TOBIAS IN THE HOUSE!!!

Kitchen:

What is the character’s favourite food?

Are they good at cooking? How good/bad?

Do they leave the dishes out?

What kind of food is in their refridgerator?

Do they cook, eat out or get take-away/delivered food more?

Living Room:

How does the character spend weekends?

What kind of movies does the character watch?

What do they do with friends?

What’s their favourite pasttime?

What’s their favourite TV show/Film?

Bathroom:

How does the character prepare in the morning?

Do they sing in the shower?

What kind of hair product/make-up do they use?

How clean is this character?

Does the character have thousands of shampoo/shower gel bottles by the shower, or do they use only the bare essentials?

Bedroom:

How does this character sleep? (Position, sleeping habits, bedtime routines)

What are their pyjamas like?

What do they dream about usually?

How neat/tidy is this character?

How affectionate is this character?

Attic:

What is the character afraid of?

How do they deal with bad memories?

What is this character’s role in a horror movie?

How do they hide their secrets?

This whole thing was so unfair. Of course she wanted her mom to be happy, and if her mom was happier with Jackie than with her dad, she couldn’t change that. But did they have to move out? Did they have to get a dumb, stupid, tiny house with just one room for both her and Tobias, and did they have to pretend that the four of them were magically a family now?

At least Rachel was gone. Masami felt like a jerk for thinking it, but she would have hated having to share a room with two people, especially two people who already knew each other. Sharing with just Tobias was bad enough. He wasn’t her brother. She knew that for sure. The word “brother” was reserved for boys who treated her like an actual person with feelings, boys who stopped hitting on her when she said no, boys who bothered to get to know her and have fun with her and respect her. And, to be completely honest, Masami wasn’t sure she knew any boys like that. She would call Leslie her sibling, maybe, or call Molly or Penny or Carmen her sister, but she didn’t think any boys deserved to be called her brother. Especially not Tobias.But there he was, in the bed with the better mattress because his mom got here before hers did, and technically her step-brother.

Masami didn’t mean to throw her water bottle at him. It was what her mom called “one of her things.” When she got too overwhelmed, Masami threw whatever she could get her hands on. And, God, she was overwhelmed by this whole awful thing with no more Dad, no more money, and no more personal space. So she threw her empty water bottle across the room, and it hit the wall, and then it hit Tobias in the face.

He shot up, blinking and shielding himself with one arm.

“Ow! Rachel, cut it out, I’m- oh.” Tobias fell silent as he processed his surroundings. Rachel wasn’t here, obviously. Masami had kinda figured he would be used to Rachel being gone by now. But either way, she wasn’t here, and Masami was sitting in her twin bed with her knees up and eyes open a little too wide.

“What the heck was that for?” Tobias’ voice cracked, but he wasn’t yelling.

“I didn’t mean to,” Masami protested. “Really, I just… I throw things when I’m mad.”

“Oh, and then you get whatever you want? Life’s not like that any more, Masami. Leave me alone and let me sleep.”

“No! It’s not- I’m not- I can’t help it, okay? My body just gets all this pent up energy and I can’t help it.” She stumbled through her explanation, sure it sounded like a lie.

“Whatever. Just shut up.”

Masami did feel bad for hitting him. Things really didn’t need to be any worse between them, and, no matter how much she wanted Tobias out of her life, she wasn’t the type to hurt someone unprompted. She sighed as Tobias pulled his blanket over his shoulders, turning away from her.

“I’m sorry,” she managed, just loud enough for him to hear. “Please don’t hate me.”

Tobias’ silence hung thick in the air. Oh, man, he probably does hate me. I mean, I kinda hate him, too, but still. I hate all of this. I wish I hadn’t apologised, at least then I would have the upper hand. Maybe-

“I don’t hate you. I just hate… this.”

Masami sighed with relief as she heard his response, and her chest loosened enough that she could barely feel her heartbeat anymore.

“Yeah. I hate this too.” She paused, then offered, “If you want, we can make a pact to just never talk to each other again.” 

Masami knew it was stupid as soon as the words left her mouth, but Tobias laughed a little, mistaking her awful suggestion for a joke.

“Or we could work together to make life so awful for our moms that they break up.”

“Nah, they don’t deserve that. But we could make life so awful for our dads that they get a government warrant to separate us.”

“We could take turns running away. I get the bedroom and both of our moms for two weeks, then you get them for two weeks.”

Both of them had given into laughter- quiet, restrained laughter, but laughter nonetheless.

“We could join the circus!” Masami giggled. “Our act is throwing things at each other.”

“Oh, yeah, that reminds me,” Tobias said before tossing Masami’s water bottle back across the room. “This is yours.”

The bottle landed in Masami’s lap, and she placed it on her nightstand before, completely on a whim, lobbing one of her stuffed animals in Tobias’ general direction. The little brown rabbit plopped onto his bed, and he smiled at her before throwing it back, nailing her in the chest.

“OW! You jerk!” Masami laughed, pretending to collapse from the impact.

“You messed with the wrong army, Masami. It’s all over. I have the higher ground,” Tobias said, swinging his legs out of bed and opening his sock drawer. He started improvising sound effects as he pelted Masami with socks, both of them laughing loudly and genuinely.

“It is all over,” Masami agreed, “But not for me. Don’t you see, Tobias? You’ve foolishly provided me with all your ammo!” 

She started slinging the socks back, closing her eyes to protect them from impact. Tobias wasn’t landing a single shot- odd for a kid who was so good at basketball. Masami opened her eyes to peek at him and realised why.

The door had been opened by Jackie Wilson, who had a half frustrated, half amused expression on her face.

“Look, you two, I’m glad you’re getting along, but it’s one in the morning on a school night. Clean this up and then go to sleep, okay?”

“You got it, Mom,” Tobias agreed, clearly glad he wasn’t in more trouble. Masami nodded and got up to help as Jackie closed the door and walked back to her room.

“I can’t believe she thinks we’re getting along,” Masami whispered playfully.

“Yeah, that was all out war,” Tobias quipped back, smiling.

“You’re lucky she caught us before I completely demolished you.”

“Oh, we’ll see about that. Tomorrow at recess, you’re going down.”

Masami pushed the drawer closed and climbed back into bed, some of her stuffed animals tumbling over the edge as she did.

“Whatever. G’night, loser.”

“Yeah. G’night, Salami.”

Tobias and Masami sat on their beds, not facing one another, in what they guessed was now the Wilson-Yoshida household.  Maybe not even that – would either of their moms want to change their last name?

Tobias balled up his sheets in his hands.  Come on, dude, you need to say something.  You need to say something now.

“Masami?” Tobias croaked out.  He looked over his shoulder, but Masami didn’t move from where she was staring at the wall.

“What,“  Masami said.

Just get it out.  "I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“Are you really gonna make me say it?"  That came out as more of a snap than Tobias intended.

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