Chapter 3
Life's Full Of Surprises, Eh?
I slumped on the living room couch, breathing out deeply. Imagine came running towards me and licked my face. "Okay, calm down buddy. Calm down," I whispered to him. He finally settled down on my lap. Ugh! Heavy doggy..
Judging from the car outside, Mum was probably back from work. "Hey, Mum? Are you back?" I cried out, my voice muffled by the cushion.
"Yes, Honey, I'm back. Where's Neil?" Her sweet voice replied, calming my bad mood.
"He has gone off to Jayden's home so I drove the car myself. Said he'll be back in one hour."
"That's good. Oh and is he... um.. going to go with you to the dinner?" She asked, nervousness clearly evident in her voice.
"Hm yeah," I replied tiredly. She looked at me with wide eyes, surprise on her face. "Yep," I said popping the 'p'.
"What did he make you do in return?" She sighed heavily. I looked at her with raised eyebrows? Don't tell me my mum can read minds...
"How do you know he made me do something?"
"I'm his mother, honey. Mothers know everything," she replied softly.
"He made me go for the auditions for the school band. For the lead guitarist." I pouted crossing my arms over my chest.
"And... you agreed?" Mum asked with surprise... again. Life's full of surprises, eh?
"Yep."
Mum squealed at that, giving me a tight hug which almost suffocated me. "Mum.. you... are .. suffocating.. me," I managed to say. She gave me an apologetic smile.
"I'm so happy for you, Em! It's such good news.. so when are you going to know if you're chosen or not?"
"Dunno, they said they'll send an email and let us know. Apparently, the guitarist, pianist and singer of the the band graduated from school so they need new members," I replied nonchalantly.
"I'm glad you went for the auditions." She gave me peck on the cheek with a smile. I smiled back.
"Oh Em, I've got something else to tell you," she said excitedly. After Sophie started calling me 'Em', everybody dropped the idea of calling me Mannu. Em kinda sounds stupid! Who calls someone by their initial?
"What is it?" I asked getting up to open the kitchen cabinet. My stomach was grumbling with hunger so I settled myself on the chair of the kitchen counter with a packet of skittles.
"My childhood best friend is going to shift here. I mean the vacant house beside ours! We'll be neighbours!!" She was acting like a school kid but I was happy to see her finally enjoying and forgetting about dad.
"Really? That's amazing. So she wasn't here in California, before?" I asked.
"She was but her previous house used to be quite far. So they're going to arrive here today evening. We never met each other here! We didn't even know that we both were in California but I got a call from her a few days ago. And today she told me she's shifting here. I've even called them for dinner today! She has three kids and I'm pretty sure you'll get along," she ranted on happily. I must have gotten the ranting habit from her.
"Sure. Mum, I'll talk to you later. Have loads of homework to do. School hasn't even started but they've already given us a pile of homework." I gave her a kiss and scurried off to my room upstairs, Imagine running behind me. I admired my clean room. After I got a scolding from mom to clean my room, I didn't waste my time. Otherwise... well you wouldn't want to know the consequences. The wallpaper was light blue with white stars on it and the doors were white. The study table was at the other side of the room while a huge bed took up most of the place. I had my own walk-in closet since my room was the smallest in the house.
Quickly washing my hands and face, I took out a book from the shelf and jumped on the bed. I dropped the idea of doing homework because I was feeling dead tired. Who cares about homework, anyway? Detentions are probably better. Note the use of 'probably'. Sounds impossible but I've never gotten a detention before. I always managed to charm the teachers, I guess.
I felt my eyelids getting heavy after a few minutes of reading my book. So carefully putting the bookmark inside, I closed the book and before I knew it I fell asleep with Imagine cuddling beside me.
* * * *
"Sissy pissy, wake up!" Something tickled my years. I jerked up, my eyes wide. "Aliens!" I shouted. Okay, I know that was weird but what are you supposed to do when someone wakes you up by tickling your ears with a freaking feather. Yes, that's what Neil was doing to wake me up. I glared at my brother who was laughing as if there was no tomorrow. Tears were rolling down his cheeks and that imbecile didn't even care to wipe them off.
"Aliens? Seriously... Em? I can't breathe... god.. haha aliens. You're one weirdo," Neil laughed ruffling my hair. I slapped his hands away.
"I went for the guitar trials for you and you're thanking me by laughing. Rude much?"
"Sorry, Em. It's just you can be a total lunatic at times. First the 'burger rant' and now 'aliens'. Virat wasn't wrong when he said, you're cute," Neil said affectionately. Okaaayyy... maybe I wasn't the only one behaving like a total weirdo. Since when did Neil start being so... brotherly... towards me? Woah! He even said I was cute.
"Who are you and what did you to do my brother?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.
