Chapter 1 - The Arrival

Chapter One: The Arrival 
Elvira Simmons lugged her suitcase down the narrow sidewalk, looking around curiously at her surroundings. It was a pleasant day as she walked, taking in the sights of the lush green grass and the tall blooming trees. The warm breeze brushed through her long blonde hair. Her eyes were a bright green, but the shining sun made them an even lighter shade. She pushed her thick-rimmed glasses farther up her nose as they slide down. She didn’t really need glasses; she used them to cover up her freckles. She was a small girl, and it was surprising that she could carry the luggage that she held in her arms and hands. She had a large black suitcase that had seen better days and in the opposite hand she held a violin case. Although it was a warm day, she wore a white long-sleeved shirt under a dark green short-sleeved form-fitting shirt. Her long brown skirt ended once it reached the tops of her knees, showing her black boots.
Reaching an intersection, she set her suitcase down on the ground near a wooden bench and revealed a small crumpled piece of lined paper from a small pocket on her skirt. She unfolded it the best she could and read it.
“Anderson drive…” Elvira muttered, looking up from the piece of paper. She glanced at the street sign across the street. “There it is! Finally!” Picking up her suitcase, she rushed across the street. It was surprising that there were no cars on the road or that there was not a single person walking about aimlessly.
The town, Kaman, was so beautiful; she didn’t understand why there weren’t many civilians. As she had walked from the airport to Kaman she had only seen one school, and she assumed it was a high school. She was used to there being an abundant supply of schools, whether they were junior high, or elementary. Kaman had a large park filled with equipment that small children could play on, including a sandbox, swing sets, monkey bars, etc., and it had a snack bar and a café for the teenagers and adults to occupy after school or work.
Elvira felt like she wanted to rush to her new home, but her luggage held her back, so she paced herself. She had memorized the number on the house she needed…21 Anderson drive. She studied the houses as she passed them. At first they were high numbers, forties and up. But as she walked the numbers decreased. They were all pleasant looking houses, but most of them looked alike. Every couple houses there would be one that was brightly painted, as if the homeowners wanted people to know that they were different from the surrounding neighbors. The houses also had fantastic yards, each house having a wide variety of flowers and shrubs to look at. As she walked, she decided that she would have to get to know each and every neighbor, seeing as she was a city girl and had so many more neighbors than this small street. She would have to ask her aunt and uncle about her new neighbors.
Stopping in front of number 21, she set down her suitcase and gazed at the tall house. It was two stories high and was an off-white color.  Two overgrown grape vines cradled the large windows in the front of the house. The grass was neatly trimmed and the flowers were in neat rows. Elvira gulped. Hopefully they haven’t changed into clean freaks…she thought, dreading the truth. She dragged her suitcase to the door of the house and carefully rapped her knuckles against the door. She waited patiently for the door to open. When it didn’t, she knocked again. Hearing footsteps, she backed away a small step. The door opened and a boy with brown hair and glasses about Elvira’s age poked his head through.
“Yes…?” he said, raising an eyebrow. He looked her up and down and his eyes fell onto her suitcase.
“Hi, I’m Elvira…Allex?” she said, adjusting the suitcase so that it leaned against her leg. The boy’s eyes widened.
“Yeah…? You’re Elvira?” he said, unsure whether to believe her or not.
“Allex! You know it’s me! Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten me!” she cried, hurt that he didn’t remember her.
Allex narrowed his eyes at her. “It’s been nine years since we last saw each other.”
Elvira’s face flushed. “B-but I remember you…”
Allex studied her and opened the door wide enough for her to get by. “I was kidding…”
Her face brightened. “You mean you remember me?!” she cried happily.
“No.”
Elvira stared at him and sighed. He was in a pair of sweatpants and a large black t-shirt. He wore no shoes, but socks. He had squarish glasses and behind them he had dark blue eyes. He was tall, but this Elvira didn’t notice, probably because of how distressed she was about him not knowing who she was.  
She walked into the large house, looking around, amazed by her surroundings. He led her upstairs to her room silently. She gazed around the house. It was very large, larger than what Elvira was used to. Will I ever get used to this??? she asked herself. They walked into a hallway with two doors across from each other, one on the left of the hall and one on the right. Allex walked to the door on the right side of the hallway and opened the door. It was empty, all except for a bed, a small brown dresser, and a gray desk.
“This is yours,” he said, standing at the doorway. She dragged her suitcase past him and dropped it and set her violin on the bed. The violin caught his eye.
“Do you need any help?” he asked quietly. Elvira turned to him.
“ ‘saight,” she said quickly, accidentally slurring her words into one word.
Allex was confused. “What?”
“It’s alright,” she said, laughing. “Sorry, I’m excited.”
Allex studied and walked out of the room. “I’ll be here,” he said, pointing to the door across her room.
“Is that your room?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said, entering his room. “Tell me if you need any help.” He disappeared into his room, closing the door behind him. Elvira closed the door to her room.
She looked around at the bare walls.
