A/N: The title was supposed to be a cute little placeholder so that I could title the document while I thought of a real title. It stuck.

Summary: John can't see spirits if they're trying to hide from him, but he can feel them almost all the time. At five years old, John, his parents, older sister, and Roxanne the family dog make a move into a new house, but John doesn't like the room at the end of the hall that he gets a bad feeling from, or the person that walks around at night and makes Roxanne growl.

This is also posted on my tumblr and ao3.

John was just starting to get to the point where he didn't want to sit in his seat anymore when they drove into their new neighborhood. They'd been driving for several hours, long enough that they'd already stopped for lunch, which had been fun, but since then they'd been driving long enough that John was tired. His older sister, Rachel, was too, though she hadn't fallen asleep, which wasn't good because when she was tired but not sleeping she got cranky. She wasn't fun when she got cranky.

He was starting to get cranky too, even though he'd slept for a while after lunch. He was tired of sitting, and his back hurt, and their dog, Roxanne, had woken back up and was breathing dog breath in his face. He loved Roxanne a lot: she slept in his bed with him, and had ever since he was old enough for a big boy bed, and she didn't chew up his toys or his books, and she licked his face and made him laugh; but her dog breath was gross.

He didn't want to move. He liked their old house, with the big old tree in the backyard that had a tire swing on it, their happy yellow kitchen where Mom always made breakfast, and the park that was close to the house, and his room with the blue walls and the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling and the window sill where he put his dinosaurs when he wasn't playing with them… Mom said that he could still put his stars on the ceiling in his new room, and they could even paint the room blue like his old one, and there would still be a window sill for his dinosaurs, and if they didn't like the color of the new kitchen, then they could paint it the same yellow as the old one; and Dad said that there was a tree in the new back yard that he could put up a tire swing on, and that there was a park just a short walk away from the new house too… and that was nice, but it wasn't the same. Rachel was upset about having to leave her friends more than anything, even though she'd been told a million times that they were only a phone call away and that they could come and stay during school breaks, but she said it wasn't the same either. John, being four years old, didn't have very many friends; he played with kids in the park, but they only saw each other sometimes, and some of Rachel's friends had younger siblings, but they were either older than him and so sometimes didn't like playing the same games he did, or they were younger than him and too young for him to play with; he had friends in his Sunday school class at church too, but they didn't live near each other, and so they only saw each other once a week… so he didn't think that he felt as bad about moving as Rachel did, but he still didn't like it.

"Kids, look, we're on our street!" Mom said excitedly as Dad turned the car. John didn't see the street sign, the car had been moving too fast for him to look, but before he could ask, Rachel spoke up:

"What's our house number?"

"1313!"

"What's our street?" John asked.

"Hidden Street," they all answered him at the same time.

"Can I take off my seatbelt?" John asked, "I can't see very well."

"Not right now, John, we're still driving."

"I can't see the houses," he did his best to not sound like he was whining. Whining was against the rules, especially on car rides.

"We can go on a walk later, John. You can see the houses then."

"Okay."

He tried not to squirm, but he was tired of sitting! He wanted to see the other houses in the neighborhood, and he couldn't see anything but the roofs or second stories… and then he couldn't see anything when Roxanne got up and stood over him so she could see out the window.

"Roxanne!"

She licked his face.

After a minute or two, Dad pulled into the driveway, stopping once he was all the way in rather than going all the way to the garage, which was behind the house.

"That's our house?" he couldn't tell if Rachel meant it in a good way or a bad way.

"I wanna see!" he tried to get his seatbelt off, the house was on his side, and he could see the roof, but Roxanne was in the way.

"Everyone out of the car!" Dad sounded excited.

John waited while Dad opened the back door on John's side. Roxanne sat down on him, her tail thumping eagerly against the seat back.

"Good girl," Dad told her while he put on her collar and leash, and then put her down on the driveway, slipping her leash over his wrist while he helped John out of the car. "Careful, John, the driveway is steep."

"Okay," John nodded, stretching his arms high over his head as he turned around and got his first look of the house.

The house was big! It was blue with white trim, and it had two stories, where their old house only had one, and the tree in the backyard was so big that John could still see it from the side of the house. The porch wrapped almost all the way around the house, John couldn't see the other side, but on the driveway side, it stopped when it hit the garage.

