Shards: Intro- Part 1 (old)

Intermission: Outsider

Travis Nelson

Dallas, Texas, United States of America
*++++++++++++++++++++++*

"Adrian, Travis, meet Chester."

I was seated next to Uncle Dean as Mom handed me my newest sibling. The baby was so small and fragile. As I held him and stared into his eyes, I immediately grew attached to him.

I tickled his little foot and to my amusement, he laughed. He had the cutest little laugh I could have ever imagined.

"I wanna hold him!" Adrian shrieked next to me. I gently passed the newest addition to the family over to my younger sister. She bounced him and cooed him like an actual mother would.

What a happy day that was. Nothing can compare to a day when you get the opportunity to welcome a whole new family member into the world.

12 years later

"Chester! Get out of my room!" I shouted at my little brother.

"You said I could play on your Xbox for a couple hours! You never clarified exactly how long that was!" He argued back. I hate it when he uses big words in an attempt to annoy me. He's 12 years old. Most of the big words he does know, he learns from English vocabulary cards or quizlet. All he uses them for are arguments.

"Uhhhh no. Two hours ago, I said I want you off when I get back in two hours. And- *gasp* you're playing Black Ops 2?!" I shouted at him. "I said you could play Fortnite, not Bl- UGH! You probably destroyed my KD ratio!"

"Would you stop yelling? I didn't know you didn't want me playing that." Chester shrugged. "And for the record, I'm not bad at Black Ops 2."

"I don't care, you're done getting on my Xbox. Can't even trust you to do things right when I try being nice to you. Go play on your PS4 or something."
Chester reared his head back on the gaming chair.
"I can't play on my PS4! Dad took it to work again!" He argued.

"Well, all the more reason for me not to be letting you play on my stuff. Please go, I'm tired of you coming in here anyway. You leave pop-tart crumbs and bags in here, you turn off my fan, and you don't put my discs back in their cases."
I counted my fingers to emphasize. He sighed and walked past me.
"You have anger issues," he said when he was far enough down the hallway.

I ignored the little brat and slammed my door. I threw myself onto the bed and began pulling up twitter notifications. There was nothing better to do that would take my mind off of outside frustrations. It feels like ever since that kid was born, nothing ever changed between us. When him and I are left alone, he constantly tries to annoy me with fart noises, whistling, and banging on my door when nobody is home. All that is stuff that probably shouldn't be getting to me anymore, but it does because it's every day with him.

School is nearly out, and college is approaching. I'm about to leave Chester with the most annoying memories about him being most prominent. It's kinda sad really.

I'm diagnosed with a common condition that makes me easily provoked when it comes to Chester getting on my nerves. Once or twice, I've gone too far. I think the worst I've ever done to him was nearly break his arm. He cried so hard. Since that time, I did my best to never do something like that again.

I don't want to hurt my little brother, so why does he keep pushing my buttons? Why can't he just respect my condition and refrain from that kind of behavior? It won't earn him anything good. Dad always tells me that I should be able to restrain myself when it comes down to hurting Chester, because if I saw somebody else hurting him, I would take a bullet for him, and I knew he was right.

The door to my room had no lock, so nothing stopped Chester from peeking his head in again to remind me that it was my turn to take Fumble; our pug; out. I'm sure he enjoys every second of making me not enjoy my last summer in the household. You can see it on his face. Ignore the so-called cuteness that apparently radiates off him and you'll understand what I mean. I'm talking about living with the kid.

After I was done with Fumble, I came in to see Mom and Dad waiting for me at the table with huge smiles on their faces. Apparently both of them were home early.

Getting the idea that a surprise was in store, I sat down with an expression mirroring theirs.
"What's going on?" I asked innocently.
Dad spoke up first.
"I'll waste no time because you'll figure it out after two sentences of easy hints, we're traveling to Europe my friend."

I gaped at them both. I wanted to travel to Europe since I learned about the place. So many cultures in one area, the history, the food, the people. All of it fascinated me. And I was going there? My dad came from Britain, and he travels there with my mom about twice a year. Without a doubt, we were stopping there, but that couldn't be all I was going to see.

"Oh my god! Where are we going?!" I raved almost incoherently.
Mom handed me a brochure almost immediately, clearly she knew I'd ask.

"Manchester, and London for UK, Munich for Germany, Prague for Czech Republic, Vienna and Bratislava across the border from each other, Budapest for Hungary, and on our way back to Munich: Salzburg, Austria. It's all in the map." Mom pointed at it as if she thought I didn't know what Europe looked like.

"Thank you guys so much!" I leaned across the table abruptly, almost knocking a few lily vases over. Mid-hug with my parents, a thought came to mind.

"Who is going with us?" I asked nervously.
"Us three, Adrian, and Chester."

Oh great.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Welcome to the conclusion of another story part my fellow readers!

JUNE 10th: This might confuse a reader at first glance, but the people in this Intermission will be crucial to the story as a whole.

Surely by now, you must know what the term "outsider" means. If not, What do you think it means?

What do you think will happen to this family in future chapters?

What other questions, thoughts, and predictions do you have about this intermission and why it's so important?

Entirely new question! Up to this point in the story, what do you WANT to happen?