"Georgia!" Mum shouted up at me "It's time to get up!"
I rolled over and looked at my clock. Half-past eight blinked back at me. I groaned. It's the middle of the half-term holidays, one week off, and she's been getting me up just as early as if I was going to school.
I trudged out of my room and made my way downstairs. The living room was a no go during the day, as it was turned into a playpen for George, so at least we aren't always standing on his toys.
Mum was making breakfast when I walked into the kitchen. Dad was sat reading a paper in his uniform and George was making a mess in his highchair as usual. Dad looked up and smiled
"Morning, Chief!" he said to me.
When I was younger, I was always playing with his work gear so, he got me a dress-up police uniform that had a badge that said Chief. It was a nickname that stuck, to be honest, I like it. Mum doesn't though. She thinks it's too masculine or something daft like that.
I smiled at him as mum hands me a slice of toast with chocolate spread on it, I know it's not entirely grown-up, but I don't care. Mum eventually sat down, and I asked her
"Mum, why have you been getting me up so early? There's no school remember? I should be allowed to sleep in to whatever time I want."
Mum stopped trying to clean George and smiled at me.
"I remember," she said before turning back to George.
"Well? Why couldn't I sleep in?" I asked feeling sour.
Mum ignored me. She was too busy trying to stop George from playing with his cereal. Fighting a losing battle if you ask me. Dad put his paper down.
"Love, Georgia asked you a question," he said.
Dad was great like that. Mum often got so lost looking after George that she would unintentionally forget about me or she would forget what I have said or done. Which sometimes works in my favour.
Once I dropped a cup and it smashed all over the kitchen floor. She was ranting at me for being so careless, but then George came trotting in and she completely forgot about me. She raced to him, picked him up and went into the living room. I cleaned up, went upstairs and when I saw her again, she smiled and acted as nothing had happened. Short attention span
Mum looked at him confused then at me. "Oh, sorry sweetie, what did you say?"
I repeated my question calmly, there was no point in getting cross, it happened too often to make a big deal out of it.
"Well just because it's the holidays doesn't mean you can sleep it away. At least if you wake up early, when it's time to go back, getting up early won't be a shock," she explained.
I shook my head and was about to say something when Dad got up and asked me to help him take some things to his car.
The weather was cloudy but warm, so I opted out of the proffered jacket. I was wearing a vest top and some pyjama pants. So, the slightly cool breeze felt nice on my skin. I was carrying a large box to dad's police cruiser when I noticed a large truck further down the street.
"Dad, what's that?" I asked as I placed the box in the trunk.
Dad looked.
"It looks like we are gonna have some new neighbours," he said.
I groaned.
"I bet it's some more old people."
No sooner had I said that than a young-looking couple came out of the house. They looked to be the same age as my parents, somewhere between thirty-five and forty, and they had tanned skin like they had been working in the bright sunshine twenty-four-seven.
I stood watching them when they caught me looking and waved. I turned red as Dad waved back, I was mortified I had been caught staring. Just as I was about to go inside, a young boy about my age, fifteen if you must know, came out of the house and collected a box. I stared at him as he disappeared inside. Dad noticed me staring.
"Guess you have someone else on the street to play with now," he said with a chuckle.
"Dad!" I scolded.
He could be so embarrassing. Thank god the boy didn't hear him. Dad laughed as he kissed me on the cheek, got into his car and drove away.
I was stood there in plain view staring when the boy came out again and noticed me. He gave me a small smile and waved. I managed a small wave before rushing back inside, my face turned the reddest it had ever turned.
I spent the day in my room, occasionally looking out the window hoping to spot the boy again. He came out a couple of times, and one of the times he looked up at my window. I immediately ducked down. Which to be fair was a stupid thing to do as I have a net thing across my window, I can see out but, unless you are right up to the glass, you can't see in. (Note to self, thank mum)
'He couldn't have seen me?' I thought as I cautiously rose up.
He was rifling through some boxes when I looked again. His hair was short, black and spikey, he had tanned skin, like his parents and even though he looked to be my age, I could see some major muscles straining against his black t-shirt. He obviously liked to work out, with his dad most likely. He also had on some faded jeans and worn out trainers.
He turned and looked up at my window again. It took everything I had not to duck, I swear I saw a smirk on his face.
"Georgia!" Mum shouted for me.
I reluctantly left the window and went downstairs. Mum was in the living room with George playing. I stood at the gate.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"Could you pop to the shops for me, sweetheart?" she asked, I groaned but nodded. "Great I need some milk, tea bags, sugar and some of those biscuits George likes," she said as she handed me some money. I was headed for the door when mum called for me again.
"Yeah," I said slightly annoyed. Mum smiled at me.
"Don't you think you should get dressed?" she asked.
I looked down and turned red, I was still wearing my tank top and PJ pants. I have gone in my Pj's before but, no way was I going to do it today.
