Chapter 0, Tuesday (900-ish words)
Tuesday
The alarm clock didn't ring. Everyone slept in. At eight-fifty-something, Jason started rushing around grabbing his school stuff from all over the house. Emily wandered out of the kids' room after him, looking up from her phone just enough to not bump into anything on her way to the kitchen island.
Louisa, who had only just now started to make breakfast, called out to him. "You can stop that, honey, we're not going to school today."
"We're not??" Jason and Emily said at the time, in exactly opposite tones.
"You're not," Tom confirmed, entering from the hallway. "We're all going out to see our new house!"
"We're moving??" both kids shrieked.
"Do I have to change schools?" asked Jason.
"Yeah, you'll be going to Wilmington High. They're a pretty good school, actually. And their band opened for the Fray once."
"The who?"
"The Fray? Come on, I swear they were popular…" Tom grasped at straws "…During your lifetime. But anyway the new house is great, you're all gonna love it!"
"Wait, but, I have to go to school today." Jason said. "I have a, uh, test."
"I called the school, I'm sure you can take it tomorrow. Come on, it's a free day off, get hype!" Tom grinned. Jason frowned.
Emily took a picture of the chorizo Louisa was slicing and posted it with the caption: "Breakfast and my dad says we're moving??" Lily wandered into the room, still in her pajamas, and Tom started explaining to her about how although a lunch box was technically not the same thing as a pocket, it was still not a good place for worms.
"So why are we moving?" Emily asked her mom.
"So we can have a yard," Louisa said. "It'll be fun, sweetie, you'll see. Your dad will put in a treehouse for you and Lily, and I'll finally be able to grow some tomatoes, and your brother can learn to use a lawn mower!"
"Uh, that kind of sounds like a raw deal for me," said Jason.
"Oh, it just sounds that way until you see the muscles you'll get from pushing that thing around all day. Not to mention the tan! Forget football, boys who mow lawns are the real jocks."
"Mom…" Jason buried his head in his hands.
After breakfast, they all piled into the car. Tom driving; Lousia in the passenger seat; Emily in the seat behind Tom's, on her phone; Jason in the seat behind Lousia, staring out the window with his head resting against the glass; and Lily in between them in the middle seat. They headed Northeast on I-71 in fairly comfortable silence, the radio on at a moderate volume. Lousia was reading about the kids' new school district on her phone. As they journeyed from city to suburbs to slightly-more-spread-out suburbs that suddenly transitioned into farmland, the cell service indicators on everyone's phones went from 5G to 4G to one or two pitiful bars of LTE.
"Moooooom," whined Emily, "my Tiktoks aren't loading."
"I hear the window has great reception," said Louisa.
"It's boring, there's nothing but boring grass."
"There's cows sometimes!" said Lily.
"Boring cows," said Emily.
They bickered like this for a while while Jason attempted to check Isabella's feed. A few posts at least loaded their captions, but there were no photos. The most recent one said: "Can't wait for football tryouts", with a heart emoji. He stared at it for several minutes, until they hit a pothole and he nearly dropped his phone.
"Jesus," Tom cursed, "There's gotta be dirt roads smoother than this."
"Try slowing down, dear," Louisa patted his arm. They drove at about seven under the speed limit for the next few miles, then they passed a county line and the pavement got smoother.
"Hey, hey look at that, I think I see the first few houses." Tom pointed out to the right, where some half-built houses were standing, roof joists still exposed.
"We're moving into that?" Emily said incredulously. "It doesn't even have walls!"
"Daddy, I think the house forgot to get dressed this morning," said Lily.
Tom laughed. "Those ones aren't done, guys. Ours is closer to being finished, and by the time all the paperwork is done it'll be all ready." He turned onto a brand-new street and drove past about twenty or so cookie-cutter houses in varying stages of completion before pulling into a driveway that was still only paved with dirt. "Ta-daa!" He did jazz hands and got out of the car.
The house was two storeys, with vinyl siding as white as the inside of a freshly-cut apple, navy blue trim, faux-wooden faux-shutters, a two-car garage, carefully concealed gutters that could not be cleaned without the aid of a professional, and a backyard twice the size of the one in front. Everyone stared at it for a moment.
"So, like, does this thing have wi-fi?" Emily asked.
Tuesday night
One last thing. After they made the drive back to the house; while Louisa and Tom debated everything from the commute to the cabinets; while Emily sat in a five-person video call with her friends, all of them playing the same game on their phones; while Lily hid under her blanket with a flashlight, drawing pictures of horses and worms; Jason lay in bed, staring at his phone. His thumb hovered over Isabella's profile picture for a long moment. He shut his eyes, tapped it, and carefully opened them again. There was a new post. She was standing next to a senior in a varsity football jacket. His arm was around her waist. Jason gripped his phone so tightly it left an indentation on his hand.