AN: Yes, yes, another II AU. You're probably concerned about my fingers, huh?
This was more of a newer idea that I've been messing around with lately that I wanted to share with you all! This may or may not have sporadic updates alongside Hidden Mysteries, but I assure you all, Hidden Mysteries is not getting cancelled or abandoned anytime soon, I promise! (Though I will admit, this AU in particular is still a bit of a WIP. I've decided on an ending, but everything else is still very rough.)
Anyway, enough talking! Onto the fic!
"Alright kids, look alive! We're here!"
Balloon stared out the window up at the old-looking house with the large "SOLD" sign in the front yard, painted a deep blue with white shutters, an old rocking chair left behind from the previous owners left on the large porch, that moved back and forth oh-so-slightly.
"Wow, this place looks lovely," Balloon's older brother Nickel commented, his voice as sarcastic as usual. "Are you sure it's not too late to move back to Moraltem?"
"Oh, c'mon, Nickel! Lighten up!" Lifering cried, walking up to the porch. "Sure, there are some parts of the house that look a bit...rough, but nothing a little—" He cut himself off with a loud scream as he fell through the porch, his legs flailing in the air as they stuck up through the hole.
"Lifering!" Tea Kettle gasped, just having taken little baby Box out from the car. "Oh dear—Blueberry, hold Box for me while I help your father!" She hands the youngest Sinker child to her eldest, rushing off to pull her husband out from the new hole in the porch.
"I take it back," Nickel snickered. "Maybe this place won't be too bad after all."
~~~\
"You sure you're okay with letting me take the attic bedroom?" Balloon asked, pulling the last of his boxes up the attic stairs, panting slightly while silently cursing himself for owning so many books. "I'd figure that you'd want it, since Blueberry already called dibs on the basement."
"Eh, I don't really care. It's a bedroom, not a damn college application," Nickel scoffed, leaning against the wall. "Besides, this house is creepy as all hell. I don't know what Mom and Dad saw in this place when they bought it."
"I dunno, I think it's kinda charming in a way," Balloon replied.
"Wonder if you'll still be saying that after you get murdered by a ghost."
"Oh, shut up." He shoved his brother, who laughed at him as he went downstairs, looking for a box cutter so he could unpack, only to be greeted by the sight of his parents in the kitchen, bent over pieces of a dining room set while Box was in a nearby playpen.
"Mom? Dad? What are you doing?" Balloon asked, putting his hands in the pockets of his hoodie.
"Oh, don't mind us, kiddo. Just putting together some furniture," Lifering replied, staring back at the instructions. "Now, was it a C or a D..."
"It's probably going to take a bit, sweetie," Tea Kettle said. "Why don't you go out and explore the town a little bit? You might make some new friends!"
"Oh, okay then...I guess that wouldn't be too bad."
~~~~
Suitcase exited through the library's front doors, swerving through the crowd of teenagers that were piling into the library as she read through the latest book in her favorite series, eyes darting back and forth across the page like she was watching a tennis game. She didn't need to watch where she was going, for the most part; she knew the way by heart, after all.
The scrawny girl glanced at the street as she approached the crosswalk, a boy in a red jacket catching her eye. He was looking around with curious eyes, staring at all the houses and cars as he walked along the sidewalk.
That's weird, Suitcase thought to herself. Why is he just looking at everything like that? Is he a tourist? No, tourists hardly ever come around this time of year, if they ever do. He probably just moved here or something, that seems like the only—
A large boy on a skateboard suddenly sped past her, yanking her from her train of thought and sending her tumbling to the ground with a loud cry of surprise, her book toppling out of her hands and the contents of her school bag spilling everywhere. Suitcase cursed under her breath, staring at her skinned hands. Maybe she should have been watching where she was going after all.
"O-Oh jeez!" Suitcase looked up, to see the boy in the jacket suddenly rushing over to her. "I saw you fall down, are you okay?"
"I'm okay. A little scraped, but I'm fine," Suitcase replied, fumbling to grab her books. "Thanks for coming to check if I was okay, though."
"It's not a problem! Here, let me help you with that," the boy offered, bending down and helping gather up her things, carefully placing them in her school bag.
"Oh, thank you!" she thanked him as he helped her up. "I appreciate it a lot."
"No problem! I'm Balloon, by the way. I just moved here."
"I'm Suitcase," Suitcase replied. "I figured you moved over here or something. You looked like you weren't familiar with anything."
"Was I that obvious?" Balloon asked, tilting his head to the side.
"No, at least I don't think so. I've just always been really observant, even about the littlest of things," she explained sheepishly. "It makes me come off as a bit weird, sometimes."
"I don't think it sounds weird," Balloon said. "I mean, when you look at it, you'd be great at games that involve paying attention to details."
"I mean, that's true. I'm really good at poker, one of my dads taught me."
"You play poker?"
"Yeah! It's actually pretty easy to learn, though it takes a while to get the hang of the rules." Suitcase swung her bag over her shoulder, digging in her pockets. "I've got some cards here, actually, I can show you a couple of hands really quick?"
"Really?" Balloon smiled. "Sure, why not?"
YOU ARE READING
Welcome to Coalfell Heights
Fanfiction[II AU, Humanized] Balloon Sinker has always lived a fairly average life, going to school, being constantly picked on by his older brother Nickel, doing all the usual things a 13-year-old kid would do, despite the fact that he doesn't have any frien...
