I always forget about Carter's first day of school tradition. It's horrific and emotionally scarring but he does it every year.
He wakes me up by blasting screamo music in my ear.
This year they decide to record it. This lovely morning, I woke up to see all of my brothers watching and laughing at me.
"Ha ha very funny," I mumble and storm past their arrogant faces and into my bathroom.
I get ready for school, wearing my allotted first day of school outfit that took forever for them to agree upon.
I'm wearing one of those dress things that ends in shorts. I think it's called a romper? Eh, I don't know what it's called but I like it.
I walk into the kitchen, new backpack in hand, and see Jason making me chocolate chip pancakes with whip cream on top. Heaven!!
Jason's semester doesn't start for a few weeks but he'll be studying when we're at school. Turns out Mom and Dad's transfer of colleges might make him have to stay in school another year if he can't work out a way to get his credits to transfer.
Jason was going to drive us to school but Ryder has his first football practice after school so we're all staying until four. Ryder drives us and parks in the senior lot.
We walk up to the main entrance and stop before the front door. Ryder and Scott enter first and then Thomas. Carter waits for me.
"You ready, Ara?" he asks. I take a deep breath and smile.
"Let's go do this high school thing," I step inside the building and my eyes scan my surroundings. This school looks a lot more, preppy than my old school.
I follow my brothers down the hall and from the corner of my eye I see all the girls stop and stare at them. Will this ever not happen?
Ryder stops walking and asks a girl with red hair, green eyes and thick glasses where the front office is. She stares at him wide eyed for a second.
"Uhhh...it's right there," she points down the hall to the main door down the hall.
Ryder flashes her his award winning smile, "Thank you."
He continues down the hall and I want to slap all my brothers in the face. They're all wearing amused expressions because they're familiar with their stupid affect on women.
We get our schedules and I compare them to see I have gym and music with all my brothers and Carter's schedule is identical to mine. This will be an interesting year.
We exit the front office and look at each other.
"Well, team, this is it. We'll regroup in third period, music, yes?" Ryder scans all I our faces and we nod. I nervously look down at my feet. I have no idea how things are going to go.
"Ara," Scott calls me to attention, "stop worrying. Just show everyone the girl we see and they'll love you like we do."
I nod and grin, "thanks Scott."
"Group hug!" Ryder enforces and grumble as my brothers use this as an excuse I squeeze me in the middle of them.
"Alright, I'm getting out of this mess," I push my way out of the huddle and start walking away.
"Make good choices!" Ryder exclaims. I turn around and stick my tongue at him while walking backwards. I feel myself ram into something or I guess someone and I steady myself before I can fall.
I turn around and come face to face with Will.
"You," we say and point at each other at the same time.
"You didn't text me," Will accuses. I look at my hands, feeling embarrassed and honestly reply.
"I didn't know what to say," I admit.
"I'm sure a simple 'hey' would have sufficed," Will laughs. I nod my head.
"Yeah that would have worked. I've also been crazy busy, sorry," I realize I completely forgot about him.
"Right, you had that dinner with your parents. How'd that go?" Will asks. I automatically scrunch my nose as a reflex, "not well I presume."
I shrug, "it could have gone better."
Much better. Carter clears his throat behind me and I turn around to see all my brothers watching me with the same smirk plastered on their faces.
"Right, Will, these are my brothers, you know Scott, that's Ryder and Thomas and my twin Carter," I introduce the grinning doofuses.
They all step forward and shake his hand.
"Nice to meet you buddy," Ryder steps forward. The first bell, luckily, rings, "alright, Ara, we gotta take off, see you two in third period."
Ryder, Scott and Thomas walk away leaving me, Carter and Will.
"So, what's your first period?" Will asks.
"Um," I look down at my schedule.
"We've got English 11 AP with Ms. Mallin," Carter answers for us. I nod my head an point at Carter.
"Yup, that," I confirm.
"Me too. I'll show you where it is. Mayview's a pretty small school and everyone knows everyone. If you're all in the advanced classes, then you'll share practically the same schedule as all the smart kids." Will explains.
"That's weird, our old school was huge and you'd think that living in the city would have more people," Carter comments.
"Actually, not a lot of people in cities have kids. There are more dogs than kids in any major city, Boston included." Will informs us all about Boston on the way to class.
We get to class and all eyes are on us when we walk in. I find a seat in the dead center and settle in.
"Tell me, Ara, are you a nerd?" Will teases me based on my seat selection.
"What's wrong with refusing to be ignorant and wanting higher education?" I ask. He tilts his head.
"That's a new one," he smiles at me and takes the seat to the right of me. Carter chooses the one to my left.
"Will, there you are! I was looking for you," a girl comes over. I take in her light brown hair and lilac shirt and flower patterned skirt. I hope she's nice.
"Ara, I'd like you to meet my best friend since birth, Lucy. Lucy this is my new friend Ara, and her twin brother Carter," Will introduces. Lucy shoots me a genuine smile and my heart immediately warms up to her.
"Hi, Ara, it's so nice to meet you and Carter," she sweetly greets us.
"Nice to meet you too," I smile. She takes the free seat beside Will.
The second bell rings and the young teacher walks in.
"Hello, everyone, I'm Ms. Mallin, and I'll be your English teacher this year. I really want this class to prepare you for life and the future, especially college, so I hope you'll forgive me if we stray slightly from the set curriculum I'll feed your parents on back to school night." Ms. Mallin introduces herself. I instantly like her and begin to feel optimistic. Maybe Boston won't be so bad.
