kids in america

Veronica & her roommates lived on the top floor of a 2 story Queenslander house in the town of Balmoral, a suburb of Brisbane. Janet was Veronica’s age, from Pennsylvania, & went to Beaver College. Uma was from Norway, definitely a little older, but she wouldn’t answer questions about her age. Another roommate, Heather, had left because she preferred everything just like it was in Texas, where she was from.

Down below lived a couple in their early 30’s from New Zealand. Olivia worked as preschool teacher down the street. She was 6 months pregnant. Leo was the manager of the local footy club. He had a motorcycle that he road to work everyday.

The girls often stayed up late listening to music, watching movies or sometimes having a small party. In a tropical climate with no air conditioning, they had the windows open most of the time. The house had no window screens so all kinds of bugs & cockroaches were always coming in. It was common for one or all of them to be screaming & running around trying to kill cockroaches with Raid.

Veronica didn’t understand why the downstairs neighbors glared at her & weren’t friendly when she said hello to them.

Early one morning, the girls woke to the sound of a motorcycle circling around the house, the engine revving over & over. It was Leo. It finally sunk in that this was the neighbors way of letting them know they had a noise complaint. Retaliation.

Veronica brought it up to her housemates that they should try to be a bit quieter at night.

It was Veronica’s 21st birthday that weekend & they had friends over before going out dancing. They were a bit loud when they got home from the pub too.

Early the next morning, there was extremely loud music coming from the downstairs neighbors. Veronica tried to make out words of the song.

She heard, “We’re the kids in America
We’re the kids in America (whoa)”

How funny & creative of Olivia & Leo! They decided to have a morning dance party stomping on the wood floor in the living room. After a few minutes the music stopped & they stopped dancing.

A week later, Veronica saw a moving truck in the driveway. Olivia was carrying boxes & looking very pregnant. V. felt terrible about the noise they’d been making.

“Can I help you with those boxes?” She said running over to Olivia.

Olivia starred at her, but then said, “Sure. Ta, mate.”

V. carried 10 boxes from a large stack in their living room to the truck. Then Leo got home & told her that he’d take it from there.

“Are you guys moving because of how loud we are?” Veronica asked.

The couple looked at each other & laughed, “No, not at all.” Leo said. “We need a bigger place for the baby. We did enjoy having a bit of fun with you girls in the mornings. We just couldn’t resist.”

“No worries.” V. said, relieved they didn’t totally hate her.

“The family that lived here before you kids moved in was much louder.” Olivia shared.

#novelpossible Mission # 6