Hey hi! This is my first time ever doing a fic. So please be nice and I'm open for constructive Criticism. But no flames!! Review please!
Chapter One
The baby, the house and the dragon
"Guess what? We're moving!"
We all stared at her like she had gone crazy. Mom looked perfectly contented and ignored our looks of disbelief at her. I looked at her large belly. Her navel looked ready to pop any second. She was pregnant with her first boy and had caused a huge ripple, acting like guys were total heaven to have.
"He's been kicking all day! Gonna be a total jock when you grow up eh?" Mom jabbered proudly. "Gonna be one hell of a soccer player eh, Ronaldo?"
She hung her head over her swollen tummy as if she was waiting for an answer. "Yes, Mommy!"" she answered back in this squeaky baby voice.
"You're crazy mom! What's so the bid deal about guys anyway?!" My sister Saphaela grunted as she swung her arm out as if to knock every man's head off his neck just for being male. Saphaela was fourteen but she was incredibly tough and a feminist also. She could get the better of men of all ages and she would always have the last laugh. She had short spiky brown hair and glinting clever dark eyes and she was the tallest out of us Metcalfe girls, even taller than mom or Danike. She had a pierced nose, something I had always longed for but was too scared to get. I know it isn't right to have favourites in the family, but mine would be Saphaela.
"Cut it out, Saph!" my eldest sister Danike snapped as she snatched her coffee up to safety. She was sixteen years old and claimed that that made her an adult and she could do whatever she wanted, when she wanted. She looked identical to mom, only she tried her very best not to. Danike had mom's lovely thick blonde hair, but she dyed it black. Mom would wear miniskirts and contacts, Danike would wear fashionable glasses and skinny jeans. Low-slung so you could see her underwear if you were rude enough to do so in the first place.
"Why don't we all cut it out," mom said calmly. She had pink patches on her cheeks and that was the warning sign. She caught me staring at her belly. "Quit staring at my belly, Mercy!"
"How can she stop staring. It's so gross!" Saph exclaimed as she took a bite of toast.
"Oh, shit it's moving!" My older sister Tanelle squealed. Tanelle's only twelve, but she looks much older. She likes to look at herself quite a lot. But I'd probably do that too if I were as pretty as her. She looks like a negative Alice. She had long dark hair down to her waist. Poker straight and not a single split end or flaw in it. She had big, soulful green eyes and pouty pink lips like those dopey loveheart candy. She got a lot of those last Valentine's Day. She looks at herself while she makes up dance routines and sings. Most of the time, I hate her guts.
"Language, Tannie! This is so lame, mom! Why do we even have to move anyways when we've been playing musical chairs all over the freaking district!" Danike wailed.
We'd been all over North and South Block. South Block sucked because it didn't have proper heating and we found a dead dog in some long forgotten wardrobe. We then got placed at the bottom of North Block, but mom got in a fight with everyone on the bottom floor and people complained. It was alright to get moved though. Mine and Saph's bedroom had bugs in it during the summers and we froze to our deaths during the winters. But then we got placed at the top of North Block. That was when things seemed to be going our way for once.
Danike liked living on the top floor. Her boyfriend Tom lived right next door to us in number 148. She would generally hang out there so Tanelle would have their room to herself. She could dance about pretending to be a singer and watch herself in the mirror while perfecting dance moves. That was a reason why she liked living on the top floor. Saphaela liked living on the top floor because she found this trap door which lead us to the top of the building itself. That was where everyone beybladed. I don't wish to boast or anything, but I was pretty good. Well I'm certainly the best out of my sisters. Danike says its a childish toy and totally infantile, Saphaela would do it, but she's got skyrocketing and fighting to do with a bunch of guys who wanna get up onto her territory up in the top floors. I liked living on the top floors. We had a nice view of the city, even though we don't live in the prettiest parts. Me and Dratido, my bitbeast/mascot would stare out the huge windows and pretend we were flying over the rooftops and over the ocean. Over to Sangria, where Dratido was born.
Dratido's my dragon, it's got earth powers and I sewed a simple plush toy that looked a bit like it. I carry it up the sleeve of my hoodie everywhere I go. I give its wings a stroke every now and then. I needed to stroke her now because Danike and Saphaela and Tanelle were all yelling and I knew it bothered Dratido.
