Dishonorable Conduct

Chapter One

Two teenagers, one seventeen and one fourteen, stood in a cemetery, surrounded by dull gray hosts. The boy, about six-foot with messy black hair and ice blue eyes, watched as the girl, about five-foot-five with straight brown hair and green eyes, crouched before one of the stone slabs.

Latrelle and Rosa stood in front of their uncle's grave. It had been three days since they had come home to a detective standing on their front porch. He had told their mom that they had found her brother at his workplace, dead.

Rosa knelt on the ground, and, although the funeral wasn't for another few days, placed flowers from her garden in front of the hunk of stone.

"What are you doing?" Latrelle asked his little sister, raking his hair back as the wind blew it in his face. "You do know that you're gonna have to replace them in a few days anyway, right?"

"Yes, I know," she replied, not discouraged in the least. Once she was finished arranging the flora, she stood up, brushing off the dirt that had gotten on her jeans, then turned on her heel and walked through the headstones and their occupants below them, with her brother not far behind.

Rosa climbed into her brother's 1995 Chevy Silverado. After Latrelle put the keys into the ignition, a song by Skillet blared through the speakers. Rosa hated his music, and turned it off, only to have him turn it back on. She moved to turn it off again, and Latrelle whacked her hand away.

"You're in my car, sis, so you'll have to listen to my music," he said. Once they got home, the first thing they noticed was their Uncle Mitch's Malibu in the driveway. As soon as the truck stopped, Rosa jumped out and ran into the house.

"What is he doing here?" Rosa asked her mother as she ran into the kitchen. Her eyes moved frantically from her uncle then to her mom and back to her uncle.

"I heard that my baby brother was dead, so I came running," Mitch said with a fake smile and a thumbs up. Latrelle chose that moment to walk in. He threw his keys onto the dining table, eyeing their uncle like some rare and magical creature.

"If it isn't my favorite nephew!" Mitch forced. He walked up to Latrelle and tried to hug him, but Rosa's brother evaded their uncle.

"I'm your only nephew," he said flatly.

"Don't get so technical, Lat!" their uncle said, using his old nickname.

"Stop calling me that," Latrelle growled. He collapsed in one of the chairs surrounding the table, crossing his arms and glaring at the uncle everyone hated.

The group sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity. Then, right as the tension in the air reached a breaking point, there was a knock at the door, as if on cue. Latrelle stood up and left the dining room in a hurry. Rose heard the door open and close, followed by voices that grew louder and louder as her brother walked towards the dining room with his friend, Kevin, in tow. Their footsteps trudged up the stairs before disappearing into Latrelle's room.

"Who was that?" Uncle Mitch asked, leaning his elbows in the table and placing his head in his hands.

"One of his friends," Rosa's mom, Tina, replied as she took out a small pan and put it on the stove. "Are you staying for dinner?"

"Of course. When people lose someone precious to them, don't they stick together?" Mitch said. She didn't comment; she just took out ingredients for supper.

* * *

Latrelle plopped down on his bed, rifling through his backpack until he found what he was looking for. Pulling out his laptop, calculator, notebook and his favorite pen, proceeding to work on his math homework.

"You realize that you're the only one who actually does the homework, right?" Kevin pointed out, leaning against Latrelle's bookcase, searching for a good read.

"And that's why I get better grades than you," Latrelle shot back. Kevin whimpered fakely and grabbed a book off the center shelf, flipping through the pages. He sat on Latrelle's bed and began reading, while the owner of the room scrolled through the online textbook. Working at a fast clip, and with him being a straight-A nerd, it only took him ten minutes to finish every problem on the page.

Once done, Latrelle snatched his video game controller from the TV stand, turning on the gaming system at the same time. He scrolled through the games he had, finally deciding on a first-person shooter.

"You suck at that game," Kevin said, flipping to the next page in the book. Latrelle grunted in response, not caring in the least.