"It's so big!" John said excitedly, and Roxanne barked.

"Do you two like it?" Mom asked them.

"Yeah!" John said excitedly, turning back around briefly to get Bunny, his stuffed rabbit, out of the car.

"It's so much bigger than our old house! Yeah, I like it, it's cute," Rachel nodded.

"Well, come on, let's go see the inside!"

John held onto his dad's hand as they walked across the lawn, and up the porch steps. John knew the movers had come already; they'd packed up most of their stuff several days earlier, and the movers had come and put it in their big truck, and Dad had gone with them to move all the big stuff to the new house. All that was in the car now was their suitcases, and the things they'd been using for the last few days when they'd been staying at grandma and grandpa's house. So he wasn't surprised with all the boxes in the house, but he looked around in awe at the house itself.

The inside was big too! What Mom had called the entryway had a ceiling that went all the way to the second floor, with a light hanging all the way down so that it wasn't very far above the door, and there was a big window and a shelf above the door so that the whole front part of the house was lit up and bright even without the light on. The stairs to the second floor were to the left of the door, and there was a big room with their dining table, chairs, and the cabinet that his mom kept their nice dishes in, as well as a few boxes already in it. The second floor hallway had railings on both sides so that it was open between the living room and the entryway. There was a hallway on the first floor too, but John's dad led him through it to the living room.

"Wow," Rachel said as she looked around the living room.

The ceiling was high too, and it was so big and bright! John let go of his dad's hand and walked forward, looking up at the windows and the rock that went up the wall where the fire place chimney did.

"Oof!" and he promptly ran into the couch and stumbled back a few feet, falling down lightly.

"Oh no!" Dad laughed and picked him up, standing him back up on his feet, "watch where you're going, John! Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he nodded. His tailbone hurt, but not badly at all. "I forgot about the couch."

They walked from the living room into the part of the kitchen where their family table was (Mom said it was called a breakfast nook, but he thought it was kinda big) and Dad pointed to where the washer and dryer were, and the garage, but they didn't go in. They walked into the kitchen, which was green not yellow, but John didn't mind. It was a nice green.

"Do you want to see Mom and Dad's bedroom before we go upstairs?"

"Yeah!" John nodded eagerly.

"Sure," Rachel nodded.

They walked through the hall, and before they went in Mom and Dad's bedroom, they showed them where the downstairs toilet was.

"Is this your bathroom?" John asked them.

"No, we have a bathroom in our room," Mom laughed.

"Then why are there two downstairs?"

Rachel answered him: "so that when people come over they don't have to use Mom and Dad's bathroom."

John nodded, that made sense. They hadn't had a bathroom like that in their old house; anyone who came over just used his and Rachel's bathroom.

They looked around Mom and Dad's bedroom, it was a big bedroom, with a big closet that they could walk all the way in to, and a large bathroom with a bathtub AND a shower.

"Okay, who wants to go upstairs and pick out their bedrooms?" Mom asked.

"I do!" John and Rachel cried excitedly, dashing out of the bedroom and up the stairs.

"I get to pick first, I'm older!" Rachel said loudly as they ran up the stairs.

John didn't think that was fair, but Rachel was older, so maybe there was some "new house" code that she knew about and he didn't.

"Okay, but no take-backs!"

"We put your boxes and furniture in rooms already, but we can always move it!" Dad called up the stairs after them; Mom and Dad following behind them, but walking.

"Okay!" they nodded.

There were three bedrooms upstairs, one on the stair side, and two on the other side, on either side of the upstairs bathroom.

Rachel went into the one on the stair side first. "It's so big!" she laughed, spinning around in the empty room. "It's so much bigger than our rooms at our old house!"

John followed her in, but stopped just inside the door. It was a big room, a lot bigger than his at the old house, and it was cool, with a double window on one wall, and a long nook with another window on the wall at the front of the house. But it felt bad. He didn't know why, but it felt bad. He didn't like it.

He ran out of the room, across the hall, and felt good again.

"Wait for me! I get to pick first!" Rachel called after him, and followed behind.

