Andy's POV:
"So, Mom where are we gonna stay?" I ask my mom as I look up from my Batman comic.
"I already told you, we're gonna stay at your grandfather's house." She answers annoyed.
"Why are we even moving? We were perfectly fine living in Phoenix." Michael asks her.
"Because honey, we could all use the fresh start, after what your sister did in Phoenix- just give Santa Carla a chance. It might even surprise you." She replies happily.
"You guys are gonna love it. It's always sunny, and the boardwalk has everything, it even has a comic book store for you two. That's where I met Edgar, he has brother you know, he's your age." Madison says excitedly.
"You know I'm starting to believe this Edgar guy isn't even real." Michael says to.
"You shouldn't even be talking to Andy about guys. She's never even had a boyfriend." Sam says a little snobby like.
"Sam, shut up." I say to him, he stares at me blankly.
"He's right Andy, you guys shouldn't even be talking about boys. You're too young for that kind of stuff." My mother says to me.
"You guys are acting as if I've ever liked a guy before." I say a little annoyed.
"Well who knows, Madison left Phoenix not wanting to do with being in a relationship, and now she just can't stop talking about this boy, Edgar." My mother continues.
"Ugh, whatever." I say looking out the car window to look at the 'Welcome to Santa Carla' sign. I was the only one out of my brothers who was fine with moving, if it meant not having to deal the society that thought I was trouble, I'm misunderstood.
"We're here guys. Oh, look at how beautiful the beach looks. I'm telling you, you guys are gonna love it." My mom says happily.
I turn to look at the sign again and see the back of the sign with the words 'Murder Capitol of The World' spray painted in red.
We make a quick stop at a grocery store to get some food. Sam takes Nanook for a walk while Michael, Madison and I, go ask if they were any jobs near by.
Mike gets himself a red used motorcycle and gets on, "Come on, Mads, let's get in the car, we're about to leave." I say to her.
"Oh no, I have to go meet Edgar. This was my stop, thank you guys. By Mrs. Emerson, thank you." Madison says as she waves at us.
"Goodbye Maddie, tell your mother I said hi." My mom says to her.
"I will, bye." She says as she walks off towards the boardwalks.
"Mom, there's an amusement park on the beach over there." Sam says as he gets in the back with Nanook.
"That's nice, maybe you guys could go later." She says as she starts the car.
"Maybe." I mumble as we drive off with Michael behind us on his bike.
It was a short drive to grandpa's house from there. We park the car and get some of our bags out. We see grandpa sleeping on the porch, to be honest he looked like one of those nocked out drunk guys at the park.
"Dad?" My mom says as she kneels next to him on the porch, "Dad?"
"Looks like he's dead." Michael says.
"No. He's just a deep sleeper." She replies.
"If he's dead, can we go back to Phoenix?" Sam asks.
Idiot. I hit my forehead with the palm of my hand.
"Playing dead. And from what I heard, doing a damn good job, too." Grandpa says as he stands up.
"Dad! Oh dad." Mom says as she hugs him.
The three of of glance at each other doubtfully.
We grab our stuff and take it inside, "This is a pretty cool place." Michael says looking around.
"Yeah. For the Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Sam says annoyingly.
"Can you shut up for once?" I ask him clearly annoyed.
"Come on man, give mom a break." Michael says.
"What's wrong with this picture?" Sam asks looking around, "There's no T.V. Have you two seen a T.V? You know what it means when there's no T.V? No MTV."
Mike puts his stuff down and starts lifting weights. "Sammy, you idiot. We're flat broke." I say as I hit him in the back of the head.
"Ma, ma you got to help me!" Sam yells as he runs down the stairs away from both Michael and I.
"Soon," She says as we run close behind Sam, "Hey! You guys, no running in the house!"
We open the doors to grandpa's workshop, and see all these weird dead animal pieces all over the room.
"Talk about the 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'." I say as we look around.
Sam and Michael laugh, digging their foreheads into the sides of my head, one on my left, one on my right.
