Chapter Two

A door burst open as the person standing in front of it turned the handle and kicked it. Kei tossed her backpack inside the door and stepped inside, shutting the door with her foot. She walked into the living room and dropped to the couch, groaning in exhaustion. That was the last time that she stayed up late before a school day.

She closed her eyes, ready to take a nap. Just as she was drifting off a loud bang caused her senses to come back to her. She was vaguely aware of a loud yelling before there was a heavy and sudden pressure on her back. Kei's breath escaped her in a loud wheeze as her ten year old brother hurled himself onto her back.

She was barely aware of it as she grabbed the pillow and threw it over her head, smacking him in the forehead.

"Trevor! You asshole!" she yelled. "Get off of me!" He jumped up and laughed. Kei turned over slowly and glared up at him.

"How can you be so energetic after your first day of school when you were up as late as I was?" she asked him, her eyebrows raised.

"Easy, I eat healthy things for breakfast," he said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Yeah, healthy things like Cocoa Puffs doused in sugar," she groaned, rolling back over.

"When are you gonna make dinner?" he asked, still standing in front of her.

"I dunno when's mom getting back?" she asked, her voice muffled as she buried her face in a pillow. Trevor didn't answer for a moment.

"Who knows," he said finally. "You know how she is."

Kei did know how she was, so much that she knew that her mom would be out on a date tonight. She was out on a date almost every night, and every night with a new guy. Her mother certainly didn't have trouble getting the guys, that was for sure.

She remembered one time, for her eleventh birthday, her mother had stumbled into the house, two hours late for the party. All of her friends had been there at the time and had seen her mother drunk, making out with a guy as she walked, or rather, tumbled inside the house. It had been mortifying as the guy had thrown a temper at seeing the girls there.

"What's this?" he had screamed. "You said that you didn't have kids!" Her mother had giggled and tugged him inside the house, motioning for Kei and her brother to go away. She had felt like hiding in a cave and never coming out at that point. Then her mother had proceeded to have sex in her bedroom while everybody was still there. Kei had never had a birthday party again after that.

She had become pregnant with Kei when she was sixteen years old. Kei, now fifteen, had never met her dad, and was probably glad for it. Trevor was only her half brother, the after affects of one of her mother's wild nights out. She had basically raised Trevor without much of her mother's help, and the only help offered from their mom was money.

Kei leapt up off the couch and walked to the kitchen to prepare their dinner. She would do anything to take her mind off of it.

"Come on," she called to Trevor. "Help me peel these potatoes." Trevor walked into the kitchen, dragging his feet.

"Do I have to?" he whined, not that he really cared about having to help, he just wanted to give her a hard time.

"Yup."

Jake walked inside of his house and headed directly to his room, locking the door behind him. He sat down on his bed and ran his hands through his short, brown hair. The first day of school ended how it usually did, but something was slightly different. Something had been tugging at the back of his mind on his walk home. It was that Kayla girl.

She had seemed friendly enough, but then again, people always did at first. They would seem like they wanted to be his friend, but then he would find out that they really just wanted to tease him, or have him do their homework. He sighed and was just about to lie back on his bed when there was a soft knocking on his door.

"Jake? Honey? How was school."

He felt the urge to hide in his closet. The last thing that he needed was his inquisitive mother nagging him about making friends. He stood up and walked to the door, opening it a crack.

"It was fine," he said, peering at her through the crack. His mother nodded and looked away.

"Did you make any friends?" she asked.

Jake felt his temper flare, but cooled it quickly. "No I didn't. You should know that by now, I never will." He shut the door and walked over to his bed, dropping down onto it. He heard his mom begin to walk away quietly, pretending that she hadn't just heard what he'd said. She always did that. His mom was what some people would call…….. Mentally unstable.

He'd noticed it when he was younger: the way that she would act really weird sometimes and not even notice him. She would wander around the house, not knowing where she was. Sometimes she would accuse him of trying to kill her. At the age of eight he'd figured out what was wrong with her. She had schizophrenia.

Jake rolled over onto his side. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Reminiscing wouldn't help him. He closed his eyes and let himself drift off to sleep, odd dreams haunting him.