Mr. Shears

"Mom."

"What?"

"This place is freaky. There's like, no trees or anything. And the weird lawn shapes are even weirder 'cause they're all...weird!." Heather shuddered. She looked around the neighborhood. Her new neighborhood. Peoples houses were solid blocks of pale green or yellow, some of them pink even! And the hedgeshapes were...unusual. One looked like a furry ballerina with half a leg missing. The reason it looked furry was because it was uneven all over the place. Another looked like an obese devil face looking in on someone's window. "Thank God that's not my house." She thought to herself.

"Heather you'll get used to it I promise. Besides theres lots of nice ladies here! They even have an Avon lady! Actually a 3rd generation I heard. Won't it be nice not to have to go to the store to pick up cosmetics?" Heather's mom said excitedly. "Oh boy. Just what I need. A bunch of crazy, stay-at-home women and a local Avon lady so my mom can plaster that stuff all over me." Heather thought.

Heather did not like make up. She disliked it very much. She wasn't really a very girly girl. Sure she wore skirts, mostly because those were the only bottoms her mom would buy her. But she wouldn't wear the short ones that you can't bend over in without showing the whole universe your undies. She liked her green converse shoes. She wore them all the time. She got a new pair in a different color every Christmas. This year she got green. The year before she got yellow, and the year before that, turquoise. She looked down at her long, flowery, purple skirt and her green converse shoes. She smiled for a moment, remembering the days when she would carry around her Barney doll non-stop and made her parents buy all the Barney movies. But that was before the divorce. Before stupid Frank came and made Heather want to go beat the shit out of every man on Earth.

She didn't realise how long she'd been staring at the ground, thinking.

"Heather!" she heard Frank's deep, calm voice call out. "Are you going to help us or what?" She looked at Frank. He was about 32. Her mom was 30. And Heather was 13. Which means, if you know you're math right, Heather's mom was 17 when she had Heather. Heather saw herself as a whore's child. She remembered that day vividly when she was 3 years old. She remembered waiting in line in a poofy pink dress with a basket of flowers until her turn to go down the aisle before her mom so her mom could marry her dad. But all of a sudden there was yelling and screaming. It was all a big commotion. Her dad had run off with a bridesmaid. Actually, the maid of honor. Her mom's (now ex) best friend Jennifer. "Dammit Jennifer. Why'd you have to go and spoil everything!" Heather said aloud on accident.

"What's that honey?" Frank asked looking at her with his big green eyes.

"Nothing. And quit calling me honey!" Heather demanded. She was sick of him trying to play the role of her father. He had only been dating her mom for 6 months. It was his stupid idea to come here. To this creepy place.

Heather finally lifted a box of her stuff and brought it inside. She unpacked for most of the rest of the day. As she was sitting outside that night in the backyard, she saw a large mansion like building. It was set away from most of the ugly, brightly colored houses. She smiled. "Maybe I'll go there tomorrow. Hide there. Just to get a kick out of everyone. That'll show'em for dragging me to this crazy place." Heather thought aloud to herself.