Keep You

~POV: Kylie~ ~Two Weeks later~
“William!” I shouted at my younger brother. He was in my room, rummaging through my dresser.

“I was looking for your camera,” he said quickly. “Mom wanted it for outside.”

“She has her own, get out of here dorkus.” I gently pushed him out of my room and slammed the door, grabbing my cell phone which was given back to me just today.

“Kylie girl, what’s going on?” Tracey, my best friend, asked when she answered her own phone.

“My parents suck that’s what, they threatened to take me to military schoolTrace.”

“Parents just don’t understand what it’s like to be a teenager,” Tracey replied with a sigh. “So do you wanna come hang out? Kevin can pick you up.”

“Can’t, I got my phone back but I’m still grounded for an eternity.” I muttered. “Just because I smoked. Dad smokes all the time and he’s not talked to!”

“That’s because your parents want to have all the fun. I say we shoot some of the adults out here, just keeping the ones who’ll supply beer.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” I replied with a laugh.

“Kylie, come outside and make a snowman with us!” Willy’s voice said through the door.

“Bug off creep!” I shouted at him. I waited a few minutes before going on. “I mean, seriously Trace, Dad flipped his wig because I got all Fs, he didn’t even care about the A I got in choir.”

“That’s what I don’t get about my parents,” Trace admitted. “They want good grades, but when they see bad ones, they ignore the good ones.”

“I know, so let’s see, we covered they’re weird and blind, how about deaf?” I said, twirling a strand of my long brown hair around my finger.

“I tried to ask my parents if I can dye my hair, and they ignored me.” Tracey stated.

“My parents can’t say anything about my hair,” I replied. “My dad had some crazy ass colors in his hair when he was younger, and he still does it every now and then.”

“Really? What colors?”

“All colors, yellow, red, blue, black, brown, purple, green. Any color under the damn rainbow.” I replied.

“You’re cussing, that means your parents aren’t around.” Tracey commented.

“They’re out in the snow with Willy,” I told her. “He’s just a kiss ass. He never gets in trouble because they like him better than they do me.”

“Well, prove that he’s not as much an angel that they think he is,” Tracey suggested.

“What did you have in mind?” I asked, smirking. I heard her chuckle on the end.

“Only the one thing that’ll get any kid sent away to a military school,” she answered.

~POV: Jeff~
“Mom, Dad!” Kylie’s voice shouted from upstairs.

“Keep down, your mother’s sleeping!” I called back up in a sharp whisper. “What’s going on?”

“Come here, I just found something in William’s room.” she said. I rolled my eyes and went up the stairs, but not before the doorbell rang. Only a few people rang the doorbell, so it was probably urgent. I quickly opened the door and saw it was Samuel, the mailman. He took over his father’s position after he became very ill.

“Hey Samuel, how’s your dad?” I asked as he handed me a clipboard with a paper to sign.

“Hanging tough, but they don’t think he’s coming out of this.” he replied. I signed my name and he handed me the mail. The first thing I saw was the kids’ grade sheets.

“I’m sorry to hear that, if there’s anything you guys need..” I started, but Samuel shrugged.

“Thanks Jeff, but we’ll make it. We knew Dad wouldn’t be around forever anyway, it’s just hard to believe it’s actually about to happen.”

“Yeah, that’s the way we were when Riley’s father passed away.” I muttered, looking behind me as footsteps ran down the stairs.

“Dad, come on this is important!” Kylie said.

“Just a minute Kylie,” I replied, turning back to Samuel with my eyes closed.

“Good luck,” Sam muttered. I raised my eyebrows and handed him the clipboard back.

“When you have kids, good luck to you too. Now I know why parents get gray hair before their time.” Sam laughed and walked back to his car. I turned back to face my daughter, my hand on my hip.

“What did you find in your brother’s room?” I asked her.

“You have to come up here to see it,” she replied. I rolled my eyes and followed her up the stairs, pausing by my bedroom door to check on Riley. She was completely oblivious to life.

“Dad!” Kylie shouted in the room.

