Surviving the Andersen Brothers

Feeling Under the Weather

Charlotte jumped on my bed, excitement clear on her features. “Who?” she questioned.

I sat down on the other side of the bed and buried my head in a pillow. I groaned. Did I really have to talk about my feelings? I hardly even did that with myself!

“Is it one of the brothers?” Charlotte pushed. I made a noncommittal reply that she took as a yes. “Oh my gosh! Which one? Jacob? Zach? It’s Vincent, isn’t it?”

“No! Why would you think Vincent?” I wondered.

“I see the way he looks at you sometimes, today even when we were at lunch and he came to ask you a ‘question’ about photography class.”

“No, it’s not Vincent,” I clarified. “It’s Caleb.”

“Caleb? The one with the glasses?” I nodded. “Isn’t he the one that gave you the bruises?”

“He didn’t give me a bruise—I did that on my own.” I removed the pillow from my face to find Charlotte right on the other side. “I had my arm too close to the string.”

“Why do you like him?” she asked.

“He’s cute—in the nerdy way—he’s nice, he waited for me on the first day, I don’t know. I just like him.” She smiled at me. “Do you like anyone?

She shook her head. “No, no one. The Andersen’s aren’t really my cup of tea and there really isn’t a boy at school worth my time. I prefer to spend my time on Track and Field and school.” Charlotte flung herself back on the bed, a smile spreading across her face. “Are you going to tell him?”

“Tell him? No! No, no, no, no, no. NO!” I shoved my face back into the pillow, my cheeks reddening.

I could never form my feelings into words. I couldn’t even think about that at this point—I barely came to terms with it myself!

Charlotte laughed. “Okay, okay. So you’ll admire from afar. Chicken.”

“Damn right I am! No one is going to change that.”

“Let’s go make Jacob some soup,” Charlotte suggested.

I nodded. We stood from the bed and opened the hatch when another knocking noise was heard. It wasn’t as sharp as the knock in the hall; however, it was coming from that direction. Maybe it was the bathroom door.

The knocking stopped.

“You sure are popular today,” she commented as she followed me down the hall. We checked the bathroom door to find that there was no one on the other side.

The rapping continued.

It was coming from the hallway. The secret tunnel to Vincent’s room? I ran into the passageway, Charlotte following close behind.

“Jasmine… why is there random knocking on your wall?”

I placed my hand on the panel that led to the secret cave. “It’s not random.” I pushed on the board, opening the secret tunnel into Vincent’s face.

Vincent closed his eyes and grabbed his face, mumbling something. Gosh… I can never do right, can I?

“Oh, Vincent, are you okay?” I asked, my hands hovering over his face to help.

He brushed it off, removing his hands almost as fast as they arrived. “I’m fine, Miss Clark. I just came to tell you that it is going to be raining on Saturday.”

I nodded. “Okay…?”

“My brothers and I always play this game of Frisbee in the rain and mud. You and Miss Mathias are invited.” Vincent looked from me to Charlotte then back to me. “It will be fun.”