CHAPTER 2: What Is A Two-Two?
You're probably wondering why I have two families, right? Well, it's because Mommy and Daddy got a divorce a long time ago. They used to love each other a whole lot when they had Adnrew and me, then they started having trouble getting along. They told Andrew and me that even though they still loved us very much, and always would, they just didn't love each other anymore. Mommy, Andrew, and I moved into her little house, and Daddy stayed at the big house, because it's where he grew up.
Mommy married Seth, who's our stepfather, and soon after that, Daddy met and married Elizabeth, who's our stepmother. Elizabeth was married once before she married Daddy, so she has four kids from her first marriage. First of all, there's Charlie, who's seventeen, and Sam, who's fifteen. They're old enough to be in high school. Kristy is thirteen, and the best baby-sitter and big sister I could ask for. David Michael is my age, but a few months older. He can be a HUGE pest sometimes, but most of the time, he's okay. When I first got my glasses, he heard Charlie and Sam saying I looked smart, like a professor, and it stuck. I guess I should've been mad, but I'm not. I'm pretty used to it by now. There's also Emily. Daddy and Elizabeth adopted her from Vietnam, a country in Asia, which is all the way on the other side of the world. She's two years old, and even though she can be a little bratty sometimes, she's still a good kid.
Oh, I almost forgot something. Kristy is also the president of the Baby-sitters Club. She runs it with some of her friends, and they baby-sit for a lot of the kids in Stoneybrook. Kristy usually baby-sits for Emily, my brothers, and me. Then there's Nannie, Elizabeth's mother. She moved in to help when Daddy and Elizabeth adopted Emily. And last, but not least, there's Shannon, David Michael's dog, and Boo-Boo, Daddy's cat. Speaking of Boo-Boo, for as long as I could remember, he's been a real grouch, but lately, he's just starting to mellow out. Go figure!
You know what? Sometimes I feel like living in the big-house neighborhood is like living in Halloweentown. For one thing, a witch lives next door. Daddy says that her name is Mrs. Porter, but her witch name is Morbidda Destiny. And the ghost of my great-grandfather, Ben Brewer, haunts the attic and third floor. In fact, Boo-Boo is scared to death of old Ben, and that's why he refuses to go up there. I've told this to everyone in my big-house family, but they don't believe me.
Andrew and I have pets that travel back and forth with us. I have a rat named Emily Junior (guess who I named her after?), and Andrew has a hermit crab named Bob. Oh, and there are pets at the little house. Rocky, Seth's cat, and Midgie, his dog. I also have two stuffed cats. Moosie lives at the big house, and Goosie lives at the little house. I used to have one special blanket, Tickly, which I kept leaving behind at one house or the other—along with Goosie, until Daddy bought Moosie for me. I finally tore Tickly in half, so I could have a piece at each house.
Since Andrew and I have toys, books, and clothes at each house, and don't have to pack much to go between them, I call us Karen and Andrew Two-Two. I got the name from a book that Ms. Colman read our class called Jacob Two-Two Meets The Hooded Fang.
On the way to Daddy's house, Andrew and I were looking out the window at the leaves falling from the trees when I noticed a big truck parked at the end of the block. "Hey, look!" I exclaimed as I pointed out the window.
"Well, looks like somebody's moving in," Mommy said.
"Does that mean we're getting new neighbors?" Andrew asked.
"Sure looks like it," Mommy answered.
I wondered what our new neighbors were like. Hopefully, they were nice people.