When my alarm went off at six the next morning, I was surprisingly refreshed, even after my late night last night. I had been basically sleeping all day for the past week recovering from my rib injury so I guessed that my constant resting made up for the lost sleep.
I got ready as best as I could without moving my chest area too much to avoid the persistent pain I was still feeling.
When I went downstairs, I was a bit surprised to find all of my brothers together in the kitchen. Normally they were all spread out throughout the humongous house and I rarely came across more than one or two of them at a time.
Living with other people, especially men, still came across as strange to me. My apartment with mom was fairly quiet, and it got even quieter after her tragic death. The noise in the morning especially wasn't bad, just... different.
Lately, I even noticed that there seemed to be cliques among my brothers- Leo and Luke, Alex and Nick, and Lorenzo talked among the others but also kept to himself a lot of the time. He had a constant look of being lost in thought. And me? I didn't seem to belong within any of their little groups.
Although I'd lived with my brothers for a week or two already, I still felt like I was kept out of important discussions involving the family. For example, when I had entered the kitchen for breakfast, their talking that I had heard from the hallway had died down in my presence.
I gave a half smile to avoid the awkwardness of them all staring at me and focused my attention on getting some yogurt from the massive, overly stocked fridge. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say I took my time getting it. When I turned around and still felt their eyes on me I said maybe a little too aggressively, "What??" They seemed almost surprised that I had said anything, and started looking around the room to look at anything but me.
I sat down to eat my breakfast and by the time I had finished eating, they'd begun to make smalltalk with each other again. My presence wasn't that disturbing to them was it?
Nick had sat down next to me as he chewed (loudly) the corn flakes in his cereal. He even showed me a toy in the bottom of the cereal box that he was a little too excited about. I smiled for the first time that day because of my twin's immaturity.
I had noticed that he seemed to be even more clingy after the whole rib puncturing my lung fiasco, while the rest of my brothers seemed even more distant. Is that just a twin thing? Although, I wasn't entirely sure how siblings were really supposed to act toward one another, so none of it really bothered me too much.
Alex finally announced that he would be driving us. I was skeptical of his driving skills but he assured me that since he'd had his license for a whole six months that I'd be perfectly safe. I wasn't convinced. Leo offered me a sympathetic pat on the back as he left the kitchen with my two oldest brothers, and I decided what kind of gravestone I wanted for my funeral after Alex's driving killed us.
I grabbed my backpack that I'd brought my stuff from my old apartment and my old school things in. It was a little old, but it had some emotional value so I didn't have the heart to part with it. As I put it on, I made sure to position the straps away from my ribs, as they still hurt even if I lightly touched them.
Alex drove a big truck that had huge speakers and before we left for school he asked me a question that made Nick gasp in shock. "What music do you want me to play?"
Before I could answer him, Nick interrupted me. "You'll let her pick the music??" He sounded almost...hurt? "You've never once let me pick and I ride to school with you everyday!" He huffed and childishly rolled his eyes.
The rest of the short car ride to school mostly consisted of their bickering.
It wasn't until we were actually walking into school that the nerves I had about starting new at another school actually hit me. I dreaded making new friends, although I hadn't had too many at my other school, I was hoping to make at least a few here as my life wouldn't be crowded with jobs and worrying about my sick mother anymore.
As we entered the school, Nick nudged me with his elbow. "You ready?" His signature grin made me smile but it quickly faded because of my nerves about today.
"No, not really." I said honestly and he didn't respond, he just put his arm around my shoulder and laughed sweetly as he guided me to the office so I could gather my papers from the office.
When Alex saw how Nick put his arm over my shoulder, he just rolled his eyes and scoffed rudely as if he was embarrassed to be seen with us. Apparently he had different moods by the minute because seconds before he had been acting cordial toward me and Nick.
The bell rang and Nick left me alone to rush to class and I was given my locker number, combination, school handbook, and schedule.
I quickly thanked the office lady and couldn't mistake the confusion after my words after she'd seen my name? Do the other students here not say "Thank you" or something?
I picked up my papers to leave the office and try to find my way to class. As I walked down the hallway I got a bit confused because the numbers of the classrooms outside their doors had a weird order.
I narrowed down where my classroom should have been, but I still couldn't find it. My frustration must have shown because a nice voice somewhere behind me said, "Need some help?"
I turned around and a girl who looked around my age with curly brown hair reached her hand out toward me. It took an embarrassingly long time to figure out that she wanted me to hand her my schedule to see the room number.
I saw her face light up while reading something on my sheet. "Hey, we have a lot of similar classes, and you have some with other people in my friend group too!" I was pleasantly surprised at the kindness that this girl was showing a complete stranger to her, and it must have been what made me drawn to her. "You're in the same first hour as me, we can walk together, it's upstairs."
