Author's Note:
Hello! A new story from me. Please be aware that the English used in this story is Australian. If you think it's a spelling error, then it might not be. Now that that's out of the way, enjoy this story and leave reviews if you liked it and even if you didn't.
-Chapter One-
As far as I could remember, the house across the street had remained vacant. No one was too sure why it stayed so. My younger sisters, in their infinite boredom, liked to make up stories about the house. Their favourite story involved a forbidden love and a loss that threatened to tear the two lovebirds apart – a typical mushy romance novel plot. Of course, there was a logical explanation for the vacancy.
No one could afford it.
The global financial crisis had pretty much killed any chance of the house being sold. There wasn't much money floating around – people preferred to save what little cash they had – and the housing market had taken a pretty big hit.
"Lizzie."
We lived in a considerably wealthy neighbourhood; there was no graffiti, all the lawns were lush and green, and almost every house had a pool.
"Lizzie."
Even if our house did look like it belonged on the cover of one of England's most prestigious home and garden magazines, no amount of glamour could ever make my family seem any more than middle class.
"Lizzie."
With the sole exception of Jane. I used to always think she was adopted because-
"Elizabeth Grace Bennet!"
The use of full names in our home always signalled the bringer of bad tidings whose name was 'mom'.
"Oh, mom!" I said, "I didn't know you were standing there."
She stood at the door of my room – strange, I thought I closed that – with a dishcloth in one hand and a ladle in the other. She liked to cook. A lot. She was a plump little woman, standing at just under my chin with wiry blonde hair and sharp blue eyes.
"Well, of course you didn't. I had to call your name four times before you replied."
Not wanting to start an argument with her because of her abundant amount of irrationality, I simply sighed.
"What did you need mom?"
"Did you hear the news? Someone has finally decided to buy that house across the street."
I pretended to be interested in the hopes of her leaving my room soon. "Really? Maybe you should go and tell dad the news. I'm sure he'd love to hear it."
Her eyes lit up at the prospect of constant talk – mainly from her – and she was out the door before I could tell her where my father was.
It was mean spirited of me to sick my mom on my poor defenceless dad and a sense of guilt welled up in the pit of my stomach. It was soon replaced with mild satisfaction when I recalled an incident involving him, my now ex-boyfriend and my grandfather's old hunting rifle. Needless to say, it was an awkward night at the hospital emergency room.
I still hadn't forgiven him for that.
I had a few moments peace before I heard footsteps racing up the stairs. Two sets of feet. I groaned in agony as Kitty and Lidia ambled into my room, jumped on my bed and proceeded to destroy my immaculately made covers.
Damn it. Now I'd have to tidy it up again.
"Lizzie, Lizzie! Did you hear?"
I always found it creepy how in sync they were with each other – they dressed similarly and acted similarly. They even sounded the same. People often mistook them for twins until either Jane or I told them they were separated by a year.
"About the house being sold? Sorry, but mom was in here earlier and told me." They pouted at me. I chose to ignore them. "If you're finished, can you two leave? I need to finish this report for Monday."
"Well, that was part of our news," Kitty said. She leaned forward, an eager glint in her eye. "I heard that the house was bought by this really rich family-"
"-and that they have a really cute son." That was Lidia. She liked to butt into people's conversations and take over. I guess it was something she picked up from mom.
"Yeah, so?" I asked, turning my back to them to focus on this god awful report.
"Lizzie," they said in a whiny toddler tone before Lidia continued, "you don't get it? A boy! Living across the street from us."
"Yeah," Kitty said, nodding her head far too enthusiastically for my liking, "I hope he's our age. Can you just imagine?"
The two giggled to each other, no doubt imagining a handsome prince riding them away into the sunset. I just rolled my eyes. They were only teenagers – Kitty turned fifteen last spring and Lidia was still just fourteen – so I could at least forgive them for their idiotic behaviour. I was a teenager once myself.
"I'd rather not imagine anything other than the writings of Aristotle for this stupidly long report."
"You're so boring Lizzie," Lidia said as she grabbed Kitty's hand and ran out of my room, "you're gonna age really badly if you keep being such a prude."
Running my hand through my hair, I let out yet another sigh. This family was going to be the death of me. At least I finally had a bit of peace and quiet.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on the way I look at it), my peace was broken by my phone ringing. Grunting in frustration, I reached over to the night stand and flipped it open. When my eyes read the caller ID, my eyes lit up in the same fashion my mom's had previously. In big bold letter flashed the name 'Jane'.
Squealing like a little girl – Kitty and Lidia would be so proud of me – I eagerly pressed the little green button and held the phone up to my ear.
"Jane!"
A light, feathery laugh wafted through the ear piece before I heard the all too familiar voice of my older sister. "Hey Lizzie. How are you?"
"Not too bad. This essay is killing me though and I haven't had a moment's peace at all."
"Really? Why?"
"Well, mom's being her normal gossipy self. Kitty and Lidia are as talkative and hyper as ever and dad's been shutting himself in the study again because of the gun incident. All in all, the usual stuff."
"Aw, poor Lizzie. Why don't you go to the library or something? I bet it's a lot quieter there."
To be honest, the thought of a library never even occurred to me. I can be quite stupid sometimes. I gave a sheepish laugh as I imagined Jane shaking her head on the other side of the phone.
"Anyway, why are you calling? Not that I don't appreciate the normalcy of our conversations. Have I told you how much I've missed having you around?"
Jane laughed again before continuing. "Well, I called to say that I'm at the airport now."
It took a moment for my brain to process this new bit of information. "Huh?" I admit, it's not one of my most eloquent phrases.
"I'm at the airport and need a lift. I'm coming home."
The shock of the news hit me so hard that I actually fell from my swivel chair. I'd only ever seen that happen on television. Mom must've heard the noise I made and her curiosity made her come and investigate because I soon heard her all too familiar shrill voice from my doorway. Again.
"Lizzie! What in the world are you doing? You gave me such a fright. Come on, get up off the floor and next time please have some compassion for my poor nerves."
I didn't really care much about her 'poor nerves' as she liked to put it. I jumped from the floor and ran past my mom all the while keeping Jane on the line.
"Lizzie!" I heard her call as I bolted down the stairs. "Really, that girl is going to be the cause of my nervous breakdown. Lizzie, why are you in such a rush?"
Stopping my conversation with Jane, I turned to her just as I had opened the front door, car keys in hand. She stood at the top of the stairs, hands on her hips and an unhappy expression on her small face.
"I can't talk right now mom. Jane's coming home. She's at the airport now and I need to go and get her."
Mom blinked a few times before throwing her hands in the air and letting out an almighty scream. She ran down the stairs faster than I had ever seen her run and practically pushed me out the door.
"Well, why didn't you say so earlier? Go on, hurry up. Jane must be dying to come home. Oh what joyous news! Lidia, Kitty! Great news!"
I laughed to myself as I closed the door behind me. My mom was right; it was a joyous occasion.
Jane was finally coming home.