Part of the Plan (Book 2 in the 'part of' series)

Chapter 2; Brother bonding

"Afternoon." I said as I sat and took my school shoes off, I disliked them very much, they were rather small on my feet and were extremely uncomfortable. I nearly sighed in relief when I put my comfortable slippers on. "I didn't expect you to be coming over today." Of course I didn't mind that he was here, I enjoyed whenever I got to see my brother, it was just rather surprising.

"No need to sound so happy about it." He sarcastically remarked. I gave a small smile, I enjoyed the difference when it came to personalities in this house. Aiden was a rather laid back person. It was very much unlike our father, who was rather strict. I feel like Emi and Aiden would get along extremely well, yet I had never spoken to him about her. I gave a small laugh at the sarcasm but it was cut short when he asked me "How was school?"

It wasn't a question which I avoided, I would talk about the work that I have but I never went into detail. "It was alright. Same as normal." I didn't lie, nothing special happened today. Emi complained to me about her food tech class and I made progress on my project in the workshop. It was very uninteresting. I could tell that he was suspicious of me, he has always been suspicious of me holding things back about school. I decided to try and lighten the mood. "You know I didn't mean it like that." I gave him a playful punch ont he arm as he walked over to me. I watched as he peaked into the living room.

Mam was still sleeping soundly in the living room. Her sleeping schedule was one of a vampire's at the moment. She often slept the day away and stayed awake at night. Aiden walked past me again before starting to head upstairs, where I followed. "I thought that you would be in the middle of the woods around about now." I entered our room first and sat on my bed which was a little bit awkward for me since it was rather low down.

"Had to cut the trip short." I narrowed my eyes as he said this. There would be no reason that Aiden would ever cut a nature trip short. We went camping one year and he got heavily ill. Everyone wanted to go home so that he would be comfortable but he didn't let us. "I got a little anxious about the wildlife." I thought that everything about that sentence was suspicious. He loved wildlife and he had done quite a bit of research ont he place this time around, he had been there before.

"Poppycock."I snorted and crossed my arms over my chest to show that I didn't believe a word that he said. I wasn't going to let this go easily. "Aiden, you've nearly jumped into the lion enclosure at the zoo because the lion was choking on something. You've risked your life several times for animals and your degree. I don't think anything simple could've scared you away." That memory stuck in my head for quite a while afterwards and I still think of it sometimes at night. It was one of the craziest things which had ever happened.

He bit his lip and I could tell that he was hitting himself for how he'd worded everything, or how stupid he was when he was younger. He risked his life quite a few times without thinking, usually for the sake of animals or another creature. It would be admirable if he knew that he would be safe. "Yes but those were zoo animals." He trailed off in a very unconvincing way. "This was...uh, a bear." The name of the animal caused me to sit up straighter and to look at him as though he had grown an extra head. My mouth was slightly open and I was trying to tell if he was joking or not. Maybe he had gotten scared being by himself and was just trying to come up with excuses. Despite my wishes, I could tell that he was speaking the truth.

"A bear?" I repeated in an emotionless tone. I nodded and blinked as I tried to comprehend. "A bear?" I repeated once again, I couldn't quite get my head around it. My voice was getting sterner as I continued on, I'm not sure if Aiden understood how dangerous that was. He could've been killed, how didn't he know about this before he left? "You study animal biology and habitat and yet you didn't know there would be bears where you were camping?" I didn't understand any of the logic behind it, if such a thing existed.

"Well obviously I had thought about it." He mumbled quietly as I continued to stare at him in anger and disbelief . "Hey, I went there without bumping into any bears before. I'm sorry if I expected the same this time!" I shook my head and gave a sigh as he tried to lighten the mood with a slightly humorous tone. "Either way I'm alright."

I decided to give him it. "Right you are." I started to stand up, I was directly in front of him and I made sure to pick up the pillow as I stood. "Which means I won't feel bad about this!" I swiftly whacked him over the head with the pillow I was holding. I kept repeating this action until I got bored and slightly tackled him onto his bed. Of course I was still trying to be quiet, I knew the walls and floors were thin and mam would be able to hear. It didn't stop us from laughing.

"I surrender!" He yelled quietly, he tried to raise his hands to stop the pillow from making contact with his face. "I yield!" I stepped back with a look of satisfaction on my face as we both stopped laughing. There was the occasional chuckle but we were mostly calm.

"Like you surrendered to the bear?" The two of us shared another chuckle as we resumed our previous positions on the beds. "Seriously though, I'm glad that you're alright and that was extremely stupid of you." I pointed my finger at him like he was a child. I wanted to remind him once again that he had made a rather stupid decision for going out into bear infested woods.

"I know, I'll do my research and be more careful next time." He tried to dismiss my warning and worry. It didn't fill me with any more confidence. There would be a next time just as there was a last time. Next time he could get himself killed. I bit my lip slightly, wanting to argue about him going back to a place he ran away from. . "So, how is everything going on?"

I looked down and ran a hand through my hair. I took a few deep breaths. "Not good." I felt like a child again as I looked up to my big brother. "Ma's getting worse and nobody knows what's wrong." I tapped my heels together to distract me from what we were talking about. The doctors were really annoying, they had a new specialist in every week and nobody knew what was wrong.

"I don't know what we're gonna do bud." He used his old nickname for me as he stood up and sat next to me on my bed. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder in a comforting mannar. It was something he had done since I was about four, when mam first started to get into photography. "We'll just take it one day at a time, yeah?" I gave a nod in response, align with a small smile.

"Yeay." Our peaceful moment was interrupted as we heard the door opening downstairs. I gave a small sigh. "Tiem to face the music." I didn't dislike our father. He was a rather nice person when he wanted to be and he was a good dad, the majority of the time. Aiden seemed to have a rather sympathetic smile on his face as we both stood up and started to head downstairs.