Even If I'm Not Around
Chapter One.
Kara's POV.
This twin stuff has been a hassle since day one. People always asking who’s who and asking us if we trick our boyfriends. Same answers every time. Kara and Rhea, No. Yeah I’m complaining, oh well, call me whiney and move on. Here at Huntington Beach High, we’re known as the Merlot Twins. We’re not really high school ‘royalty’ but we are infamous for getting into brawls through out the school year. Then there was our ‘crew’, Jimmy, Matt, Brian, and Zacky. Sometimes this kid Johnny hangs out with us too, but Rhea doesn’t like that because he’s extremely short, yet we’re shorter than him.
I rolled my eyes as Katy and Charles, the class nerds scuffed their ugly clogs past me in the hallway, hurrying to get to class before anyone else. I slammed my locker door and punched Matt in the shoulder, who turned around with a scowl then smirked when he saw who it was.
I rolled my eyes at him too and wrapped my arm through his and we walked to Social Studies together. You see, Matt and I are really close, but nothing official. I saw Rhea skipping toward us hand in hand with Jimmy and rolled my eyes for the third time today. They definitely were a pair… Both crazy as a monkey in a zoo full of frogs. Her and Jimmy were also in our class so we finished our walk towards the classroom with them. When we reached the room, I took a seat in my usual seat, and no these aren’t assigned, we assigned them ourselves. My seat was towards the right in the middle row. I set my ‘Peace’ tote bag down next to my desk and watched as Matt took the seat beside me and Rhea behind me with Jimmy behind Matt. I giggled quietly as Jimmy flicked some gum at Matt as Matt ducked, it went straight in the hair of one of your classic popular kids, Alexia. When she felt something smack the back of her head, she turned around and scowled at Rhea, knowing that, that was something my twin would do. Rhea’s mouth dropped in shock and the boys chuckled at the mishap. Alexia muttered obscenities under her breath and turned back around, smacking her watermelon gum and gossiping away with one of her friends. You know, the kind of people who think everyone loves them, but in reality everyone wants them gone, yeah, Them. I stretched my short legs out and laughed along with Matt as Rhea smacked Jimmy on the shoulder for starting yet another rivalry with one of the ‘royalties’ of the school. Lord knows we don’t need another one of those. I wiped under my eyes making sure no eyeliner leaked down my face and turned in my seat, facing the board as the teacher slammed the door. He scowled at all of us for the volume of our voice moments before. But of course, all of us were perfectly quiet and stone-still at the moment. The lesson that he taught us took more than half an hour and the bell rang. I put my things in my bag and threw it on my shoulder. Walking arm and arm with Matt out of the classroom, I almost ran straight into Alexia, who had tried to square her shoulders with mine purposely. She scowled at me before growling “Watch it, Rhea” to me. I growled because she confused me for my sister and thanked Matt for keeping me steady and not completely falling into her. He helped me gain my balance and we walked back to our lockers, exchanging the right books and Matt growled under his breath at one of the ‘Macho’ guys at school, Jared. Jared was semi-buff and the boyfriend of Alexia. Another one of our rivalries. Don’t get me wrong, Jared’s big…but he’s no match to Matt. Matt towered over him in the height and muscle department. I smirked when Jared almost ran into an opened locker door, too distracted by Matt and I to notice. I had a feeling that today at break time, there was going to be a brawl.
After the next few classes had dragged on, we made our way to the cafeteria and took a seat beside Zacky, Rhea, Jimmy, and Brian.
“Heard there was gonna be a brawl today.” Zacky said, after taking a bite of his sub-sandwich. I just nodded and rubbed my temples, Matt putting his huge arm around my shoulders. I didn’t want to deal with another fight this year, but it looked like this wasn’t going to be the only one. Rhea and I usually just tag-teamed the littlest of the posse, Rose. She was a bit taller than us and had strawberry-blond hair that was practically fried from the amount of hair products and straightening. Me and Rhea could handle our own against her because she was a lot more frail than us. Rhea would usually attack from behind and I would attack from the front. We made a perfect team because we didn’t have to communicate out loud like most of them. Twin-Telepathy helps. I snapped out of my thoughts and snuggled into Matt’s arm as the teachers on lunch duty announced that it was time for us to go to Break. Here it goes.
