Next Door Nuisances by pearlymango
Chapter 1
It all started with a ball. Souta was crying again and mum was trying to soothe his temper. And I, the older, neglected sibling was sulking in our backyard, chucking a tennis ball at our yellow house as hard as I could and catching it in my baseball mitt. Needless to say, the thumping was only upsetting Souta even more. His screeching reached an all time high, and mum shouted at me from his bedroom window. Something about my "infability to be consideration". I couldn't understand her, because Souta's cries were making my ears hurt. Plus, I was 5 years old, and only at a first grade reading level. Why was mum always paying attention to Souta, a weak little baby, when she had someone like me? Instead of listening to my mother, I got angry. "NO!" I bellowed. I mustered all of my strength, screwed up my eyes, and threw the ball as hard as I could at our house.
As it turned out, I learnt a lesson on that fateful, sweltering summer's day: never, ever throw a tennis ball with your eyes closed. I ended up missing the house entirely, and the ball soared into our next door neighbour's yard, smashing their window and hitting their son square in the forehead. My eyes widened and I ran to hide in my tree house, hoping to avoid criminal charges.
First off, let me say that this day was the first in all of my 5 years and 4 months that I learned to appreciate my being a hanyou. I guess the day started off normally enough, save for the fact we were moving to the other side of town. Mother kept ordering around these big men to carry boxes from one place to another. I wondered why they listened to her, because she was only a human and they were all muscly. They kept calling me "kid" and "squirt". It was really annoying, but dad said that when I grew up I would have my turn. Or something like that. Anyway, I figured that by the time I grew up, I'd be about as tall as my dad, or even bigger, so that I could be a giant and squish the meanies from our old neighbourhood. I would teach them to be nice to mother.
When all of the muscly guys went away, our new house was filled with cardboard boxes. I remember thumping up the stairs (over a trillion steps!) and picking out my room. Straight away I envisioned where all of my action figures would stand (with Batman and Captain America gaining the honorary positions) and pinpointed the exact location of where to place my bed. (right under the highest point of the ceiling, to ensure full bouncing capacity).
Suddenly this unearthly screeching tore through my vision. I looked out my window to find a girl about my age wearing a blue baseball cap and tossing a yellow ball at a yellow house. I watched the ball for a while, as if hypnotised by it. I thought to myself that I could throw that ball way better than that weakling girl down there. She didn't even look strong enough toss it to the end of her yard. And then there was that screeching. Where was it coming from, because I must be getting one of those "headmake" things mum and dad keep talking about. All of a sudden, the girl yelled "NO!" and closed her eyes. I stood near my window, waiting to see what she was going to do. The ball was coming towards me! I stayed still, certain that it'd never reach my window. It was getting bigger and bigger, and then I saw yellow; this bright, neon yellow that would haunt me for the rest of my life. And for the first time, I truly appreciated being a hanyou, because if I were human, that ball would have hurt a lot more. Also, never underestimate the power of a girl with a tennis ball.
