I was going to kill my brother.
Boxing might be my hobby, but I wasn't an inherently violent person. Except when my stash of snacks was raided. Then all bets were off.
"Stefan!"
My call went unanswered. I closed the cupboard and stomped up the stairs, down the hallway to my brother's room. Music was bursting through the white door. I banged on it.
"Stefan! Open up, I know you can hear me!"
The music got louder. I glared at the door. Fine. "If you don't open up in five seconds I'm going to call Sam and tell him you're the one who broke his car's hood last Sunday."
It worked like a charm. Music stopped. Footsteps echoed, then the door was pulled open. My brother stared at me through dismayed blue eyes. "That's not fair. It wasn't on purpose."
"Do I look like I care?" I held out my palm. "Twenty five bucks."
"For what?" He grumbled.
"For the snacks you stole," I held my hand closer to his face. He slapped it away. I brought it back.
"How do you know I stole them?"
"Because the M&Ms are gone, and Scott hates M&Ms."
"He could've stolen them to make you doubt me."
I considered it, then snickered. "Nah. He's not that smart."
"Hey! I heard that!" Scott said, pounding up the steps like an elephant.
He walked towards us and stood next to Stefan. Two identical faces, with short dark brown hair, deep set blue eyes, a square jawline and a small bump on the nose. They were the identical twins in our triplet. I was the odd one out. The only thing we had in common was our coloring. They took after my father, while I had most of my mother's features.
"Twenty five bucks," I told Stefan.
He grumbled under his breath and went to his room, emerging with his wallet. "Wait, what I took wasn't worth twenty five."
"It's twenty dollars worth of snacks," I said.
"What's the additional five dollars for?"
"Emotional compensation," I said with a grin. "Do you know how awful it is to look forward to a snack and then find out I have none. That's trauma, right there."
Scott laughed out loud. I snatched the two bills from Stefan's hand. "Nice doing business with you."
"Wait, Sapphire. I can't find my blue shirt," Scott caught up with me in two of his massive steps. I was tall for the average girl, but my brothers were giants. Scott even more so than Stefan, since he was on the football team.
"Just wear something else. We're running late."
"Everything else is in the laundry," he said.
I groaned and we made my way to his room. It was as messy as usual.
Scott and Stefan's personalities were as different as their faces were similar. I stepped over a pizza box. The last time we'd ordered pizza was two weeks ago. Ew.
I breathed through my mouth. "My God, Scott. It stinks in here."
He raised his nose and sniffed. "I don't smell anything."
"That's because you've been marinating in it for weeks," I said, digging through a pile of clean laundry on one side of the bed. At least, I thought it was clean. Although everything that was in this room needed serious sterilization. I found the t-shirt and threw it at him. He caught it before it hit his face. Too bad.
"Thanks sis," he said, pulling it on.
"Come on. We won't find a parking spot at this rate," I called over my shoulder, jogging past him down the steps.
I stopped by the kitchen and filled Cheddar's food bowl. The kitchen was clean and tidy, mostly because only Stefan and I ate breakfast. Scott always had an apple on the way to school. Thank the Lord for that. If he had breakfast at home, the kitchen would stay a mess.
Back in the living room, I picked up my jacket off the brown couch. Cheddar was sleeping soundly in one corner. I rubbed his neck, he purred loudly.
"Yeah, now you're sleeping," I mumbled, tugging at the orange ear of my tabby cat. "I should wake you up just to teach you a lesson, you brat. Why do you always wake me up at three in the morning, hmm?"
"Stop talking to the cat and let's go," Stefan said, walking past me to the front door.
"Scott!" I called, following after Stefan.
Three minutes after getting into the car, Scott came rushing out the door. He glared at Stefan when he saw that he'd taken the front seat. Served him right for being late.
I pulled out of the driveway and drove to school, leaving the two-story white house behind.
"Whose turn is it to do the lawn?" I asked. It needed a good cut.
Scott groaned in the backseat. Stefan chuckled. "Sam is coming home in a couple of weeks man. You better get to it."
"I know, I know," Scott said.
Our town was waking up from a long summer. It'd been a week since the first day of school, but it was just now beginning to feel like we were no longer on vacation.
Wa drove by a woman walking her dog, a golden retriever, its namesake coat almost glowing under the bright morning sun. I turned for a second glance as we drove past them. What a beautiful dog.
"Eyes upfront," Stefan said next to me. I rolled my eyes. The road was empty and I only glanced over. Stefan usually drove like he did everything else, sensibly. But I was more careful than he was, no doubt a by-product of my car anxiety.
We took a turn, and our school building loomed at the end of the street. A sprawling red-brick building with white windows and a large parking area, which was mostly full.
Thankfully, we found a spot, although it was tucked in the middle of the parking lot.
