Ch. 1A - The New House
For the first time ever, Jesse almost had a room to himself.
The new house had four bedrooms. It was their house this time, so they could do whatever they wanted with it. They kept the bunk beds though, and as usual, Jesse got stuck with the top while Sam got the bottom.
Already, the room was covered in half-emptied boxes, clothes, various personal items of both boys and discarded fast-food wrappers.
Jesse hung over the edge of his bed so he could see the tiny screen on their TV. His younger brother, Sam, had convinced him to do two-player in Call of Duty. He’d wanted to finish unpacking his stuff, but after an awful lot of complaining on Sam’s part about how completely bullshit it was internet wouldn’t be installed for almost a week, he’d agreed.
They were wasting a perfectly good Sunday evening and had been for the last few hours. Jesse sat with a blank stare, zoned out, the controller hanging loosely from his hands, when a soft voice from the doorway snapped him to attention.
“Jesse, I wanna come up.”
Brian stood in the doorway, a pout on his little round face. He picked his way into the room and stood directly in front of the TV.
“Get out of the way!” Sam’s hands were occupied. He nudged the three-year-old with his foot.
“Stop it,” Brian whined. “Jesse!”
“You should be in bed,” Jesse sighed.
“I can’t sleep. Lissa won’t stop crying.” Brian stepped over a pile of clothes and started up the ladder.
Jesse rolled his eyes , but he dropped the controller and crawled to the edge of the bed. He lifted Brian off the first rung and dragged him to the top bunk.
“Oh, man! I got you,” Sam laughed as he blew Jesse’s character away on-screen.
“Fuck you, I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Dude, Brian, go sleep with the twins. We’re busy,” Sam said as he started a new game.
“No.”
“Leave us alone! Go back to your room!”
But Jesse knew that wasn’t happening. Just as Brian had mentioned, he could hear baby Melissa wailing in the other room.
Monica shuffled past their door. She had PJs on, and her hair was bedraggled. The baby quieted somewhat, but that was just because she was getting attention. As soon as Monica tried to go back to bed, Lissa would start up again.
Brian watched Sam and Jesse shoot each other up. After a while, his head started nodding. The toddler slumped onto Jesse’s pillows and was soon fast asleep.
“So...are you nervous about starting school?” Sam asked abruptly.
“No.” It was the truth. What was there to be nervous about? “We’ve been to a million other schools before. This one’s no different.”
“I guess,” Sam said. “But...I don’t know. Those other schools were different—Crap!” he cried as Jesse’s character skillfully sniped his.
“Should’ve ducked,” Jesse snickered. He earned a middle finger for his efforts.
As they waited for a new game to load, Sam returned to the topic of school. “This is different,” he said again. “Like when we were living with Joey, that was temporary.”
“Mmm, another of Mom’s boyfriends,” Jesse agreed.
“Yeah,” Sam said. “But there’s no boyfriend here.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
“I don’t know. What if we hate it? We’re stuck here,” Sam said tightly. “This is our home now.”
Jesse hadn’t thought about it like that. They’d been moving around since before he could remember. They’d stayed with friends and moved in with Monica’s many, many boyfriends. But Monica’s dad, their grandfather, had died about six months ago and he’d left them this rundown house in the middle of nowhere. Monica had considered selling it, but after a bad breakup with Joey, the last asshole boyfriend in Detroit, she’d decided to move them halfway across the country to make this hole-in-the-wall their own.
Nothing was ever set in stone, but from the way she talked about it, they’d be here for a while.
“It’ll be fine,” Jesse said.
“But what if—”
“Dude!” Jesse shot Sam in the head as he ducked out from behind a crumbling wall. “Are you going to play or what?”
It was a lame attempt at distraction, but it worked. Sam kicked the frame of the bed. The top bunk shook. “I’m gonna kill you,” he said.
Beside him, Brian stirred and moaned in his sleep.
Jesse sighed. He brushed a hand through Brian’s blond hair and lulled him back to dreamland as the next game loaded.
*****
Sam and Jesse didn’t go to sleep until two in the morning.
Unfortunately, Brian was up at the crack of dawn. He accidentally kicked Jesse in the shin as he crawled out of the bunk and lowered himself down the ladder.
Jesse clutched his leg and hissed in pain. He blinked a few times in the bright morning light. He could hear voices downstairs. He decided to abandon the idea of sleeping in. He got up and followed the toddler down to the kitchen.
