This Never Happened (Olympus Drive Chronicles)

Part 0 - Let me introduce myself

So I'm going to start before the beginning. Well, before the beginning of our story. I should introduce myself first. Tell you who I am. That may or may not make you like me. I don't know, anyway.

My name's Hugh Leane.

I was born very dramatically a couple of months early, along with my brother, Isaac. This was a dramatic event for two reasons. One, we had to come early, like twins do, because Isaac wasn't doing well. He was littler than me, and I was getting more blood and stuff that babies need (what? I am not a gynecologist let me put that out there, I am not an expert on any of this stuff that I am about to tell you about).

So we were born early which is dramatic in and of itself. It was even more dramatic because I was born pale, blonde haired, and blue eyed. My mother is dark haired, browned eyed, same with her husband and my apparent father. Isaac, dark eyes with a full head of dark hair, and skin a couple of good shades darker than mine.

My father was not amused. My mother insisted I had albinism, freak of genetics, a lot of things that did not involve her cheating on my dad and having somebody else's kid (that is exactly what happened). That can happen apparently, twins have different fathers. I don't know at what point a DNA test was done, all I know is that from a very early age my father was very aware he was not my father. But there was no other man my mother cared to incriminate. So. They were kind of stuck with me.

My dad wound up handling that okay. He preferred Isaac, obviously. I was the bastard who looked nothing like him or anyone for that matter. Isaac looked like a copy of our dad. Our mom loved us both. But Isaac was the one expected to do well, do all the cool things in life, carry on the family name. All that. Me? I was just kind of along for the ride. Not to speak up or act out. I got clothes and a roof over my head and basic parenting. Isaac was gonna be great, I expected to watch.

All that did not go well for our parents. You know how there's usually a quiet twin and an outgoing twin? Yeah. I'm the outgoing twin. Isaac was quiet, and gentle. He spurned our parent's attention on him, it disgusted him maybe more than me. He didn't like school, didn't do well at school. I was the top of my classes. He was shy and didn't like talking to strangers. I was our spokesperson. I beat up the school yard bullies.

So back then they used to make twins be in separate classes? Yeah? Guess who would break out of his class and sneak across the hall to make sure his brother wasn't being picked on? Me. No matter what life, usually school, dished out, I was there to protect Isaac. Our parents didn't really want me. But Isaac wanted me. He told me all his secrets, and I told him mine. Like most twins, we were inseparable.

That didn't stop our parents from heaping all the attention and care on him, and as little as possible on me. I didn't care. I had my brother. And as far as I was concerned it was us against the world. And I wasn't about to let anybody hurt him.

Anyway, like I was saying. I always knew I was different. They did too. It wasn't long before we all realized how different.

Our mother hired a piano teacher for Isaac. Not me, Isaac. And before we go farther, let me just say that they really should have known better. Isaac doesn't do well with formal reprimands. And he gets shy around strangers.

The piano teacher came to the house with a couple of instruments (He was teaching piano and flute, I take that back). Isaac had to practice while the dude stared at him. Now, that's not an easy thing to do, focus while somebody's staring at you. I stayed in the living room with them, doing my homework and giving Isaac moral support. But it wasn't going well.

"You need to focus," the teacher growled (or something like that).

"I'm trying my best," Isaac mumbled, fat tears in his eyes as he again played the wrong note, his shaking fingers fumbling.