Give Me Envy, Give Me Malice, Give Me Your Attention

"We're here. Wake up, Adrienne."

My father's voice sounded far away. I opened my eyes to see my parents looking down at me. I sighed, wanting to continue sleeping. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Danny busy shoving his things into his bag. I got up and pushed past Danny, who glared at me. My mom helped Danny gather everything he had brought along, while my dad started walking out of the plane with the rest of the bags. Once we'd gathered everything, we walked out to the loading/unloading area, where my dad began scanning the horizon.

"Hmm... dont see th- Oh! There they are!"

My mom and dad ran over to greet my aunt and uncle, who had just driven up. Danny and I stayed behind with the bags, watching as they began greeting each other. My dad and Aunt Casey look very similar, although our dad is older by three years. They both have dirty blonde hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion. In fact, Danny looks more like he belongs with our dad's side of the family, while I look like I belong on our mother's side. This is due to the fact that he's really just my step-father. My real dad ran off when I was 4 months old. About a year later, my mom met William, they fell in love, got married and about two years later, Danny arrived. I use William's last name because he's the only dad I've known. I'd rather not be connected to my real dad in any way.

"Think they forgot about us?" Danny interrupted my thoughts. We'd been standing there for about half an hour while the adults talked.

"Yeah. I think its safe to say they did."

A few minutes later, the adults declared it was time to go. We all piled into the car and off we went.

"Oh, you'll just love it here Adrienne. Now, you'll be closer to Spencer and Ryan, remember Ryan?... along with their new friends... umm... what were their names again?" my aunt Casey asked, turning to Uncle Ben.

"Uhh... there's Brendon and Brent... and Kayla..."

"Yes... and Yume... and of course, Sam and Sammy," she turned to look at me. I smiled at the mention of Sam. Sam was my best friend. She'd moved out here to Vegas two years before because of the rising real estate prices in California. Now we were moving out here for almost the same reason. Kind of ironic.

"See, we told you it wouldn't be so bad," my dad said from behind me.

"Of course not... Sam is here. When did I ever complain?"

I smiled, remembering that I'd heartily agreed to move as soon as I'd heard the plan. Sure, I loved my hometown, but life was awfully boring without Sam, even if I did have other great friends.

As we turned into the driveway of our new home, my relatives began talking excitedly about having family barbeques. Danny and I jumped out of the car to look at our new house. The whole block was painted in various pastel colors, which seemed to follow a certain pattern. Ours was white with mint green trim, which I thought was perfect, since my favorite color's green. My parents pulled me and Danny into the house and gave us the grand tour, since they bought the house without us.

"Your room is up this way."

My mother took off up the stairs and down a hallway that went towards the front of the house. She opened the only door down this hall, revealing my room, exactly as I'd wanted it painted. From the bottom to about two feet up the walls, it was painted black, while the rest was painted light green, with molding in the middle to separate the colors. The ceiling was black and the carpet was light green to compliment the room. Most of my furniture was already set up.

"This is awesome."

"Yes..."

I could tell my mom was still a bit skeptical about how I had wanted my room painted. Hey, if I was going to be 'forced' to move, I had to get something, right?

"This room is at the front of the house and the only one down this hall. So you can finally have your privacy."

"Thanks Mom."

My mom walked out, leaving me alone to admire my new surroundings. Suddenly, Danny popped his head in.

"There's nothing to do here. Want to go to Spence's?"

"Sure."

I got up and followed Danny out to the living room, where our parents, Aunt Casey and Uncle Ben were still talking.

"Hey, we're going to Spence's!" Danny yelled as we walked by. He yanked open the door, only to stop. Right there on the front step was our wonderful cousin, Spencer Smith. He was staring at a random plant near the door way, his head tilted to the side. In his current position, his brown hair looked like it was in a comb over. The fact that he hadnt bothered to shave in a while added to the illusion of him being a middle aged man.

"I think there's an someone at the door for you. He seems to be selling car insurance," I yelled into the house.

Spencer looked up at me, realizing we had been there for a while. "That's hilarious," he replied sarcastically.

I hugged him. "Aww... I've missed you too."

Spencer returned my hug, and then turned to ruffle Dannys hair. "Long time no see. Are you going somewhere right now?"

Danny glared at him and fixed his hair, mumbling about perfection. I rolled my eyes at him. He is such an idiot.

"Walking around randomly, I guess. We were going to your house."

"Hey, wait for me. I want to introduce you to everyone."

"What do you mean by everyone?"

"I'm leaving," Danny announced, fiddling with his Ipod and walking down the street. Spencer and I stared as Danny walked off.

"Does he even know where he's going?"

"Probably not."

"Well, just wait for me." I waited outside for Spencer, while he went inside to greet my parents. He came out about five minutes later and we started walking down the street.

"My parents are already planning family barbeques with your parents and you haven't even been here a day," Spencer faked exasperation. "I'm going to get tired of you quick."

I smiled and punched Spencer in the arm. "We're neighbors now. You'll get used to it. Now, I'll be able to bug you every single day. I only live three houses down, instead of a whole state away."

"Three houses down is Sam's house. Three houses down and across the street is my house," Spencer corrected me.

"Oh, sorry," I mock apologized, as we crossed the street. Suddenly something came at me, tackling me down to the ground.

"OMG, OMG, OMG! When did you get here?!" a familiar voice yelled excitedly.

"Only about half an hour ago and you're already starting another collection of bruises on my arm."

My bestest friend in the whole world, Samantha Gomez, got off of me and smiled, helping me up. Her blue eyes crinkled up into her wide smile as she started bouncing up and down. She basically looked the same, except for the fact that she had cut her red hair since the last time I'd seen her in person.

"Sorry, it's just... I was so excited to see you! Two years since we've seen each other! That's horrible! Oh well, now we can do everything together again! Shopping, Double Dating- OMG! You have to meet Brendon!" Sam grabbed my arm and dragged me into Spencer's house. Spencer was already there; having walked on even after I had been mobbed by my best friend. Talk about putting family first.

"Nice to know you care!" I yelled, as we ran by him. Sam dragged me down the stairs into the basement, where two guys were sitting to the couch, talking. One of them had a red bass guitar in his hands. He was playing something as we came in, his long brown hair covering the strings as he bowed his head over the instrument. The other had an acoustic guitar, and was listening to the other guys playing. He had black hair, brown eyes, with a peach complexion to top it all off.

"Yeah, that sounds pretty good," the guitar guy said, high-fiving the other.

"Adrie, meet my boyfriend Brendon. Brendon, this is my bestest friend in the whole world, Adrienne," Sam announced, motioning to the guy holding the guitar. Both guys looked up at me. The one with the bass guitar revealed that he also had brown eyes, although his skin was darker than Brendon's.

"Hi Adrienne. Pleased to meet you," Brendon smiled, standing up to shake my hand.
Sam was positively beaming. I thought it was so cute. So far, it seemed that Brendon was a great boyfriend. And a cute one at that. Note to self, never tell Sam. She might tackle me into oblivion. Again.

"...And this is Brent," Sam introduced me to the guy holding the bass.

"Hey," Brent replied, waving.

At that moment, footsteps were heard coming down the stairs. Everyone looked in that direction. The guy descending the stairs was carrying a guitar gig bag and staring down at his feet, mumbling something under his breath.

"Hi Ryan!" Sam, Brendon, and Brent greeted. Ryan looked up, causing me to gape at him.

That couldn't possibly be Ryan, could it?