To's forest

While I'm walking up the stairs to the attick I'm screaming for Naruto : "C'MON MAN! You have to go with me, I can't carry it all myself!".

To locked himself in his room, he is probably drawing again. He starts to look more and more like dad. He used to sit with us all the time, but lately he has been isolating himself to draw in his room. Maybe it has something to do with his age...
Naruto has this big attick room with spiderwebs and stuff. Bu he also hangs other thing on his ceiling, or no, he makes things to hang on his ceiling. Thing which can fly, made of paper or cardboard or thing he found in other people's trashcans... they're really pretty. His bed is in front of this huge wall, allmost 25 feet long. Yes it is indeed a HUGE wall. On that wall he painted a forest. And every year more and more thing are to be seen in that forest. It's never done. There's a very dark and scary part of the forest, and a light part. In the dark part are scary monsters, dark creatures who would get a role in a horror movie without even auditioning. Dissolving bodies and half eaten scary shit... and a cross, on a small hill under a tree. That cross can actually make me cry. I don't like it that naruto put that cross there... it make's me shiver... But it's his forest not mine.
In the light forest all differend kinds of flowers are blooming, and a small creek with coloured fish is rushing trough it. There ar ebirds, butterflies, squirrels and rabbits. There are strawberry and raspberry bushes, and the grass is so green you can almost smell it.
When you're standing in front of the dark forest, you get the feeling of beeing lost in a nightmare. The light forest, on the other hand, makes you feel happy and you wish that you were really there and never had to go away again.
To moves his bed. When he's happy, it's in front of a piece of light forest. When he's pissed or sad, it's in front of the dark forest. Right now it is in front of a grey, scary part, with red angry eyes and lots of mist.
A few days ago I found dad in the dark forest... To painted him in just a day before. You have to watch pretty closesly to find him, but he's there. He's in front of the cross, sitting against a tree with an empty sheet op paper on his lap. It made me feel cold, and glad that dad never comes in To's room.

"C'mon To! I don't wanna go to the supermarket on my own! I mean... you're the cheff and I'm the idiot who always buys the wrong ingrediënts!?..."
"I'm only coming with you when we don't have to push the shopping kart home... I feel like an ass when doing that..." To yells back.
"I'll ask dad if he brings us with the car! Wil you come with me now?"
Naruto doesn't answer.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!" I yell. "I'M GOING IN!!"
When I ask him again, he just leans over his drawing and makes a I don't really now if I care that much sound, also known as "mèh..."
"Well?" I blow against one of his flying-thingy's.
"Don't!" says Naruto. He shows a bit pale. To's not happy. I wish I could help him, but I can't. I used to help him alot. I beat up about a thousand kids, but since we're not in the same school anymore I can't protect him anymore. I think all those kids want to bully him because he's a bit girly... he cries pretty fast but that's not his fault. And he's not all that good at maths and stuff... (or pretty much everything). Pig used to help him to get higher grades, but he doesn't want her to help him anymore... I think he has kind of given up on all of it...

"YO DAD!" I pull out one of his earplugs.
"Yes honey." He's not even looking at me. It's a bit scary, as if the computer took over his mind. He's just staring at that screen and his back is slowly growing into a bridge... I hate that computer.
"I've got your mail."
He looks a bit dissoriëntated at this mail, and starts to rush throug the envelopes. He doesn't open a lot of them... I'm getting a bit affraid for a guy who could be standing in front of our house one day, with millions of unpayed bills, kicking us out of the house... we'll die!
There's a bright red envelope between the boring white ones... does it mean danger?
"What's that?" I ask pointing at the envelope.
"Whaé?" my dad asks. I pull out the other earplug.
"What-is-this-weird-kind-of-letter?"
"Dunno..." dad picks it up "There's no adress on there, so I guess it's just commercial, media, crap."
"Can I open it?"
Dad noddes. His fingers are hanging above the keyboard like dead spiders on To's ceiling.
I rip open the envelope, there's a bright yellow letter inside.

This is love

Not the hunter - but the hunted

Not the add - but the addict

Not the drunk - but the drowning

Not the mindless - but the minding

Not the loner - but the loser

Not your - but mine

Not a goodbye - but the one who says it

Not a warm bed - but a cold shower

Not two - but one

Not now - but never

It kind of makes me shiver...
"It's a poem." I push the letter in my fathers face. "read it."
He read it. The room stays quiet. The clock is ticking. And then he sighes.
"It's good." He sighes.
"There's no name under it..."
"Maybe it was deliverd to the wrong adress." He puts the poem down and rubs his eyes.
"Is you head hurting again?" I ask him.
He noddes. I can see in his eyes that the poem did something to him. I know what the's thinking about, the same what I was thinking about when I read it.
Then To yells from downstairs. "I'M WAITING! Are we EVER going to leave!?"
Dad turns around again and his face pulls back to his computer.
"Daaaaaaaaad? Can you pleeeeeaaaaase bring me and To to the supermarket?"
"Not now honey I have some problems I need to solve first."
"There are no problems. Your screen is black."
"They're in my head hony, in my head."
I pull his ears. "C'mon daaaaaaaad! You need some fresh air! And there's nothing eatible in the house anymore."
Dad sighes and stretches. "O.k, but I'm not going inside with you two."
As if we expected you to...

