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Job applications. Not fun. At least, not to the average person. Even looking for a job wasn’t all that fantastic. My dream job: Starbucks or working with horses or dogs. I didn’t like helping people with clothes or doing surveys or waiting on people who didn’t tip. I didn’t have a place to talk, because I was one of those people that didn’t tip. But in my defense, I was poorer than the waiters so I shouldn’t be forced to.
I let out a growl and crumbled up the application to Bath and Body and threw it at the refrigerator. I was done! I didn’t need money! I could always go into a life of crime!
“Jay!” I looked up at my friend, Katie, and smiled. She rolled her eyes and finished signing the bottom of her application. Of course, she had the patience and good handwriting to work an application. I had chicken scratch and scribbles.
“I don’t have time to work anyway. I have volleyball and in the spring I’m coaching volleyball.” I’d done almost every sport in the school except cheerleading and badminton. I was too used to tennis to do badminton and I was too fond of my voice and pride for cheerleading. There were five scholarships lined up for me because of my amazing volleyball ability. One of them was to my dream college, and I was tempted to take it blindly. My mother wouldn’t let me, though.
“You make me feel so fat.” She said, putting her hand on her stomach and slouching. I rolled my eyes and slid off the chair. Katie Schiller was the antitheses of fat. She was thinner than I was. Both of us were bordering the anorexic look, but our beauty overpowered that fact. We were both tall and fit. I had hair dark as night that was layered and barely reached past my shoulders. She had wavy blonde hair, cascading down to her waist, and bronze eyes that caught everyone’s attention. She had a little more attraction than me, but I didn’t care.
“Well, that feeling will leave after you play some soccer, right?” She sighed and agreed that soccer would probably have that affect on her. I pat her back and smiled.
I was practically the reason she a. got all her boyfriends and b. lost thirty pounds in one year. She tagged along with me, who hung out with guys and was a jock. However, I was still kind and I wasn’t completely focused on it. I had school too and my friends always came first. If Katie ever had a problem with what I did, I’d take it into consideration. And I knew better than to throw her into any baseball or track games. She didn’t mind the rest because she could play them fairly well and had a chance to impress the guys.
We grabbed our shoes and made a run for the field across the street where we both knew all the boys would be playing. Upon arrival, a ball flew past Katie’s head and she froze when she realized how close to death she was.
“Ball!” Someone yelled—late.
“Great timing too!” Katie snarled. We sat on the sidewalk and put on our shoes. There were six guys on the field and all of them our friends. All of them the school’s sweethearts.
There was Eric, Yuki, Orion, Julian, Reese, and Dex. Eric was the future homecoming king; there was no doubt about that. Yuki was the hot nerd, as everyone referred to him as. He was half Japanese and very fit. In fact, all of them had their share of time in the gym. Orion was the resident popular good-intentioned jock with the hair bordering on ‘emo’. Julian was known as Yuki’s friend and didn’t look too unlike him, but he was interesting on his own. Reese and Dex were crazy in their own unique ways. However, Reese was stylish and Dex was on the wild side of style. Eric and Dex—I wasn’t all that close to, but the other four were like second family to me.
We walked over to them and they stopped their game to put us in and just to bother us.
“You sure you want to join?” Dex asked.
“Yeah, don’t want to break a nail.” Julian sneered. I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah Julian, don’t want to ruin that pedicure you got yesterday at the Nail Salon.” Katie smirked. I raised an eyebrow at Julian and all eyes were on him. He scoffed and tossed the ball at her, walking away. That was an affirmative. All the guys howled at him and Katie and I were dancing in victory. Girls: 1. Boys: 0.
The game started and the rest of the day was spent kicking the ball, getting welts on our legs, and coming close to bone-breaking injuries. I was the goalie once, and I ran right into the pole of the goal, so I wasn’t goalie again. After many games and hours, we decided to take a break.
“There’s school tomorrow.” Katie said.
“Shut up, Kate.” Orion said. I stretched out on the bench and looked at the seven of them sitting in a circle on the ground.
“I hate soccer.” Eric said. We all looked at him. “What? It hurts! I’m a wimp.”
“Well, we knew that.” Reese drawled. “It’s homecoming week.” Katie and I groaned.
