Moving to Manitoba

There was nobody in the streets and it felt like I had the whole town to myself. There was at least half a meter of snow on the ground which made it seem even more deserted. I slowly walked with my hands shoved into my pockets to protect them from the cold brittle air. I looked up and down at the trees, then at my feet, then at the sky. Not a blade of grass in sight. Not looking where I was going, a low lying branch hit me and flung a clump of snow into my face. It was cold.

"Dang it." I said out loud to myself as my face was already starting to go numb. I heard what sounded like a hyena cackling. I believe it to be the sound of my sister's laugh but I still turned around to see who it was anyway, only I couldn't see because I still had snow on my face. I brushed it off with my sleeve so then my face felt all weird and tingly, and my sleeve was wet and cold. There were my sisters, Lucille and Demitri Brightheart looking through the big front window of our two story, red brick house. Demetri was trying to contain herself from behind her camera which I noticed was recording. Whereas Lucille (Lucy), had tears streaming down her face from laughing at my stupidity, one of her favourite hobbies. She's always been a bit dramatic, I mean, she is a theatre kid. I gave them an unimpressed look.

Demitri turned off her small red digital camera and put it in her pocket, before the both of them walked away from the window. She was probably recording me stumbling around like an idiot. Demi likes to practice her photography on our family with her little baby camera. That thing is a million years old, I'm surprised it still works.

"Percy get in here right now!" My mom screamed through the open window. She was especially stressed because we were moving to a new city and my parents were making their first trip to our new house. As I walked through the door, my father was carrying boxes from the hallway, out to the car and my mother was having a sit down conversation with Lucy and Demitri. She motioned for me to come over and sit on the couch with them. Everything in our house was packed up except for the furniture… and my room. There was a couple bananas, out on the counter, three water glasses for each of us, and the flat screen television and remote (which is sadly staying)

"Percy, as you know Demi and Lucy will be taking care of you today." My mom started. She likes to give us very clear instructions so that we 'don't burn down the house.'

"I left a box of macaroni in the pantry for you to make tonight for dinner. We should be home by then but just in case…" my mother stood up to slip on her fancy beige business coat, with the oversized black buttons. My father was waiting for her at the door, looking somewhat impatient.

"Okay mommy has to go now, so kids, pack up your rooms because we are getting the moving truck first thing tomorrow morning. And I mean it, we can't afford to be late because I want everything in the house before dinner tomorrow so we can go out and explore the area a bit. Okay?"

I nodded my head while reaching for the TV remote. She scurried out the door and shut it loudly behind her. Lucy snatched the remote right out of my hands and shut off the tv on me!

"Hey!" I said in great annoyance.

"You literally haven't touched the boxes in your disgusting room. Get off your butt and start packing!" Demanded Lucy. As I refused to move, she took the yellow hair tie off her wrist and flung it at my face.

"Ow!" I screamed.

"Get up! You too Demi!" She took another hair tie off her wrist, this time it was an orange one, and twisted her long straight brown hair into a ponytail. Lucy can be like a mini mom, she looks exactly like her but prettier. She got copper coloured highlights in her hair which goes nicely with her bright green eyes. She thoroughly enjoys nagging me and Demitri, which drives Demetri up the wall because they're twins, meaning they are both 15 and should be treated like they are both 15. Demetri is pretty too but different than Lucy. Demi cut her hair short, and let's it go a bit curly instead of straightening it. She has a rounder face, like Dad and me, and gold rimmed glasses that magnify her eyes which gives her a mousey kind of look. I guess my sisters resemble a little bit but you wouldn't know that they are twins unless somebody told you.

Lucy waits for us to go up the stairs, then follows behind us so now there's no escaping. My room was a mess. It was painted a seasick kind of green, which just looks like someone vomited all over my walls. It was an okay size I guess but the amount of crap I had lying around made it look tiny. My cabinet was already cleared off because I was making some serious plans to move the flat screen tv into my room, but unfortunately that plan wasn't approved by the rest of the family.

I started with my clothes. I threw them all in a duffle bag and there you go! My parents already took the sheets of my bed so the night before, I threw on five layers of socks and a random towel that I found under my cabinet, so I didn't freeze to death.

My room didn't take too long to pack up because as I said before, it wasn't that big and it didn't have the capacity to hold much either. I heard some commotion going on in the other room so I went to see what was going on.

"What are you guys-"

"Demi has a boyfriend!" Blurted out Lucy. She has a terrible habit of interrupting people.

"No I don't," She protested. "Ethan just gave me his sweater…"

I didn't want to get involved in whatever the heck was going on in there so I just left the girls to do their thing while I said goodbye to the TV.

