Chapter 7: Chapter 7

The next day felt like Drake never left for college. I woke up to his annoyingly chirpy voice saying the most cliché line to ever exist in this world, well, at least part of the line anyway.

"Rise and shine, sleeping beast!" I growled at him under my breath.

"I stand corrected," Drake dramatically announced and I flipped him off, still snuggling comfortably even further into my bed, completely oblivious towards the bucket full of ice prepared right by my bedside until it was tipped over my head and its contents drenched me.

"DRAAAAAAAKEEEE!!" His booming laughter followed through after my screech that echoed through the empty house. I groaned in annoyance and dragged myself out of bed lazily to make my way to the bathroom and clean myself up to get ready for school. When I finished my morning routine, I set my hair brush on my vanity table in a not-so-ladylike manner and exited my room, not even having the guts to glance at my used-to-be warm and comfortable bed. Sometimes I wonder why I ever wanted him home. But just as that thought came, a whiff of chocolate chip pancakes greeted my senses and the entire thought just left my mind in an instance. I didn’t waste a second in bolting down the stairs, through the living room and into the kitchen.

Have I told you how much I loved my brother? A.k.a his pancakes? Unlike me, he actually has the ability to use the kitchen utensils without having to worry about the 98% chance that he would burn the whole house down.

I settled down on the counter and took a napkin, tucking it over my collar and picked the knife and fork up with my hands and did those unusual/creepy cannibalistic grins.

My brother, used to my antics, didn’t even spare me a look. He simply set my plate of pancakes before me and let me wolf out on it without uttering a single word as he took a seat opposite of me and ate his food slowly, taking his sweet time.

"Have I told you I love you?" My words were muffled by the pancakes I had stuffed into my mouth, and my cheeks probably looked like it could burst any second then. He made a face and just for the sweet pleasure of disgusting him even further, I opened my mouth wide and tried doing a grin.

Let's just say I failed miserably and started choking, almost ending my life just to make my brother feel slightly uncomfortable and disgusted. But on the bright side, his expression was definitely worth it. I gulped down the water and coughed a couple of times before clearing my throat and hitting my chest a few times.

After the delightful breakfast, I took my hoodie and tied my hair into a low ponytail and wore the helmet Drake bought me for my thirteenth birthday, ready to mount the motorcycle. It's been like this ever since Drake learnt how to ride. He'd just drop me off wherever I wanted to go.

I know, he spoils me too much.

I hugged Drake's waist with a secured grip as he revved the engine before pulling out of our driveway. We sped through the morning traffic and I couldn’t help but grin behind the plastic shield of my helmet as I felt the wind brush against my exposed neck under the helmet. I never realized how much I've missed the rush that riding Drake's bike gave me. He brought his keys with him to College to make sure I wouldn’t do anything "reckless" while he was away. In other words, so that I wouldn’t try riding his baby and have fun while he was tormented by his professor in college through countless of boring lecture.

What was supposed to be a thirty-minute ride with the bus was covered in ten minutes flat with Drake's speed. I grinned as I realized that I finally have time to walk and not run to class. I got off the bike and passed him my helmet before giving him a hug goodbye while still grinning. He grinned back and let me go.

"Pick you up at 3?" He asked. I nodded and smiled before waving and heading into the building. I heard the vroom of his bike speeding off into the road once again and proceeded to walk across the school's parking lot. I could feel the stares from the other students. I wasn’t sure why they were staring so much but I figured that I didn’t want to know anyways. I simply couldn’t find it in me to give a crap, I was just uncomfortable with the amount of attention I was receiving despite having to deal with it for practically my entire high school life.

At least I’ve learnt how to cope with it, though. I flipped my hoodie over my head and plugged in my headsets, trying to block their nosy gossips.

I pushed open one of the double doors that led inside the building and let my feet instinctively carry me to my locker, where Tia was already waiting for me while bickering with some sophomore. What surprised me was that Ryder was standing beside her, watching the scene unfold with an amused smile as he leaned on the lockers, arms crossed over his chest.

When he saw me coming, he flashed me a grin and greeted me, "Morning Princess."

I smiled warily at him. "Someone's cheerful.." I drawled out and he shrugged, the smile still on his face. I decided to think little of it and tuned in to Tia's conversation with the sophomore guy. "Dude, can’t you just suck it up and accept that you've been turned down? Alright? Good? Understood? Yep. Okay. Tootles." Tia said all in one breath before turning away from him and facing us instead. Once she saw me, she started squealing exaggeratedly.

"Lucy! I'm so glad you're here! Can you believe this guy? He asked me out! Like, eww. What the hell is he thinking?" I had to keep myself from sending a look of pity towards the guy.

Tia kept on ranting about how he kept on pursuing her to go on a date with her and every time the guy would open his mouth in an attempt to defend himself, she'd raise her hand, palm facing him, and stop him before he could even utter a word, while continuing to go on and on about how creeped out she was by how he's so keen on getting her to date him.

It wasn't a secret that Tia was beautiful and popular. I was just her shadow, nobody really noticed me and I honestly preferred it that way. With her baby blue eyes and brunette hair, who could possibly resist her? Not to mention the curves on all the right places as a cherry on top.

Ryder didn't even try to hide that he was amused, he laughed loud enough to attract the attention of many and I blushed a deep red color, caught off guard by the number of people that turned their heads to look at our direction and see what was going on.

I instantly smacked my hand onto Ryder’s mouth to shut him up effectively but it was, of course, short-lived, because I could feel something warm and wet slither across my palm the very next second, causing me to shriek and pull it away, wiping it onto his shirt's sleeve furiously as he cracked up once again.

