Status: Please buy the book for Kindle if it does become available. If it becomes available I will likely take down all but the first 12 chapters.
Firestarter
New Neighbors
I still remember the night I saw her for the first time – It was the 19th of August, a Monday, school had just started so my grades were still pretty decent. It was a pretty bad night in regards to burning things – I only found one tin can which I burnt very slowly, savoring every second of the flames. I walked in the door only to be nagged by the same thing I’m always greeted with.
“Do your homework.” Mom said, doing the dishes.
“Oh, gee, that’s real nice of you.” I said, clearing looking to start something out of boredom. “Not even a ‘hello’? Or a ‘how was your day at school’? Just ‘do your homework’?”
Mom groaned. “Fine. Hello, Tom. Do your homework.”
I swear, she acts exactly like a teenage girl – might as well have a few copies of Seventeen on her nightstand.
I set my bag down by the kitchen table, and went in the next room where my dad was.
“Why aren’t you doing what your mom asked?” My dad asked, agitated as he always is.
“Oh, hello to you too, father.” I said, rolling my eyes. “In case you haven’t noticed, I just walked in the house literally less than a minute ago, and in that amount of time it would’ve been impossible for me to greet the family, open my bag, get a pencil out, get my textbook out, and begin writing. Please try to accomplish basic math.”
“Are you getting an attitude with me?”
I sighed. “No, Dad. I’ll go do my homework.”
I walked off back into the other room, got my bag, and dragged it upstairs into my room. I unzipped the bag, got out my algebra book and pencil, and started pretending like I knew what I was doing. After about ten minutes of making answers up, I peered out the window for a second – and that’s when I saw it.
A moving truck?
My attention immediately turned to the window. I saw a family standing outside. A mom, dad, and a girl. She appeared to be about my age. She had blonde hair with blue highlights and was wearing a plain white T-shirt and jeans. She looked unenthusiastic about everything…I’m already starting to like this girl.
I went down the stairs to alert my parents that the apocalypse must be approaching and to start stocking up on food, because there’s someone actually moving into this ghost town. Well, I didn’t use those exact words.
“Hey, Mom.” I said, turning to my mom who was preparing dinner. “There’s a moving truck outside.”
“Really?!” My mom asked, before catching herself. She had accidentally sounded enthusiastic about something. She had to switch back to her mom mode fast. She coughed, and said, “That’s nice. But shouldn’t you be doing your homework instead of staring out the window?”
I sighed. “Yeah, I guess so.” I then went over to where my dad was, getting frustrated while trying to write down the recent purchases the family had made in his notepad. I hope I never end up like that; so old and confused I can’t even remember how much I paid at Starbucks this morning.
“What?!” My dad asked, agitated.
“There’s people moving in next door.”
“And they’ll be out again in a week. Do your homework.”
Alright, this was seriously irritating me. “Everything is about homework with you, isn’t it?! Can’t you think of something else for me to do?! Oh yeah, there’s nothing else you can do in this town, because this entire town stinks!”
I ran out of the room, slamming the door behind me and running up the stairs to my room, locking the door. I could hear my dad running up the stairs behind me, pounding on my door threatening to take my lock off. After about five minutes of screaming and pounding, and yelling back from my mom downstairs telling my dad to shut up because she couldn’t concentrate, he gave up and went back down.
I immediately went back to looking out the window. I don’t know how anything like -2 + -5 is going to help me in life, but I sure knew that I needed to know the reason why anyone in their right mind would ever move to a place like this.
Maybe they were mentally insane like the crazy lady next door. Maybe they were illegal immigrants and they figured this was a safe place where they wouldn’t get spotted. Maybe they were shape-shifting aliens? Aliens could be fun.
I was really anxious to meet this new family now. But I knew I couldn’t just go out now – I couldn’t get back in the house without my dad catching me afterwards. I sighed and turned back to Algebra, leaving a mental note to myself to stop by their place tomorrow.
“Do your homework.” Mom said, doing the dishes.
“Oh, gee, that’s real nice of you.” I said, clearing looking to start something out of boredom. “Not even a ‘hello’? Or a ‘how was your day at school’? Just ‘do your homework’?”
Mom groaned. “Fine. Hello, Tom. Do your homework.”
I swear, she acts exactly like a teenage girl – might as well have a few copies of Seventeen on her nightstand.
I set my bag down by the kitchen table, and went in the next room where my dad was.
“Why aren’t you doing what your mom asked?” My dad asked, agitated as he always is.
“Oh, hello to you too, father.” I said, rolling my eyes. “In case you haven’t noticed, I just walked in the house literally less than a minute ago, and in that amount of time it would’ve been impossible for me to greet the family, open my bag, get a pencil out, get my textbook out, and begin writing. Please try to accomplish basic math.”
“Are you getting an attitude with me?”
I sighed. “No, Dad. I’ll go do my homework.”
I walked off back into the other room, got my bag, and dragged it upstairs into my room. I unzipped the bag, got out my algebra book and pencil, and started pretending like I knew what I was doing. After about ten minutes of making answers up, I peered out the window for a second – and that’s when I saw it.
A moving truck?
My attention immediately turned to the window. I saw a family standing outside. A mom, dad, and a girl. She appeared to be about my age. She had blonde hair with blue highlights and was wearing a plain white T-shirt and jeans. She looked unenthusiastic about everything…I’m already starting to like this girl.
I went down the stairs to alert my parents that the apocalypse must be approaching and to start stocking up on food, because there’s someone actually moving into this ghost town. Well, I didn’t use those exact words.
“Hey, Mom.” I said, turning to my mom who was preparing dinner. “There’s a moving truck outside.”
“Really?!” My mom asked, before catching herself. She had accidentally sounded enthusiastic about something. She had to switch back to her mom mode fast. She coughed, and said, “That’s nice. But shouldn’t you be doing your homework instead of staring out the window?”
I sighed. “Yeah, I guess so.” I then went over to where my dad was, getting frustrated while trying to write down the recent purchases the family had made in his notepad. I hope I never end up like that; so old and confused I can’t even remember how much I paid at Starbucks this morning.
“What?!” My dad asked, agitated.
“There’s people moving in next door.”
“And they’ll be out again in a week. Do your homework.”
Alright, this was seriously irritating me. “Everything is about homework with you, isn’t it?! Can’t you think of something else for me to do?! Oh yeah, there’s nothing else you can do in this town, because this entire town stinks!”
I ran out of the room, slamming the door behind me and running up the stairs to my room, locking the door. I could hear my dad running up the stairs behind me, pounding on my door threatening to take my lock off. After about five minutes of screaming and pounding, and yelling back from my mom downstairs telling my dad to shut up because she couldn’t concentrate, he gave up and went back down.
I immediately went back to looking out the window. I don’t know how anything like -2 + -5 is going to help me in life, but I sure knew that I needed to know the reason why anyone in their right mind would ever move to a place like this.
Maybe they were mentally insane like the crazy lady next door. Maybe they were illegal immigrants and they figured this was a safe place where they wouldn’t get spotted. Maybe they were shape-shifting aliens? Aliens could be fun.
I was really anxious to meet this new family now. But I knew I couldn’t just go out now – I couldn’t get back in the house without my dad catching me afterwards. I sighed and turned back to Algebra, leaving a mental note to myself to stop by their place tomorrow.