My Brother Says I'm Dangerous

(6)

I hate plane rides.

Sure, I have never been on a plane before, but I can tell you now, I don't like this. I grip my the arm of my chair, not wanting to look out the window. The plane shakes dangerously again, and I let out a nervous squeak.

"Eva, are you ok?" Nick tries to hold in his chuckle.

"This plane is going to crash." I whisper. "It keeps shaking."

"That's just turbulence." He assures me. "It's perfectly normal."

"Normal to you!" I retort. "You've been on planes before. This is my first time."

We're an hour into the flight to Montana, and I'm already regretting not napping. There is no way I can sleep on this death trap. Tyler, Jenson and Nick's other friends helped us finish packing, and we took most of our personal stuff. A few other boxes and belongings they kept with them, and will send them on later. This was pretty last minute, so we couldn't take it all. 

Seeing our house packed up like that hurt. Like it or not, that house holds a lot of memories. We moved in there as soon as my parents died. I was twelve, Nick was only eighteen. I hit puberty in that house. Seeing Nick trying to deal with a period was fantastic. He got so uncomfortable, he asked one of his friends sisters to come and have that talk with me. All his friends we thought of as family. We had no relatives, it was just us. It'll be sad to leave them. 

"Just try and sleep." Nick murmurs. "Stop fidgeting."

"Nick, I can't I-" I'm stopped by a loud rumbling. Not by the plane, but by Nicks snoring. Uh.

<><><><>

The flight attendant announces we have landed, but all I can see out the window is darkness.

"Nick." I say a bit louder, trying to wake him up. He lets out a snore, but doesn't budge. I hit him hard in the arm, and he jolts up, hitting his head on the seat in front of him.

"What the hell?" He groans.

"We have to get off." I sigh.

"Oh." He realizes, grabbing his backpack. "Let's go." As soon as we step off the plane, I'm hit by a ray of heat. Yuck. We hurry up the path, but I try to have a look around me. It's pretty dark, but all I can see is the plane road, and lights.

The airport is really small. There is hardly anyone around, it's strange. Our luggage is already circling on the belt, and we spend a good fifteen minutes, trying to collect all our bags and boxes, stacking them onto trolleys.

"Why do you have so much stuff?" Nick teases, hauling my suitcase off the belt.

"Well if you didn't make us move, this wouldn't be a problem." I grumble. He sighs, but doesn't say anything thankfully.

Finally, we have everything, the belt is empty. We make our way outside, again hit by that feeling of heat.

"Keith said he was going to pick us up from the doors." Nick says, looking around. I frown. All I can see are old guys with cowboy hats, and a couple of horses tied to a post. Seriously? Horses.

"Nick? Nick Harrison?" We turn around to see a man leaning on a truck. He looks like a typical cowboy. Tough jeans, checkered shirt, boots, and a hat. He even has a tooth pick in his mouth. He looks maybe mid thirties, trimmed hair.

"Keith?" Nick asks, wheeling the trolley closer.

"Hi." Keith smiles, shaking his hand. He looks towards me, and frowns. "You must be..."

"Eva." I say quietly.

"Of course." He grins. "Sorry, I was just a bit stunned for a minute. You look exactly like your mother."

"Yeah." I say shortly.

"Great." He says cheerfully. "You guys ready for a car ride?"

"Yeah, of course." Nick says. "How far away is the ranch?"

"Well." Keith starts, piling our stuff into the back of the truck. "Town is about an hour, and then another good twenty minutes to the ranch from there."

"Great." I mumble, earning a sharp jab to the ribs from Nick. Nick climbs into the passenger seat, and I get in the back, with all the boxes, barely any room at all.

"Sorry about all the junk." Keith says, starting up the croaky engine. "The bigger truck we have just isn't trusted. Thank god you're here Nick."

"No problems." Nick says sincerely. "Thank you for taking me. And Eva." Keith looks at me in the rear view mirror, and tips his hat.

"How old are you now Eva?" He asks.

"Seventeen." I say politely. "Junior."

"Oh, great." He says brightly. "You'll love the high school, it's got some real friendly people." I nod in response, Nick looking at me, as if expecting this would make me feel better.

"Is it a big school?" Nick asks.

"It's not a big town." He chuckles. "About three thousand people over all, so you can understand the sizes of the schools."

"I guess you must be pretty close to people then." Nick says.     

"We're a community." Keith agrees. "We look after each other."

"Is it just you and Emily on the ranch?" Nick asks.

"Heck no." Keith laughs. "Our ranch is huge, Emily and I couldn't possibly run it without others. We have five children, and lots of help, that we support with housing."

"You do that often?"

"We like to give people second chances." Keith says simply. "No matter what."

<><><><>

I drowsily try to keep my eyes open, as we speed down a dirt road. Even though it's dark, I can tell we're in the middle of nowhere. Apparently this road leads to the house, we're in the ranch. I just can't see anything.

"We're here." I hear Keith, and I try to shake myself awake. I can vaguely see something like a farmhouse, with a a couple of lights on. I jump down from the truck, and I stumble a little. It's nearly one in the morning, I'm exhausted.

"Don't worry about the bags Eva." Nick says. "I'll get it."

"Don't worry about it." Keith says, handing us both our backpacks. "I can get a couple of guys to handle that tonight, they're already up doing some work."

"Thank you." Nick yawns gratefully. Keith leads us into the house, telling us to be quiet because everybody would be sleeping. The kitchen is dimly lit, and I can see a typical country kitchen, small, but homy. He leads us down a hallway, and up some stairs. The hallway has lots of doors, obviously a large place.

"This is your room for now." Keith tells Nick, knocking on one. "Eva, you're two doors down on the other side. Bathrooms at the end."

"Thanks so much." Nick says for the hundredth time. "I really appreciate this."

"Get some sleep." Keith smiles warmly. "We can talk some more tomorrow." He disappears down the stairs, and turns off the light, leaving us in practically darkness. 

Nick opens my bedroom door, turning on the light. It's cute, I guess. Patchwork bed, all wooden furniture. A window seat.

"This looks nice." Nick says gently. "You should get some sleep. We'll talk tomorrow."

"Yeah. I say tiredly. "Whatever." He leaves, obviously not wanting to have an argument, and shuts the door. I throw my backpack on the bed, sitting down.

What am I doing here.