Many thanks to my beta, Spazzkitty! Sorry for the long wait.
Chapter 2
The same morning a car pulled in behind the moving truck next door.
"I know it's not as big as our old house but it will have all our furniture and it has a really big garden." The brunette woman sitting in the seat turned to face her twin teenage sons. Alfred was staring out the window moodily while Matthew stared down at his lap where his hands were twisting together nervously.
"New country, new house, new school. What could be better?" Alfred muttered, a distinctive American accent in his voice. Matthew grimaced in agreement and their mother turned back to face the front with a sigh.
"Now boys, you have to make the best of it. It's only for two years anyway and then you can do whatever you want," the handsome blonde man in the driving seat said before climbing out of the car. Alfred and Matthew exchanged a look, working on some of their twin telepathy, before undoing their seatbelts and climbing out of the car. They joined their mother who was surveying the house with carefully disguised distaste. Alfred was already missing their large house back in the States while Matthew was looking around the neighbourhood.
"It's not so bad," Matthew said in a doubtful voice as he looked at their next door neighbour's front garden which was covered in tulips and some strange star-like flowers.
"It's horrible," Alfred complained and their mother whipped around to face them.
"There will be none of that complaining. Your dad's new job is here, it means a lot more responsibility for him and a lot more money for us. We just need to wait a while before we get a new house because even with the money from your Dad's work, it still cost a lot to move."
"That's because we moved across the Atlantic," Matthew felt like he should point out the obvious fact.
"Be quiet. You two will do the best you can and enjoy it. After you finish school you can do whatever you want but until then, be happy for your dad." She made it sound like an order and Matthew looked down at the ground while Alfred set his jaw. Neither of them reacted well to being bossed around. Soon their mother left them and there was silence for a moment.
"I'm moving as soon as school is over," Alfred vowed and Matthew nodded in agreement.
"You'll need money," he pointed out. Alfred was not the best at saving money.
"Then I get some crappy job. It'll get me out of the house too," Alfred retorted and Matthew sighed. Why were all his family so openly hostile?
"AL! MATT!" Their dad's voice came from inside the house. "START HELPING THE MOVERS!" The two boys set to work, trying to find their boxes in the mess in the van.
When Elizabeta pulled back into the driveway with Peter and Lili that afternoon, she noticed that the van was no longer there but a new car that she vaguely remembered seeing in one of Feliciano's magazines was sitting in its place. The car was shined and polished within an inch of its life - obviously the owner's pride and joy - and Elizabeta vowed to keep her kids far away from it.
"Seems like the new people have moved in," Lili noticed and Peter wiggled up in his seat to try and spot anyone. There seemed to be movement in one of the downstairs windows which made Elizabeta jerk forward from where she had been staring at the house as well.
"Stop staring, it's rude," she scolded her two youngest who blinked in confusion.
"But you were staring," Peter pointed out and Elizabeta could find nothing to say about this. Instead she undid her seatbelt and grabbed her bag from the front seat before going to open the child-locked doors of the back seats. Peter and Lili hopped out without any more fuss and Elizabeta went around to the boot of the car to try and lift all of Lili's art projects from last year which she had 'forgotten' to pick up in the summer.
As she was doing this, Lili nudged Peter and pointed to next door where a teenage boy had come onto the front garden, closely followed by another boy who looked exactly the same and by a woman who seemed to be the same age as their Mum but with none of the comforting Mum-ness around her.
"Alfred, come back!" The woman said and her voice carried on the air.
"No! I don't want to go back in there and listen to all your crap!" Unlike the woman, the boy who had stormed out first made no trouble to lower his voice. The other boy hovered but looked like he was in agreement to his brother.
"He said a bad word," Peter said in delight to Lili. He was used to his older siblings saying bad words all the time (Elizabeta had eventually learnt to make a deal about Peter coming to ask her what words he could say) but other people normally tried to censor their language around him.
"Not that bad," Lili whispered back but the neighbour's argument and their conversation had drawn Elizabeta's attention.
"Come on you two, help me carry some of this stuff in," Elizabeta said, paying no mind to the argument going on in the garden next to theirs even though almost the whole street could probably hear it now. There was some grumbling but Peter picked up a stack of pictures and Lili picked up her model of a castle.
"Why do you have so much stuff Lili?" Peter whined, the argument next door completely forgotten about. Elizabeta slammed the boot and her new neighbours finally seemed to realise that they had an audience. They fell quiet and Elizabeta could feel eyes on her but resisted the urge to look up. She locked up the car before picking up her bag and slinging it over her shoulder. Now she looked over to the three people standing on the lawn next to theirs.
"Good evening." Elizabeta gave a bland smile which the woman tried to return but just continued looking mortified. The acknowledgement over with and not wanting to get into a long, awkward conversation, Elizabeta unlocked the front door and let Peter and Lili in. When the door slammed shut, Elizabeta collapsed against it. "That was interesting."
