The Outlands

Chapter 3: Winter Bloom

                     Luke
He started his day taking a warm shower, drowning his body in hot steam until he got out to comb his golden blonde locks. His hair curled down to his chin, creating a flow all the way, throughout his head. Lukes main priority has ironically always been just his hair, buying any product that is capable of making it curly and slick throughout the entire day.
    He climbed into his car, turning on his favorite song, Should I Stay or Should I Go, a classic and favorited by almost anyone he knows.
   Luke was the oldest of the 4, starting from the 13 year old, Jackson to the twins; Steele and Lexi who were both 16 years of age and then finally himself, who was on the edge of 17, going into 18 and finally graduating when school got out next summer. He was always a highly intelligent student growing up, exceeding expectations until it came to his ADHD, which kept him from maturing throughout the years, up until now.
    Yet he was very confident in himself, he had a lot of hardships in life, including many tough breakups with past relationships, some he couldn't get over for months and more importantly the fact their blood-related mother died from childbirth, having Jackson, the youngest of the family. Their father had later remarried to a loving mother that has been with them since. Luke had made it his priority to be successful ever since the disastrous event occurred, leaving it up to his father to rebuild their family once again.
  Luke was widely known at his school, passing down the popularity to Steele and Lexi ranging from hosting parties to group hangouts and really a not so good role model for them to look up to.
   Of course though, he thought he was always a great role model to look up to and hoped that his siblings would accept his lifestyle and finally embrace it one day.
   A small hula dancer bobble head wobble up and down as Luke took advantage of the winding road, reaching speeds up to 70 due to the emptiness of the road. He was always a big car guy, repairing and fixing his cars as a full-time job.
   Both a reckless driver and an inconsiderate sibling, Luke was surprisingly successful in life, as he held onto his word throughout the years, both inside and outside of school. Unlike Steel and Lexi where they both played sports, Steele taking on baseball and football and Lexi doing both track and cheerleading, Luke was never really into sports, although he liked weight lifting and bodybuilding, sports were never made for him, though he thought.
    When he arrived at the school, he was greeted by his main friend group at the  entrance. Shivering out in the misty cold air outside, they decided to go inside where it would be warmer.
    Following behind him was Steele and Lexi, who had driven in their family's jeep to get to school, alongside with Lexi's boyfriend, Cruz. The whole school filled the hallways with chatter and laughter, giving off back-to-school vibes once again.

                     Steele
As if it was pleasing enough, Steele woke up to the bright sun, dawning over the white powdered mountains, its rays almost blinding him in the eyes. There was almost no sun all winter, only cloudiness and the winter snow all season long until this morning. The thought of now having to go to school again crushed Steele's excitement, changing to a now unsatisfied mood. As though he thought it started raining once again, he soon realized it was the shower above his room pouring down in the bathroom. The sweet aroma of pancakes and bacon flooded the house, forcing him out of bed.
     Steele quickly got dressed and folded the beanie on top of his head as he hurried down to the kitchen area next to the living room. 
     "How's my almost 17 year-olds doing this morning?" His dad said in a sarcastic tone, while flipping the delicious chocolate chip pancakes over the pan.
   But before Steele could remember that his birthday was only a week away, he turned over to the table, where Lexi and Jackson were seated. Dozens of flimsy, thick pancakes crowded their plates, glazed with large amounts of maple syrup to satisfy the taste even better.
   Lexi replied back to her father, in a complaint manner saying, "Dad, you burnt half of these." She rose up from the table and turned back into the hallway, where she exited to her bedroom in her pajamas.
   Steele grabbed her plate from the opposite end of the table and finished them off one by one until his stomach was totally filled with the dark brown pancakes, not fazed to the fact that they were burnt.
   "Good pancakes" He said, disappearing back into his bedroom. Steele took off his shirt and threw it onto the ground, his shoulder still blistered from the earlier incident that occurred a few nights ago. He changed into a baggy set of clothes, where he set off into the jeep after calling Lexi and Jackson over to head off to school.
    He's always thought since Luke wasn't such a charismatic leader between the four, he had to whether he liked it or not. He would always have to babysit Jackson and Lexi whenever his parents would head out and was assigned to taking them both to school in the jeep.
    Other than sports, mainly focusing on baseball and football, Steele was also a lifeguard during the summer, saving up for repairs on his prize possession, his own dirt bike. He liked many outside activities such as dirt biking and fishing at nearby lakes and sometimes his friends would want to go on ride outs in downtown, causing trouble with the police while they were at it.
   Steele buckled his seatbelt as he backed out from the driveway of a two story cabin, surrounded by grazes of grass and trees dead without leaves due to the winter cold. The three listened to the radio about some kind of outbreak going on recently, but they never really paid attention, distracted by the natural beauties of their hometown in Oklahoma surrounding them. Leaves drifted off into the cold breezes the wind gave off as small sprinkles of water poured through the open roof of the jeep.
    Although Steele knew he had other things going on in life, he couldn't quite get the hang of what happened the night a few days ago that had been haunting him ever since. Whether it was a coincidence or not that happened, he kept a good attitude day after day, hiding his true feelings behind his thoughts.

                         Lexi
    She woke up with an excitement on her face, knowing that she would be able to see all her friends again at school. Lexi was into student council, making announcements to the school as well as being head of making plans with the council as only a sophomore in high school.
    She headed out to eat some breakfast, slicing her knife down a mountain of pancakes as Jackson crept into the kitchen, turning on Christmas music on the miniature music radio as the song, "Let it Snow" began playing.
    "Jack, honey, it's not even Christmas time anymore, you're already missing it again?," Her mom cracked, appearing into the room with a white robe on with a pair of slides.
  "Christmas last year was boring.. we barely got ANY presents." Jackson exclaimed, his high pitch voice cracking as he spoke.
  "Yes honey," his mom replied, "We told you guys we would replace the Christmas gifts with the trip up in Colorado, remember?"
   "Whatever" Jackson spoke with annoyance in his voice, trying to find a seat at the table where Lexi was sitting.
   Steele entered into the room, his shiny golden tips of his hair, flowing past his beanie almost illuminated his head, like a light.
   Lexi was always secretly jealous of Steele's friend group, wishing she was a boy like him, but instead of them having fun with her during hangouts, they always ended up crushing over her until she got a boyfriend, ruining their chances with her.
    Every weekend, both Steele and Lexi would plan hangouts with their separate groups of friends until the boys would crash the girl hangouts with tons of practical jokes and pranks for fun sometimes. Although they all had fun together on some recent hangouts, one of Steele's friends stuck out from the rest, which later became her boyfriend as time went on.
     As Steele drove them to the school, dropping off Jackson along the way to the nearby school, Lexi had almost forgotten the feeling of summer this time of the year. The crisp cold air against the warm blazing sun pieced together to create the feeling of home altogether, alongside with a few sprinkles of rain as a refreshing addition to the weather.
   She got out of the jeep, searching around for her friend group at their usual meeting spot until she caught them waiting for her, giving signs to come over to them.
   She happily greeted them, asking about their Christmas and what happened over the break, but as soon as she was finished talking to them, an arm wrapped around her, looking back she saw her boyfriend who she had been waiting to see for a while. Lexi let out a gleaming smile and set off to class where she continued on with the rest of her day.