Her big brothers

Chapter 10: cole

Narrators POV
"Is Emma ready? We need to leave in about five minutes," Alex enquired Noah, glancing at his watch.

"I'll go see if she's ready. I had to wake her up twice and she looked pretty sleepy, but she did get up. I'll go check" replied Noah, putting his coffee mug down and heading up the stairs to check on Emma.

Noah knocked on her door. "Emma, are you ready? You need to leave now" he asked her, still outside. "Is she still asleep or something?" He thought to himself, now entering his little sister's room, only to find her fast asleep.

"Emma!" He shouted, walking towards her bed and shaking her arm. "I've woken you up twice already, you need to leave!"

Emma sat up slowly, not realising Alex was already waiting for her in the limo.
"Give me a few minutes" she muttered slowly to her very annoyed big brother.

"That's it!" Noah said, yanking her out of bed by her arm. He stood her up and gave her a
couple of very hard smacks on her bum then pointed to the direction of her bathroom.

"Hurry up Emma, Alex is waiting!"

"Oww," she whined rubbing her butt, and quickly going to the bathroom. Was every morning
after school started gonna be like this?

She quickly showered and brushed her teeth, put some clothes on and rushed down the stairs, carrying a small comb in her hand. Noah was waiting for her at the bottom of the staircase, not looking so happy.

"Get into the limo, Alex is already waiting," he said, opening the front door for her.

She rushed out the door and had a glance at her watch, it was 6:40 already! They were meant to be at the school by 6:30!

She quickly opened the limo door and hopped in, only to see a very angry Alex next to her.
"What took you so long missy? I've been waiting here for 15 minutes! And Noah already woke you up twice!" He scolded her.

"I fell back asleep, I just woke up and got ready, I'm sorry" she apologised, worried he was going to punish her.

He sighed. "I'm not sure why you had trouble waking up, Noah woke you up twice and I sent you to bed at 10:30- wait, when did you fall asleep young lady?" He questioned her, glaring at her slightly.

"I did! I slept at 10:30, I promise! It took awhile but the latest I fell asleep was probably 11, but not later than that" she lied to him, hoping she sounded convincing enough.

He raised an eyebrow at her response, not knowing whether she was telling the truth or not.

"Fine, I believe you, but if I find out that you were lying, you're in big trouble." He threatened her, not dropping his glare.

She gave him a cheesy grin, hoping that would help her case, but he just shook his head and sighed. "I doubt they'll even let us in, they told us to come by 6:30" Alex said, mostly to himself.

Emma quickly combed her hair and tied it in a ponytail before they reached.

They reached the school and Alex grabbed Emma's hand and they ran inside the school, to the office. "Woah," Emma thought. "This place is posh!"

Alex started talking to the lady by the front desk. "I'm so sorry we're late, can we still finish registering?"

The lady sighed. "We were just about to close up since it's already past 6:45, but since you're here we might as well get everything done."

Both Alex and Emma sighed in relief. The lady handed Alex a couple of papers which he filled in, then slid it to Emma. "Sign here and there" he showed her.

She quickly scribbled out her signature, still groggy and wanting to go home already.

"Alrighty Emma Smith, you're all set," the lady said, filing the papers and smiling at Emma.

"Your school photograph will be taken on Monday, the first-day school reopens, so make sure to look presentable." She nodded at the lady.

Alex shot her a look for not thanking the lady, but Emma didn't notice.

"Also you have some worksheets you need to do before you come, it's just a recap of what you learnt last year. You have a few worksheets per subject, please finish and submit them the Monday you start school" the lady added, rummaging through her drawer, then plopping the stack of papers on the desk.

Emma groaned at the sight of homework, and the amount of it.
After they talked for a couple of minutes, Alex and Emma left.

They reached the limo and got in when Alex got a phone call.

"Hey, what's wro- you are? Already? Okay okay, don't worry I'm coming bud, bye" Alex ended the call and told the driver to make a detour to the train station.

What's wrong, why are we going to the train station?" Emma asked puzzled.

"It's Cole, they've come back early, he called me to tell me he's gonna reach the station in about 30 mins. Luckily we'll reach there at about the same time" Alex told her, sitting back in his seat.

"Oh..alright" Emma responded, but she was nervous, why now? She was sleepy and felt
horrible, well now due to the panic of the sudden news, she wasn't so sleepy anymore.

The 30 minutes quickly went by, and they were at the station. Alex hopped out, and Emma slid out the same door. She stood beside him, and he squeezed her hand, as he could feel the nervousness radiating off of her.

A couple of minutes later, they saw a boy approaching them, it was Cole! Emma recognised him from the photo.

He came forward and Alex took his bags from him and gave him a quick hug. "Did you have a good time? We missed you"
Cole murmured an answer then he turned to look at Emma.

He smiled at her. "hey Emma! Welcome back, sorry I wasn't here when you arrived. I've been waiting to come home since you arrived, but I'm here now!" He said gleefully, giving her a quick hug, which she reciprocated.

"Thanks, Cole, it's alright, I've been waiting to see you too!" She responded, a bit relieved now that she'd met her youngest older brother.

"Come on then, let's get in the car it's pretty cold," Alex said, moving to the car.
Once they were in, Alex asked Cole why they came early.

"Ah well last night, the train we had for tomorrow was cancelled but luckily there was one for today, so the counsellors booked the tickets," Cole explained to Alex.

"Why didn't you call earlier though?" Emma asked him, confused why he chose to call Alex at the very last second.

"Oh, we aren't allowed our phones, and there were a lot of kids' parents they had to call, by the time it got to me, we were 30 minutes away," Cole told her.
The rest of the car ride, Cole and Emma were talking about the school they were going to.

"Don't worry Emma, you'll like it there. I've been going since I was a kid. They are really really strict though, about attendance, about grades, and you aren't allowed to use your phone, if you do, you get it confiscated." Cole explained rolling his eyes at the last part.

"Ugh, no phones? How am I gonna live without my phone for 7 hours?"

Now Alex was the one to roll his eyes. "You can survive without your phone for a few hours Emma, don't be so dramatic"

Cole grinned and then whispered to her, "But a lot of kids, including me, use our phones, and as long as you're careful you won't get caught. You can do it too, I won't tell." He told her with a wink.

She grinned back at him, glad he wasn't as uptight as the rest of their brothers.