"I am your brother, stupid," he chuckled.
"Are you running a fever?" My eyes widened as I touched my hand to his forehead. "What's wrong with you, Nee-Nee?" 'Nee-Nee' is kind of my nickname for him. Don't blame me.. his name was too short to be shortened so I added another Nee to the Nee. Does that make any sense? I mean calling him Neil-Neil would be way too stupid!
"Hey did you just call me Nee-Nee?" Now it was his time to be surprised. After dad left, I hardly ever called him Nee-Nee because I was just to sad to tease him with it. He absolutely hated being called Nee-Nee.
"Answer my question first," I said.
"Well can't I express my love to my cute sis?" He smirked, pinching my cheeks.
"Gross. When did you start talking about such cheesy stuff?" I asked.
"What? I'm being an elder brother to my little sister!" He was serious by now. Oh okay, I give up. Looks like his mood was just too good today. "Now answer my question."
"I realized after our morning chat that you're right. I shouldn't get too lost in the misery that I forget myself. So I guess I should thank you, Nee-Nee," I chuckled, hugging him.
"Oh my god! This day has been full of surprises. Are you kids alright?" Mum asked. I looked up to see her leaning against the door frame. Oh no! I didn't want any audience to witness this cheesy brother-sister moment. But I was happy to see things going back to normal. More than happy! It's true Neil and I fight a lot but we love each other way too much. Dad's absence affected us so much that we didn't talk to each other so much. It was just fighting and teasing!
"Yeah Mum we're all right," Neil and I said at the same time. "Ew, we're not going to say things together!" I exclaimed.
"Couldn't agree more," Neil replied with a laugh. Before we knew it, Mum tackled us into another hug. Poor Imagine was probably feeling left out because, before we knew it, he came squishing in between us. Where did he even come from? No idea. We all laughed at that.
"As much as I enjoy this moment, I have to tell you guys to change. We have guests coming over, remember? Come on go get ready." With that Mum left, singing to herself, Imagine at her heels. Neil and I looked at each other.
"Mum's too happy that her friend has shifted here, isn't she?" Neil asked.
"I'm guessing she told you too?"
He nodded. "Well, it looks like that. I'm excited to see who our new neighbours are. Ms Grumpy Old Cat Lady was terrible," I said. Our last neighbour was an old lady who had like 10 cats and all she ever did was snap at us. So we were quite happy when she went away!
"Remember when she visited us, she would smell like her horrible dirty cats? And I always tried not to throw up? Heck, she even bought her burnt cookies." Neil laughed but later his expression changed into disgust at the thought of those cats. I shuddered when I remembered tasting her burnt cookies.. they tasted odd. Not to mention, it smelled like shit. Gross!
"I guess we should change, now." Neil sighed getting up. "I'm glad you're back, Em." He said before walking away. I smiled, getting up too.
* * * *
"No way am I going to wear this, Mum!" I shouted as she held up a short sleeveless black dress. What's the problem? Well, everything about the dress! It's just a dinner at home for crying out loud.
"Well, wear it or stay naked, your wish." Mum smirked at me. SMIRK?! Why does everyone torture me with smirks? In fact I think I'm slowly catching the 'smirk flu' too. Smirk is one thing but see how evil my mum is? What kind of a mother says that to her daughter?
"Mum, please?" I made a puppy dog face hoping that her heart would melt at that and she would give up.
"I'm so not falling for that."
"Please?"
"No."
"Please, Mum."
"No way."
"Please, please, please? I'll do anything you tell me to do! I promise."
"Anything?"
"Anything."
"Okay then. Let me choose your outfit for tonight. Not this dress... but something else," Mum grinned mischievously. I groaned with frustration. Why did I have to promise her anything?
"Whatever," I muttered. Mum walked over to my closet and started going through my clothes while I looked outside the window. The huge pool was visible from my room and I instantly felt like taking a dip. You may ask, how we've got a swimming pool. Well, lucky for us, my dad never paid for this house. It was my mom who had her own family fortune (Mwahahaha) and she has a pretty good job. This house is Mum's and if there's one thing which made me happy after Dad left was that we were the ones kicking him out, not the other way round. So, I'm guessing he had to rent an apartment or he bought a house of his own. Not that I care, anyways.
"Hello! Earth to Maanvi." Mum snapped me back from my thoughts. "You zoned out, honey."
"Sorry! Now what have you got there for me?" I asked as she led the way to my walk-in closet.
"Change into this," she said handing me my clothes before walking away, proudly. I sighed as she closed the door behind her.
I quickly changed into what she picked and thankfully I was quite happy with it. So now when I look at myself in the mirror wearing faded skinny jeans and a black sleeveless top and my converse, I didn't mind at all. Yes, the top was way too stylish for my choice but still... I had my jeans and coco (my converse of course!). And no, I'm not weird for naming my shoes.
