The First Meeting--Mal
I pulled up at school with plenty of time to spare. I checked all four boys' lockers for their notebooks and pulled them out, replacing them with a sticky note saying that they need to meet me in the abandoned music room at the end bell.
I walked slowly to my lessons. I always did. No one ever understood why, and I was going to keep it that way.
I walked into maths five minutes late, but I was fine. These teachers would never get on to me for something. He just nodded at me and gave me a small smile, turning back to the board. "James can get you caught up on what you've missed."
I nodded and turned to my left to see James with his mouth wide open, gaping at me. "Can I help you? Because you're supposed to be helping me," I teased.
"Sorry. It's just that I got here not too long before you did and I got snapped lunch detentions for a week. Why aren't you in trouble?" I looked away, fiddling with my pencil bag, straightening it so that my desk was completely symmetrical, though it was already perfectly straight. "Oh. Sorry. Don't worry about it."
I gave him a grateful smile and asked for his notes. "Well, I only use markers so I don't know that you'll be able to-"
"I remember. It's fine. My sister has the worst handwriting ever, remember?" I smiled at him and took his notes, quickly beginning to jot them down in my own notebook.
"Yeah. I do remember." He looked down. He looked up. He looked at Tristan sitting in front of me. He looked at me. "Is he making her happy?" he asked, pointing to Tristan.
"Yeah. Yeah, he is." I gave him a sympathetic smile. "But she still misses you sometimes." I could see both James and Tristan's ears perk up a bit.
"Really?" James asks, intrigued.
"Well, obviously not as much as she did over the summer. That was the worst. She'd cry herself to sleep most nights. And the times she didn't, she'd wake up at 3:00 am from a nightmare. It was usually just you crying, sitting on the steps of the school, not letting her say anything. Not letting her try to make excuses and explain herself. She hated how she treated you."
I could feel Tristan tense up, but I didn't care. It didn't matter. She had Tristan now, and she missed him when he was gone. Not enough to be clingy, but enough to where she would get a little sad and there was a noticeable change in her mood.
I handed James his notes back and finished the worksheet before the rest of the class, who had been working on it since I got here. I walked to the front of the class, my combat boots making a nice shuffling sound against the linoleum floors, making the entire class look up at me as I turned in the worksheet after only working on it for seven minutes. Did I mention this was AP Algebra II?
I felt all eyes on me as I shuffled back to my seat, my skull tank and Jack Skellington skinnies making me stand out like a sore thumb in this room full of girls in pretty skirts and heels, and boys in their Nike and Adidas apparel, especially with my blue hair and maroon beanie.
I got away with a lot of stuff in this school. My hair was an unnatural colour. That's a no-no. I was wearing a hat. That's a major no-no. I was wearing a tank top. Another no-no. I had a nose piercing. Epic no-no. I was late to my first class today. Being late is a no-no. I ran in the halls and didn't participate in class discussions. I just did the work.
I didn't like it.
"Sir?" I asked timidly. Every eye in the room was on me.
"Yes, Miss Laine?" he asked in a sort of exasperated voice.
"I want a punishment for being late."
I could feel everyone stop breathing. They were all holding their breath. Waiting. Just waiting for me to signal that I was joking. I was dead serious.
"Um, well, why?"
"Because James was late. He has lunch detentions for a week."
"Well, yes, but-"
"And James got here before me. And he's never late. I know because I'm also never late."
"Yes, exactly. You're never late, so I see no reason to punish you."
"Then release James of his punishment."
"Excuse me?"
"I have every single lesson with James. He's never late. And since I'm not being punished for being late today because I'm never late, then James' punishment should be revoked as well."
I gave the teacher a hard glare, meeting his gaze head on. I was not backing down.
He sighed in defeat. "Fine. James, you no longer have lunch detentions this week." He rubbed his face in his hands and muttered something incoherently before going back to grading my paper.
