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Chapter 1: Welcome to Springtime Hills

I gripped the steering wheel gently as I guided my car along the winding roads of the pristine greenish foothills that were in plain view. It had been hours since I had left from home. I could still smell my mom's cooking and hear the stories my dad used to tell. I started to get misty eyed before I said to myself, "Stop that. You are a big girl now and you have to let it all go."

THUD.

The road I was driving on was bumpier than what I was used to, I could feel all the boxes of my stuff shake. I had packed a lot of my things in my car, mostly my collection of books and my collection of scented candles, but other odds and ends as well. Two boxes were stacked on top of each other behind my seat, which was probably not a good idea. Another large box sat in the passenger's seat.

THUD.

Another bump. Sure enough, that damn box in the back hit me in the back of my head from behind. It hurt quite a bit, but at least I was almost at my destination from what the GPS on my phone displayed. I let go of the steering wheel with my left paw to caress the exact spot the box hit on my head. Instead, for some reason, my left paw landed on my big, floppy left ear. I hate my ears. They always make me look clumsy, They are nothing but a pain in the ass when it's windy. My dad said I always tripped over them when I was a newborn puppy and could only walk on all fours instead of on two legs like everyone should. I managed to rustle the fur on the spot that the box hit my head. It seemed to soothe it, but I knew it wouldn't last.

A couple more hours passed, with one trip to the gas station where I got to stretch my legs, too. But soon, I found myself at my destination, Springtime Hills. I pulled up to the large brown check-in gate. It almost looked like a house and there was a trough of white and pink flowers underneath the receptionist window. A vixen with a pink blouse came up to the window.

"Hi, welcome to Springtime Hills! How can I help you?"

I wondered if they really do say that 24/7, but now was not the time to ask.

"Yes," I replied, "My name is Pilar Spanner and I am checking in to live here. I paid online ahead of time."

She turned around and started quickly typing on a computer.

"What was your name again?" she asked.

"Pilar Spanner," I said again.

"Did you say pillar?"

I can't stand when they say that. "No, Pilar. It's like Pillar but with one L instead of two."

She continued to type.

"And you are a Cocker Spaniel?" she asked.

"Yes," I replied.

"Oh! Here you are! You are in the Z - Court, house number 11."

She handed me my keys.

"Enjoy your new life!" she said with a smile.

"Thank you very much!" I said, smiling back.

I drove on. Springtime Hills appeared to be a very peaceful private village, but it looked like every other subdivision I had ever seen. It really wasn't what I had in mind, but it was fine nonetheless. I passed a sign that had a big letter "A" on it. Assuming that Z - Court was at the very end of the road, I groaned. I still had a bit of a ways to drive, and my butt was asleep. After I had went through the entire alphabet, I finally had arrived at Z - Court. I made a right into the court, and saw a white house with a red roof that had a gold number one on it. "Great," I thought, "looks like I'll have to learn my numbers today, too." I kept driving and had passed 6 and 7, and then some woods and saw house 9. Wait, what? Where was 8? I decided that it didn't matter and parked at house number 11. I looked at my keys. There was only a single 1 but there was a clear space for another 1. Maybe it was scratched off.

I exited the car and felt a slight pain in my lower back, and then my feet started to hurt. House number 11 looked to be pretty small, but not too bad. I decided to start unpacking right away and opened the back door of my car. I scratched an itchy spot on my light green blouse and put the house keys in my back jean pocket on the left side. I saw the box that hit me in the back of the head, labeled "Pilar's Keepsakes". I smiled, grabbed the box, shut and locked the door and started lugging the box up the sidewalk to the house. As I reached the porch, the door swung open. Standing in the doorway was a tall male Siberian Husky wearing jeans and a T-Shirt that read "SupernaturalCON XVI". I nearly dropped the box. Did that vixen give me the wrong address?! "Hey!" he said, "who are you?"

I wanted to sink into the sidewalk. "Um...I'm Pilar Spanner, and I just moved into this Z - Court in Springtime Hills."

He laughed in a very high pitch.

"Here we go again," he laughed, "that vixen can't tell an address from a zip code."

"Okay," I said, "so now what do I do?"

"No worries," he said, "you only just live next door in house number 12."

What a relief.

"Here," he said, walking down the porch steps, "let me help you with that."

"Thanks!" I said, smiling as he picked up the box. We started walking to my house next door.

"So," he said, "watcha got in there?"

"Personal keepsakes," I said.

"Oh...can I see them?"

"Sorry," I said as I gave him a look, "they're kind of personal."

Boy, was this guy weird. Who asks about someone's personal belongings like that? By shooting him that look I could see that he had a high, broad defining forehead. And he sure was eccentric about meeting me.

"Oh, my apologies," he said, "I'm just interested is all. But that's fine."

At that moment we got to my new house. I opened the door. The house was completely barren.

"Yup," said the husky, "this place has been abandoned for a long time until they recently refurbished it so that someone can live here. I really like places that are abandoned. Tons of supernatural stuff happens in abandoned places."

I set down my stuff near the door. "I guessed that you liked that kind of stuff by looking at your t-shirt," I said.

"Oh!" he said excitedly, "you know about SupernaturalCON?"

"Sorry," I replied, "I don't go to conventions, too crowded." "Oh...that's cool. What do you like to do?"

"Me? I dunno I guess I do like the supernatural. I just wouldn't go to a convention about it."

"Cool! Looks like we have something in common! Well, I'd better get going back to my house, but next time you can tell me all about it!"

He extended his right paw to me. "My name's Andy, by the way. It was nice talking to you, Pilar!"

I shook his paw.

"Yeah, sure, that sounds like fun, Andy! Thanks for welcoming me to Springtime Hills!"

"No problem," he replied, "but before I forget there's a Springtime Hills app on smartphones. Download it and search Z - Court. We are all on there. It's the best way to communicate around here, but you can use the phonebook to call us by landline too."

"I'd rather use the app," I said, "thanks for the info!"

"No problem," he said as he walked away, "see you around!"

He sure was helpful, but something worried me about him. He was certainly nosy and he was just very strange. Maybe he'd prove to be a bit more bearable next time. After I had moved my car and moved all the boxes into the house, I knew that a lot of work had to be done. After all, the website said that this was a "do it yourself" house, and the moving truck would arrive tomorrow.

I decided to explore my new blank house. It was a bit larger than Andy's house, thankfully. I never wanted a small house but not a big one either, so this was just right. Although a lot of work was ahead, I felt very comfortable. I was now a resident of Springtime Hills.