The fight started almost instantly. Alexia came prancing over with a smirk on her surgically-enhanced face. She was about to get a handful of Rhea’s hair when I attempted to tackle her to the ground, wrestling her slowly to the ground. Rhea realized what was going on and helped me as I started punching Alexia in the face. So much for getting Rose. Jared came running over, in an attempt to help his girlfriend, clasping his fingers tightly across my arm in which I screamed with pain and heard a deep growl rumble from Matt’s mouth as he tackled Jared to the ground, leaving me to Alexia once again. The brawl was broken up by the Social Studies teacher who first pulled Matt off Jared as the girls gym teacher pulled me and Rhea off of Alexia. Alexia pouted her over-glossed lips at the teacher and a growl ripped out of my throat. I struggled in the teacher’s grip but didn’t succeed in getting back to Alexia. I winced when I noticed that the gym teacher had the bruised arm that Jared had clamped onto, firmly in her strong hand. I whimpered in pain which Matt heard and yelled across the field to the teacher that she was hurting me, she didn’t hear him, just firmed her grip all the more while I was struggling to get it free. Tears threatening to spill over at any second. Once the first tear spilled over, Matt broke free of the S.S teacher’s hold and ran over to me, yanking me out of the teacher’s arms and into his. I cried into his chest because of my throbbing upper arm and he glared at the gym teacher and Jared even more, the social studies Teacher came running towards him. Matt swung his other arm under my legs and hauled off of the school’s premises. I sighed in relief when I noticed that he was taking me to his house. My house wouldn’t be the greatest since my parents absolutely dreaded when I got into fights. I winced again when Matt accidentally touched my bruised arm and he frowned and mouthed ‘sorry’ to me. He gently kissed up and down the bruises as he set me down. I rushed to a mirror and mumbled curses as I saw that my left cheek was swelling up where one of Alexia’s friends had attempted to get me off of her and had smacked me in the face. I touched it and winced, noticing Matt coming out of the kitchen with a rag full of ice. I thanked him with my eyes and gently set it on my cheek. Matt mumbled curses about Jared for grabbing my arm like that and I reassured him by telling him it was okay. I fell asleep against him after we had gotten comfortable on the couch. He just ran his fingers through my hair. I slept for another half hour until Jimmy and Rhea busted through Matt’s front door, yelling about the excellence of the fight. I yawned and stretched my arms out and getting out of Matt’s grasp, not so easily. I hugged my sister and Jimmy patted me on the back.
This twin stuff has been a hassle since day one. People always asking who’s who and asking us if we trick our boyfriends. Same answers every time. Kara and Rhea, No. Yeah I’m complaining, oh well, call me whiney and move on. Here at Huntington Beach High, we’re known as the Merlot Twins. We’re not really high school ‘royalty’ but we are infamous for getting into brawls through out the school year. Then there was our ‘crew’, Jimmy, Matt, Brian, and Zacky. Sometimes this kid Johnny hangs out with us too, but Rhea doesn’t like that because he’s extremely short, yet we’re shorter than him.
I rolled my eyes as Katy and Charles, the class nerds scuffed their ugly clogs past me in the hallway, hurrying to get to class before anyone else. I slammed my locker door and punched Matt in the shoulder, who turned around with a scowl then smirked when he saw who it was.
I rolled my eyes at him too and wrapped my arm through his and we walked to Social Studies together. You see, Matt and I are really close, but nothing official. I saw Rhea skipping toward us hand in hand with Jimmy and rolled my eyes for the third time today. They definitely were a pair… Both crazy as a monkey in a zoo full of frogs. Her and Jimmy were also in our class so we finished our walk towards the classroom with them. When we reached the room, I took a seat in my usual seat, and no these aren’t assigned, we assigned them ourselves. My seat was towards the right in the middle row. I set my ‘Peace’ tote bag down next to my desk and watched as Matt took the seat beside me and Rhea behind me with Jimmy behind Matt. I giggled quietly as Jimmy flicked some gum at Matt as Matt ducked, it went straight in the hair of one of your classic popular kids, Alexia. When she felt something smack the back of her head, she turned around and scowled at Rhea, knowing that, that was something my twin would do. Rhea’s mouth dropped in shock and the boys chuckled at the mishap. Alexia muttered obscenities under her breath and turned back around, smacking her watermelon gum and gossiping away with one of her friends. You know, the kind of people who think everyone loves them, but in reality everyone wants them gone, yeah, Them. I stretched my short legs out and laughed along with Matt as Rhea smacked Jimmy on the shoulder for starting yet another rivalry with one of the ‘royalties’ of the school. Lord knows we don’t need another one of those. I wiped under my eyes making sure no eyeliner leaked down my face and turned in my seat, facing the board as the teacher slammed the door. He scowled at all of us for the volume of our voice moments before. But of course, all of us were perfectly quiet and stone-still at the moment. The lesson that he taught us took more than half an hour and the bell rang. I put my things in my bag and threw it on my shoulder. Walking arm and arm with Matt out of the classroom, I almost ran straight into Alexia, who had tried to square her shoulders with mine purposely. She scowled at me before growling “Watch it, Rhea” to me. I growled because she confused me for my sister and thanked Matt for keeping me steady and not completely falling into her. He helped me gain my balance and we walked back to our lockers, exchanging the right books and Matt growled under his breath at one of the ‘Macho’ guys at school, Jared. Jared was semi-buff and the boyfriend of Alexia. Another one of our rivalries. Don’t get me wrong, Jared’s big…but he’s no match to Matt. Matt towered over him in the height and muscle department. I smirked when Jared almost ran into an opened locker door, too distracted by Matt and I to notice. I had a feeling that today at break time, there was going to be a brawl.