"It's going to take forever to get out of here later," I mumbled.
"It's fine," Stefan mumbled, opening his door. Noise spilled in; car engines and voices and laughter.
"I have training after school," Scott said as we walked down the sidewalk to the school building. "Don't wait for me. Jason will give me a ride."
He veered off to the left toward some of his football teammates. My hand reached for the pocket of my school bag, before I remembered that I didn't have any snacks. I glared at Stefan. Thief.
I searched the wave of students milling around or moving to the doors, but I didn't spot a particular head of black hair. Where was she?
"See you later," Stefan said, tugging on my hair and running away before I could pinch him. He jogged up ahead to catch up to a couple of guys, slapping one of them on the back of his head. Jason whipped his head around with a scowl that turned less murderous when he saw it was Stefan. Then he proceeded to choke him. I shook my head. Boys.
Mrs. Crawford stood at the door of the reception office. Her short red hair matched her blotchy cheeks and knitted sweater.
The Students lingering in the hallway didn't escape her scrutiny. I spotted a guy wearing a loose tank top with the arm holes hanging halfway to his ribs. Really? Did he think he was in the beach?
He hid behind his friend as they walked past her. But of course, her eagle eyes zeroed in on him, a satisfied gleam in them. She took a deep breath, her shoulder rising with the motion.
"Mr. Dawson!" she called.
The guy stopped. He turned with a resigned expression and dragged his feet toward her. She almost smiled. I swear she lived for this. One would think the school paid her to catch students breaking the dress code. I walked past the blue lockers.
"Sapph!"
I stopped and turned. Loren waved, standing with a few girls near her locker. She ran up to me with a smile, her dusky skin glowing under the hallway lights. "Thank you so much for yesterday! We really thought something was wrong with him."
I grinned. "How is he?"
"Fine, actually. As soon as Mom changed the brand of the food, he inhaled it."
"My cat does that, too." I chuckled. "They're just spoiled brats."
She laughed, then looked over her shoulder when the girls she'd been with called her. We parted ways and I made a beeline for my locker. My best friend was already there, scowling at the world through bleary eyes. I grinned and purposefully made my voice chipper. "Good morning, Lia!"
She turned that scowl on me. Her silky hair was in a messy half bun, strands of it framing her face. The black hoodie and oversized jeans swallowed her small frame.
"Why are you so happy first thing in the morning?" Lia asked.
"I'm just happy to see my best friend after a long, long weekend." I pinched her cheeks.
She slapped my hands away. "I literally saw you yesterday. Let's go. If I have to hear Charlotte complain about her hair one more time, I'm going to pull those extensions out of it and do the world a favor."
I glanced a few lockers down at Charlotte. She was surrounded by a gaggle of her girlfriends, fussing over her brown hair, throwing it over her shoulder then bringing it forward again.
"How do you know those are extensions?" I asked, opening my locker.
Lia snorted. "Please. We've been to the same school since kindergarten. Her hair was not that thick."
"Hey, if she likes having extensions, there's nothing wrong with that."
"There is if she lies about them," Lia shot back. "She has thousands followers on Instagram, most of them are younger girls. What do you think it does to their self esteem when they compare themselves to her, thinking she's real, when she's all fake?"
"Okay, I see we're pretty touchy this morning," I said, opening my locker. "Does she make you feel insecure about your hair?"
She scoffed. "Please. My hair is gorgeous."
I put my books in and rummaged through. "So modest, too."
"It's the truth. Who stole your snacks again?" Lia asked, peeking over my shoulder at the locker.
"Stefan," I replied, sticking my hand under a spare change of clothes I kept in my locker. Something crinkled. Yes!
My hand emerged with a small bag of Cheez-It crackers. I grinned at Lia, shaking the small bag.
She rolled her eyes. "You're too happy for early mornings," she grumbled.
I stuck the snack in my backpack, closed my locker and linked my arm through hers. "You love me," I said, "even more than you love your boyfriend. Admit it."
A smile peeked through at the mention of Tom, her boyfriend. "I really don't understand why you don't like him," she said.
"I don't don't like him," I said as we turned. "We just don't click. It happens. Not everyone gets along, you know."
"Puh-lease. You get along with everyone."
I opened her mouth to say something when a scream rose over the babble of students in the hallway, followed by the distinct rattle of the lockers. What the heck was that?
A boy ran down the hallway past us. "Dude! Jamison is beating the shit out of Collin!" he told a few boys standing nearby without breaking his stride. The boys ran after him along with everyone else in the hallway.
Lia and I looked at each other with wide eyes, then we joined the tide.
"Why," Lia said, already panting, "would someone fight... first thing in the morning?"
"There isn't an appropriate time to fight," I said, dragging her along. "Damn it, Lia. Your endurance sucks!"
