Elyar and I

Chapter 3 - The Hearing

6am. Too early to be up. Far too early.

"Up! The sooner your in that court room, the sooner i am rid of you" My father howled. Then i heard him mutter something like 'I never wanted you god forsaken kids anyways.'

A tear rolled down my cheek as I pulled out a pair of old, ripped jeans that had almost lost all colour to them. Then I pulled on a black Pierce The Veil hoodie. I wasn't really bothered about what punishment we got. Anything was better than this hell hole. Anything. Elyar wore the first thing that he picked out of his dark brown, wooden wardrobe - a pair of old blue jeans and an Adidas hoodie. I didn't really know what the would happen after the hearing so i decided I would rather be too hot than too cold. I guess Elyar thought the same. Looks like the old saying is true, great minds do think alike... Before we left the apartment, i put on my silver heart lockett. I never took it off apart from when i went to sleep; i always kept it right next to my bed though. It was the last thing that my mother gave me before she left. It had a picture of our family when my mother was alive on the inside and i felt like I had to keep it with me or I would be dishonoring her. Do you know what I mean?

Nobody spoke during the bus ride to the court. Not one word was spoken after the bus ride apart from when the hearing actually started. When we got onto the bus my father sat as far away from us as he could. We sat at the back. He sat at the front and even though nobody was looking at us it felt like they all knew who we were, why we were on the bus, and where we were going. And i didn't really like that. It felt like everyone was giving us full on death stares. But no. It must have just been the nerves, I mean, I didn't know what was going to happen today. Nobody did. However, I had the feeling that our dad was going to make sure that we would only have one more time in that house with him.

"So what are we going to say this time?" El whispered, making sure that I was the only one that could hear.

"I, I don't know. I really don't know El." Usually when things like this happened we always had a plan.

"You know that he's going to say anything to make sure that we're punished, right?"

"Yeah. But what's the point? The adults always agree when the kids have done something wrong. I say we just tell the truth." Telling the truth wasn't the easiest thing for me, I've always found it easier to lie; i couldn't think of anything else.

"What happened to 'everytime we end up in court, we lie our asses off'? I thought that was always going to be our plan"

"What has lying every done for us, El? It always just gets us into more trouble than what were already in. Plus, theyv'e always got evidence. The punishment might not be that bad." I explained as my voice gradually got quieter. It was our stop and Elyar pressed the red square button; we walked down the tiny isle one behind the other.

"Thank you" I muttered as we passed the bus driver in order to get off the bus. He just grunted.

My father was already in the courtroom by the time we just started walking up the stairs. He was obviosly happy to be rid of us. We both trailed up the stairs behind him. I never felt any different when I walked up those stairs. The feeling of guilt flooded my body like a tsunami. We reached the door of the court and we froze. We weren't used to not having a plan.

"Come on. Hopefully this will be our last time coming through those building doors" El's voice was filled with guilt mixed with a little bit of hope.

"Yeah, hopefully" I said sarcastically. "Just let me do the talking, okay?" El nodded. I like to think i'm pretty polite but when it comes to it, i will stick up for myself and El.

"Elyar and Nicole Richards, stand" Judge Parker said. "Oh, i remember you. You've been here many of times Nicole Richards."

"We meet again, Judge Parker." My eyes flicked between the floor and the Judge. I didn't even dare to look at my dad because I knew that I would end up doing something stupid. But, in the end, what does he expect when he's treated us like shit for the past 13 years of our lives?

"Did you or did you not steal a black, volkswagen van?" Judge Parker asked whilst looking at our papers.

"I like to call it borrowing without permission" I replied as I began to glance around the courtroom. There were two tables either side, with three or four chairs neatly lined up. On one side there was Elyar and I. And on the other side I saw the two retards from the back of the supermarket, and my so called 'father' who was charging us for attempted murder.

"And did you or did you not attempt to murder your father?" Judge Parker asked, but this time he was looking me right in the eye. I think he might have some sort of lie detector thing in his head because, even though i was the master of lies, he still made me feel really uncomfortable when he looked me in the eye.

"Not exactly..." I replied, trying to sound as innocent as possible. I think me telling the truth on the first question caught the judge by surprise as he is used to me making up any excuse that I can to get out of being punished.

"OBJECTION!" Our father cried as he stood up faster than a race car. I think he almost flipped the table over by standing up too quickly.

"SILENCE!" Judge Parker responded. Judge Parker seemed to be the only person that could shut my dad up. I didn't know if that was because he was very intimidating, or if he scared the shit out of my father. "Go on."

"Well..." My father gave me a sort of death stare that I was very familiar with. It was the if-you-say-what-your-going-to-say-you're-dead death stare. "My father was beating up Elyar. And I didn't know what to do so I ran into the kitchen and got a knife. I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt, and Elyar did. I was only defending him." What was I expected to say? I wasn't going to let El take all of the blame for this. And my father deserved what he got.

"Now, there are currently two vacancies at camp green lake. You and Elyar have a choice. You can either go to jail, or Camp Green Lake. It's up to you" Our punishments weren't as bad as I thought they would be, but the jail one was pretty bad. Maybe Camp Green Lake will be fun. It might not be that bad.

"What do you think El? Camp Green Lake?" I asked El.

"Might not be that bad. Yeah." He smiled a mischievious smile, as did I.

"18 months in Camp Green Lake then." Judge Parker hit the sound block with the gavel. "As for your father, we don't have any evidence" - NO EVIDENCE MY ARSE! WHAT ABOUT MY BLOODY BLACK EYE? WHAT ABOUT THE FACT THAT MY DAD'S PROBABLY HOLDING BACK HIS SICK OFF HIS HANGOVER THAT HE POSSIBLY HAS? HUH? "We will have to give you a $500 fine" Well atleast he will have to give up his booze money. That was probably the only upside to this.