Eight Boys and a Walker girl

9 | What did you just call me?

9 | What did you just call me?

The next morning I wake up feeling horrible, which isn't a surprise after staying up half the night- first with Caleb's panic attack, then with Julian, then Jace, then the googling anxiety and stressing about whether or not I might be showing symptoms of it half the night. I head down the stairs at seven-thirty looking like a witch- my hair is frizzy, my eyes are red and sleep-dust cakes my face. The twins, Ty and Julian are already in the kitchen, the twins sat at the table and Ty sat on the kitchen counter eating chocolate spread out of a jar with his fingers. He grins at me as I walk in.

"You look..."

I raise an eyebrow at him. "You sure you want to finish that sentence?"

"Natural," he says at last, and I roll my eyes and flop down into my seat, resting my head on the table. Then I raise my head and smile towards the twins.

"You okay, Caleb?"

He smiles at me wanly. He still looks pale, and even more sleep-deprived than me- which is near impossible on mornings like this. But he matches my smile determinedly. "I'm fine. Thanks for...um..you know. Last night."

"Yeah. It was no problem."

I turn towards Julian, who's got his headphones in as usual as he pours his cereal. He must have seen me coming in, but he only looks up towards me when I've cleared my throat. Several times.

"Ahem. Morning, Julian."

He looks at me. Our eyes meet, and for about a millisecond, his lips quirk up into a shadow of a smile.

Then it's gone, and he gets to his feet, dumps his bowl- still full of cereal- and heads out of the room into the hallway, where I can hear the clattering of him stamping into his school shoes. I sigh and turn back to my breakfast, forcing down any disappointment I might be feeling at his lack of happiness at seeing me.

Oh well. It was half a smile- at least that's a start.

"You coming with us to school again?" Frankie comes into the room and reaches out to ruffle my already mussed-up hair. I swat his hand away with an eye-roll.

"You realise my hair was horrific enough without you doing that."

"Hey, you're fine," he says carelessly, "I mean- you washed it about five days ago. That's alright, isn't it? I'll reckon you have about a week left before you start to look seriously scary."

I just roll my eyes again. Now if he was cursed with my hair...

"Sure, I'll take a ride," I say- but just then, my phone vibrates. I reach out to see who the message is from, and my face lights up.

Jace<3- You wanna ride to school?;)

Smiling, I tap out a reply:

Me- How do u know where i live?

Jace<3- ;);)

Me- Stalker

"Um...hello?" Frankie waves a hand before my face, "As I was saying, a crocodile broke into my bedroom last night and ate all of my gran's yellow underwear..."

"That's nice," I say absently, texting away. Tyger rolls his eyes at Caleb, and i reach out and hit the back of his head lightly. "Mind your manners, little boy!"

"Mind your crush on Jace Jackson," Tyger mutters under his breath.

It's quiet, but I can still hear it, and my mouth drops open. "I don't have a crush on Jace Jackson! I'm tutoring him, that's all! We're friends."