"Alright, Larusso."

2

    The rest of the school day passed. A few new names were learned, and you had a decent grasp on where everything was at. You also became aware of the fact that some days, only classes 1, 3, 5, and 7 would be attended, and other days it would be 2, 4, 6, 8. You hadn't received any homework, which was a relief because that meant you'd get to bug Eli. Pushing the door open, you stepped inside the house, being engulfed in a warmer air than outside. After untying your shoe and stepping on the heels to pry them off, you slung your backpack over the chair and headed to the fridge for a snack. "Hello?" "It's me, a murderer. Surrender now or owe me thirty bucks" "No I'm good, I'll surrender" Eli emerged from his room and jumped over the back of the couch as if he were some sleek cool guy. Grabbing the remote, he switched the TV on and started browsing through channels. Pulling out some milk and collecting cookies as well, you shut the fridge and headed over to jump over the couch the same way he did, finding it actually pretty fun to do. "You should try this new hit thing I found, Eli" "What is it?" He replied, keeping his focus set on finding a suitable show to watch. "It's called a shirt, I dunno if you've heard of it before-" I began, before he quickly selected a random show and turned the volume up do drown you out. "Sorry, what? I can't hear you, it's almost as if I don't give a shit" He smiled at you as he propped his feet up on the coffee table not far from his seat. You offered him a cookie, and he took it and dipped it in your milk. He turned the volume to its normal state and turned to face you, "How was your day" "Oh god what are you, my dad?" "Someone has no friends" "No, I'll have you know that I met plenty of people today. Puh-len-ty." you snapped back. "Great, you can go over to their house because I'll be training for All Valley" which earned a very loud groan from you as you shoved another cookie in your mouth. "Stop throwing a fit like a baby" "I don't know any of them well enough to just be like- oh yeah hey can I barge into your house even though I'm basically a stranger?" He laughed and you both settled on the idea that you would just tag along and sit in the car while he was there. The show closed up and Eli sprung off the couch, taking the kindness out of his heart to inform you that he was finally going to try your "hit new thing". You put away your cup of milk, rinsing the residue out and shoving the cookies back in the cabinet. He flung himself out of his room and grabbed the keys before yet again, practically shoving you out of the door.

    "I call aux" "What? You can't 'call aux' it's my car asshole" "Yeah, and it's gonna be my pain and suffering, asshole" "Dude, you'll get like two whole hours of sitting in here!" "Surrender or give me thirty" "Thirty pushups? Okay sounds good" "I hate you." He eventually did surrender, and you connected your phone and started filling the car with some nice music. Even though you two always bickered over the aux, it didn't really matter anyway, because even though the music taste was different, it still ended up being enjoyed on both ends. "Dude, they're already giving out a test in science. We're learning about this thing called E10 and I have no idea how to do it." "The hell is E10?" this is a moment you were so glad about being able to say random shit when there's nothing to say, because you got to piss off your brother in the meantime. "E10 deez nuts" you belted out a laugh which was mixed with him shouting multiple swear words at you as you pulled into the driveway of the house. "Get out of the car." "I'm supposed to be the one to stay in the car" He paused for a moment before turning the car off "Stay in the car" you laughed a little at this and bid him adieu as you prepared for the horrible two hours to come. You saw him join all of his friends; you knew pretty much everyone there. There was Demitri or something like that, who had managed to pull this absolute hot woman, and then Miguel. He was some champion guy or something. Then there was Sam, but you'd never seen him before, you just knew he was dating Miguel or some shit like that. They all began murmuring and you turned your music back on and turned the volume up, probably enough to make your doctor slightly concerned about your hearing. A little further in front of your car, there was a door which looked like it was made of really crappy paper and wood squares. That door flung open and a girl with brown hair stepped out and ran over to the rest of the group. Stopping in her tracks, she turned back around and ran towards the car. "What the hell is she-" you opened the door and stepped out. "Oh my gosh! Are you Hawks little sibling?" the nickname made you laugh "Yeah that's me" you flashed her a smile. You also took the time to realize how nice this place was. I mean hell, they had a coy pond just for people to fight on. "I'm Sam!" "What" you shouted, as your mouth formed a surprised sort of smile. "So, Miguel isn't gay?" "What" "Oh my god I'm sorry- I just meant I've only ever heard of your name and that you two were dating, I didn't know you were a girl" She laughed, and you laughed with her, glad that you hadn't butchered your first interaction with Eli's friends. "Wanna come watch us?" "Sure, I don't want to intrude though" "Oh I promise it's fine. Plus, I'm going to take a guess it'll beat sitting in the car forever" ultimately, she was right, so following in her trail until you took a seat on the bench, you were looking forward to being here more. Sam was pretty nice, which was a relief. Eli took note of you being outside of the car, but just resumed with what he was doing.