"We can't leave this apartment! Not when Tom helped us pretty our rooms up!" Danike yelled, she was acting as if Tom had done a whole Interior design makeover. But all he did was paint her and Tanelle's room, two walls black and two walls pink. It 'balanced' things with Tanelle and Danike.
"We wanna stay here! North Block rocks! South Block just sucked! And so did Central! North's my territory!" Saphaela argued as she tore the crust of her toast viciously with her big teeth.
"I got my room just the way I liked it!" Tanelle wailed. She glared her green eyes at Mom. "This is so lame! You never think about me, Mom! Besides, we'll never get an apartment as awesome as this! Especially not in this district!"
"You are totally right, Tanelle!" Mom said suddenly. She closed her eyes and then looked at us which made us all shut it, even Saphaela.
"We're not getting a better apartment in this district. We're moving, alright? Nothing you say or do can make me change my mind! We have to act on it! My tarot cards and the wheel of fortune has spoken! It's time for a new beginning!" Mom's eyes were shining, she looked like she had forgotten that we were there.
"Ugh, you and that pointless fortune-telling! You're like - what? Those Roma ladies! A gypsy! My fortune's right next door!" Danike exclaimed angrily, the anger-dimples on her chin had appeared, I sidled up close to Saphaela, scared that Danike was going to let rip.
"There aren't many good vibes here, honey," Mom replied soothingly as she reached out to pat Danike's hand. Danike just slapped it away.
"Oh yeah...and who's stupid fault was it to get herself knocked up again?!" Saphaela spat.
"I can't help fate, honey. It's all in the stars," Mom looked up smiling as if the entire Solar system and the Milky Way was shining across our grotty living room ceiling.
"We did a project last week on the stars at school. I didn't do so well in it. My compass went wonky and everything went wobbly," I commented.
"I did that project when I was in Fourth Grade. I got an A," Tanelle bragged.
"You just always have to brag at any given moment, don't you Tannie?!" I snapped. "Who cares about your dumb A Grades."
I cared. I cared a hell lot. It was totally unfair that Tanelle got to be really hot and really smart. Saphaela wasn't that hot, but she was smart as hell, even though she flunked on purpose during school. Danike was hot but not so big in the Brains department. I was plain, and more people think I'm an idiot than I am smart.
"Pipe down, girls. Now listen up, we're going to have a fresh start. We're leaving this hellhole altogether!" Mom said as she clapped her hands together as if to seal the deal.
"We so aren't!" Saphaela responded, as she folded her arms. "You can't make us!"
"I can. And I will," Mom said as she waved a letter in front of our noses. We just thought it was some bill or something like that which Mom never bothered about. We didn't really pry into the fact that Mom was actually reading a letter for once. Saphaela thought it was something about her pregnancy. Tannell thought it might have been one of our fathers coming back into contact with us. I didn't create a theory, I just wandered why she had't crumpled it up and thrown it in to the garbage can as usual.
Danike swiped the letter.
"The Abba District?" she read.
"Isn't it just wonderful?" Mom remarked as she flopped back even further on her sofa. "See Saphaela? It's fate."
"Holy crap! This place is in Ohio! How can I see Tom?!" Danike yelled.
"You've been seing way too much of that guy!" Mom snapped. "You're too young to get serious."
"Oh well that's rich coming from you! When you had me when you were what?? Sixteen!"
"That's just my point. I know what I'm doing!"
"You're moving us all to some dustball in Ohio just split Tom and I up?!" Danike said as her face started to crumple and tears started falling down her face.
"Oh for Pete's sake! Quit being a Drama queen and don't get your panties in a bunch! You just think that the whole universe revolves around you and Tom! Well it doesn't! I'm doing this for all of us. We need a bigger place now that you're going to have a baby brother!" Mom stroked her stomach as if she was soothing it. She yelled at us as if we had begged for a brother. We'd all been freaked out and ashamed when she told us she was pregnant. Again.
"You can't get bigger than three-bedroom flats! Not ones which don't cost like our arms and legs!" Saphaela grunted.
"I've got my bedroom wall in the perfect 'hot men' collage! I'll ruin it if I tear it down," Tanelle whined.
"You can make another one. You'll have tons of space. This is a house! With a our own individual rooms with a couple extra. And our own garden too!" Mom emphasised.