Homecoming week usually meant hell for us. Why? Because we had the school sweethearts. Sure, there were seven others on the eastern turf of the school, but the girls of the eastern turf were the ultimate bitches—they didn’t feel. Katie and I were the only girls of the western turf and we had most of the commonly sought after boys: Adam, Dex, Yuki, and Orion. Everyone saw us as the weak ones because we didn’t get into fights over the boys.
What sucked the most was that the eastern and western boys got along great. Katie and I had constant fights with Christina Pascal and Veronica Woods. There was no peace between the girls—not that I’d ever want to befriend those bitches, but it would be nice to not argue in the middle of the hall and then suffer claw marks. At least with those two, Casey White and Alina Rattanasa were the cool ones over there. They didn’t have any problems whatsoever.
Most of us were hated, some more than others, but most of the people that hated Katie and I, hated us because we had the boys. We never did anything to them like Christina and Veronica had a tendency to do.
“Yay, threatening mail…” Katie mumbled.
“Yay, death notes…” I sighed. “We should be getting paid for dealing with all of you and then having to deal with your fans. It’s like we’re your agents or baby-sitters.”
“You’re the mama.” Julian said. “You have been since Christina came up to you and you almost killed her.” I remembered that day. She was bad-mouthing my boys so I took action.
“No one talks about my friends that way.” I nodded to emphasize my point.
In all honestly, if Chris Pascal came up to me talking about how the weather sucked, I’d probably find reason to try to kill her. I hated her guts and she hated mine. We had the second biggest rivalry going in the school. The East and West keepers always had the leader that didn’t get along with the other. But never, in the history if the school, had a keeper hated a sweetheart. And I hated the favorite of the school.
And let me tell you, my fan mail was hurt by that.
“What day is tomorrow?” Katie asked. I shrugged and looked at Orion, who was always on top of school events.
“Pajama day.” He said. A broad smile crawled onto my face. I loved pajama day. Why? Because that was fifteen more minutes of sleep. Unlike some people, I actually came in my pajamas. School didn’t deserve a clothes change.
Then our attention was turned away by the bane of my existence. The eight missing sweethearts started walking towards us with Casey and Alina with them. Thank god Christina wasn’t there or else WW3 would fully commence.
“Cross!” Yuki yelled. I grinded my teeth together to get rid of the urge to kill as the boys came closer to our group.
They were all standing in front of me. Yuki and Sam did their manly handshake that Katie and I were still trying to get down. It seemed to change every time, but they never missed a beat.
“Katie, Jayden.” Sam nodded to us. Of course, respect was always paid to the keepers. Even Sam wasn’t exempt from that. Alina and Casey joined and we all nodded at each other.
“How about some soccer?” Tim asked, tossing the soccer ball in the air. Suddenly, none of the guys were tired and the challenge was on. East against the West. So far, the scores were even, sports-wise.
I made room on the bench for Alina and Casey to sit and we watched them play. Sometimes we would make fun of them and hold a conversation for all of five minutes and then it would die. Katie and I would usually try to find something interesting to stare at while Casey and Alina would usually end up staring intently at their boys. Casey was dating Tim and Alina was going out with Ron. I was completely against dating the boys. Katie wasn’t, apparently, but not many would be. Katie’s only dated two from the east side. She didn’t touch my boys.
All was peaceful until a bathroom break was called. My house was the closest and as soon as I heard the news Katie and I made a run for it. Fourteen boys running into the house was not going to make my mother happy at all. And my brothers would kill at all the testosterone in the air. They were overprotective, in case you were wondering.
I prepared them and then my boys walked into the house. Reese, Yuki, Orion, and Julian were whole-heartedly accepted by my family. Dex, Eric, and Adam, the last of my troop, were accepted—as passing visitors. My brothers didn’t like Dex or Adam and my parents thought Eric was gay and the fact that they didn’t know his preference made them confused. They didn’t like that. So they stayed away.
None of my family knew about the other seven boys. They all expected the usual seven, but not the fourteen. My mother stood in protest throwing her napkin down and just stared as all of them ran around the house, looking for a bathroom.
“Jayden!” She yelled.
“Mama, it’s… a long story.” I sighed. I looked at Katie and she nodded.
