Just Another Stupid Love Story

I sat at the round, wooden dinner table with Ma. In front of us sat a large box of plain cheese pizza, the oil obvious on top. A few pieces of the pizza were missing since they had already been eaten, as crust from Ma’s slices lay in the cardboard box so Fury could eat them later. Fury was my pet kitten that I had gotten for my birthday this year. He’s a little Bombay kitten that has a beautiful black coat along with greenish-yellowish eyes that stood out from his silk smooth fur.
I glanced over at my Ma who was nibbling on a piece of garlic bread that had come free with the pizza. Her eyes were glued to the Television screen that sat in the living room. It was in easy view of Ma’s site range. Ma was an attractive woman. She was 36 and stood around five foot five, taller than my five foot four height. Her eyes were a sparkling sort of brown that matched her natural brown hair that seemed to cascade down to her mid back.
Her skin was tanned and she had barely any wrinkles on her face, although she was a few pounds overweight but nothing obvious. Her expression seemed to be bored as she watched NCIS, no doubt an episode she had seen before. Ma finished off her last bite before turning to me with a small smile.
“So, do you have any plans for this weekend?” Ma asked as she reached down to stir at her coffee that she had made several minutes ago, her eyes flickering a bit to the mail that laid in a messy pile next to the pizza box.
“Not that I know of,” I replied, turning my full attention to her as I placed my half eaten piece of pizza back in the box.
“Well, I think I’ve found you a date, his name is Chris,” Ma said happily with a grin.
“Um, Ma, you know how I feel about blind dates,” I replied nervously, not wanting to hurt her feelings.
“But you need to give him a chance, I promised his mother that you would,” she begged, with a pout on her lips.
“Ma...” I complained before throwing my arms up in the air, “Fine, but this is the last time you will be doing this,” I caved as I pointed at her.
“I promise, honey, just give the boy a chance,” Ma said as she moved my finger away from the direction of her face.
I nodded grimly as Ma clapped happily and moved her attention back to the TV, sipping at her warm coffee. The home phone echoed throughout the house as I picked up my half eaten slice of pizza. Looking over at Ma I saw that she made no effort to go and pick it up, so I went and did it for her. Walking into the small kitchen I picked up the cordless grey phone, pressing ‘talk’ before I pressed the cold plastic to my ear.
“Hello?”
“Hi, this is Principal Daniel Crawford speaking and who am I talking to?” Mr. Crawford asked politely.
“This is Alisa. I assume you want to speak with Ma.”
“That is correct,” Mr. Crawford agreed as I heard shuffling in the background.
Letting out a sigh I made my way back into the dining room, tapping Ma on the shoulder lightly to get her attention. Ma glanced back at me with a raised eyebrow before grabbing the phone away from my grasp and pressing it to her ear.
“Hello?” My Ma asked confused as I backed away to head up to my room with Fury on my heels.
I smiled down at my kitten as I opened my bedroom door and wandered in, just as Fury scampered towards my bed, meowing as she jumped on it, a groan making its way out of someone’s mouth. Glancing sideways I noticed a body hidden under some sheets as Fury tried to claw through them to get to whoever was hidden beneath them. Raising an eyebrow, I turned around and headed towards my bed making Fury stop and look at me for a second before letting out a small ‘meow’ and padding off of the top of the blanket.
A smile rose to my lips as I flicked back the blanket, to reveal a gory looking mask attached to Jared’s head. A squeal left my lips as I stumbled backwards, placing a hand over my beating heart. Jared cackled as I tried to regain my breath, my breathing slowly becoming even.
“Are you trying to kill me?” I asked as I pulled back the mask as far as it could go before releasing it.
“Ow,” Jared moaned as he peeled the mask off of his face. “Why’d you do that?” he asked as he picked up Fury from next to him and placed him onto his lap.
“Depends, why are you in my room?” I asked, tipping my head to one side.
“I’m not answering until you answer my question,” he said before childishly crossing his arms and looking in the other direction.
“Do your parents even know you’re here?” I inquired.
“They aren’t my parent Alisa, they’re my foster parents,” he muttered with a scowl.
Jared always hated the fact that he never got to meet his parents, he always hated that his parents had just ditched both him and Rayan in front of the police station. The police never found out who the parents were and really, I don’t think they bothered trying to figure out who they were. They just shifted them both off to a foster home. They were only three when this had happened and they have no memory of their parents, although I know they both wished they did.
“They still take care of you Jared,” I replied, not wanting to go through with the argument again.
“I don’t care, but yes they know I’m here,” he hissed.
“Sorry, I know parents is a touchy subject for you,” I murmured as I placed a concerned hand onto his cool shoulder.
A sigh left his lips as he dipped his head into his hands, “It’s alright, Alisa”
A meow left Fury’s lips as he reached up and began to lick at Jared’s nose in a way of trying to comfort him. A saddened chuckle left Jared’s lips as he removed his hands from his face and began to scratch at the baby fur that was starting to fall off of Fury. Jared’s eyes diverted from my little kitten to the pizza that I held in my left hand, his eyes flickered up to mine before one of his hands reached out and grabbed the half eaten pizza before shoving it into his mouth.
“You could’ve just gone down stairs and gotten your own darn piece,” I muttered as I dropped onto the bed next to him.
“But that requires effort, plus Marcy doesn’t know I’m here yet,” he tried to say with the food in his mouth as a lopsided grin made its way to his face.
“Lazy bastard,” I muttered under my breath just as the door squeaked open.
“I do know you’re here Jared,” Ma said with a grin while Jared snapped his fingers.
“So what did Daniel want?”
“You really should start calling him Mr. Crowling, it’s impolite,” Ma scolded, placing her hands on her hips.
“Oh, she’s serious Alisa,” Jared joked.
“You too Jared, I know you’re not my son but that doesn’t mean I can’t push you around,” Ma said waggling her finger accusingly.
“You guys are going off track,” I muttered as I rolled my eyes.
“Oh, right, sorry. Well he wanted to talk about changing classes and tutoring,” Ma said as she sat down on my old, grey swivel chair that sat in front of my fake, wooden study desk.
My room was simply set out. I had my bed pushed up against my glass window while my cupboard was at the foot of the bed. Next to the cupboard was a large walk in closet that I had changed to dark room so I could process all of my photos. Besides all of that and the desk that was near the door my room was empty, only a few pieces of clothing strewn across the floor.
“What about it?” I asked as I crossed my legs so I could lean my elbows onto my knees and let my hands support my chin.
“You’ll start your first tutoring session tomorrow afternoon, I’ll pick you up straight after work,” Ma said with cheeky smile.
“You’re kidding me. I have to be tutored two and a half hours?” I asked, irritated.
“Yup, I hope you have fun,” Ma said as she jumped out of her seat and gave me a kiss on the cheek before leaving the room as a groan erupted from my mouth.
“Ha, you have to be tutored,” Jared teased, “and who’s your tutor?”
“Poison,” I muttered, not realising I had used the nickname.
“Ooh, tutor with Aiden, fall in love, so cliché,” Jared said with a wink.
“Does it count when I’ve liked him since grade eight?” I asked, glancing over at him.
“Yup, plus you know, I bet you’re thinking off stroking his long, hard—”
“If you want to keep your ‘friend’ then I wouldn’t finish that sentence,” I said sweetly, venom leaking into my voice as blood rushed to my cheeks.
“But you’re blushing,” Jared said, poking one of my pink cheeks.
“Shut up,” I hissed, slapping his hand away as he chuckled.
“Oh lighten up, I’m only teasing,” Jared said, as he wrapped his arms around my shoulders in a sideways hug.
I poked my tongue out childishly at him when he let go, just as the door squeaked open again. Ma stood there now with a white envelope in hand. She glanced between the two of us before looking down at the envelope and chucking it at us. A smile rose to her lips she said good night and left the room leaving the mysterious envelope to me. Picking up the paper, I slowly peeled open the lip of the envelope before reaching in and pulling out a neatly folded piece of paper.

