"Get up!" Matt shook his little brother awake.
"Ah, go away!" He whined into his pillow.
"No. Come on, we don't want to be late." Matt literally pulled Ryan out of bed. "Mya told me about your little stunt last night."
"Uh, Mattie! Mya already gave me my punishment last night, I don't need another one from you." Ryan whined.
"Kiddo I'm not going to punish or anything." Matt laughed. "But gosh kid you were stupid! I thought I taught you how to sneak out better than that."
"Ya well even you get caught sometimes." Ryan mumbled, still half asleep.
"Not in a long time." Matt laughed.
"Whatever."
"I mean really, leaving when Mya was home, and not telling me? I mean come on mate you always tell me when you're leaving so I can cover your ass." Ryan wasn't allowed to leave the apartment without Matt or Mya, and Matt wasn't allowed to leave Ryan alone. So when Mya was out they weren't able to do much, but they had an agreement. They could go out sometimes and the other one would cover for him if necessary. But Ryan always had to tell Matt where he was going. So it wasn't much of sneaking out, just going behind their sister's back. Though last night Ryan didn't even tell Matt, which was so unlike him.
"Well when I woke up I wanted to go meet with some friends and I would have told you but you were talking with Mya." Ryan explained.
"You don't sneak out when Mya's home, that's like seeking out rule number one." Matt rolled his eyes.
"Ya ya, I thought I wasn't going to get a lecture." Ryan rolled his eyes back and walked out of the room.
"So how long are you grounded for? Two weeks? Three?" Matt asked. He's been caught sneaking out a few times when he was younger and he got grounded for a month, though he expected Mya to go eiser on Ryan.
"A month." Ryan called from the bathroom.
"Damn kiddo. That sucks." Matt laughed.
"Ya but I don't have to follow to the grounding rules when your in charge right?" Ryan smirked as Matt entered the bathroom.
"We'll see tworp." Matt ruffled Ryan's hair and started brushing his teeth.
"Oh come on Mattie. I can't sit here and do nothing for a month. I mean no TV? No phone? This is ridiculous!" Ryan yellled.
"Would you rather dad's punishment?" Matt mumbled as he brushed his teeth.
"Well, no. But still." Ryan mumbled back.
Matt spit out toothpaste into the sink and rinsed out his mouth. "Look, Mya is doing the best she can. You know for a fact that Dad would have beat you dead if you snuck out."
"I mean I guess." Ryan didn't have too much experience with being beaten by their father, but Matthew sure did. When they lived with their parents and other relatives, Matt was a good fighter and hunter, but when it came to following the rules he wasn't so great. Their father would beat the shit out of Matt on a weekly basis.
Training, lecture and punishments were the only time Matt actually saw his father. Ryan on the other hand was too scared to disobey any order he were given. He was so determined to be daddy's good little soldier.
There was a silence in the bathroom as both boys got ready for school. "Do you ever miss mom and dad?" Ryan Asked out of the blue.
Matt looked over to his little brother, shocked at the question. "No." He said. "Obviously not." He added, a little less convincing.
"Ya, me neither." Ryan said with the same uncertainty in his voice. Ryan walked out of the bathroom and to his room to get ready. He dug through one of the last boxes he had to unpack to find a flannel, but instead he pulled out a crumpled up picture. He opened it to reveal an old family photo taken a few months before they ran away.
"Ryan! Hurry up!" Matt called from the kitchen.
"Coming." Ryan yelled back and shoved the picture back into the box and grabbed his flannel.
Matt blasted the music in his car as he drove down the streets of philadelphia and to West Valley High. "So? Are you going to tell me the real reason why you snuck out last night?" Matt asked, breaking the silence.
"I already told you, I was out meeting my friends-"
"Cut the bullcrap." Matt interrupted. "Mya might have bought that story but im not. No way you made friends in one day who wanted to hang out at midnight." Ryan opened his mouth to say something but Matt knew he was just going to lie again. "The truth Ryan. Or I will inforce Mya's punishment."
"I told you the goddamn truth!" Ryan yelled as he crossed his arms and sunk into his seat. Matt turned to Ryan and his eyes glowed a light red. Ryan shifted in his seat uncomfortably and tried to avoid eye contact. "That, that's the truth. I-I promise."
"Ryan!" Matt yelled as his eyes turned a darker shade of red.
"Okay!" Ryan squeaked. "I was out on a hunt." He mumbled.
"What!" Matt yelled. "Speak up because I thought you said your were out on a hunt!"
"Just listen to me, I have a good reason." Ryan begged.
"You better or else i'm telling Mya."
"No! Pleses! She'll kill me!" Ryan begged in a high little boy voice.
"Then you better have a good explanation." Matt told him.
There was a long pause before Ryan decided to speak. "When I fainted from missing just one feeding it proved to me how weak I really am."
"What are you talking about?" Matt asked. "You're probably the strongest kid in the whole school, next to me of course."
