now holding on to your leg to steady herself looks from you to him then makes a cute gasping noise, points at the Strider and says "trouble!" The elder Strider looked down to your young sister before nodding his head and turning around to go tell whoever was blaring music to turn it down. The only reason he knew what you were there for was because this was not the first time you had complained. As you were standing in the hallway outside the door you could hear yelling. As you focused on the yelling you didn't see Clea walk off into the Strider household. After a few minutes you heard the music quiet down as the eldest Strider walked back over nod his head and close the door as you said thank you and turned to walk off. You had yet to take a few steps before noticing your sister was not there. As you turned to go back and nock on Strider's door once again you heard a very loud girlish scream. You quickly ran to the door and with out nocking ran in to see the elder Strider look at you before disappearing? God, you swear this household is weird. You quickly ran down the hallway before stopping at the bathroom door where the screaming was coming from. Both the elder Strider and what you think is the middle Strider are standing in front of the door just kind of looking from the door to each other. "OH MY FUCKING GOD! THERE IS SOMEONE SCREAMING AND YOU ARE JUST STANDING THERE?!" You scream as you run up to the door. Both Strider's stare at you like your crazy as you lean to grab the doorknob and yank it open to find...
Oh my god... Dave Strider sitting on top of the back of the toilet screaming at your younger sister who was sitting in the bathtub playing with really weird-looking puppets. You pull your phone out and take a quick picture before laughing at the scene in front of you. Dave stops screaming when he see's both you and his brothers standing in the doorway. Your younger sister on the other hand giggles and squeals "doggy!" before hitting the thing on the head repeatedly. This cause's the two older Strider's either start coughing horribly, our they are trying suppress laughing, you can't tell, you're too busy laughing yourself. After you gather yourself together you walk over to pick up your sister. As you walk by Dave you sister decided it's a good idea to throw the puppet at Dave. This cause's Dave to flip out and fall into the bathtub. Once again you pull out your phone and take a picture, laughing as you did so. You then proceed to walk out of the Strider household laughing and holding a giggling child.
The next morning as you are getting ready for school you start to think that maybe the Strider's are not as bad as you think.
