New story! I figured since my story is so close to Ovni's I'd let the story slip and start a new one. Besides, I've had this particular idea swimming around in my head for over a year now and have finally found a way to put it in words. Well, here's the first chapter, oh, and even though Lilo and Stitch aren't in there at first, hang in there, they will!
It was just another sunny day in rural Colorado. The sun was shining and although from inside people's homes it looked like it should be about 70 degrees F, in reality in was a blistering 30. It was late afternoon on that particular day. Everyone had either come home from work or were just leaving for the night shift. Otherwise Mayflower Avenue was quiet. There was smoke coming from nearly every chimney on the street; evidently the electric heater wasn't enough to keep the houses warm.
The cold didn't bother one girl, though. The silence of the winter afternoon was broken by the puffing of her breath against the still air. She was skinny, not quite enough to be a model (though people often advertised her to pursue it as a career). Her long, silky raven hair bobbed up and down as she walked. She had big green eyes with dark eyelashes and full lips, and long legs. Arianna, or Ari as she was commonly called, strolled down Mayflower Avenue towards her home on the far end of the cul de sac. She had just finished her Christmas shopping in town and had a bag of assorted items slung over her shoulder. A remote-control car for her younger brother, a sweater her mum had been eyeing earlier that week, and Spongebob pajama bottoms for her Spongebob-freak dad. And, buried at the bottom of the sack, was a small gift she had bought for herself. It was a Stitch plush she had seen in the Disney Store display window and decided to get it. Hey, it was only seven bucks! It was cute, too. It pictured Stitch with reindeer antlers on and a bell collar around his neck. His nose had been dyed red. Even though her mum discouraged her from buying stuffed animals, Ari figured one more plush among about thirty (mostly of Stitch) wouldn't make much of a difference.
And so she made her way up the steps, careful not to slip on the ice, and opened the door slowly. She didn't want her family to notice her coming in so she could wrap the presents in secrecy. Her effort was in vain. Within seconds her little brother was climbing on her like a crazed monkey, asking," What's in the sack? Is it for me? I bet it is! Are you mad? You look mad. You shouldn't be mad, its bad for your face muscles. I learned that in school last week."
Ari slowly made her way away from the doorway with her brother, his arms and legs wrapped around her leg for a ride.
"MUM!" she shouted. "Make Alex go away! I gotta wrap your presents and I can't when he's clinging to my leg!"
Her mum entered the room, a dripping cloth in one hand and a plate in the other. She looked at the scenario in front of her. A teenage girl with a six-year old attached to her leg, occasionally reaching up to try and grab the bag slung over Ari's shoulders. She smiled gently. "Alex, why don't you go look under the tree? I believe Aunt Claire sent you a gift this morning." He immediately let go of Ari's leg and ran into the next room to investigate the gift. The sounds of a shaking box and "Hmmmm"s filled the house.
"Thanks, mum," Ari sighed. She walked up the stairs, the usual clomp, clomp echoing through the house. At the top of the stairs she opened a closet to her left. It was filled with shelves of wrapping paper, bows, ribbons, and glitter. Ari chose some wrapping paper and made her way to her room to wrap her gifts. But first she took out the Stitch plush and laid him gently on the edge of her bed with all her other animals. After stepping back to admire her collection she plopped herself down on her rug and began wrapping her presents.
She was on her third present when she heard her mom's voice come up the stairs. "Ari! New neighbors! Quick, down here!" Ari sighed through her nose. Her mother was known as the biggest busy-body on Mayflower Avenue. Ari figured she was the biggest in the city. She would probably have some mission for Ari to go over and see who their new neighbors were. Still, she shoved her wrapped gifts and still-unwrapped gifts under her bed for later and went back down the stairs.
"Alright, Mum. How…" Ari didn't get to finish her sentence. Her mum had interrupted her.
"They've got three kids. One looks about Alex's age but I don't know about the other two. The parents help with carrying the furniture in…that's nice, that shows they aren't stuck-up. Oooo, here's another kid!" her mother said when a boy with light brown hair came out of the house to help with the furniture. "He looks like…"
Ari had stopped listening to her mother a long time ago. This boy was probably just like all the other boys at her school. Snobby and arrogant. So she quietly slipped away from the window and tried to make her way upstairs without her mum noticing. She had almost made it to the top when her mum called," Ari!"
"Oh, no," Ari mumbled under her breath. She made he way back down the stairs for the second time that day to find her mum holding a can of grape jam.
