I was a neat and organized person, so my mom had never had to wake me up for school. Sure, sometimes I got up out of bed too late, but those were just rare accidents. Usually, I didn't ignore an alarm clock and even with the greatest reluctance I could crawl out of my bed and prepare myself for the day at school. Today, the first day at a new one, I was additionally excited, so I woke up full of energy.
Will knocked at my door when I was already dressed up. He wanted to wake me up and with a visible approval, he noticed my self-discipline. I ate breakfast, wearing a tidy uniform, with a band in my hair and a spark in my eye, when Dylan entranced the kitchen. His hair was messy and he had bags under his eyes. The tie was overhanging loosely on his neck. I noticed him giving me a long look, but he didn't comment on my attitude, which was so different from his own. Of course, I was the first one to greet him, he just murmured something unintelligibly.
Shane, who appeared as the next one, was also out of sorts. His shirt was tucked out of his pants and he didn't have a tie at all. He just grabbed a cup for his coffee. In the end, Tony came down, completely humpty. To him, I didn't even say "good morning". He wouldn't answer anyway. And I didn't want to draw his attention at me, what happened anyway when he sat at the table in front of me and spat with contempt.
"What?" I asked challengingly from above of my bowl. Yeah, I know I shouldn't mess with him, but I didn't like the way he reacted at my person. I might be intimidated, but I wasn't going to let him treat me like shit.
"Fucking nothing," Tony answered me and thrown me a fake smile lasting one second. How mature.
"Don't speak to her like that." defended me Will. I was grateful, because I didn't know how to respond. I was back ignoring Tony and vice versa.
He and Shane took Lamborghini and I landed in Dylan's red car. I didn't even ask why won't we all just go to school in one car. That would be way more economical, wouldn't it? On the other hand, I'd probably have to sit at back then, with one of my brothers at my side.
Dylan was driving almost as fast as Tony and when they stopped collaterally at the traffic lights, they both showed their middle fingers at each other with feisty smiles. They were definitely more awoken now and their moods were brighter. Well, who wouldn't be awoken with this loud music Dylan put on.
With Dylan's driving style the way to school took us very little time. Soon we stopped on a parking lot next to the twins' ride. Just how I expected, both cars and my brothers themselves dragged a lot of attention. And so did I, oh good lord. I was totally unused to this kind of interest in my person. My siblings - quite the opposite.
We went to the school office, where we all got our schedules. I hoped to make a use of having older brothers in school and I wanted them to show me the way to the classroom were I had my first period, but I had to wait, because Dylan disappeared at once and the twins started to compare their own schedules to see which classes they were going to attend together. Finally, Shane helped me. He was also the only one to wish me good luck on my first day.
When I got to the classroom, I felt relief. Without older brothers at my side, I was just a normal girl for the other people and my shy personality preferred it this way. By lunch break, I met quite a lot of new people, also the teachers. In some way, I'd missed this school environment - it is something safe, something that gives me a stabilization, just like when my mum was alive.
At lunch, I sat with a group of new colleagues, who I met at math. They were two girls and a boy - Mona, Audrey and Marshall. We had a nice talk and I think we were on the same wavelength, although it wasn't so obvious at first sight. Mona had way too much make-up for my taste, Audrey didn't smile almost at all and Marshall looked like some cartoon character in his funny and colourful outfit. How good that I was taught not to judge a book by its cover, because really, the more I talked with them, the more I liked them.
The cafeteria was divided. On the left, there were tables for the youngers and on the right, for the older kids. There were also people who visibly were keeping away from the centre of attention and some more popular ones. My brothers were the second, that's for sure. I noticed them right away. They sat at a big table surrounded by many friends. Some girl sat on Shane's laps, one guy was showing something on his phone to Tony and Dylan tossed a napkin on his plate. While he was doing it, I looked at him and he also glanced at me. Our eyes met and he smirked at me with one side of his mouth. Immediately, I turned my head away and joined the conversation about the comfort of schools buses' rides, which was dragged up by Mona, but Audrey turned out to be a too good observer.
"They really are your brothers," she stated, shaking her head with disbelief.
Almost every teacher, stopping at my surname while going through the list, asked about my relation to Monet brothers. Most of them taught my siblings in the previous years and they didn't seem to mention it well. I had a weird feeling that some of my new teachers even started to keep me at a distance. Great.
Thanks to that, my classmates also got to know that I was school bad boys' little sister. God, it sounds cringy.
I shrugged in a reply to Audrey's comment.
"Wow, now I'm scared to even sit with you," Marshall joked.
"Why?" I asked surprised.
"Your brothers are in disrepute," Mona answered me, peeking at their table.
"What do you mean?"
"There are many rumours about them... Rumours they don't even try to deny."
"What kind of rumours?"
"Oh, you know... Your surname is quite famous here..."
"And powerful," Marshall added.
"And feared," Audrey whispered theatrically.
"It's cute that you have no idea about it," Mona said.
I opened my mouth to tell something, but Mona broke in.
"God, he's coming here!"
I looked at the same way as her and saw that Dylan got up from his seat and headed towards our table. No, no, no, please, don't walk up to us... Well, he did.
"Hi, little sis" he greeted me, standing right behind me and leaning on the back of my seat. I froze.
"Hi, Dylan," I answered quietly.
"What's all this talking behind my back about, hm?" he asked, looking at my new friends. I saw all of them got abashed.
"What?"
"We just..."
"We talked about buses..."
Dylan snorted and shook his head.
"Today you're coming back with Tony, sis," he informed me, patted my shoulder and left nonchalantly.
We got silent for a moment. It had to be the first time when they had indirect contact with one of Monet brothers and they needed a while to get over it.
"He's so hot." Mona sighed finally. I winced at this comment together with Audrey.
"And scary," she added.
"And he's calling you 'little sis'," Marshall giggled.
It wasn't funny for me. I put my hands on my head. I'm coming back with Tony! That's just what I needed right now. I looked surreptitiously at him, but he'd left the cafeteria already.
I saw him after school finished. Reluctantly, I approached his car. Apparently Dylan went somewhere with Shane, because Tony stood there alone, smoking a cigarette. I felt that heading towards him I was accompanied with curious looks of the other students, but I decided to ignore it. I took a passenger seat and waited for my brother to finish poisoning himself and to send the last messages on his phone. When he did it all, he sat at the driver's place, but he didn't start an engine yet. Instead, he turned his head to face me and his dark, threatening eyes dig holes in me.
I froze.
"By the way, since we are alone..." he started ominously, and I felt a chill down my spine, "You sneaked on me even after I'd told you to keep quiet. Don't you dare to disobey me ever again, understood?
With a lump in my throat, I couldn't say a word, so I just dropped my gaze and nodded.
"Good girl."