Balancing my parasol with my shoulder and arm, I rang the door bell of the neighbour's house with one hand and held a plate of cookies with the other. I stepped back to wait for them to answer and Andy went back to clinging to my hand the second I finished ringing the door bell, seeming rather nervous about us knocking on the neighbour's front door.
It took a while before anything seemed to happen and, for a moment, I thought that they weren't going to answer the door at all. All kinds of thoughts ran through my head: had they heard about their neighbour being a weirdo already? I felt rather silly for worrying, however, when I realised why it had taken a while. The boy who answered had clearly been showering; his damp hair was half-covered by a towel and he was still rubbing it dry when he swung the door open.
The first thing that caught his eye was the parasol, but he was easily distracted by the freshly baked cookies I was holding. He looked like your average, popular teenage kid, so the anxious feeling I had in my stomach didn't go away. I couldn't help but be intimidated by people my own age; it was engrained in me. He looked normal, attractive and confident, which was everything I wished I was.
His darkly tanned skin was the definition of a stark opposite to my pale, lifeless skin and his hair sported the occasional blonde streaky highlight, whereas mine was jet black. His eyes glistened in the suns reflection and you could tell they held a spark of life behind them.
I realised that we had both been staring at each other for a hot second, without exchanging any words, and I cleared my throat awkwardly. Extending the plate of cookies courteously towards him, he eagerly took them without waiting for me to explain why a stranger was giving him cookies, which seemed slightly odd to me.
"Our mum asked us to bring you these, to welcome you." I explained, despite him not asking.
I didn't both to to introduce myself properly, since I had a feeling he didn't really care.
"Thanks!" The boy beamed at me before disappearing back into the house with the cookies, leaving the front door wide open.
Looking at the open door in confusion, I raised an eyebrow; maybe this kid wasn't as normal as he looks. I shared a look with Andy, who just decided to pull me away from the door instead of waiting. Before we could get any further than off the porch, however, we were called back. Now an older woman, who looked remarkably like the boy, stood at the front door, seeming quite flustered; probably because she was embarrassed that her son had just walked off like that.
"I'm so sorry about that!" She blushed, "I'm Annabelle Dawchester, but everyone calls me Anne. Could you tell your mother I said thank you for the cookies? I would come and say thank you to her myself, but I'm afraid I'm covered in paint from decorating. Would you like to come in for a drink?"
"It's nice to meet you." I smiled politely, "My name's Daxx and this is my younger brother, Andy. I would love to come in, but I have to go and pick up my little sister at school now or I'll be late. Apologies, but my mum will be pleased your son likes the cookies."
"Two younger siblings? Are they close in age?" She questioned, leaning against the door frame of the house.
"They're fraternal twins." I nodded, "I suppose it doesn't get much closer in age than that."
"Oh, wow!" Anne beamed, "Hold on, is it time to collect them from school already? I've been so busy unpacking that I didn't even realise! Connor, you should be picking up Mary from school soon; why haven't you left, yet? You don't even know the way. The walk will take you forever at this rate."
Anne had focused her flustered yelling on the disappearing boy, her hands flapping around dramatically as she spoke. A few muffled groans filtered outside, telling me that the boy, Connor, wasn't very happy with this obligation to pick his sister up.
"Would he like a lift? We're going there anyway, so it wouldn't be a problem." I offered to be polite, since it would be awkward to see him there if I hadn't offered.
Andy squeezed my hand hard, trying to stop me from making my offer. I chose to ignore him, continuing to smile at Anne politely. Andy was obviously worried that the second his parental figure was gone, he would be rude to me, but for some reason I doubted that. So far, he didn't seem mean. Not to mention, his mum was beyond lovely and she hadn't even once glanced at my obnoxious parasol.
"Can I adopt you?" Anne swooned, "Your manners are like a breath of fresh air! Living with Connor, I forget that boys your age can be decent human beings. Connor should honestly take a leaf out of your book; you must get all of the ladies! I'm sure he would greatly appreciate a lift if it's no trouble."
"It's no trouble at all." I reassured her, deciding for certain that I liked Anne.
She seemed like such a gentle and non-judgmental soul. It was really refreshing.
"Why would I want to 'get ladies'? That's so archaic for a start." Connor cringed, appearing at her side with shoes on now.
"I don't know what you're into these days!" Anne rolled her eyes, shooing him out of the door.
This conversation was a little awkward to bear witness to, considering they were both still strangers, and the sun was taking its toll on me as we all stood around on the porch, despite me holding my parasol. Andy noticed me growing uncomfortable in the sun and tried to pull the parasol so that it was properly covering the back of my neck to protect me, but it wasn't quite doing the trick. It felt as if there was some kind of lava demon clawing at my neck from the inside, trying to break free out of my skin.
"We need to go now." Andy declared, pulling me by the hand over to my car.
He climbed into the back of my car and started to rummage through the box I kept under the passenger seat as I slipped into the drivers seat awkwardly. Both Anne and Connor seemed confused about the abrupt departure, but it couldn't be helped. Andy finally found what he was looking for and whipped out the instant ice pack and cracked it, holding it to my neck. It didn't do that much at relieving the pain, but it was better than nothing and I didn't want to hurt his feelings. Thanking him quietly, I tried to focus on calming down. The pain always freaked me out.
