Author's Note: I do not own any copyright, all rights belong to their respective owners.
Author's Note 2: This is my first ever fanfiction. I am so excited and I want to bring my imagination to you. This story will contain several references from other movies and will have a few changeups so please no harsh criticism or reviews. Polite criticism is welcome.
Prologue:
News. It could be really good or really bad. And it would either be learning that a girl you ever wanted in your life likes you (more than a friend of course), or you get home to find out that your parent telling you that a company wants to hire him in California.
You see, about a month ago, a man was laid off by an unknown company he worked at (for unknown reasons). So in order to get another job he had to dress up and go to job interviews to apply work in town...which isn't going so well. That man's name is Martin Wright. And he had a son named Nate Wright and a daughter named Ellen Wright. And their lives are about to be changed forever...
Chapter 1: We're...we're moving?
Nate made his way home after a very brutal day at school. The boy took some serious payback on a bully named Randy Betancourt by taking shots at him in a school newspaper, with disastrous results. It caused an ugly fight between the two and the punishment was peer counseling for both boys. This punishment caused Nate to miss the Mud Bowl practice (which the real game will come any day now).
But anyway, Nate arrived at his house and entered it. There, he finds dad preparing to make dinner when Nate pulls out his permission slip for the field trip (which is coming in a week) and asks:
"Dad, will you sign this so I can go to the museum?
"Sure," Martin took the slip and signed it and handed it back to Nate saying, "here you go."
Nate took it and after a few moments, asks his dad, "um...what about your phone number for work?"
"I wrote down our home phone," he says.
" Well, the field trip is on Wednesday and you go to the office on Wednesdays so…"
Suddenly, Nate stops his sentence. The reason, you ask? Martin suddenly feels… well… um… depressed? Sad? It was hard to tell.
"Um...dad?...dad?...dad," Nate asks in confusion. Several minutes pass, no response from his dad.
"Dad? Dad? Dad? Dad? Dad?"
Still no response. Suddenly, another Nate pops out of nowhere and says the exact same line.
"Dad? Dad? Dad? Dad? Dad?"
Several more minutes pass, and still no response from his dad. And before you knew it, a bunch of clones representing Nate was surrounding Martin and saying: "Dad? Dad? Dad? Dad? Dad?"
Until finally-
"Nate, go get your sister. Family meeting." As Martin finally responded, all the other clones of Nate suddenly disappear from sight.
"Um…okay," Nate replied back then went to get Ellen. He did that, and before you knew it, the siblings appear before their father in the living room for a meeting.
"I've been trying to figure out how to say this, but I'll go ahead and try to tell you the best I can," Martin says to his kids. Suddenly, he hesitates, unclear on how to deliver the news to his kids. Nate and Ellen started to worry.
"...d...dad?" Ellen asks, starting to freak out a bit. Even Nate was scared.
"Come on, dad. You're scaring me," Nate says to his father.
After a few moments, Martin finally speaks up. "I...I lost my job. The company laid me off last month."
This greatly shocks the siblings. " Wait... last month?" Ellen asks in confusion. "Didn't we see you go the office a few weeks ago?"
Nate jumped into the conversation. "Yeah, remember you were all dressed up and everything?"
It was true. About a few weeks ago, Nate returned home from school to find his dad getting ready to go to work (or what it seemed to be, let alone the truth was going to be revealed in the present day). Nate didn't mind this since he thought his dad had a job to go to.
"Actually, kids...I wasn't going to the office," Martin explains. "I had a job interview. I've been going to lots of job interviews lately, trying to apply for work, but unfortunately, it hasn't been going so well. My first choice would be staying here."
"And the second choice?" Nate asks.
"Well...there IS a company that wants to hire me… in California."
The word 'California' felt like a horrible echo to Nate and Ellen. Not to mention, how shocked the siblings were and they knew what was gonna happen.
"We're...we're moving?" Nate asks in shock.
"If I can't find any work here in town, yes Nate, I'm afraid we'll have to move," Martin replies sadly.
Ellen turned desperate...quickly. "D-don't make us go, dad. Please? I can't leave my boyfriend and...and…"
"Sorry Ellen, I can't leave you two here by yourselves," Martin responds to Ellen's pleads to stay.
Immediately, Ellen runs to her room, slams the door shut, and cries into her pillow.I've
Nate was upset by the California plan. He spoke to his dad and said: "You… you'll find work here in town, right? There's hope...right?"
Martin nodded sadly. "Hopefully there's a miracle to come, but no matter what happens, I promise you, everything will be okay. No matter what happens."
Martin leaves Nate alone in the living room and goes to make dinner.
After a few moments, Nate walks outside and sits down on the front lawn, alone.
"No matter what happens, I promise you, everything will be okay. No matter what happens." Martin says in Nate's mind that plays out on repeat. Over and over again.
"Oh man. What am I going to tell my friends?" Nate asks to himself, unaware of a flying object that's about to hit him.
