Scars On Ice | Charlie Conway

s i x

Joey's blue eyes were narrowed into slits. He looked more frustrated than Aspen had ever seen him before. She might have even had enough sense to be genuinely frightened of him.

That is, if his sights weren't set on her math homework.

He pulled his lips into a taut frown and, for the first time in twenty minutes, glanced up at his younger sister. "I genuinely cannot figure out how you messed up this badly," he said defeatedly. He rubbed between his eyes tiredly, his posture slumped. Her lack of math skills had literally worn him out.

Aspen grimaced. "If you can't figure it out, there's no way I'll be able to," she muttered, leaning back in her chair. She could hear the faint chatter of the television in the other room. Her parents were most definitely watching one of their ancient, entirely unfunny sitcoms, but she was just grateful that it was drowning out the music that was almost surely coming from Caine's room.

"How did you even do this? This part here," Joey pushed the paper towards her, one of his thick index fingers hovering above some of her work. He gave her an appalled look. "Where did that seven even come from? And why on earth did you multiply?"

Aspen straightened her back, peering intently down at her own handwriting. Her work was smudged all over from constantly needing to be erased. The space around one of the last problems had been torn from the pressure she had put onto her pencil. Who needed this stuff, anyway? "I don't know, Joey," she mumbled in distress, hanging her head in her hands. Math had never been her strong suit, and this year it had only gotten ten times worse. Surely Mr. Penn was a good teacher, so she couldn't blame the lessons. This was all on her.

Joey let out a sigh as Caine bounded into the room, making a beeline for the fridge. The interruption distracted both of the siblings that were seated at the table. Joey frowned as he and Aspen watched their brother rummage through the refrigerator. "Caine, we ate dinner an hour ago. How hungry could you possibly be?" Joey inquired, his eyebrows furrowed.

Caine shrugged, ignoring the question for a short period of time. He continued his search before heaving a breath and shutting the door, a vine of grapes in his hand. He leaned his elbows onto the marble island, a questioning look thrown in the direction of his siblings. "I didn't eat lunch today," he finally answered, though it wasn't much of a logical response. Aspen just shook her head and turned back to the worksheet in front of her. It didn't take long for Caine to cross the room, hovering over her head curiously. "Oh, ew," he tittered. Aspen could hear the grimace on his face. "I remember doing that. Penn's lessons never helped."

"Glad I'm not the only one who thinks so," Aspen muttered as Caine popped a grape into his mouth.

Joey rolled his eyes. "It isn't that difficult. Aspen just needs a push in the right direction," he appealed, though it was evident that neither of his siblings were buying that. He let out a sigh and shook his head, his stiffly gelled hair hardly swaying at the motion.

Caine used his free hand to push the bangs of his hair back from his brow, his eyes searching for the chapter and assignment number. When he found it, he nodded curtly. "I definitely think I still have my homework from last year. I'll go get it and you can copy it," he offered, sending a wicked smile to Aspen, who at that point just wanted to shower and go to bed.

"No," Joey deadpanned, glaring at his younger brother. If there was one thing Joey was, it was a dedicated student. Aspen tried her hardest to follow those footsteps, but math was the one area in which she faltered. She would never cheat in English or History, but math was an entirely different demon. When Caine huffed at Joey's response, the older boy waved him off. "Go on. Don't you have a girlfriend to call or something?"