Formaldehyde

Chapter 5

Nick's point of view:

I strolled into our flat when suddenly Kat did a flop of a ninja jump down the stairs.

“HI NICK THE NUCLEAR NINJA!” She yelled even though I was a few metres away. 

‘That could be my new alias as a ninja’ I thought. Not wanting to appear grateful I muttered under my breath and flipped her off. ‘Nick the Nuclear Ninja, it had a nice ring to it.’

“Charmin’, bloody charmin’!” She said insulted as I went to make us both coffee. “There’s no coffee, I spent  all my money paying off our bills.” She informed me with a weary tone. I instantly felt bad. I don’t have a job since Dad always encouraged to me to train instead. “Go get Mel. I think I have enough points to buy us a subway and a coffee each.” I dashed off to find Mel. She was probably hiding in her nerd cave making more hair dye gases. She went to the kitchen while I hung back to examine her equipment. It aways fascinated me. Once when I was a kid I snuck down here to see if I could make myself have super powers by drinking some of the chemicals. Mel was so mad and it just got worse after I threw up on her shoes. Chemicals can do that to a kid. Remembering I shouldn’t be in there without Mel or she’ll destroy me, I turn to leave.. Yea, right, I’m a ninja. Still, I walked up the stairs only to hear Mel yell

“You’re just jealous that you don’t have one!” I knew instantly that we had gone onto the touchy subject of boyfriends. Kat didn’t have much time for dating with her busy job. But then Mel didn’t have one either. I rushed in to defend my sister.

“Mel, that’s not funny. That’s pretty sad.” She rushed past me to get back to her evil lab. “Ignore her Kat. I’ll come with you.” I handed her a tissue because girls need those things a lot. She did that funny feeble nose sniff thing while she rubbed her eyes. Now was the time to ask. “Actually, do you think you could do me a favour?”

“Yeah, what is it Nick?”

“I want to dye my hair black again.”

“No! It looks awesome as neon green! It draws attention to you and it makes you stand out as a ninja, you survived the day at college, didn’t you?” She asked with a smile. A bit of my smugness started to seep through.

“I got Vanessa’s number.” I grinned.

“See. Green hair’s a good thing!”

“But your pink hair was epic!” I protested half-heartedly. I think I might stick with my green hair for a while.

“But I was still in compulsory education where we had a dress code of no dyed hair. They didn’t believe about Mel, so I had to dye it. Anyway, are we going for food or what?” Kat stood up and walked out the door, grabbing her purse. I followed her feeling like a lap dog and we started the great adventure for food.

While we eat me and Kat have really long conversations. We discuss everything. We pretty much see eye to eye on everything but Mel. Kat tells me that I shouldn’t have favourites but I think she is secretly pleased that from a young age I always declared I loved her more. On the way home I asked her with my sweetest voice

“Pretty please may I get a eyebrow piercing?” This is a ritual of ours. She always says no because she thinks I’ll let it get infected. One day she may say yes.

“No, you’ll get an infection.” She says like normal. I sighed. Today wasn’t the day.

As went entered the flat Kat went go beg Mel for some money to buy coffee before heading off to her fencing lessons. Suddenly Kat rushed past me.

“Kat? What are you doing?”

“Fencing is in half an hour and I can’t find any of my kit and I don’t have the money to hire it again!” She yelled, frantically searching. I sighed.

“KAT! HAVE YOU LOOKED IN THE SPORT ROOM?” Normally I hate yelling but sometimes I lose control and do it.

Dad wanted all his kids to be sporty but Mel never tried that hard. Kat tried out for fencing and really took to it. I tried it out but decided I wanted to learn how to use throwing knives and stars. I also learnt how to use throwing needles and a samurai sword. I take my training super seriously. I keep all my weapons in my room in proper cases. I promised mum I would never take them outside because if I got caught I could get arrested.

Since it was just me and Mel at home I went into the sports room to work out. Most of the stuff in there is dad’s and Kat’s. I have to keep my machines and equipment in my room because there’s no room. All my mates feel sorry for me since my sisters are spoilt. I like my sisters getting treated like queens. They deserve it. They adored me when I was a baby. I was like a toy baby for them that would never break or wear out. I probably relished the attention. Pretty soon Melanie got bored of me and my boyish ways. I know Kat never stopped loving me. I guess Melanie loves me and Kat in her own way.