The first thing Toby sees when he walks into the small house, behind Mr. James, was the girl. She was laying in the middle of the room on her stomach. Toby let his eyes travel down her body. One of her hands is holding her head up, her other hand is turning the pages of a thick book. Her hair is a dark brown, with purple highlights. It falls over her shoulders covering her face. The girl wears a black sweatshirt. It has small white letters on the back. She is wearing navy blue pants. They looked like something she could run in. On her feet she is wearing bright blue ankle socks. The girl is not skinny, but neither is she overweight.
Toby stands in the doorway awkwardly with his suitcase and backpack. Mr. James clears his throat and the girl looks up. "Addie, this," He gestures to Toby. "is Toby. Toby, this is my daughter Addie."
The girl, Addie, closes her book and stands up. "Umm shellow." She waves her hand shyly. Toby's eyes dart towards the front of Addie's Sweatshirt. White bubble letters read 'Blow Harder. Finger Faster'. Addie notices Toby staring. "It's a Marching band, flute thingy." She looks a Mr. James. "I, uh, put the leftovers from dinner in the fridge." She shifts from foot to foot.
Mr. James smiles then yawns. He looks back at Toby. "I hate to be rude Toby, but I must get to bed. I have to be back at work in five hours." He turns back to his daughter. "Addie, will you show Toby to his room?" Addie nods. Mr. James removes himself from Toby's side and kisses his daughter on the top of her head. "Night pumpkin." With that he starts up the stairs.
"Don't call me pumpkin!" Addie calls over her shoulder. She turns her head and quickly looks Toby over. His ginger hair is perfectly messed up. He is wearing a plaid flannel over a Queen shirt. His dark blue high tops are slightly covered by his black skinny jeans. "Okay. Let's go. You can either keep your shoes down here or you can bring them up to your room. I don't care as long as you don't leave tracks. I can take your suitcase if you want."
"Oh yeah. Thanks." Toby hands Addie his suitcase. She takes it and starts up the stairs, dragging the suitcase behind her unceremoniously. Toby follows. He leaves his shoes on.
There are four doors on the second floor. Two on the left, one on the right, and one at the end of the hall. "Alright so the door on the right is my dad's office and his bedroom is through his office. But I don't think you'll ever need to go into his room. The first door on the left is the bathroom. Always knock before you go in. And this door," Addie swings the last door on the left open. "is the door to your room." She walks in and sets the suitcase down on the bed.
Toby walks in behind her. He drops his backpack on the floor, near the foot of the bed. Then he looks around his new room. The futon bed is pushed into the farthest corner, next to it is a desk. A bookshelf sits in the corner across from the bed, it is half full. A few feet away from the bookshelf sits a dresser and on another wall there is a built in closet. The walls are painted green. No posters or pictures are on the walls. Unlike his last room, there are no storage boxes.
Addie stands in the middle of the room. "Well, my room is the one at the end of the hall. If you need anything just ask. I usually don't go to sleep until midnight on the weekends and on the weekdays I try to get to sleep at ten. But I'm a light sleeper. So if you ever need me just knock. Feel free to hang posters and what not on the walls. I will be in my room." Without another word, Addie turns and leaves.
Toby watches her walk out of the room and close the door. "She's nice." He says to himself. He takes the next few minutes to take a closer look at the things in his new room. The bookshelf has about forty-seven books, a dictionary, ten albums (two of them, to Toby's excitement, are Queen albums), ten movies, and a few old National Geographic magazines. On the floor, between the bookshelf and the dresser, sits a radio that has been collecting dust for a while. Toby slips in a Queen album and pushes play. We Will Rock You starts playing.
Toby shuffles backwards until the back of his knees hit the bed. He falls into a sitting position on the bed. His hands rest on his knees. He breaths in slowly and waits for something to happen. Music plays. Dust falls. Time continues. Nothing else happens. It was quiet and lonely.
Toby pushes himself off the bed and walks out into the hall. He doesn't bother stopping the music. He stands outside his door looking down at the end of the hall. It's painted yellow, with black words scribbled across it. Slowly he walks toward the door and knocks on it. Then waits.
The door swings open slightly. Addie looks through the crack. The door opens the rest of the way. The first thing Toby notices is that Addie changed clothes and french braided her hair. She is now wearing sweatpants that say 'LHS Trumpets 2014' and a thin Pink Floyd shirt with holes in it. "Hi." Toby says awkwardly.
"Hey. You bored?" Addie smiles and leans against the door frame.
"Umm yeah. Just a little. I don't really know what to do. It's the first time I've been in a situation like this." Toby messes with the hem of his shirt.
"In a situation like what?" Addie's voice fades.
Toby awkwardly scratches the back of his neck. "In a situation where my foster family cares about me..."
"Ahh. Alright. Um so do you want to come up and watch movie or something?"
"Come up?" Toby asks.
Addie steps aside and gestures to the stairs. "My room is in the attic." Her stairs are painted orange with other paint splattered over the steps. The walls are black, the railing is painted neon green. "So movie?"
"Yeah." Toby follows Addie up the stairs. On the back of her sweatpants, across the butt, It says 'Dat Brass'. Toby looks down at the stairs again. "I like your stairs, and your walls. Very colorful." Her room is even better then her stairs. Her four walls are painted four different colors. Emerald Green, Royal Blue, Red, and Yellow. Toby looks closer and notices scribbles on the wall. Her ceiling is painted light blue with clouds. Her bed is just a mattress pushed up against the wall. Addie has a bookshelf that almost wraps around her entire room. And it's fully stocked. She has posters of older bands, movies and books pasted on the columns in the middle of her room.
Addie notices Toby staring around her room. "Sorry it's kind of a mess. I like a lot of stuff... and my dads pretty cool about letting me do what I want with my room." She walks over to her desk and picks up her computer. "Come sit with me Toby. We are going to watch Scott Pilgrim vs. the world." Addie sits on her bed with her back against the wall.
Toby follows Addie and sits next to her, his back rests against the wall. Toby notices little bobble heads sitting next to Addie's bed. There is maybe thirty of them. "What are those?" Toby points at the bobble heads.
Addie looks up and smiles. "Oh those are called Pop funko figures. They're characters from movies, books and TV series. That one is Marty McFly from Back From the Future, and that one is Carol and Max from Where The Wild Things Are. I have like forty of them. Which is kind of a lot but whatever."
Toby smiles. "That's cool. I love Where The Wild Things Are. I don't like the movie though."
"Alright, time for Scott Pilgrim." Addie Smiles. "This is kind of a weird movie, but It's really good."
Toby and Addie settle into the bed and watch the movie. It's just as good as it was the first time Addie had watched it. Half way through the movie Addie's eyes start to droop and her shoulders start to slump. She falls asleep quickly, her head falls onto Toby's shoulder. He doesn't move her. Instead he smiles. Addie reminds Toby of his older sister. She used to come into his room when she couldn't sleep. His sister trusted him with secrets and stuff that went on in his life. He missed his family. He wished they hadn't split them up. But they said it was for the best. Toby thought that that was stupid.
When the movie ends Toby shuts the laptop and places it on the floor near her mattress. He gently moves Addie so she is laying down. He pulls the blankets over Addie and leaves her room. "Goodnight Addie." With that Toby goes down to his new room and goes to sleep.
He woke up the next morning to the smell of bacon, waffles, and coffee, and to the sound of laughter. He smiles to himself and heads downstairs. Maybe staying here won't be as bad as he thought.