A couple hours had passed, By this time I had been fully absorbed by the couch. Lucy and Demitri were still upstairs and I was getting hungry so I got out the macaroni which was left for us. I heard a screech from upstairs which made me drop the cheese packet. Before I went upstairs to investigate, I ripped open the cheese packet and poured a bit in my mouth. I mounted the stairs and opened the door to my sisters' bedroom.

"This is going a bit too far…"

"Oh my gosh, it's fine." Lucy doesn't take her eyes off the screen, too focused on her task. Demi reaches to grab her phone from Lucy's hands

"Lucy, give it! It's not fun anymore!" Said Demi, sounding somewhat in distress. "Percy! Go away!"

"Percy, stay! I need your opinion." Lucy gets up off the bed and stands on an acacia swivel chair, overlooking the room. She motioned for me to sit down. "Okay, how does this sound?" Demi buries her face in her hands out of premature embarrassment. Lucy starts reading the message she had written, out loud. "'Hi Ethan, this is Demetri Brightheart. It was really sweet of you to give me your sweater the other day,"

At this, Demitri jumps up and once again attempts to grab her phone back. Lucy continues reading, effortlessly dodging Demitri.

"and I think you are really cute. Do you want to get lunch sometime?' Any objections?"

"Lucy!! Give it!"

"Okay… sending in three, two, one."

"N-n-n-no! He doesn't even like me Lucy!!"

"Oh shut up-"

"Ethan loves you! He gave me his number, to give to you. I'm nothing more than a messenger to him." She blurted out. "He never gave me his sweater either, I stole it…"

"Are you kidding me?? There you go! You just ruined everything! you never listen to me!! I'm not stupid you know. I give you advice but you don't listen and you refuse to take chances with people because you are too damn scared of an imaginary issue!!"

"Well it's not easy living with someone who has guys falling for her left and right. I can't even get this guy to talk to me! Can you blame me for flashing your name around just to get people to look at me!?"

Demi looked taken aback. And there was a very strong tension so I started to leave as I felt I shouldn't be there, but I was stopped before I put one foot out of the door.

"No! Percy. You are staying here. I need a witness when I explain to Mom and Dad that Demitri is being a little jerk!" Lucy is scary when she's mad so I obeyed and awkwardly sat back down on the bed.

"You're right. My issues are imaginary and I ruin everything. I really appreciate you trying to help but not really because I never asked for it. This year, I have missed a month of school. I would sit in our bedroom and cry every morning before Mom would come in and force me out. And you never asked once if I was okay. You only made jokes about my absence at school because you just don't know when to quit." I noticed Demi starting to tear up. She wiped her eyes on her denim jacket which is decorated with pins and buttons of her favourite TV shows and quotes.

"Well that just proves that you can't do anything by yourself. You can't get a boyfriend by without me, you can't make friends without me, You couldn't even get out of bed by yourself."

Yes, Demi's mental health issues were a lot worse a couple months ago but we knew what was going on. She had major anxiety attacks but it's hard to comprehend what's going on in someone else's mind. Sometimes both of them are too immature to understand each other's issues. The big move has had something to do with the recent tension between them. Lucy has had to leave all her friends behind, whereas Demi is moving back to all her friends. We are moving back to the twins' home town because dad got a new job, which is hours from our current house. This move has taken a toll on all of us. I'm not too worried about our new school because I will make other friends. We grew up here so it's definitely going to hurt to leave but I just want it over with so that everyone can go back to normal. After Lucy's statement crossed the line, and the swearing fit was over, Demi wiped her tears away and started to leave.

"Demi, I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything I said. I know you were struggling. I'm sorry." Said Lucy who was still crying.

"I know. It's alright I guess. Can I have my phone back, please?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper. There was an awkward silence and I was just sort of sitting there. Finally, Lucy tosses Demitri her phone and sits down on the chair she was previously standing on.

I followed Demi out of the bedroom and downstairs to make a snack. I've learned that the best way to deal with conflict between twins is to talk to them if they need it, or just pretend it never happened.

My sister grabbed Ethan's sweater from the couch, on her way to the kitchen.

"I'm going out. I'll be back before dinner." She said.

"Oh okay. Where are you going?"

"I should probably return this." She nods her head towards the sweater she was holding. I gave her a pitiful look.

"Are you sure? We can always just put it through the shredder or throw it in the lake or something."

She grabbed her wallet and opened the back door but before Demi left, she turned back to look at me and gave me a little smile and said,

"It's okay. Might aswell get it over with. New house, fresh start." She awkwardly laughed before disappearing out the door.