Winter Tales

Chapter 11 - Disobedience

++Will's POV++

"Can we go again?" Lily begs.

If there wasn't a snowboard attached to one of her feet, she would probably jump up and down in excitement. I get what my brothers often laugh about: that kid has incredible energy levels.

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Sam says, glancing up the mountain.

Spoilsport.

I follow his gaze and have to admit that I get what he means. But I am obviously not going to say anything like that out loud. I would not be caught dead agreeing with any of my brothers. Most of them are so incredibly boring that the last thing I ever want is to be anything like them. That includes sharing their opinion. Most of the time, I simply speak up against whatever they say, just for the sake of it, knowing fully well that it annoys the hell out of them. Mainly Alex.

That guy has no appreciation for anything that I am saying or doing. He doesn't listen to me and quite frankly, I think he doesn't give two shits about me. He seems to think that I am his personal failure, or something like that. Normally, he acts all tough and dictator like around me. Not that this impresses me much. But sometimes, when he believes that nobody is watching, I find him looking at me with that forlorn expression on his face and it almost makes me feel bad. Almost.

I don't get why Alex made it his mission to make my life miserable, and to feel miserable himself all at the same time. Because he seems to be convinced that anything I am doing wrong – mind you, his definition of "wrong" doesn't correspond with mine at all – is somehow his fault. Whenever he catches me and we have it out (meaning he dishes out whatever punishment he deems suitable), once we are done, he looks like someone has kicked his dog.

"Come on, Jo-Jo, I really, really wanna go once more!" Lily insists.

She lifts her ski goggles and treats Jordan to an unhealthy dose of her infamous puppy eyes.

"Yeah, bro, don't be such a boring, old man," Luke takes her side.

"Watch it, loser," Jordan shoots back, narrowing his eyes at Luke.

I decide to move this along, since I cannot be bothered to stand around here having these pointless conversations. I start to make my way towards the entrance of the chair lift. Immediately, a sharp whistle stops me. I don't have to turn around to know who that was.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Jordan growls.

"Up the mountain?" I reply sarcastically.

"Yay!" my little sister exclaims and quickly slips past Luke and Jordan to join me.

Sam, who is closest to me, reaches out and grabs her arm, effectively stopping her from going any further.

"Let go of me!" she complains, unsuccessfully trying to shake him off.

"Why don't we do one last run?" Luke suggests, obviously attempting to mediate. "I am sure it'll be fine. The weather will hold for twenty more minutes, surely."

I watch as Sam and Jordan exchange a look. It is kind of fascinating how my oldest brothers seem to possess that ability to read each other's minds and how they can communicate without using actual words. It is particularly annoying when they are ganging up on you. I have been at the receiving end of this more often than I care to remember. I normally think that I can pretty easily outsmart any of them – if they are on their own. But as soon as they team up, my chances rapidly dwindle with regards to getting away with, well, stuff.

They start to discuss the situation like they have to make a life decision or whatever. I notice that Sam's attention on Lily is slipping and I wave her towards me. She gives me a confused look and I motion for her to get away from him. With my head, I nod towards the chair lift, indicating that we will make a run for it while the old guys are busy contemplating our options. Although, to be honest, I kind of understand where their reluctance is coming from.