"There are kids in my grade who are a foot taller than me! Like always i'm the shortest and the skinniest kid in the whole school. I'm just tired of it. If I drank more blood I would be ripped and popular and every girl would be interested in me."
Matt let his little brother's words sink in, he related to the kid, being way too scrawny for his age, but regardless of starving from blood, Matt was rather tall and attractive. Where his little brother looked like an elementary school student. "Ryan, I get that, but you can't just drink blood whenever you want."
"Why? You do it sometimes. And it's not human."
"Ryan i'm a lot bigger than you, and I'm going to be turning eighteen soon. My cravings are up so sometimes I go hunting to keep my urges down. But your still a kid. You shoulnt be killing or drinking any more blood than what's necessary to keep you alive."
"I know." Ryan sighed. "I'm just tired of being teased for being too small." Ryan stared down at his hands and avoided his brother's disappointing stairs.
Ryan heard Matt sigh and he expected another lecture from him. "When do you have a gym?" Matt asked randomly.
"Um, tomorrow?" Ryan said more as a question.
Matt looked over to Ryan and smirked. "You wanna shut them all up?" Matt asked. "Use your powers." Matt said simply.
"What?" Ryan exclaimed.
"Don't be obvious, but jump a little higher, run a little faster. Just show them all up and don't give them a reason to make fun of you." Matt nudged his little brother and winnked. "I'm sure poppy will be really interested after that."
Ryan blushed a little. "So your not going to tell Mya?" Ryan laughed.
"Of course not. I was never going to tell her, we have a bro code." Matt laughed back and playfully punched Ryan in the shoulder.
"Your a pain." Ryan laughed and punched him back.
"Well your a twat!" Matt laughed.
When Matt was in the Gym locker room getting changed, his little brother's words kept echoing through his head. He quickly changed before anyone could see his rips or pencil thighs.
He was one of the last to leave the locker room, when he was stopped by a group of much larger guys. "Can I help you?" Matt asked smuggly.
"My boys tell me you were the one to beat them up the other night." The largest one spat in Matt's face.
Matt looked at the gang of guys and realized they were the same guys he beat up in the alleyway the other day. "Shit." Matt mumbled under his breath.
"What was that britsh boy?" The largest one mocked. "You are afraid of us?" He laughed.
"I don't know what you guys are talking about, I never hit someone in my life nevermind beat up a whole gang." Matt lied. He definitely didn't need to get into a fight with these guys again. Especially not in school.
"Thats right." He told Matt. "See boys, I told you, this wimp wouldn't be able to lift a bag of flour, nevermind take on our whole gang." The gang snickered and took a step towards Matt, making him stumble backwards. "You might have been a big shot back in London, but your nothing here." He muttered in a low voice and pushed Matt backwards. Matt almost fell on his ass and told himself not to retaliate. He could very easily beat all of them up like before, but he couldn't do that in the school locker room.
"Leave me alone." Matt warned.
"You scared pretty boy?" David, one of the other guys laughed.
The whole gang laughed again until Alex raised his hand and everyone shut up. "Learn your place here kid." He told Matt and shoved him down onto the floor.
Matt let out a grunt and grabbed his ribs. The larger boys laughed left the locker room to go into the gym.
Matt got off the floor and his eyes turned red. His instinct was to go fight them and show them all who they just messed with, but he remembered his advice he gave to Ryan this morning. About using their powers and showing them up. Matt smirked to himself and walked into the gym.
He immediately spotted Kaite and gave her a side eye. They were told they would play basketball that day, and the coach took out of the crate of balls. The girls stayed on one side and just halfheartedly shot around, and the boys played an intense game on the other side.
Matt was the last to be picked, which he wasn't surprised by, but when he got on the court he wasn't sure how fast to go, or how high to jump. He tried to not use his powers and ended up on the ground in a second. All the boys laughed and Matt's blood what starting to boil.
The gym teacher turned on Black In Black and that got Matt in the mood to completely destroy those asswholes.
When his team was on defence and Alex, the leader of the jerk squad, dribbled up to him, Matt stole the ball and in a matter of seconds already made his way to the other side of the court and made a basket. He turned back around and saw everyone staring at him with blank expressions. Some other guys from his team smiled and gave Matt a smile of approval.
The rest of the game Matt ws scoring left and right. He got passed everyone who got near him with ease, blocked, dunked and pulled out some NBA level moves.
Both teams were shocked but Matt's team wasn't complaining one bit. He even made friends with two guys who weren't apart of the jerk squad. Although Alex and his gang only hated Matt even more.
After the game was over, 2-21, everyone migrated towards the pull up bars where people started to see who could do the most pull ups in a row. The record was twenty-two set by David, a tall and slightly muscular baseball player that was in the jerk squad.
Alex cracked his knuckles and neck as he approached the bar. He ran his fingers through his dirty blond hair and then jumped up and caught the bar. He broke the record and set it to twenty-six.