"What was interesting?" Peter asked inquisitively.
"Meeting our new neighbours," Lili answered on her way up the stairs. "Can you put my art in my room please?"
"As long as Natalia doesn't mind. You know how she is with paint on her bed," Elizabeta called to Lili as she gave the rest of the artwork to Peter before moving into the kitchen. Soon the negativity sparked from their neighbour's conversation flowed out of Elizabeta and she was ready again to be Mum. "And I want you two to start your homework!" She shouted up the stairs.
"Don't have any!" Peter called back but Elizabeta took Lili's silence as agreement. Elizabeta grabbed one of her meals out of the freezer to defrost and started to straighten up the house. As ever, it looked like a bombsite and Elizabeta spent most of the time sweeping things into the lost-and-found box they had, like Natalia's library book, Eiríkur's DS and Feliciano's sketch book.
Two hours later, while Elizabeta was planning the menu for the next week, the rest of her children came home. Her two eldest came in first with Roderich, shockingly not arguing, and her four middle children marched in from the train a few minutes after that. Her middle children all went to the same school and Elizabeta encouraged them to get the same train home if possible. They did not have to sit together (even though she had insisted on that in Eiríkur's first week) but getting on and off at the same time was much more helpful.
"Hello everyone," Elizabeta called and she got numerous greetings back while they all trudged upstairs. Homework was meant to be before dinner, even if Elizabeta was fooling herself that it actually got done then, and then after dinner they could do whatever they liked. Roderich joined her in the sitting room.
"How was work?" Elizabeta asked as Roderich sat next to her on the sofa and gave her a quick kiss.
"Usual. I found a new concert to go to and I got lost on the way to Accounting," Roderich replied looking slightly sheepish.
"Again?" Elizabeta asked with a smile as she curled up next to Roderich. "Considering you've been working there for five years now, I'm still amazed that you can get lost. And what's this about a new concert?"
"The halls all look the same," Roderich protested, "and I found the concert on the internet, it's very close and it's on a Friday night."
"You get the tickets and I'll organise the childminder." Roderich rolled his eyes.
"I don't see why we don't get one of the older ones to look after the younger ones."
"Because I can predict what will happen. Francis will suddenly want to go out with those friends of his, Arthur will be resentful when we call on him, you know he likes to volunteer, and so will invent some excuse. Feli will have a party to attend and bring Lovi as well. And if we get Nat to babysit, she will be too busy blowing up the back garden to notice if Peter is jumping out the window again. And there's always a chance that they will decide to throw a house party which will destroy the house, the garden and our reputations." Elizabeta pointed out and Roderich conceded her point. Loving and wonderful their children may be but obedient was not one of their good points.
"I can just see Arthur bringing home another bottle of rum and Peter taking a swig of it just because he was told not to." Roderich followed Elizabeta's train of thought as he imagined the carnage. His piano might even get something spilt on it!
"It's better to just not think about it," Elizabeta said soothingly, recognising what Roderich was thinking about. "The only problem is that Crina is away for two weeks on holiday. Annoying woman," she grumbled and Roderich shook his head. He could never understand the love-hate relationship Elizabeta had with Crina. They fought like cat and dogs, much like Francis and Arthur. Roderich was almost sure that watching their mother fight with her 'best friend' was how they managed to have the relationship they had today.
"So she can't babysit," Roderich said. Crina was the only one who managed to stand up to all eight of their kids at once through sheer practice; all the other babysitters they had hired had been driven out.
"Nope. Ooo, I just remembered, the neighbours moved in today. And there's twin teenage boys and a mum and a dad. The teenagers and the mum had an argument right in their front garden. I was bringing Lili and Peter home from school and they just came charging out of the house. Heard by the whole neighbourhood." Elizabeta whispered in delight to Roderich, who eyed her in amusement.
"So what did you do?"
"I was polite Roderich!" Elizabeta protested, understanding what he was getting at. "I just said good evening and then went inside. I didn't want Lili and Peter to hear any more of their bad language," Elizabeta said with her nose in the air and Roderich poked her in the side.
"Like they don't hear worse from Arthur and Lovino. What was it they said - damn?"
"Crap actually," Elizabeta said even though her smile was starting to spread across her face at her husband's comment.
A loud explosion made them both jump and they looked at each other before racing to the back garden. Smoke blurred their vision and they could hear someone coughing in the middle.
"Kids?" Elizabeta called out, unsure about which one it was. Bangs from either side of their house signalled the arrival of their neighbours. On their left there was Emma and her husband Robert, from Belgium. They had lived next to the Edelsteins for four years now and had gotten used to their antics, even slightly amused by them at times, but the Edelsteins were always very careful not to annoy them too much. However Elizabeta and Roderich had no idea how their new neighbours would react.
