I carefully walked through the living room and into Matt's. I slowly opened the door and peeked in to see if he was sleeping. He was. It was three in the morning so I didn't know why I was questioning it. My reason for being awake was just that. I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd creep into Matt's room and sleep there. Which I did do, I tried to walk around and avoid the messy floor. Which ended up harder than planned. He had clothes thrown on the floor and textbooks and plates. No wonder he could never find anything.
I pushed the messiness out of head and crawled under his covers, and finally fell asleep. Only to be woken up a couple hours later by Matt.
"Babe, babe get up. You're burning up." He said as he shook me.
"What?" I asked slowly waking up. But as I spoke, I felt my throat burn up and my mouth was all dry.
"You have a fever." He told me, "I brought you some water. And I'm gonna go tell Cole. Okay?"
I nodded and took the water. It felt cool as it passed down my throat. When I was done I placed the cup on his bed stand, rolled over, and pulled his covers over my head. His sheets smelled clean and like him. He had probably just washed them by the smell of it. And I wasn't going to leave them.
"Kat. How are you doing?" He asked as he lightly closed the door.
"You're attractive." I replied.
"Haha, you are a little delutional. You need to go back to sleep. I'm gonna go get you some soup."
"Matt," I said as I patted his cheek, "I feel very, very..." But I didn't finish my sentence because I wad too tired to.
-
Matt and Cole had moved me to my own bed half way through Sunday.
Since it wasn't good for Matt to sleep next to me. And since he had to wash his sheets, it was better to move me. I pretended to be asleep the whole time. Since if they knew I was awake then they'd make me walk to my bed. And if I had known walking was better than what they put me through, I would have. Cole had called the school to say I wasn't going to be attending for what seemed to be the up coming week or so. Matt was considering staying home with me so he wouldn't have to get his math project, and even though I would have loved to have a servant, he had to go. If not for school then for soccer practice.
So it was Monday morning and I was home alone, hibernating in my bed. I was just falling asleep, when the land line rang. Which was odd since we only selected people knew the land line, everyone else called us individually on our cells. So I stumbled out of bed and towards the phone which flashed Forester Academy. And then I froze, that was Hero's school. I picked up the the phone immediately.
" Hello" I asked with panic in my voice.
"Hi is this the Johansen residence?" The lady asked.
"Um, yeah, in a way. What is this call regarded to?" I asked.
"I'm calling to tell you that there is a parent teacher confrence for Ashford Johansen."
"Okay, thank you." I told her.
"Also, would this happen to also be the Burnstean residence?" She asked.
"Yes, it's complicated, why?"
"Well, there is also another parent teacher conference for Hero Burnstean."
"Okay well thank you. And I will be sure to get the information across." I told her.
"Okay, good bye."
"Good bye."
And after I hung up, I had some calls to make, the first one was to my dad.
-
"Okay dad," I said trying to hang up the phone.
"Make sure you tell them that you are just posing for me. And that we have it are worked out and that you are a temporary gaurdian." He reminded me.
"I will dad. I have to go now. Bye." I said as I pulled the phone away from my ear and hung up.
I still felt like crap, but I told Cole I was better and that I could go. I no longer had a fever, and I was chugging medicine down whenever I could. So I would be fine, and Matt had to go, so we would be fine. And I would have to grill him on why his younger brother was at a boarding school.
The school was around four hours away, and the conference was set for Tuesday at three. So we decided to leave at ten in the morning so we could have time to settle into a hotel and see our siblings. We were going to spend a night there since neither of us wanted to get home at seven or eight at night, and I was already supposed to be out for the week.
-
My alarm rang at eight and I dragged my ass out of bed, and into a shower. With the way I felt and how slowly I was moving I needed the two hours to get ready. Once I was done and got dressed, I waltzed into Matt's room and dropped myself on top of him.