After the next few classes had dragged on, we made our way to the cafeteria and took a seat beside Zacky, Rhea, Jimmy, and Brian.
“Heard there was gonna be a brawl today.” Zacky said, after taking a bite of his sub-sandwich. I just nodded and rubbed my temples, Matt putting his huge arm around my shoulders. I didn’t want to deal with another fight this year, but it looked like this wasn’t going to be the only one. Rhea and I usually just tag-teamed the littlest of the posse, Rose. She was a bit taller than us and had strawberry-blond hair that was practically fried from the amount of hair products and straightening. Me and Rhea could handle our own against her because she was a lot more frail than us. Rhea would usually attack from behind and I would attack from the front. We made a perfect team because we didn’t have to communicate out loud like most of them. Twin-Telepathy helps. I snapped out of my thoughts and snuggled into Matt’s arm as the teachers on lunch duty announced that it was time for us to go to Break. Here it goes.
The fight started almost instantly. Alexia came prancing over with a smirk on her surgically-enhanced face. She was about to get a handful of Rhea’s hair when I attempted to tackle her to the ground, wrestling her slowly to the ground. Rhea realized what was going on and helped me as I started punching Alexia in the face. So much for getting Rose. Jared came running over, in an attempt to help his girlfriend, clasping his fingers tightly across my arm in which I screamed with pain and heard a deep growl rumble from Matt’s mouth as he tackled Jared to the ground, leaving me to Alexia once again. The brawl was broken up by the Social Studies teacher who first pulled Matt off Jared as the girls gym teacher pulled me and Rhea off of Alexia. Alexia pouted her over-glossed lips at the teacher and a growl ripped out of my throat. I struggled in the teacher’s grip but didn’t succeed in getting back to Alexia. I winced when I noticed that the gym teacher had the bruised arm that Jared had clamped onto, firmly in her strong hand. I whimpered in pain which Matt heard and yelled across the field to the teacher that she was hurting me, she didn’t hear him, just firmed her grip all the more while I was struggling to get it free. Tears threatening to spill over at any second. Once the first tear spilled over, Matt broke free of the S.S teacher’s hold and ran over to me, yanking me out of the teacher’s arms and into his. I cried into his chest because of my throbbing upper arm and he glared at the gym teacher and Jared even more, the social studies Teacher came running towards him. Matt swung his other arm under my legs and hauled off of the school’s premises. I sighed in relief when I noticed that he was taking me to his house. My house wouldn’t be the greatest since my parents absolutely dreaded when I got into fights. I winced again when Matt accidentally touched my bruised arm and he frowned and mouthed ‘sorry’ to me. He gently kissed up and down the bruises as he set me down. I rushed to a mirror and mumbled curses as I saw that my left cheek was swelling up where one of Alexia’s friends had attempted to get me off of her and had smacked me in the face. I touched it and winced, noticing Matt coming out of the kitchen with a rag full of ice. I thanked him with my eyes and gently set it on my cheek. Matt mumbled curses about Jared for grabbing my arm like that and I reassured him by telling him it was okay. I fell asleep against him after we had gotten comfortable on the couch. He just ran his fingers through my hair. I slept for another half hour until Jimmy and Rhea busted through Matt’s front door, yelling about the excellence of the fight. I yawned and stretched my arms out and getting out of Matt’s grasp, not so easily. I hugged my sister and Jimmy patted me on the back.
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