The bathroom was nice, not very big, but it wasn't small either, and he and Rachel could have their own sink. The room to the left had one double window that faced the side of the neighbors house, and Dad had had all of Rachel's stuff put in it. The room to the right was a little bit smaller, but it had two windows, a double one that faced the side, and a single one that faced the front with a window seat, and all of John's stuff was in it.

"I want this one," Rachel said in her bossy big sister voice.

John pouted and crossed his arms over his chest, hugging Bunny, who was still in his arms in the process; he liked this room and all his stuff was in it already! But Rachel had called picking first.

Mom and Dad were watching them from the doorway.

"Really, Ray?" Mom looked surprised, "we thought you'd like the other room better, it's bigger."

"But this one has more windows! And the closet is bigger. And John said I could pick first!"

John opened his mouth, he didn't say anything… but then he closed it again, and nodded. He had said 'no take-backs' which meant the same thing. He was still pouting, though.

Mom looked at Dad, who nodded.

"Come on, Rachel," Dad said, "come help me get the rest of the stuff out of the car. We'll move the furniture when we get it all in."

"Okay!" Rachel said happily, and bounded out of the room after Dad.

Mom waited until Rachel was down the stairs, and then came in the room, and gave John a hug. "You like this room too, don't you?"

John nodded, and tears started welling up in his eyes, and he hugged Mom tighter, "'s not fair!"

"I know, sweetie," she said as she rubbed his back. "But guess what?"

"What?"

"She's not going to want this room forever. We might start setting everything up and she might realize that she doesn't like the way her furniture goes, or she might decide after she's been in here a while that it's too bright, or when she gets older, she might decide she likes the room across the hall, or she might ask to trade rooms."

"But she knows I like this one better, so she won't."

"She won't do that!" Mom shook her head. "And guess what?"

"What?"

"She's older than you, so that means she'll go to college sooner. And you can always get her to trade rooms when she goes to college."

John knew that it would be a long, long, time before Rachel went to college, but it would be even longer before he did, and he nodded, "okay, Mamma."

"Oh, you're such a sweet boy," she hugged him tight. "Guess what? We can have whatever you want for dinner tonight. And you have all the way until dinnertime to think about it."

"Do we have to go out to eat? Or do we have to stay here and eat?"

"Since we don't have everything unpacked, it would be easier to go out and eat, but we can always unpack the kitchen really quickly, okay?"

"Okay," he nodded.

She dried his eyes off with her sleeve, and stood up, "let's go help Dad and Rachel get everything out of the car, okay? And then you can take Roxanne out in the backyard and let her go potty."

John nodded, and held Mom's hand as she walked him out of the room, down the hall, and down the stairs.

It didn't take very long to get everything out of the car, and pretty soon John was in the backyard with Roxanne while Mom, Dad, and Rachel moved the furniture and boxes around. He'd found Roxanne's ball when they took everything out of the car, and brought it with them outside. He'd looked around while Roxanne "did her business" as Mom always said, and then threw the ball for her.

"Get it, Roxanne!" he laughed as he threw it. He couldn't throw very far, but that never stopped her from running after it like she did whenever Dad threw it.

The yard wasn't big, but it wasn't small either, about as big as their yard at the old house. And when Dad put up a tire swing in the tree like he said he would, it would be perfect. Roxanne barked happily, running around the yard after the ball and bringing it back; and licking his face whenever he pet her and told her she did good.

The sun was starting to go down when Mom came outside.

"Are you two ready to come in? We finished moving everything."

"Yeah! Come on, Roxanne!" John called her, and laughed when she found the ball first before running back to the porch and up the stairs to the back door, staying next to him.

"Come show me where you want your furniture to go," Mom said, and John followed her upstairs, Roxanne in tow. "Dad wants to go ahead and move it, and once we find a spot for your bed, I can put all the sheets on!"

John looked into the room next to the stairs, and suddenly felt a little scared. He didn't like that room, not at all. And now that the sun was going down, it looked scary. He looked down at Roxanne; she was staring into the room like he was, her ears forward, and she was starting to crouch down, her lip starting to raise…

"Come on, you two!" Roxanne and John both snapped out of it at the same time, hurrying after Mom down the hallway and into John's new bedroom.