1

The short fat man from the moving company closes the back of the truck and turns to us.

"It's all set Mr. Singh, ready when you are," he tells dad.

"I'm gonna miss this place Raj." My mum, Kate, says to my father before he can reply the man. Mum's blonde hair is covers half of her face from where I stand and I'm still able to tell that she's about to cry.

"It's for the best. Mother and the others won't be able to sha-"

"Don't even remind me about that." mum snapped, releasing her hold on dad. I look away from my parents and towards my siblings. Mara is about to cry and she's tugging on to Amba. What could be worse than leaving your house? Leaving it for people you don't even know.

My name's Ravi Singh, I'm 17 and I live in a family made up of girls.

I'm the third child of the home, my eldest sister is Amba, then Kendall and my little sister is Mara. We used to be five kids but the loss of my twin brother made us four. He was older than me so I was the middle child.

We're Indians, we used to be the only ones in my neighborhood but I don't know if that will change in Glendale.

Mum is American and my dad is Indian.

My family is just like evey other one, my parents rarely argue but I have a feeling that it will get worse, especially with dad's nosy relatives moving in with us, it's gonna be a long ride, long and crazy.

Dad drove ahead of the company truck, our SUV is spacy so I can lie down on Amba, my closest sibling. She pats my head rythmically and lets me fall asleep on her head.

******

Mara got down first, eager and filled with criticism, because that's the only thing she could feel right now. Unfortunately for mum and dad, they were unaware of that, so their faces fell when she said:

"Oh God. Is this a house or a temple?"

The house did not resemble a temple, it was just large. The walls are painted white and the lawn is neatly mowed.

I moved to stand beside her and place a hand on her shoulder.

"It's not so bad Mars. It's huge."

She shrugged

"Exactly."

"Help the men drop our things, there isn't much work to be done." mum said, opening the door of the house. It was even larger on the inside, and yes, it was fully furnished. Kendall wanders into the kitchen and Mara bounces on the sofa immediately. Amba gave her a warm smile and said:

"Isn't so bad now is it?"

Again, she shrugged and said:

"Too bad I'll be sharing it with them."

Amba and I shared a wary glance before going upstairs to pick our rooms. I chose the first room I entered because I didn't really care what color it was, as long as there was a bed, a dressing table and a phone socket.

Amba entered with me and helped me sort my clothes and other items.

"I don't think this house will stay erect for too long with the arguments that will break out here." she said as she hanged my gowns.

"I'm worried about Amara, she's not exactly the best at sharing."

I said arranging my make-up kit.

"Neither am I."

"But you're leaving on Saturday. It won't really matter."

"Either way."

I sighed and plopped on my bed.

"Amba, it's not like I'm not excited and all but...I really don't wanna make friends."

Amba sat by my legs and played with her hair,

"I know. But you've got Teddy."

I shifted my head to look at the window.

"Their house is just across now." I said, mostly to myself.

"Yes. I'm pretty sure he'll be coming over for dinner every night."

"No way. His parents will be home and will need more than themselves. Sometimes." I added with a wink and she laughed th heen paused.

"No, but seriously, they're leaving with mum on Monday for another marine search." I sat up immediately.

"Wait. Mum's leaving on Monday?!"

She nodded her head slowly and I paused. My mother's a marine biology but as you might have guessed, we don't live near the water. We used to though, before I was born, until Amba got bitten by a crab. Dad told mum we couldn't live so far away from life, (he) couldn't, so we moved out. But that didn't stop her from being more of who she was, mum went on sea trips looking for something new every two weeks in a month and sometimes the Morgan's followed her.

"But Monday's school. I need her to boost my morale a little bit.".

Amba tapped my head from the back.

"You idiot. She's leaving on Monday, not Sunday"

I made a silent 'o' but still plopped on the bed. That was when I heard Mars cream.

"Hey! How come Ravi gets an art room?!"

Amba and I shared excited looks before we scampered to where Mars stood with Kendall which, by the way, was upupupstairs. Literally.

Mars's hands were folded tightly and her mouth was in a full pout. Kendall was giving her a wierd look at the same time checking out my art room. Studio rather. This was no where near a room.

"Dad! How come I got an Art Studio?!" I screamed too because I really couldn't recall any extremely good thing I did recently.

"Wow Ravi. This is good canvas material." Amba said touching the canvas on the floor.

"And they're so many" Kendall added but not in an 'awey' voice like Amba's.

"I love this white washed room but I'm gonna add some artsy in it." I said marvelling at the large size of the room. It was more or less empty, except the several canvasses on the floor and the cabinets up. It was four sided but the third wall facing Teddy's house was glass.

I moved towards it and gawked at the view.

"It's beautiful." Kendall breathed behind me.

"Ravi?" I heard mum say and I turned back to find she and dad staring at me like their life depended on it.

"Mum this is the best!" I screamed running to hug her.

"I'm so glad it is. I've been meaning to get you this a long time ago."

"It's awesome. Perfect."

Mars appeared between us but she was glaring at mum.

"And me? What's my moving present?", Dad giggled before saying:

"An Explora in your room"

Kendall's phone dropped. "WHAT?!"

She screamed out the question in my mind. Mars jumped and goofed around celebrating, not noticing dad's wink at us. Kendall sighed in relief before picking her phone.

"Thank God the floor is rugged." She's murmured.

"Okay, if you're all done here. I'm starving." Dad said and mum sighed.

