"I hear the mother is hoping to become vice-principal." Forte commented.
"Well, let's hope she's better then the last one." Cherry said.
"You got that right." Forte agreed with his eternal wife.
Mo knocked on the door with her free hand before she put it back under a tray she had brought to welcome the new neighbors with.
"Aw, Mom, can't we have one snickerdoodle?" Akito begged. "They won't notice on missing!"
"And then one becomes another one and another one and another one..." Mo teased since her baked goods were always hard to resist.
"Fine." Akito pouted.
"Why did you have to be such a good cook?" Estelle cried melodramatically.
"I just am." Mo smiled.
"Hello? Anyone home?" Atticus called.
A woman with blonde hair soon opened the door. "Sorry about that, just discussing the arrangements with my son about living here." she smiled apologetically to her new neighbors.
"We understand." Mo said.
"Oh, what a big family you are..." the woman replied.
"We're all close friends actually." Atticus chuckled.
"Oh...That makes sense." The woman smiled.
"You seem like you could use some help moving in, ma'am," Akito said. "I'd be more than happy to do some heavy lifting."
"That's sweet, but I don't want you to get hurt with-" The woman was about to say, not knowing how strong he really was.
"I insist." Akito said.
"I'll help too." Atticus added.
"Oh, I don't know if-" The woman tried again.
Akito and Atticus carried the heaviest boxes they could find.
"Never mind." The woman said.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Monique Fudo, but you can call me Mo." Mo smiled and shook hands with the blonde woman.
"Nice to meet you too," the woman smiled back. "My name is Gale Cooper."
"Nice to meet you, Gale." Mo smiled.
"Likewise," Gale replied before calling out. "Zach, we got company! Your husband seems familiar." she then said to Mo.
"He's Detective Atticus Fudo," Mo informed. "With him is our younger son Akito."
"No wonder he's familiar." Gale said.
"That's me." Atticus smiled to the woman.
A young teenage boy soon came downstairs and saw that they had company.
"Hi." Vincent greeted to the teenage boy.
"Hey." the boy replied.
"This is my son, Zach," Gale introduced. "Gale, these are our new neighbors."
"How are you liking the neighborhood?" Forte asked.
Zach sighed as he felt indifferent. "Okay, I guess... My Aunt Lorraine is around here somewhere though, no doubt she'll come over to welcome us into the neighborhood."
"Chin up, son," Forte replied while Cherry rolled her eyes. "You'll feel adapted in no time... There is no place like home, even when you're ever so humble, but you will learn to like your new environment."
Cherry then clamped her hand up and down as she was even annoyed by Forte's lectures even as an adult.
"So where you from?" Estelle asked Zach and Gale.
"New York..." Zach sighed.
"SouthDale seems like a fun place to live in." Gale beamed brightly.
"Oh, it sure is." Vincent said.
"We didn't think we'd like it at first, but it's the best!" Estelle smiled, having color in her cheeks since it was in this neighborhood that she got to meet the boy of her dreams: Lee Clark.
"We should be friends." Felicity said to Zach.
"Oh, see?" Gale smiled to her son. "Moving here isn't so bad... You already have your own gang!"
"Yeah!" Vincent smiled.
Zach gave a small smile to the Fudo siblings and Felicity.
"Hey, Dad, watch this!" Akito smiled as he did a hand stand and carried the box on his feet.
"That's great, son, but be careful, the Coopers might have something important in there." Atticus warned.
"I am being careful." Akito said.
"Please stop goofing around..." Atticus replied before smirking. "Besides, that's nothing, watch this!" he then spun the box in his hand on the end of his fingertip like a basketball.
Akito and Atticus laughed as they messed with the family's boxes.
"Ahem!" Mo folded her arms with a smirk.
"Uh..." Atticus and Akito gulped before they stopped messing around.
Mo rolled her eyes at them.
"Uh, bad, Akito!" Atticus scolded. "I told you not to mess with Mrs. Cooper's valuables!"
"What?! But you joined in!" Akito told him.
Atticus smiled nervously.
"I can't leave you two alone." Mo sighed.
Akito could soon sense something in the house next to the Coopers. He rushed to the nearest window with the box in his hands. Atticus set the box down and apologized to his wife with a kiss.
"What is in that house?" Akito asked himself while looking out the window.
"You see something, son?" Atticus asked.
"There's something weird about the house next door." Akito said while pointing out the window.
"What do you sense?" Atticus asked.
