Her Mafia Brothers

Enlightened

Logan had already left by the time Damon and I got out to the car - a little red coupe this time, rather than the big black SUV with the tinted windows I'd been driven in before. How many cars did my brothers have?

It didn't take long for us to get to school and Damon kept his hand on my back in a protective manner as he led me inside the long, double level building. Students parted as we approached, looking at Damon with awe and trepidation, seeming to hold their breath while we passed. Why? What was so special about my brother?

In the office, the secretary spoke to him respectfully, not meeting his eyes, her hands shaking as she handed him the papers to sign and my class schedule. She called the Principal, spending as little time with us as possible. It was odd. Really odd. I mean, I hadn't gone to school much so I wasn't entirely sure what I expected, but this wasn't it. The secretary was acting like she was scared of my brother, but that made no sense to me. Why would she be afraid of Damon?

The Principal was different. A fat, jovial man who looked to be in his mid-fifties, he shook Damon's hand enthusiastically and greeted me with a beaming smile, like he genuinely was pleased to see me. I'm not sure why he was, because I wasn't all that thrilled to see him, but at least he wasn't acting like Damon was an axe murderer or something.

I tuned out while Damon and the Principal talked, and then Damon bent down to say goodbye and remind me to come home with Logan, and to follow all the rules and be good. I rolled my eyes, but stretched up on my tippy-toes to kiss his stubbly cheek goodbye.

The Principal told me to follow him, and he took me to my first class. Math. I'd never been great at math, but I wasn't terrible at it, either. Just average.

The teacher was a grandmotherly type woman and told me to sit next to Francesca - who gave me a wave from the middle of the classroom.

Francesca turned out to be friendly enough. She spoke with a lisp and had a slight stutter when she got excited, and she sucked at math. I mean she majorly sucked. She didn't even seem to have a grasp of the basics. She seemed to spend all her time drawing little doodles down the margins of her book, and at this, she was a genius. She'd drawn little caricatures of the teacher and several students in the classroom, and as I watched, she did a quick cartoon sketch of me, too. The likeness was incredible!

She hated her name and insisted I call her Frankie. We were instant friends.

Frankie and I had nearly every class together, except for art. Damon had obviously picked my subjects for me based off what I'd done at my old school, and I didn't have art. I had music, instead.

At morning tea, she introduced me to her friends: Kate, Lily and Petra. Petra did music with me, and Kate was in my PE class, but I'd never met Lily.

"Are you Logan's sister?" she asked me, jealousy evident in her tone. "He's so hot! What's it like to live with him?"

I shrugged. I wasn't ready to talk about my family yet. Everything was all still so new. But she kept looking expectantly at me and I knew I had to answer. "It's okay I guess," I said. "He's an alright brother. I only moved in with him a week ago. I lived in Minnesota before this."

"I like Nick," Kate announced. "He's totally drool-worthy. And the one with tattoos, what's his name? He's pretty fine, too."

"Rocco."

"Yeah that's him. He's always scowling. Does he ever smile? He's hot though, even when he looks grumpy."

"Leave her alone," Petra intervened, before I had a chance to answer. "The poor girl's going to be thinking we're only being friendly to get to her brothers but that's not true at all!"