I smirked with my victory and pulled out my favourite book, The Secret Garden, so I could read in peace when James' hand was placed on my desk. "Yes?"
"Thanks. That means a lot that you did that." He smiled and returned to his work, still not done with the first page yet.
I shook my head at his kind words, not believing them one bit. I pulled out my book and began to re-read it for the 27th time in my lifetime.
(^_^)
I smiled at the text I had just gotten from Erin.
I love you babe. So excited for these next three weeks! I'm getting the plane now and I'll see you tonight!
It made me so happy, knowing that I was going to wake up tomorrow morning wrapped in the arms of my favourite person in the whole wide world.
"That Erin?" Casey asked me as she looked at my phone to see what I was smiling at.
"Yeah. She said she's getting on the plane now." I could feel Tristan's confusion.
"Great. So, do I need to go with you to pick her up from the airport tonight, or are you going on your own?" she asked with a teasing smirk.
"You can come with. I'm sure she wants to see you, too."
"Yeah, but she wants to see you more. She always liked you better than me." I could tell the jealousy was a joke, but it still hurt that she thought Erin liked me better. She loved us equally, just in different ways.
"Who's Erin?" Tristan asked.
"You haven't told him about our triplet?" I asked with a shocked face.
"Nah. I figured he would just need to wait and meet her." I rolled my eyes at my sister and explained.
"Erin's our best friend. She lived next door to us for years. She's the only person that can get me to calm down during my panic attacks," I admitted the last part very quietly.
"Did I cause the one yesterday?" he asked after a minute of silence.
I hesitated. "You just asked me questions I wasn't comfortable answering. I was fine until art. Remember?"
"I couldn't understand what all of those things you were drawing actually were about. You usually draw flowers and band logos and anime characters. Now I get it."
I nodded, suddenly extremely uncomfortable about the "club" meeting later.
(-^_-^)
Brad was there first.
I was sitting on the piano when he walked in. I was just doodling a skeleton hand. Again. And he startled me.
"You're the girl who got that boy out of detentions in maths today, right?" I hadn't even heard him come in.
"Yeah. I sit in front of you."
He nodded and looked around a little, before I pointed at the piano bench, letting him know he could sit down.
"So, did you get a notebook, too?"
"Yeah."
"Do you know who gave them to us?"
"Yeah."
"Who?"
It grew silent.
Connor was next.
I was still doodling, and Brad was still on the piano bench, it's just that now he was lying back, which meant Connor had no place to sit. I rolled my eyes and pat the seat next to me, letting him know he could sit there. He hopped up next to me and smiled, trying to make it less awkward.
It stayed silent.
James came in after a few moments.
"I just can't seem to stay away from you, now can I, Mal?" he asked with a big smile.
"Guess not," I replied shortly, not caring if I sounded rude or like I didn't like him or something; like I didn't care. I just wanted to finish my skeleton hand.
James pushed Brad up so he would have a seat, and it grew silent once again. Until Tristan showed up.
"You've got to be kidding me," I heard him mumble when he walked in and saw James.
I rolled my eyes. "Connor. Brad. Switch places." They looked at me. "Now." That got them scared. They scrambled to switch places and I pointed at where I had just been sitting, signaling to Tristan that he should sit there and keep his trap shut.
I walked to the row of basses along the wall and pulled one out, opening a secret door that only I knew about. Now, the five of us knew.
I passed back the notebooks, purple for Tristan, green for Connor, blue for James, and fuchsia for Brad. The yellow one was mine.
It seemed to click. "You gave these to us?" Brad said with a surprised look on his face. "But you..." He trailed off, not knowing where to go without offending me.
"Yeah. I did. Because you guys aren't happy," I stated bluntly.
"I'm perfectly happy," I heard Tristan mutter behind me.
"You're full of it, Tris. I can tell you're not happy, so stop pretending you are. And I know you don't love my sister."
He became silent, suddenly interested in the different shades of red in his shoes.
"What's the point of this?" Connor's small voice rang in my ears.
