9 Chapter-9: Meeting the Neighbors

Jim exited his house, strolling down the road inside the community, observing various people. One thing was for sure: whenever the social butterfly with him went, they were warmly welcomed. Jim, once a loner before the sudden memory gain, remained unfamiliar with the people here. Meanwhile, Gia, the social dynamo she was, explored every nook of the colony, extending greetings to everyone. She even shared tales about some pretty sisters she had encountered.

Gia, a cheerful little girl, had a knack for making everyone smile with her antics, nature, or how she carried herself. Everyone was delighted to be around her. She took full advantage of her charm, making everyone familiar with Jim, especially the girls in the community. While they might only acknowledge her information about him, Jim thought many girls in the area now knew him.

As for why she did this, we need to go back a few days, near the start of the month. So, let's see it unfold:

"Jimmy, so, any friends you got in this new school?" Mom asked.

"Yes, Mom. There's a kid, his name is Thomas, a nice guy. Some people were making trouble with him, and I intervened. So now we are friends. We don't know each other that much, but of all the people I've met, he's the person I would call a friend," Jim explained. He detailed the school situation, clarifying that Thomas wasn't being bullied, just caught in an unnecessary situation. Jim's intervention helped Thomas, and their friendship grew quickly.

"Well, that's that, but when are you going to get a girlfriend? You know, everyone should try to have a relationship during these years. It's a time to enjoy life; just don't do something stupid, and everything's good," his mom advised.

Just then, our house's princess entered, having overheard the discussion about getting a girlfriend and, well, for a moment, Jim felt relieved that she changed the topic to mom trying to explain what a girlfriend is.

Gia asked, "Mommy what is a girlfriend."

"Oh, ..... ('thinking the way to reply')", took 5 minutes to come up with an answer, "Hmmm... it's your brother getting a person he can talk to, enjoy his time, and talk about things like a family, little princess," said mom with much effort.

But, then we saw Gia's face transform into thinking mode, then to sadness as she asked mom, "Jimmy doesn't love me? Why does he want a new family? I will be a good girl; don't find a new family, brother," she said, looking like she was going to cry.

Jim took her in a hug and tried to explain that what mom was saying is basically friends, but like, best friends in kid's language, and with very much difficulty and her crying a little, she finally understood.

While he was panicking, trying to explain, he saw mom looking at them amused and recording the unfolding conversation to put this scene in her cute moment folder on her laptop and most likely her chat group for everyone to see the cute situation of their little hamster misunderstanding the whole thing.

Finally, mom came to his rescue and said, "Well, Gia, best friends can be many, but a girlfriend can be only one girl as she will be a little special, and at your brother's age, many already have a girlfriend."

"Mommy, who's your girlfriend?" Gia asked, and Jim nearly laughed out loud but controlled it as now it was his turn to see mom panicking. She glared at him with a "how dare you" expression, but she handled it quickly by clarifying while not explaining,

"No one, baby, and that's not how it works, but now I am hungry, so who wants to eat ice cream," said mom, diverting the hamster's attention with food. Nice save, mom, Jim thought, giving her an impressed look and a thumbs up.

Well, that was quite a mistake, as now many girls of Jim's age know of him in this community because of their little adventurer who, in her little adventures in the community, had spread his legends to the girls.

As he remembered the conversation, he saw a boy coming from the house opposite their house, two houses left to the house opposite to them.

Felt like the kid was going somewhere and looked quite sad and familiar too. But, he didn't pay attention to familiarity and was just going to ask, but Gia was first as she asked, "Oh, Brother Luke, what happened to you, why are you sad."

Well, she knew him, and Jim should have known because of her being a social butterfly, but let's focus on the kid first. "Uh, yeah, kid, what happened? Do you want any help?"

"My mom and dad went out, and I am now stuck outside of the house. I don't know where should I go," said the kid named Luke.

"Oh, well, we are also having a tour of the area. If you want, you can come with us," Jim said as he offered a walk with him around the community, and as it seems Gia knows them, then there won't be a problem.

Luke seemed to hesitate, and Jim thought it might be because of him being a stranger; the kid doesn't want to go with them. Just as he was about to voice his opinion that they can just move around here near his house so he can see it from his view, Gia came to the rescue.

"Hmm Hmmm, Luke, you should come with us," and after saying this, she became excited suddenly,

"We can give advice to my brother Jimmy on his story and get him to write our name in the end. I saw how they give credits in the movies too, right?" As she neared this line, she was overly excited and started talking to him like they were going to plan some big heist, and by this time Luke has also forgotten about his home and his worries. So, Jim didn't think much; at least, he wasn't the one who looked like a person who would kidnap a kid with some candies, while he must say Gia did just something similar to that unconsciously with this kid.

But, he felt like Luke is a quite innocent kid and a little in his zone too, to get going with a stranger.

Well, after that, Jim got to know about him and his family, and as he got to know the name of his family members, he suddenly remembered that jogging couple in the morning he met one time in the colony, and also the series 'Modern family.' Everything clicked, and he now knows that this world is not different in just world history but has some things different too, like the whole people of a series living in reality here.

He remembered the system said everything, but about magic and fantasy. So, he can conclude no Harry Potter and Voldemort will be here. Thinking about it sounded too hard, so he just resumed what he was doing, that is walking around the colony, so he did just that.

During their walk, the kiddos constantly shared opinions about what story of theirs he should add, and they told him many, some even Tom and Jerry ones, but they just shared the exact same one in the cartoon.

So, Jim told them to give him a story together or separately in 2 days after some research; research can be asking their parents about wholesome and caring moments about their lives or any person they know with a girl they like as a friend, for kids to understand. If he liked it, he would put it in his novel, as he got to know that she told Luke about the novel when they were playing in Luke's house when Ava, Jim's mom, got to meet Luke's parents or their neighbors.

Gia wanted to look cool, proving that girls could be awesome too, especially in front of Luke as he opened up about how his sister teased him, emphasizing their talent for teasing and girls having a talent only on that. Gia shared bits about my novel and told him some stories from it, getting Luke hooked. This sparked a friendly rivalry between them, both aiming for a spot on the honor list in my novel, as Luke had caught wind of it from his sisters.

After our one-hour stroll in the community, we neared Lucas and our home. A couple, Phil and Claire, were desperately searching for their son, calling out his name. At first, there was concern seeing Luke with a stranger, but as Gia, my sister, cheerfully waved at them, their worry melted away. A lightbulb moment hit them as they realized I was her brother.

"Buddy, sorry we were late," said Phil.

"Oh, thank god you are alright, I was worried sick," said Claire, as I know their name.

As we neared, the couple turned to Jim and thanked him and Gia, as she proudly said, "No problem" to them, and introduced themselves as he did so too. They invited us to their home, but Jim told them that he and Gia have to go home or his mom would be worried, as brother and sister went to their home.