Between The Both Of Us

Chapter 1

I strummed the strings of Elise, my guitar, slowly and let the gentle lilt of the tune calm me. There were only two things in the world that could calm me, music and exercise. The former I kept a secret because I lacked the required courage to display a so-called talent in spite of all shortcomings. Someday, maybe...

I sigh deeply, and keep Elise away and drag myself downstairs to the kitchen. Jason 'Jayce' Cooper, my younger brother, is sitting at the kitchen counter chewing on a carrot stick from a bowl our cook, Abigail, had set aside for cooking dinner. Jayce had turned twelve last month, that is, the blooming month of February. Of course, he got all the latest high-end gadgets as a gift courtesy our parents. They were, however, delivered to our doorstep by the courier guy because they, like always, couldn't make it. That's basically my parent's code for 'we value lame parties hosted by fake people to the fruit of our loins'. Good job parents. Cue slow applause and sarcastic smile.

We had had a low key celebration, and Jayce, being Jayce, enjoyed it. He might have a childish attitude, but he had deep wisdom below that exterior. I knew how it felt to be ignored by my parents. I, after all, had four years more experience than him. So, I tried my best to fill into both their shoes for Jayce. I took him on field trips, amusement parks, attended all his soccer matches, and even attended all his parent teacher conferences. Being in the same school as him and being the student body president, I could keep an eye on him. Being the only family I knew intimately, I loved Jayce more than anything else in the world.

Feeling emotional all of a sudden looking at his bored face staring into space, I grab him into a bear hug. "Getting poignant, are we sis?" he chuckles. I roll my eyes at him and sit beside him and retort, "Have you been playing about with the thesaurus again?" He smirks and leaves it at that. I grab a carrot stick and start eating. "Gail is gonna flip when she sees half the carrot sticks gone" he chuckles. I rub my palms together in wicked glee. It was a favorite obsession of ours to rile Gail up to the extent where she got so angry, you could see steam coming out of her ears. "I can't wait"

"Can't wait for what?" asks Gail as she returns from wherever she's been. She comes to a stop before us and then looks at the bowl. "Of course, you two ate the carrot sticks I kept aside to make dinner."

"Well, it has reached its ultimate destination" Jayce retorts while rubbing his belly.

"Sure, it has sweety. Both of you get out of the kitchen before I break something made of your bones, oh, and it'll take more than that to make me truly angry, but I appreciate your effort."

"You were with Ashton weren't you?" he asks. Ashton is Gail's boyfriend, and honestly, their relationship is something to look up to, in all its fairy-tale greatness.

She blushes and nods. That would explain her good mood. Well, we'll try better next time...

Just as we are leaving the kitchen, Jayce turns around and says," By the way Gail, fat called and said he misses you" referring to the time Gail was heavy. She had gone through a lot to lose it. She was very touchy about that particular topic. I had helped her enough to know that she didn't need to remember about that time of her life. Low blow, Jayce.

She turns a bright shade of red, crimson rose almost, and throws the first thing that's within hand reach of her. Luckily for Jayce, it's just a carrot stick. We take off running upstairs towards my room, all the while laughing our butts off. "Her FACE!!! Man, I Love Gail, but then that face is worth giving up all that love and then some" he says, as tears of mirth gather in his eyes. I smile at him and go sit on my bed, cross-legged facing him.

"So, Jayce, I've been hearing things going around school" I say. He sobers up almost immediately and asks cautiously, "What kind of things?" "Something regarding you liking a certain girl..." I trail off.

He sits beside me on the bed and starts blabbering, gesticulating wildly the whole while, "I do not like Rebecca. I swear its just a rumor. People are crazy. I mean I have better things to do than like Rebecca. I mean, yeah, I did hold her hand once, but that's because she was walking away from me while I was talking to her, and then I forgot to let go of it because we were getting late for class so I wasn't focusing and her hands were so soft...." He stops as I raise an eyebrow at him.

"Soft hands, eh?" I ask, chuckling lightly.

"Shut up!" he says, blushing a wonderful shade of pink. Oh! The joy of seeing this kid blush!

"Jayce and Reb on a tree, K-I-S-..." He clamps his hand over my mouth before I can finish. "Real mature, sis. Jeez, sometimes I wonder if you're four years older than me or four years younger."

"Well, I'm just teasing, but if there's something, you would tell me, right?" I ask.

"Yes, of course. Now stop. I hate blushing, I feel like a little girl."

"Man! I feel like a woman!" I sing, a song made familiar to us by the ultimate Shania Twain fan, Abigail Forester. Jayce smiles his I'm-a-cute-twelve-year-old smile.

"Well, we should go downstairs and kiss Gail's ass, or we won't be getting any employer benefits anytime soon" I say, getting up. He follows behind as I head to the kitchen, hoping to the God's above that Gail has calmed down.

A/N

Short introductory chapter.

Hope you enjoy it.