"We got some rules around here," Grandpa says as he walks us to the kitchen, "second shelf is mine. Nobody touches the second shelf but me. Now there's another rule around here, and I want you to pay close attention."
Michael and I notice a plant on the window shelf, Sam gestures to us, asking what is it. Michael and I grin at each other and give Sam a 'smoking' visual. Sam laughs as we give grandpa our attention again.
"Don't touch anything. I want everything to be exactly where I want it to be." Grandpa continues.
"Hey grandpa? Is it true that Santa Carla's the murder capitol of the world?" I ask him.
"Uh, well, there are some bad elements around here." He replies.
"Wait a second. Let me get this straight. Are you telling me that we moved to the murder capitol of the world? Are you serious grandpa?" Sam asks us.
Mom walks over to us with hats on her head, "Well, now, let me put it this way. If all the corpses buried around here was to stand up all at once, we'd have one hell of a population problem." Grandpa says.
Sam turns to look at Mike who is now doing and 'Oh' face, "Great, dad."
"Now on Wednesday's, when the mailman brings the T.V guide, sometimes the address label is curled up just a little, like that," he shows us the T.V guide, "now, you'll be tempted to tear it off. Don't. You'll only wind up ripping the cover, and I don't like that," we make it to his workshop again, but only he enters, "and stay out of here!" He yells as he tries to close the doors, Sam stops him.
"Wait. Wait. You have a T.V?" Sam asks him.
"No. I just like to read the T.V guide. Read the T.V guide, you don't need a T.V." Grandpa says as he closes the door on us.
"Old people, am I right?" Sam asks.
"Now can I punch him?" I ask Michael.
Later on that day Madison came over to help unpack some of my things, "Ok, so are you gonna change before we leave?" She asks me.
"What do you mean?" I reply.
"I'm gonna take you to meet Edgar, and his brother of course." Madison replies excitedly.
"Why are you so eager for me to meet them?" I ask her.
"Well, I just want you and Michael to stop doubting that Edgar isn't real. I really think you'll like Alan." She replies.
"Look, I'm not interested in looking for a boyfriend, so please, respect that." I say seriously.
"Ok. I respect. But can you at least change, you've been wearing that same outfit for two days." She says.
"Hey, I was in a car for two days what do you expect?" I say defensively.
"Whatever just go change." Madison orders.
"Ok MOM!" I say sarcastically.
I grab my olive green baggy jeans, and my short sleeved black tight crop top that only shows part of my belly button. I grab my black high top converse and put them on.
"If you're ready, the let's go. I wanna get there before they open." She says as I grab some money from my other jean's pockets.
"Bye, Mom, I'm going to the boardwalk with Madison, I'll meet you guys there." I say to her from the kitchen doorway.
"Ok, be careful." She says without turning to look at me.
We get on our bikes and ride them all the way to the boardwalk, once we get there, we start to ride our bikes slower, I follow Madison slowly through the crowds that are slowly filling.
We stop in front of an empty comic book store, I turn to look at what Madison was doing, she was already parking her bike next to two other bikes. I guess this is it. I park my bike in the last empty spot, next to a black bike with the words A. Frog written on the handle bars. I start to walk towards the entrence with her.
"A comic book store? Don't get me wrong I love comics, but- They're meeting us here?" I ask.
"More like, we're meeting them here." She's says to me.
"Wait, they work here?" I ask.
"Ding ding ding! Come on." She says to me.
"Hey, that's my thing." I say to her.
"Sorry, I just really wanted to say that."
We enter the comic book store, and get greeted by a brownish blondish haired boy, with a red bandanna, was a little shorter than me, "Hey Maddie, is this Andy?" He asks her, she nods excitedly, "Welcome to 'Frog's Comics' I'm Edgar, I'm Madison's boyfriend."
"Oh hi, it's so nice to finally meet the guy my best friend's been obsessing over for the past 10 months." I reply.