"I really hope your Kat, and if you are, babe why are you waking me up?" He asked
"Because," I told him, "we gotta go see two people who are obviously in a lot of trouble today. And you have to get ready."
"Ughhh. Why am I doing this?" He complained.
"Well, a) that is what I am hoping you'll tell me. And b) because you love your brother." I told him as I dragged his ass out of bed. "I am taking you to the bathroom, and you are doing the rest on your own."
"Ugh, okay." He said giving me a peck and a hug before walking into the bathroom.
"I'll be waiting in the kitchen." I yelled after he closed the door.
Soon after he walked out with wet hair and a towel hugging his hips. He walked from the bathroom is room and was out in minutes, fully dressed.
"Breakfast?' I asked.
"Sure, eggs?"
"Omelet, and yes, I made one for you too." I teased as I hopped off the stool and handed him the plate.
We both finished our breakfast in silence, and put our plates in the dishwasher. And then prepared to head out.
-
"And that is how, I have this nasty scar on my knee."
" I always knew you were clumsy, but Kat, an industrial sprinkler? Come on." Matt said with a laugh.
"It's honestly not that bad." I told him, "Okay, your turn."
"Well, this one actually has to do with Cole. It was after you left. He wanted to skip school, since he was in one of his moods, so we came up with this elaborate plan. Which completely back fired and long story short, you and Ash took the blame for it." I told me.
"What?!" I screamed.
"Yeah, sorry." He smirked as he pulled into the exit to the school.
"Speaking of Ash," I started, " why is he at boarding school. I mean you do know why Hero is there."
"Well, he is actually at this one, because Hero is there. They've gotten really close. And the other reason is that my parents got divorced." He told me.
"Oh, wow." I replied in shock. His parents were always so happy and they seemed so together. They weren't the ones to get divorced.
"Yeah, that was almost my reaction. Except, I might have punched a whole in the wall." He told me.
"Yeah, that sounds like you."
"I didn't want Ash to go through the fighting and such. So one day, I sat my parents down and told them that I didn't want either of us to be in the middle of this stupid fight. And that if they wanted to keep talking to us, they had to send Ash to boarding, which he was fine with. Since I can go visit him over the weekend and as you know they can come home for holidays and vacations. And neither of us had to listen to the fights. So we ended up deciding on Forester. He could be with Hero, and happy." He said finishing off his story.
"Well, I sure did miss a lot." I told him.
"Yeah. You sure did."
-
We pulled into the hotel at around one thirty. Which meant or still had an hour and a half to setttle in. Which to me meant half an hour to sleep and an hour to get ready. Matt and I decided to share a room, since it was cheaper, and easier. We walked up to the room and placed our things down. I was expecting a long gruesome hour of getting yelled at for being bad influences. But who really knew what would happen.
"What do you think this conference is about?" I asked Matt.
"Well I think it's about the same thing the other three were." He told me.
"What other three?" I asked, completely dumbfounded.
"Um, never mind. Just stay focused on how you're gonna get through today with out dozing off." He told me.
And to that I laughed. I had plopped onto my side of the bed and started to flip through the channels. And then a thought popped into my head.
"Hey Matt, do you ever think that we don't act like other people our age?" I asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Like that we matured too early. And that we don't do 'normal' teenager things." I told him.
"Yeah, maybe. But I think that we had enough teenager things and we can chose to do those things more often. But also, we have more responsibility. Which will help us. Well more than a hangover and booze will."
"Awe, when did you get so smart?" I asked him teasingly.
"You didn't know? I've always been smart." He replied sarcasticly.
I playfully pushed him and got off of the bed.
"I am going to get ready." I informed him.
"Yeah, you should. Since you take so damn long to get ready." He said.
"Shut up." I replied as I walked off and headed into the bathroom.
-
"What in the world, makes you think that cutting class to go sit in the bathroom with Ash. Is a good idea." I asked Hero.
"The fact that study hall isn't an actual class. Made it okay." She replied.