We all did a double take on the house part. We did a triple take on the garden part. I clutched Dratido as I took this all in.
"Will we be allowed pets?" I asked delicately.
"Yes, Mercedez."
"Real ones? Lizards?" I asked getting enthusiastic. I saw a whole rainforest before me, all these green lizards were there, flicking their tongues and tails maliciously at Tanelle and crawling up her legs and into her skirt, making her wiggle and squirm in all types of ways. They befriended me and brought me gifts of fruit and offerings of pretty leaves. Dratido quivered, trying to stretch out his forgotten legs.
"Mercedez! Shut your mouth! You look so gormless!" Mom snapped, snapping me out of my happy daydream altogether.
"Ok, if you're having a lizard...I'm having a big fluffy cat!" Tanelle declared as she tossed her dark hair, giving me a mouthful of hair, she had this malicious glint in her eyes. "I'll have lots of big fluffy white Persian cats. I'll call them Snow White, Sugar, Ivory and Cloud!"
Phantom cats, as huge as bears were now swatting my poor defenceless lizards away from Tanelle and pounced on my precious lizards. Saphaela cocked her head at me, she knew me too well to know that my imagination was working over time. She saw the warning sign when she caught me clutching my sleeve, trying to soothe poor Dratido.
"What are you talking about?!" Danike shrieked, she was still crying and her Hypnose mascara had run and looked like really messy gothic eyeliner. "This is insane! Dogs, cats and leaping lizards! We can't move! I WON'T!!"
"Oh yes you will!" Mom yelled back furiously. "Quit that yelling, Danike! I don't want my blood pressure going up! It's bad for my baby!"
"You and that fucking baby!" Danike yelled. We all blinked, Tanelle stopped tossing her hair arrogantly, Saphaela stopped crunching her toast and I stopped soothing Dratido.
"QUIT IT!" Mom yelled, she really looked furious, we didn't dare move. Tanelle uttered the awkward cough. "I'm not having it, you hear me? I know you're miserable because of Tom, but you can't really think that about your poor little baby brother!"
"Yes I do!" Danike screamed exasperately. "You're so selfish Mom! You act like none of us girls matter! You're just all over that freaking boy! But you're ruining all our lives! You should hear what they say about us in North block. In South! In Central! In this whole Goddamned district! What they say about YOU!"
"Well I won't have to hear it anymore. Because we're moving! You can give me trash talk all you want, but it's settled! It's signed and totally official!" Mom slammed the letter on the desk and in the process she hurt her hand.
"ARGH! Now look what you made me do!"
"GOOD!" Danike stomped out and took her denim jacket with her and slammed the door. Saphaela took a nervous bite of her toast.
"As if I give a shit about what those hauns say about me!" Mom muttered under her breath and sipping her coffee. "Anyways what have they been saying about me?"
I looked at Tanelle and Saphaela. Tanelle got her big mouth open, ready to spill the beans but Saphaela gave her a harsh kick on the shin.
"So this...Abba District?" Saphaela began, a diversion tactic. "How did you hear about it?"
People were always talking crap about her. But we've never said it to her, not even when we were mad enough to do so. But then, they always talked crap about us too. They called me a Vegetable. Tanelle a slut. Saphaela a psychopath. Danike a satanic goth.
"People were always saying stuff about it. Its blocks, especially its Anni Frid block. Where our house is!" Mom said proudly. "So I went down there to check it out. Turns out that there was a house available. So I went down to the council and did all the persuasive talk. Then when the girl at the council mentioned the Anni Frid block and I got this tight ache in my chest-"
"Indigestion," Saphaela mumbled.
"Intuition! I just knew it was the place for us, especially when she said that all four blocks had streets of houses with gardens for big families."
"Intuition...you forgot to pay for Mercedez's art tuitions!" Tanelle said suddenly. I glared at her. This was the tactic to make her remember about school and send us off.
"Oh yeah! And you three better go to school now! you're so late!" Mom said hurriedly.
"No point going," Saphaela said as she sipped orange juice. "Not if we're moving."
"You skive off half the time anyway, you rebel!" Mom joked half seriously and half playfully. "Well you can make yourself useful and go down to the supermarket and get as many cardboard boxes as you can. We'll need them for packing."
