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“Wooo!!!!!”
“Gabe!” Robbie cried with a exasperated sigh, “What’s the point of doing all this work if you’re just gonna mess up the pile a hundred times?”
Gabe jammed down the brake on the right wheel, causing his chair to swing around in a loop to face Robbie. Two parallel tire tracks cut through the mound of leaves that Robbie and Gabe had been raking all morning and Robbie frowned at them.
“Where’s the fun in having a giant pile of leaves if you can’t play in it?” Gabe reasoned.
Robbie just rolled his eyes and went back to raking.
A rattling, clunking sound pulled Robbie’s attention as a rusted out old van groaned down the street and into his next door neighbor’s driveway. The driver hopped out, a woman with short, dark hair, dark makeup and an all-black outfit. She tugged open the back doors, hoisted out a large box, and hauled it into her house. Robbie couldn’t tell exactly what was in the box, but it appeared to be something black. Shocking, given the sulky, goth-y appearance of their new neighbor.
Robbie had only spoken to her once, when he and Gabe greeted her when she first moved in at the beginning of the month. Gabe had baked a plate of cookies for her and passed them over with an exuberant “Welcome to the neighborhood!” She didn’t really respond, other than to look a bit startled. To be fair, she looked exhausted; moving took a lot out of a person. Robbie was the less sociable brother, but he still had manners. He stuck out a hand and introduced himself.
The woman eyed him up and down and said, “Daisy.” Gabe was the kind to invite strangers in for a chat when first meeting someone, which ‘Daisy’ did not seem to inclined to do. Robbie chanced a quick glance over her shoulder and saw every surface that wasn’t covered in boxes was covered in black or skeletons and he realized he probably didn’t want her to anyway.
Beyond that, neither neighbor made an effort to interact with the other. The front of Daisy’s house gradually started to resemble what Robbie had seen of the inside. Angry-looking skulls hung around the front door, with more complete skeletons and tombstones strewn about the yard. Giant, fake spiders dangled from the tree and roof and wispy cobwebs covered the shrubs.
“I think she’s a witch,” Gabe had said, when more spooky decorations appeared in the yard.
“She’s not a witch,” Robbie had replied, “It’s October. She’s just really into Halloween.”
“Then why does she only wear black?”
Robbie just rolled his eyes.
~~~~~~
Robbie realized there were a number of other boxes in the back of the van and wondered if he should offer to help Daisy take them inside. She didn’t seem like the type to accept help from a stranger, though, so he thought better of it. The door clicked behind Daisy and Robbie turned his attention back to the leaves.
Only to find Gabe’s eyes boring into him.
“…What?”
“I saw that,” Gabe said with a smug smirk.
“Saw what?”
“You checking out the neighbor. She’s cute. Didn’t know you were into goth chicks, though.”
Robbie sputtered. “She’s not a ‘goth chick’—and I’m not into h—“
Daisy’s door swung open again and she came out for another box. Robbie determinedly stabbed at the leaves with the rake, but he couldn’t fight the urge to glance towards Daisy.
And it turned out she was already looking at him. Well, something behind him anyway. He caught a twinkle of something in her eyes before they swiveled and met his. Robbie knew he was caught and couldn’t just look away, so he offered an awkward smile and wave. Daisy tipped him a mock salute and turned her attention back to her boxes.
“What was that?” Gabe asked.
“What was what?”
“That was the most awkward way to pick up a girl I’ve ever seen.”
“Well, I wasn’t trying to pick her up,” Robbie defended.
Gabe snorted and went back to helping rake the leaves.
A few moments later, a voice echoed down the street. “Hey, Gabe!”
A group of boys Robbie recognized from Gabe’s class ran down the street towards them.
“Mr. Barton’s gonna put a pumpkin in a catapult and he said we could watch! Wanna come?” one of them said.
“Hell yeah I do!” Gabe replied. He turned to Robbie, who waved him off.
“Just stay behind the catapult, okay?” Robbie teased.
Without another word, Gabe was wheeling towards Mr. Barton’s house with his friends.
Finally, the leaves were piled up nicely enough to get bagged up, so Robbie went to go fetch a bag. He dug through the crates in the garage, but they weren’t there. After a few minutes, he decided to go check in the house. He finally dug them out from underneath the sink (why the yard waste bags were under the sink, Robbie had no clue) and headed back outside.
He passed by the front window and noticed someone in his yard. He stepped up to the window to get a better look.
It was Daisy. The door of her van was still hanging open and there were still boxes in the back, but she casually strolled through his yard like she was just sight-seeing. She glanced around surreptitiously and Robbie ducked behind the wall. A mischievous grin split Daisy’s face and she took a running leap into the massive leaf pile.
Robbie just blinked. He had never even seen her smile before.
He grabbed his trash bags and headed back outside. He peered around the edge of the garage at the leaf pile, which was now wiggling. A low giggle drifted out of the center of the pile. Robbie smirked and headed over to the pile. When he was a few feet away, a head popped out of the leaves.
Daisy sighed with a satisfied smirk on her lips and pushed herself back to her feet. She dusted herself off and tried to push the leaves back into their pile, but froze when she noticed Robbie standing there.
Neither spoke for several moments. Then,
“Uh…..hey,” Daisy said, casually.
“Hey.”
“How long have you been there?”
“Not long.”
“Okay, ‘cause I, uh…fell,” Daisy lied. Poorly.
“Right. How did you fall all the way over here from your car?” Robbie teased.
Daisy flushed. “Well, you see, I dropped my receipt and then the wind blew it over here and my shoe was untied…”
Robbie blinked slowly and leveled her with the same look he gave Gabe when Gabe claimed the girl who drove him home from school was just a friend: the I’m Not Buying It.
“Okay, the truth is that this is the first fall I actually have a yard and I don’t have a big tree in it like you do, but fall is my favorite season and my favorite thing to do in fall is jump in giant leaf piles,” Daisy confessed.
“If you want to jump in a leaf pile you’re free to come rake it yourself.”
Daisy’s eyes widened. “Oh god, you’re right. I’m sorry, you busted your butt on that and I just—“
“I was kidding,” Robbie replied.
Daisy’s blinked for a moment, then her face relaxed and she smirked at him. “Well, your ‘kidding’ face is no different from your ‘I’m tired of raking leaves face, so it’s hard to tell.”
“Spend a little more time with me and you’ll figure out the difference,” Robbie countered. Daisy’s eyebrows quirked up. “I mean— not that you have to, but like—if you want sometime—Gabe and I do homemade cider and—it’s not that great—but…”
Daisy smiled. “I’ll keep it in mind. I should probably finish unloading my car.”
She turned to start walking back to her van.
“Wait!” Robbie called. Daisy spun to face him again looking expectant. “You have a leaf in your hair.”
Robbie reached out and plucked the crumpled orange leaf from Daisy’s dark hair. He couldn’t decide if she looked embarrassed or disappointed, but she flashed him a smirk.
“Thanks. Let me know about the cider thing.”
Robbie watched her go until she was back in her house and then turned his attention back to the leaf pile with a smile on his face. A few minutes into shoving leaves in a bag he froze. Wait…did he just invite Daisy over for a date? And did Daisy say yes?
Dios mio, he was never going to hear the end of it from Gabe.