“Hi, Mr. and Mrs. De Luca!” Reese and Yuki chorused. They nodded at him and acknowledgement and then turned to me for some sort of explanation.
“They had to use the bathroom. I have the closest house.”
“Next time, go farther.” My father said, wiping his mouth on the napkin. He was completely calm about it, which was odd. He was usually the first one to ground me. Not only was I interrupting dinner, but there were boys, many of them, in my house and I didn’t tell my parents about it beforehand.
I wasn’t going to question it though. I nodded and dragged my boys into the living room. Alina and Casey followed us and apologized for their boys’ idiocy. It was easily forgiven, of course, because they weren’t the leaders and guys were dumb in general. That was why they needed us.
“This week is homecoming.” Alina said. Katie and I nodded solemnly. Homecoming and Prom week, even Turn-a-bout week, was utter hell for the keepers. There was a lot of hate mail sent during those times.
“Whoever gets the most threatening letter gets the timepiece.” Casey said. “What do you guys say?” The timepiece was a watch that had been around as long as any of the principles could remember it. It usually stuck on the east side because they were the richer ones, but since our reign, it’d been circulating sides. Instead of money, we’d use the timepiece and anyone who managed to win it had three favors on the other side before it was put in neutral territory.
“Sounds great.” I said. Katie scoffed.
“You say that because you know you’ll win.”
“Last time Veronica won.” I informed her. “I haven’t won since freshman year when I invaded the keep in the first place.”
“Whatever.” She crossed her arms. “I’m in.”
“We’ll keep this between us.” Alina stated. “Christina’s going after Sam and Veronica’s going to break up with Eric.” Oh? I needed to know this. Eric was one of mine. The both of them would have hell to pay for those actions, if not by me then by the school population. Sam was the sweetheart. Everyone wanted him and adored him. Eric was the theatre guy. Even if he wasn’t one of the most sought after, he was still very high on people’s lists.
“I see. So, what’s this about Veronica breaking up with Eric?”
“I don’t know much about it, but it seems like she’s just tired of him. And with the plays she doesn’t think that he spends enough time with her.” I rolled my eyes. She forced him to spend almost every minute with her. What could she mean by ‘not enough time’? I’d get sick of a person after so long.
“I know, but that’s how she works.” She clapped her hands and smiled. “So, they’ll win with the hate mail, undoubtedly. Let’s see who can get the most out of the four of us.”
“Deal.” Katie and I said.
Our school was shaped like a spider with a hole in the middle where there was a garden and the outdoor cafeteria for seniors that were too lazy to go get food or wanted to ditch study hall. There were sixteen wings with ten rooms in each of them. There was a second floor set up the same only without the legs. My school was weird. The architecture was odd and didn’t always make sense to me or Adam, who was in a drafting class. However, the school was standing. The gym was the head of the spider and the auditorium was the tumor coming from out of its leg.
The school was divided into the east and west for the keepers and sweethearts to gather without interruptions. My locker was deep into western territory and I liked it that way. However, to keep things peaceful, we had to have lunch together. Those were the terms of the principal. And we did have lunch—the keepers just sat the opposite ends of each other. Chris and I just needed to hear the other’s voices for the bombs to start dropping.
That was peaceful.
I opened my locker and two letters fell out of it. I looked at the first line of each and shoved them back in. Hate letters already. I grabbed the books I needed for classes and walked over to where Katie and my boys would be.
“Hey babies.” I said, walking up next to Yuki and giving him and Julian a kiss on the cheek. They hardly noticed anymore.
“Hey Jay.” They all said.
“Nice pajamas, De Luca.” Adam said, hiding a grin. I rolled my eyes and looked down at what could be funny about my sleep wear. It was a blue tank top and pants that had Jaguars written on the butt. It was school spirit with a touch of Jayden.
“Same for you, Norbut.” I shot back. He was wearing a white shirt and plaid pants. If mine was weird, so was his.
“So, who has the bio homework?” Dex asked. Most of my boys were in bio, but there were a few who weren’t. Reese and Orion were in Chemistry with me. Adam was in physics with two other sweethearts. The rest were either in environmental science or bio. I’d rather blow things up.
The five minute bell rang and that was our signal to leave. AP Chemistry was on the second floor on the opposite side of the meeting place. We walked into our class right before the one minute bell and took the usual seats. Reese sat right behind me and Orion was behind Reese. I sat next to Satan a.k.a. Sam Cross.