"I'm going to school!" Tanelle announced. "I'm telling all my friends that we're moving. We're really going to live in a proper house with a garden? Can I have my own room? It sucked when I always had to share with Danike! And black is so...lame!"
We all shared. We started off as Danike and Saphaela and me and Tanelle. But that didn't work out. But Danike and Tanelle and Saphaela and me worked out perfect. But it was going to be totally awesome that we would have our own bedrooms.
"Can I have my own bedroom too, Mom? Can all of us?" I asked.
"We'll have to see, sweetie. Maybe. I don't know exactly how many rooms there are or how big they are."
"I call dibs on the biggest room!" We heard Tanelle's voice coming from her room as she tried to find a miniskirt.
"Hang on, Tanelle! I'll need the biggest room for me and the baby! I've been thinking about taking another loan out. I just can't stand those cheap second-hand mess! Who wants puked up clothes for their baby boy? I saw this absolutely cute cot in -"
Mom was off on her baby-boy rants. She'd be talking mothercare for the next hour or so. Saphaela yawned and poured herself some Froot Loops and put on an X-Files tape. She rolled up her sleeves and ruffled her hair into its usual spiky style and kicked off her tall converse.
Tanelle packed her bag and rolled up her skirt, ostentatiously playing at being the good girl.
"So, the planets are...Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn," I mused aloud. I was still thinking about the planets.
"You left out Pluto and Uranus, moron!" Tanelle cackled wildly at the 'Uranus' part.
"Yeah well who in their right minds would want to name a planet after Mickey Mouse's dog and something where crap comes out of!" I said. "So what's the last planet?"
"Earth, dope! The planet we live on? Though you're generally on a different planet altogether, Mercedez! Planet Crazy," Tanelle sneered as she stuck her pointy pink tongue out at me. I glared my turqouise eyes at her.
"Oh, hold the phone, Tanelle! Take Mercedez with you!"
"Oh for Pete's sake! I haven't got time to do a frigging bus service, mom! I'm late!"
"I don't wanna go! There's no point, like Saph said. Not now if we are moving!" I complained.
"You'll get my ass in trouble, Mercy," Mom said. But I batted my eyes at her and did my 'poor little me' lip. Mom rolled her eyes mock-exasperately.
"Ok, fine you got me! You can stay off school, Mercedez," Mom sighed.
"YAY!"
"Why don't you like school, huh?" I shurgged, there wasn't much point getting started into the topic.
"Who's your teacher? Is she giving you a hard time? LKook you just tell her it ain't your fault that you'r heads up in the clouds all the time. It's just the way you were born." It wasn't the teacher, it was the other kids. Beyblading wasn't much of a fad in my school. In fact no one knew but me. People thought me a loon for wanting to play with a spinning top. This girl, Stacy Hardstaff, had spotted me whispering into my hoodie cuff and she pounced on Dratido. She told everyone in my year and they all stuck their tongues out, imitating lizards and screwed their fingers into their foreheads and called me Lizardbrain. I would have corrected them, telling them that Dratido was a dragon, not a lizard, but a lizard was the closest thing to it.
"Well you'll be at a new school once we live in Anni Frid. I always admired Anni Frid the most out of Abba. What about Fridlin for the baby's name?" Mom suggested.
"If you call him Fridlin he'll be mocked for life, Mom," Saphaela called in between bites.
"Call him Justin...or Brad," Tanelle said as she came out of the bathroom sticking of perfume. "Or Johnny. Or Collin."
"I want something really special. Unusual," Mom mused aloud.
"What other actors do I like?" Tanelle wondered aloud. "I know! Baby Orlando!" She hooted with laughter and rushed off to school. I sighed and started to plait Mom's hair.
"Help me think up a good name, Mercedez. I tried real hard with you girls. You're all so lucky - totally individual. Unique! There aren't many Danikes or Saphaelas or Tanelles or Mercedezes here! I'm stuck with boring old Susan/Sue. There's millions of Sues!"
"There's only one of you, Mom!" I said as I finished one plait and tied it with a ribbon from the gifts drawer and added some paperclips to it.
"What are you doing to me? Turning me into...who is she? Pocahantas?" Mom asked laughing. This gave me an idea.
"Hey you could spell your name differently. S-I-O-U-X. Like the Indian tribe. Talk about unique!" I said proudly.
"Well that's great idea, Mercedez!"
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