I gave him a small smile and walked to him, grabbing his hands. "I know you're not happy. Don't say you are, because I know you're not. The point of this is to help you. All of you. I know you're probably in denial about the fact that you're unhappy, don't worry, I was too. And I know that you don't want help. I didn't want help either. No one does. We think we can try to fix things on our own, but what we don't see is that we need others. We need people to hold us in their arms and tell us it'll be okay, even when we know it's not; even when they know it's not. Because it makes us feel better." I ended my speech and stood from my squatted position, feeling very uncomfortable all of a sudden.
"What was the point of the notebooks?" Brad asked behind me.
I moved so that I was standing facing both pairs of boys. "That's what I wanted today to be about. You all have a description written of yourself. I know because I checked on my way to first lesson. That's why I was late. Anyway I want you boys to read them out loud. None of them are detailed and that's okay. We don't need details right now. We just need to understand how you work in the vaguest way possible."
I made Tristan go first because he tried to volunteer James to go first. He just wanted to mess with him. That stupid prick.
Tristan's was short, but that was fine.
Brad went next. He was very shy, but none of us cared. I could tell he didn't want to do it, but he still did.
Connor went next. Or, he was supposed to. He decided he didn't feel comfortable doing it, so I asked if he wanted me to read it out for him. So I did. I liked it. He had amazing handwriting, and I loved that he wrote in cursive.
James. He didn't care. He looked bored. But I could tell he was doing it for me. I appreciated it.
They looked at me. I wondered if I was missing something. It occurred to me that they had all just shared themselves with four people they probably aren't too comfortable being around, and Brad and Connor knew nothing, absolutely nothing about me. Tris and James only knew enough. But not enough to know me.
"I guess I'll go, then." I broke the silence and looked down at my chicken scratch.
"Dear Diary,
I feel kind of terrible right now. A little bit ago, I broke into some lockers and shoved some notebooks just like you into them. I feel like a puppet master. But not the cool Funny kind that are super amazing when you're four and super lame when you're fourteen. I feel like a puppet master from a horror movie who's making their puppets do terrible things that they don't want to do.
I'm making them write descriptions of themselves. I guess I'll do the same.
I'm sixteen. I gave up on humanity a long time ago. I wore a tank top yesterday. I'm planning on wearing one tomorrow. It's a big step for me. Really. The shortest I'd ever wear was jumpers that actually fit me right, instead of stealing Erin's, which are way too big for me because she's so tall. Erin's my best friend. She smells weird. I think it's the perfume. Perfume is gross. So is makeup. Makeup's barbaric. So is perfume. And cologne. People need to stop wearing cologne. I guess I shouldn't be badmouthing makeup when it's kept a lot of secrets for me.
I play guitar. I play drums. I play French Horn. I think I prefer bass to guitar. I like to read lot. I have way too many All Time Low posters. They seriously have been on my wall so long that they have basically become the wall. I threw my sister through a window on accident once. I was twelve. We were playing hockey. It wasn't my fault.
I kissed a boy before Casey did, and to me that's an accomplishment because she's prettier than I am. I made my brother watch a horror movie marathon so long that he puked up all of the water he'd drank in the past three days. He doesn't eat much.
I think that's enough. Those boys will probably write two sentences and then they'll be done. I probably shouldn't underestimate them.
Mal out."
"Okay. I think we're done. But before I let you leave, you need to write about this topic in those notebooks. You have until next Friday. Bye." I gave them the topic sheets and walked out. I had a girlfriend to pick up from the airport. Of course, I didn't tell them that.
(-^_-^)
"Babe!" I heard a squeal.
I turned around to see the beautiful face of my girlfriend. "Erin!" I squealed back.
We ran to each other with the biggest grins on our faces, happy to see each other after my long summer of not getting to see her, and her not so long summer of going to school because she's in a year-round school. Our bodies slammed together gracefully, almost too gracefully. Our arms immediately were around the other, and I could feel her warm breath against my ear. I picked her up and twirled her around, then set her back down so I could admire her.
