Reminiscing

“I'm surprised.” Dad grinned, staring at Eli who was for once, ready on time. “Your uniform is even suitable. No alterations... Maybe I should ground you more often.” He half laughed, leading us outside and Eli, Timmy, and I piled into the back seat.

“Don't even think you're just going to get me to follow your stupid rules forever.” Eli muttered bitterly.

“Son, it's okay to have your pride hurt once in a while, especially when you have too much of it.” He laughed briefly. He was still pretty upset, and Timmy just came home confused. And no one mentioned it to her. That was driving her even more nuts.

“Daddy,” Timmy started, trying to act all sweet. “What did they do to get grounded?”

He glanced back at her while backing up in the drive way. “You don't worry about it, sweetheart. And don't ask them about it either. It doesn't concern you.”

I was happy he said that, otherwise she would have nagged me about it. Sisters are so annoying...

“But I wanna know. How long are they grounded?” She asked, glancing at me then at dad.

“Drop it, honey. I’m not telling you. You just leave it be. You don't go prying into others business, okay?”

“Fine.” she crossed her arms, pouting the rest of the drive to school. And it may sound mean, but I was happy she didn't get her way.

We moved to get out of the car, till dad told Eli and I to wait. Timmy got out, looking back, probably annoyed she couldn't hear us get yelled at or something.

“I'm warning you two now. You better be here all day and in class. I don't have time to chase you around and you're both deep enough in that I don't think you want to add to it. You're not going anywhere after classes. I will see you both standing out front, waiting with your sister when I come back at three.” he paused a moment, looking from me to Eli. “Are there any problems?”

Eli went to say something, then stopped himself. I shook my head no, wanting so badly to be out of this car. Not that I wanted to go to school... I hated this place.

“Good, you can go then.” He turned back around to stare out the windshield and we climbed out of the car.

“God, I can't stand that fucking high and might ass, telling me what to fucking do! I can't wait to get out of this whole damn shit hole!” Eli muttered, angrily walking forward. “And if he thinks I’m just gonna go along with the damn shit, he's got another fucking things coming!”

“Just calm down Eli. It is your fault you know? You called him.”

“Yeah well next time take my damn phone away or some shit! I’m not putting up with this.”

Kario and Jayce walked over, laughing when they saw us, and Wade and Tayden had just climbed out of the car looking at the sidewalk.

“We heard about the four of you getting so totally busted friday night. Good job.” Kairo teased, clapping his hands. Jayce just laughed standing next to him.

“Oh shut the fuck up.” Tayden punched Kairo in the arm. “You think it's so freakin funny! You're not the one in trouble. And how the hell are we supposed to practice? You two are getting punished too. And now we have to try and smuggle shit into school cause it's not like we can use it at home...”

“How is it even possible at school?” I rolled my eyes. “And I still have that new song done.” I unzipped my backpack, pulling out a notebook and flipping to a certain page. “I don't have the notes in here yet, but I figured you'd finish that.” I handed it to Kairo.

He read it over, then nodded. “Yeah, I like this. You're getting a lot better. I think we should change this note you did have to a lower one, but otherwise I like it.” He paused. Jayce looked over his shoulder then passed it to Wade.

“Hey what about some of your screamo action in the chorus and at this end part?” Tayden looked up at me with Kario nodding in agreement.

I shrugged. “If that's what you think will fit in there, sure.”

“I want a guitar solo mixed in... I think after this verse. Then have the words here fading in. That's when your drums will come back in, and the bass right before that.” Kario said looking at Eli and me. “You two work on the guitar thing and the scremo. We can build off of that. Till then I think we should all copy the lyrics down and try and brainstorm any other ideas. How long are you all grounded anyway?”

Eli looked off at the concrete sidewalk, then muttered bitterly, “Six fucking months.”

I hung my head feeling like a complete idiot too. I should have taken his phone away.

Tayden exhaled deeply, “I'm never allowed home alone again... and my sentence is pretty much the same. Hell, Wade's dad showed up and called my parents. I had to stay at his house that night. My dad was home promptly at seven in the morning and dragged me home.”

“I'd never seen my dad so angry before... he yelled so damn loud... and it was killing my head the next morning. He didn't care. Said it was my fault... I think our parents all got together and made our punishments the same...”

“We all did the same stuff... and our parents are all strict as hell! Look at the damn school we go to! We're standing here with horrible uniforms and forced to do and say shit we couldn't care less about!” Eli shouted, kicking the ground in frustration. “How did you even find out about it anyway? You can't tell me your parents didn't go after you two.” He nodded to Kario and Jayce.

Jayce glanced at Eli. “Well... true... I did get questioned to hell! 'Jayce have you been going to parties,' 'Son, do you have any bad habits we should know about,' and a million others! I told them no and they never believed me. Because I hang out with you guys. So they searched my room. Luckily they didn't find anything because I keep it at Kario's... But I did get busted for lying on a few occasions... because I have been to a few of your parties...”