During the whole ordeal, Connor had climbed into the passenger seat and was watching with curiosity as Andy flapped around with the medical kit. Once I noticed, I frowned and looked directly forward to hide my expression. He seemed nice enough, but deep down I knew that he probably thought I was a complete weirdo. I was used to this, but it seemed harder to shrug it off than usual. I don't know why I cared what a complete stranger thought about me, but I did.
My skin was still itching like crazy, but I ignored it and started the engine, driving back to the twins' school. Each time I lifted my hand to rub it or itch at the effected area, Andy would silently take my hand to stop me. He was doing this because I could damage the already sensitive area if I claw at it, but Connor didn't know this. He was eyeing me with a confused expression on his face, glancing from me to the tinted windows; he was trying to put two and two together in his head, but the cogs seemed slow to start turning.
"Aren't windows tinted like this illegal?" Connor hummed, "What are you, a drug lord?"
"Do I look like a drug lord? They are illegal, but I have a permit, or something along those lines, for them." I explained shortly, trying not to get defensive.
"What's with the pained expression?" Connor asked, his eyes scanning my neck and seeing no physical damage.
"The sun hurts him." Andy put it very simply, kicking his feet against the back of Connor's seat grumpily.
I sighed. I hadn't spoken to anybody my own age in so long. Since I didn't go to school, I didn't really know anyone who I could text, or hangout with. I didn't go to any clubs, or work anywhere, so the opportunity never really presented itself. A few times, when I was five, I went to the local park, but the kids there teased me. They thought I was a demon or something, especially when I broke down, screaming in pain, about the sun burning after I tried taking off my jacket. That's about the time that my reputation as a vampire was consolidated.
Once we pulled into the school car park, Andy wrapped a scarf around my neck and handed me my parasol once again. Sending him an appreciative smile, I exited the car and strolled over to the school entrance with Andy by my side. Connor wasn't far behind us, but he was probably hanging back slightly, which I didn't blame him for. Despite picking up the twins most days, the parents here never failed to stare and whisper as I walked past them. Gossips of 'vampire', 'strange' and 'creepy' were uttered as we waited for the children to be let out.
Andy held my hand tighter, probably hearing them talking about me too. Unless I was prepared to square up to a forty year old woman with a bob cut, there wasn't much I could do to stop them from talking about me. I just grit my teeth and got through it usually, but I felt rather embarrassed considering Connor could hear them too.
"The neighbour seems a bit stupid." Andy whispered, making me chuckle.
"That's not nice to say." I scolded half-heartedly, tutting at him.
"Daxx!" A voice called, grabbing my attention.
Angel's hair was an absolute mess, falling into her eyes as she ran towards me with her football uniform on. Both of the twins played football and quite often begged me to play with them, but it wasn't really my thing; running through mud and kicking a ball filled with air? Why?
"Angel!" I mocked her excited yell and returned her hug, "How was your day?"
"I put tomato sauce in Jimmy Wellot's bag for getting Andy suspended. He was crying because it ruined his new colouring pencils." Angel grinned wickedly, scaring me slightly.
This was a prime example of the main differences between the twins: Angel was just as aggressively protective, but she was more underhand with things than Andy. She was incredibly sneaky and had never been caught red handed (no pun intended) for doing things like this. Andy, of course, was the complete opposite: he was heedless and rash, acting out the second he got emotional. It was interesting to observe the difference between them, yet worrying.
Then there was me, who was unlike the both of them. You would never catch me doing anything bad. I just stay home, in the dark, doing school work. The highlight of my day is picking up the twins from school, since it's one of the only times I get to leave the house. Doesn't that make me sound enthralling? The night time was a different story, but by day I was about as exciting as cardboard.
"Well played, Angel." Andy grinned cheekily.
"I avenged you." She boasted, giving him a hug.
"Your siblings are scary." Connor noted.
"Connor?" A small child called, approaching us hesitantly.
The girl looked to be about the same age as the twins, sporting a similar hair colour to her brother- a soft, light brown. Her silky hair was plaited into two neat braids at either side of her face, which only made Angel's hair look wilder. Eyeing us cautiously, she seemed confused about the strange guy with an umbrella and a scarf in the boiling hot sun. Which was fair enough, really.
"Ready to leave, Mary?" Connor was raring to leave the school already.
"Sure." She nodded up at him, glancing at me, with my parasol and scarf, once again before glancing away.
Angel held up her arms pointedly and I picked her up, passing her my parasol to hold over us as we walked. Andy then wanted to hold my hand, so I shifted Angel onto my hip and held Andy's hand with my spare hand. As they were getting older, they were getting far too heavy to keep going on like this; I was even struggling now and Angel weighs next to nothing, so I knew I wouldn't be able to do this for much longer.
It made me kind of sad to see them grow up, but it was interesting at the same time. I got to see them form opinions and personalities, which is cool.
Connor had a strange look plastered on his face, which was intriguing to me. Like I said, I was used to strange looks, but this seemed different; it wasn't judgmental, like most of them were. In fact, I couldn't tell you what that look was. It certainly wasn't one that I had come across before, anyway. Maybe it was because he was from out of town.
"So, are you, like, albino?" Connor asked with genuine curiosity.
"Are you dumb?" Andy frowned.
"Andy, that's rude." I hissed.
"I just thought that because his skin's pale." Connor shrugged, blushing slightly.
"Big bro just doesn't like the sun" Angel shrugged.