"I don't know, but I can tell that there's something evil in there, but also something that feels lonely." Akito frowned.
"It can't be the same person..." Atticus replied. "Can you identify who it is?"
"A parent and a child, I think it's a father and daughter." Akito guessed.
"Okay, I doubt neither the father or the daughter are evil." Atticus said.
"Well, anyway, I can sense someone or something evil in there and something or someone is lonely in there." Akito said.
"Hmm..." Atticus hummed in thought. "This sounds like..."
"An investigation!" Atticus and Akito announced together like the father son detectives they've always wanted to be.
"Have they been waiting to do that?" Zach asked Mo.
"Oh, yeah, my husband and younger son are very close." Mo smiled to Atticus and Akito's bonding.
"Cherry, the song." Atticus summoned.
"No." Cherry flatly declined.
"Do it or else I'll reveal your most embarrassing moment." Atticus threatened.
Cherry narrowed her eyes with a glance to him, then looked back. "When there's a mystery, you know who to call... Atticus Fudo!... Father and son duo to solve them all... Akito Fudo!... A child kidnapped and is lost, A certain crime that pays the cost... Mysterious are easily solved by... Atticus Fudo!~"
This caused for Zach to start laughing at the song.
"Can I stop now?" Cherry begged Atticus.
"I don't know, Akito, do you think your Aunt Cherry should stop?" Atticus smirked.
"Keep going..." Akito smirked back.
"I will rip your beating hearts out of your chests and show them to your faces so you can see how blackened they are before you die." Cherry threatened.
"I think that's enough." Atticus said.
"Yeah, I agree, Dad." Akito added.
Cherry nodded firmly and then went away.
"Would she actually do that?" Zach asked Mo.
"It wouldn't surprise me..." Mo commented about Cherry's tendencies.
Felicity wandered around the house curiously as she was nervous and shy to talk with Zach like the others, she wasn't even sure what to say or do in this social situation.
"Hey." Zach replied to Felicity.
Felicity jumped slightly, then smiled to Zach and waved. "Oh, uh, hello."
"What's your name?" Zach asked.
"I am Felicity Precious Chantal Forte." Felicity gave her full name.
"You kind of look like Cherry." Zach said.
"She is my mother," Felicity replied. "Papa always said he saw Maman in me." she then smiled at the last part of spending time with her father as they got along very well, though it was mostly because he raised her for the first eight years of her life alone.
"I can tell, but let's hope you're not as scary as her." Zach said.
"I wouldn't hurt a fly..." Felicity replied. "Unless you are a bully."
Zach chuckled. "What kind of accent is that?"
"French," Felicity said. "It was just me and Papa for the first eight years of my life, though he is English, but the people around him were in France, especially Queen Belle."
"That's interesting." Zach said.
Felicity giggled sheepishly, she felt weird being alone with boys sometimes, especially Chip.
Soon enough, they were now inside of the kitchen. The others then went to meet them there and they were also going to meet another member of Zach's family on the way.
"Nice kitchen." Estelle said.
"Thanks, I guess..." Zach shrugged.
"It's bigger than our apartment." Gale chuckled.
"I think any house kitchens are bigger than apartments." Vincent said.
"We don't cook." Zach told his mother.
"Well, look at all this counter space to put the take-out and Mrs. Fudo's snickerdoodles on," Gale replied with a smile before pausing for a moment. "Do you hear that?"
"...No." Zach shook his head after not hearing a sound.
"Exactly." Gale smiled in relief.
However, as if on cue, a door slammed which made some of them jolt slightly.
"LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S MY SISTER GALE, ALONG WITH SPECIAL GUEST, NEPHEW ZACH!" a woman called out before coming into the room and reaching out for Zach. "Get in here with a hug!"
"Let me guess, you must be Lorraine." Mo smiled.
"That's me," The woman smiled back as she gave Zach a tight hug before hugging Gale. "Oh, my gosh... You're Detective Fudo's wife! You lucky, lucky girl!"
"I sure am." Mo said.
"Yeah, lucky I didn't have to marry him." Cherry muttered.
"Your aunt sure likes to hug." Akito commented to Zach.
"Yours doesn't?" Zach replied.
"Aunt Cherry doesn't do anything affectionate..." Akito sighed. "I often wonder how my dad could ever end up being friends with such a cold and black woman."
"Your Aunt Cherry doesn't usually show her emotions very much." Atticus told his youngest son.
"Oh, my gosh," Lorraine gushed to Zach. "He gets more handsome every time I see him. So good looking."