We live in this big-ass old house with twelve rooms and three bathrooms. Bathroom number one smells alarming and bathroom number two is missing some crucial things as pipelines and a bath, so we only use bathroom number three. Sometimes I think it would've been easier for us to have a smaller house, because it's easier to keep clean.
Pig's room is a mess. It's a freaking pigsfarm in there. Alongsides the wall she has a bookshelve, an enormous one, and it's so full there's no place for more books. Everywhere you look in her room you can see piles of books. I use my CC (credit card) for clothes, Pig uses them for books.
"OI! Pig, if you clean the refridgerator for us while To and I are gone, you'll finaly be doing something in this house."
Pig's pretending I'm not here.
"Miss Piggieeeeeeee!" I yell in her ear. She looks angry, oh lucky me.

"I can hear you, now stop commanding me I'm not your dog."
Commanding? Me!? Look who's talking. I'm the only one who still does something in this place. Pig and To are lazy. What would happen if they wouldn't have me? They'll probably get eaten by fungus coming alive out of the fridge...
Pig is doing homework. As usually. She's on first level and only gets straight A's. When she comes home with a B or a B+ she'll be off all day.
I'm on third level and that's good for me, since I'm not even slighlty interested in A's.
"Pig?... What'cha dooooin'?" Pig plugges her ears. I'll write her a post-it, those work for this family.
Note:
Dear Piggiebanks, I'll go get
groceries clean
the fridge, so I can fill it with
all kinds of nice food for ya!
Sak.
Bribery will have to do the trick.
I stick the post-it on her forehead. She has pimples, a lot. She should be using some cream or something but she doesn't care.
"Now, will you do it for me?" I ask her. She sighes.
"Maybe. Now get out!"
It's a lie to tell you that there's absolutely nothing in the house anymore. It's just that there's nothing etable anymore. I always buy too much because I'm afraight there won't be enough, and then everything starts to grow a beard and so on.

In the supermarket I start to feel tired. As I 'drive' the kart, To throws things in it. Sometimes I can see and hear people pointing and talking about us. They all know us around here. We're those pore rich children with no mother from that big house.
"Hey, sakura how are you doing!" a girl with blond hair and green eyes comes up to me. Her name is Tamarah, or Temari or something. She's not so bad, she's my type of person actually. She's in 10th grade, and she's allways showing off around me, to let everyone know that we're friends. A lot of girls I know like to pretend to be my friend. And I know that they don't want to be friends for who I am, but for what I am: the rich daughter of the famous rich writer, who has loads of money. Did I mention that they like me because I'm rich?
"I'm throughin thé most amazing party coming saturday, and you're invited!" she winks at me and points at To. To is kind of tall and rather handsome with his deep blue eyes and high blond hair. She doesn't know he's only in 7th grade.
"Maybe your brother would like to come?" she asks.
"We can't come next saturday!" I lie. "There are guests coming for dinner."
"Ooh! Someone famous? I heard your fathers book was made a movie!"
That's what everybody thinks. That our house is full of famous and important people. But that's not true. The one time that they're here, they're not even closely to nice and they can only talk about themselves.
"The garbageman is coming over for dinner." I say.
"The.. garbageman?" Temari looks weird.
"Yeah, we like him."
"Temari! Hon! I'm leaving without you!" That's Temari's mum. I don't like her. Especially when she... oh shit too late to hide, she's coming over.
"Oh hi Sakura! How are you doing? Are you all ok?" she has that terrible look in her eyes, a mixture of sorrow, couriosity and dollar signs. I hate that look.
"I have to go now." I say "No time to chat, ta ta for now! Come one To!"
"Is the garbageman coming over for dinner?" To asks once we're out of hearing range.
"Yes. His name is Harry and he's very devoted to his work and he wanted to tell us about it... No ofcourse he's not coming over for dinner! I was shaking of those two idiots."
To grins.
"Can you please get dad to carry the groceries?"
To noddes and races out. We both don't like the supermarket, and I'm quite sure the supermarket doesn't like us too.