His Game

Chapter 6: Jack

The alarm on my nightstand starts buzzing.

At six freaking thirty in the goddamn morning.

I make a sound not unlike that of a dying whale, and slap the clock to make it shut up, but it doesn't stop blaring.

If I ever find out who invented this, I'm going to kill them. Painfully.

Someone knocks on my door. 

"Go. Away." I say, but Anna comes in anyway, looking nervous.

"Um, hi."

"What do you want?" I demand, and she flinches.

"Uh, Papa wants to see you downstairs. He's upset because your alarm's gone off three times already."

"Three times?"

"We're s-supposed to be up at five," says Anna, "and he wants you to wear your uniform."

"Get out." 

"Huh?"

"Get out!" I snap, and she's gone immediately. Anna must actually be terrified of me... Wait a minute!

Five in the morning? What kind of sick alien planet is this?

I'm not getting up. Not yet, at least. Soon, but I'll wait five more minutes to prove I don't give a crap about Agnarr has to say.

Those five minutes trickle by really quickly. Especially when your bed is so comfortable that you want to marry it.

But I get up. The last thing I want is for Agnarr to storm up here and lecture me this early in the morning. 

The floor is so cold, and I want to get back into bed right away, but shrug on a T-shirt and dad's old leather jacket head downstairs, 'cause no way in hell am I wearing a uniform.

My boots clomp on the steps and I notice that no one is in the main room, so I know that they must be eating. This house is exactly like mine, so I have no trouble finding the dining room, but Elsa storms out first, looking angry.

"You've gone and made Papa upset." She growls, "Now he's going to be in a bad mood for the rest of the day!"

"Not my problem, sweetheart," I grin at her.

"It will  be your problem soon enough, and I wish you would stop calling me that. It's very disrespectful." Elsa snaps.

"Who cares about being respectful when you can just say whatever you want?" I ask. "If I just don't care, I don't have to worry about saying the wrong thing."

"You're so clueless." She fumes, "If you could figure out how to not be so stupid, you wouldn't be here in the first place."

"Hey, I don't like being here. If it was up to me, I would be in L.A. by now." I say.

"Well, good, because no one wants you here."

"Aw, thanks so much, sweetheart!" 

"Just-"

"Enough, Elsa." Agnarr comes out of the room, giving me a cold look. "Go back and finish your breakfast with Anna and your mother."

Elsa pauses, then bows her head. "Yes, Papa." God, what a goody-goody.

She throws a last look over her shoulder and then leaves, her braid swishing back and forth as she walks.

Agnarr turns to me.

"You're not in your uniform."

"Yeah, I can tell just by looking, you know, with my eyes." 

"Cut the attitude."

"I don't think I can," I smirk, "Or, I could, if I wanted to, but I really don't."

"You can stop that now, or you'll be outside weeding the garden for a month." Agnarr says all of this very firmly, like he was back in the marines or something. "You can go back upstairs and change before we talk."

"What if I don't feel like it?" I challenge.

"Then I pity you." He says.

I stare for a minute. This house, this family, is run so different from my own. These people actually bother to try and make me do things, rather than give up after a I say no. Agnarr looks down on me. I am insignificant to him.

"I'm not putting on those clothes," I snap.  

"You are now in charge of weeding the garden for thirty days, and you will  go upstairs and put on proper clothing." He says coldly, "You're used to getting you way, but this is not like your old life. I run things a little differently here."

I glare.

"Now go upstairs and change."

I turn angrily and go up the stairs, giving him the bird in my mind, and change, but I don't look 'proper.' I leave the shirt untucked, the tie loose, and the cuffs and top three buttons on the jacket unbuttoned. Agnarr'll be upset, hopefully.

My face red, I come back down, finding Agnarr watching me, satisfaction on his expression.

"Happy?" I ask, "Or do you want me to a do a little twirl so you can see the rest of the dress?"

"You are going to go eat, and then you are to be outside, weeding, for the next three hours, understood?"

"Sorry, I don't speak gorilla. Switch to English and the we'll talk." I smirk at him. To my surprise, Agnarr smiles back.

"You really are a fool if you think you can get away with that." He tells me, and the smirk falls off my face. "For your cheek, let's have you do four hours instead of three. Start with Elsa's corner of the garden."

I stare at him, disbelievingly.

"Yes, you see, I'm not nearly as nice as your mother." Agnarr says, "Go eat, and then you had better be in the garden."

Agnarr heads up the stairs, leaving me standing there, watching him, hating him, with a fire-filled hate.

"Oh, and Jack?" He pauses.

"What else do you want?" I demand.

"Straighten your tie."

Damn it. 

He knows exactly what to say to get to me. This stupid uniform. This stupid house. This stupid family. This stupid situation! 

Everyone must have gone berserk. They think they know what's best? To heck with them.

I kick angrily at the marble tiled floor, scowling. I need to get out of this madhouse, which consists of a Hawk, a Marine Freak-show, a girl who's afraid of her own shadow, and a blond frigging robot! I am literally the only normal one on this freaking planet!

I rip off the tie and throw it on the ground, stepping on hit, grinding it onto the floor. In your face, Agnarr. In your pathetic, loser, ugly, freaking face.