I raced upstairs and glanced out the window, the boy was gone. I sighed slightly relieved, before turning to my wardrobe. I choose my favourite pair of skinny jeans and my favourite t-shirt; it was black with a shadowed wolf howling in front of a large bright moon. I love wolves, so when I saw this top, I pestered Mum to get me it until she caved. I put on a pair of flats before heading outside. I glanced at the new neighbours as I walked by, but still, no one was outside.
The walk to the newsagents only took about ten minutes. The bell jingled as I opened the door and walked in. Miss May, the owner, smiled at me.
"Hello, Georgia what brings you in?" she asked.
Miss May has owned the newsagents for as long as I can remember. Her sister Miss Mo runs the post office part of the shop. They were a double act and a half. Well, so my mum says. To be honest I have no idea what she means by that.
They are both in their early sixties, grey hair and wrinkles. Both are a little peculiar to me, but they are nice enough. I waved at her as I picked up a basket.
"Mum wants some things and Dads at work," I explained as I walked around the shop.
It had pretty much all the basic things you needed, plus some extra things every now and then, it changed every month. This month you could buy some of those fancy bath bombs, last month they had some fancy-sounding tea bags.
I had almost picked up everything I needed when the doorbell jingled. I didn't think anything of it as I made my way to the biscuits. As I bent down to pick up the Bourbon biscuits George likes, I heard Miss May's excited voice.
"Well, hello there. You must be the newcomers to our little town." I froze.
"Hello," a deep male voice, I couldn't recognise, said. I could hear Miss May moving around so, I stood up and watched her walk from behind her counter to squeeze the hand of the woman, I had seen earlier.
"Welcome, welcome!" Miss May said happily whilst shaking the woman's hand vigorously before gripping the mans. I couldn't see the boy, so I quickly made my way to the counter and waited.
"May! You have a customer," shouted Miss Mo, from behind her post office counter. I had tried to not draw any attention, but thanks to Miss Mo that failed.
"Ooh, sorry Georgia," she said as she shuffled back around the counter. I purposefully kept my gaze on Miss May as she dinged my items and placed them in a bag. "Is that everything?" she asked. I nodded and handed over the money.
Once outside I sighed with relief only to freeze again. Stood leaning against the bike rail outside the shop was the boy. His arms were crossed over his chest and he had shades on which un-nerved me. I was about to turn and leave when, at the last minute, I heard the ding of the doorbell. Someone knocked into me and I went flying. Luckily the contents of my bag didn't fly off too far, I did bang my knees, but I was otherwise ok.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," said the woman as she and the man helped me up.
The boy was picking up my things. I gasped as their hands gripped my bare arms. Their skin was hot, like high temperature hot. They let go once I was up. I brushed off my knees to avoid looking at them, though I couldn't put it off for long.
"Are you ok?" the man asked me. I nodded, reluctant to talk.
The boy handed me the bag and I stood there awkwardly, I'm not usually like this. Why on earth was I acting like I was about to be in trouble?
"Are you sure you're ok?" the woman asked, both the man's and the woman's accents sounded foreign, but I couldn't place where from.
I looked up into three sets of striking dark eyes. Something about them stopped me. After staring at them for far too long I shook my head and cleared my throat, which had suddenly become so dry.
"Erm, yeah I'm fine," I said, I could feel my face turning red, for the second time this morning.
They looked at each other then back at me, well at least the man and woman did the boy's eyes never left me.
"You live next door to us, don't you? I swear I saw you this morning," said the man. I nodded.
"Yeah that was me," I said wishing I could escape. I, suddenly, remembered the bag and a light bulb went off. "Sorry, I've got to get back," I said as I raced off, not giving them a chance to respond.
The entire time I wanted to look back to see if they were following me, but I resisted. I relaxed when I eventually made it home.
"Is that you Georgia?" Mum called.
"Yeah!" I called back as I made my way into the kitchen. I was putting everything away when she walked in with George following behind.
"Gia! Gia!" he called, he couldn't quite say my full name, but I didn't mind. He held his arms up at me and laughed as I picked him up. The doorbell rang.
"Get that would you love," Mum asked as she started to make herself a cup of tea.
I went to the door with George in my arms.
"Love you've forgotten something," shouted mum as I opened the door.
I froze, the boy, from next door, was stood there holding a packet of biscuits. George started wriggling in excitement.
"Biccie, biccie!" he said excitedly, as he held his hands out.
"You forgot this," he said as he handed them to George, who immediately started to eat the full packet, wrapper and all. I quickly took it off him and the boy laughed.
"Thanks," I said with a blush. He nodded at me.
"I'm Aden," he held his hand out to me, but then took it back when he looked at George in my arms. I gave him a small smile.
"Georgia," I said.
