The Summer that Changed Everything (Complete)

Chapter 3 - Moving Day

***** Brady's Point of View *****

Brady stood in the front yard of his new house and looked at it with squinted eyes. It wasn't as big as their old house and it didn't feel like home. It just felt like some random house. Their old house had felt like home. His Dad wanted to move because he said the old house held too many memories and it was too painful for him to be there. He needed to do this to be able to move on with his life. He said he needed a fresh start. 

Brady didn't want to move on. He liked that the old house held all the memories of his Mom growing up. Moving away from that house almost felt like he lost her all over again. She had died two years ago from breast cancer and it had been really hard on all of them but especially his Dad, who had gone into a deep depression for a while. He decided not to fight him too hard on the decision to move because he was hoping that moving might bring his old Dad back, the one that laughed and smiled and joked around a lot. 

He looked around at the other houses in the little circle and they were all pretty similar. He looked at the house across the street and saw a pretty brunette girl sitting in a big open window in a little yellow bikini and it stopped him in his tracks. She had long, brown hair and was skinny but curvy and had a really nice body. He scanned up and looked at her face and noticed she was looking at him so he raised his hand and gave her a weak wave. 

It took her a second and then she finally waved back but then she looked down at herself with a shocked look and fell out of her window onto the floor inside with a loud thud. He didn't see her pop back up so he realized she must have crawled away and he laughed a little to himself. 

 "Hey Brady! Come inside and pick out a room," his Dad called and he turned to go inside, looking back over his shoulder at the house across the street but the window was still empty. 

He walked around the inside of their new house and it was outdated. The house itself was big and his Dad said it had "nice bones" but it needed a lot of work. His Dad planned to completely gut it and remodel the whole house to make it fancy and modern. There was a very nice pool in the backyard though that wasn't very old. His Dad said that the old owner had it put in not too long ago for her grandkids and great grandkids to use when they would come visit.

He picked one of the big bedrooms on the ground floor because a first floor window was much easier to sneak out of to go to parties. 

"I found the football Brady! Come on!" his little brother Max shouted, running down the stairs and out the front door into the yard. 

 Brady followed him out there and Max passed it to him. 

Brady caught it easily and said, "Go long!" 

Max ran down the sidewalk until he was really far away and Brady stepped back and threw the ball to him, sailing it through the air with a spin and landing it right into his hands. 

"Touchdown!" Max screamed, spiking the football onto the ground and doing a little dance. 

The movers walked past them carrying furniture into the house and Bella flopped down onto a rocking swing in the front yard. 

"I'm bored," she groaned, getting out her cell phone and taking a selfie with a big fake smile and then one with duck lips, doing a peace sign with her fingers.

"Come throw the football with us then Bella," Brady offered but she scrunched her nose up and refused, going back to texting her friends on her phone. She was constantly on her phone. 

Brady looked up and saw that the girl across the street was sitting in her window again but this time in shorts and a t-shirt. He thought about when she had fallen out of the window earlier and it made him laugh a little bit as he threw the ball to Max again.