All Time Trouble

“How come Alex can get transferred into a public school but I can’t?” I asked following my mother through the kitchen as she started getting dinner ready.

“Because he suggested getting transferred to a public school.” She said.

“I suggested getting transferred too. I suggested that it’d be less to pay for tuition, but you’re not transferring me!- sorry.” I said and looked down a bit when she gave me a look because I had slightly raised my voice towards her.

“Plus, I hate the uniforms. They’re so ugly, Mom.” I said and she laughed a bit.

“Kayden, you’re going into seventh grade after summer break. Alex is going into eighth. How about this? You can get transferred when you go into eighth grade too, if you still want to be transferred,” she said and I just put my hands on my hips.

“Well,” I said smiling a bit.

“Well what?” she asked stirring the pasta on the stove.

“Do you wanna know the REAL reason Alex wants go get transferred?” I asked raising my eyebrow a bit as my smile turned into a smirk that slowly grew and spread across my face.

“He told your father and I-“

“I know what he told you and Daddy. But do you wanna know what he told me?” I asked tilting my head a bit and she stood still, staring at me waiting for an answer.

“He told me he wanted to transfer into a public school because doesn’t want to deal with me at school, because he deals with me enough at home.” I said standing up straight and folding my arms across my chest and my mom just raised her eyebrows.

“Oh really? Is that so?” she asked and I nodded.

“Alexander, come down here for a minute please!” she called from the kitchen door and I heard my brother turn off his amp and started to run down the stairs. I heard a thump and tried not to laugh knowing he fell into the wall.

“No need to run Alexander, you’ll break everything in the house.” I heard our dad say.

“Sorry Dad. And why is everyone calling me Alexander? How much trouble can I be in?”

“I don’t know, go see why your mother called you.”

“Yeah Mom? What’s- What did you do?” he asked glaring at me. I just nodded to our mother and smirked a little bit again and Alex’s stare just got harder before turning to her.

“Yeah Mom?” he asked again and she turned around to face him and leaned her hands on the counter behind her.

“What was your reason for transferring you into a public school again?” she asked and Alex looked confused before answering.

“Uh, I don’t really remember,”

“You suggested it would be easier for you because the teachers are less strict?” she said and he nodded a bit.

“Any other reasons?” she asked and he shrugged.

“I guess the tuition fee would be less to pay-“

“Hey that’s what my reason was! You overheard us talking!” I said shoving him a bit.

“Oh, like I could hear you guys talking?! I was upstairs playing guitar! And don’t shove me!” Alex shouted before shoving me back.

“Both of you stop it!” my mother hollered before pulling us apart and we just glared at each other, knowing once our mother let go of us we where gonna chase each other around the house for a good three hours.

“Why am I even down here? Why do you need to talk about why I want to get transferred to public school?” Alex said.

“Because your sister told me something that I found interesting,” our mother said letting go of us slowly and Alex just scowled at me.

“I knew you had something to do with this!” he shouted. He reached for my throat and I reached for his too, but before we could choke each other out, our mother pulled us away again.

“That is enough! Both of you sit down! I can’t take this when I’m trying to talk to you two.” We mumbled under our breaths and sat down in the chairs she had pulled out from the table for us.

“I just want to know why you BOTH want to be transferred into the public school. I know Kayden’s reason is for your father and I to pay less of a tuition fee.” She started.

“Why can’t that be my reason too? Cause that’s part of why I don’t want to go private school, it’s so damn expensive.” Alex said crossing his arms and slumping down into his chair.

“ALEXANDER WILLIAM, WATCH YOUR MOUTH!” my mother shouted and I tried not to laugh.

“Why don’t I tell her the reason you want to transfer schools Alexander?” I chuckled a bit when I said his full name; knowing he hates when I say it.

“You keep your mouth shut,” he said pointing at me with his one arm still folded.

“Oh wait, I already did!” I said holding out my arms a bit. Then I looked towards Alex and smiled devilishly.

“Whoopsies.”

“I’m gonna kill you.” He stared and my mother turned his face back to her.

