In My Brother's Shadow

Chapter One: Shadows are Afraid of Light

Newton had always been the more technology-oriented brother of the two, ever since he was a child. His brother, on the other hand, was into theatre and dance and loved being on the stage with all of the attention on him. Isaac, his name was.

It was always clear that there was a favorite.

Newton's inventions would always screw up the moment he went to go show his parents. He would spend hours and pull many all-nighters just to impress them, but the only thing they'd look at is the fact that he was always so tired.

Isaac didn't even try as hard as him and was able to turn the odds in his favor. All he had to do was sit on a stage and he would get all the applause and attention.

Newton hated it. He hated all of that. Why couldn't he have the spotlight for once?

So, he joined his brother's theatre class. If his brother could be on the stage, so could he.

"Newton! Why are you in my class this year?" Isaac asked, a little annoyed. "I thought you were taking engineering again."

"I decided not to." Newton bluntly replied, crossing his arms. He knew that Isaac knew exactly why he did this.

"But that's like- Your thing!" Isaac said, thinking. "You have the worst stage fright I've ever seen, little bro."

He wasn't wrong there, Newton hated being on stage. Everyone's eyes on him wasn't particularly something he ever wanted to do.

"I'm sure I can get over it. If you can do it, so can I!" Newton smiled. Isaac scoffed.

"Fine. I'm just saying, you'd be better off taking that inventor class again." Isaac tried to dissuade his choice, but that just made Newton want to be in this class even more.

"Newton Pud?" The teacher called, reading names off the attendance list.

Newton raised his hand.

"Isaac Pud?" She said next, and his brother raised his hand. Most people in the class were surprised that the brothers were in the same class, as usually they wanted to stay as separate as possible.

Many would say that they were two sides of the same coin, when in reality that couldn't be farther than the truth.

Marlon, Isaac's best friend, came over to both of them.

"Ah, so this is your brother?" He seemed interested in Newton.

"Yep! Newton's my little brother, through and through." Isaac patted Newton's head to make a statement. God, he hated being shorter so much.

"Neat! I'm sure he'll do just as well as his brother on the stage." Marlon smiled, but it was more directed towards Newton to ease his worries.

"I'll be sure of that." Isaac replied. Newton felt like some weird tourist attraction, to be honest. He wasn't even contributing to the conversation very much if at all.

"I'm gonna go get something from my bag, I'll be right back." Newton said, trying to get out of this awkward situation. He went to the back of the auditorium where his backpack was, sitting down in the far back.

He already kinda regretted joining his brother's class, though he knew he had to go through with it out of pure spite.

The teacher was going over what the important dates were for this class, like upcoming plays and such. Newton barely paid attention to all that, but he saw his brother in the front of the auditorium, taking notes and even using a highlighter on said notes.

Newton would remember them anyway, and in the case he didn't he could just ask Isaac. He didn't necessarily want to, but if he had to, he probably would.