9-New Neighbours

Courtney dried her hands on the towel and walked to answer the door. Most people would have walked straight in, so it was clearly someone she needed to answer the door to if they had knocked.

"Hello?" She smiled.

"Hi." The teenage girl smiled back. "I'm Dallas Cecario, I moved in next door this morning."

Dallas looked to be around the same age as Courtney two youngest children. Her hair was a perfect blend of a chocolate brown and a rich caramel color that could have easily been mistaken for orange. Her eyes were of a sort of army green, matching her tank top. No jewelry and no make-up did give Courtney the sense that she was a decent girl.

"It's nice to meet you." Courtney replied politely. "I'm Courtney Hudson."

"Hi..." Dallas smiled uneasily. "Um...Is it possible to borrow some kaggs?" Courtney smiled even more, seeing how nervous the young girl was put her in so many memories of herself. "It's for my baby brother; we haven't had a lot of time to..."

Dallas trailed off, seeing how Courtney understood she didn't really feel a need to finish it. Plus, she was feeling and sounding quite stupid to herself. The rambling came naturally to her, though she was such a shy girl that she barely did talk to a lot of people.

"Wait here a minute." Courtney instructed kindly, turning her back and rushing off for the kitchen.

Kaggs were not something Courtney had come across down on Earth as she was growing up herself, and Duncan never had such a sweet tooth for them either. They had only discovered them properly when they had adopted Jenifer who had been, and still was, quite addicted to them.

Kaggs were like frozen white sugar which had a quite rich cream taste to it. Courtney found them disgusting personally. They were sure to give you three cavities in one bite alone, so she had decided not to try her luck with any more herself.

Of course, health professionals, the idiots they are, decided that it was healthy for all children under the age of ten to be eating around three a day. Most people found it stupid, but apparently Dallas' did not.

"Mom is-" Jenifer called out, running down the staircase. She stopped upon seeing Dallas at the front door. "Hey?"

"Hi..."

"You the new neighbour?" Jenifer asked.

"Wow, news travels fast around here." Dallas joked. She was trying her best to be her old shy self, so far it was sort of working out for her.

"I'm Jenifer."

"Dallas."

Courtney came almost skipping back over to the door, making of the girls stare at her a little strangely. She held her hand out to Dallas who gratefully took the concealed bag of Kaggs.

"Thanks you." She smiled, walking back down the pathway and towards the gate. "It was nice meeting you."

Courtney shut the door and started making her way over to the kitchen once more. Jenifer's face generated what seemed to be an almost evil like smirk.

"She's perfect..."

"Perfect for what?" Courtney asked, turning to her daughter whilst she continued to wash the dishes.

Courtney had a very strict 'no powers unless necessary' rule in the house. Therefore, she made sure that she complied and did the dishes by hand when it was her turn to do so.

"Huh?" Jenifer came from her daydream, turning to face her mother. "Oh, nothing, mom." She replied. "Nothing at all..."

Jenifer was very clearly up to something. That something was probably a devious scheme. Courtney didn't want to know. Courtney didn't want to ask. She knew if she did either, she would only end up getting caught in the plans that she wanted no part of.

"Okay..." Courtney said instead. "Where's your brother?"

"In his room...Sulking...Where else would he be?"

"That girl really got to him, didn't she?" Courtney sighed. Jenifer rolled her eyes, jumping up onto the counter beside the sink.

"Of course she got to him!" Jenifer told her mother. "And so did Scott...Now Thomas won't talk to anyone..."

It upset Jen to see her older brother so torn down. He was supposed to be the one to look out for her. Now she was going to have to be the one looking out for him. Thomas may say that he's fine, that he just wants to be alone and doesn't need anyone's help, but he's a very bad liar.

"Go see if you can get him to come out of his room." Courtney urged her daughter. She knew that the two were quite close with each other; maybe she was just hoping that Thomas would shine through the situation like he usually did.

"No way!" Jenifer yelled. "You do it! He'll kill me if I go anywhere within ten feet of his bedroom!"

"Don't be such a Drama Queen, Jenny!" Courtney told her daughter, grabbing an old kitchen rag and drying her hands off.

"I am not a Drama Queen!" Jenifer defended herself. "That's Thomas..."

"GO!" Courtney ordered, pointing towards the staircase.

Jenifer knew there was no point in arguing, Courtney always won the gold in arguments. She was a natural at getting her own way. So, Jen slumped off the kitchen counter and dragged her feet all the way over to the staircase, and up it.

"Tom?" Jenifer lightly banged her knuckles on the door before pushing it open. "Tom, are you okay?"

Thomas was lying face down on the bed, his face buried in the pillow. He had been that way ever since he had come back from wherever he had gone yesterday. Either he had tried to clear his head and failed or something had hurt him even more.

"FUCK OFF!" He snapped, knowing his sister was once again in his bedroom without written consent.

"Mom sent me up here to get you out." Jenifer replied. Usually she would have done as Thomas wished and left, but this time things were just a bit more serious.

