Green Money is Rad

“Bri!! Time to wake up!!” his voice sounded annoyingly in my ear. I groaned and pulled the nearest pillow over my head, wanting to run away and stay in this wonderful land of sleep.

“Hummbasgsanhmm…” I mumbled back frustratedly.

“I’m serious, let’s get going, Bri!” he yelled cheerily. I felt the bed shift as he climbed over and started jumping up and down on the bed, knowing how much that bugged me. I growled at him from under the pillow. There were several issues with this situation; One, who is this happy in the morning? Is he high or something? I mean, really, there is simply no reason for joy or happiness before noon. Two, he was 16 years old, yet he was jumping on a bed and laughing hysterically at my frustration. Seem odd to anyone else? And Three, well… I hate mornings, and everything to do with them, so you would think that after, hmmm, let’s see, 15 years of knowing me, this kid would be off my back about waking up? But nooo, not my big brother. He had to stick to tradition.

“GO AWAY. Just freaking give me five more minutes!!” I pleaded.

“Brianna Lee Money, school is not going to wait for you!” he scolded.

“Monte Bryan Money, yes it is! I’m a sophomore and have been for four months! Of course they’ll wait for me, I’m too important to be without. God, you are going to be such a good mom some day,” I retorted, laughing as he peeled the pillow from my face. He glared at me playfully, and then got this weird evil grin on his face.

“Fine then. Just for that…” he started, before reaching around and attaching his fingers to my abdomen and tickling.

“Gah! Okay! Stop the tickling, please!!” I begged, trying to rip his hands off. Darn him for playing guitar and getting all muscular. Bleh. My eyes watered from laughing so hard as I swatted at him, attempting to save myself from the tickle frenzy.

“Will you get up and get ready?”

“Yes! Yes, I’ll get up, just please, STOP THE MADNESS!!” I yelled randomly, flinging myself off the bed as soon as he let go. “Oof,” I emitted a weird sound as I hit the floor, not expecting him to let me go so quickly. “Thanks for the warning, bro,” I said sarcastically with a mock-glare.

“Whatever, just get ready, will you? You know I love you, little sis!” he said as he walked out of the room and shut the door for me to change. I looked at my choices and narrowed it down to my usual black skinny jeans, the bottom edges torn and practically shredded, and an oversized white t-shirt, sporting “MICHAEL JACKSON” written with sharpie across the front, with the gigantic sleeves cut off. I pulled the shirt over my head, then tied one end at my hip with a hairband. Pulling the other side down over my skinnies, I smiled at my appearance in the mirror. It wasn’t anything special, and that’s exactly how I liked it. My choppy brown hair that could almost be compared to some 80s styles, and the tiny bit of eyeliner that I had applied made my look seem very… me. But then again, I did look sort of boyish. I shrugged and ran to get my happy bunny tote from the table near the front door, glad I had taken a good shower the night before.

Brushing my emergency comb through my hair one last time as I walked out of the door, it seemed that today would be different than the usual. I didn’t know why, but it just did. I looked weirdly at Bryan who was sitting patiently in the car as I approached it. That boy was weird, how could he be sitting there waiting for me to get to the car for twenty minutes and not be frustrated at the least? He helped me throw my bag to the back and I buckled my seatbelt, then we made a U-turn in the street to head for Ronnie’s house. Ronnie was pretty much our closest friend, though he was known for his innate trouble-making skills, and I had met him my eighth grade year. Which was, of course, Bryan’s freshman year. Ronnie went to a different middle school than we did, and when he came to Mojave High, Bryan instantly made friends with him. That was two and a half years ago.

“Hola, Seńor Money! And Mini Money, of course,” he greeted as he hopped into our little pickup truck that my Uncle Jack let us borrow. He reached around from the back to give me a one-armed hug, then playfully slapped Bryan upside the head.

“Would you stop abusing my brother? I need him to cook me food or I’ll starve,” I reasoned. Bryan turned to glare at Ronnie, then at me. I just gave him a toothy grin and looked for the CD I had packed into the glove compartment. I put the Michael Jackson disc in and they both groaned tiredly.

“We listen to this every morning! Can’t you get past this little obsession of yours, mini?” Ronnie asked. I chuckled maniacally at him and shook my head.

“M.J. is the greatest artist to ever grace the stage. I mean, seriously, think about this, even the children of Africa without TV or anything still knew and know the name Michael Jackson. The man is EPIC. Sure, I disagreed with tons of the things he did non-music-wise, but still, he’s legendary,”

“I never should have let you move in with me, Bri, you never would’ve even known who he was!” Bryan exclaimed, laughing. I poked him in the arm and crossed my arms, with a slight scowl adorning my face. You see, we don’t live with our parents. We haven’t for about two years. We moved out because our mother and father were Mr. and Mrs. Perfect, so therefore there would be no rebellious children accepted. The moment Bryan decided he liked a bunch of indie-rock bands, they started monitoring his every move. They took away all forms of music in the house, and he never got any time to touch a computer. He still found a way to listen to it, and figure out that that was who he was. I fell inlove with that music as well, and we both started trying on skinny jeans at the store, and buying band shirts, things like that. Then, Ronnie told him he knew a guy, Zack, that could teach him to play guitar really well, and he started learning pretty fast. We were all really impressed with how quickly he caught on and got good at it. “We” being Ronnie, Zack, and I. I had always been really close with my big brother, and so… well, we did pretty much everything together, except the guitar of course. I was too weak for that. Our little brother Mikey never really fell into all that with us. We were the rebels, he was the good kid. So, Bryan and I moved to Uncle Jack’s, and there we stayed. He is hardly ever at home, though, so we almost lived there alone.