Tia grumbled under her breath and crossed her arms as she watched us, "You guys act like a couple already, it's annoying that you keep on denying it." She muttered at us and my cheeks warmed up instantly at her statement. I slapped her arm lightly and hissed at her to shut up.

I opened my locker and shoved the books that I wouldn’t be needing for first period into the locker and took what was necessary to bring into my backpack before slamming the locker door shut and zipping my bag up. I hitched the strap of my bag onto my shoulder and turned to face Ryder and Tia again, not knowing that the sight that greeted me would make me want to shove my head in my locker and stay that way for a while.

"Well, well. Look at what the cat dragged in," A voice drawled out and I tensed up at how sinister it sounded. I strained to hold a squeak back in acknowledgement to who the voice belonged to.

"Gina!" Tia greeted in a fake cheerful tone.

"Fancy meeting you here. Oh well, look at that! We're gonna be late to first period. Gotta run. Tootles!" Tia exclaimed, cutting Gina off before she could say anything else whilst squeezing in the space between Ryder and me. She trudged forward, dragging us by the arm after her as she marched down the hall with an incredible speed.

After we turned a couple of corners, we were forced to part and she finally let go of my arm, turning to me and giving me a hug.

"See you in gym class!" She called out, already walking backwards to her chemistry class and I groaned after her, "Don't even remind me!"

Ryder followed Tia and I was left alone to walk to first period. *Sigh*, school. It's such a boring and dull place. I hate it.

I’m just gonna spare you and skip through half of the day so that you wouldn’t have to endure that with me.

13:00 came around and I was sitting in the cafeteria hall when I felt my phone vibrate.

I whipped my phone out, holding both my fork and knife in my left hand to check who it was from.

Got sth 2 do. Can't pick u up 2day. Sorry. Lv u. -D

I sighed at the text and replied back an 'ok'. Guess I'm riding the bus home then.

"Something wrong?" Ryder asked as he looked at me and I shook my head, smiling.

"Nah, it's fine." He nodded, smiling back briefly at me before continuing to blow on the spoonful of soup before his lips. Tia was busy laughing with one of her friends from the dance team. They were giggling about how someone apparently pissed their pants when he finally grew a pair to ask one of the girls out.

I scooped up some of the ice cream from my cup and shoved it into my mouth and spaced out a bit while waiting for the bell to ring.

I grabbed a still cackling Tia while rolling my eyes and dragged her away to the gym whilst waving goodbye at Ryder. Tia finally stopped laughing when we stepped into the gym stadium which was located at the back of the building, right before the open field or in other words, the school backyard.

We quickly changed into the school's gym uniform, which didn't go well with me, since I personally thought that I was showing off too much skin but unfortunately, it's part of the endless list of this school's rules.

I followed Tia out of the changing room once I was done changing and we fell in line with the other girls. The guys were being separated from the girls out in the open field and I gazed out the window that overlooked the school’s open field, only snapping out of it when our coach blew her whistle.

"Okay, girls! We'll be playing dodgeball! Gina, Hilary, pick your teams!" Of course it had to be dodgeball. I hated dodgeball. I tended to lose at the last second because even though my dodging skills were amazing, I couldn’t say the same for my skills at throwing things. Simply put, my aim sucks.

Like seriously, it frustrates me because it makes no sense whatsoever how I’m so horrible at throwing things because my brother is literally good at throwing anything! It's infuriating.

Gina threw a wicked smile my way as the groups got divided and luckily, I got to be in the same group as Tia. Tia, who was aware of my hatred towards the game, sent me a pitiful smile and I tried to smile back at her for the sake of it but I feared that my supposed smile turned out looking more like a grimace.

We got in our positions and the sharp blow of the whistle acted as a start button and balls started being thrown everywhere.

It literally started to rain balls. I kept an eye out for any ball that was directed my way. I never tried catching any of them. I just dodged. I did it instinctively as one flew inches from my face by moving my left leg just by a little.

Sometimes, when I zone out, I have these weird reflexes that only kicks in when I'm not focusing and something is being thrown at me. I tend to catch it without even realizing that I caught it. So, you can just imagine how surprised I was when I looked down at my own hands and found a ball nestled between them.

I squealed in surprise as another flew past my head. I felt the ripple in the air as the ball went past my head, causing me to duck and squat for good measure to put a solid space between the ball and my head.

I rose to my height once again and blindly threw the ball in my hands only to hear a high-pitched screech from the other side of the stadium. I turned to look at Tia who was watching me with wide eyes. I couldn’t have, could I? Did my shitty aim actually land the ball on a target? Did the ball just hit a person?

I turned back around to where the screech came from to confirm my suspicions and holy shite it really did!

I threw a ball and it hit someone! Yes!

Wait, no. I shouldn't be happy.

It's not right. They're possibly in pain right now. I shouldn't be happy.

“Bad Lucy! Bad Lucy!” I scolded my conscience over and over again internally.

I should probably go make sure that the person that got hit was actually okay. When my brain finally registered who I had hit with the ball, I could feel the color getting drained from my face as I probably went pale.

Yep. I definitely shouldn't be happy.

Goodbye cruel world.

'I better write a letter to Drake to tell him I love him,' I thought to myself as I stared at Death in the eyes. Death who had blonde hair and bluish grey eyes.

I think you might have guessed who Death is by now.

Yep. Gina the Queen Bitch.

Shit is right, bro. Shit is right.