Her big brothers

Chapter 51: denial

"Hey, guys!" Aiden says from the couch as we enter the house. "How was school?"
I smile. He's feeling much better about Chloe. He still misses her a lot, I can tell. But he isn't miserable anymore, and I'm glad. I missed him.

"It was good," I say, as I drop my backpack on the floor and plop on the couch next to him. I lean into him and he kisses my forehead as I keep my head on his chest.

"Boring as usual," Cole says, shrugging. He tries to go up the stairs, but Liam came down just then and stopped him.

"Nuh-uh. Did you get your test back?" Liam asks, crossing his arms and raising a brow.
Cole chuckles nervously. "About that" he starts, but Liam shook his head and held out his hand.
Cole rolled his eyes and unzipped his backpack and handed Liam the folded paper.

Liam unfolded it and sighed disappointedly. "A C-? Again?"

Cole shrugged. "I tried my best."
Liam chuckled darkly and put the test paper on the counter. "No, you didn't. You haven't been trying at all. You don't need to get As, but you should at least put effort into what you're doing. Studying a day before a test isn't 'your best', it's being lazy" Liam scolds him, directing him towards the couch next to us.

"That's bullshit! I'm not lazy, the stuff is just boring" he retorted.
Liam silently glared at him, daring him to mouth off some more. Just then, Noah walked through the door. He saw Liam towering over Cole, glaring at him, and Cole glaring back and pouting at the same time. He sighed dramatically and put his keys in the little china bowl we have by the door. "What's going on?"

"Tell him Cole" Liam says, taking hold of Cole's shoulders and turning him towards Noah.
Cole rolled his eyes and put his arms up in surrender mockingly as he faced Noah. "Liam here is being a drama queen because I got a bad grade"

"I wasn't being a drama queen. I told you that you have to work harder, that's all" Liam replies, shaking his head. He's clearly losing his patience.

"How much did you get?" Noah asks.
"A C-" Cole muttered.
Noah gave him a look and walked over to the counter and picked his paper up, and skimmed through it.

"Cole, this is fairly easy. It doesn't look like you even tried" Noah says. "You need to up your game, you can't study a few hours before a test and expect to get a good grade"

"I have been studying longer now, but it's just so hard," Cole says.

Noah scratches his head. "I know you didn't want this, but since your grades aren't improving and you aren't wanting us to help you, we'll hire a tutor"

"No way!" Cole protests immediately.
"Why not? You said it yourself that even though you're studying that it's hard" Liam asked.
"It's embarrassing" he mumbled.

"Wanna go upstairs?" Aiden asked me, sensing that the argument was about to get very heated.
I snuggle closer to him. "Nah, this is fun to watch"
He rolls his eyes playfully but doesn't say anything.

"What's so embarrassing about wanting to do better at school?" Noah asked.
He rolled his eyes. "You don't get it. You don't need to hire a tutor. I'll just study more" he grumbled, moving out of Noah's way and going up the stairs.

"We aren't done talking young man!" Noah shouted as Cole was about to enter his room.
"Well too bad because I am!" He yelled and slammed the door. Uh oh.

Noah rubs his forehead. "That boy" he mutters angrily under his breath. "I'm going to go talk to him," he says, turning towards the staircase.

"You should probably do more than just talk" Liam grumbles.
"Oh yeah, I need a permission slip signed for the field trip next week," I say, getting up and grabbing my bag. Noah walks towards me as I rummage through it and find the paper. I wasn't too keen on going because it was only to a boring museum, but we get extra credit.