Cross, De Luca. C to D. I hated that. Especially in Chemistry where the teacher cared not about the people he was sitting together, but more for what was easy for him. Luckily, there weren’t that many of those kinds of classes, but it was still too much.
The class started and the teacher started lecturing. He was new, which explained why Sam and I were sitting together. The whole school and staff knew about the rivalry between us.
It was unnatural for them because, as I’ve said, never had a keeper hated a sweetheart, but it was the sad truth for this generation. No matter how much they tried, our tempers let lose and civility died. The only provocation we needed was to hear the name or be in the same room and hell would break loose. So, our sitting near each other was a death waiting to happen. Hopefully, Sam’s.
We both sat as close to the outside as we could and didn’t turn and look at each other. Somehow, we managed to pay attention to the class and take notes, but I couldn’t shake the feeling to punch a baby.
“Alright class, we have projects,” He started. Yes! “You and your lab partner will probably be working on this—” Wait, what? Did he say lab partner? For the first time since the beginning of sophomore year, Sam and I looked at each other and our mouths dropped.
“Mr. Drake!” We both stood up with our hands raised. He stopped and looked at us. He wasn’t happy with the interruption so that was a bad move on our part. But the problem needed to be fixed now, before any other plans were made.
“I know you think this is just a disagreement, but trust me. It’s not. I can’t work with this thing.” I pointed to Sam.
“Thing?” Sam said. “Drake, can’t you see that she’s blind and clearly has mental issues. She shouldn’t even be in this class!”
“Really?” He nodded, I crossed my arms. I totally belonged to that class. “No. Sit down.”
“Mr. D! Ask any of the teachers and they’ll tell you the same. I think we’ve both tried hard enough trying to keep things G-rated in here for the last few weeks, but seriously. I’m Latin. My temper can only do so much.”
“D, I already see her at school, I don’t need anymore than that. Do you ever have that fly that doesn’t go away or some kind of virus? That’s her.” I rolled my eyes. I had a stronger argument than that. He was so weak. And I was not a virus. He was the disgusting one. “And what do you mean ‘we’ve both’ been trying to keep it G-rated? You’ve been trying to get me pissed off at you.”
“This isn’t about you, Cross, so get your head out of the clouds. And I have been nothing short of civil to you even if it gives me a goddamn headache to do it.”
“Then take Advil and deal with it. Sit down, De Luca. Down, Cross.” The teacher snarled.
“No, Mr. D, they’re serious. They have the biggest rivalry going on in the school.” Yuki said. “All the teachers know about it. Even the principal does, that’s why they’re still alive.”
“I have yet to see any of this. You two have been acting normal in my class so you’re partnered up together. It’s final.” Sam and I sat down and glared. There was going to be no peace until our wants were fulfilled.
The rest of the school day went by unhappily, but not at all like Chemistry. The older teachers knew and understood. Sam and I stayed as far away from each other as possible and never said a word to each other. I liked that. I liked it even better that Christina was on the other side with him too. I wouldn’t have to deal with any of them.
After school was volleyball for me. Katie sometimes stayed and ran outside with the boys until we finished. Adam and Orion played football, Yuki and Julian played soccer. My practice was finished early because the coach had an appointment. So I walked to Katie who was on the football field, watching.
“How many hate letters have you gotten so far?” She asked as I sat down next to her. I counted them in my head,
“About six. Did you get any?”
“Like three or four.” She sighed and looked at her cell phone. “You want to go to the soccer field?”
“Why?”
“Because football players don’t take off their shirts.” I looked at her and smirked. Indeed, the football players did not take off their shirts. She smiled knowingly and we made our way to the soccer field, where most of the boys were, in fact, not wearing shirts. We looked around for Christina, but she wasn’t there. We took that as a good sign and settled down into the bleachers.
There were some boys that were off-limits to our eyes on the soccer team, but I wouldn’t want to look at them in the first place. There were still others though, like Jeremy Cozzone. In my opinion, he outshined the looks of the sweethearts, but he wasn’t golden boy or popular enough to qualify for it.
“So, I heard that you and Cross got assigned as a group.” Katie started.