I was currently talking to both Ash and Hero on behalf of Matt and I since Matt was too pissed to even deal with his brother.
"We're both really sorry. But it isn't like you two never cut class." Hero countered.
"You are right, but that doesn't mean that it's okay." I tried to explain.
"Okay, yeah you're right. Sorry." Hero said.
"Yeah sorry." Ash echoed.
It hadn't been that bad. When we first walked in, they almost kicked us out. But then we went through the paper work and sorted everything out. And then they told us what had happened. Appearntly Hero and Ash decided to cut study hall and they went to the boy's bathroom to talk. And to be honest I would have done the same thing if I was in their shoes. They both have a lot on their plate. But according to the teacher that found them, they were making out. Which Matt snickered at and I tightened my lips. The teacher obviously didn't know a thing about them. But the vice principel knew them pretty well appearntly, well enough to know that they weren't making out in the bathroom.
"So, let's put this all behind us, and decide what we are going to do today." I suggested.
"Okay." Hero and Ash replied in unison. Still upset about the lecture, but they seemed up to putting the incident behind us.
Matt still seemed upset. So I placed my hand on his thigh and he placed his on top of mine.
-
I hugged Hero tightly and she hugged me back.
"I love you. I know it's been hard. But you and Ash need to stick together and be there for each other. And I know I sound cheesy and motherly, but take it from me, having someone like Ash around makes all the difference." I told her.
She wiped her eyes as she pulled away.
"I love you too. And I promise to keep calling you." She told me.
"Okay. See you soon, for Thanks Giving, okay?"
"Yeah." She replied.
And then we both walked into the school lobby and we were soon joined by Matt and Ash. We then signed them back in and went back to the hotel.
"I want to be a kid again." I informed him.
"As do I." He echoed.
" You got the fun part. I was the one who lectured. So don't go complaining." I told him with some annoynce in my voice.
"Oh but I love you." He said rolling over and dog piling me.
"I love you too." I said leaving him in shock for a few seconds, and then he kissed me, and just like every other time he had. It made my knees weak.
"Wait are you still sick?" He asked.
"I don't think I can be sick now. So no." I told him.
-
"We live in New York City. How can we not find anything to do?" Bea asked.
"I don't know." I replied with a shrug.
I did know though, it was because it was Monday, my boyfriend was too comfortable to peel away from, and I was in no way going to venture out into the busy streets of NYC on a Monday afternoon.
Bea had come over after school. And was currently spread out on one side of the couch, while Matt and I cuddled on the other side. Cole had gone to the gym, which wasn't unusual these days, he was stressing out about Junior year so he worked through it by going to the gym.
Bea had spent the past two hours complaining about having nothing to do. For the first hour and a half I had just sat on the couch and pretended to listen while reading a book. Which was so much fun. And then Matt finally came home from practice. And then we spent half an hour listening to Bea go on about how her life was anticlimatic.
"Bea," I said, "I am going to watch a movie."
That must have got her attention because she perked up and widened her eyes.
"What movie?" She asked.
"The Perks." I said.
And after I said that she squealed, I smirked, and Matt looked confused.
"The Perks of Being a Wall Flower." I explained to him.
"Oh. I don't think I've seen it." He said.
"Seen what?" Cole asked as he walked in.
"The Perks." Bea and I said in unison.
"Wait were watching The Perks?" Cole asked.
"Yeah." I told him.
"Sweet!"
After that, Cole dissapeared into his room and took a quick shower before walking back into the living room and plopping on the couch next to Bea.
"It's just like old times." I said as the beginning credits rolled in.
"That's what I was thinking!" Bea yelled.
That caused all of us to burst out laughing. As we were settling down I looked over to Bea and Cole and noticed a spark that was new. Then I looked up at Matt who also seemed to have noticed because he whispered, I'll talk to him later, into my ear before turning to face the screen and engulfing himself into the movie.