Maddie elbows me hard in the side causing me to rub my rib cage, "It's nice to finally meet the girl that Madison keeps saying is the perfect girl for Alan."
"Alan?" I ask confused, not knowing who he was talking about.
"Alan, my brother. I'll call him. ALAN! Come here, there's this girl asking for you!" Edgar says.
"That's an exaggeration, I never asked for him. I don't even know him." I say sassily.
A very cute dark brown haired boy appears from behind one of the isles and walks over to us, he was a little taller than me, "Who's asking for me?"
"No ones asking for you. You're brother lied." I say to him boldly.
"Well, my brother doesn't lie, the only girls I see are you and Madison and Madison is dating my brother. So it has to be you."
I inconspicuously stand up straight and work up all my nerve to say this, "You're like totally right. So like, if you're not doing anything later then we should go to the amusement park together, yeah." I said sarcastically as I twirl my hair with my finger, mimicking the girl from Phoenix who flirted with every guy.
"I free after wor- you're being sarcastic aren't you?" He asks me.
"Ding! Ding! Ding!" I say sarcastically again, "Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna look around the store for some comics." I pat him on the shoulder as I walk away towards the furthest isle from them.
"Sorry about her, she's just... sleep deprived, she tends to do or say stupid stuff sometimes." I hear Madison say.
"It's fine, I actually dig it. Nice to know she's not one of the easy to get, girls." I hear Alan say.
"I heard that!" I say.
"Good! I'll give you my number later then!" I hear him reply.
"No thanks! I don't like math! Which means I don't like numbers!" I say sarcastically.
"Told you their perfect for each other." I hear Madison say.
I roll my eyes and continue to look at comics, I grab two Joker comics and a 'Vampires Are Everywhere' comic. I walk over to the cash register to pay. Alan walks over to do his "job".
"Is that all?" He asks.
"Yes."
"Why don't you want my number?" He asks.
"You just don't quit, do you?" I ask him
"I'm normally a quiet guy but you forced my mouth, so."
"I don't believe that, but fine. What is it?"
"It's already written in the back of the 'Vampires Everywhere' comic."
"Smart move."
"Thanks. That'll be $1.00."
"Ok, here you go." I hand him the money.
"So, what are we gonna do?" Madison asks.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Come on, let's go somewhere. You guys opened way too early. Let's go to the amusement park." Madison says.
"I was gonna go once Michael and Sammy arrived." I protest.
"Is that your boyfriend?" Alan asks me.
Madison snorts, causing me to laugh, "No," I laugh, "he's my older brother, so is Sammy, except Sammy's younger than me."
Madison and I laugh, Edgar soon joining us, leaving Alan left out, "Are we going to the amusement park or not?" He asks.
"We have to ask Captain Buzzkill over here." Madison points at me.
"Fine. Let's go." I say obviously annoyed.
Alan and Edgar close the comic book store while Madison watches them and I just keep walking further and further away from them.
I look around, seeing kids having ice cream with their parents, couples making out on the beach, everything I wish I had. I walk towards the nearest phone booth and see signs of different people missing. The most recent one was a security guard, that had gone missing three days ago.
"Hey." Alan says as he puts his hand on my shoulder causing me to jump, "woah, sorry. Didn't know I'd scare ya. You wondered off so I thought I'd come get you."
"Oh, I hadn't realized." I say awkwardly, it was true I hadn't realized how far I had gotten until Alan pointed it out.
"So, I realized that we weren't properly introduced. I'm Alan, by the way, Alan Frog." He says sticking his hand out awkwardly.
"I'm Andy, Andy Emerson, nice to meet you Alan." I say shaking his surprisingly cold hand.
We walked for about 5 minutes before we got to the amusement park, Edgar and Madison were already on the carousel. Alan and I quickly get on and before the ride could start again. This had reminded me of a time when Sam, Michael and I were little and our parents had token us to a carousel at the zoo, that was the only good day I remembered that included the five of us.
