New Beginnings
Chapter 3
"…You not only locked your cousin in the closet, but broke the door on a house that isn't even ours, were rude to the realtor…" Dad gave me a scathing glare, "Shall I go on or just punish you now?"
I bit back a grin and replied, "Punish away, but Dad?"
He sighed, "Yes Darla?"
"Actually it was Harmony who broke the door, not me."
Angel kicked me trying to shut me up before we all got in even more trouble. We were all standing lined up in front of Dad, waiting to get punishment, everyone of course except for Harmony and Spike, Dru's here, but I know she won't really get in trouble, she never does. She just looks at dad all innocently and gets away with anything, Angel and I on the other hand…
"Darla, you and Angel are grounded for three weeks, you two can only go to school and come home, no television or phone," Dad told us, and I shrugged, it was the usual punishment. Angel scowled at Dad but didn't say anything.
Dad ignored us and looked at Dru, "Drusilla, just because Darla tells you to do something doesn't mean you have to do it."
Dru nodded, her brown eyes widening as she tired to make herself look as innocent as possible, "It wasn't Darla's fault," she protested and I grinned, that's my sister, "The starts told us too," Dru looked up at the ceiling as if she could see the sky though it before looking back at Dad, "Their very bossy sometimes, you know."
Dad looked at her, blinked and cleaned his glasses, obviously perplexed as what to say back to Dru's unshakable logic. No one exactly knew what her logic was, but it seemed to make sense to her.
"Can we go unpack yet?" I asked, looking toward the direction of the stairs in our new house. Dad had picked one we'd looked at earlier in the day and decided it was good enough. We'd just moved in and gotten all the boxes form our old house today. Dad had been so busy he hadn't even had time to push us for the little Harmony project until now, almost a week after it had happened. Sometimes it's nice to have a single parent.
Dad nodded and we started to walk off before he called after us, "Oh ands the repair for the door is about $110, I'll be garnishing all your allowances until it's paid off."
"Garnishing?" Dru whispered to me confused and I could tell she was thinking of the little parsley things that came with our dinners at nice restaurants, I shook my head, "It means he's not gonna pay us."
"This is all your fault," Angel muttered to me as we walked up the stairs.
Drusilla nodded, holding my hand and skipping up the stairs behind me, "It is" she agreed, "It really is, and Daddy's mad and looks at us with mean eyes just because we played a trick on the Harmony-monster."
I smirked at the mention of the 'Harmony-monster' as Dru had taken to calling her before frowning realizing Dru was siding with Angel. "Shut up Dru." I replied and turned to Angel "Nobody made you help me. It's your fault as much as it is mine, no; it's more because you're supposed to be the role model. You are the oldest child."
"You're such a brat." Angel muttered reaching the top of the stairs and walking into his room slamming the door behind him.
I ignored him and Drusilla, firmly yanking my hand out of hers and trudging into the room I shared with Harmony, trying not to shudder at that very thought.
Harmony was in our room already, listening to music and filing her nails. She ignored me as I walked over to my bed across from hers and sat on it, already bored once I saw most of the boxes that held our stuff had already been unpacked.
"Hey, Harm, wanna go see if theirs anyone else our age in the neighborhood?" I asked, hating that I was actually planning on hanging out with her, but realizing I didn't have much of another option since Angel was all kinds of huffy after we got grounded and Dru was, well…just being spacey Dru, but in a very annoying way. There was always Spike, but I really didn't feel like spending time with a hyper four year old at the moment.
Harmony looked at me suspiciously and replied, "I'm not speaking to you."
"Uh, you just did," I told her.
Harmony glared at me, "You know what I mean. You're just all pissy because Drusilla and Angel won't be your little minions." She looked very satisfied with herself as she said, "You, Darla Aurelius, are completely minonless." Her grin turned to confusion for a moment as she asked, "Is that a word?" before shaking her hand and replying, "Yes it is because you are!"
What? Harmony is almost a weird as Dru sometimes. "Whatever Harmony." I replied, "Are you coming or not?"
Harmony clicked off her stereo and nodded, 'Well, duh, of course I am" she followed me out of the room.
"Okay, well, I'm technically supposed to be grounded, but I don't think Dad'll notice." I told her, looking over the stair railing for any sign of him, "I think Spike's giving him too much trouble for him to notice us." I grinned at Harmony as my point was illustrated by dad yelling from downstairs; "Spike! Stop getting into those boxes, theirs breakables-" crash "Oh dear."
Just as I was about to tiptoe down the stairs, Drusilla, still standing in the hall from earlier grabbed my arm, her lower lip stuck out in a pout, "Are you cross with me, Grandmummy?"
Harmony made a face, "Grandmummy?"
I shrugged, Dru's been calling me that ever since I can remember…I don't even know what it means, but I just assume it's more Drusilla weirdness. "Don't call me that Dru and yeah, I am mad at you, you took Angel's side over mine."
Drusilla's lower lip trembled and she started to whine, looking very much like she might burst into tears.
I sighed, "it's okay Dru, come on we're going to go see if there is anyone else our ages in the neighborhood"
Drusilla's sad face broke into a grin and she clapped excitedly as I grabbed her hand and dragged her down stairs with Harmony in tow.
We sneaked outside, careful to avoid the kitchen where dad was cleaning up whatever Spike had broken now and I surveyed the neighborhood, frowning when I didn't see anyone else out in their yards. I hope we didn't get stuck in some old people neighborhood with nothing to do and no one to play with.
Drusilla was already bored with us and started to wander around the yard, pulling a dandelion from grass and sticking it behind her ear while she sang to herself under her breath.
"Ooh, there's someone!" Harmony exclaimed pointing to the hose across the start as the door opened and out walked three kids. The oldest was a blonde girl who looked to be only a few years older than me; a brunette come out second holding a little girl with her thumb in her mouth holding firmly onto a light blue blanket.
Harmony started to walk across the street and I grabbed Dru by the hand ran to catch up with my cousin who was already talking to the other kids.
Harmony was sting to introduce herself to the other kids and I interrupted her, "Hi, I'm Darla, this is my little sister Drusilla and my cousin Harmony. Who are you?"
The blonde girl raised an eyebrow at me before answering, "Buffy; this is my twin Faith and our baby sister, Dawn."
Dawn pulled her thumb out of her mouth and wriggled in Faith's arms, protesting, "I'm not a baby."
Buffy ignored her youngest sister and asked me, "So, are you the oldest?"
"No, I have a fifteen year old brother." I replied, "Why?"
Buffy shrugged, "Just wondering."
"She certainly seems like the bossiest, B." Faith told her sister with a cocky smirk at us.
Harmony grinned, "Oh she totally is," she gushed, "This one time she-"
I hushed Harmony by glaring at her and tugging on one of her pigtails, hard. "Nobody asked you, Harmony." I snapped and glared at Buffy and Faith.
"Darla!" I whirled around and saw Angel walking towards us, "Dad's going to find out that you snuck out."
I smiled at Faith, "That's my older brother." I told her matter-of-factly, "And when he finds out you were mean to me, he's going to kick your ass-'
Angel walked up to our group, his eyes on Buffy as his normal scowl melted into a grin, "Hey," He said trying got sound cool, "I'm Angel."
"With that look on his face, I don't think he's going to be doing any ass kicking." Harmony whispered to me, her eyes on Angel.
I groaned, "Shut up, Harmony." I said knowing she was right…the goofy look on my brother's face when he looked at Buffy was certainly not going to be a good thing.
TBC…please review and tell me if you like it. Next chapter: the kids start school at Sunnydale elementary.