“How did they find out you did?” I asked curiously.

“I had pictures on a camera. Aside from that... they found out I wasn't a virgin anymore by finding condoms in my room and a few text messages... and that usually I was off fucking some girl when I say I am at Kario's... which then spiraled down to his parents finding out about him too. He was in my photos... I was with Kario technically... just we went off with separate people by the end of the night. Needless to say, I don't have my car anymore.” Jayce glared at Eli, who was crossing his arms fuming.

Kario nodded. “I don't have mine either. And I guess it's safe to say none of us have a phone then too. Why did you have to take all five of us down with you? Seriously Eli... You're not allowed to have a phone when you're drunk.” Kario rolled his eyes, then looked around. “Did the bell ring?”

We all turned our heads to look around us at the empty side walk. Shit. We were already missing our first class...

“Aw fuck... like we really need to add more shit to our already colorful resume of stupidity!” Wade complained, punching the side of the building.

“Seeing as we're already late then...” Tayden walked towards the parking lot then looked back at us. “Either we can go to our first class, or first get a hit and then go to class... or it would be even better if we could all run away from our stupid ass parents...”

“I suppose we could, but they'd just call the cops, you know?” I muttered, glaring at the sidewalk. “Ditching school and all...”

“But they can't make us go back, we're all sixteen or older.”

“Correction: They can make us go back if we're not in a suitable environment and are still going to school.” I noted, looking at Tayden who yelled out something I didn't understand. “We should just go to class... I mean... if we skip... we'll just get into deeper trouble. And if cops find us – with drugs... we'll go to jail. It's not worth it.”

Kario nodded, Jayce following him inside the building. I looked at Eli who put his arm around me and we headed towards the building after Wade and Tayden. That was... until the principle had came out of the building.

“Seriously... can our luck get any worse?” Eli grumbled. “Look don't throw a fit Ms. Bitch, we were going to class.”

And in case you probably thought we had a female principle... it was a male... Eli just hated the guy and he always overreacted. That's why a few people called him that, just not to his face.

“And I think I'll be seeing you in my office, Gabriel.” He glared at Eli.

“I'm not Gabriel, fucking idiot. I’m Eli, this is Riel. Riel, not Gabriel! Get that through your fat head!” Eli motioned to me, but kept his arm around me refusing to move. “I mean, do I even look like my brother?”

Mr. Henning looked at Eli then at me, then at Eli with a perplexed expression. “You two are twins. Of course you look identical... I can't help it I occasionally mix you two up.”

“We are entirely different! Look,” he paused, pointing a figure at him, “Riel is really thin. I have muscles. I work out. Riel doesn't! Oh and another brilliant thing!” he continued, being a bit sarcastic and making it hard for me not to laugh. “Riel and I do our hair differently! Isn't that a wonderful thing? It's so normal people, like our friends, can tell us apart! But I guess big buffoons like you still can't! And another thing... our voices! Sure they can be kind the same at times... but my voice is deeper!”

None of us could help it, we were all starting to laugh and Mr. Henning was getting pissed.

“The rest of you are going to class, and Mr. Elijah Carlin will be going to my office.”

“I'm not Elijah.” Eli said stubbornly, crossing his arms.

Mr. Henning sighed heavily. “Are you going to try to tell me you're Gabriel now?”

Eli looked at me grinning. “Yup. I’m Gabriel.”

“Fine! Gabriel go to my office now!” He yelled getting frustrated.

I shrugged, “If that's who you want. But I never did anything.” I laughed, smirking at him.

“Okay, both of you to my office until I figure out which one of you is which!”

“You know, it's sad when the guy running the school can't decided who is who. I mean, we look completely different.” Eli put his arm around my shoulders, grinning at Mr. Henning who was storming into the school building with us following. Our friends headed to class laughing their asses off.

“You know, I don't really wanna get yelled at for something you started.” I told him, sitting in a chair in the office. I guess we couldn't really lose much though.

“We won't. He'll probably just call mom and then she'll say how to tell us apart and then we'll move on.”

We both sat silent for a minute until Timmy came in the room.

“Or he'll call her...” I muttered, not thrilled to see her at all.

“Timothy, I just need you to tell me which is which.” Mr. Henning smiled, standing behind her.

“Seriously? That's all I was called for?” She pointed at me, then him. “That's Riel and that is Eli.” She rolled her eyes walking to leave the room. “Thank you. Gabriel, you can leave. Elijah, I think you'll get detention.”

“I'm not fucking Elijah! Don't call me that stupid name! It's Eli. Eli. Get it through your stupid head!”

He stomped out of the room with me. We headed to class.