CHAPTER THREE
•CHARLIE •
Monday marked the end of summer vacation and I was not here for it.
Joe's truck pulled up outside my house, and he rolled his window down when he spots me waiting at the foot of my drive. My stepbrother's had already left for school in car they share and our parents had left for work.
Joe was late.
The sound of a Bon Jovi song greets my ears as I get into shot gun. He apologies for being late, telling me his Dad forced him to drop his sister off at Long Shore's middle school. I brush it off and Joe pulls out of my road.
"Where's Taylor?" I question, knowing Joe would have picked her up first because her house was on her way here.
"She overslept."
"On the first day of school?"
"She rang me this morning. She overslept." I raised my eyebrows. "On the first day of school?"
"Apparently, she got so used to her brother's loud music waking her up for school that she stopped setting her alarm years ago. I guess now that Jason's gone, she just forgot."
"Ah — who would have thought that Jason Thornton would make it to college?" I smirked.
Joe shook his head. "With the amount of parties he hosted, I'm surprised he even graduated."
The drive to school goes quickly. As it turns out, Long Shore High is closer to new house than my old one. Before I know it, Joe's turning into the school parking lot with five minutes to spare before the first bell.
"Welcome to hell." I mutter, glaring at the school building.
"Only two more years, Char." Joe says to me, offering me a tired smile. "Then we're free."
"I can't wait to never see this place again." I reply, getting out of the car with Joe following just behind me.
Just then, I heard loud music enter the school parking lot. I looked up to see my Stepbrother's car pull into a space. Sebastian got out of the driver's seat and his two brother's followed.
Everyone's eyes fell on them and the three of them walk into school. They didn't notice my eyes on them. Instead, they revelled in the attention they were getting and only paid attention to each other. I was like everyone else — an outsider.
"Who do they think they are?" I mumbled.
"Who cares?" Joe says, rolling his eyes at the attention they were getting.
The pair of us walk through the front doors and I instantly became aware that something was different. As I walked my way through the hallway, I started to feel like I stood out like a lighthouse in the midst of the choppy sea of students.
People knew who I was.
Different students whisper my name and eyed me up and down. It was like I had come back to school as a different person. I had returned to school as a Lakewood, and they had all taken note.
Joe and I made our way to our lockers and put our books inside. We compared our schedules and discovered we were in each other's first class, which was English with Mr Atwood. I was very pleased as Mr Atwood was my favourite teacher and now my best friend was in my class.
When we arrived in class, we were told to go and stand against the back wall. Me and Joe rolled our eyes at the tradition. Every year, Mr Atwood had a seating plan that he introduced at the start of the year and every year he refused to sit me next to Joe or Taylor. However, I knew we were to blame and Mr Atwood had learnt his lesson from freshman year.
"Right let's see..." Mr Atwood started as he looked down at the piece of paper that had the seating plan on it. "Allen, Baker, Campbell, Diaz and Dixon in the front row." Mr Atwood said, and those particular students went and sat down in the allocated row.
Whilst Mr Atwood read out the names, I looked towards the other students in the class. Some of them I knew and some I didn't. Nonetheless, two people stood out from the crowd. Both Tommy and Harry were stood to the far back corner of the classroom glaring at me.
Wonderful.
"Elliott, McCarthy, Hudson, Jackson and Jones in the second." Mr Atwood continued and I looked to Joe sadly as he went and sat down.
"Then Kennedy, Knight, Lakewood, Lakewood and Locke — I mean Lakewood — in the third."
Everyone's eyes were on me as I went and sat down. Not only had Atwood put me next to my Stepbrother's, but he had also just drawn attention to the fact I had changed my name and was now a Lakewood. Anyone who didn't know who I was before knew me now.
What made matters worse was that my peers didn't hide their curiosity. Instead, they continued to whisper and gawk at me as I made my way over to the third row where everyone else who had been allocated a row had already taken their seats. The only space left was the space between Harry and Tommy.
"This should be fun." Tommy smirked, leaning towards me.
"This should be fun," Harry whispered. "This where we get you back for embarrassing us at the party. Now not only at school will you have to face us in the school hallways, but you also have to sit in-between us every day — Monday to Friday — here in English."
I mentally groaned as I realised that I was now going to be trapped between the pair of them for the rest of the year. They hadn't even done me the curtsy of sitting next to each other. I was sandwiched me between the two of them. This was going to be a long year.
"How did we find the Great Gatsby? I trust you all read it over the summer?" Mr Atwood began after he got everyone in their seats. "Can anyone tell me what it's about?" Mr Atwood asked.
Tommy looked to me and smirked, "I think Charlotte knows."
Mr Atwood looked in our direction and gave me a humble smile. He had taught me since freshman year and knew how much I loved English. However, I could also tell that he knew that Tommy was trying to show me up.
Mr Atwood looked down at me with friendly eyes. "I'm sure Charlie can speak for herself, Mr Lakewood. Charlie have you got anything to say?"
Thank god, I'd read the book.
"It's about believing in a false dream, an illusion and the hollowness of the upper class." I replied, shooting Tommy a glare.
"Exactly. Now would anyone like explain how the upper class are portrayed in the novel?" Mr Atwood continued, but then turned to me as he past my seat and said: "Very good, Miss Lakewood."
That was a first.
Harry silently chuckled as soon as we were out of ear shot. "What a nerd."
I rolled my eyes and ignored him, my attention turning to the classroom door. Taylor walked in with her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment when everyone's eyes turned to her. I gave her a sympathetic smile.
"Isn't that your friend, little miss perfect?" Harry asked me and I nodded.