“Aah…it’s so plain! Maybe I could ask Aunt Theresa and Uncle James if I could repaint the room…” she said, talking to herself. “Agh….” She collapsed onto the bed, next to her violin. She stared at the white ceiling. “I wonder what I can do around here.”
Elvira shot up in the bed, realizing that she needed to call her friend. She hopped off of the bed, quickly opening her suitcase. She carefully searched through the pile of clothing and video games that filled her suitcase. Soon she found what she was looking for, her cell phone. She turned it on and searched for her friend’s number. When she found it she called it and held the phone up to her ear.
“…Hey! Kari! Wassup~!” she cried happily to her friend.
­­ “Elvira?” her friend said, surprised.
“Yup! I miss you…and it’s only been one day!” she said sadly. Kari giggled.
“I miss you too! It’s not really the same here….I’ll have to come visit you someday.” She said thoughtfully.
“You’d better!” Elvira teased.
“So, how’s Kaman?”
“It’s so much different from Imae. It’s so quiet here and there’s so many beautiful sceneries here,” Elvira explained.
“I meant about your home, but okay. Thanks for the details,” Kari laughed.
“Oh, I just got here.”
“Haven’t you seen you uncle and aunt yet?”
“No…now that I think about it…I don’t know where they are,” she said, scratching her head. Kari was silent.
“Kari? You there?”
Kari laughed. “Yeah, I’m here. Have you met your cousin yet?” she questioned.
“Boy, you’re the nosy one.”
“I’m just being interested in your affairs.”
“Suuure….well, he’s awfully….um…I don’t know how to explain it…”
“Is he hot?” Kari said, grinning.
Elvira was stunned. She hadn’t thought of anything like that towards her cousin. “WHAT?!”
“Ow…that was loud….” She said, rubbing her ear as she held the phone away from her ear.
“Why would I think that way about my cousin!” Elvira said, obviously disgusted.
“I was just asking. You know that I love looking for hot guys,” Kari said with a smile. “So…could you tell me if he’s cute? I mean, from a girl’s point of view, not as if you’re his cousin.” Elvira grimaced, but gave into her friend’s plead.
“I guess. He’s okay. Your type,” Elvira said.
“Ahh…is he nice?”
“I’ve barely talked to him, but from what I’ve met of him so far he’s kind of….in-between.”
“Oh, okay…oh, I gotta go. I’ll talk you later. Y’got the same number, right?” Kari asked.
“Yeah,” she said.
“Oh okay! Seeya later!” Kari said.
Elvira said her goodbye and hung up, sighing as she tossed her phone onto the bed. She looked at the opened suitcase with open disgust. I’ll do that later, she decided lazily as she opened the door to her room. She walked across the hall to Allex’s room and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” she heard him call. She opened the door to see him and a girl sitting on his bed with an open book between them. The girl had short brown hair and bright brown eyes. She wore a blue-gray tank top with short jean shorts. Her thong sandals were placed at the bottom of Allex’s bed. She smiled at Elvira.
“So this is your cousin?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Allex said quietly, eyeing her.
The girl stood up and walked towards Elvira and smiled at her. “I’m Jean.”
“I’m Elvira, but you probably know that already,” Elvira said, happily.
Jean laughed. “You’re right about that.”
Allex watched the two become friends from afar, every once in awhile looking to the book.
“So how do you like it here? Where were you from…?” Jean asked.
“Oh, it’s fantastic here so far! So much more nature than in Imae-”
“Omigod! You’re from Imae? Isn’t that a big city to the way North?” Jean asked excitedly.
Elvira was taken aback. She wasn’t sure that being from the city was such a big deal.
“Uhm…yeah.”
“Ooooh! I’ve always wanted to go there! It sounds like such an adventure to live there,” Jean squealed, twirling around in a circle. Elvira guessed she let out her emotions often. She seemed very high-strung.
“It’s actually not that much fun. I couldn’t stay out late, y’know…since there’ve been shootings ever since Mr. Antyago repealed the anti-gun act last year. I don’t even know why he did that…” Elvira sighed.
“Mr. Antyago? Is that your mayor?” Jean asked.
“No, it’s the governor. I absolutely despise him. He makes up some stupid reason to repeal the acts, just for the sake of himself,” Elvira fumed.
“Why do you say that?”
“Well, first off…Mr. Sora, our former governor, decided that since we were having too many killings with these new guns Proun Industries had just introduced, he banned the use of any kind of gun made by Proun Industries. After Mr. Sora left office Muriel elected Mr. Antyago governor. He was a former hunter and saw that there should be nothing in the way of a man being able to collect guns, so he repealed the act. He’s a lunatic…I heard he killed his own family,” Elvira said, gritting her teeth.
“My…that’s awful. It’s so peaceful here. I just wish that for once something amazing would happen,” Jean chirped, a gleam in her eye sparkled. Elvira watched her, amazed.
“You’re so high-strung…” Elvira laughed.
“I have to be, or else I’d be forever bored around Allex,” Jean said, pointing to Allex.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Allex growled, looking up from the book.
Jean turned to face him. “You’re boring most of the time. Either that or you talk very little. You need to be energetic!” she cried happily, punching the air with her fists.
“Shut up…” Allex mumbled, turning back to his book.
“But…but…” Jean stammered, her shoulders shaking. Elvira patted her back.
“WAAHHH!!” Jean cried, tears streaming down her face as she flung herself at Elvira.
“Whoa!” Elvira grunted, nearly falling over.
Allex stared at her with wide eyes.
“Y…you…you told me to shut up….You’re mean Allex!!! ”she cried, hugging Elvira tightly.
Allex chuckled as he watched Elvira struggle to get out of Jean’s death grip.
 
 

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