"Thank you, Aunt Lorraine." Zach replied.
"Oh, he's just a beautiful boy, thank God, because you were such an ugly baby." Lorraine then said.
"There it is." Zach replied.
"Oh, Lorraine..." Gale sighed to her sister.
"What? It's fine, he's handsome now," Lorraine defended. "It's not like he's gonna go ugly, handsome, and then back to ugly. No, the danger's past."
"Do you have anything else to say, madame?" Forte asked, slightly impatient and uncomfortable.
"Oh, I almost forgot," Lorraine reached into her purse for Zach. "I got a present for you because I'm a cool aunt," she then took out a hat for her nephew. "This is for my new signature mens' line."
"Uh..." Akito and Vincent said, unsure how to react of how the hat looked.
"Check it out!" Lorraine urged.
"Awesome...?" Zach replied, feeling slightly uncomfortable.
"If Rarity was here, I think she wouldn't want anyone to wear it." Cherry whispered to Forte.
Forte quietly chuckled as he imagined what it would be like if Rarity was here to see the 'fashionable hat'.
"It's limited edition, so you're not gonna see a lot of men wearing that hat." Lorraine warned her nephew.
"We can tell." Atticus said to her.
"Try it on and make sure it fits." Gale suggested to her son.
"I'm so glad I only wear bandannas." Akito smirked to himself.
Zach then forced himself into wearing the hat.
"Aw!" Gale and Lorraine cooed.
Vincent couldn't help but snicker.
"What're you laughing at? You wear a scarf." Estelle pointed to her brother's ascot.
"It's an ascot from Jenny!" Vincent glared.
"Whatever you say." Estelle shrugged.
"Hmph!" Vincent huffed and flaunted his ascot.
"Artists..." Akito and Estelle muttered together.
"Um, I'm gonna unload some boxes now and I'll see ya around." Zach told his mother and aunt so he could get away from them.
"Oh, honey, leave that hat on," Gale advised. "I don't want you to burn."
"I think he'll be alright with this hat." Atticus said as he brought out a hat that didn't as humiliating as the hat before.
Zach came outside to the moving van with his new hat on as he reached for a couple of boxes.
"Oh, Zach, look out!" Akito yelped as he spotted something about the bottom box.
"What?" Zach asked before the bottom box split open and its contents slipped out instantly.
"I think you were holding the box upside down." Akito said.
"Smooth..." a girl commented.
Zach looked to Estelle and Felicity who only shrugged as they hadn't said that.
"I think it was that girl in the window." Vincent said as he pointed to one of the windows that was opened at the house next Zach's.
"So, you're the new neighbor?" The girl asked Zach.
"Yeah, nice to meet you." Zach smiled.
"How long was the drive from New York?" The girl asked as she stood outside her window, but didn't leave the house.
"What gave it away?" Akito asked.
"I could just tell by the cool hat that he has..." the girl said shyly as she hid behind the window curtain slightly.
"Yeah, though his aunt's is not his favorite." Estelle commented.
"Well, it's still nice, because everybody gets to see you wearing it." The girl replied as she stayed inside.
"I'm Zach by the way." Zach greeted his next door neighbor.
"I'm Hannah." The girl gave her name.
The others were about to greet her.
"I gotta go." Hannah then quickly said and zipped away inside her home.
"Good talk..." Zach muttered.
There was then a man with short dark hair in dark clothes and round glasses.
"Uh, hello?" Akito greeted.
"Hi, hey, we're just moving in." Zach smiled politely to his other new neighbor.
The man seemed to emotionlessly stare at him.
"J-Just me and my mom..." Zach then added.
"Wow... He acts just like Aunt Cherry." Estelle whispered.
"But worse." Akito whispered back in agreement.
"Do you see the fence?" The man firmly asked Zach.
Zach was unsure how to answer him.
"Do... You... See... The fence?" The man slowly enunciated with a slight glare to Zach.
"Uh, yeah." Zach told him.
"Stay on your side of it!" The man warned Zach. "You all stay away from my daughter, you stay away from me, and we won't have a problem!" he then shut the curtains and walked off.
"Anyone else feel cold suddenly?" Vincent asked.
"I'm cold-blooded." Felicity misunderstood.
"Vincent means that guy just gave us the cold shoulder." Estelle said.
"Oh... Right... Sorry, expressions are confusing..." Felicity sighed.
"You're a lot better than when we first met you though." Estelle soothed.
"True." Felicity said.