As the smoke cleared, they could see the slight figure of Natalia bent over coughing.
"Nat, are you alright?" Elizabeta and Roderich hurried over to their daughter, doing a quick once-over.
"Testing your rocket again Natalia?" Emma called, looking relieved as the smoke dissipated and there was no fire to be seen. Elizabeta nudged her daughter who was staring at her rocket mournfully.
"Sorry Emma. I really thought I had this time," Natalia said quietly.
"Hey, are you okay?" Elizabeta, Roderich and Natalia turned to see one of the twin boys hanging over the fence with a worried look on his face. The other twin hung back looking just as worried.
"She's fine," Elizabeta answered for Natalia who was staring at the boys in interest and did not seem about to answer. "I'm sorry that she scared you like that, I told her that if she was going to fire her rocket, she would have to fire it in the woods." The last words were directed at her teenage daughter. Natalia finally looked away from the two boys and they relaxed now that her unwavering stare was fixed somewhere else.
"I can't take it to the park, it's too heavy," Natalia pointed out, gesturing to the rocket.
"You're making a rocket?" The boy who had asked the question looked delighted and bunny-hopped over the fence.
"Alfred! You can't just march into someone's garden like that!" The woman scolded her son and Alfred waved a hand dismissively as he bent to examine the rocket, coming around the back of it to see the controls.
"Don't worry about it really." Elizabeta said, smiling at her new neighbour. Hopefully they could put their unfortunate introductions to each other in the past. "I don't think we've done the whole names thing. I'm Elizabeta Edelstein and this is my husband Roderich and my daughter Natalia." The woman smiled brightly, obviously just as uncomfortable with their first impressions.
"It's nice to meet you Elizabeta. I'm Monica Jones and this is my husband Michael and my sons Alfred and Matthew." Alfred grinned and Matthew gave an awkward little wave. "So do you have three kids? I mean apart from the two yesterday." Monica smiled brightly but Alfred ducked his head and Matthew blushed red. Elizabeta hummed to herself as she wondered how to break the news gently. Then she decided it would sound no different no matter how she put it.
"Actually I have eight kids." Monica and Michael looked amazed and Matthew and Alfred stared at Elizabeta. Natalia, who was used to this reaction when she said how many siblings she had, looked bored and started to examine her fingernails. Roderich nudged her to not be so rude and she put her hand down. "There are Peter and Lili, my youngest that you saw yesterday, Eiríkur who's ten, Natalia, then Feliciano and Lovino. They're twins and doing their GCSEs at the moment. And then there's Arthur and Francis who both go to the local sixth form." Elizabeta did a quick run through of her kids, hoping that Monica would respond any time now.
As if on cue there was a loud crash from inside the house and the sound of arguing drifted out to the garden from an open window.
"Lovino," Roderich spoke up and Elizabeta nodded before tilting her head and listening a little more.
"And Francis," Elizabeta added and Natalia sniggered slightly, causing her parents to turn to her with raised eyebrows.
"It's probably to do with his crush," Natalia said gleefully and Elizabeta and Roderich looked at each other in confusion. They didn't know that Lovino had a crush but then again, they did not normally hear about the girls he liked until after they were dating.
"I'll go and find out what's going on." Elizabeta sighed as there was another loud thump and the sound of something breaking. "Sorry about this." She smiled at Monica and Michael who returned the smile.
"That's quite all right, you have to go and look after the kids," Monica said warmly and Elizabeta nodded before stepping inside.
"Arthur, do you know what's happening with Francis and Lovino?" The group in the garden heard Elizabeta's voice in the kitchen.
"No idea but I think Francis was annoying Lovino, hit a nerve and Lovino responded," Arthur answered calmly before stepping out into the garden. He was still dressed in his school uniform but without the jacket and tie and his hair was just as messy as it was this morning. "Did your rocket work, Nat?"
"No," Natalia replied sullenly, looking down at her experiment. She ignored Alfred who was staring at Arthur with his mouth agape and nudged the rocket with her foot slightly. "It exploded outwards instead of upwards."
"I didn't even know a rocket could do that," Arthur commented as he eyed the charred grass around the rocket.
"Arthur," Roderich said in a chiding voice and his son looked up at him. "Why don't you introduce yourself to our new neighbours?"
"You mean the ones that Peter saw today," Arthur said to his father as if the Jones' weren't there at all. Roderich picked up on Arthur's disapproval about what Peter and Lili had witnessed and gave him a look. Monica and Michael looked embarrassed while Matthew and Alfred shuffled awkwardly.
"Arthur." Roderich's tone was slightly sterner this time, warning Arthur that he was treading on thin ice. With a barely concealed sigh, Arthur turned to Monica and James.
