brothers.

13~ Whispers

Harry

I've never dreaded school as much as I have now.

Even worse, it turned out exactly like I expected. After third period, everywhere I looked, people were whispering and looking at me. I ignored it as best I could, but it was weighing down on me.

I found myself hiding in the library during lunch period. I couldn't face the other juniors like this. My friends, guys from the team, anyone I knew would be asking me what was going on, and I did not want to talk about it. I had to silence my phone after so many messages flooded in.

The teachers were torturing me with these stupid icebreakers. Almost all my classes had one. People kept asking me and joking about Diana and Amy. It was all I could do to not start a fight.

My ASL teacher signed, 'Switch', prompting the class to move to a different person to talk to. Thankfully, it was a small class.

I sat with a redheaded girl next, waving, 'Hello'. It was the quietest icebreaker I'd done so far.

The teacher signed 'Start', resetting the timer.

"Hi, my name is E-M-I-L-Y, what's your name?" the girl signed.

"H-A-R-R-Y," I spelled.

"Nice to meet you. I'm new here."

That was a relief. Hopefully she wouldn't have heard too much about my family yet.

"Welcome to S-U-M-M-I-T." I subtly glanced at the clock behind her. It was 12:10— after this girl, class would be over. I was desperate for the day to end.

Maybe I could go online instead... never mind. I needed football, so I'd be here anyway.

I felt like Job. One bad thing after another. My sister got sick, then she passed, then my parents wanted to foster a strange kid, then we got Diana, now she's here...

She would definitely find out the truth. I wasn't sure what to do. It was hard to tell her that she was being used by grieving parents. Just thinking about it made me feel so disgusted and ashamed. I didn't understand why all this had to happen.

Maybe we were that mean to Amy. When we were little, we got along great, but as we got older, we fought more and more. It started to get more unhealthy, less like regular sibling rivalry and more like a divided family. Us against her.

During the pandemic, we were just starting to get along, getting used to being around each other, but as soon as school restarted in-person classes, our relationship regressed to the way it was.

Emily signed the members of her family; her mom and her cat, Buckles. She then asked who my family was.

The bell rang, saving me. The teacher signed 'Finish', then started talking. "Okay, we'll continue on Thursday. Have a good first day, everyone."

"Too bad," Emily said aloud. "It was nice meeting you, Harry."

"You, too." I grabbed my bag and headed out before she could follow up on her question.

Next class was Psychology, normally my favorite. It was the career I wanted to follow. I wasn't sure about going to Greenfield, but my 'dream school' was too expensive and far. Maybe Waterford would have a good program...

An arm suddenly weighed down on my shoulders, startling me, and a familiar face smiled next to me. I groaned and shrugged him off. "What do you want, Lucas?"

"Nice to see you, too."

"Whatever."

He put his arm around me again. "How was your summer?"