"Love did you ... oh!" Mum stopped when she noticed Aden. "Hello, I'm Mrs Adams, Georgia's mum," she took George from me and looked at me expectantly. Light bulb moment.
"Would you like to come in?" I asked. 'Please say no, please say no,' I chanted in my head. Mum was being, so embarrassing. Aden smiled politely.
"Sorry I can't, we still have a load to unpack." I was doing a happy dance in my head until Mum cut the music.
"Georgia can help you," she offered. I looked at her like she had grown three heads, she ignored me.
"Really?" asked Aden with a huge smirk on his face. Mum practically pushed me out the door.
"Oh yeah! She doesn't have anything major to do right now. Go on love, bye Aden, it was nice to meet you."
Mum pushed me out the door and shut the door on me, she actually shut the door on me, can you believe it? I stared dumbfounded at the door until Aden cleared his throat. He still had that smirk on his face.
"Right, come on then," he said as he made his way over to his house.
I followed behind slowly, I had always wondered about the inside of this house, but that didn't mean I wanted to go inside and help complete strangers. Even if their son was kind of cute.
Aden walked into his house and left the front door open for me.
"Mum! Dad!" he called out.
"In the kitchen!" they called back.
"This way," he said.
His house wasn't much bigger than mine, in fact, it was pretty much the same layout and everything. The only thing that was different was the wallpaper and carpets. We had different types of white on the walls and dark carpets, here they had a different colour for each room. Plus, there were no carpets downstairs, all hardwood floors.
As we passed the living room a picture caught my eye. It was the same image as the one on my t-shirt. Aden caught me staring.
"It was a gift from my grandfather, Mum and Dad always put it up first. They have a thing for wolves," he said. I smiled.
"Me too," I said as I pointed to my top.
He stared at my top for a minute longer than he needed to before he turned and continued on. The kitchen was filled with boxes, I only just managed to make my way in.
"Mum, Dad this is Georgia from next door," I gave a small wave.
"Georgia, so lovely to meet you again," said his Mum as she manoeuvred herself around the boxes to give me a hug. I awkwardly gave her a hug back.
"Let go of the poor girl Nola," said Aden's Dad as he chuckled. Nola let go immediately and laughed too.
"Sorry," she said with a smile as she made her way back to where she had been. Aden's dad came over and held out his hand to me. My hand disappeared into his.
"I'm Sam, Sam Fenris, it's nice to meet you Georgia. See Aden ..." he said as he stepped back, releasing my hand "...told you there would be kids your age here." I looked at Aden as he rolled his eyes at me.
"You must have loads of friends Georgia, pretty girl like you. Bet you are beating the boys off with a stick. I imagine your boyfriend will get jealous with Aden living so close." I must have turned beetroot red again, so did Aden.
"Mum!" Aden called. I laughed; it was one of those awkward laughs you do to fill the silence.
"What? I am only asking her a question or two," she said as if she hadn't just embarrassed her son. I felt a bit better, now he knew how it felt. I decided to help him out a little.
"Erm … no Mrs Fenris, I mean yeah I have loads of friends. They just all live in the next town over, in Haynsworth. Aden is the only other kid my age here, and I don't have a boyfriend, so no one will get jealous," I said.
All three of them looked at me strangely when I said that last bit especially Aden, did he like that I didn't have a boyfriend? Or did he not like the idea of their only being me his age here? I quickly shook those thoughts out of my head.
"Oh, that's a shame. All the boys at your school must be blind, and it's Nola you don't have to be so formal with me or with Sam," she said with a smile.
"Thank you, Mrs Fenr…... I mean Nola," she had an amazing way of putting you at ease.
I decided I like them, they are not as matter of fact like my parents. Don't get me wrong I love my family, it's just that sometimes my mum and dad can't really see or feel outside the box. Something tells me that there is something special about this family.
"Want me to give the boys a good talking too, eh?" I started laughing.
"No thanks, Mr Fenris. My dad offered to do that when a boy I liked asked someone else to a school dance instead of me." He smiled.
"It's Sam, remember? And that boy must be blind, " he said with a smile, I smiled and nodded.
I started to hope that Aden and I do become friends, it will give me an excuse to come around here more often. Aden clapped his hands, we all looked at him.
"Anyway! Shall we go upstairs, and you can help me with my room. Let's leave the old ones down here," he said before narrowly avoiding a flying wooden spoon. He raced upstairs laughing as Sam shouted after him, it was something like 'cheeky pup' but I could have misheard, right?
I followed him to his room, like all the other rooms, his was filled with boxes. He pointed to a box labelled 'clothes'
"You can start there, wardrobe and drawers whichever you feel they should go in," he instructed as he busied himself with another box labelled 'MINE' in big letters. I shrugged my shoulders and started unpacking and sorting his clothes.
He continued to potter about behind me, as a conversationalist he wasn't very good, but it left me to focus. He pushed another box at me when I had finally come to the end of the one, he had given me first.
