Favorable (Jamilton)

2. Jefferson

"Twelve years of looking forward to the end of high school and school, in general, was wasted just to be shoved back into more school that has double the pressure put on students."

"Hey, Thomas?"

"What?"

"Shut up."

Thomas glared at his older sister as they packed clothes into a suitcase. He didn't bother folding them so it was mostly just a blob of various colors and wrinkles.

Jane rolled her eyes and took the suitcase. She started folding the clothes and handing some shirts off to her brother to be folded. Thomas let out an exaggerated groan as he folded a shirt.

"You're being dramatic, it's not like you won't know anyone there. I go to the same college and so does Mary."

"Yeah, but I won't have any classes with you and I still have to deal with living with someone that I don't know. You two get to live together." Thomas through the shirt down, half undoing his terrible folding job.

"That's because you aren't a girl, Thomas. If we actually had the work ethic to handle school and jobs, we could probably get an on-campus house or apartment, but the grades will do us better in the long run. You especially could use that." Jane shrugged and decided that folding the clothes was a lost cause and just shut the suitcase.

"Hey! My grades were fine!" Thomas shouted as his older sister walked out of the room.

"Obviously. Come on let's go say our farewells to the rest of the herd, grab Mary, and go."

Thomas nodded and grabbed the suitcase from his bed. He hefted it over his shoulder and onto his back and walked into the loudness of the house. Immediately, he was tackled by two younger kids.

"It's not fair when it's two to one, come on guys!" Thomas looked at his youngest two siblings, Randolph and Anna.

"You gotta have a way to 'member us when you're at Colgate." Anna smiled proudly up at her brother. Randolph nodded eagerly in agreement.

"College, baby. I'm going to college. Colgate is toothpaste. And I am going to visit, you know." Thomas laughed and sat up. He glanced over to the rickety looking stairs and saw one of his sisters sitting with a book.

"Martha! Get over and say bye!"

Martha quickly went over, gave her brother a hug, and went back to her book, muttering a quick 'visit soon'.

"A book is more important than me, huh?"

"They're more important than everyone. Things are just getting good, I need to know what Nico's secret is. Cupid's really into it. . ." Martha slowly went back to be being totally devoted to her book. She looked up long enough to nod toward two other girls sitting on a couch. Thomas's eyes went from the fifteen-year-old on the stairs to his other siblings that were sitting on the couch in front of a small T.V., though it didn't look like either of them was really watching it.

Thomas glanced back at Mary and Jane, who shooed him over. Mary picked up his suitcase and told him that they would be waiting in the car. He made his way over to his sisters on the couch. Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth glared past him at the show.

"Lizzy, I'm not going to be gone forever," Thomas whispered as he knelt in front of his sister.

"Did you hear something, Lucy?" Elizabeth looked at her younger sister, knowing full well that the nine-year-old would follow in her footsteps, like usual.

"She's mad at you for leavin'," Lucy translated.

"Yeah, I'm mad! I can't handle taking care of Mom and the twins and you, Lucy! That's the grown-up's job, I shouldn't have to split my time between kids, a job, and school." Elizabeth huffed and crossed her arms like she was the nine-year-old.