“Don’t remind me. And don’t tell anyone. It could mean my death. Not only do I hate him, but he lives probably two blocks from me and now, he’ll be working on a project with me. Christina’s going to hate that.”
“She really will, especially since she’s after him.” Then she laughed. “I still don’t understand why you two hate each other so much.”
“Well, that’s a secret I share with the bitches and the bastard.” She wasn’t at school when the drama happened.
“Are you going to homecoming?”
“Do I have a choice?” There was no doubt that one of my boys would be crowned king. As the leading keeper, I’d have to crown them. It was a retarded tradition. Usually the keepers where part of the homecoming court, but a lot of people hated me. Some liked me, but a lot hated me. Katie would probably be part of court.
“If Sam gets crowned king, Christina’s going to make her move then. The school will hate her more than they hate you. You’ll look like an angel.” I smiled.
“Good. I think I might go then. But that’s if Cross is crowned. There’s no doubt in my mind that one of my boys is going to be the king. I mean, come on. We have Yuki and Orion. Not only that, but we have Dex too. Then there’s Adam and Julian.”
“But they have Sam.”
“I know, but he’s an ass. I’m one of the nicer keepers and he’s a sweet-talking player that doesn’t give a shit about his girls. How can people like that and hate me?”
“You don’t have a six-pack or biceps of the manly sort. If it’s any consolation, guys think you’re hot.”
“Thanks, that doesn’t make me feel better. I have enough guys to last me until I’m out of school.”
She leaned in close to my ear, “There’s a difference between having your guy-friends and having a boyfriend.” I rolled my eyes and pushed her face away. I knew the difference. I knew it painfully so. And there was a guy floating around in my head, but he’d never actually met me so my chances were minimized.
Soccer finished and the boys walked off the field and into the locker rooms. We trailed behind with Yuki and Julian. Katie and I stayed a safe distance away. They were smelly and sweaty. We smelled like roses and didn’t have sweat glands. Orion and Adam were already in the locker rooms so they’d be out before the soccer boys, which meant less time alone.
“So, what are you doing tomorrow?”
“Nothing, there’s no practice.”
“Good, because Jackie, Anna, and I are going to Chicago for dresses. You want to come? We could really use your blunt honesty.”
“Sure. I can be girly.”
“I know. Maybe you can get a dress there.”
“Or not. I’m not rich.” All of the people that were going to Chicago were rich. They had daddy’s credit card and mommy’s orders to buy designer. So they could spend whatever they wanted on a dress, I had to go to the mall and find out what was on sale. It wasn’t as fun as Chicago.
“You don’t have to be rich to go to Chicago. It’ll be fun.”
“Don’t Jackie and Anna usually like to have their dresses picked at least a month in advance?” I turned to her and raised an eyebrow.
“Usually. But there’s a first time for everything.” She shrugged and we turned when we heard our names being called. We waved to the poms that passed us and some came over to talk. I was in poms once, freshman year and half of sophomore year, before I dropped out of it. My volleyball coach had more feelings than the poms coach.
The poms were all nice and they liked me. I didn’t know why because I was the last one to learn the dances and the last one to make it to practice. I was the one that constantly lost part of the uniform or the poms. They must have been entertained by that.
“Where are your boys?” Ashley asked, looking around.
“They’re taking their sweet ass time in the locker room.” I rolled my eyes. “And girls take too long.”
“I know, right?” Roxy asked. “My boyfriend complains about how much time I take in the bathroom and then after his practice he takes a half an hour to get out.”
“Who’s your boyfriend?” Katie asked with a sly smile on her face.
“Robbie Myers.”
“I knew it!” Katie jumped up and did a victory dance. Nothing screamed composure like doing a victory dance like a gorilla. Everyone in the area turned to her and started laughing when they saw her dance. My friends were such interesting creatures. That was the future of America, ladies and gentlemen.
“Ignoring my friend back there, when did that happen?” I asked.
“Not that long ago. It was the beginning of the year. He’s so sweet.”
“Aw…” I turned to see what Katie was doing, but she disappeared. “I’ll see you guys later. I have to find my minion.” I set out to find her and got as far as the parking lot before I was almost mowed over by a car. Again. Someone grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of the way.
That was worse than hate mail.