Dear Alisa,
I know, you are probably a woman by now, and turned 16 on the 1st if I am correct. I also know you most likely hate me due to abandoning you and Ma, but it was for a good reason, I can’t tell you and you’ll hate me for that also. I just wanted this letter to reach you. I wanted to know how you are and what you’ve been up to. I want to know how well your grades are going and how wonderful you are now. I want to know everything about you, but I can’t, if he finds out about this, I’m screwed.
Sorry for the messy writing, I’m in a truck car at the moment and it’s quite difficult to write. I’ve got a headache and I’m tired. I know you probably wouldn’t be proud of me, because I know I’m not. I’m no one to look up to. I’ve got no job, no place to stay and I can barely ever go anywhere without him following me like some lost puppy dog. I don’t go a day without thinking about the both of you and just hoping that one day I’ll be back with you guys. Please keep safe, I love you sis, please love me too, I miss you so much.
Love from Coal,
P.S. Don’t tell anyone about this, not even the police or Ma. They CAN’T know, if you reply leave it in the pot plant by your bird bath, I’ll pick it up when I’m next through.

Tears brimmed my eyes as I continued to look over the letter, happy that my brother was okay. Sure he had abandoned me at the age of three and sure I never really got to know him but at least he’s alive. He’s well and he cares. I small smile lingered on my lips as I noticed Jared watching my expression with a smile on his lips as a bit of concern was detectable in his eyes.
“I’m fine Jared,” I mumbled, smiling towards him, my eyes flickering to the letter a bit.
“Right,” Jared replied complete unconvinced as he rolled his silver eyes, moving his fingers to my face to brush away one of my stray tears.
“I’m fine, I really am. The letter just affected me a bit,” I replied, looking down at my hands.
“I know, now give me a hug before you hop into the shower,” he said with a lopsided smile before pulling me into his embrace, him rubbing soothing circles on my back.
“Thank you Jared,” I whispered into his ear before I pulled away and made my way towards my closet, pulling out a random pair of pyjamas that didn’t match and wandering into the bathroom to have my shower.

