The smell of wax and air freshener filled the room as a large cardboard box was sat down. Stacks of cardboard, wrapped furniture and several objects that could kindly be called art were scattered around the house. It was an old vintage home with two floors. Then a woman fists off her hands before a bang happens. Root a boy around the age of eight with brown skin and black hair in neat cornrows stood next to a dent in the wall he had just made. Something that would've been a slight inconvenience if it wasn't for the fact that it was a solid brick wall, and that he JUST made the dent. A tradition he made after he got used to constantly moving. "Root! Stop tearing up the house we just paid the deposit. And I don't need you breaking furniture either."
The woman, Rosa says with a scowl making Root stop his foot mid kick and nod with his hand behind his back. As if he wasn't about to kick the couch into a filing cabinet. "Your brothers went out after the moving truck left. That reminds me I owe Mr. Smith a favor, I'll just back him a pie. Go find your brothers and don't break anyone." Rosa says then Root starts walking twords the door with his hands in his pockets. He hated whenever they moved, all it meant for them was more boxes more faces to forget and leaving all his favorite spots. "And take her too." Root stops and groans "Do I gotta? I don't want some girl following me all day, she'll just slow me down with all her whining and..uuuhh, and her girlyness!" Root sticks his tongue out and makes a sound like he was about to throw up at the thought alone "Just look at her she's so small and looks she eats glitters and rainbows all day like a ribbon that grew legs." Root says and Rosa scowls, silencing the boy before he could argue more. "She's your sister now and that's that. You are taking her and your not going to leave her behind! Now go on mija, Root will take care of you" Rosa kisses a bashful looking little girl on the cheek who was sitting patintly in a chair. playing with her fingers and clutching a teddy bear against her chest. Squeezing it as if it was anchoring her to the world. "Okay Miss Rosa." The little girl climbs off the chair and walks over to Root who glares at her before huffing amd turning around.
He hated getting stuck playing babysitter, but it was more like carrying a piece of glass that cried every time he walked too fast or hit her too hard. Always getting scolded for not being "gentle" with her. It wasn't his fault that girls were so wimpy! Why is he always being punished, Root thought as he growled. Elara was a six year old girl skin as white as milk, freckles on her face and Everything about her screamed out expensive. From her frilly blue dress that was way to expensive for them to afford to even her hair in a ponytail with a ribbon too expensive to be within ten miles of their tax bracket. And that's because she was expensive or at least used to be before she was adopted into their loud messy family two months ago. Two months of Root ride along and having to play nice. Be a glorified babysitter everyday was beyond annoying for the boy.
Elara looks at Root "Hi Root, can we-" Root interrupts her. "Come on already." Root say then Rosa gives him a look, and he mumbles before waiting for Elara at the front door then leaving. Walking down the sidewalk with a brisk walk taking in the sights, remembering paths that looked interesting and how the kids he passed looked. 'They look so weak, this place is full of nothing but runts.' Root thinks to himself before getting a grin, it was going to be really easy to "take over" the neighborhood. Imagining himself and his brothers bullying the other kids. Taking their things, pushing them into gross trash, or just making fun of them. Anything he or his brothers could think of really. "Wait! Wait! I can't keep up!" Elara says nearly sprinting to keep up with Root's pace. And Root narks over his shoulder "I ain't slowing down! You want to tag along YOU keep up." He wasn't even walking fast and she was struggling.
Ignoring Elara, Root stops as he sees what he's looking for. Two boys on the ground wrestling each other. Wrestling being a nice term for beating each other senseless. Root watched with a grin as a tall lanky boy with pale skin, black hair, a blue jacket and the same kind of black cargo pants that he was wearing picked up a smaller boy with tan skin, blonde hair and a yellow shirt then slammed him into the ground. The small one then kicks the tall one into the stomach making the tall one grunt and take a step back. Before the small one gets up and slams his shoulder into the tall one knocking them both to the ground before they start grappling each other. Both of them grinning as they do. The tall one was Trunk, and the small one was Branch. Branch was nine and Trunk seven.
They were his brothers and the two of them were playing too rough for normal children. Elara's lip quivers and she hugs her teddy bear tighter to her chest, almost trying to hide behind it as she watches her brothers play. This wouldn't be too odd of a scene for boys their age if they weren't making craters in the ground each time they slammed each other into the ground or slide several feet into the ground when they got pushed or thrown over ten feet into the air. "BOOOOYS!" Root screams before rushing at his brothers who pause their fight to look at Root as he thrusts out his hand. Taking turns to slap his brothers hands and punching them in the shoulders.