"Shut up," she said loudly over the noise, gasping. "You box for fun, you shouldn't compare our athletic abilities."
We turned down another hallway and stopped. A group of people surrounded something. I was familiar with the sound of fighting, and there was someone getting beat up in the middle of that circle. Lia and I jumped on our tiptoes, but we were too short to see anything.
"Lia!" I said, pointing to Scott and Stefan who stood taller than most students. We made our way toward them, pushing people around. I jumped on Stefan's back, Lia jumped on Scott's. Stefan glanced over his shoulder, and when he saw it was me, hoisted me up by the back of my thighs. The view was much better up here.
A fight was going on in the middle of the half circle. Although fight was a misnomer. A dark-haired boy and a blond-haired boy were going at it, and Blondie was getting the crap beat out of him. Blondie was definitely losing, if the blood on his face was anything to go by.
I didn't recognize either of them. The dark haired boy dodged a punch from Blondie, his sneakers squeaking on the floor, then charged at him, pushing him with his shoulder until he hit the lockers with a loud clatter. Where in the world were the teachers?
Half the students were filming the fight, the other half were cheering. Seriously? No one even attempted to break it apart.
Blondie tried pushing the other guy off of him, but the guy was bigger and heavier. He was as big as Scott. He grabbed Blondie by the collar and slammed him against the locker roughly, then punched him. Once. Twice. I flinched. Three times.
He wasn't even moving his body into the punch, but the sheer strength of it was astonishing. Blondie's eyes rolled back. I slapped Stefan's shoulders repeatedly.
"Oh my God, someone stop him! He'll seriously hurt him!" I said.
"No way, Sapph," Jason said next to us, not taking his dark eyes off the fight. He stood on his tiptoes to look. " That's Jamison. He doesn't stop once he gets going,"
Another punch. More cheering. "Stefan!" I said, squeezing my hands on my brother's shoulders.
"If I get punched, you're doing my laundry for a month," he said before dropping me and pushing his way through the crowd, Scott following him. Lia and I took advantage of the opened path and followed in their wake.
We stopped at the edge of the circle. Stefan and Scott ventured inside. A teacher was screaming over the crowd somewhere behind, barely heard.
Scott grabbed the black-haired guy's arms from behind and pulled him back. They were almost the same size, but without Stefan's help, the guy could've escaped Scott's hold.
"Dude, you're going to kill him," Stefan said, shoving the black-haired guy back. He struggled, and Scott let go of him, standing between him and Blondie, who was swaying on his feet, blood dripping from his nose.
The black-haired guy was breathing heavily, his massive shoulders moving up and down. Surprisingly, he just stared back and forth between my brothers and didn't try to attack them. I breathed out in relief.
"Move! Out of the way, right now!" The teacher broke through the crowd and ran to Blondie, who was leaning heavily against the lockers, looking a second away from passing out. His face was an unrecognizable mess.
"About time," Lia said next to me.
The black haired guy turned his head. He looked right at me, and my heart almost stopped. His eyes were impossibly black. There was no angry scowl on his face, no triumphant grin. It was expressionless, empty. Shivers ran down my spine. He turned, picked up his backpack from the ground and walked away, the crowd parting for him like the sea before Moses.
More teachers joined the crowd, dispersing the students. A couple of teachers ran out after the black-haired guy. But he was already gone.
Lia and I stuck around. Stefan and Scott lingered with the teachers, who must think they were involved. It took only a few students saying otherwise for them to be released to their lessons.
"Are you okay?" I asked when they joined us.
"Yep," Scott said, rolling his shoulder. "Damn, Jamison is pretty damn strong. We could use him on the team."
"He's pretty damn scary," Lia mumbled next to me.
"Who is he?" I asked. The three looked at me like I was insane. "What?"
"Are you serious?" Lia asked, her eyes wide with disbelief. "You don't know who Jamison is?"
"Should I?"
"No, you shouldn't," Stefan said.
"He's the resident bad boy of the school," Lia said.
"That's just dramatic," Stefan rolled his eyes.
Lia glared at him. "Are you saying I'm dramatic?"
"That is not what I said," Stefan replied calmly. "But if you take it that way, then you're really being dramatic."
"Here they go again," Scott mumbled, hefting his bag over his shoulder. He walked away. "I'm outta here."
Lia put her hand on her hips, her glare fixed on Stefan. "Excuse you-"
"Guys!" I waved my hands between them. Once they got going, they never stopped. "Who's Jamison?"
"Let's go," Lia said, linking her arm through mine and pulling me away. "I'll tell you where we're not being nagged."
Stefan rolled his eyes and walked away as well.
"So?" I asked as we dodged students rushing to their classes. The fight took a good chunk of time, and the bell would ring soon.
