Overbearing Gods

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CHAPTER 3

"It's past two in the morning, where the hell have you been?" was what Juno was greeted with when she tumbled rather ungracefully into her bedroom through the escape ladder on the side of her apartment building.

Dusting off herself, she stood up and faced her beet red-faced brother. He was sitting in her desk chair with his arms crossed and a furious expression was written plain on his face.

Juno shrugged calmly and took off her backpack. "I went to a cafe to try and study for my entrance exam. Ended up falling asleep there, but it was a twenty-four-hour service one so don't worry." she lied.

William gave her a dirty look and said, "Don't worry? You were supposed to be back by ten! Do you have any idea how scared I was for you? This is still a new city dammit, you can't just leave me without any sort of context or checkup!" He sighed and sank into the chair, "You better be grateful I didn't tell mom about this. The next time you stay out later than you should, that window isn't going to be unlocked. I just... need to be sure that you're not going to get kidnapped or something."

Juno looked at her dejected brother and exhaled her anger. It was hard to put up a defense for herself when he looked that way. She knew how hard it was for him, being the man of the family. Mom was gone for most of their waking hours, and she never had very nice things to say when she was around. She didn't want to put her troubles in his hands, he was still a teenager himself.

She walked over to him and crouched down to meet his face. Cupping his cheeks, she put her forehead against his and whispered,

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you worry."

William's shoulders relaxed and he pulled her into a hug. Juno breathed in his fresh scent and tightened her arms before letting go and pulling him into the kitchen.

"Come on biceps-for-brains, I'll make you some tea and then you can tell me about your new school," she said lightly.

His face lit up and he asked, "Can you make mine with your sun water? Oh, and make mine peppermint?"

Juno laughed at his sudden mood change and puppy eyes. "All right. But only if you stay out of my cookbooks, last time's mistake is still stained on the stove."

"Deal," he laughed.

Sitting at the dining table with their steaming mugs, Juno chatted with William while browsing through her grimoire and laptop, looking for new candles for her altar. Flicking her eyes up to him, she drank in his facial expressions. The way his eyes widened at the slightest joke or how his smile seemed to contort his face into new shapes to fit all of his laughter. How his black hair swept to the side naturally, or when his chest puffed out when he got defensive.

His demeanor had changed since he started attending his new school. As a senior, she didn't know how the other kids would treat him, so she had made him bring several charms and spell jars with him despite his bickering. And it had paid off well enough: he made a ton of friends, got accepted into the wrestling and football team, and even got invited to a party next Friday. So far her worries had been for not. And she intended to keep it that way.

"All I'm saying is that you should have been accepted into my school too," William said, breaking Juno's train of thought. "You were the top of our class back home."

Juno sighed, "Yeah well, I guess they didn't like having two Asians in one building. That or they saw my record and thought otherwise."

"Hey, just because you messed up back there doesn't mean you will be here. Fresh starts are what everyone needs to help move on."
"I have a criminal record Will, not bad grades!" Juno cried. "You already had a hard time back home in school after everyone found out that you were related to me. You of all people know how hard it is to be an Asian with a bad streak, we're supposed to be prim and perfect, be doctors or lawyers and make good food. I can't even cook that well dammit!"

You've reached the end of published parts.

⏰ Last updated: Mar 16, 2021 ⏰

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