[ 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."

"My mom said they invited us over for dinner." Claire informed him. "I should go get ready."

She turned and headed for the house slowly. The young woman peaked over her shoulder to catch a last glimpse of her childhood friend who wore a smirk on his face. He jogged up behind her and snaked his arms around her waist, making her giggle. "I'll go with you." He said, nuzzling his face into her neck.

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A knock on the door startled Ashton. His eyes tore away from the car magazine he was reading. A Harley-Davidson one.

"Ashton, dear, dinner is ready. Come downstairs." His mother cooed from the other side of his closed door. "We have very important guests tonight, so make sure you wear that lovely suit I bought you for your father's promotion ceremony. Please don't wear that horrid leather jacket to dinner."

The young man got up from his bed and went towards the door. He opened it to reveal his mother, whose smile dropped when she saw him.

He wore dark straight leg jeans, a black shirt, and his favorite motorcycle jacket over it. The bandana around his head did little to tame his messy golden curls. Just to annoy his mother even more, he reached into his pocket and pulled a carton of cicarettes, which he barely even smoked. It was only on rare ocassions when he felt he needed it. He put one into his mouth an lit it with a lighter he kept in his jacket pocket.

His mother frowned. "Ashton, this is serious. We are having dinner with our neighbors; the Hood family and the Feeney family. They're two of the richest families in this town. Your father wants them to like us."

Ashton shrugged. "I don't care how much money they have, I'm not dressing up for them."

"At least put out that filthy thing." She snagged the lit cigarette from his lips and threw it onto the floor, stepping on it immediately to put it out.

"You're a fun-kill, mother." Ashton joked.

Then he pulled her in for a hug.

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When he entered the kitchen, he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw her.

She was a beautiful blonde girl with big green eyes and porcelain skin. He noticed she was dressed like all the other regular goody two-shoes people of the previous decade. He assumed she was probably the boring type. But that was precisely the way Ashton had been raised and he reasoned that he would probably get along with her.

The only other teenager in the room was a raven haired boy with tanned skin, who sat next to the breathtaking blonde.

He was dressed similarly to Ashton and he instantly knew they'd get along. The leather jacket, the jeans, the emotionless look. Ashton made a note to talk cars with his new neighbor. Besides, he concluded that he needed friends if he wanted to fit in this new town.

Ashton walked up to the two and greeted them in a nonchalant way. "Oi, I'm Ashton Irwin. Who are you?"

"Conrad Hood." The boy with the raven hair replied, producing a cigarette from his pocket and lighting it, taking a long puff.

"Hello, my name is Claire Feeney." The girl told him with a smile.

"Why don't you show your new friends around the house, dear?" Mrs. Irwin smiled at the three teenagers.

Ashton nodded at them and they got up to follow him out of the fancy dining room. Just that morning all their furniture had been delivered and Ashton's mother had hired a team of people that helped her put everything in its place. He led them to the livingroom with plush floral decorated sofas and brass adornemts on the walls. He plopped himself on one of the couches, Claire sitting next to him.

"Are you his girlfriend?" He gestured to Conrad, who sat on the other side of Claire. Ashton thought they sat too close to each other for them to be just friends. Then again, there was a chance he was seeing things through the conservative upbringing of his family.

Her face contorted into something weird before she let out a musical laugh. "Of course not! Con and I are just childhood friends."

Exhaling a cloud of smoke into the closed space of the livingroom, Conrad added, "My family's too rich to merge with Claire's."

Claire shot the raven haired boy a glare. Then she changed the subject. "So...Ashton, where will you be going to school?"

He shrugged. "My mother told me its some school named St. Genevieve's Academy. But I think it sounds like a girl's school. Do you think there's some kind of mistake here? I don't want to show up and make a fool of myself."

The golden haired girl giggled at his words. "It used to be an all-girls school way back in the old days. But its co-ed now. Don't worry. St. Genevieve's is where Con and I go to school, so you can hang out with us if you want. We'll guide you and make sure you have a nice first day of classes."

"Do you think he's one of us?" Conrad asked Claire with a bit of venom in his tone.

She nodded, "Yeah, he'll fit in just fine."

Ashton grinned, never taking his eyes off Claire. 

"Maybe I will like living here after all."

-

update for this story cause yeah.

mexico u21 is beating jamaica u21 in centralamerican games. and i believe this is the semi-final. that's what they said the other day.

but i'm not too sure.

anyway, i hope you're enjoying the chapter.

i'm enjoying myself watching five football games on tv today. america vs. atlas, santos vs. puebla, tigres vs. toluca, veracruz vs. pachuca, and mexico vs. jamaica.

thank you for reading.

i love you.

-clary xx