"You don't expect us to cook right?" She asked.

"I would love some rottis" he gave her a smile but Amba came beside me.

"Oh hell no. We're ordering stake-out." She said in a 'period' tone.

"But I want Indian food." dad whined.

"We'll order from an Indian restaurant." Mum said going downstairs.

"We'll order for ten. John and his family are coming over for dinner!" Dad shouted, following her. Mars gave me a mock glare before leaving and Amba winked at me. Kendall stayed for a moment longer smiling at me.

"Are you excited?" She asked

"Of course. Tommorow, I'll go shopping for more brushes and paints."

She frowned.

"No you fool. I'm talking about school."

"Oh." I thought for a moment.

"Not so much. I'm indifferent."

"I wish I was changing schools"

"But you're in your last year."

"Yeah. I know but..I feel like I should start all over.

"Not me."

She giggled. "You won't understand until you get here. The feeling."

"What does it feel like? Explain it to me."

"Like you wish you could go back. Relive it all but at the same time you would give the world and more just to stay like that. And even your biggest mistakes, you wouldn't want to change them."

I stared at Kendall, sometimes I forget she's my older sister with 2years, I forget she'll be leaving for college late this year, I forget she's more than a crazy fashionista glued to her phone.

I wiped a tear from her eyes.

"What will you miss the most in Legacy High?" I asked her.

"Everything Ravi. The halls, the crazy classes, my friends, Jason, the garden..oh the garden." her words made me remember Legacy too. The halls used to be spacious and golden. And the marvelous garden, where couples makeup just to break up.

She pulled me in for a hug and said:

"I miss him too".

That was when I started crying too.

***********

Mr and Mrs Morgan came in first, covered in snow. It was late January but the snow didn't look like it was ending soon. Mr John Morgan is my father's best friend. They've been friends since High school and ended up as coworkers in the same hospital. Not surprising, is it now that his only son is my best friend? Our families are so close.

Teddy came in not too long after, carrying a DVD with him. He's a blonde with blue eyes, and considerably thin and tall. He smiled brightly when he turned around. Mara was the first to go hug him, as if she hadn't seen him just last weekend.

"Hey kiddo wassup?" He said patting her small head.

"I'm great. Do you know dad got me an Explora?" She blurted and I almost spat my food. Kendall caught my eye and mouthed 'as if'. I forced the food down before I laughed a bit.

Teddy sat beside me after greeting everyone and showed me the DVD.

"PES 2019. Gosh how did you get it?" I whispered, avoiding his eyes. I love football but I'm too lazy to buy the games myself and so I'm 2 years behind.

"Bought them online." He answered quickly, tearing a rotti.

"Mmm. This is good." He said between munches and I laughed when I sa Mara's disgusted expression.

"How do you eat it?" She asked him and he shrugged.

"Mmm...like this?" Teddy ate slowly slowly as if in a tutorial to eat.

"I hate Indian food."

"Oh stop exaggerating." Amba ordered and mum nodded.

"Eat quickly so you can go and play." She said taking her plate to the kitchen as Mrs M followed her.

Mars ditched her rottis and jumped on the sofa immediately.

Amba followed the big women to discuss and dad went to his office with Mr M, leaving Kendall, Ted and me.

We looked at each other knowingly and ran upstairs to my room.

Teddy put the DVD in the X-box and as we say back and watched, he started the game.

"Choose your club." He told us and Kendall peeked at my console.

"Which is yours?" She asked when she realized I caught her.

"Is that even a question. Chelsea of course."

Teddy gave me a skeptical look.

"Get ready to loose." he said as he picked Manchester City. Kendall picked Liverpool and we sat on the rug, Ted on the left, Ken on the right and me in the middle.

It was a 90 minute game, as usual, I won against Kendall, as usual, 2-1. Then I won against Teddy, 2-nil.

"Ha!" I screamed when I scored my second my second goal. He stared at the screen in disbelief.

"What just happened?" his voice was breathy but he was smiling.

"I beat you SUCKER!!" I screamed and Kendall threw a pillow at me.

"How do you play so well?" She asked, her voice ever soft, but she was not expecting an answer because she got up, took her phone and went downstairs for water. I was grinning from ear to ear.

"You're getting better each day." Teddy said as he cleared the place, I didn't reply to his compliment. I knew he was going.

"When will you attend a real game?"

I groaned heavily and plopped on the bed.

"Ugh. Not now Ted."

"Then when? I don't understand you Ravi, you know everything about soccer but you've never attended a game."

"I have!".

"Yeah, ten years ago" he scoffed and I dragged myself to sit up.

"Two years actually. It's one thing to play a game on Xbox and it's another to watch it. " I said in a tone that sounded like I was making sense, to me, I was, but judging from the look on Teddy's face?

Not so much.

"Ravi just give it a try."

"Stop Ted. I can't sit in a stadium and watch a soccer match without thinking of him."

"That doesn't mean you should deprive yourself of all the things you love." he sounded defeated as he sat beside me.

"Soccer isn't the only thing I love." A small silence settled between us and his face was in a frown. I didn't like the way things had turned around so I placed my hands around his shoulders, circling his neck.

"Hey! It's a trademark you know. Everybody knows that Ravi Singh does not do soccer or even American football. It'll be a miracle if I ever attended a match again. So wipe that frown off your face and follow me."

"Where to?"

I beamed.

"My art studio".

And his smile appeared again.