I watched as Mr Atwood told Taylor to take the seat on the back row, which was behind me. She smiled awkwardly as she went and sat down in the seat behind me.
I turned around and gave her a mischievous smile before whispering: "Never thought you'd miss Jason and his annoying music, huh?"
"I hate to say it, but I think he stopped me oversleeping for years."
I turned back around in my seat to see both Tommy and Harry watching me. I could tell they were wondering who we were talking about, but I didn't answer their questioning eyes. I just shrugged and let them wonder.
I spent the rest of the lesson trying to enjoy the discussions that Mr Atwood would initiate. The other half of my time was spent trying to stop Harry from copying my notes and dodging the balls of paper that Tommy would throw at me. You could tell he was an athlete, his precision was annoyingly on point.
*
When my Mom and Peter came home from work and dinner was served, we all sat around the table. The boys seemed to be a lot chattier than usual. They were telling my Mom all about how kick off was the best event that happens at the start of the school year and that they knew for sure that they were going to kick Longview High's ass.
"Charlotte, are you planning on going to the game this Friday?" My Mom asked.
"No. It's not my sort of thing."
Kick off was just a name for the first football game of the school year. And despite the fuss our town, Long Shore, made about it, it was just another football game.
"You're so weird." Tommy gawked at me. "How can kick off not be you're sort of thing?"
"Not only is it a game that celebrates male privilege, but it's also unbelievably boring." I replied.
The look of surprise on their faces amused me. As they were on the football team, I could assume football was a highlight in their lives and not only had I critiqued it, but I'd also insulted their interests. Sebastian was the captain of our football team and Long Shore High basically worshipped him for it. He helped secure funding and got the school a lot of press with the number of wins that he had helped secure. His brothers didn't slip under the radar either. They were both star players. So basically, every football game revolved around the Lakewood brothers.
"You don't know what you're talking about." Sebastian dismissed, refusing to spare me even a glance.
I don't know when he decided it, but from day one it felt like he had decided to was better to ignore my existence than acknowledge it. He preferred to dismiss me as irrelevant. It was only in times like these that I was reminded of how much he'd love it if I wasn't here.
"Actually, I do. Our school is a prime example of it. We don't have a girls football team." I explained.
They all looked at me like I was delusional and my respect for them all had lowered even more. I could tell none of them had ever thought about it before.
"That's a very good observation, Charlotte. Maybe you should point it out to someone at the school?" Peter suggested.
"Oh please, Charlotte's just trying to justify why she doesn't want to go like every other normal teenager." My mom dismissed, tucking a strand of her neatly straightened blonde hair behind her ear.
"I don't need to watch these three play another game on the field, when a game's coming up it's all anyone talks about. I'd prefer to not engage." I proclaimed.
Peter gave me an amused look. "I think you should get involved, Charlotte."
"We're fine with her not being there." Sebastian stated.
"Well, maybe you shouldn't be." Peter commented, his crystal blue eyes narrowing at his eldest son.
We all looked at Peter like he was the crazy one.
"What are you going on about?" Harry asked.
"We've noticed that you four haven't exactly gotten to know each other yet." My mom said.
I rolled my eyes, despite knowing there was truth to my mother's comments. A while after my Mom and Peter first started dating, we'd have dinner at Peter's at least once a week. It became pretty clear I didn't have much in common with the Lakewood brother's, but our parents turned a blind eye. Then they got married and we moved into this on the last week of summer and everyone ignored the elephant in the room. Couldn't we keep pretending?
Tommy shrugged. "We talk, don't we?"
"Just because you talk to each other, it doesn't mean you've gotten to know or accepted each other yet. You're siblings." Peter added.
I clenched my fists, I already have a sister and she's dead. I don't have anymore siblings and I'm not willing to let the Lakewood brother's replace her. We both hated them.
"I am not related to them." I snapped.
"She is not our sister." Sebastian stated, his hazel eyes burned in anger.
Charming.
"Ass whole." I mumbled.
"Well you kids are going to have to learn to accept that you are now siblings." My mother said, looking at all of us before her piercing sky-blue eyes landed on me. "You're going to go to that football game to support the boys." Regardless,
I groaned, clenching my jaw. "Mom, why?"
Surely that was only punishing me.
"The boys have worked really hard for their places on the team, Charlotte." Peter told me.
"Good for them." I replied, my voice laced with sarcasm.
"It would be nice if you could go and support them." My Mom told me.
"Why should I?"
"If Alice was playing on that field, you would have been there to support her, wouldn't you?" My mom continued.
That was low.
I glowered at her. "Are you seriously bringing my dead sister into this?"
My Mom went quiet and didn't say anything and the boys all looked down at their food awkwardly.
My Mom sighed. "All I'm asking of you is to be there for them like you were there for her." She paused and pursed her lips. "I'm not having this conversation anymore. You are going to that game and who knows? It could be the start of something."
"Fine." I replied, irritated.
My Mom took a sip of her red wine, refusing to let my irritation ruin her attempt at a perfect family dinner. Smoothly, she directed the focus of the conversation onto another topic until Peter threw her a life line. Like a British person, he started talking about the weather. Soon talk of an oncoming storm distracted everyone around me from my frustration.
I put my fork down, feeling like I had now lost my appetite as my anger took over my hunger. Then, I excused myself from the table before I did something I would regret.
Why did it feel like I was the one having to put up with the most in this new family? First they locked me in my bedroom at their party and now this, it wasn't fair. Where were their consequences?
The next couple of chapters are some of my favourites :)
What do you think is going to happen next?
LAST EDITED 20/06/222