Chapter 1: New Neighbors

It was the summer of 1962. I remember it being really hot that day as me and my twin, Alex, help unload the moving truck. We moved to some little town called "The Valley" in Los Angeles and it was four weeks before school let out. Me and Alex were lucky when our school finished early for summer. I also remember meeting eight strange boys. But what I didn't know at that moment, was that those boys would make that summer the best one I ever had...

My eyes rolled in their sockets when my twin brother, Alex, shoved a box in my arms, telling me to go ahead and get it inside. I sighed and turned to our new house for the year, lingering the building for only a moment before going inside, almost sadly. This is the sixth house that we moved into for the past six years. I hated it when we moved. I know every time that me and Alex go to a new school, we don't try and make friends, but we end up doing anyways and then we move away, it's always the same never-ending cycle.

I just wish for once that mom and dad would pick a place and just stay, but I know that's never gonna happen. But the question was: Is this the place that will be the ideal home, finally? Probably not, but who knows? Alex says I get my hopes up way too high sometimes when he knows that we're just gonna move away again, but hey, I don't listen to him. See Alex and me look almost exactly alike, but my hair is a few shades lighter than his dark, dark brown. Our skin is both tan, and we have the same baby blue eyes that we inherited from our father.

Our mother was Hispanic, while our dear ol' dad was Australian... yeah, I know. Weird pair. My father still has his Australian accent, while mother still has her Hispanic one. Sometimes when she's angry, she speaks in Spanish then dad looks at her and says, "I love it when you speak Spanish, it makes you sound so sexy." Then she smiles and he puts his arms around her waist and kisses her.

Yeah... gross.

Anyways back to the here and now. I'm fourteen years old, about to fifteen in three weeks, and I'm a serious tomboy. I dress like a guy and I even sometimes act like a guy. My hair is even short like a guys, but it was shaggy and kinda longer than a normal boys hair would be. But I'm a girl, just so you know.

Setting the box down on another box and walked back outside, passing Alex on my way out. He just sighed and shrugged his shoulders, making me purse my lips. See, me and my twin, we have these silent conversations, and we know exactly what the other is saying. Sometimes we confuse the other people around us but mostly, we don't care. We're strange like that. But hey, don't all twins have twin-telepathy? No? Yes? Tough crowd...

Anyways I'm going back outside when I see a group of boys standing there on the sidewalk, looking at my house. Weird much? Yeah. They just stared at me and I stared at them back, my Dodgers hat shading my eyes. I stood there awkwardly, looking at each boy. I started from the right, to the left.

One was short with glasses with black rims, a backwards cap on top of his head. The next one was chubbier, and a ginger with freckles scattered all on his face and arms. The third one was African American. The fourth boy was shorter than the African American, having blonde hair, and the next one also seemed to be blonde. Then next one was way too cute for his own good, being Hispanic and having dark hair. The next one beside him was tall and had glasses also. And the last one wore a hat but I could see the dark hair peeking out of his cap.

So there I stood, very very awkwardly, staring at the eight boys and them staring at me. I brought a hand up to fix my hat and scratched my nose briefly before it fell back to my side. I stuffed my hands in my silver basket ball shorts and switched from one converse covered foot to the other. And I was almost swimming in my over-sized Dodgers shirt. See, socially, I'm a awkward person, especially when three or more people just look at me and don't say anything.

"Yo, Andy!" Ah, saved by Alex. I looked over my shoulder and watched as he descended down the porch steps and walked over to another box, only to slow to stop when he saw the eight strangers. He looked at me with a raised brow and I just shrugged and put my hands up to the side of my head, telling him that I didn't know and probably never will.

I just walked over to another box and whispered, "I have no idea, so don't ask me."

And he didn't ask me but grabbed the box from my hands and looked at the nine strangers. "So... who are you guys?" He asked, looking at me from the corner of his eye. I could already read his mind and he's thinking, 'You are so awkward.' I just rolled my eyes and looked at the boys, seeing the Hispanic boy step forward first. I'm guessing that he's the leader of the group.

"Name's Benny Rodriguez." He said and his voice sent a shiver down my spine. Hey what can I say, the boy was fine. "This is Squints-" He gestured to the thick rimmed glasses kid. "Ham-" Ginger with freckles. "Yeah-Yeah-" The other blonde kid. "DeNunez-" The African American. "Tommy 'Repeat', Timmy, Bertram." the blonde, the blonde with hat, and then the tall blonde with glasses.

