"Mom! Where's my new sweater? I left it on the couch!" Ally thumped down the stairs into the kitchen, where her mother was putting away dishes from lunch.
"Um…" her mother didn't even look up. "I moved a pile of stuff from the couch to the laundry room earlier. Check in there." Ally thanked her and turned to leave the room, but was stopped by her mother's voice from behind her. "Oh, Ally! I forgot to mention that the family next door is moving in today! They have a son about your age. If you get the chance, you should go over and say hello."
Ally made a face at the wall in front of her where her mother couldn't see. She was less than enthusiastic about the new family. The couple that used to live there had been the nicest people, and had a young child that was adorable. As far as Ally was concerned, there was no one that could match up to them, and she was still upset that they had to go. She offered her mother a half-hearted acknowledgment, and left to find her sweater.
"I'm serious! I want to go somewhere today. There's been nothing but noise at my house all day! There's moving vans pulling in and out, and they're just leaving boxes all over the place! I don't want to stay here. Can we go to the mall? Please?" Ally was lying on her bed, staring out her window at the house next door. The place reminded her of an anthill, what with the constant stream of people in and out. She rolled her eyes, and focused back on her phone conversation with her friend Trish. "Yeah. Can you come pick me up in fifteen minutes? Ok, see you soon". Ally rolled off her bed as she hung up the phone with one last glance out the window. Wait… Was that… Ally squinted and hopped back up on her bed right next to the window. A new truck had just pulled up and they were unloading a piano and drum set from the back. Looking harder, she could see the glint of metal on the inside of the truck, signifying the presence of other musical instruments.
Her interest was piqued, but she shook it off. She had no interest in getting involved with any of the members of the new family, whatever musical interest there might be.
The sun was setting when Trish dropped Ally off at her house. Ally called a goodbye to her friend as the car pulled away, and Ally hoisted her shopping bags up onto her shoulder.
"Hey, Ani, come back!" Suddenly, something catapulted itself into Ally's side, knocking her over. The shopping bags fell on the ground next to her, items spilling out onto the grass. As Ally tried to push herself back up, she realized there was a person lying on top of her.
"Ani- Oh, I'm so sorry. She's just so excited…" Hands lifted the body off of Ally and placed what Ally now realized was a little girl on her feet. Then, someone offered a hand to Ally to help her up. She looked up, and found herself staring into the bluest eyes she had ever seen. She grasped the hand, and allowed the boy to pull her up. Once she was on her feet again, she dusted herself off, and straightened her shirt, before looking up at the boy, who was rubbing his hand on the back of his neck, looking embarrassed.
She looked closer at him. He was tall, probably over six feet, with blond hair. Overall, he looked like the athletic, surfer type. The little girl looked like a younger, female version of him, with her blond hair held up in a ponytail, and her bright blue eyes that were bright and excited.
"It's ok, no harm done!" She offered him a small smile.
He grinned back at her. "Hi. I'm Austin Moon, and this is Anika. We just moved into the house right over there".
Ally's smile faltered a little, but if there was one thing she was not, it was impolite. She wouldn't be rude to this boy who had just helped her out.
"I'm Ally Dawson. We live in this house here. Guess we're neighbors." She grinned down at the little girl who was now hiding behind Austin's leg. "Hi Anika!"
Austin reached down and lifted the girl into his arms. Anika whispered something in his ear so that Ally couldn't hear, and Austin grinned at her as she buried her face in his shoulder.
"Can you say hello to Ally? She's our new neighbor!" Austin told Anika.
The little girl shyly peeked out from Austin's shoulder and whispered "Hi Ally", before hiding her face again.
"Hi Anika", Ally replied with a smile. She turned back to Austin. "She's adorable."
"She is, isn't she? She's five years old". Austin set Anika down and whispered something in her ear. Anika looked up at Ally shyly and then turned and ran back toward her house.
"Sorry again about earlier. She's been racing around the house all afternoon, and Dad told me her take her outside so she wouldn't hurt herself on all the stuff that's lying around the house right now."
"It's fine. I'm not hurt". Ally smiled at Austin, and then leaned down to pick up the fallen shopping bags. Austin crouched down and began to help her put some of the things back into bags. Suddenly, he froze. Ally looked up to see that his eyes had grown wide.
"What?" She glanced down to see that he was holding a stack of paper, which she realized was some of her new piano sheet music.
"I love these songs!" He flipped through the music, and his eyebrows rose. "Wow, this is some pretty hard stuff. You play?"
Ally nodded, and tucked some hair behind her ear, a little embarrassed. "Yeah. I've played piano for a really long time. I play some other stuff too, but piano's my favorite. What about you?"
"I play all kinds of instruments. I play piano, guitar, violin, plus lots of other stuff. I can even play a trumpet through another trumpet!"
Ally laughed. "I would love to see that!"
She could feel herself warming up to this boy already. At this moment, she couldn't remember exactly why she had been determined not to like this family. It couldn't have been a good reason.
Austin shoved the papers back into the bag he was holding, and then lifted the rest of the bags over his shoulder, ignoring Ally's protests that she could take some.
"It's the least I can do, after I was the reason that you dropped them. Come on!" He started down the long driveway towards her house, not giving Ally the chance to point out that it was his sister, not him who had run into her.
They reached her front door, Ally having to take two steps for every one of Austin's, even when he was carrying multiple heavy bags.
"Thanks." She turned to him.
"No problem. Glad to help!" He handed her the bags. "By the way, do you go the Marino High? Apparently that's where I'm starting on Monday."
"Yeah. I'm a junior there this year," she replied.
"Awesome! Me too. See you around then!" Austin grinned at her, and then shoved his hands in his pockets and walked off back down the driveway.
Ally turned towards her door and fiddled with the handle, unsuccessfully trying to stop the smile that was seemingly permanently plastered on her face.