Things are strange now that Seth has moved in. Seth is… Well, I wish I didn’t have to talk about Seth, but he’s a part of our lives for the time being so I have to. My mum met Seth on the internet earlier this year. A couple of weeks ago, completely unexpectedly, he told her he was going to be in town in December and he needed somewhere to stay. She said it would be lovely to spend time with him, oh and by the way, we can clear our basement out and would he like to stay there for a few weeks? Of course, he said yes. So for the past couple of weeks, Mum has been cleaning the basement out. I refused to help at first because I didn’t think it was a good plan to invite a complete stranger into your home, but she bribed me with extra pocket money and chocolate. No one can resist money and chocolate.
Seth came on Friday night and Mum has spent the weekend with him, but I have tried to avoid him. I spent Saturday at Tammy’s house and Pippa was sent to one of her friend’s houses so Mum could have some time alone with Seth, and then Pippa and I spend Sundays with Dad anyway.
Seth arrived at our house on Friday night in a limousine. Yes, a limo. A sleek, black, shiny limo. At first I thought there was someone important coming, but it was only Seth and he was just the driver. Pippa wanted to have a look inside but he wouldn’t let her in case she got it dirty when he’d just had it cleaned. Seth says he’s a chauffeur for a very important man and that his boss is coming to town for the month of December. I asked him who his boss was but he wouldn’t say. This morning when I was having my cornflakes for breakfast, Seth was standing in the kitchen dressed in a vest and jeans (A vest! In December!) And I asked him when he was going to work and he said his boss hadn’t arrived yet so he didn’t have to work today. It all sounds a bit fishy if you ask me. I tried to talk to Mum, but she has the googley eyes for Seth and won’t hear a bad word about him.
Dad, however, flipped his lid. When Mum told him that her boyfriend was temporarily moving in, Dad went totally mental. He yelled and screamed at her about how could she trust someone she’d never even met, and that this man could be a serial killer or a rapist or worse. How dare she bring him into a house with two young children, and that he was going to call his solicitor and see what he could do about this. Mum insisted that he was a perfectly normal human being (I’m pretty sure that Seth has way more nose hair than a normal human being) and that she knew him and trusted him after months of online conversations. Besides, it was only temporary as Seth and his boss would be leaving after Christmas. Dad stormed out in a temper and slammed the front door so hard that all the windows rattled in their frames.
It isn’t fair that Dad is living across town and working all hours of the day and night to pay for a flat which smells worse and is smaller than an actual rabbit hutch, while this stranger has been installed in our basement which is bigger and much cosier than Dad’s flat. Dad was mad and I was mad, and Dad phoned Mum later with a few conditions—the main one being that Pippa and I are never allowed to be left alone in the house with Seth. Dad says that if Mum does that he’s taking her to court and getting custody of us. Although I don’t think that’s very likely because when all three of us are in Dad’s flat you have to breathe in to walk past each other.
Mum said that it could be difficult as Seth doesn’t work any set hours and only goes to work when his boss wants him so she doesn’t know if he’ll be in the house or not when I come home from school. Dad said that he doesn’t want us left with Seth for even a second, and Mum got really mad and started yelling into the phone that we’re his kids too and if he cares so much he should take us. Which, apart from making me feel really wanted, made Pippa cry because she doesn’t like it when our parents fight.
Pippa wasn’t a problem as she stays after school until Mum comes home anyway. I, however, was a problem. So instead of my peaceful afternoons coming home from school and watching TV on my own, now I have to walk over to the mall where Dad works and spend a couple of hours with him instead of going home when Seth might be there. It’s an okay solution as I’m not very comfortable with Seth around anyway even when I’m not on my own.
I like the shopping centre where Dad works. I like watching his CCTV cameras. I have to go straight to his office, which is an awesome office—floors above the main mall floor, so you can look down out of his darkened windows and watch all the people milling around below and it feels kind of powerful because they don’t know they’re being watched. Dad says I have to sit there quietly and do my homework because he’s working and he’s not supposed to be distracted. But as long as I’m mature enough to sit there calmly and not cause any disruptions, his boss won’t mind him having his daughter in work with him. Pippa is too young to come, she’d just get bored and run around screaming or changing the channels on Dad’s CCTV screen. She’s tried before, Dad got really mad.
So now I get to go hang out with Dad for a couple of hours after school every day and he’ll drop me off at home when he finishes his shift and make sure that someone besides Seth is in. It’s not the worst solution they could’ve found, I suppose. When Dad first said that I couldn’t go home on my own anymore while Seth was around, I half expected them to book a babysitter or something, which is downright embarrassing for someone my age. But I like being home alone and I don’t like Seth and it’s not fair that he has stolen my house, even if it is only temporary. And it is only temporary because I have a new mission in life. I’m going to get rid of Seth. I am. I mean, I’m not going to kill him or anything like that, but I figure it can’t be that hard to drive him away. He’s only staying for a bit. If I annoy him enough, he’ll get fed up and go to stay in a hotel.
Besides, how am I ever going to get Mum and Dad back together if Seth is in the way? Mum can’t have a boyfriend. She simply can’t. Dad is totally refusing to come in the house right now because he says if he sees Seth, he’ll deck him. And they’d been making so much progress recently. There was that one civilised conversation and they even smiled at each other while they were talking once. So I think there’s hope. I think that they can go back to how they used to be. They just need a push in the right direction. And Seth is a push in the very, very wrong direction, so he needs to go. I know they still love each other. They were a happy couple. We were a happy family. Everything just bubbled along nicely until suddenly it didn’t anymore. The rug has been pulled from under my feet. Everything is swirling around and suddenly Dad is gone and Seth is in his place, and I have to stop the swirling and get Seth out and Dad back where he belongs, and it’s nearly Christmas. I can’t have Christmas with my family torn apart like this. Christmas is a warm, fun, and happy time meant for families. Not Seth. It’s my absolute favourite time of year, and I simply refuse to spend a Christmas with my life in pieces like this. I have to get my family back together again, and the magic in the air at Christmas time is going to help me.