If Ivan had read the ad his mother had read (He'd been counting.) thirty-six times, he would have known that the Shacklefords had three children, teenagers by the look of it. Glancing around at the marble stoned entryway; his eyes came to rest upon a gushing woman, her crimson hair pushed up into a neat pile upon her head. The light knocked against the gaudy earrings dangling from her ears, and reflected back into his eyes.

"Oh my, what a sweetie!" the lady exclaimed, as she patted his head, mussing up his pale, blonde hair. When she turned her back, Ivan threw her an annoyed look, and Constance sent him a frown. 'Ivan!' she mouthed, as the gleeful hostess swiveled back around and declared happily, "Come, Constance, meet the children!"

Ivan stayed back, wary, as the grinning woman motioned to the first teenager, a girl with hair so blonde you'd have thought that the sun had made its home right on her head. Unfortunately, her temperament was just as heated as the metaphor that so...lovingly described her. Clad in enough pink to make your eyes sore, she piped up, "Like, what do you want, Mom? Me and Blanche are totally busy." Ivan could only guess that she was referring to the boy standing just behind her, a boy that Ivan had at first thought was just another sibling until he noticed there were four children standing in the row.

The one called 'Blanche' drawled, "Yeah, Mrs. S, whaddya want?" His equally exuberantly blonde hair stuck up in a smarmy flick at the back of his head, and he flashed the Missus a Hollywood-like smile.

The Missus let out a high-pitched giggle, as she turned to Ivan and Constance and declared, "This is the little princess of the family, Bianca!" She gestured to the boy standing behind Bianca. "And this is her boyfriend, Blanche." She pronounced 'Blanche' as if it rhymed with 'Ranch', and this caused Blanche to send her a death glare.

"It's Blonk, Mrs. S, not Blant-ch.,” he chided, while Mrs. Shackleford closed her eyes and nodded happily. Bianca rolled her eyes. "Now, can we go, Mother? Yeah, yeah, I get it. New maid and whatever. Okay, bye!" She grabbed Blanche by the collar of his polo shirt and pulled him to the door, the two disappearing in an instant.

Ivan rolled his eyes at their behavior. 'Brats' he thought to himself, as he turned his attention to the next child. This girl had dull, lank red hair in comparison to the boy standing next to her. Glasses rested on her acne-speckled nose, and her eyes were fixed on something unknown off in the distance.

“Cassidy-Hew, say hello to Constance and her son…” Mrs. Shackleford trailed off, not knowing the boy’s name. Constance piped up after realizing she had indeed forgotten to introduce him.

“Oh, oh my, well, this is my son, Ivan…I suppose he’s the same age as your teens…” Constance stated, smiling nervously at the Missus.

The red haired girl snorted, and stared at him with a harsh gaze. Mrs. Shackleford smiled, before saying, “Lovely! Well, this is Cassidy-Hew-”

“Hew, Mom, just Hew.” the girl interjected, winding a loose strand of red hair around her finger, her other hand clutching a book to her denim jacket clad chest. The title read ‘Carve’.

“Oh, well, yes, Hew then.” the Missus remarked, rolling her eyes and looking at the last remaining child. Hew rolled her eyes and briskly turned away, but not before giving Ivan a strange glance.

“Ah, Constance, you’ve already met Adair.” Said redheaded teenager gave a curt nod, his large headphones bouncing as he did so. Ivan stared at the youth for a few seconds, recognizing him as the boy who’d been walking down the sidewalk moments earlier. He was rather cute…Ivan blinked. He didn’t just think that…did he?

Oh snap.

---

To say the room was small was an understatement. It was minute, tiny, opposite of huge…It was more of a closet than a room. Heck, it was a closet.

Ivan didn’t have many things, but the one suitcase he did have took up one third of the space in his new ‘room’, which was really just the closet adjoining to his mother’s living quarters. Plopping down on the futon-like mat that had been dumped there by a most unwilling Adair, he sighed into the soft fabric. It felt nice to be outside the car for a change…after all, they had been living in it after they had to leave their house. But, that was a story already told, this was a new one about to unfold.

Ivan sat up. Since when had he been a poet? He shook his head and reached for his pack, unzipping it and pulling out his most prized possession: A laptop computer, and an old one at that. The clip no longer fastened, so he had to keep it shut with one of his mother’s hair bands, and here was a crack running from the left hand bottom corner for about an inch. The color was most disfigured in this area, and Ivan was worried it might catch fire one day. The caps of the keys ‘I’, ‘7’, and ‘A’ were missing, the spacebar was also cracked, and the backspace key had an unidentifiable substance smeared on it.

But, he loved the thing. It was a gateway to another, possibly better world, thanks to his Internet connection. He smiled as he pressed the power button.

It thus occurred to him how much his life would soon change, for he could not stayed cooped up in this little walk-in closet forever. The Missus had mentioned something about school, and how he would go to the same high school as the Shackleford children.

He hummed to himself as he checked his email out of habit, and then brought the lid down gently. He laid back down, closing his eyes. He was supposed to be shown the school by his new housemates, and he doubted that the experience would be pleasant.

But, for now, peaceful dreams awaited him, images of talking fish, the color teal, and a rather attractive redhead…