"Your finally done with the boxes. Told you doing the furniture was smart. There's way less of that then anything else. Should have just listened to us. Could have been playing all day if you did. All that space in that giant head of yours and you couldn't think of that." Branch says smugly as he looks down at his brother. "Ya huh aaaaand we took some candy from some chumps across the street." Trunk says popping a jaw breaker into his mouth before he groans. "Ugh, why'd you bring the squeak toy with you?" Root throws his arms in the air. "I didn't have a choice! Mom told me to and gave me the look." Root says then folds his arms. "Does this mean we can't play rough and stuff?" Branch asks and Trunk shacks his head, having the same question. "NO WAY! We're going to take this joint and make it ours! We play how we want to, just have to keep the confetti gumdrop out of the way. Tie her to a tree or something." Root says then frowns as Trunk starts to move and Elara gets behind Root's leg. "Don't actually tie her to a tree stupid." Trunk stops and looks disappointed, lowering his still jittering hands. "Now, share the load. I wanna see what kinda candy these losers have." Root says sticking his hand and Branch ruffles in his pocket, tossing out a few bugs before putting a few sour candies in Roots hand. "They don't have anything, but the sour stuff and the rest was old lady candy." Branch says, "I threw them into the sun." Trunk says bouncing in place. "Trunk threw them into the sun." Root shrugs, as far as he was concerned old lady candy needed to be illegal and everyone who carried it needed to be locked up.
They've mugged so many kids and turned up with way to many of them for their liking. Then Branch feels a tug on his shirt and looks down at Elara. "Can I have one Branch? Miss Rosa said it's good to share." Branch says then rolls his eyes before he smirks. "Sure, you want some candy. I'll give you some." Elara squeaks in surprise, expecting him to say no or yell at her. While Root and Trunk look at Branch confused on why he would give her one. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Elara says bouncing on her heels before putting out her hand. Then Branch leans his head back, gargles in his mouth until there was snot in his mouth, then spat his jaw breaker into Elara's hand. Which she immediately dropped like it was on fire and the boys laugh. "Did you see her face? She actually thought I was gonna give her something!" Says Branch. "Oh my god I can't believe we didn't pull that on her sooner! Good thinking bro!" Trunk says while snickering then punches Branch in the shoulder. "You need to pull crap like that more often! Then we can REALLY mess with everybody!" Root says with a snicker as Elara's eyes water. "Aww what's wrong tiny? You asked for candy right and i gave it to you. Stop complaining!" Branch says then laughs as Elara sniffles. "You all are so MEAN! I- I just wanted CAAAAAAANDY!" Elara screams then starts bawling, her nose running with snot and her teddy bear even tighter against her body. The boys cover their ears and Root looks at Elara and feels a tug in his chest. Nothing like regret but more like an annoyed, reluctant pity. branch then jerks his head at Elara. Branch groans before reaching into his pocket then shoving some gummy bears into Elara's mouth. "THERE NOW SHUT UP! STOP BEIGN SO LAME THIS IS WHY WE DON'T ROLL WITH STUPID GIRLS!" Branch shouts as the boys groan in annoyance and Elara eventually stops crying. Now just sniffling and chewing on the gummy bears. "Good greif, come here! Ma is going to flip if your covered in buggers AND she'll think we put em on ya." Root says cupping Elara's face and using his shirt to wipe the snot from her face. "There now be quiet and keep up." Root says and turns to his brothers. "So boys, we find anything fun to do or what?" Root asks then folds his arms then Trunk jerks once before speaking "There's like seven arcades in town! And they're the real fancy ones too. OH! And there's a fancy candy shop that I seen some rich looking kids go into and then there was a park were an old lady was feeding birds. I like the birds they were these weird red pigeons, are pigeons usually red Root? But then-" Root slaps the back of Trunks head. The boy's endless jitters making him barley notice so Root slapped him much harder this time, making a bang like a gunshot on contact. "Okay that's enough of your yappin. We're not here to listen to you all day. Root says irrupting Trunk's soon to be rant. He knew his brother could talk for literal hours non-stop without even pausing to breath, He had enough of that on the ride to move here and he wasn't about to let anyone go through that torture. Not even Elara, even if she was a girl.
"Let's just go to the park, we can steal some kid's ball and Elara can go play with some random girls while we have fun." Branch says and the boys nod in agreement. "Finally something smart comes out your mouth. Let's do that." Root says and Branch frowns. But stays silent so they can get Elara out of their sight for a while.
After a few minutes of walking, they arrive at the park and Elara runs off to join in on some kids playing tag. While the boys spot something interesting. Sitting around A silver foution with a duck on top spurting water, were three girls around their age. But there was something about these gurls that seemed different then other girls they've messed with. The one in the middle a girl with pink overalls and box braids was drawing with chalk seemed to sit there too comfortably, like there was nothing to consider a threat when THEY'VE just stepped into the park. The girl to the left a pale girl with pigtails, a blue shirt with a rainbow on it and a pink skirt was reading a book, a college level book on algebra. 'What kinda nerd reads about math when they're in a park? That's a thick book too, no wonder her forehead is so big.' Branch thinks as he looks at her. The girl on the right wearing a grey shirt and black shirts, her hair dirty with bangs and a band aid on her cheek. Wearing headphones and bobbing her head to music.
The boys grin then look at each other. "Looks like we found some prime entertainment boys. What should we do first." Root says and starts planning with the boys. Then a group of kids look at them and look scared. Then they run up to the girls and start telling them something the boys can't make out. Then they leave and the girls stand up frowning. "HEY YOU THREE!"