"Another box of clothes," he said.
I looked at him incredulously, was he serious? I stared at him as he walked away, ignoring me, he seemed to be doing everything he could to not look at me. I sighed before taking my eyes off him and onto the new box. It wasn't as deep as the first so hopefully, it wouldn't take long. My eyes widened when I opened the box, and I could feel myself going red, the fourth time that morning, I looked up at him and then back to the box.
"Erm, are you sure you want me to unpack this box?" I asked, my mouth suddenly very dry. He nodded.
"Yeah, why not? It's labelled clothes," he didn't even look up at me, which I am very glad of.
"Well, it's just that it's full of .... Well ... erm ...." I couldn't say it, I was too embarrassed, I was hoping he would get what I'm trying to say. He looked at me now, well actually he glared at me a bit.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked. I got annoyed then, I mean how dare he say that to someone who is helping him.
"Nothing's wrong with me," I glared back.
"Well, obviously there is since you can't even finish a sentence," he said biting back.
"Are you serious?" I asked not quite believing this guy.
He crossed his arms, and I had to do everything I could not to stare at the muscles on his arms, as they strained against his t-shirt. He looked a little like a kid version of the incredible hulk, only he wasn't green.
"Whatever," he said after a small staring, or should I say glaring, contest. I was actually shocked.
"You know what, I have to go," I said. I didn't even give him a chance to respond, I just left.
"Everything alright?" Nola said as I practically raced down the stairs.
"Everything's fine," I said, "I have to go, bye." I heard Nola shout up to Aden as I left but I didn't stop to hear anything else. I went straight home. Mum was in the kitchen with George.
"Did it go ok?" she asked. I nodded.
"Oh yeah, everything was great, until he turned into a jerk." Mum looked at me shocked.
"Georgia!" she said in her sternest voice.
"What? He was, everything was fine. I met his mum and dad, really nice people by the way. We went up to his room and he gave me a box of clothes to put away, he didn't speak a word to me. Then he gives me another box of clothes after I was finished with the first one. Only this box is full of his underwear," I could feel the blush creeping up again. "Then I try to ask him if he really wanted me to unpack that box, I was embarrassed I couldn't say what was in it, and he just asked what was wrong with me. He was very rude."
I aggressively opened the jar of biscuits and chomped down on a custard cream as I sat down at the kitchen table. I was so mad! Mum sat across from me.
"Georgia, don't you think he just didn't know what was in the box?" I stared at her.
"Of course, I thought that, but instead of coming to see what was in the box he just snapped at me. That's not ok, especially when I had come over, thanks, by the way, to help him." Mum nodded.
"Ok, ok I see your point. Maybe he realized what box you had and was too embarrassed to say anything, so he just snapped instead." I grabbed another biscuit.
"Yeah that could have happened, but all he had to say was 'oh sorry wrong box' he doesn't seem the type that would get embarrassed but a girl seeing his boxers. He shouldn't have been rude!" I said sternly before getting up and going to my room. Mum called after me, but I just wanted to be alone.
I turned my music up loud and shut my door. It was something I did when I was angry, I would play my music and dance around my room. It helped calm me down, I would forget everything but the lyrics to the song. Little Mix 'Song for my ex' came on and I imagined I was singing to Aden, not that I thought of him as my ex or anything.
Once the song was finished, I laid down on my bed as Ed Sheeran's 'thinking out loud' song started to play. I loved this song, but it wasn't one I could dance to, at least by myself. My eyes started to droop 'maybe a cat nap will do me good,' I thought as I drifted off to sleep.
----
"Dance with me," Aden asked as he held out his hand.
He was dressed in a fancy looking tux that fit him just right. I took his hand and noticed I was wearing a long black dress. He wrapped his arms around me as the song played. I looked into his eyes as we danced, we moved in perfect sync. I was lost to everything but him.
"Stay with me," he asked.
I tried to speak but no sound came out. He repeated the words again, and again I couldn't speak. I tried to show him I couldn't speak but he didn't see. He let me go and started to walk backwards. I tried to stop him, but he was gone.
I had started in a fancy looking ballroom, now I was in the forest. I tried to call for him, I tried to move. All there was around me was silence. Not even the birds were singing. Suddenly a twig snapped behind me.
I turned; a giant black wolf appeared out of nowhere. I tried to run but the ground seemed to fall away from me ...….
---
I woke up with a start as I fell out of bed. I looked up around my room.
'it was just a dream,' I thought to myself.
"Georgia?" called Mum.
"Yeah, I'm ok Mum," I called back as I got up and sat back on my bed.
"Come down Georgia please," she said.
I sighed as I looked at the clock. It was five o'clock, I had slept for three hours. Dad will be home soon she probably needs help with tea. If I had known what was about to happen, I would have stayed in my room and locked the door.