Worth it.

"I'm no beauty queen, I'm just beautiful me." -Selena Gomez.

I laughed under my breath as my little brother hit ball after ball and the other team stood and stared. Everyone knew he was the best batter, runner, pitcher, catcher, even umpire, the town had ever had. He could almost make up an entire baseball team himself.

I drew in a breath sharply as an unknown stranger sat next to me. I couldn't turn my head to see, or the person would see my face. I kept quiet and watched the game, now distracted.

I had just fallen back into the game when a deep masculine voice jolted me out of my mentally cheering my brother on.

"Good game, isn't it?"

I froze. What do I do? If I speak I might set up a conversation. Conversation leads to friends, friends leads to him wanting to see my face. I settled on a nod after five minutes of him being in awkward silence, and mine frantic. He seemed pleased that I had at least answered with that simple gesture, because he spoke again.

"Who are you here to watch?"

I stretched my hand out and pointed toward my brother, who immediately looked up and frowned, confused when he saw my finger. Then his gaze shifted toward the figure next to me and looked even more puzzled. He looked like he wanted to go up and see what was going on, but knew he had to finish the game. The guy next to me shifted.

"Boyfriend?"

I decided to answer this time seeing as he was striking up a conversation anyway.

"Brother"

I corrected. He shifted again, obviously surprised I was talking.

"Oh. Cool."

I nodded.

"You do know who I am, right?"

I shook my head, mystified.

He cleared his throat. "I'm Isaac Thorn."

I racked my brain but the name didn't ring a bell. I didn't get to know any of the kids at school anyway... I just stuck with my sister and ignored everyone else.

"Never heard of you."

This obviously surprised him a lot, probably one of those popular bad boys with a big head. Typical.

"Really... Weird. Who are you?"

I debated whether or not to answer. Names didn't do much, except in case of stalking on the Internet. Ah, who am I kidding. If he is a popular boy, why on earth would he try to stalk someone like me? I don't even know why he's wasting his time talking to me.

"Zoe. Zoe Flame."

"Ah. So what are-"

He was cut off abruptly by my brother coming up because the game had ended. He glared at Isaac. "What are you doing here, Thorn? You can't terrorize my sister like you do the girls at school. Leave her alone."

Isaac huffed. "I wasn't doing anything, Flame. No need to get your panties in a twist."

My brother scoffed. "Come on Zo, lets get out of here." I got up to go, but turned slowly facing Isaac. I pulled my hoodie tighter around my face, before saying, "Bye, Isaac. See you later."

I could practically hear him grinning, my brother had a look of disgust.

"Bye, Zoe. See you around."

I smiled a little and walked off, my brother following closely behind me.

When we were safely out of earshot, my brother pulled me to the side of the sidewalk and looked me in eyes.

"What were you doing talking to Isaac Thorn? Did you let him see your face?"

I rolled my eyes and pulled away from him, walking towards the car once again.

"No, Noah. I had my hood up the whole time, you saw. And he sat next to me and started talking. Geez, what are you, mom? How do you know him anyway?"

He sighed. "I'm sorry Zo, it's just that he's the one of the biggest jerks in school. I'm surprised you haven't heard of him."

I was surprised at this. "Really? Is he a player?"

He shook his head. "No, which is what is surprising. He's never been with a girl as far as we all know. He would fit the player position though."

I pondered this for a few minutes before asking, "what does he look like? I didn't see, I was too busy keeping my own face away."

Noah shrugged. "No one knows for sure. He always wears sunglasses and a hood. Kinda like you, but I'm sure he doesn't have the same reason you do."

I nodded. "D-do you think he's blind?"

Noah shook his head. "Definitely not. He's actually a pretty good student, reads his papers well enough, does things... Well, he can see."

We had reached the car, so we got in, and I started backing out.

Noah pouted.

"Why can't I drive? I'm old enough!"

I grinned. "Cuz this is my car, and you're my baby brother."

He protested loudly, but I just laughed and shook my head.

When we got home, before I got out of the car, Noah put his hand on my shoulder.

"Don't get mixed up with Isaac, Zo. It's a bad idea."

I shook him off. "I do what I want, baby bro."

He glowered at me. "I'm only three years younger!"

We went inside to see my mom cooking dinner. "Hey kids! How was the game?"

I walked into the kitchen and took off my sweater. "Awesome as usual, Noah beat the pants off the other team."

My mom grinned and gave Noah a high-five. "Good job kiddo. You guys go get packed while I finish making dinner."

I looked at her confused. "Packed for what?"

My mom raised her eyebrows. "You're going to your dad's tomorrow, remember? Don't tell me you forgot about Lily too! She's coming back with you this time!"

I gasped. I had completely forgotten. "Oh yeah! Come on No! Race you!" We sprinted up the stairs and to our separate rooms to pack. Our dad lived in Florida, so we had to pack a lot, we'd be there for a month. My dad paid for us to come to Florida and visit him three times a year. The rest of the time we stayed with our mom.

I packed quickly, pressed the intercom to tell to my brother that I won, and wandered over to my laptop.

I had three notifications on Facebook, and two emails. I checked the emails first. The first one was from Dad.

"Hey sweetie, can't wait to see you tomorrow! We're going to have a blast. Have a safe trip here!"

I clicked reply. "Me,too Dad! Thanks, I can't wait either!"

I sent it and checked the second one. It was from Lily!

"Hey sis, can't wait to see you guys tomorrow! It's going to be SOO awesome! I also can't wait to go home. It's fun here, but you can only do so much beach. See you here! Xoxo L."

I grinned and replied, "Hey Lil! I can't wait to see you either! Avery misses you... Anyway, see you! Lots of love, Z."

Then I went to Facebook. Three comments on my photo of Noah and I last week at his game.

First comment from Lily. "Tell Noah congrats!"

Second from Parker. "Take off your hood, girl!" I winced. He didn't know what happened.

Third comment. I gasped. It was from Isaac! "Hey, Zoe! What's going on?" I laughed a little, then hit reply. "Going to Florida tomorrow to see my dad... What's going on with you?" I sent the message and exited out then shut down my laptop and went downstairs to eat.

My laptop beeped silently to an empty room.