"Hello, um..." Roderich murmured something to Arthur, "Mr and Mrs Jones. I'm Arthur."
"Please call us Monica and Michael, Arthur," Monica said warmly, obviously trying to get over the embarrassing start to their neighbours. "And these are our sons, Matthew and Alfred." Sasha gestured to each boy in turn with Matthew giving his awkward wave in return and Alfred standing up from behind the rocket and smiling brilliantly at Arthur. Before Arthur could respond, a blue blur flew out of the kitchen and barrelled into Arthur's legs, almost knocking him to the ground.
"Peter," Roderich said wearily as he recognised his youngest child, now clinging to Arthur's legs.
"He's trying to eat me!" Peter shrieked and the Jones' winced while the Edelsteins looked unaffected by the high pitch.
"What were you told about watching Arthur's scary films?" Roderich asked Peter who blinked at him before casting another look at the back door.
"But Francis told me that Lovi turned into a dragon when he got mad and that he would eat me up!" Peter said and Arthur lifted him up into his arms and balanced the boy on his hip.
"How many times have I told you that Francis knows nothing about magical creatures?" Arthur scolded Peter who put his head down on Arthur's shoulder and yawned. Arthur jolted him slightly. "Don't yawn at me like that."
"Sorry Arthur," Peter said, looking apologetic before perking up. "Dad, when are we having tea?"
"Supper," Arthur interjected.
"Yeah that. When are we are eating?" Peter continued on as if used to Arthur's remarks.
"Soon. Your Mum has been defrosting some chicken pie to have and we were just about to put it on when our garden got blown up." Roderich sounded amused and although Natalia ducked her head in shame, her smirk let everyone know how sorry she was. Roderich turned to Monica and James. "It was very nice to meet you and we hope that you can join us for dinner sometime but I have to go and sort out their meal now." Monica smiled.
"Of course, we would love that. And yes, do go, I know how boys can get when they're hungry." Monica laughed and Alfred moved away from the rocket and scrambled over the fence, tripping slightly on the way. He sent a large smile at Natalia, who blushed and smiled back, and at Arthur, who looked confused and gave Alfred a tentative smile back. Matthew smiled at Natalia and Arthur but neither seemed to notice so he waved goodbye to Peter instead. Peter stuck out his tongue and turned his head away.
The four of them started to walk back into the house, both Emma and Robert had long since gone inside, and the Jones' could hear Arthur's voice asking whether he was allowed to cook dinner. As soon as they went inside Monica's smile faded slightly and she looked horrified again.
"Can you imagine Michael, eight kids! I remember when Alfred and Matthew were younger and I could barely handle them both," Monica remarked as they moved inside, wanting to get out of the chill wind.
"I hope they don't cause any trouble around here," Michael grumbled as they got inside the shelter of their kitchen. Monica avoided several of the boxes as she tried to find something available for dinner.
"They'll be fine, the neighbours on the other side seemed to like them well enough," Monica answered absently as she searched the fridge.
"I liked them," Alfred announced loudly as he slumped down in a chair. Matthew sat next to him.
"I'm glad that there're people our own age here," Matthew added in his normal, quiet voice, seemingly even quieter when it was put with Alfred's.
"See? Moving here wasn't so bad," Michael said triumphantly, ignoring his wife's shake of her head. Alfred and Matthew glared at him, the easy, light mood replaced with the tension that was around earlier. Monica hurriedly tried to redirect the conversation.
"So, do you think that you might see some of the Edelstein kids at school?" Monica asked, busying herself by making hamburgers. Seeing this, Alfred grinned and the mood lightened again.
"Their mom said that the twins are doing GCSEs at school and you said that is what we're old enough to be doing," Matthew said and Monica nodded. The school system had been very different in the States so before they had moved, she had researched everything on what Alfred and Matthew were going to be doing at school when they came over.
"It'll be nice to already know someone there," Monica said as she put the hamburgers in the grill, doubly checking the manual on how the oven worked. "Have you got everything ready? The headmaster is going to give us a tour of the school tomorrow and then you'll start on Monday."
"Yes Mom," Matthew replied but Alfred said nothing, preferring to ask,
"When will the hamburgers be ready?"
"Not until you've sorted your stuff for tomorrow. Remember to take a list of questions to ask the headmaster, it's going to be confusing enough to find your way around," Monica reminded her sons who nodded and hurried off. Monica sighed as she heard them thump around upstairs. "Michael." Her husband turned to her in question. "Do you think we did the right thing, moving them all the way to England in the last two years of school?"
"Of course we are Monica. With this new job I'll be able to access more opportunities for them, they'll get into better colleges and get better jobs because of it. Alfred and Matthew will thank us in the end." Michael replied confidently and Monica nodded, although with less confidence than Michael.
Enjoy and please let me know what you think.