Lightning

1. Protector

"Uno!" Acusio, my best friend, yelled, dropping his last card into the pile.

"Ugh, come on! I was so close! Mr. Sharp, are you cheating?"

"I assure you, Miss Fire, I did no such thing."

"Sure you didn't." I drawled, not believing him for a second. I mean, it's not in his nature to cheat, but seriously? We played around twenty rounds of Uno and I didn't win once!

"I didn't cheat! I swear! You can use your mind reading to make sure. Wait, oh yeah, you don't have any mind reading. So I guess there's no way to make sure!" Acusio rambled.

"Oh, shush." I told him, before standing up to check my phone. It had been dinging none stop with messages for the last three minutes.

"I'll get it!" Acusio yelled, dropping the stack of Uno cards he had been shuffling and went to go see who was texting me.

"It's your mom." He told me, looking through my texts. I didn't really mind, since Acusio and I had known each other forever and going through each other's private things never really bothered us.

"She's asking if I'm going to stay for dinner."

"Are you?" I asked him. He nodded. "Then tell her yes."

"Kay." Acusio said, then began typing into my phone.

"What time is it?" I asked him, flopping on to my bed and snuggling into my dark blue comforter. It had always been my favourite colour, since the day I learned how to talk.

"Almost seven." Acusio replied.

"We should get started on dinner, my mom said she wouldn't be home from work until later." I told Acusio, still wrapped up in my blanket.

It was still for a moment.

"Ummm, then shouldn't you get up?" He asked.

I shook my head, my eyes already shut. "Naw. Just tell Travis to do it. I'm tired."

"Okie then. I'll be right back." Acusio said, running out of my room to tell Travis to make dinner. In our family, everyone knew how to cook, so it didn't really matter who made it. My mom actually told me to make dinner today, but summer break just started and I was still worn out from exams. Being sixteen is hard work. Acusio is so lucky that his mom started homeschooling him at the start of high school. That reminds me . . . he never really told me why he started getting homeschooled. Whenever I asked, he would always avoid the question.

"Blaze!" I heard Travis call from downstairs, just as Acusio came barging back into my room. "What should I make for dinner?"

"Pasta, please!" I yelled back. I loved pasta. Italian food will be my undoing.

"Okay! Do you know when dad will be back from work?"

"Yeah, he said he'd be back at around eight."

"We'll save some leftovers for him. Wasn't it your turn to make dinner?"

"Ehhhh? What's that? I can't hear you!"

I heard Travis sigh. "You're making dinner tomorrow."

"Works for me! Now go, my dear brother, and make me my food."

I heard Travis' footsteps recede from the bottom of the stairs and into the kitchen. I turned to Acusio.

"So, how 'bout a FullMetal Alchemist marathon?"

Three FMA episodes later, Travis called us down for dinner.

"Coming!" I yelled, plugging my iPhone into it's charger and throwing my brown hair into a messy ponytail before going down the stairs with Acusio. There was a pot of pasta in the middle of the table, and a pile of plates beside it. Travis was already halfway through his pasta, the little fatso.