"Please take this over there. It's nice for neighbors to show that everyone is welcome on Mayflower Avenue." Her mum was talking in a fake nice voice that always got on Ari's, and everyone else's, nerves.
"I don't understand why you don't just go over there yourself," Ari said politely.
"Because I don't have good people skills," her mother said quickly, almost too quickly. Ari sighed again and took the jam from her mother. She hated going over to new people's houses. The people who had lived in that house before these people moved in had been wackos. Every full moon they would find a cat, stray or no stray, and field-dress it in the back yard within a circle of rocks. They claimed it 'cleansed their inner spirit'. Yeah. Weird.
Ari was determined to make this meeting as quick as possible. Go, give them the jelly, and leave. Boom. She hurried across the street and waited outside the door for someone from the family to come out, preferably the mother. Mothers always accepted gifts from neighbors without questions. Fathers took the gift, looked at it for a moment in a funny way, said thanks and slammed the door in your face, and kids whined and complained if the gift wasn't a toy.
And so Ari waited, nodding to some of the movers politely as they walked past. Finally someone came out. But it wasn't who she had expected. It was the boy she had seen from her front window! She stammered as she tried to come up with what to say.
"Um, uh, here's some jam for you, and, um, er…" she must've looked like a fool.
But the boy took the jam from her and chuckled. "Busy-body mom?" he asked simply.
"Uh, yeah," Ari said with relief. At least he knew it wasn't her idea to come over there. "My mom likes to give new neighbors gifts."
The boy chuckled again. "Same with mine. Believe me, in about two days everyone's houses on the street will have baskets filled with fruit sitting on their doorstep. Delivered personally by moi."
Ari stared at this new boy. From her experience boys were mean, selfish brats who cared about nothing but Halo 2. She might just grow to like this one. She shook herself from her trance and said suddenly without thinking," Would you like a tour of my house?" She stopped and realized how stupid that sounded. "Well, uh, you don't…have to if you don't wanna, but, er…"
The boy only laughed. "Sure, I'll come."
The lump in Ari's throat seemed to vanish. With a jittery heart she began to walk back to her house with the boy in tow.
"I'm Jake." The boy said.
"Ari."
They had reached Ari's house by that time. They entered the home and as they passed by Ari's mum she gave her a thumbs-up. Ari raised an eye-brow at her.
"This is the living room and kitchen down here," Ari said with her arms spread out. "Beautiful, isn't it?" she added sarcastically.
"I think it's cool," Jake said caually.
The boy and girl headed upstairs towards the bedrooms and single bathroom. "Not much to see up here," Ari said. "Just the bedrooms and stuff." Jake paid her no heed and walked towards Ari's closed door.
"Oh, don't go in there! It's…" Jake had already opened the door and entered. Ari quickly followed with her cheeks beet red. Jake had found her Stitch-covered room. "Yeah, um, I like Stitch a lot." She quickly added," But not in THAT way, I mean…" she stopped. Why wasn't Jake laughing? She had expected him to laugh at such a "baby obsession" as her dad put it. But he simply walked over to her plushie pile and picked up her latest addition to it.
"So… you like Lilo and Stitch?" he said slowly.
"Yeah."
"Interesting," Jake said softly under his breath. "Very interesting."
"What's interesting?" Ari asked curiously.
"Oh, nothing." Jake answered and he quickly put the plushie down. "I better get going. My parents will want me to help with the carrying-in and all."
"Yeah," Ari said sadly. For some reason se couldn't understand she didn't want him to go.
"Bye." Jake waved and left her room, leaving her among all the Stitch posters, plushies, and action figures.
"Bye," she said softly. After she heard the door open and close, indicating that Jake had left, she went back into the kitchen, where her mum was making supper.
"Mum?" Ari asked.
"Yes, dear?" her mother answered. There was something in her tone that told her what was coming.
"I feel funny. Like there's butterflies in my stomach, and when I'm around Jake my head feels really light. Am I sick?"
Her mother smiled to herself. "No, Ari. I believe you have something called a crush."
"A crush?" Ari had heard girls at school talk about their oh-so-cute crushes, but she never suspected she would have one. "A…crush?" she repeated.
Meanwhile, back at Jake's house…
"Jake, have you been finding person to try out machine?" an all-too-familiar Russian voice spoke through a watch on Jake's wrist.
"Yes, sir." Jake answered somewhat smugly. "I believe I have found you the perfect candidate."
Oooooo, four pages on Word! Yeehaw! R&R!