"Tell her fuck off too!" He mumbled angrily into his pillow. The rest of the bedding could be found on the floor; no doubt that Thomas had thrown it off in a temper. "I just wanna be alone..."

His whole bedroom was a mess due to the fact he had never cleaned up after his rampage. Luckily Courtney hadn't bothered to go up and inspect the bombsite; she may have had a heart attack if she had.

"Thomas..." Jenifer sighed, leaning herself up against the wall by the door. She would have walked in further, but she was scared of stepping on something and hurting herself. There was a strong possibility of her doing so.

Jenifer didn't know what to do. She could try and lighten the mood for him, but that wouldn't have been any good. He wanted her gone and she didn't particularly want to be there either. Nothing came to mind apart from to keep talking.

"You can't stay up here forever." She told her brother. "It smells." No reply. "And I still believe that, that pile of dirty laundry houses elves!"

"I just don't want to face anyone..."

Thomas sounded scared. Frightened almost. The break-up had hurt him and now he was worried about facing everyone who had been right from the start. Olivia had only just been using him for her own personal gain. Nothing true had been going on in their relationship the entire time.

"Not even a really hot girl next door?" Jenifer teased.

"What really hot girl next door?" Thomas asked, bringing his head from the pillow and turning to face his sister to find out more.

Jenifer smiled and shook her head. Trust Thomas to move on so quick if there was a girl involved.

"So I see THAT got your attention." Jen always liked to tease Thomas, including holding back more information for the longest period of time just to keep him interested and on edge. "Her name's Dallas, she just moved in next door with her family."

"And how hot are we talking here?" Thomas asked, wanting to know more about this girl.

Jenifer shot Thomas a glare. Typical he wasn't going to do anything for himself.

"GO FIND OUT YOURSELF!" She screamed, before backing out of the room and slamming the door shut behind her. Maybe her little plan was coming together nicely after all.

A/N: YAY! NEW CHAPTER! LOL!

Sorry there was no update yesterday...I was...Uh...You'll see in a minute ;)

AH! Dallas...The final new character...I think...Hmm...I cannot be 11% sure on that...BUT! I think she is...LOL!

OKAY! So...Does anybody know what happened yesterday? I mean, I've only been talking about it for, what? SINCE NOVEMBER! LOL! Maybe not quite that long...But that's how long I had been waiting...

HARRY POTTER! HARRY POTTER! HARRY POTTER!

OMG! IT WAS EPICALLY AMAZING! AMAZINGLY EPIC! IT WAS AWESOME! OMG! OMG! OMG!

If you have not seen it yet, GO SEE IT! =O!

I loved it...LOL!

I got home afterwards...Went for two walks...Then got soo tired that I went to sleep after writing a bit of the beginning of this...Or more or less half of it actually...LOL!

You know, I've never heard Lady Gaga's song Edge of Glory all the way through...Random thought!

Uh...So, yeah...HARRY POTTER IS OVER! IT'S OVER! NO MORE HARRY POTTER! ='(

I am soo sad...My childhood has ended...='(

But...Yeah...I got nothing...

Thank you to;

pomtdwt: haha! I LIKE IT! LOL! Thank you :)

InstruMental: hehe! YEP! LOL! HARRY POTTER WAS FREAKIN' EPIC! Have you seen it yet? LOL! Olivia? Do something stupid? Probably...LOL! haha! Thanks :)

Pandah N. Reaper: Yeah...I like him too! LOL! Yeah...I think Devon's a one off character ;) LOL! Sorry...haha! Yeah...That would probably scare me to death if one of my sisters did that...LOL! Thank you :)

xxRock4eveRxx: haha! Yep...He does sound smexy...LOL! aww! That's nice of you...I don't think my dad likes Harry Potter...He took me to see the fourth one, but I think that was it...LOL! Thanks :)

XxPurpleChickxX: haha! Yes. Yes he does ;) LOL! Thank you :)

Clarissa: haha! It's okay! Really! It is! LOL! Thanks :)

eternalstarlight28: LOL! That's a good excuse...LOL! ahaha! Yes...They have grown up WAY too fast...LOL! ahaha! NO TELLING! haha! You shall have to wait and see...LOL! Yeah...You babble a lot...LOL! IT'S OKAY! SO DO I! LOL! Why would that give you encouragement?...I do not know! LOL! OKAY! I'm gonna shut up now...LOL! Thank you :)

Aaron'sInAMineField: No it weren't...It was longer than the three I posted before it actually...So, YEAH! ;) Thanks :)

YAY! MORE AND MORE AND MORE REVIEWS! LOL!

BIG THANK YOU TO InstruMental AND xxRock4eveRxx FOR PAYING ATTENTION TO WHAT I RAMBLE ABOUT AND GOING TO READ Take Nothing For Granted. YAY! THANK YOU BTOH VERY MUCH! XD

Thanks for reading, please review :)

I love you like a love song baby...And I keep hitting rep-p-p-p-peat!

Love, ChloeRhiannonX