To Shatter a Star [Creek Love Story]

Chapter One

Staring up at a two story house, carrying an overflowing box of papers, books and nick-knacks stood a disgusted dark haired teenager. The building was far too large for his taste, the sky too cluttered with clouds and the smell of fresh paint too intoxicating for his poor nose. Craig Tucker hadn't wanted to move in the first place, but then again what did his opinion matter?

"Hurry up," grumbled his younger, shorter tempered sister. She pushed past him with her own box, only to turn around so that she could look her brother in the face. "I want to unpack as soon as possible."

"Then go unpack," spat Craig, balancing the box on one arm so that he could use his free hand to flip her off. She rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue. Due to her lack of muscle and the fact that she just didn't care enough, she hadn't been able to return the lovely gesture.

"Ruby! Craig! Just try to get along, will you?" their mother asked with a heavy sigh. The woman stomped into the house with two large boxes, trembling softly from the weight of the items.

His father was the next to pass him, carrying only one box and a few loose pillows. "She's just a little stressed out, son."

Craig wrapped both hands back around his own box and trudged into their new home.

Inside, most of the furniture had already been placed and the moving vans had long since driven away from their mess of a family. Everything seemed so large and unfamiliar, the rooms still echoing despite the items that had been moved inside already. All they really had to do now was decorate. Craig dragged himself up the stairs with his last box, ready to plop down onto his mattress and sleep for the rest of his life. Of course, that was just plain unrealistic. He entered his room through the second door to the right, dropped his box of things and fell backwards on his bed to stare up at the bright blue ceiling. The owners beforehand used this as a nursery room for their baby boy, so the walls had been painted an almost neon blue that was beginning to hurt the young man's eyes. His bed frame and headboard had been sold to help pay for their move to South Park, along with some of his comic books that he had kept for memories from his childhood. He refused to allow his parents to sell his informative astronomy books - they were too special to be handed to some snot-nosed brat who probably wouldn't appreciate such literature for all its worth.

There was a loud bang at his bedroom door. He opened his eyes and stared at it, waiting for the monsters to crawl inside and eat him alive. Depressingly enough, it was his sister who opened the door instead of his destruction, "Go greet the neighbors!"

"No," he responded, turning to his other side so that Ruby could get a good look at his back.

"Mom said so!" Ruby complained.

Craig closed his eyes, "Yeah, right."

"Okay, fine. She sent me but I convinced her that you had to come along, too. So get your ass up!" she confessed.

Craig's eyelids slowly lifted, his vision focused on the headache inducing wall across from him. There was a split second where he contemplated literally throwing Ruby out of his room and locking himself inside until he starved to death. It was a thought that was quickly discarded for being downright foolish, so he rolled to his back and propped himself up with both elbows to stare over at the strawberry blonde. He looked nothing like any of his family members - while they all had somewhere on the scale of blonde to red hair, his own locks were equivalent to the feathers of a raven. His eyes were blue, while the rest of his family possessed emerald orbs. Craig often wondered what the chances were of him being adopted but normally decides to fling the subject aside as he never really cared enough to continue pondering such a petty detail.

"We don't have to bring them cookies or anything... Do we?" said Craig dryly.

Ruby took a moment to file through her memory of what her mother had said to her before she busted into her brother's room; as if what Craig had asked wasn't supposed to be a humorless joke. "I can't remember, just hurry up."