Mum had even asked me to keep my hair open which I had to do because of the promise. I'm such a bimbo!
"Maanvi! They're here. Come downstairs," Mum shouted. Not wasting a minute, I rushed down the stairs only to stop when I noticed a family downstairs, chatting with Mum and Neil. They all looked up at me me as I smiled.
Mum's friend, Vanshika, was a beautiful lady and quite cheerful. Her hair had been tied into a neat bun and minimal make up was visible on her face. All in all she was a sweet lady. Her husband, Vikram, was really funny and I found myself laughing along when he cracked some joke. They had 3 children but one of them, apparently, was late and would be coming after sometime. Their only daughter Jeevika, was a gorgeous young lady who was now engaged to her fiancee. Her beautiful black hair reached up to her waist and I swear she didn't have to even try to look pretty. Well, what do you expect from parents who look like 'the perfect couple'? Their youngest son, Zeeshan, who preferred to be called as 'Zee' (I so need to roll my eyes here) was 14 and quite arrogant, if you ask me. For a kid, he was pretty rude and sarcastic but something about him reminded me of ... someone. I don't know who, though. Neil and Zee hit it off pretty well. Eye roll again!
Well, it was a nice and cute family. Not to mention, they're quite the 'huggers'. Did I forget to tell you that except Zee all of them hugged me so tightly that I thought my senses would go numb? Yeah, looks like I did not.
I was kind of eager to meet their other son. Why? I don't know. Maybe because of the fact that I came to know he was in my High School and it was his senior year too? Whatever it was, I hated that guy already. Seriously, isn't it rude to show up so late for a dinner?
"Ugh, Jeevika, where is he?" Vanshika asked her daughter with impatience. Even though, she didn't let it show but I could she her getting slight angry now.
"Hunh, I won't be surprised if that brat doesn't show up, you know?" Came Jeevika's reply. From what I knew, she fought a lot with her brother.
"Well don't worry, Ma'am. It's perfectly fine actually," Neil said. I resisted the urge to snort when he said 'Ma'am' and 'perfectly fine'. Perfectly fine my ass! Now don't you go on about me minding my language. My mom's here for that.
"Neil, I told you to call me Vanshika," she said, smiling at him. Vanshika and Vikram had insisted upon being called by their names. I had no problem whatsoever but Neil, being the gentleman he is (heavy use of sarcasm there), was making a point to call them 'Sir' and 'Ma'am'.
Ding-Dong
The door bell rang and I shot up from my chair. "I'll get it," I said.
Opening the door, my eyes locked with a pair of chocolate brown ones. The person was wearing a surprised smirk (is there even a surprised smirk?) as he looked at me. My eyes threatened to fall out of their sockets and my jaws almost hit the ground.
The jerk is my new neighbour? Say what?!
Woah.. calm down. He's probably not Vanshika's son. Must have come here to bother me! "What are you doing here?" I snarled, recovering from the shock.
"Good evening to you too, Peaches," he said, stepping inside the house. "Oh and you might want to close your mouth. Can't trust the flies, can we Neighbour?" I noticed that my jaw had widened as soon as he entered, but I made no effort to close it. No way in hell is he my neigbour! God, what did you do?
Virat made his way to where the others were sitting and I could hear Neil's excitement at that. "Woah dude! I never knew you're my new neighbour, man." He called out, probably fist bumping Virat. I rolled my eyes and walked up to the living room. As if so many surprises weren't enough, Imagine came rushing towards Virat and licked him. He did that to the others too but that wasn't so shocking. Imagine only does that to people he likes. And Virat? Imagine likes Virat... No no no!
"Why the hell didn't anyone say that this jerk is my new neighbour?" I said and everyone looked at me, including his parents. Oops... wrong time, I think.
"Did you just call my brother a jerk?" Jeevika asked with amusement. I nodded my head nervously. "Woah, girl! You're my new idol." With that Jeevika gave me another one of the tight hugs.
"Well, now that you made the comment, I think I can stop being rude to you. We're new best friends," Zee called out with a huge grin on his face and I found myself grinning back.
After that everyone in the room, with the exception of Virat, started laughing and for once I couldn't resist the urge to laugh either! Surprisingly, even Mum joined in... now I could definitely get used to this.
Maybe, just maybe, my life wasn't going to turn out to be hell afterall. Of course, Virat was always there but I could never hate his family.
* * * *
Author's Note
Thanks for the comments everyone! Means a lot to me. I hope you keep on reading this story :)
Also, I have added everyone (from the PM list) in my Buddy List so it's easier for me to send out the PM's.
Take care!
Love,
Stella
Edited by Stella_8D - 12 years ago
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