“Is it true you only want to go to the public school to get away from your sister?” Alex turned to glare at me but my mother turned his head back to her again.

“Is it?” she asked again and he got quiet.

“Yes.” She took her hands off the top of his head and he sat back in his chair and folded his arms again.

“I have half a mind to make sure they don’t transfer your papers to the public school.” She said and I took a sideways glance at him, and I saw the light leave his eyes... He really wants to go to that public school.

“But I know how much you want to go, so I won’t.” she said and he had a small thankful smile on his face.

“But if you ever lie to your father and I like that again you won’t be allowed to get your allowance for three months, you hear me?” she asked pointing to him and his eyes grew wide and nodded a bit fast. Usually that wouldn’t bother a normal kid, but my brother wasn’t normal. Kids usually get random crap with their allowances, or cds, movies and books and stuff like I do, but my brother waists it all on guitar stuff.

“Okay, you can go.” She said pointing and nodding her head to the kitchen door and Alex zoomed out of the room.

“As for you...” she said turning to me and I bit my lip.

“You should’ve came to your father and I when Alexander wasn’t home so we could’ve talked about this,”

“But then you guys would’ve just yelled at him as soon as he came through the door, then he would’ve yelled at me later.” I said and she nodded a bit.

“Okay. But anyway, do you still want to go to the public school? If so tell me now so I can make sure your file gets transferred before the end of the summer.” She said and I smiled.

“Yes! Please, please, I really do. Go call now,” I said pushing her towards the living room.

“But I’m working on dinner-“

“I know what you’re making, I’ll do it. and if I need help I’ll ask Alex. Now go, go call! Thank you Mom I love you.” I said kissing her on the cheek and kept pushing her into the living room. I walked up the steps and knocked on Alex’s bedroom door.

“Alex?” I called through and reached for the doorknob slowly.

“Go away Kayden. And don’t try opening the door, it’s locked.” I barely heard him say from his amp being turned up all the way.

“Please help me with dinner.” I said standing at his door. I heard him stop playing and get up. I heard the lock click from the other side and Alex opened the door just enough to put his head through.

“I thought Mom was making dinner.” He said.

“She’s on the phone.”

“With who?”

“The school,”

“I thought she said she was gonna let me transfer?! What the fu-?!” I covered his mouth before he would get yelled at even more.

“You are, now shh. I don’t want you getting into even more trouble.” I said and he shook my hand away.

“Then why is she on the phone with- you didn’t.”

“She asked if I really wanted to be transferred and I said yes. Don’t give me that look Alex, I’ve been dying to get out of that damned private school as much as you have and you know it!” I whisper yelled since our mother was walking around talking on the phone with the people at the school and she was getting dangerously close in hearing range of us when she circled the stairs.

“You better stay away from me when we get to school this year,” Alex said pointing at me and I winced a bit, so he poked my nose instead of poking me in the gut.

“Alex, you’re going to be in eighth grade, I’m going to be in seventh. All of our core classes are most likely going to be different. It’s just-“

“The electives we gotta watch out for,” Alex finished my sentence with me and we laughed.

“Okay fine.” he said still laughing and opened his door the rest of the way and walked out into the hallway with me, closing it the rest of the way.

“And what’s for dinner? I wasn’t able to get a good look at it when I was getting yelled at.” He said nudging me in the side a bit and I yelped and he laughed as we walked down the steps side by side. We passed our parents joking and laughing and I saw them smile. Alex and I aren’t like many siblings. Some siblings can stay mad at each other for who knows how long. But Alex and I just have to leave the room for five minutes or less, talk for a little bit, and we’ll be fine. Alex and I resumed what our mother had done with dinner. About halfway through everything was going pretty good.

“Alex, turn the heat off on the sauce,”

“Up?” he asked over the music we were blasting.

“Yeah,” I hollered back, not hearing what he said clearly. I saw him turn the dial and when to prepare to the salads. About fifteen minutes later Alex and I were having a lettuce fight, then something exploded and we screamed at the top of our lungs and fell to the floor.