"Damn," I whispered when I saw how absolutely stunning she was.
"What? Like what you see?" she teased.
"I think she likes it a little too much," another voice interrupted. Fucking Casey. Never letting me kiss my girl.
I smiled as Erin let go of me and ran to my sister, a big smile on her face at the sight of her best friend. The smile I got was way bigger, just so you know.
"We should get your luggage," I said quietly after they finally parted.
"Stop being jealous, Mal. She's my friend, too. You get her all night, so stop whining. I'm trying to milk all the attention I can before she becomes fully immersed in you and I won't see her until she leaves," Casey said jokingly. I could tell it was fake, though. So I nodded, a bit upset that I'd upset her. I hated doing that.
Erin grabbed my hand and squeezed, pulling me along to the baggage claim. She also took Casey's just before we'd fully passed her, as if she'd forgotten Casey was there, but didn't want her to know so she tried to include her.
(^_^)<(^_^<)
When we'd finally stepped inside the house, the smell of waffles hit my nose and I knew Tristan was here.
"Tris?" Casey called out, smelling the waffles as well.
"In the kitchen!" he called back.
"You let someone else in your kitchen?" Erin asks with surprise as we all walked into the kitchen to see what Tristan was up to.
"Well, all I hear some nights is them fucking, so he usually wakes up super early to make waffles to make up for it," I explained quietly before removing my hand from her grasp, not wanting Tristan to notice and get suspicious. I can tell she's hurt, but I'll make it up to her. I just don't want Tristan to know.
Tristan laughs at my statement, but all I do is glare at him. It's not funny. It doesn't help me fall asleep in the slightest, especially since I already have difficulty falling asleep.
We all sit down to eat the delicious waffles that Tristan always seems to make.
I suddenly felt a weight on my shoulder. I giggled, knowing what it was. I shook my head. "Tired?" I whispered in Erin's ear.
"No. But can we skip the epic mattress party this time? I just really don't feel like cleaning it up in the morning and I want to talk to you." Her sleepy voice filled my ears, and the words stuck to my brain. Why did she want to talk to me.
I nodded quickly and shoved the last bit of waffle in my mouth. "We're going to bed. She's tired." I eased Erin's head off of my shoulder and stood up, taking both of our plates to the sink. "You can head on up. I'll be there in just a second," I told her.
She nodded and made her way upstairs.
"So, I guess we're skipping the EMP?" Casey asked.
"She's really tired. We can do it tomorrow, though. As long as Tristan doesn't show up."
"What do you mean?" He sounded hurt.
"I just mean that we do this together and we always do this only us. We don't even let any of our brothers in the same room as us because they'd be interrupting."
He nodded. I smiled, but threw him a look that said You better write about that topic in that notebook and you better show up on Friday or I'll kill you. I went upstairs.
"Finally," Erin whined from my bed, making me laugh at the sight of her.
She was sprawled out on my bed, arms and legs just kind of flung out. She was wearing grey sweatpants that were a bit baggy, and a purple jumper that was too big for her. She. Had. Sweaterpaws. It was fluffing adorable.
"You're so cute."
"Well, duh. I mean, I'm kind of extremely sexy so..."
"Shut up," I said and rolled my eyes, pulling out my purple panda sweats and my black Little Mermaid mugshot tank and walking into the bathroom to change for our cuddle party.
"Hurry up! I'm starting without you!" she yelled.
"You can't start a cuddle party without the second person!" I yelled back as I walked into the room.
I plopped down onto the bed beside her, since she'd decided to actually lay down in the bed like the normal person she could never be. We turned so we were facing each other. "Hi," she mumbled before shoving her face into my shoulder and breathing deeply. "I missed you."
I smiled and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her closer to me. "I missed you too."
She looked up and smiled, staring into my eyes as if she was trying to look into my soul. "Cuddle party?"
"Cuddle party."