Chapter One:

"They're here."

With in the time of those two words three things happen in the Hatford's house. The first thing was that back door swung open with a bang. The second thing that happen was that three out of the four Hatford boys spilled into the kitchen. And the last thing was that the last of the brothers, Wally, who had been currently sitting at the kitchen table, trying to build a fort out of waffle, jump. The sudden jerky movement sent the fort tumbling down into the moat of syrup.

Wally watched as the river of yellow butter and amber syrup mixed together, making his breakfast soggy.

"Wally, they're here," Jake said again, pulling him out of the chair.

"Who," asked Wally, pushing Jake off of him.

"The new guys in the Benson's house!" seven-year-old Peter answer. Josh grabbed the binoculars from the self. "C'mon!"

Their feet pounded on the hardwood stairs. They here headed for the trapdoor, Wally was sure of it. The trapdoor was in the attic ceiling and the small balcony on top of the house. Their parents called it a widow's walk, and you could see the entire town of Buckman from it.

Wally, sigh, picked up his plate and set it down in the sink. And then made his way up the steps, all the way to the top.

He contently wonder if his brothers hid caffeine pills in their pockets, they where always in a rush. They would have probably found out if the three new boys across the street were their ages or not by the end of the night anyway, so why run. He felt like free time, weekends and summer vacation, should be spent as lazily and peaceful as possible.

Little Peter was the only one in the family that thought like Wally. They were both quiet and a little absentminded. They could both get caught up in a video games or watching a movie only to realize that they have wasted away the day. This unproductive behavior drove the twins crazy. Jake was the athlete and Josh was the artist.

Wally and Peter also were also stockier with brown hair and pale blue eyes like their father. Jake and Josh, however, took after their mother, with golden blonde hair, darker blue eyes, and were string-bean. The twins were tanned by the first week of July, where Wally only burned

The stepladder was already in place and Josh climbed up to push open the trapdoor. Blue sky and wispy clouds peeked through the opening, sending a ray of dust filled sunshine through.

Wally sat in the corner and watched as Jake laid on his stomach close to the railing. Hot and dry wind whipped at their hair.

"There just sitting there?" Jake reported to them, binoculars were pushed so hard to his eyes that Wally wouldn't be surprise if they bruised.

He squinted hard, and was just able to make out a SUV parked in the driveway of the house at the other side of Island Avenue. The large piece of land in the middle of Buckman was not really an island, because water surrounded only three sides of it, but most people called it an island. Most of the time people didn't even notice that the river on your right was the same as that on you left, the river just made a simple U shape.

Just then Wally could see a door swing open. "Wait, a door's opening," Jake said, which was pointless to him.

"Well, what do they look like. Are they aliens," Peter demanded after a moment of silence.

"What are they're ages," Josh asked.

There best friends, the Bensons, who had moved out of the house to go to Georgia, had five boys between the ages of twelve and six. And they hoped that these boys would have an eleven-year-old for the twins, a nine-year-old for himself, and a seven-year-old for Peter.

"I see the father," Jake said, "Waite, someone is getting out of the side door... a dude tall enough to be twelve I guess.

"Yes," Josh shouted.

"Wait, no...it's a girl...no, a boy..." Jake's went quiet, push the binoculars even harder. "It's a girl, she took off her cap."

"Who said anything about girls," Peter whimper, as Wally stared at the twins in horror.

"Give me that," Josh said, taking the binoculars for himself. "I don't see anyone else...wait here comes someone...it's the mother...here comes another one..." He removed the binoculars from his eyes and tossed them to the floor. "Another girl"

"Two girls," Peter now sounded close to tears.

Wally grabbed the binoculars for himself. With two out of the three kids being girls, this is getting serious.

With the enhancement, he would now clearly see a dark hair man and a blonde women standing in the yard and staring had the large old house. Wally could see a tall girl with short blonde hair leaning against a tree, a baseball cap twirling on her finger.

A small, dark hair girl was bouncing down to the river.

And then the SUV door open again. The last child. There last chance. A pink socked foot.

"A girl," said Wally, hanging his head in defeat.

Nobody spoke for a minute.

"They're aliens, all right," Mummer Josh.

"Dammit," Jake cursed, "All girls. Out of three kids, they're all girls. I thought Mrs. Benson said that they rented the house to a family of boys"

"Well, not exactly," his twin said, shaking his head. "She said that there were three kids-"

"And that we still might be able to have enough to play baseball," Wally finished, his shoulders slumping. "I thought that she meant boys!"

Wally's mind wonder away, wondering what the Bensons where doing right now, how where they liking Georgia. Hopefully they were hating it.