“What the devil is- ?!“ our father started to yell but his eyes just grew wide.

“WHAT DID YOU TWO DO?!” our mother took over in the yelling.

“What do you me- HOLY LORD!!” Alex and I said looking at the stove. The sauce had heated up so much it bubbled and exploded over the top of pot.

“How could this happen?! I told you to turn the heat off and you did!” I said to Alex as I got up to look at the stove.

“...Off?” he asked softy.

“Yeah, what-“ I looked over at him and saw him biting his thumb.

“You thought I said up didn’t you?” I asked and he nodded a bit.

“Don’t worry guys, we’ll just order pizza or something, no big deal.”

“Really Dad?” I asked and he nodded.

“I love how you’re so okay with this huge mess.” Alex said.

“Oh, I’m only okay with it because you two will be cleaning it up.” He smiled and our mouths dropped.

“You’re kidding me right? Why do I have to clean up?! It was his fault!” I shouted pointing to Alex and he just stared at me.

“Kayden!”

“What it is!” but before we could argue any further our mother pulled us apart again.

“You were both cooking, so you’ll both be cleaning up this mess. Now hop to it, we’ll order the pizzas now.” She said and left us to our cleaning. When we were finished the pizza arrived. After dinner Alex and I went to our rooms. And the rest of the summer was just like every other summer. Stuck at home, no friends to hang out with, nothing to do. Then one week before the semester started, we got our lists for our school supplies in the mail. We got everything that day and couldn’t have been more excited. Then finally, it was here. The first day of school. Seventh for me, and eighth for Alex. And that morning after showers and breakfast and getting ready, our mother had us in the living room taking pictures of us like she always had once we were going into the next grade while our father just shook his head and said we’re too old to be getting our pictures taken before school, but our mother strongly disagreed.

“Have fun you two.” She smiled as we walked out the door, down the steps and onto the porch.

“And don’t get in trouble or into any fights. I don’t want to be at the principal’s office on the first day of school,” our dad said and Alex and I laughed while our mother hit him on the shoulder.

“We won’t,” Alex and I laughed together.

“Bye!” they waved.

“Bye!” we waved back before darting down the street to the bus stop.

“Can you sit with me? Just for the first day?” I asked as we almost reached the end of the street.

“Yeah. But if we don’t meet anyone that will be on our bus we can still sit together.” Alex laughed.

“It feels so good to be going to school in regular clothes, and not some stupid uniform,” I said looking down at my flats, skinny jeans, and 30 Seconds To Mars t-shirt and I had my Avenged Sevenfold jacket hanging over my arm.

“I’ll say so,” Alex said looking down at his outfit too. “It’s so much more comfy than those itchy uniforms.” He said.

“Not to mention ugly.” I said and we laughed. We waited a bit and got on the bus when it got here. We both put our headphones in and sat down in the middle of the bus. We went to four more stops then we were on the way to school, and I had all my papers on my lap the entire ride.

“Alex... I just realized something...” I said as I looked out the window.

“What?” he asked taking his one headphone out.

“We have no clue what this school looks like, we don’t know where any of our classes are,” I said and he just stared at me.

“I do.”

“What?!”

“Mom and I went for orientation the first week of July. And don’t ask why I didn’t tell you about it, this was before it was decided that you were going too.” Alex said and I glared at him.

“But don’t worry, you’ll probably find someone to tag along with to find out where all your classes and stuff are. Don’t worry Kay, you’ll get through it.” he smiled giving me a small hug. I sighed a bit and waited for the bus ride to be over. We finally reached the school and Alex and I kept hitting each other’s arm out of excitement. We got off the bus and went inside. I found my homeroom pretty easily, and sat down where there was a card with my name on it. Homeroom was pretty easy too, we just got a bunch of papers that our parents had to deal with when we got home later. But when the bell rang and I went out into the hall, that’s when things got terrible. I had no clue where to go, and how much time I had. I was scared and desperate not to be late on the first day, so I followed the crowd. That was even worse. It’s like I had just walked through the gates of Hell.