I almost laughed out loud because of my own stupidity. Of course if the number for the classroom seemed to be missing it was upstairs. She had a late slip in her hand and had already started walking toward the stairs. I had to lightly jog to catch up to her, she was surprisingly fast even with her being so much shorter than me.
I learned in the short walk to class that her name was Quinn and friend group consisted of one other girl and three boys, I really didn't think I needed any more men in my life because surely five was enough... right?
She also mentioned that there was a home football game that night that "everyone goes to". She insisted that I go too. I told her I would think about it.
The day went surprisingly fast, and having some friends to talk to made my school day infinitely better. Their names were Quinn, Bella, Landon, Jack, and Steven.
Quinn was talkative, outgoing, and sweet.
Bella was funny, sarcastic, and high energy. She was immediately friendly to me the moment that Quinn introduced us.
I didn't meet the boys in their friend group until later, at lunch. Landon and Steven were very likeable and funny in their own ways, but once I saw Jack, I couldn't take my eye off of him.
He was almost... mysterious. He wasn't as outgoing but still stayed active in the conversation going on. He had brown hair that had some wave to it and his eyes were probably the most gorgeous I'd ever seen. They were a deep green and had light greenish blue highlights within them.
I tried not to make it seem like I was staring at him so I tried to engage in conversation with the rest of them, but I'll admit I was a bit distracted by him.
His smile was just gorgeous too.
I don't know if I just imagined it, but I thought I caught him peeking at me from time to time throughout the lunch period as well. The bell rang for our next class and I quickly gathered my things because I wanted to have as much time as possible to find my next class in the maze that was labeled my school.
The rest of the school day went by fairly quickly because I found myself thinking about Jack. Daydreaming was so unlike me, but I had still fallen victim to it. Why couldn't I get some stupid boy out of my head for just one minute?
I tried to distract myself by thinking of the football game that I was going to attend that night, but my mind still wandered back to the boy. Would he be there? I mentally scolded myself to stop thinking about him because I hadn't gone through hell in the past few years just for my life and thoughts to revolve around some dumb teenage boy.
On the way back to the house with Alex and Nick, I think they noticed my silence, but they didn't mention it and just carried on with the usual bickering about whatever. I got a text from Quinn: the theme for the game is red, white, and blue for the fb game btw! I smiled at my phone and I felt Alex and Nicks eyes on me after the sound of the message, but I didn't care. I hadn't had anything to look forward to in a long time and I was excited for tonight.
A few hours later, Alex was driving Nick and I to the game because I found out only a few minutes before we left that they actually played football for the school, which I should have known the moment I met them just by seeing their tall, built figures.
It took a moment for them to get their pads and helmets out of the car which gave me time to alert my friends I was here.
I texted Quinn to meet me at the gate and she and the rest of my new friends looked excited to see me at first, until they noticed who I was walking in with. Their bright smiles at the sight of me quickly faded. Even the boys looked intimidated.
I noticed Jack looked the most surprised but he masked it better than the others. Their mouths were still gaping when I made my way to them.
I looked confusedly at my brothers to see their reactions to my friends and noticed the same look of indifference and rudeness on both of their faces that I had initially seen on Alex when I first met him.
It surprised me, couldn't they like... smile at them or something?
I would have ignored and forgotten their rudeness if not for something that I noticed. When they left me with my friends I saw Alex almost imperceptibly nod at Landon. He nodded back. What the hell was that supposed to mean?
A few minutes later after the "They're really your brothers?" questions were all answered, our conversation turned normal.
I was having a great time cheering with them and talking to them all, and I even noticed Alex and Nick make some great plays. Alex played quarterback and Nick played wide receiver.
After a while though, I needed to use the restroom and quickly left the group for a moment without anyone noticing.
I headed toward the restrooms and noticed the area was surprisingly secluded. It was dark and that combined with the brick walls of the bathroom building reminded me of the night that I barely escaped the men that tried to rape and kill me.
I shivered and walked a bit faster.
I pushed the door open to find that the light was off? Strange. Had no one else used the restroom?
I turned the light on and walked inside. I would have screamed my head off when I saw the large man in front of me if not for the second man's gloved hand that quickly covered my mouth from behind.
My eyes widened as I eyed the small pocket knife the man in front of me held. It almost reminded me of the one I had used to... the one that I was reminded I still had in my pocket...
Holy shit, this would not end well.
The man in front of me stepped closer to me until he was practically breathing on my face. His face was scrunched in anger. I struggled for a moment in the second guys arms before realizing it was useless. "You killed our friends." The man in front of me whispered, and I think I almost passed out from fear.