Creatures

Like Matches and Gasoline

Ring....

Shut up.

Ring...

SHUT UP....

RING RING RING RING....

AAAAAAAHH

I bolt upright now wide awake and throw my alarm clock to the floor. My senses catch up to me and I realize what I've done. I sigh out loud as I stretch out my back before getting up out of bed. First day at my new high school. I recently moved here with my brother, Aphelios. Well, my mothers are supposed to be joining us soon. They recently bought this house fully intending to move but they got caught up with work and won't be moving with us for a few months.

There's a knock at my door, probably Aphelios asking about the banging noise.

"Y/N, are you doing okay in there?" Aphelios asks.

"Oh yeah, I'm doing fine, just launched my alarm clock off the floor like a tennis ball" I reply with sarcasm dripping from every word.

With a more serious reply, "No, I was having a good dream and didn't want to wake up."

Aphelios cuts me off before I could continue my thought.

"I really don't want to hear about your wet dreams."

"No, it wasn't one of those dreams you idiot."

Though it was about a girl, well, a girl from my childhood. It was more like a memory of when we were kids. How we would always play over at my house. How we would spend almost every weekend staying up all night just laughing at whatever, or watching TV until we passed out. But they moved away right after 6th grade. After that it was just me and Aphelios. I didn't really have that many friends in middle school. I certainly don't have any now that I'm in a new place.

Aphelios comes back to my door as I'm finishing up with my uniforms tie. Aphelios knocks at my door.

"Are you almost finished? Breakfast will be ready soon. It's not much but Diana sent us money yesterday to pick up some groceries to fill up the house"

"Yeah just finishing up some last minute things" I sigh.

Tying up a tie is much harder than the YouTube tutorials make it look. I never had to tie one for the uniform at Targon High. And the uniform there wasn't basically a suit.

Speaking of Targon. Diana and Leona, me and Aphelios's moms. Me and Aphelios are brothers from the same donor father but two different mothers. The donor was a good friend of the lm both from high school. I never spent much time with him but his name is Pantheon. Not that he was never around, but he's a career military man and is always away off in some foreign country. Diana is a high profile lawyer currently stuck in Targon with a trial. Leona, my birth mother, works in the Treasury department of the Targon government office. Her transfer to Piltover will be finished soon, but she's just going to wait for Diana.

That means me and Aphelios have the house to ourselves for a few months.

But that's enough of that. I make my way downstairs to see Aphelios already started on his frozen waffles.

"For cheap frozen waffles these aren't so bad" Aphelios says.

I was barely able to interpret it though because he was talking with his mouth full.

I reply "Is that so? Then pass me some syrup."

I throw some waffles onto my plate as I start scrolling through my phone to catch up on all the latest news online. I scroll for a while, but, nothing really interesting seems to be happening so I just put my phone away to finish eating.

"Oh yeah." Aphelios cuts in. "Runeterra High has a school band program and a performance club. Thinking about joining?"

"Performance Club, what is that?" I question him.

Aphelios not sounding sure of his words says" I think it's like theater, acting, music, dance. Stuff kind of like that. You never know, maybe we'll find someone to form a band with."

I set my fork down and feel a chill go up my spin. Me and Aphelios have always had a dream of being musicians. However, we were set up for our first performance, and I choked. As soon as the lights came on I froze and eventually all I remember was passing out. That was freshman year, and I haven't been inspired to write since then. I pick up my guitar every now and to just play whatever. Mostly just simple riffs, or even instrumentals I made in the past.

Finishing up the last of my waffles I grab my school bag along with my guitar case. If Aphelios is gonna give it a go, I might as well bring my guitar with me Incase. After sliding on my shoes I open the door to head off towards the first day of Junior year.

I know Aphelios wants to be in a band. I had ambition to be in a band aswell, keyword being had. I don't really know what I want anymore. Aphelios is also aware of what the thought of performing does to me. I'm just scared I'll freeze up again, and if I get up Infront a group of high school peers. Well my life will be over for the next two years.

"Let's worry about making friends before we worry about bandmates" I tell Aphelios.

I've always loved music, but more importantly I love making music. There's something relaxing to me about just jamming away for hours to anything, whether it sounds good or not.

I look around in my school bag for a binder. In one of the slips inside is a notebook I always keep on me. It's full of lyrics, some of which are scribbled out. I always keep it around me in case I get hit with inspiration to write.

A lot of the lyrics are cheesy love song lines. I don't know why but they used to come naturally to me. I haven't shown anyone what's in here besides Aphelios. He always responds to my lyrics positively, but he might just be biased because he's my brother.

My thoughts were interrupted by the foreboding front gates of Runeterra High. People from all over come to Piltover to learn and study. You can meet just about any type of person in Piltover.

"We're finally here" I break the silence.

"Yeah, it seems such a short time ago that we were still in Targon. It all feels like it all happened so sudden."

I put my hand on Aphelios's shoulder and give him a smile.

"Well we're here now so we better make the most of it."

Aphelios turns to face me before replying.

"I'm not so worried about myself. I'm worried about you. All you did was sit in your room without even trying to make friends."

My mood suddenly sours as I lower my head.

"Yeah well, I abandoned my only good friend I ever really had. You don't count because you're my brother.  Family are on a different level than friends.  I just didn't feel like I had it in me to make friends anymore back then."

I give Aphelios a soft, harmless little shove.

"We all can't be social little butterflies like you" I yell at him.

What I didn't realize, however, is that I unintentionally shoved him right in the direction of someone else.