Oh Brothers

Chapter 1

"Thomas I need the shower!" I scream at the top of my lungs. My younger brother, Thomas, continues to ignore my desperate plea for hygiene as he belts out Adele's Rolling in the Deep, extremely out of tune might I add. I groan in frustration and storm down the hall to my twin brother, Carter.

Carter has got both his feet artfully propped atop his desk as he bops his head along to whatever distasteful music he's listening to.

I collapse to the ground and wait for him to turn around and notice me. Quickly, I become irritated with waiting, I have a very selective patience, and toss a stress ball at Carter's face.

It feels as though Carter is moving in slow motion as he keels over and topples to the ground. He angrily twists around to face me and, with the combined effect of his beanie askew and the bewildered expression on his face, I burst out laughing.

"What do you want?" Carter asks bitterly, rubbing the his head furiously.

It takes me a full minute to compose myself before I am able to spurt out an answer, "Thomas is hogging the bathroom," I complain.

"Not my problem," Carter turns to his computer and flicks open aol instant messenger. Who even uses that anymore? I didn't even know it still existed. The perfect idea of how to get Carter to reenforce my side suddenly strikes me.

I haul my nosy butt off the ground and lean on Carter to get a proper view of his screen.

"Whatcha doin?" I ask with the most irritating voice I can muster.

"AHHH," Carter scrambles to cover his conversation. He turns to me, looking thoroughly annoyed, "what's up with you?"

"Thomas is hogging the shower," I repeat myself and lean on Carter's bed.

"Can't you get help from someone else? You have three other brothers" Carter asks irritatedly as I lean my head down all the way to rest on Carter's soft comforter.

"Jason is at the grocery store, oh and I told him to grab that three spiral notebook you wanted, Scott is at the auto shop, and Ryder is at the library. Since the shower isn't free, I think I'll just stay here until it is." I not so subtly threaten.

I make myself comfortable on his bed as Carter simply stares at me.

"You're a piece of work, you know that?" he mumbles as he gets to his feet. I gleefully follow him to the bathroom

"I have to be - I have five brothers," I agree. I patiently wait beside him as he bangs on the door.

"Thomas let her take a shower," Carter spouts in his voice fraught with authority. Each of my brothers have mastered being the authoritative, parental figure.

My parents are both doctors, surgeons actually, and while they are loving and caring, they're just a little... absent. Family dinners occur when both mom and dad are out of surgery and they call us over to the hospital to scarf down hospital food as we try and catch up. Practically growing up without parents made each one of my brothers defensive, and the object of their protection was me, the lone girl in the pack. Even Thomas, two years my junior, will come to my defense in a blink of an eye.

All that said and done, that doesn't mean my brothers don't like to annoy or bother me. In fact, teasing me is their favorite hobby. They've even made a game of it, with bets and a scoreboard and everything. The rules are constantly changing though, so I haven't quite figured out how to beat them at it. It's not like I've tried... that much.

Thomas and Carter argue back and forth while I run to my room to grab my towel. When I return, I see Thomas exiting the bathroom.

"Thanks Carter!" I toss out behind me as I shut the bathroom door.

I'm in the middle of shampooing my hair when I hear a banging on the door and a mumbled sound. I shut off the water.

"What?" I shout.

"Ara, mom and dad called for last minute dinner in an hour, we gotta leave the house in ten minutes." I hear Ryder's voice.

I immediately panic. Ten minutes? I rush through my shower and finish in record time and, double checking that my towel is secure, sprint to my room and try to figure out what to wear.

I haven't seen my parents since... two months ago. Or maybe it was three? I just know I really want to be on point when I see them, but I don't know how I do that in.... six minutes?!

I quickly decide on my go to favorite dress and throw that on with my favorite wedges and my usual makeup,very limited since I'm pretty much handicap at makeup (I was raised by guys).

Before I know it, I'm crammed in the car with all five of my brothers headed to the hospital. My oldest brother, Jason, attends Peabody institute which is a branch of Johns Hopkins. He is about to start his sophomore year and lives at home with us and crashes at his friend's dorm during finals, midterms and for major projects. He is studying music and is a brilliant master of quite a few instruments. My parents, Lydia and Grayson, work at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Mom is the head of cardiothoracic surgery and dad is head of the department of neurosurgery.

I ignore whatever conversation the boys have for going on and try to settle the butterflies in my stomach. Often, we have gone to the hospital, only to find that mom or dad or both of them have gotten called into emergency surgery and we had to go back. There's a high possibility that will happen again.

I drum my fingers aimlessly against my armrest as I attempt, once again, fruitfully, to calm my nerves. My idiotic brothers are too involved with their current squabble, about god knows what, to notice me - but that's okay. In fact, it's what I prefer.

I let my mind wander and when I refocus I look out the window to see the familiar entrance to the hospital. Jason parks and we go through the usual routine to see mom and dad.

We decide to grab our food now, but wait to eat for a few minutes to see if mom and dad show up.

Surprisingly, as we are in line, mom and dad come rushing into the cafeteria. We step out of line and hug our parents furiously. I was first in line so I was the last one to greet out parents.

"Arabella," my mom breathes and gives me a wide grin as she pulls me into a right hug. I relish the feeling and try not to cry, I guess I miss my parents more than I want to admit.

I look over my mom's shoulder and see dad smiling brightly at me. Mom releases me and dad engulfs me in his strong arms. I love my parents so much and I often find myself wishing they weren't surgeons so I could see them everyday. But how selfish is that? My parents are saving lives every day. When they are doing such good things, how could I want them to stop?

We return to the line and grab our food as Thomas starts to rattle off a story about what happened to him at baseball practice last week. I've heard this story a thousand times so I just stay quiet throughout his account.

We grab a table in the far corner of the cafeteria and start to catch up with our parents.

"Arabella, are you excited for the school year to start?" dad eventually asks me.

"I'm kind of nervous because it's junior year and that's the one that counts but it's school, so it should be alright. It could be so much better but the entire school system is screwy and -" I start to ramble but Carter, who is sitting beside me gently squeezes my knee to stop me, "um yeah I'm... excited."

Satisfied with this answer, dad turns to ask Jason about his music theory professor from last semester who he was friends with in high school.

I take another slice of pizza and look up to see my mom staring sadly at me.

"What's wrong mom?" I ask, putting my pizza back on the plate. She shakes her head and puts her hand on dad's to get his attention. Dad was previously in a heated discussion about this past Super Bowl but he turns to look at mom. She has an unreadable expression on her face and dad nods his head. They turn to look at us.

"We have an announcement to make."

Unedited & written on my phone so sorry if it's a little weird. Thanks for reading and I'll post again when I can, hopefully soon!