[ 2 ] 1960
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"Hello, my name is Claire Feeney."
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A blonde haired young woman stood on the grass of her vast back yard, right next to the stone wall that separated her family's property from the old house which was now occupied by the Irwin family. Her green eyes curiously eyed the large house, hoping to catch a glimpse of her new neighbors. She had lived her entire life on the neighboring property and the house had always been abandoned. No one wanted to live there, or more likely it was too expensive for anyone to afford. If the new family was able to purchase the property, she suspected they were people of money.
She sauntered towards the cherry tree at the edge of her property, where a swing hung from one of the branches and she plopped herself down on it. Whoever those people were, she would soon find out. In a gesture of friendliness Mrs. Irwin had invited her family to dinner.
The blonde watched the colors of fish swimming around in the pond a few feet away when two young men approached her. One was her neighbor from across the street and childhood bestfriend, the other was a young security guard who worked at her house. The security guard cleared his throat to get her attention. "Miss Claire," He said. "Mr. Conrad is here to see you."
She smiled. "Thank you, Bobby. You may go now." Pushing herself off the swing, she skipped over to her friend and greeted him. "Hey Con."
Nodding the security guard added, "Oh, and...I was wondering if there's anything you need before I take off for the afternoon? Today's my girlfriend Hayley's birthday and your father gave me permission to finish my shift early. Anthony's already set up at the security booth."
"Hm..." Claire thought about it. "Can you...go get my things out of the car? Then will you please take everything up to my room? If daddy's letting you borrow it to take your girlfriend out, I don't want her to steal my things."
"Hayley isn't a thief, Miss Claire." Bobby smiled.
"Just in case." Claire insisted.
The young man nodded and walked off. When he was out of earshot, Con smirked. "Ruining the poor guy's life, Claire?"
The blonde haired girl shrugged. "Bobby's girlfriend is a middle class peasant. I don't want her taking my things. If I didn't like Bobby I would have never let daddy let him borrow one of our cars."
But Con knew her well. "You just want him to waste time here so you can mess up his girlfriend's birthday."
"Fine," Claire admitted with a mischievous smile. "I just can't stand when other people get to be happy. Anyway," She brought her hands together as she turned to face the raven haired boy. "Have you already met the new family. The ones who moved into the old house?"
Con shook his head. "Haven't met them and I don't really want to meet them." He said in all honesty.
"And you say I'm mean." Claire laughed.
"You are." He pointed out.
"You're just as mean!" She argued. "I'm just really blunt about it. You're mean in that subtle kind of way. And that's only because you hardly talk to anyone."
"I have more important things to do than to talk to people who aren't worth my time." Shrugged the dark haired boy. With a sigh, he remembered, "Because of that new family, I had to take all my books out of the abandoned house. I kept telling my dad we should buy that fucking house but he said no one would ever purchase it so we could continue to use it for free."