                                                                                    / - / -/ -/ - /  

    At least an hour had to have passed at this point, and honestly watching a bunch of highschoolers kick eachother in the face was starting to get a little bit boring, which was a surprise. A break was called and both Eli and Sam had turned to walk towards you. "Dude, why are you out here" "Oh come on, you're not just going to lock them away forever are you?" "Debating it" "How kind." "Can it kid" "Yes, sir, sergeant, sir!" You mocked. "Hey, aren't you in eighth grade?"  "Yeah" "You can just barge in on my brother and bug him" You were ultimately confused and also stunned with the fear of it being extremely awkward. "Well, I don't know I mean, I don't even know him" "You guys could be friends, then you would have someone to bug your brother with" "I'm sold" You were nowhere near sold, but you figured the line would be funny and you didn't want to disappoint her or piss your brother off anymore. She gave you directions on where his room was, and said if you crossed paths with her mom, dont freak out because she's nice, so you made your way into the house and began to navigate around corners and didn't bump into her mom. Up the stairs, the second to last door on the left? You were gonna hope that was right. You were right before the door, but you didnt want to go in. This was going to be really awkward. You knocked a few times, and a muffled shout came from the inside, saying to come in. You hesitantly cracked the door open, and you saw Anthony, in the middle of a game on his pc (which, to be fair ,was a pretty neat set up) you stepped in and shut the door behind you. He pulled his headphones off and spun to face you, and when he saw you, he immediately replaces whatever emotion that took rest on his face with the look of insane confusion, followed by him concerningly shouting your name. "I don't even know dude." You replied

     You were right. This was decently awkward. "Don't worry, I won't be here for that long" you nervously smiled "No- no you're good. Just a little surprised is all" He smiled at you. Several other voices started booming through his headphones. "Wanna say hi?" you shrugged and walked over, standing over his chair and equipping the headphones. "Hello?" "Yo!? Rain, is that you?"  "Thompson?" "Hell yeah! Damn I didn't know Lapusso was capable of talking to girls!" you stifled a laugh at that. "Okay, well, I'm gonna go ahead and give these back to Ant now" "Yo?? Okay then. See ya" You had no idea of it at the time, but Thompson was going to be bugging Anthony about that nickname for a while. Handing the headphones back to Anthony, he said his goodbye's and he got up from the chair and motioned for you to sit in his place. "Here, you can screw around on it." "I have no idea how to do anything on this" "Let's see, uh... start with something simple. Here, just play Minecraft and build some stuff" "Alright" He opened up the launcher and he set up a world. You've seen a bunch of people play this, being was obsessed with it yourself at one point in time. Small conversation was made, and you had also built some random stuff. It actually wasn't as bad as you thought it would be, he was pretty funny and comfortable to be around. "Oh wait, check out this neat texture pack I got" He reached over me from behind the chair and you handed him the mouse as he clicked around and resumed to the game. He laughed at my reaction to it. It added a significantly bigger amount of shading and texture to the games design, it was pretty nice. "Here, you play something" you got up and he filled the spot. For the next twenty minutes, you sat near Anthony and watched him play his game. He would give slight commentary and also some fillers on whatever the hell he was doing to make it less confusing. It was satisfying to watch him play, even though you didn't quite grasp the whole concept. A buzz went off on his bed, and you twisted around to grab your phone. It read: hey dip-wad come out. we're leaving from: asshat. "Hey, I gotta go, my brother is taking me home" "Oh alright cool. Let's go" He stood up and lead you back down and outside, and this time you did run into his mother. "Oh, hello Mrs. Larusso" you smiled "Hi! I'm sorry, but who are you?" "I'm Hawks little sibling" "Oh-h that's right! Sam told me you were here! Pleasure to meet you!"  You said goodbye to her, and she said goodbye to you, and you continued on to the path of finding your brother. When he came into view the first thing you heard was "Jesus, there you are" which was honestly expected. "Chill out cock, I was talking to Mrs. Larusso" "Oh my god. Eat shit, dirtbag" he lightly socked you in the arm for that mocked nickname, which you were quite proud of. "See you at school?" "Yeah, bye Anthony!" you shouted your goodbyes as Eli shouted his and ducked into the car. "I call aux now and you can't stop me" "Yeah yeah, whatever dude"