"He's Hunter Jamison. Like I said, the school- no, the town's resident bad boy. He's the son of the Jamisons, they're stinking rich and their son is stinking spoiled, hence why he doesn't get in trouble no matter what he does."
She looked at me, her eyes sparkling. This girl loved gossip more than anything else. It was the only thing that could brighten her up early in the morning. "I bet all he's going to get is a few days detention after beating the shit out of Collin. Seriously, though. I can't believe you don't know him."
"I might have seen him around," I mumbled.
She shook her head, released her arm from mine, and stopped. I glanced behind her. It was her class.
"See you later," she said, disappearing inside her class. I made my way to class as well. History first thing in the morning just sucked. Ugh, I sounded just like Lia right now.
The bell rang just as I walked through the door.
"Hey Sapph!"
"Morning Sapphire."
"Good morning Gem."
I rolled my eyes at Liza's nickname for me, and pulled on one of her braids when I walked past her. She stuck her tongue at me.
I took my seat next to Jason in the back. He was staring at Liza like she was an angel. The angel turned toward me.
"I heard someone say there's a kitten behind the indoor school gym," she said, her green eyes bright against her freckled skin.
I sat up. "Really? Without its mom?"
She nodded, her dangling earrings swaying. "I don't know how old it is," she said, her dark red brows furrowing. "But someone's been giving it food."
"Poor thing. I'll check it out during lunch break."
"I knew you would, that's why I told you," she said, a dimple flashing when she smiled. The girl in front of her called, and Liza turned. Jason followed her with his eyes like a parched soul.
"Are you going to ask her out or are you just going to keep staring at her like a creep until we graduate?" I asked Jason in a whisper. He turned his scowl on me. I grinned.
With dark brown skin and light, honey-colored eyes, Jason was the crush of half the girls I knew. But he only had eyes for Liza ever since she transferred here last year.
"Shut up, Sapph," he mumbled. He glanced at the empty seat next to him then looked at me. "Did you see that fight? Damn, Jamison is going to kill someone one of these days."
"You know who he is?"
Jason snorted. "Seriously? Are you living under a rock or something?"
"Will you guys stop. I didn't know him. I don't have to know everyone in town," I grumbled, pulling out my pens and notebook.
"You do realize he's with us in this class?" Jason asked, his light eyes amused.
"What? No way."
"Yep. He just hasn't attended," he said. "But the teacher always calls his name when he's doing call."
I never noticed. Which wasn't much considering we only had this class a couple of times before. But it was amazing how I never saw him. How could I have missed someone that... big and scary?
The teacher came in. Mr. White was an old fossil. His hair was a mess of white fluff over his head, his glasses perched on the edge of his ruddy nose, a breath away from falling, and his belly preceded him everywhere he went. Today again, there was a stain of what looked like gravy on his shirt. There was always a stain on his shirts. Why would he wear always wear white when he was such a messy eater?
"Alright, everyone!" He said, his croaky voice matching his grouchy face. "Settle down."
Jason slouched in his chair, almost disappearing under the desk, crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "Wake me up if needed."
I rolled my eyes as Mr. White began doing call. Jason raised his arm without otherwise moving when his name was called. "Here!"
I shook my head. Boys.
*** **** ****
There was a small alley-like path between the indoor gym and the school's main building. After I walked around the indoor gym, making the universal sound to call cats, with no luck, I ventured to the alley. It was dark and tight and dirty. My stomach growled. Skipping lunch wasn't my brightest idea, especially since my snack was all gone. I was going to kill Stefan for stealing everything.
Lia abandoned me in favor of having lunch with her boyfriend. To be fair, she did ask me to stay and have a quick lunch with them before going with me to look for the kitten. But I was glad for using the kitten as an excuse. I didn't like her boyfriend, and having lunch with him would just make it go down the wrong way.
A stack of boxes stood in the middle of the long alley, almost blocking the way.
"Pspsps, here kitty kitty," I said out loud. "Where are you?"
Nothing. The smell of cigarettes. I wrinkled my nose, then frowned when I saw smoke coming out from beyond the mountain of cardboard boxes. I debated wether or not to go further, but I needed to find the kitten. What if it was hungry? What if it was too young to be left alone? The nights would soon be getting too cold for it to stay outside.
I walked ahead, the dirty red brick walls on either side of me. There was enough space for me to walk between the stack of boxes and the wall. I squeezed through, and froze.
A guy was sitting on the ground, his hand on his bent knees and a cigarette dangling from his fingers. The knuckles of his hand were red and scratched.
His dark eyes were fixed on me, his face empty. Slowly, almost deliberately, he raised his hand and put the cigarette in his mouth.
Jamison.
--- ---- ---
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