"So you're from Arizona too?" Alan asks me, snapping me back into existence.
"Yeah, Phoenix, isn't really a good place though." I reply.
"So you're 16?" He asks me.
"I thought you weren't much of a talker," I said a little annoyed, "but yes I'm 16."
"Sorry, I just, I wanna be able to trust you. In this town, it's kinda hard to trust people."
"What do you mean?" I ask him.
"You can't just go around trusting just anybody, I'm sure you've heard that this place is-
"The murder capitol of the world, I know." I say interrupting him.
"Do you believe it?"
"Oh yeah, we don't know what type of person could be out there, slashing innocent peoples' throats, letting them bleed out, you know I mean. No, but sincerely, I do, believe it."
"Alan, we have to go open up the comic book store." Edgar says from behind us.
"Alright, let's go." He says getting off the carousel before it started again.
They turn back to look at Madison and I, "Are you guys coming?" Edgar asks us.
"Come on, are you really gonna wait here for Michael and Sam? Look it's safer if you come back to the comic book store with us." Madison says.
"Fine, but if I get in trouble with my mom, I'm blaming you." I say.
"Ok, ok," we walk close behind the boys all the way back to the comic book store, "so what'd you guys talk about?"
"We just talked about the simple stuff. Name, age, stuff like that." I say honestly.
"Oh come on, I'm your best friend, tell me." She complains.
"That's what we talked about, we talked about how old we are and about Santa Carla, that's it. I don't know what you wanted hear." I told her
"Well, you did have to start somewhere." She says.
Once the guys open up the store, Madison and I take up the time by helping Edgar and Alan fix the misplaced comics.
I was reading a Wonder Woman comic when I hear a familiar annoying voice come from the other side of the store, "Got a problem guys?"
I walk over to where I heard the familiar voice and see Sam in a ridiculous outfit.
"Just scooping your civilian wardrobe." Edgar says.
"Pretty cool huh?" Sam asks smirking while looking down at his clothes.
"For a fashion victim." Alan says.
I cover my mouth to keep myself from laughing, I see Sam get ready to say something so I step in, "Sammy, it's fine. Alan, Edgar, this is my, very annoying little brother, Sammy, you can call him Sam. Sammy, this is Alan and Edgar Frog."
"Edgar? As in Madison's Edgar?" He asks me.
"Yes. That Edgar." I reply.
"Listen buddy, if you're looking for the diet frozen yogurt bar, it went out of business last summer." Edgar says.
"Actually, I'm looking for a Batman #14." Sam replies.
"That's a lie, I know for sure he came here tonight to look for a diet yogurt machine, this morning he looking for one with our dog, Nanook, and failed." I say to them, exposing Sammy.
"N-Noo." Sam lies.
"It's true, I was with' em." Madison says as she joins the conversation.
Edgar grabs a copy of the 'Vampires Everywhere' comic, "Here take this." He hands it Sam.
"I don't like horror comics." Sam says giving it back to him.
"You'll like this one, Mr. Phoenix. It could save your life." Edgar says giving it back to Sam. I give Madison a puzzled look.
"Hey!" Alan yells at some guys that stole some comics, Alan starts chasing after them, Edgar soon behind him.
"Hey, those guys stole our comics!" Edgar yells.
"We should go, I have a feeling, Mike's looking for us." I say to him.
"Ok, let's go." Sam replies as he starts to walk out.
"You wanna come with us?" I ask her.
"No, I'm gonna stay here. Take care of the shop till they get back." She says picking up a comic and putting it back where it belongs.
"Ok, tell the guys I said bye." I tell her as I grab my comics and leave.
We exit the boardwalk and find Michael talking to bunch of weird guys.
"Come on she stiffed ya'." Sam says as he pats Mike on the back and walks away.
"Sorry Mikey, hey, don't listen to Sam, he's an idiot." I say to him.
"I know, let's go home." Michael says as he puts his arm around my shoulder and ruffles my hair.
"Stop it." I wack his hand away.
******