“Oh my god.” I breathed. The arms let me go and I turned to see who saved me. Jeremy Cozzone. The fates were smiling down at me. For payback from the near death experience.
“Are you okay?” He asked, flicking his black hair out of his eyes.
“Yeah, thank you.” I smiled. He held his hand out.
“Jeremy.” I took it and found that he had calloused hands. I could tell he played the guitar. He had those kinds of hands.
“Jayden. Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.” I felt like I stepped out of a corny movie. A smile spread and I shook my head slightly to clear it. “What?”
“I feel like I stepped out of a cheesy movie.” He laughed and agreed. It didn’t escape my notice that he was still holding my hand and when I looked down at it, he immediately let go.
“So, I’ll see you around.” He said. I nodded and we both walked away. Score for me. Now we had introductions and I wouldn’t look like a freak going, ‘hi Jeremy’ when I passed him in the hallway. He, apparently, didn’t know who I was… which was odd within itself. But it didn’t matter because it would be less awkward for me, especially since he saved my life, to go up to him and start a conversation, which could lead to things. I liked that.
I found Katie by her car with Yuki, Julian, Orion, and Adam. They all left me! And they all managed to get past me in less than a minute too. Being a keeper taught me one thing: I could never have children—I’d always lose them at the store.
“Jeez, thanks for getting me.” I glared at all of them before leaned against Katie’s car. “I almost died back there. A car tried to run me down.”
“But that’s how it is every year.” Adam said. I stuck my tongue out at him. “At least you’re not Veronica who has to get walked to her car by one of us. Even better that you’re not Christina who can’t park her car in the parking lot.”
“Okay, fine.” The two of them did have it worse than I did. In fact, compared to them, my life was a walk in heaven. Even then, it was getting better. The year before, I’d gotten fifteen notes at the end of the first day. I only had six this time. My popularity must have been growing or people realized that I was not ever going to go after my boys.
We split up and climbed into my car and set my ipod up to play. I had the tendency to blast my stereo louder than the average blaster in my car. I could barely hear myself talking when I was listening to my music. Once I was out on the road, I turned it down to a humane level, but parking lots were the breeding place for it.
So it took me a good ten minutes to realize that someone was knocking on my window. All I saw was a tan jacket and half of a butt pressed up against my window. I turned down the music and the person turned to reveal Sam. Politics forbade me to ignore him. As a keeper, I still had to listen if he had anything to say about my boys.
“Can I help you?” I asked, loudly. My ears were ringing from the music and he jumped back at my volume.
“Yeah, can you keep it down?”
“No.”
“We need to work on the Chemistry project.” Of course. The hellish project that Drake forced on the two most incompatible students in the school. I didn’t even remember what it was.
“Today?”
“I have a game tomorrow. The rest of the week I’m busy and then it would be two days until Wednesday. If we start today, then it’s less time we have to spend together.” I sighed and looked forward. He had a point.
“Fine. Just give me a half an hour to tell my parents you’re coming.” He nodded and backed away from my car. I rolled up the window and turned the music higher and started out of the parking lot. I didn’t even have time to prepare for the visits to finish the project. Hell, I didn’t even know what the project was.
I arrived at my house and walked in. The whole first floor was clean and spotless. We had two dogs and two cats, but no one could tell because it smelled so good and the carpet was stainless. My mother was a clean freak. My father let her do what she wanted to the house as long as she didn’t pain anything all girly.
When I walked in, my dogs greeted me and I pet them. My little brother was watching TV on the couch. I was guessing my other brothers were up in their disaster areas a.k.a. their rooms.
“Where’s mama?” I asked Joel, the ten year old.
“She’s sleeping upstairs.” I nodded and went up to my room. I couldn’t wake her up because she was worse than anyone else in the house about that. Once, she slapped my father and left a bruise on his face.
My room was messy. Not like my brother’s but it wasn’t at all like the first floor. My bed was unmade and pushed against the far wall. My fan had a bunch of beads hanging from it because I didn’t know where else to put them. There were piles of clothes scattered around the floor. There was a pile of dirty clothes and a basket of clean clothes that I had to put away. My desk was next to my bed and the rolling chair was in the middle of the room. My closet wasn’t organized whatsoever, but I didn’t mind that too much. I could still find my way around. The walls in my room were sky blue and the carpet was beige. There was a huge set of windows in the middle of the wall to my right and I could climb out and sit on the roof. It was the only source of light in my room besides the light bulb. I loved my room.