As class progresses and Ms. Mallin talks about the syllabus, I look over and notice the way Lucy is looking at Will. Aw the poor girl is so clearly in love with him. And he doesn't seem to notice. My heart goes out to her and I decide to like her. Maybe she could be my first real friend that's not a guy.
English passes by quickly and Ms. Mallin hands us a copy of The Scarlet Letter that we'll start reading soon. I'll probably read it while Ryder's at practice.
When the bell rings, a boy and a girl come over to talk to Will and Lucy.
"Hey, man, what's happening?" the boy asks.
"Hey, Clint, Lynn, I want to introduce you to my new friends Ara and Carter. They're new. Ara, Carter, these are my other two best friends, Lynn and Clint," Will introduces us once more.
"Nice to meet you guys," Lynn smiles.
"What class have you guys got next?" Clint asks. I turn to Carter who I know has already memorized our schedule.
"Math with Mr. Reed," Carter rattles off from memory.
We walk with Will and his friends to math and I find they're all really nice. Lynn and Clint are dating and Will and Lucy should be dating so neither of the girls is fixated on my brothers. I have a real chance to make actual friends!
Math class passes fast and our little group splits up for third period. Lucy's class is right next to the music room so she walks Carter and me to class.
On the walk over, Lucy and I bond over our love of The Vampire Diaries. If this is any indication of what friendship is, I've really been missing out.
The music room is filled with kids and I see Ryder, Scott and Thomas already there saving us seats. The girls in this class are nothing like Lucy or Lynn so they all stare at my brothers.
"Welcome to Music boys and girls, I'm you're teacher Mrs. Henry and I'll be teaching you all about the world of music. First off, does anyone play an instrument," Our teacher, Mrs, Henry, asks.
Quite a few students raise their hands, including me and my brothers. We are all musically talented, none of us as good as Jason though, but Carter is pretty close.
"You five, what's your story?" Mrs. Henry asks us.
"Well we're all siblings, and we just moved here from Maryland." Thomas supplies her with the answer.
"And what instruments do you play?" She continues. We all exchange glances.
"Yes," Carter replies, trying not laugh. I reign in my own chuckle as Mrs. Henry stares at us, confused.
"I don't follow," Mrs. Henry narrows her eyes and pushes up her glasses.
"Amongst the five of us, we can pretty much play all the instruments," Scott clarifies.
"Including our other brother, Jason, I think we can play like all of them," Thomas adds.
"Are you some kind of family of music protégées?" Mrs. Henry asks.
"Let's just say that Music runs in the family," I respond. My grandpa is a music producer and we spent every vacation and holiday with him and grandma, even if Mom and Dad couldn't make it home - which was nearly every single time. We got a lot of instruments as presents and have met all the big names. Scott is planning on taking over for Grandpa after college.
"And who sings?" Mrs. Henry continues her interrogation.
"All of us," I say at the same time the boys say, "Ara."
I turn around to glare at them and they shrug innocently.
"What, you're the best singer. Even better than Jason," Thomas replies. I scoff and shake my head.
"Well that's false," I snort, loudly.
"Can you sing for us Ara?" Mrs.Henry asks.
"I thought this was a music class, not choir," I narrow my eyes.
"This school is too small, we don't have a choir, so music is a combination of all forms of music education," Mrs. Henry explains, "and now I'm intrigued to hear what you all can do, so you have get up and play us something."
I sigh and get up and beeline for the drum set in the corner but Thomas beats me to it.
"Dibs," he calls and settles down on the stool. I scowl at him and go to the piano but Carter beats me to it. I go to the percussion area but Scott's got that covered. That leaves me and Ryder for the guitar and Ryder scoops it up.
"You're going to sing Ara," Ryder points to the front center of the room.
I groan and turn around and face the front. I turn back around and ask Ryder.
"Wait. Ryder, what are we doing?" I ask.
"Um," he looks around and sees we're letting him decide, "A dream is a wish your heart makes."
I nod my head. We were playing around one day and we changed up the sound of the song and made it our own. I love our version almost as much as the original, but I love singing out version more. It suits my voice better, I think. I turn around to face the class.
"Wait," Carter stops us, "I don't know the piano part for this one, switch Thomas?"
Thomas shrugs and they trade places. Carter counts us off with his drum sticks and the boys begin their intro with Scott starting on the xylophone. I take a deep breath and go.
"A dream is a wish your heart makes,
when you're fast asleep,
in dreams you lose your heartaches
Whatever you wish for, you keep
Have faith in yourr dreams and someday
Your rainbow will come smiling through
No matter how your heart, is grieving
If you keep on believing
The dream that you wish....
will come true."
My voice comes out raspy and strong and I let it slip out and fill my soul. I love singing, it's such a lovely release. We get a loud applause and I noticed halfway through that the kids in class were recording us. Guess we'll be on youtube later.
"Ohmygosh Ara! That was soooo good," a girl compliments me and I look closer and notice it's Bimbo Two.
"Told ya, Ara," Carter smugly adds.
"Whatever," I mumble. Mrs. Henry beams and showers us with compliments and I thank her and quickly set back down. All this extra attention is weird. I don't know how to feel about it.
The bell rings and it's time for lunch.
Longer chapter! I'm not sure how I feel about the direction the story is taking but I'm letting it guide me. Unedited of course! And Thank you so much for reading - it means a lot!! :)