I've seen a fic something like this before, but for the life of me I can't remember what it was called. That fic was for Sweden/ Finland/ Sealand/ Ladonia, not America/ states, though. I just felt like writing something like it. Thanks and enjoy Noisy Neighbors.
Noisy Neighbors
Ms. Jennings was a quiet woman. She loved spending weekend afternoons resting on her back porch, just listening to the birds. Everyone weekend for years had gone along the same way.
But then the Jones moved in next door.
At first, Ms. Jennings hadn't thought anything of it. Sure, they seemed to be a large family, but one of the boys came over the afternoon after they moved in and assured her they wouldn't be much trouble to the sleepy neighborhood. She knew by the end of the week that he had been lying out his teeth.
Hardly a day went by that one of the children weren't shouting at another. Ms. Jennings even thought she heard a gun go off a few times, though she never called the police. And what was stranger still was the sheer amount of children living there, but not once did she ever see their parents.
One day she finally couldn't ignore them any longer. Someone had hit a baseball straight through her kitchen window. It wasn't the first time that it had happened, but Ms. Jennings was going to make sure it was the last. She grabbed her jacket, slipped on her shoes, and hurried to the house just down the street a ways. There were some things that had to be said.
When she knocked on the door, she heard a loud crash from the other side. Then there was a bunch of shouting. And some cursing. And a few cries. And someone shouting for them to be quiet. What was going on in there?
Finally someone opened the door. Ms. Jennings saw a young girl, maybe five years of age, wearing something very close to a hula girl's costume. She looked up at her with wide eyes.
"Hi!" she giggled. "Who're you?"
"I'm Ms. Jennings," she introduced. "Are your parents around?"
The little girl titled her head in thought. "Mommy's not here, but Daddy's in 'is office," she said cheerfully. "I go get 'im."
Without another word, the little girl closed the door in the woman's face. Ms. Jennings heard the pitter-patter of tiny feet rushing away. Well that was rude. She stood there, just waiting, until the door opened again. This time, a young man, around fifteen, was standing there.
"Sorry about her," he apologized. "My little sister doesn't know what to do if anyone shows up. Come on inside, Dad will be down in a minute."
Ms. Jennings followed the boy into the largest living room she had ever stepped foot in. There were at least ten couches dotting the room, a table and TV in front of each. The boy led her to the nearest one before sitting down on the table, facing her.
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Ms. Jennings. Yours?"
"Ma –um, Anthony," he said nervous.
He had obviously started saying something else, but what? Before Ms. Jennings could question him about it, a girl around the same age as Anthony ran into the room with a murderous look on her face. Ms. Jennings noticed that a few bright colors were dyed in her hair.
"MASSHOLE! YOU'D BETTER GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON WHY I SHOULDN'T –oh."
"Hey Ava," Anthony greeted through clenched teeth. "This is Ms. Jennings, our neighbor."
Ava grinned nervously at the woman. "Hi, Ms. Jennings. Sorry, I didn't know yous were here. Um, I've gotta go. It was nice to meet yous!"
With that, Ava ran out of the room faster than she had run in. Anthony glanced back at Ms. Jennings.
"My sister is a bit crazy," he admitted. "Sorry."
"It's quite alright," she allowed. "So, when will your father be here?"
"Well, Ha –Lulu ran to get him about a minute ago, so he should be here any second."
There he went again with the misnaming. What had he really meant to say? But again before she could say anything, someone else walked into the room. The little girl from before, Lulu, was tugging someone into the room. He looked like he might've been in his early twenties, had bright blue eyes, messy blonde hair, and a pair of wire-rimmed glasses perched on his nose.
"Hi, you must be Ms. Jennings," he greeted. Anthony hopped up from his seat so the other boy could sit down. "I'm Alfred."
"Hello Alfred," Ms. Jennings nodded. "So, where is your father?"
"My father?" Alfred sputtered in astonishment.
"Well, you're too young to be the children's father," she stated.
"Ma'am, have you ever heard of adoption? Legally, all the kids are mine."
Ms. Jennings proceeded to apologize before Alfred stopped her.
"It's fine; people think they're my siblings all the time. Now, why'd you come over?"
"It's about the baseball that was thrown from your yard earlier today," she explained. "It crashed right through my kitchen window."
Alfred's eyes widened in shock. "They told me the ball only went into your yard," he said. "I can't believe they lied to me!"
Without another word, the man stormed out of the room, yelling out a few names. Not three minutes later, he came back in with two children in tow.
"Abigail, Alistair, apologize to Ms. Jennings right now," he demanded.
"Sorry," they deadpanned in unison.
"Dad, I was just trying to teach Aly to hit a baseball," the girl, Abigail, protested.
"That doesn't matter. Ms. Jennings," Alfred said, turning back toward the woman "I'm really sorry for what they did. They'll help fix the window, I promise."
"Seriously?" the shorter of the two, the boy, complained. "I can't even reach the top of a window!"
"Yeah, Aly is too short," another girl commented, walking passed the door to the living room.
"Jessica! Be nice to your brother!"Alfred demanded.
How many children did this man adopt? Ms. Jennings questioned him, who looked anywhere but at her.
"Um, a lot," he said vaguely. "So, when should the kids be there to fix your window?"
"Whenever it's convenient, I suppose," Ms. Jennings said.
The two of them talked for a little while longer before the woman had to head home.
Two days later, Abigail and Alistair were over at Ms. Jennings' house to fix her window. The only problem was Alistair couldn't reach it.
"I'll give you a leg up," Abigail suggested. She locked her fingers, letting Alistair stand on her hands.
"Ready? One, two, three!" she called, lifting her hands quickly. Too quickly as it turned out, since Alistair went flying backwards and landing halfway across Ms. Jennings' yard.
"Oof!" he groaned as the wind was knocked out of him.
"Sorry bro," Abigail apologized. "Come on, we've got to fix this stupid window or Dad will make us do the dishes and the laundry for the rest of the month."
With that hanging over their heads, the two teens got the window replaced within an hour.
"Done!" Alistair grinned. "I can't believe we only needed a fifteen foot ladder."
"Well, how tall did you need the ladder? You're what, four-three, four-four?"
"I'm five-one."
"Whatever."
Just as Alistair was about to hit Abigail, a gunshot sounded from their yard.
"Get back here, damn rainbow boy!"
Abigail laughed. "Poor Angelo. He must've pissed off Austin again."
Okay, lots of OCs. Whoops. Here's who's who:
Ms. Jennings: Just a random old lady
Lulu: Hawaii
Anthony: Massachusetts
Ava: New Jersey
Abigail: New York
Alistair: Rhode Island
Jessica: Maine
Angelo: California
Austin: Texas
I think that's everyone. Thanks for reading!
~C