Frenemies

13

We show Gabe to the front office, and he bounces around, looking at everything and everyone. When we get into the office, Alex produces papers from his bag and gives them to the lady at the front office. 

She notices me and her eyes turn shocked for a moment, then she goes to talk to me. Alex pushes me behind him, and stops her. "I'd like to get my brother's schedule, so we can quickly show him where to go."

The lady sounds timid. "Oh, that's fine, we'll have a student representative show him around."

Alex sighs. "I see, you don't understand that I wasn't asking. My brother's schedule, please." I hear papers shuffling, and then Gabe strides out, followed by me and Alex. His arm is behind my back, and around to my side. He's pushing me out of the office. Is he worried I'll be upset by someone asking about my family?

Gabe turns to look at us with a big smile. "Where to first?" Alex and I show him around before the first school bell rings, but I also suggest that he gets a school map from his homeroom teacher, just in case. "So we won't have lunch together?" Gabe asks, a little sad.

I shake my head, offering him a smile. "Sorry, no. Alex and I are seniors, and you're a sophomore. Our lunch blocks are at different times. Yours will be during second lunch block, and ours is during the third."

Gabe frowns slightly, but then cheers up. "Okay, well I'll see you guys after school. I'll call if I have any issues finding my way around."

Alex talks to Gabe for a couple of minutes longer about getting to the car as soon as he can, and a couple of other things like, don't get in trouble, mind your manners, other big brother things.

Eventually we separate from Gabe and I give Alex a look. "What?" He says, looking at me confused. 

"Mind your manners? Since when have you ever done that, hypocrite?" I ask, a short laugh coming out afterwards. 

Alex just ignores me and walks me to class. He ends up walking me to every class, and even walks me to the bathroom. I guess he's taking this protection thing seriously. I doubt I need it though. My brothers wouldn't necessarily try anything the first day back to school. They may glare at me from across the lunch room though. 

When we get out of school, Alex drives the three of us home, and Gabe talks about his day. "I never knew that school could be so fun. I met so many new people, and my teachers are all really nice. Everyone here seems so nice." 

I nod. "The teachers are nice. This is a pretty nice area to live in, so they don't usually have to worry about behavior issues, which makes their job easier. They get more time to enjoy teaching."

We continue to talk, and he tells me about the classes he's most excited to take. Alex stays silent the whole drive, but it's fine. Gabe and I filled in the silence just fine. 

When Alex pulls into their driveway, Gabe walks inside, but Alex stops me. "Go ahead and change into something appropriate for a workout. We're going for a run." I raise a brow at him and he gives me a smile. "I have to start somewhere with teaching you self defense, and a run is a good way to warm up." I can feel myself getting nervous. "Don't worry, I won't push you too far. Honestly, I'd rather you not have to learn this, but I'd also feel better knowing you're capable of handling yourself." 

I slowly nod and we head inside. I change rather quickly, but by the time I get to the garden entrance, where he said to meet him, he's already stretching. "So where are we running to?" I'm nervous. I've never done any kind of physical strength working out. I've run before, but what if his run is a sprint for me? 

Alex stands up straight to look at me. "Not far, just around the garden a few times, then we'll head down to the basement for your self defense classes." 

I nod and he makes me stretch with him. The smell outside is flowery, and the wind is cool. Thankfully there's shade from the trees. 

When we do start to run, I start off alright, but he said he wanted to run around the garden at least three times. I haven't even finished the first lap and I'm huffing. He's been running slightly behind me this whole time, I guess to make sure that I'm still going. I feel my legs want to stop, but then Alex starts to pass me. 

Oh, I'm no quitter, so you can forget ditching me to run by yourself. I push myself to keep running, and I even end up passing him again. Success! 

We finish up the three laps, and I'm not as exhausted as I thought I'd be. I am huffing and puffing, and out of breath, but at least I made it. Of course, Alex isn't even winded. I make a point to glare at him as he hands me a bottle of water. 

I greedily suck a third of it down. "Don't drink too fast. You'll make yourself sick." He takes a seat next to me on the bench I had plopped myself down on a bit ago. 

"Maybe it'll get me out of this training." I say in a sarcastic tone.

Alex smirks at me. "You could try, but you'd regret it." I roll my eyes. Like spending time with him is so fantastic. 

He lets me drink some more water, then we walk to the basement. It's not dark and creepy like I thought it would be. It's well lit, and there is a nice large couch in front of an equally large tv. Alex continues to walk and I follow behind him, taking note of everything down here. This place is honestly like a teenager's dream hangout space. There's air hockey, a pop bar with any kind of drink you can think of, board games, and video games. I bet Gabe has loads of fun down here.

We go through a door, and there is a gym. Not a massive one, but there are several different kinds of equipment, and there are a few people in here using it. Alex walks me over to a floor mat and stands in front of me. "I don't want to start off too difficult, so let's just start with having you hit me. I won't hit back, so just hit my hand." He holds out his palms, and I look at him skeptically. I really hope I don't miss and accidentally hit his face.

I swing to hit his hand, and it makes contact. The force behind it was so bad, and I probably couldn't have even hurt a baby with that punch. Red creeps up my cheeks as I stand there, embarrassed. Alex chuckles at my embarrassment, and I get a little angry. "I've never hit anybody before, let me try again." 

He nods and holds up his hands again, but he looks like he's ready to laugh at any moment. I take a deep breath and try to hit a bit harder this time. My fist makes contact again, and there was a bit more force, but nowhere near enough to do any damage. "It's alright, Lelia. You already told me you'd never been taught any of this, so why would I expect you to have it down immediately before I even taught you anything." He smiles at me. "My job would be too easy if you already knew everything."

We continue  for a while. Alex tells me how to stand, and how to form my fist. I learn a little bit, but my strength is still very weak. "We'll have to work more on making you stronger, so you can actually fend someone off. Let's stop for today though. You've been going for an hour now." I wipe the sweat off of my brow and grab some water, nodding. "How about tomorrow we start with some push ups, and a minute plank. You need to work on your arm strength the most. You actually did pretty well on the run, so we'll continue with three laps until it becomes too easy for you, then we'll add another lap." He grabs a towel and hands it to me. Alex is barely even sweating, although he did just stand there with his hands up and give me pointers every now and again.

"Alright." I say, taking deep breaths in through my nose. "That sounds fine." We walk back upstairs together, then go our separate ways to change before dinner.