Firestarter

So I tried my hardest to become friends with her. It’s not like I had anything better to do. However, she kept bringing up television, and there’s not much I know about the hottest TV shows with my cheap antenna (again, they’re likely allergic to cable or something).

“Dude, that’s pathetic.” Adeline said one day after I was only able to name one TV show: Sesame Street. “Do your parents hate you or something?”

“Sometimes I wonder.” I said.

“Well...do you wanna come over to my house after school? I could try my best to catch you up a little bit.”

I froze. My first time over at a girl’s house? Now? As in, right now? Legitimately, right at this very moment in time?

“Um...okay.”

So the school day passed and then I was on the way to Adeline’s house. When I knocked on the door, I was greeted by her mother, who looked scared to see her princess had a boy with her.

Before I could even get out “Hello, Mrs.---”, she grabbed Adeline and locked the door. I started listening in through the door.

“Why is he over here?! What have you done to him? What ARE you planning to do to him?”

“Nothing, mother. Geez, calm down!”

“I don’t want a repeat of last time.”

“There won’t be a repeat! He’s our next door neighbor!”

“...oh.”

Adeline’s mother opened the door again, looking embarrassed. “Sorry about that. Come on in.”

I walked in to see that Adeline’s house was quite nice - at least compared to mine. They had a computer, a television, and a water filter...and none of them were even broken!

“Go ahead, take your coat off, make yourself comfortable.” Adeline said, taking my coat. I sat down on the couch. Adeline turned on the television and opened the on-screen guide. I was shocked...I had seen on-screen guides before only once in my life when we visited my uncle for Christmas, but his looked nothing like this!

She began flipping through channels in the hundreds, the two-hundreds, the three-hundreds...eventually, we were up to the thousands. I guess she could tell how amazed I was, because she started laughing.

“I guess this would seem pretty amazing for someone who gets ten channels.” Adeline said. “Ugh, there’s nothing on.”

“Nothing on?! How can there be nothing on when you’ve got all those channels?!”

“You’re telling me. Hey, wanna go up to my room?”

Okay, now things were getting crazy. She wanted me to go up to her room? As in, her room? The room that is in this house that belongs to her?

“Um, okay…” I said awkwardly, though part of me was saying “no.”
Just as she grabbed my arm and was about to drag me up to her room, her dad walked in and grabbed her. I again listened in.

“Adeline Motawa, have you lost your mind?”

“Dad, listen to me-”

“You think I’m going to let you take a BOY? Up to your ROOM?”

“Dad, you’re being dramatic over noth-”

“I know what you’re trying to pull over my eyes, and they won’t shut!”

“Dad, shut up and listen to me for a second of your life! He’s our next door neighbor, and he’s probably listening in right now, feeling threatened that you’re being such a jerk.”

“...oh.”

Adeline’s dad walked out awkwardly and let her go. “I apologize for that.” He then quickly ran off.

“Man, my dad’s weird.” Adeline muttered, though I couldn’t really blame him for wanting to protect his daughter. She opened the door to her room. My eyes were immediately assaulted with bright pink. Seriously, the entire room was pink. Pink, pink, pink, pink.

“Do you have anything purple?” I asked sarcastically, as she slugged me.

Though inside I was shocked. She seemed like such a tomboy...but she’s got a thing for pink! Girls are quite weird.

“Well, here it is.” Adeline said. “The famous room. Look in amazement at the walls that were forcefully painted pink…”

Ha! I knew she had to be forced into this. Looks like I understand more than I think I understand.

“Well, at least you’re halfway sane.” I said, laughing.

After a few minutes of awkward conversation and laughing, we both realized we were bored out of our minds.

“Hey, you wanna go...do something?” I asked Adeline.

“Like what?”

“Just follow me.”

I grabbed Adeline’s arm (for once I was the one taking people around) and ran outside holding it. I expected her parents to say something but they must’ve gave up. As soon as we were outside, I pulled out a lighter from my pocket.

“I didn’t know you smoked.” Adeline said.

“No, that’s not what it’s for. Follow me some more.”

I again dragged Adeline down a couple of blocks until I found an old, vacant house. I lit the lighter and threw it at the trash can out front.

“Whoa, what are you doing?” Adeline asked in shock.
“Relax, we’re not gonna burn the house down. Just the trash can. It’s fun to watch it darken and crisp up.”

Adeline stared at the trash can for a little while, as if she was trying to decide if this were okay or not. “Yeah, I guess it is pretty fun.”

But then the fire started to spread into the grass.

“You might wanna put it out now.” Adeline said.

“Yeah, I guess that’d be a good idea.”

I got a full bottle of water out of my coat and started dumping water on the fire, but it wasn’t working. In fact, it seemed to be growing more. By now it was dangerously reaching the house.

“Uh, Tom?”

“I don’t know what’s going on. This never happens.”

But then, the fire reached the house. The door came tumbling down and turned into black ash within seconds.

“Tom, you idiot!” Adeline yelled, punching him. “Ugh, I can’t believe you dragged me out here.”

“I told you, this never happens!”

The fire continued to engulf the house behind us, as the window started to break down and crumble.

“Call the police!” Adeline yelled.

“No way! If my parents find out about this, they’ll ground me until I’m 30 and won’t let me out of the house until I’m 40!”

Adeline rolled her eyes. “I’m pretty sure they can’t do that. What about school?”

“They’d be willing to homeschool me.”

Adeline pulled her phone out. “Whatever, I’m calling the police.”

“NO!”

I grabbed the phone from Adeline’s hand and smashed it to the ground. Adeline then punched me in the face, knocking me straight to the ground. I attempted to stand up, but then she kicked me down again. The two of us continued to fight until we started to hear a sudden laughter. Maybe the laughter had been going on for a while and we were so busy killing each other that we hadn’t noticed?

We both turned around to see the laughter was coming from the house (well, what was left of it). It seemed to be getting louder, deeper, and more cynical with each laugh. Finally, the voice spoke…

“Hello, Tom and Adeline. I’ve been expecting you.”