Green Light Means Go

When we arrived back home, I couldn't help but groan. My brother’s familiar black Audi was parked on the curb outside our house. I was surprised that Craig still owned the same car he had since he learnt how to drive, with the money he must have been making I expected him to have splashed out on a more expensive car. Jake's brown eyes widened when he realised that the car outside was his eldest brother’s car and immediately ran across the front garden towards the front door, leaving Nate and myself stood on the pavement.

"I take it Jake has missed Craig then?" Nate chuckled to himself. I looked over at him, a small smile spreading across my face.

"You think?" I replied, “I think Jake thinks Craig has been on some sort of holiday or something. I don't think he realises why me and Danny are mad at Craig."

"He probably does you know, your brother scares me how smart he can be for his age." Nate reminded me as we started walking towards my front door. I pushed the door open and found my eldest brother, for the first time since he decided to show his face around here, looking somewhat normal. Compared to his attire and attitude the day before, you would think the person stood in front of me now was someone entirely different person.

“Oh hey Kels.” He glanced over at me and nodded once in my direction before crouching down to my brother’s height. Then he started listening to some long winded tale my youngest brother had most likely made up on the spot. I stood in the doorway, dumbfounded by the difference.

Maybe I was just over-reacting, but something wasn't right. I looked over at Nate for any answers, but he looked as confused as I was.

“Kelsey! Nate!” My mother called from the kitchen. I guessed she must have heard the door open, twice. I walked into the kitchen to find my mother smiling widely. She was obviously pleased about Craig visiting.

“Hey Mum.” I smiled and hovered by the door, Nate wasn't too far in the kitchen either.

"Isn't it great that your brother has post-poned his tour just to visit us?" My mother beamed. Clearly she was over the moon that Craig was visiting. I glanced over at Nate, a frown plain across his face, and bit my lip. My brother was lying to his own mother’s face, no wonder he was acting so differently to the way he had the day before.

“Great mum.” I smiled a tight lipped smile. I wasn't going to kill her happy mood by telling her that her eldest son was talking out of his backside.

“And thank you for agreeing to it Nate.” My mother turned to him and smiled even wider then she had been before. I nudged Nate to tell him that it would be best to play along, for my mum's sake.

“Any time.” Nate mumbled and ran his hand through his blonde hair.

“I cannot believe this.” I muttered once my mum had left the kitchen.

“You can't believe it. He is making me look like a bad guy!” Nate whispered back harshly.

“This should be quite an interesting visit.” I sighed and walked into the living room. I swear I heard Nate mumble something, but whatever it was it was too quiet for me to hear.

---

“I cannot believe your big rock star brother is paying you a visit and all you can do is complain!” Jennie rolled her eyes at me on the way to school the following Monday morning. “If I were you I would be raking in the rewards while I still could!”

“What rewards?” I asked as I adjusted my bags shoulder strap. “The only plus point of him visiting is that my mum was genuinely happy on Saturday. I don't think I've seen her like that for years.”

“Come on, you're brother has to have loads of cash. Get him to buy you a cool outfit for your sixteenth!” Jennie rambled on, like she usually does.

“Why would I need a cool outfit for my sixteenth if I'm not even doing anything?” I asked. “Unless you have accidentally just let it slip that Danny is in fact planning something, against my will.” Jennie's brown eyes went wide and she looked over at me, looking slightly startled.

“I never said anything of the sort.” Jennie winked. “But seriously, don't you want to do anything?” I shook my head.

“It’s not like it’s that huge a milestone. I'll just wait till my eighteenth to have a big party.” I shrugged.

“But what if Craig is broke then and can't buy you a super cool designer dress with all his money?” Jennie asked. I glanced over at her to see if she was joking, but her expression told me otherwise.

“God. Why don't you just ask Craig to buy you a pretty dress?” I asked with a laugh. “Are clothes all you think about?”

“I don't know weather to be offended by that comment or not.” Jennie pretended to look shocked. “Surely you think more of my intelligence?”

“Ok, I'm sorry.” I smiled at her as we turned the corner and walked into the school courtyard. “Though I do have a bit of a point.”

“Shut up!” Jennie smiled back and then stopped walking. “Speaking of clothes, have you seen what Kayla is wearing?!” I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

“School uniform, like the rest of us?” I asked motioning to the black cardigan with our school badge embroidered on and the horrible grey pleated skirt. And then there was the awful blue and gold tie...

“Obviously, but she's wearing the worst combination of accessories.” Jennie pointed her finger in the direction of a petite girl with long blonde hair. Once I saw her I understood what my best friend was talking about. Kayla had traded in the uniform grey socks for some white knee high socks with ribbon round the top and her skirt was at least three inches shorter then it should have been. Then there was the rather large hoop earrings and the sparkly silver belt.

"Oh my god." I shook my head and laughed. "Can you believe we used to be best friends with her?" I asked and we started walking in the direction of our lockers. I glanced over my shoulder at Kayla and her friends as we walked away to the year eleven common rooms and shook my head again.

“I can't believe she gets away with wearing that you know!” Jennie laughed once we were in the common rooms at our lockers. Our lockers were not that far away from each other because Jennie managed to trade lockers with a girl in my form. Her excuse had been something along the lines of “I have a bad back, so that means I can't bend down to get to the bottom lockers, which mine happens to be one of.”

It worked though.

“I can't believe she actually thinks she looks good with that head band halfway down her forehead.” I replied as I pulled out my books for my first two lessons from my bag. “It makes her look like a hippie, and don’t even get me started on her hair.”