“Yeah, well, you wouldn’t even be able to live without me, and you know it!”

“Psh, whatever,” he retorted. He pulled into the last available parking space just before a pretty little Porsche, and I high-fived him triumphantly. We stepped out and I got several good glares from the jocks and fakes sitting in the expensive, overrated vehicle as it passed. I rolled my eyes and grabbed my tote from Ronnie. Today would be a good day, that much I knew for sure.

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“THAT’S A LIE!” Ronnie yelled at Omar as we walked off school grounds. Ronnie, Omar, and Bryan were currently making stupid dares, and Robert was walking behind us, listening to whatever music he was listening to. That boy was unpredictable. Bryan walked on my right side, Ronnie and Omar on my left. Omar had just bet that Ronnie couldn’t beat us to his house. Running. While we drove.

“Ronnie, don’t be stupid. You might kill yourself from running so much,” I warned.

“I will not! I just need a little warm-up and I’ll be good!” he said, pumping his fist in the air to prove his point. I got an idea and swiftly stalked up behind him, then jumped onto his back and wrapped my arms around his neck.

“There’s your warmup. You have to carry me all the way to the corner and back to the car,” I declared. The corner was about a block and half from the car.

“Are you kidding me? Why do you always pick on me, mini?”

“Maybe it’s cuz you call me mini!”

“Hey, I’m the senior here! I can call you whatever I want!” he replied as he walked us toward the corner. Omar was still walking alongside us, and Robert had turned at the street to his neighborhood, since he lived so close to the school. He must’ve been in one of his moods, he’s usually much more fun than that. Bryan was going to go wait in the car and listen to one of his CDs. Or at least that’s what I assume he’d do while he waits for the slowpoke named Ronnie Radke.

After at least fifteen minutes of Ronnie trudging along the sidewalks, we finally made it to the car. I got off his back and smiled at how tired he looked. I wasn’t fat, but then again, the boy needed to gain some muscle.

“Good job, Ronald!” I exclaimed.

“So, you up for the bet? I’ll put in a twenty,” Omar offered. His smile was contagious, so I started grinning. These guys were all my brothers, not just Bryan.

“Definitely, dude. I’ll put in ten,” Ronnie said. I laughed and shook my head at their shenanigans. They shook hands and Omar looked to me, trying to put a serious face on.

“You let me know tomorrow what goes on, ya hear?” he told me, ruffling up my hair. I blew a strand out of my face and nodded. He nodded me over with a grin, and I took the offer and squeezed him in a giant hug. Laughing, the senior boy hugged me back. I swear, he must be part teddy bear or something.

“Later, kids. Let me know tomorrow if I’m gettin' my ten bucks!” he added as he walked toward his beat up old Honda.

“Will do!” Bryan yelled back. I jumped a little, not expecting his voice to be so loud. I slowly turned my head to look at him and glare. He smiled fearfully and turned back to the steering wheel. Ronnie laughed.

“See you losers at my place!” he called as he took off running down the street. I hopped into the pickup and we started driving. He couldn’t have possibly been going over 15mph. We listened to some Aerosmith as we went along, and I nearly fell asleep.

“Bry, why are you so nice? Just beat Ronnie,”

“No! I want Omar to lose twenty bucks, that’ll serve him right for daring me to check Ms. Johnson out… ugh” he said, shuddering. I laughed and nodded, agreeing that it was somewhat of a fair punishment. As we pulled into our driveway and hopped out to walk down the two blocks to Ronnie’s (yes, we really wanted to let him win), I got a text from Ronnie.

just reached da houseee, suckaz! Wats takin u 2 so long? Im alredy playin ding-dong-ditch on mah new neighbor across da street XD

I laughed and broke off into a run, reading the text to Bryan. He followed, but was of course faster. We came into view of the house across from Ronnie’s just in time to see him run behind the wall that went along the driveway of said house. I narrowed my eyes at him, until I noticed a girl looking very frustrated, and probably a freshman, bust out of the house’s front door with a wooden bat. My eyes bulged.

“Woah, woah! Wait a minute, there!” I yelled, hearing Bryan curse behind me as we ran towards the house. She looked furious as she turned the corner to where Ronnie was crouching, fingers crossed. Then, a boy about Bryan’s age with black hair cropped to his chin and a lip and nose ring came running after the girl. He was probably the most gorgeous creature I’d ever laid eyes on. I stopped in my tracks and stared.

“Soph! Sophie, slow down! God, you’re fast!” he yelled after her. Bryan kept running towards them. The girl raised the bat to Ronnie and the boy behind her caught it in the air. That’s when I heard a horn honk at me and jumped onto the sidewalk, narrowly avoiding the car that’d been coming at me. They all froze and stared at me, and I smiled at them innocently.

“Uh… hi?”