Daniel in his suburbs 3

 

The day after, Daniel and I got up to get breakfast, we just had toasts and maple butter. It was 9 o'clock and a car was in the driveway next door. Of course, everything was quiet, after all, Damien drove 11 hours last night! We would go check this later on that day, when his sons would be up to something.

-What are your plans today, sons? Said Mom who was eating with us.

-Well, we wanted to meet Damien's sons, but they are still sleeping, I answered.

-But the Unity Center swim team is having tryouts next week, maybe we could go practice, suggested Dennis.

-I think that's a great idea. And you, mom, what are your plans?

-I think I will put a roastbeef in the oven. That way, if you want to invite Damien's sons over to eat tonight, you can.

-You're the best mom. Thanks!

Yes, she really is best.

 

Now you might wonder what is Unity Center? I think I could describe it like a mix between YMCA and youth house. It's a private club for teenagers. There is a bar in it but of course, they do not serve alcohol. There is a game room where there is a pool table, a mississippi, a bigfoot and tables with a closet full of games. If you have a band, you can rent a storage room behind to lock your instruments and use a room to practice. There is also a health center with machines, a gym with equipment and the swimming pool. There is also a space to play roller-hockey or just to do rollerblades. In winter, that space becomes an ice for hockey and skating. Unity Center is really the coolest place we know. There is even a safety guard to get troublemakers out. Mom pays 100$ a month for each of us so we can be members and it worths every penny. No smoking is allowed inside or in the entry, which is great because I hate that.

So we took our scooters and drove to Montreal. We do not live far, we are just in Westmount. We could take the subway of course, but it is funnier to drive our scooters to the Unity Center. Fill our scooters with gas is even cheaper than two subway tickets.

-Hi devil twins! said our friend Mark, who is the Unity Center clerk today. How are you?

-We are great Mark, how is the pool today?

-As empty as Bush's head, but the lifeguard is on duty. You can get in.

We changed and I noticed how tanned Dennis and I were. It was just two days after school ended and we were already brown. We putted on the speedos our team was using last year: all black and a dolphin showing teeth behind with the words "Mighty Dolphins", the name we chose.

I raced my bro to the pool and jumped in it.

-Come on Dennis, let's warm up before we practice!

Dennis and I did a few games to prepare our muscles to swim. The Unity Center pool is not one of those chlorine-smelling cocktail, it's a lot better than that. We did our lanes after and a couple of other teens joined us in the pool, two boys and four girls. After an hour of swimming, we decided we had enough and went to the dressing room. We used the dryer (like a big fan to dry your whole body) and went back home.

Once at home, Dennis said:

-Geez this practice was hard. How about we just sit on the deck and drink a milkshake?

-OK, go sit, I will set two strawberry milkshakes.

-Thanks Daniel.

It's not hard to do milkshakes: iced tea, strawberries, frozen yogurt in the mixer, add the ice cubes one by one and it is over. I brought the two milkshakes to the deck and sat there with Dennis. We have a spa on the deck, and the deck is just beside the pool. My girl friends (in two words!) and me like to dip in the spa at night and watch the stars. I never had a real girlfriend and never really wished one. I had sex several times with girls in parties and Dennis too, and sometimes we have them over to fuck, but we never really had a steady girlfriend or wished one. Freedom first!

It was noon so we had lunch and I challenged Dennis to a soccer game on the Playstation in our basement: our basement is our game room. We have our video games there (Dennis and I saved to buy in the last year a Playstation 3, a GameCube and a XBOX 360) and a pool table that came with the house. We also decided to put the computers down there. There is shelves with our Lego games (yes, sometimes we still enjoy to play with those) and our teleguided trucks. We like to read too but the books are in our bedroom. In a smaller room beside, there is a table where Dennis and I like to do our homeworks. Both Dennis and I do very well, but we asked mom to lock it for the summer to exorcise the devil of school. There is also a room in the basement with the freezers and fridges and tons of food. After the soccer game (Dennis won...) we went upstairs and I saw a young blondie in the street shooting hoops in our basket-ball net. Since I did not know him, I supposed it was the neighbour. I had an idea.

-Don't go now Dennis. I will write him a little letter and send it with my teleguided truck.

I wrote:

-Hi guy! I'm your new neighbour. Welcome! My name is Daniel and I'm 14 years old. You can use our basket-ball net anytime. Come see us inside to meet me and my brother Dennis.

I adressed the letter to "Young blond boy who shoots hoops", putted the truck outside with the letter and sent it to that boy. He did not see it right away, so I bumped his leg with the truck. He took the letter and went to our door and knocked. Dennis answered.

-Hi dude! How are you?

-I'm great. Thanks for inviting me. My name is Pietrangelo. My friend usually just call me Jell-O though.

-Jell-O? Why is that?