“It is an offense to all natural blonde's everywhere.” My best friend laughed. “They all look exactly the same don't you think?” Jennie asked me as Kayla walked into the common room followed by four girls, who were wearing pretty much the same thing as Kayla, but they just looked even more ridiculous then she did. My best friend had a point.

“Yeah, it’s like attack of the clones!” I laughed and closed my locker door. I then turned around to watch the group get larger as half of the boys in my year surrounded Kayla and her group of friends.

The words feeding frenzy came to mind.

I waited patiently for Jennie to finish getting all her things together. Once she had we both made our way to our first lesson of the day, which happened to be French. One of my least favourite lessons, purely because there happened to be a lot of people in my class that I did not get on with at all.

I may sound like a very unsociable person, but I'm not. I get along with a lot of people, but there are some people that just annoy me to a point of no recognition.

Jennie and I were actually early for our French lesson, but our teacher was always late – so even if you were late it would be like arriving on time. This was good if you hadn't finished your homework, which I had not.

“So I heard your brother's back in town?”

I looked up at Kayla from my French homework and rolled my eyes. She was stood with her hand on her hip, obviously trying to impress everyone around her.

“Maybe he is,” I shrugged. “What's it to you?” I asked as politely as I could manage.

“I was just curious.” Kayla smiled down at me; it was one of those cocky smiles that had become her trade mark over the years I had known her. “I need to stay on top of everything that's happening you know.”

I rolled my eyes. I could see where this was heading.

“I don't think my brother wants any groupies to be honest Kayla.” I shook my head. I knew enough about Kayla to know the reason she was so interested about my brother coming back into town. She had gotten the crazy idea into her head that she could sing and it was clear she wanted to find a way into the music business.

Kayla paused for a minute, like she was trying to think of a comeback. Then she glared at me and turned to walk over to her seat. At the same moment our French teacher walked in and demanded that everyone sat down.

I lost count of how many times in the day people asked me about my brother. I would have been confused as to how they knew he was even back, but once Kayla knew something everyone found out pretty soon.

It was just my luck that I was stuck walking behind her large group of followers on my way down the passageway that lead away from my school. All of a sudden they sped up their pace and were hurrying down the passageway. I automatically expected that there was a fight about to happen, or something along those lines.

But when I got to the bottom of the passageway, where the passageway met the road, I found out that I had been very wrong.

My phone buzzed in my shirt pocket and I quickly pulled it out, not taking my eyes off the sight in front of me.

Surprise! P.s hurry up. Please? Nate.

I quickly walked across the road and over to where there was a large crowd forming around a red Volvo. A red Volvo that I recognised. I elbowed my way through the crowd, whom the majority were from my year and pulled open the passenger car door before quickly sliding in.

“What are you doing here?” I asked quickly. Nate just smiled at me and turned the key in the ignition, causing the engine to spark into life. The crowd had thinned since I had gotten into the car. Basically in the space of about too minutes the only people stood around Nate's car now were Kayla and all her friends.

“I thought you might want a lift home.” He shrugged and pulled away from the pavement. I glanced behind me to see Kayla standing with her arms folded, glaring at me through the windows. I turned back to Nate, still a little shocked.

“You caused a bit of a scene don't you think?” I asked. Nate just shrugged again.

“It comes with the job description.” He smiled over at me briefly before his eyes went back to the road. “You get used to it.” He frowned slightly. “I didn't think your friends would cause such a fuss though.”

“Oh believe me, Kayla Thompson is not my friend!” I laughed and put my phone back in my shirt pocket. “In fact she is anything but!”

“You too used to be, like, joined at the hip.” Nate laughed to himself. “I really have missed a lot haven't I?” He asked.

“You have no idea. A lot can change in two years you know.” I reminded him. He nodded and frowned once again.

“I've got something for you.” Nate smiled once we pulled up outside my house. I looked at him, confused.

“Why?” I asked cautiously. Nate chuckled and rolled his eyes.

“There's no reason to be worried Kelsey.” He smiled at me and reached through the gap in the two front seats. He pulled his arm back, holding a box wrapped in silver wrapping paper in his hand.

“It’s an early birthday present from James and me.” He handed the box over to me.

“You really didn't have to get me anything you know.” I sighed, but I couldn't help feeling glad that he had actually bothered getting me something.

“Just open it.” He grinned. I looked down at the shiny silver paper and began ripping the corners. Once I had unwrapped my present from the silver paper I turned to look at Nate once again.

“You got me a phone?” I asked in disbelief. “A freaking mobile phone? Why?”

“Because yours is looking a bit worse for wear now, don't you think?” Nate rolled his eyes like it was the most obvious thing in the world, which it kind of was.

“Yes, but you didn't have to get me a new one! Especially not a really expensive one like this.” I pointed down at the box in my hands. Even if it was the phone I had wanted.

I opened my mouth, about to speak, but then stopped before any words came out. This was the phone I had been wanting since my phone broke. And I had only told one person the specifics on the new mobile phone that I wanted...

“You've been talking to Danny.” I pointed my finger at him and smiled. Nate smiled in a guilty way and held up his hands.

“So maybe I talked to him briefly.” Nate laughed. “James and I had to get some ideas of what to get you.”

“But you bought me a phone!” I was still in shock. “And not a cheap one either!”

“Think of it as a birthday present for the past few birthdays then.” Nate looked down away from my gaze. “If that makes you feel better.”

“I still don't think I deserve it, but if you insist.” I pulled the brand new mobile phone out from the box and stared at it for a while before turning it on and messing around with it to get a gist of how it worked. I looked back up at Nate again. “I like how you have put your number in already!” I laughed and shook my head at him.

He just smiled back.