Friday Night Tutor

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

At dinner that night, mom mentions the new neighbours. The Keplers, they have three kids. Moms already planning on taking a welcome lasagne over and is trying to convince me to bake them some brownies- which Lissa agreed I'd do- I don't mind, I love baking.

After dinner, I enlist Lissa's help and together we make a few dozen triple chocolate chip brownies. We make a ton of mess which makes mom steam. She watches us as we clean her kitchen as she snacks on brownies. When we eventually finish, its past nine o'clock, so with the promise of brownies for breakfast, Lissa trudges off to bed.
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The next morning when I leave the house, there are no moving trucks or stray boxes strewn across the driveway next door. Instead there are two cars- one black Range Rover and one dark blue Mercedes. Nice. Before I can inspect any further, Audrey pulls up and honks like she's a hillbilly in a traffic jam. I say a short prayer, thankful none of my neighbours has shot us because of the noise as I hastily get in her car.

The day goes slow. I get detention for drawing a moustache on my lab partner Brian's face and get another ton of homework. By the time I leave detention, my neck is aching from my various attempts at discreetly sleeping throughout the day.
When I finally get home, I manage to half-heartedly to a portion of my homework before I give up and start watching "I ate your Halloween candy" videos. My stomach still hurts from all the laughter when mom calls me down.

"We need to take the food over to our new neighbours," she says cheerily.

"Can't you go without me?" I ask.

Mom pins me with a 'Stop being so lazy' look. I sigh and grab the tray of brownies from the fridge and make my way next door. Lissa tip toes to ring the doorbell as mom and I are holding the food and I can't help but cringe a little at how 'Typical American Family' we look right now. All we're missing is dad standing in the back, hands resting on our shoulders, smiling his smile. I'm just about to relay my comment to mom when the door swings open and we're greeted by two little girls. I blink a few times to make sure my eyes aren't messing with me. They are identical. Believe me when I say identical, I mean it- down to the T. Both girls have dark brown hair and familiar, stunning blue eyes. I'd guess they are round eight. The only difference was the girls' haircuts- the one on the left had long hair, tied into a French braid, whereas the one on the right had a bob cut- I'd guess this was done for the sake of the parent's sanity. It's what I'd do if I had identical twins, otherwise they'd probably hate me for never calling each one by the right name.
The girls smile up at us and say, "Hi," at the same time. "I'm Ava," French braid introduces herself first.

Then bob cut, "I'm Mia."

Lissa introduces herself and I'm about to speak up before a tired looking, tall, somewhat plump woman walks up behind the twins, "Girls!" she shouts, "What did I say about answering the door to strangers?" She crosses her arms over her chest and looks sternly at the girls. She's dressed in a pair of black trousers and a white shirt, her brown hair tied neatly at the base of her neck.

The twins look up at their mother apologetically, "Sorry mummy," the one who I think is Mia says.

"We saw Lissa and opened the door," says... Ava? I really can't tell the difference.

The girls' mom, as if she forgot we were standing right here, finally looks at us. "Oh! I'm so sorry," she exclaims, "You must be our new neighbours. Or should I say- we're your new neighbours, really. I'm Emily"

My mum lifts the pan of lasagne, "Hi, we thought we'd bring over a little welcome lasagne," mom says.

"I'm Avery Brenton, and these are my daughters, Alissa and Alexa."