~♥~♥~♥~

I wandered carelessly into the office with Jared, Rayan and Gabby following me. Gabby and Rayan were talking about some date they had planned for this weekend as they laughed and held hands, making ‘cute’ couple noises that made me want to hurl. I tried to ignore them as Jared babbled on about some awesome Xbox game that he had gotten off of eBay for a few dollars.
I rolled my eyes at the way he was so excited about the game, knowing that he was going to be glued to that game once he got home. I forgot the name of the game... damn it!
“Hey Jared, guess what?” I asked with a cheeky grin when he had stopped for a breather.
“What?”
“You just lost the game,” I replied with a wink making him swear underneath his breath as he glared at me.
“What’s ‘The Game’?” I heard a familiar voice ask from behind me.
Whipping my head around to look at Poison I smiled, while Jared just looked at him shocked, probably wondering how the hell he didn’t know what the game was.
“’The Game’ is a mind game, so whenever you think of the word ‘game’ you lose the game and once you’ve lost the game you have to tell at least one person about the fact that you have lost the game and then you restart the game about twenty minutes later, and now that you know of the game, you are now playing the game, congratulations,” Kaige said from behind him as he walked into the office and sat down at one of the seats hand in hand with Jonny, not caring what people thought.
“Can you win ‘The Game’?” Poison asked as he also walked into the office also, sitting down on one of the red seats.
“Yeah, you can win the game,” Jared replied with a perverted grin.
“How do you win ‘The Game’?” Poison asked looking around at everyone with a confused look, probably wondering why the hell we all had grins on our faces.
“To win the game you have to think about the game while having sex,” Ezra replied simply as he entered the room with Gee and Kenny on his heel.
Poison looked around at us with a shocked expression before his cheeks turned red and his eyes diverted to his feet. Everyone seemed to crack up laughing from his response while I just shook my head at them.
After a while I got sick of them laughing, so I had to try and stop the matter myself. “Enough guys,” I muttered as everyone chose to ignore me. My eyes narrowed into slits as I looked around at everyone’s expression, only Gabby and me having horrified looks while Aiden seemed to be on the verge of tears. “Would you guys shut the fuck up?” I yelled looking around at everyone with a disappointed expression. “I can’t believe you guys, it wasn’t that funny. Laughing at someone isn’t a nice thing to do, would you look at Aiden? Does he look thrilled that you guys are laughing at him? Does he look like he’s enjoying the fact that he didn’t know and just because of that you laugh? No guys, this is just as bad as bullying, please would you just lay off? I don’t usually give a shit but that was taking it too far, Aiden already has enough shit on his plate, he doesn’t need any more now, please, just apologise to the poor boy.”
Everyone looked at me with a saddened expression before they looked towards Aiden who was looking at me through his hair. A disappointed sigh left Jared’s lips as he moved towards Aiden.
“Look, man, I’m sorry. It was wrong for me to laugh, Alisa’s right, we shouldn’t have laughed and I am truly sorry for that. I don’t expect forgiveness straight away because truthfully if that were me in your shoes I’d probably punch the closest person in the face and walk out of the room, ignoring those asses for as long as I could,” Jared said as he placed a hand on Aiden’s bruised shoulder making Aiden wince a bit but I don't think Jared noticed.
“I-I forgive you,” Aiden mumbled, looking up at Jared through glassy eyes just as Mr. Crowling came in with papers in his hands.
“Thanks,” Jared replied with a kind smile before glancing over at Mr. Crowling who was looking over the papers.
“May I speak Mr. Vassalless?” Mr. Crowling asked, glancing up from the schedules watching as Jared nodded in response.
“Good, now I believe all of you know why you’re here. Does anyone not know why they’re here?” Mr. Crowling asked, looking over the ten of us noticing that we all nodded. “Great, okay so I’ve tried to put as many people with Aiden as possible, some classes it's just two or three people but others it around six to seven. Unfortunately there isn’t enough room for all of you in just one class since we don’t have that many seats left in classes and moving more people around would be a hassle for the school and parents. So I hope that this is alright.”
“Thank you,” I mumbled when one was handed to me by Mr. Crowling who had been handing them out all throughout his small speech.
I glanced down at the piece of paper, glancing over all of the schedule times noticing the only classes I didn’t have with Aiden was Photography and History while the only class I had with Jared was Photography and History. I think that Mr. Crowling still didn’t trust the others too much, but I suppose it’s better than what it was before.