I threw my backpack on the bed and switched into my house socks then went downstairs to grab some food. My oldest brother, Robbie, was in the kitchen. He was finishing his last year of college and was moving out soon, and then Joel would stop bothering everyone about how he didn’t have his own room. I didn’t know why Rob didn’t move out anyway. He had enough money for it.
“Hey, Jay.” He said without looking up. I didn’t have the manly stomp the belonged to everyone else in the house.
“Hi.” I opened the refrigerator and took out a slice of leftover pizza and a coke. “I’m having someone over today to work on a project.”
“Dad’s not gonna like that.”
“I know. But it’s homecoming week.” He smiled. Robbie used to be a sweetheart in high school. Two of my other brothers were sweethearts. No one remembered Robbie though. He chose to ignore that fact frequently.
“Well, let’s hope he gets home late. I’m sure mom wouldn’t mind if it was just one person.” I nodded and opened the can.
“I almost got hit by a car today.”
“Really? Again?” I nodded.
“But I was saved.”
“Unfortunately.”
“You are so mean to me. What would you do without me, Robbie?”
“Do you really want me to answer that?” I rolled my eyes and the doorbell rang. I sighed and walked over to answer it. It had been a while since anyone in my house had seen Sam for more than five minutes. Hugo would have killed him on sight. Maybe it wasn’t such a wise idea for him to come to my house.
I opened the door and Sam stood there, leaning against the doorframe. I let him in and walked to the kitchen. Joel didn’t remember him, thank god. Robert did and they did the handshake. It killed me to see Sam do that with my brother. Maybe having Hugo wouldn’t have been a bad idea…
“Do you want something to drink?” I asked.
“What do you have?” Usually the answer was no.
“A lot of things.” I opened the fridge and called out the different drinks we had. He picked coke and I tossed a can at him.
“Where’s Hugo?” I asked. Sam froze for two seconds and I was tempted to smile, but that could be confused with other things.
“He’s out with Tommy.”
“When’ll he be back?”
“I don’t know. What’s with all the questions?”
“I’m merely curious about my family. Is it a crime to care?” I grabbed my coke and went upstairs to grab my backpack. When I got back down to the living room, Sam was already sitting on the ground and taking out information. Even if we weren’t mortal enemies, they picked the wrong people to be together. I was the biggest procrastinator known to mankind and Sam wasn’t. He liked things done so he could move on.
I sat down away from him and pretended to look like I knew what I was doing. How could I forget what I was supposed to do with a project? Must have been psychological. Many people push traumatic experiences out of their memories. Didn’t Drake hand us a sheet with the project on it? What kind of a teacher was he? Who sends students out with no guidelines? No wonder he was new. He must have failed teaching school three times over.
I needed to stop being retarded.
“You don’t know what the project is, do you?” He asked.
“I know perfectly well what the project is.” I was a horrible liar. But my pride was on the line so maybe I could pull it off.
“Fine.” Hugo needed to get home sooner and kill his ass. “So, what do think we should do?” Why couldn’t I do bio? Or even physics? I had to do the ‘happy’ medium. Screw that. I needed to drop out of that class.
“It’s up to you.” I mumbled. I shut my binder and looked at him.
“You have no idea. We have to do a presentation on PCBs and answer the questions that go along. Here’s the information.” He handed me a piece of notebook paper and I grabbed it before looking back at my binder. Well, I was paying attention in class alright. I took better notes than he did. I was expecting a piece of paper, not notes.
“Okay, then that should be hard.” Except I hated presentations.
“If we split this up, then we won’t have to see each other until Tuesday to put it all together and work on the presentation. So which part do you want to take?” I looked over the question and requirements and realized that the project wasn’t necessarily hard. I didn’t care what part I got as long as I wasn’t doing most of it.
“I’ll do… the first part.” He nodded and I closed my notebook. That was it then. “Alright, lovely having you here. You know the way out.” He sent me a disgusted look, which I didn’t deserve, and got ready to leave.
I heard the front door open and didn’t think much about it. He didn’t either.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
Shit. Hugo.