Me and Alex shared a look, thinking: 'Weird names.' We looked back at the Benny and Alex introduced us. "Name's Alex, Alex Simmons." He then gestured to me. "And this is Andy." He didn't even say sister, so the eight boys probably think that I'm a guy, oh well.

"Nice to meet you two." The kid named 'Ham' said, making my eyes turn to him as I tipped my hat to him. I quickly nodded my head to the rest of the boys and walked up the steps and into the house, box in hand.

"You're brother doesn't say much, does he?" Benny asked Alex, watching as Andy walk into the house, not even making a sound.

Alex looked confused for a moment before looking at Andy walk somewhere in the house and out of his view, seeming to understand now. The other boy looked back at Benny and shrugged. "When moving to a new town, Andy doesn't really like making new friends, afraid that if we move again, it'll be too much trouble saying goodbye." He said, playing along. They didn't need to know that Andy was a girl, at least not yet.

Timmy raised a brow, having his brother do the same. "So you guys move around a lot?"

"Move around a lot?" Tommy repeated.

'So that's why they call him Tommy 'Repeat'.' Alex thought, staring at Tommy for a second before nodding. "Yeah, just a few days ago we were in New York. This is our sixth house in six years." He stated, glancing at the two story house.

"Six years?" Squints asked incredulously. Alex nodded, turning around and walking toward the porch, gesturing for the guys to follow him and they did, Benny beside the other Hispanic.

"But why?" Ham asked.

The dark haired boy put the box down, turning to look at them. Not even seeing his parents coming out of the kitchen with Andy in tow. "Cause me and Andy's dad is a real-estate agent." He answered simply, feeling a hand on his head. He saw his dad's baby blue eyes and blonde hair, his mom's smiling face, and Andy's bored look, a glass of water in her hands.

"Alex, me and your mother are gonna head out for awhile, watch over Andy, will ya?" His dad asked, whispering the last part to the boy for him to only hear.

Alex nodded, watching his dad and mom walk out the door and drive off in their 1962 red Mustang. He then turned back to the nine boys and looked at their caps. "So you guys play baseball?" He asked, resting his hands on his slim hips.

Yeah-Yeah nodded excitedly. "Yeah yeah, we do."

"Cool." Andy said. All the guys turned to him, their eyes widen at how strange his voice sounded for a guy.

'Mustn't have hit puberty yet like his brother.' Benny thought. "So you two play?" He asked the Simmons twins.

"Yep." They both said, Andy taking a sip of his water after he responded.

"Cool, then maybe you can come to the Sandlot tomorrow and play with us?" Ham asked, his eyes lingering on Andy for a second before shrugging off his suspicion.

Alex looked at Andy while he did the same. Then they looked back at the boys and nodded, Alex being the one that responded with a verbal answer. "Sure, thanks."

"No problem, come by tomorrow." Benny said, nodding his head at the two and leaving, his friends following close behind.

The boys left, leaving me and Alex to fight over who gets what room, so I bolted up the steps, putting my water on the table before running up the steps. Alex was close behind me, yelling, "No fair, you cheater!" But I just ignored him and made it to the top of the stairs before him, reaching for the door that was farthest away from the steps, Alex's footsteps pounding behind me. I grabbed the door nob and yanked the door open, slamming it behind me and jumping on the bed, laughing when my twin came in after me, pointing at me accusingly. His eyes were narrowed, his mouth set in a thin line, and cheeks red. I knew that he was angry, but did I care? Nope, because the room I chose had a bigger window and a bigger closet.

"You cheater!" He yelled and jumped on top of me and pinned me to the bed. I just rolled my eyes and pushed him off of me, making him fall on the floor.

"Too bad. I got here first, so I get the room." I said, crossing my arms and sticking my tongue out at him.

"Andrian Elena Simmons!" He used my whole name, I hated when he used my whole name.

"Alex Ricardo Simmons!" I yelled back him, watching as he lunged at me and we started wrestling.

Yep. Just another normal day in the life of Andy Simmons.

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Here's the link for the 1962 mustang: img 15 . nnm . ru / f / 6 / f / d / 5 / 8dfb7072f4ba59a6e6f6de1ce45 . jpg

Without the spaces

Decided to put the twins in their BEFORE Smalls...