𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐔𝐬

♡︎3♡︎

Denki was in charge of dinner that night and had just pulled some sort of pasta-and-meat dish out of the oven, timing it perfectly with my dad's arrival. Kiss-up. As my dad walked into the kitchen from the garage, he found where I sat at the table and narrowed his eyes at me. I wondered which one of my brothers had tattled and why my dad was so upset about it. For fucks sake, what was everyone's problem? If I had started crying over Mirios' grandma my life would've been a whole lot easier right then. Maybe I needed to practice some fake waterworks.

My dad was a nice guy (at least to his family) and most of the time a pushover, but when he was in his full police garb and had that look on his face, he terrified me. He hung his keys on a hook by the door, then unbuckled and hung his utility belt as well,the heavy flashlight banging the wall as he did.
"Y/N...," he said in a tired voice.

"I'm sorry." Then I made sure to give all my brothers a death glare. Eijiro played all big-eyed and innocent.

"You should be, but that's not going to be good enough this time."

"This time?" Had I been insensitive to the relatives of a different grandma before?

My dad approached the table and plopped a pink copy of my speeding ticket in front of me. Oh. This was worse than being insensitive. This was about breaking the law.

I tried to talk my way out of it. "I didn't know the speed limit and I didn't see him. He was hiding down a street. Isn't that illegal, like entrapment or something? Denki? Isn't that illegal?"

Denki hid a smile and brought a pitcher of ice water to the table. Denki was starting his first year of college next year. His ultimate goal- lawyer hood.

My dad leveled a hard stare at me. "Why didn't you tell me about it?"

"I'm sorry." I should've been honest. It was always worse when he found out about things from an outside source.

"This is the second ticket in as many months. And that's not counting the ones you got out of by using my name."

I sucked my head to hide the heat I could feel on my cheeks at having been caught. I didn't need my brothers making fun of me for blushing. My dad was right. I had been pulled over multiple times. I used his name every time.

"Do you know how embarrassing it is when my kids get speeding tickets? When I have to find out about those speeding tickets from a co-worker?"

"I'm sorry."

"But worse than the embarrassment you cause me is the blow to my bank account." His finger came down hard on the pink slip, landing on a number that read $264.00. My eyes widened.
"Yeah, that's a lot of money."

I nodded

"You're paying for it."

"What?!"

"You heard me. I don't think you learned your lesson last time because I paid for your ticket. So, you are paying for not only this ticket, but also for the last one, and the extra hundred dollars a month you are going to cost me in insurance."

"But I don't have that kind of money."

"Then find a job."

"How? Basketball camp starts in about seven weeks, and then there's school and soccer after that."

"Dad," Eijiro piped in, using his winning smile in my defense this time. "Y/N's just a little girl. Dont make her work. She'll never survive."

Okay, so that wasn't exactly the defense I was looking for.

"Eijiro. Stay out of this," my dad said.

He saluted. "Yes, officer."

My dad turned his hard stare on Eijiro, but just like the rest of us, he couldn't stay mad at Eiji forever. So he turned back to me. "Figure it out, because it's my final decision." With that, he left the kitchen and went to his room to change. My brothers all stared at me and then, as if they'd counted to three, started laughing at exactly the same time.

"Yeah, it's so funny," I said. "As if you've never been pulled over."

Denki raised his hand. "Never." Of course not.

"Twice," Sero said.

I looked at Eiji. Of all my brothers, he and I were not only the closest but the most alike. "A few times," he said, "but I always got out of tickets. You gotta act a little more innocent, Y/N. You can't be belligerent with the cops. They don't like it."

"How do you know I was?"

They all laughed again. This round of laughter was cut off by the ringing of a cell phone, from where it sat being charged at the counter. Eijiro jumped up and slid across the island to answer it before it went to voicemail.

My dad came back, and the change in his clothes seemed to change his demeanor as well. He kissed the top of my head. Maybe this meant he was rethinking the whole job thing. "You should probably start looking first thing tomorrow," he said. Then he looked at Eiji and snapped, "Off the phone."

I sank down farther in my chair and spooned myself some of Denkis' pasta creation. My dad said a prayer (being a cop for the last twenty years had put the fear of God in him). Then we all dug in. Dinner in our house was like a race. If you didn't eat fast, you missed out on seconds. I didn't feel much like seconds anyway.

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　　 ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

I lay on my bed, feet up on the headboard, and threw a tennis ball against the wall over and over. There was a single knock on my door, then someone I assumed was Eijiro let himself in. He was the only one that never waited for an answer. I tilted my head back and saw an upside-down version of Eiji right before he took a flying leap and landed on my head.

I grunted my disapproval and he rolled off.

"So, a job, huh?"

"Don't remind me."

"I think this day should go down in history as the day Dad decreed one of his offspring must seek employment."

"Seriously. Whatever happened to 'School is your job' or 'Sports can pay for college so I consider that your job'?"

"Apparently, someone by the name of Speed Racer changed that." He paused and- just like Eiji to always see the positive in something (which was one of the only ways we weren't alike)- said, "Finding a job is way better than getting grounded. If you were grounded, all the indoor air your body isn't used to breathing would dry out your pores and cause you to wither up and die."

Okay, maybe not positive, per se, but close to it.

He pushed his bangs off his forehead. "Well, for what it's worth, I offer my job-hunting prowess."

"Which consists of?"

"Accompanying you and pointing to the stores you should pick up applications from, helping you write your names in little boxes. You know, invaluable stuff like that."

"What would I do without you?"

"It's too painful to even consider, but it might involve drying pores and withering."