“I just said your mother’s asleep,” I scolded her. She rolled her eyes in her fifteen year old style and grabbed my hand, trying to make me go faster. When we walked into the room, I didn’t see anything out of place. Will was in the room, playing a video game and being his normal quiet self.

“Well Kylie, I don’t see anything out of place,” I said, turning to face her. Her jaw was nearly on the floor.

“How did you do it?” she asked her brother. “How?”

“Kylie, what are you talking about? I asked her, confused.

“There was a big mess in here!” she exclaimed.

“I cleaned it up,” Will shrugged. I couldn’t help but smile at the perplexed look on my fifteen year old’s face.

“Sorry kiddo,” I muttered to her as she screeched and ran from the room. I winked at William, who smiled at me and went back to his game.

“What’re you playing there champ?” I asked him, sitting on his bed beside him.

“Wrestling,” He replied. “There’s a girl on here who looks just like Mom.”

“Really?” I asked, watching as he sorted through the wrestlers.

“Yeah see, the Phoenix.”

“Wow, I didn’t know they had her on there,” I muttered, more for myself than my son. “Have fun buddy.” I walked down the stairs and into the office, knowing I had a deadline today that I’m pushing right now. I took a minute to look at the kids’ grades though. As I thought, Kylie’s grades were slipping. She had went from As and Bs to Ds and Fs. The only A she got this semester was in chorus.

After opening Will’s grade sheet, I noticed his Math grade had went from an A to C. His other grades were great, but his math grade had slipped.

“Hey, what’s that?” I felt arms wrap around my shoulders.

“Hey, feeling better?” I asked my wife, looking up at her.

“Much,” She replied. “What’s that?” she looked at the paper in my hand.

“Will’s grades. Looks like he’s having a little trouble in math.”

“Do I want to know Kylie?” she asked, walking around and leaning against the desk.

“Ds and Fs,” I said, holding the grade sheet up for her to see. “I think Kylie’s trying to set up her brother as well.”

“Why?”

“She was ranting and raving about a mess that Will made, but when I looked he had it cleaned up.

“She planted it there,” Riley agreed. “I think we just need to give up on her, completely.”

“We can’t do that Ri,” I muttered, sitting back. “We need to do what we can for her, and if it doesn’t do anything, at least we can say we tried.”

“I don’t want to see my daughter destroy herself though,” Riley replied. “This is one of the biggest things I was worried about.”

“I know honey, but there’s really nothing more we can do besides wait it out.” I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to where she was standing in front of me. I let my head rest against her stomach as she ran her fingers through my hair.

“Yeah, she’ll get over this sometime,” she agreed. “I just hope it’s sooner rather than later.”

“I know honey, I know.”

“Do you have work to do?” she asked me. I nodded and put the rest of the mail to the side, powering on the computer.

“Yeah a little bit,” I replied, folding my hands behind my head. “Nothing big, just finishing a poster for the upcoming pay-per-view. Why?”

“No reason, just wondering. Plus I think your brother said something about coming over.” I nodded, opening the program I needed to work on the poster. I grabbed the electronic pad that helped me make smooth cuts and pastes for the poster draft.

“Oh, your son made a discovery on his wrestling game,” I told Riley as I worked on the poster. I just need to make a few adjustments then e-mail it to Stephanie Levesque, who took over the company after her father retired.

“Oh really, and what was that?” she asked, picking up the rest of the mail and looking through it.

“They have Phoenix in it,” I glanced up at her to see her confusion.

“Beth Phoenix? Of course it’ll have her on there.” Riley replied. I couldn’t help but snort out a laugh, which caused me to have to stop working for a minute. “What?” she asked innocently.

“Yeah they have her on there, I’m talking about Phoenix, you know, The Phoenix.”

“Wait, you mean, Ministry, Attitude era Phoenix?” She asked, her jaw dropping slightly.

“Yeah that one.”

“Why would they have her on there?” She muttered sounding confused.

“Probably because it’s about Hall of Fame inductees and she’s an inductee.” I shrugged, going back to work. She blew a raspberry at me before standing up and leaving the room.