No more would life in Buckman would be the same with the Hatford brothers and the Benson boys state apart. Not even Halloween would be the same. There was always a costume contest at Halloween. One year they had gone as wrench monkeys with monkeys suits and wrenches glued to them. And then the next year they went as different characters from Mary Poppins.

This summer was suppose to be one of the best summer of their lives. They had planed on building a soapbox derby cars and changeling the kids over on Waterway Drive to a race. They were going to go to the midnight premier of the new batman movie. They were going to camp by the supposedly hunted Smuggler's Cove. They were old enough to do those things now. But none of those things would get done with half of them living states away.

"I they were boys," Peter cried, he had his knees push to his chest and his arms around him.

"We just figured wrong," Josh said in his normally calm voice. Unlike his twin, it took a lot to get him riled up.

For a few minutes the four boys were silent, staring at the rolling West Virginia hills that framed the town of Buckman. It was an old town, turning two hundred in January. People in the town were a little old fashion, the adults weren't fans of modern fads as the kids were. But Wally liked the small-town vibe. It was peaceful, charming, spirited. He liked seeing the steeples of the United Methodist Church and the college chapel peeping up over the tops of trees. And watching things float down the sparkly horse-shoe shape river. It was a festive town with old soda shops and a swinging footbridge to get to the other side. But now waiting on the other side of the bridge would not be their best friends, but three girls.

"We burn the bridge," Jake said, breaking the silence.

"What," Wally said shocked, turning to him.

"We go down there tonight and burn the footbridge," Jake explained. "Then the girls won't be able to come on our side of the river. They'd have to cross the road bridge to get to school. Make them go the long way around."

Josh slapped his twin on the back of his head. "Don't be stupid, we'd be arrested. Dad would have to arrested us." There dad, was a postman was also a sheriff's deputy.

"We're not going to burn the bridge. We're just not going to invited them over here. Leave before they get to the bridge, and get home before they did," Wally said.

"Completely ignore their existence," Josh offered, pushing his shaggy blonde hair out of his eyes.

"It's not enough," Jake said.

"Let's vaporize them," Peter suggested.

"This isn't aliens vs chickens, Peter," Wally said sighing.

Wally could also see ideas fluttering in Jake's head as he considered things that could save them. He was the ringleader of the brothers, the planner, and he usually got his way. And you can almost see a light bulb go off in his head. "Do you remember that movie that grandma made us watch that one time. The Gang from Reno?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe."

"No."

"It's was about this village up in the mountains," Jake explained. "A motorcycle gang from Reno comes and takes over. But the villagers finally drive them out just by making them miserable. We've got to make the new people miserable."

"What makes you so sure that the Bensons will move back," said Josh, who always thought about the pros and cons of Jake's plan.

"Because they weren't sure if they'd like Georgia. That's why they're only renting their house out. So if they have trouble with keeping renter, they will give up and move back. I mean you know they would live here. Georgia hot and humid, and they know no one there. All were doing is helping them make up there minds."

"And what are we going to do to make the new family miserable?"

Josh and Jake both turned to Wally. It always happened like this. They would pull him into something if we wanted to or not. He always said the first thing that came to mind with out thinking about it.

"Come on Wally. Think about something. What's the most horrible, disgusting thing ever."

He was thinking about it. They could let live rats out in the house. No, the neighborhood cats would probably eat them first. They could put red food die in their water well to make them think it was blood. No, too Hollywood horror film. Evil zombie clown. No.

"Dead fish," He finally said.

"That's it," yelled Josh and Jake together. "We dump them in the water and bank, making the family think they died from polluted water," Jake finished. "Start collecting all of the dead stuff you can find. We will's go over there and dump them all over the place."

Wall's shoulders slumped. This was the last week of summer, the last week of freedom. And they were going to spending it collecting dead animals to scare off a family that might not even leave when it was all done and said. And even worst, mom might find out. They were suppose to be having fun for the rest of the summer. Jumping off of the high branches of the sycamore into the river. They were suppose to be going to Oldakers' bookstore and see if there were really a python living down there. Of at lest go swimming at the community pool. Not this.

"Boys, where are y'all," There mother called from the kitchen.

"We're coming, Mom," Josh called back, starting down the ladder.

Wally took one last look at the house and turned around, not noticing the three girls look at him.

So that's the first chapter of this story. I hope you enjoyed it. I tried my best to make this story fresh and modern, while keeping to the story plan. The only part where I really copied it straight from the book was the part with The Gang from Reno. Thank you to npsh78 who reviewed, favored, and followed this story. And thank you to Lia, who also reviewed. Please review and tell me what you think. If you liked it or if you hated it. If you think I didn't stick to the story line enough or if you think I copied it too much. -Julie.