Toomy, Danny, Cris and even David tried again, but no one could beat Alex. Other boys who aren't from the jerk squad tried but they couldn't even come close. Matt could have destroyed the record but he didn't think he should use his powers that much. That was until Katie walked up to the bar. All the boys laughed and some whistled at her. Katie just rolled her eyes and then shot Matt a glare.
Matt couldn't deny Katie was cute, especially when she was wearing yoga pants that showcased her bubble but so nicely, and a cut tank top that exposed her muscular arms. Katie jumped up to the bar and started knocking out reps. All the boys, including Matt held their breath when she reached twenty. She passed twenty and dropped at thirty three.
All the girls high fived her and Alex's eyes shot with rage. Matt could have lived with Alex or Katie holding the record, but when Katie shot Matt a smug little smile it broke him. Matt walked up to the bar and started pumping out reps with perfect form. He passed twenty, thirty, forty, and stopped at fifty with perfect form and not one drop of sweat. The whole class was staring in awe and he noticed most of the girls were checking him out. Katie on the other hand was not looking too pleased.
"Looks like we have a new school record." Their couch clapped his hands.
"What!" Alex and Katie exclaimed in unison.
"Congrats Mr. Arrendale." The couch patted him on the back.
Matt turned to Timmy and Zack, The two boys be befriended during basketball. Then len looked over to Katie and Alex and realized that even though we made two friends, he also made two enemies.
A few weeks went by and Matt grew to be quite popular. Him and Lexi, the captain of the cheer squad, started hooking up, and everyone seemed to love him. Besides a certain group of jerks who were trying to give him hell, but Matt always returned the favor. He was able to avoid physical fights but their fude was growing by the day.
Another feud that was growing was between Matt and Katie. They tried to out due each other in everything. Matt was beating Katie in Italian without having to study one bit thanks to him banging the teacher. Gym was also Matt's turf, not to mention that Katie really impressed him sometimes. Without Matt's powers he wouldn't even come close to her. They were pretty much tied in calculus, Katie studied really hard was was probably better, but Matt's old school was a few lessons ahead of his new one so he had an advantage there, also Matt was surprisingly good at Math. though when it came to Street law Matt was drowning. He didn't know anything about the American law system nor did he care. He failed every test and quiz he took so far. It only bothered him because Katie was at the top of the class. Ryan on the other hand was doing great in all his subjects and staying out of trouble, or so they thought.
The first block bell rang and the whole class hurried to leave. "Mr. Arrendale. Mrs. Copland." There teacher called to Matt and Katie. "Please come up here."
The two fighting teens gathered at their teachers desk as the classroom emptied. "Yes sir?" Matt asked. And Katies rolled her eyes to the 'sir'. "Matthew, are you aware that we have a test tomorrow?" Mr. Lucenzo asked.
"Honestly no sir, I wasn't aware that there was an exam." Matt rubbed the back of his neck and gave him a cheeky smile.
"I didn't think you would." He returned the smug smile. "Matthew you are on the path to failing my class." He informed Matt who wasn't the least bit surprised.
"So sorry sir, i'll try my best to do better." Matt lied.
"Cut the crap kid." Matt looked at his teacher shocked. He definitely did not expect that reaction out of him.
"But sir-"
"No." Mr. Lucenzo interrupted. "I get it, your not familiar with our law system, which is why I'm going to help you out. I want Katie to help you study for tomorrow's exam." He mocked Matt's accent.
"What?' Katie yelled.
"No!" Both Kaite and Matt yelled together.
"Mrs. Copland, don't you still need volunteer hours for national honors society?" Their teacher raised an eyebrow at her.
"Yes, but I can get them a different way then helping this bozo!"
"And I don't need her help!" Matt told him.
"Why yes you do." He laughed. "Here's my deal. Katie, if you can get Matt to get a B or above on the test tomorrow, I will bump your 95 up to 100, giving you a 100 average. And Matt, if you could achieve a B or above, you will be on a better path to passing, but ill also excuse all your missed homework assignments up to this point." He looked between the thinking teens. "So, do we have a deal?"
"But sir, why would you do this for me?" Matt asked.
"Because Matthew, I'm your teacher, and I'm supposed to help you pass." Matt raised an eyebrow at his answer and Mr. Luchenzo laughed. "And, I think if you two work together it might end this little dude that is going on between you two."
"What fude?" Kaite asked, pretending to be clueless to everything that has been going on.
"Don't play dumb." He told them. "So do we have a deal?"
"Fine." Kaite mumbled.
"Sir, I can't go anywhere tonight. I have to babysit my little brother," Eventhough that was true, if Matt really wanted to leave Ryan alone and go somewhere he would have.
"Damn, that sucks." Katies shrugged and did not try at all to hide her smile.
"Then you two can meet at Matthew's house." Their teacher smiled back at them.
"What?" Matt's jaw dropped.
"So, any more problems?" He looked at Matt and Katies and they were both too shocked to come up with any good excuses. "Great. So it's settled."
Matt and Katie looked at eachother and let out a loud groan.
This was not going to be fun.