“Mommy, I’m hungry,” Brian said as Jesse came in the room.
The kitchen was full of boxes. Cookware, dishes, utensils and other such items spilled out of them, half-unpacked. Monica had cleared them away from the stove and was attempting to make pancakes while she balanced Lissa on her hip. When she saw Jesse, she sighed in relief.
“Come take the baby.”
Melissa sniffled as she was handed off. She buried her curly red head against Jesse’s chest and shoved her fingers in her mouth.
“Hello, cranky.” Jesse smiled and toted the baby to the kitchen table. He pushed some boxes aside and found a seat across from Tyler and Allison.
“Morning guys.”
The twins looked up from their Nintendos. They gave Jesse identical sunny smiles.
“Hey, Jesse.”
“Hi.”
“What are you guys doing?” Jesse asked, more to keep them distracted than out of actual curiosity. The twins loved talking.
Of course, they felt completely different about Brian and when he tried to worm his way between the twins to get a look at what they were playing, Allison shoved the toddler away. When he tried again, Tyler hit him.
“Ow!” Brian’s blue eyes welled up with tears.
“Jeez guys, is that necessary?” Jesse waved Brian over. He picked him up so he could sit next to Lissa.
“You’re such a whiny little baby,” Tyler said.
“Am not,” Brian complained.
Jesse tried his best to keep the peace.
Luckily, Monica was done with breakfast and she yelled up the stairs for Sam. By the time she started serving the slightly burnt pancakes, Sam had dragged himself into the kitchen.
“Too early...” he groaned. Robotically, he took Melissa from Jesse and sat her in the high chair. She cried at the mishandling, but it was a common enough occurrence that it caused little reaction.
Brian got into his own chair between Jesse and Sam, and Monica took the last chair available at the head of the table. She ignored her own breakfast in favor of spooning mush into Melissa’s mouth.
“Jesse, I need you to watch the kids today. I’ve got to head to the school and get everyone’s classes sorted.”
Jesse sighed but he nodded. Being the oldest at eighteen sucked. He babysat all the time. He didn’t know why he’d thought it’d be any different here, but he’d hoped.
“I can take care of myself,” Sam pouted as he cut up Brian’s pancakes.
“Me too,” Allison said quickly, following whatever the older and wiser Sam had to say. Tyler would have agreed as well, but his mouth was full of syrup and practically glued shut with the sticky stuff. Jesse struggled not to laugh at the sight.
“Me too!” Brian screeched happily.
Monica, Jesse, and Sam cleaned up the younger kids after breakfast, and then the two older boys took everyone upstairs to get dressed. Monica left to take care of business soon after and they were left on their own.
The twins wanted to play outside, so Jesse ushered everyone out the back door so he could keep an eye on all his siblings at once.
Sam looked awfully unhappy, but since there wasn’t much to do by himself, he didn’t protest. He took out his soccer ball and started kicking it to Allison and Tyler. When Brian cried at being left out, they turned their impromptu game of soccer into a monkey-in-the-middle type of deal. Jesse knew he should stop them. Brian was becoming upset, but Jesse had his hands full with Lissa. He decided not to get up.
They were in the middle of nowhere out here. There was nothing but woods in one direction and fields in the other. There was a farm way off in the distance, but besides that their only other neighbor was about a mile down the road.
Jesse could see the house from the backyard. It was a brown, beat-up rambler with ugly lawn decorations amongst the hedges.
He wondered if there were any kids there his own age. Hoped was more like it. If he had a friend living just down the road, maybe being isolated all the way out here in the boonies would be a little more bearable. He was already going crazy from being stuck with his family for the last few days. Even if he hated the new school, at least it’d be an opportunity to get out of the house and away from his little brothers and sisters.
“Guys, cut it out!” Jesse yelled once the roughhousing had gotten out of hand and Brian began to cry in frustration. “Play nice!” he cried. He gave Sam a sharp look and with a guilty look on his face, the younger teen called an end to the mean games.
Sam was thirteen, perfectly capable of looking after two five-year-olds or one three-year-old, but when he had to look after all three at once, he seemed to lose a few years of maturity. Sometimes he just needed to be reminded he wasn’t a baby anymore.
Being mature was incredibly boring after all. Sadly, Jesse knew a lot about that.