Thunk!
The object knocked Nate out for a few seconds and he turned to see what the source was that hit him in the head. It was a frisbee which rolled right beside Nate and laid flat on the ground. He then turned to see who threw the Frisbee. It was his friends, Francis Pope, Teddy Ortiz and Dee Dee Holloway.
"My apologies, Nate," Francis said nervously, hoping that Nate wouldn't blow up on his best friend.
"Though, you will need to do better than that in the Mud Bowl," Teddy chimed in.
The trio sits down beside Nate.
"Tell us about peer counseling. Did the three of you have lots and lots of group hugs?" Teddy asks Nate.
Everyone laughed. Except for Nate. He wasn't in the mood to do so.
"That… that never really happened. Sorry," Nate mumbled.
"What's wrong, Nate?" Dee Dee asks with deep concern.
"Nothing. Nothing," Nate replied back.
The thought of telling his best friends that he might be moving to California put a really ugly turn in Nate's stomach. He didn't know if they would take it so well. They might get upset about it and probably offer support too.
So Nate decided to change the subject.
"So… how was practice?" Nate asked his friends.
"Practice was fun," Francis replied.
Dee Dee cleared her throat and said with a warm smile: "Speaking of practice, I got news for you. It's a surprise. Ruby and I had a little talk after practice...and just as I thought, she likes you. She said you're nice, she loves your sense of humor, she thinks you're cute, she even loves your hair!"
While Dee Dee was saying this, she wraps her arms around Nate in a big hug.
"So this girl is literally one in a million," Teddy cracks. Everyone laughed. Except for Nate. Again.
The girl whom Nate had a crush on recently is Ruby Dinsmore. Nate gave up on his other crush, Jenny Jenkins, after finally figuring out that she hated him since 1st Grade. Though Nate promised he would never give up on Jenny, it took him about 5 years of constant rejection and Ruby moving into the neighborhood to finally give in to the reality that Jenny disliked him and didn't want to be his girlfriend. And if it wasn't for the California plan, Nate would have been very excited to learn that Ruby likes him. But unfortunately, the California plan seemingly interrupted that excitement for Nate. So he decided to at least explain why he wasn't happy at the moment.
But whenever he tried to speak, laughter kept Nate from telling the news about the recent news he was given by his dad.
After trying to talk several times, Nate finally shouted: "Guys! Let me talk for one second!"
That shout Nate gave stopped the laughter.
"Nate, what's your deal?" asks Francis.
"I was trying to speak, but you guys weren't listening to me," Nate replied angrily.
That's when Dee Dee started giving Nate the blank stare. Nate noticed this.
"What are you doing?" he asks Dee Dee.
"Not talking to you until you calm down," she replied.
"Why?"
No reply. Just a blank stare.
And the more Dee Dee gave the blank stare, the more Nate got really mad.
"Are you even listening to me? I was trying to speak, but you weren't listening to me!"
That's when Dee Dee got an idea.
"Hey Francis and Teddy, how was your day at school?" she asks.
"Pretty good. How was your day at school?" Francis asks in response.
"Mine was great! I'm betting that Nate and Ruby would make a great couple, but let's hope that Nate doesn't have a big temper tantrum all the time..." Dee Dee responded but got cut off by a very angry Nate.
"Temper Tantrum? WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT ME HAVING A BIG TEMPER TANTRUM?" Nate shouts.
That's when Dee Dee had another idea.
"Hey guys, I have another idea. Let's leave Nate alone until he calms down, shall we?" she asks Nate's friends.
Francis and Teddy agreed. The trio then left despite Nate demanding them to come back, then after a few moments, Nate went inside his house in anger and closed the door behind him and had his back leaning towards it. And after a brief moment, a few tears were slowly coming out of Nate's eyes.
"Fine, I never needed you at the moment anyway," Nate thought to himself.
Nate's back then slowly slid down the door, and Nate made his way close to his knees and put his hands on his face and sobbed for quite awhile.
And after a while, Nate ate dinner with his dad and sister in silence. No one was talkative at the table and didn't bother speaking a word to each other. And after dinner, Nate went upstairs to his room, closed his curtains (unaware that Francis was trying to communicate with him), and sat on his bed. That's when Nate started noticing how messy it really is.
"Maybe I should clean it up," Nate says to himself. And he did. While he does this, Nate steps on a piece of paper. But not just a piece of paper, it was…
"My social studies assignment," Nate says as he picks up the paper and looked at it. It had sloppy handwriting and food stains covered all over the paper (almost).
"Why can't you be more like your sister?" Nate's teacher, Mrs. Godfrey asks in Nate's mind.
"Because I AM a slob," Nate replies to Mrs. Godfrey's question in his mind.
"But I will change. For real, this time."
*Done. That's chapter 1, folks. I will continue soon but feel free to comment in the review section. So long! ;)