One

Summer 2009.

A family of five moved into a moderately sized, four-bedroom house in Lake Hills, Oregon. The family consisted of Margaret and Peter Woods, the middle-aged parents of three; Liu Woods, the eldest child aged fifteen, Jeffrey Woods, the middle child, aged thirteen, and Melanie Woods, the youngest, aged only eight.

The family were pleased with moving to Lake Hills, as Peter had earned a promotion that led to the family moving. Liu and Jeff were happy with the move, wanting to get out of their boring hometown. Margaret, however, was not happy about the move, as the woman could not go to her weekly yoga classes or PTA meetings with the other mothers anymore- she'd have to work her way back into the ranks of the PTA. Melanie was ecstatic about the move; she wanted to make new friends, the wanted to explore, but most of all she wanted was to spend time with her big brothers.

"Margaret dear! Come here!" Peter called out, beckoning his wife over into a room of the semi-furnished house.

Margaret climbed the stairs, a curious Melanie following behind her. Peter signalled for Margaret to wait a second as he crouched down to Melanie's height, "I didn't know your name was Margaret." He chuckled, as Melanie's cheeks reddened, turning her head away.

"I wanna get everything inside the house now! I wanna get it all done so we can go explore!" She exclaimed, puffing her cheeks out as she crossed her arms.

Peter shook his head, standing to his full height. "Well then, look at this. This is going to be your room." Peter stated, showing the girl the room.

It was decently sized, painted white with a cream-coloured carpet. There was a window on the far wall, giving a view of the street. At the end of the street, a bus stop was visible. Other than that, the room was bare.

"Ooh yay!" Melanie grinned, running to the centre of the room and spinning around, "Can I get all my stuff in here now?"

Margaret sighed, looking down at her daughter. "No, Melanie, you have to wait until everything else is sorted out."

Melanie stomped her feet, pouting at her mother. "Fine! I'll just get Jeff and Liu to help me!" She stormed off, searching for her brothers.

She made her way downstairs as she ran into Jeff and Liu, who were carrying two boxes each. "Ooh, what's in there?" Melanie wondered, standing on her tip toes as she tried to see inside of the boxes.

Liu laughed, lowering his boxes so that Melanie could see the contents. "Oh. Just your clothes." She frowned.

"What, would you rather we go around naked?" Jeff asked, a mischievous glint in his eye.

Melanie's expression turned sour, shaking her head at a high speed. "Definitely not!" She squealed, crossing her arms.

"Well you should let us carry our clothes then. Your stuff is in boxes over there." Jeff said, pointing over to a pile of boxes as he and Liu made their way upstairs to deposit the boxes in their respective rooms.

Melanie marched over to the pile of boxes, picking up two boxes into her arms. She stacked them on top of each other, but it blocked her vision. She didn't care though, as her brothers carried two boxes she carried the same to show that she was strong like them. She stumbled as she reached the stairs, having to put the boxes on the steps to carry them up step by step.

Once she had got to the top, she was almost out of breath. Who knew carrying two boxes up the stairs in such a simple way was so exhausting? Melanie tried to pick both of the boxes up again, but after taking a few steps with the boxes in her arms, she tripped on a lone paint-roller, falling to the ground and spilling the clothes from the boxes around the passage floor.

Immediately after the fall, Jeff and Liu were at her side. Jeff helped her up, as Liu began shoving clothes back into the boxes. Melanie thanked Jeff, brushing down her navy-blue dress, before stomping over to Liu and grabbing the clothes out of his hands. "I don't need your help." She muttered, grumpily shoving her clothes into one of the two boxes.

Jeff and Liu shared a look, before going to either side of Melanie. "Mellie, you don't need to do everything yourself you know." Liu whispered, gently taking the clothes out of her balled fists.

Melanie crossed her arms, pouting. "It's not that…. It's just that you two are older and I feel like I need to be big and strong like you two instead of being a small little girl…"

Jeff gasped dramatically at that statement. "Our little Mellie, thinking she's not big and strong. Mellie, even if you are small, it doesn't mean that you're not big and strong like us. Gosh, I think you're the strongest eight-year old I've ever met, right Liu?" Jeff asked, looking over to Liu.

"Obviously, which other eight-year olds are as amazing as our Mellie?" He grinned, making Melanie let out a little giggle.

"Yeah! Our Mellie is awesome!" Jeff cheered, as he began to tickle Melanie's sides. Liu joined in, making the two brothers tag-team against Melanie.

"Hey! Stop!" She squealed as she kicked her legs out, writhing as she was giggling joyfully.

For the rest of the day, the siblings worked together to get all of their respective boxes unpacked in their bedrooms, as Margaret and Peter worked on getting all of the furniture in place. When it came to dinner time that evening, Melanie was sat between Jeff and Liu, Margaret was sat opposite Jeff, and Peter opposite Liu. They were having a plain Pepperoni pizza as it was something they all liked; it was ordered from a nearby pizza takeout.

"So... Do you like the house?" Peter started the conversation, looking at the others on the table.

Margaret half-heartedly nodded, but you could see on her face that she didn't really care about the move. Jeff, Liu, and Melanie, however, loved the house.

"I really like it, Dad." Liu said, grinning across the table.

"Very spacious." Jeff added.

"And we have our own rooms that you can't go in without permission." Melanie stated, smiling cheekily at her brothers.

"Means you can't evade our pranks much longer!" The trio cheered, laughing giddily at each other.

"Oh no…." Margaret grumbled, sinking into her chair, her mood low.

"Hey, they're kids. That's what kids are like." Peter chided, smiling hopefully at his wife.

"I know, but sometimes I wish they weren't so mischievous." She sulked.

"Mom, it was your idea to get pregnant in the first place." Liu muttered, staring at their mother.

"Fair."