-I'm a gymnast and a very flexible kid.

-How old are you?

-I'm 11. Oh, hi you too! he said when he saw me.

-Hi, I'm Daniel.

-Why are you two so identical?

-Probably because we are twins. You never saw any twins?

-No, sorry.

-Come on the deck with us so we can chat and wait for your brothers to come out too.

We chatted with Jell-O for a while and he seemed like a cool kid. Jell-O was cute: shortcut blond hair, hazel eyes and a small frame. He was wearing long shorts, a basket-ball jersey with no sleeves and blue Nike sneakers. He told us his dad got transferred, how sad he was to leave Toronto and so on. He also mentioned, like we already knew, that he has two older brothers and that they are 13 and 15. Eventually, we saw them outside and sent an invitation the same way. The tallest kid picked the letter and the other kid the truck. They went to my door and said:

-Hi! My name is Francesco but you can call me just Frank. This is Esteban, my 13 years old brother.

-Hi both of you. Jell-O is with us on the deck.

-Oh you already met Jell-O? Yeah he got up before us.

I prepared more milkshakes and went on the deck.

-Are you two gymnasts too?

-No, we are more into hockey. In summer, all three of us were used to swim in a competition team.

-Cool, we do too. We swim in our private club team, maybe you can join the club too and do the tryouts next week.

-There is a private club around here? Where?

-It's not here, it's in Montreal. Tomorrow we can drive you there with our scooters.

-Frank has a scooter too, Jell-O said. Then we can all go together.

-Why did your dad got transferred? asked Dennis.

-He is a general manager and he works for a big cell phone company. His job will be to run the activities of the company in Montreal. The guy before him got on retirement.

-Oh OK.

-Boys!!!! Come help me with the grocery, the car is full!

-This is our mother. Give us a minute, we have to help with the grocery.

-We will come too, it will go faster, Esteban offered.

We all went downstairs and Jell-O said:

-Hi ma'am. I'm Pietrangelo and these are Frank and Esteban. We will help with the grocery.

-Hi boys, welcome to Westmount. Thanks.

Like usually, Mom bought enough food to feed an army. Sometimes I wonder if she wants to open a restaurant. We showed our new friends where to put the cans and the fresh stuff in the basement. When he saw the 5 freezers and the two fridges, Frank said:

-Wow, your mother seems to really like food!

-Yeah, well, I'm sure she is the grocery store best customer. Sometimes I wonder if we have more brothers hidden somewhere.

-Boys, would you like to stay for dinner? Mom said.

-That would be great, dad decided to go visit his office. He told us to order pizza.

-We will have roastbeef for dinner, I hope this is all right.

-I'm sure it's better than any pizza, Jell-O said.

During dinner, we got to know them better and Mom too. We found out that Jell-O was always excited about something, that Esteban was quiet and that Frank was talking all the time.

-Tomorrow we will bring you to the club. It is kind of expensive but it's a very great place.

-That's ok, we will pay with our credit cards.

-You guys have credit cards?

-Instead of giving us allowance, dad gives us credit cards. It's more simple, he just has to pay the bills once a month. We can spend the money like we want, but we have to pay our clothes and our school stuff with it. Dad can also check the bill to make sure we don't buy booze and cigs. Once Esteban thought it would be funny to buy cigarettes, but Dad gave him the belt for ten minutes when he saw it. He never smoked again. That's the only time Dad ever beaten one of us.

-How much is your limit on the credit card?

-300$, but we never reach it. Usually, 150$ is all we spend.

-The club costs 100$ a month but the swim team does not cost anything for the members. The hockey team is also free.

-There is a gym too there Jell-O. Maybe you could train there when school is out. Are you a swimmer too?

-I can swim but not fast like Esteban and Frank, I just swim for fun.

-That's no problem. If you want to, your brothers and you can use our pool on hot days, and our spa on cold days.

-Thanks Dennis.

-I'm Daniel, this is Dennis.

-Is there a trick to find out who is who?

-Not really, but with time you get used to it, said Mom.

We heard Damien's car in the driveway next door.

-Seems your father is home, guys, said our mother.

-Yeah. We will see you tomorrow guys, I said. Come at 9, we can go to Unity Center.

-Great! See ya! And thanks a lot for the dinner, ma'am.

-Just Dolores will do. No problem and see you three tomorrow.

We made the dishes with Mom and she commented on the boys.

-Esteban did not say much, he seems like a quiet kid.

-Yeah, maybe this is just how he is. Frank is nice too and Jell-O is funny.

-Jell-O?

-That is how his friends were used to nickname him. I think he likes it.

-I like them too, they would make good friends. Invite them over as much as you want.

 

I stop here for now, I don't wanna do too long chapters. Send me comments at imbackforgoodnow@hotmail.com See you soon!