Side by Side

chapter 1-Naomy's POV

I was in history class when the news started to spread. No one was aware that everything we knew was about to change.

 In the classroom no one was listening to the teacher, their attention was caught by something else on their phone. Mine was switched off in my bag but around me, I could hear a few whispers, and so could the teacher. Finally, Mr.Delton asked what was going on, visibly annoyed. It was Alex, from the back of the class who answered, and everyone turned towards him. It was a good excuse to look at him, with his dirty blond hair, his defined jaw and, blue eyes and sharp lips. The basketball player was nonchalantly sitting in his chair unbothered. Many in the school had a crush on him, and he knew it. I never talked to him, even if I was in his class and the fact that he came a few times to my house as he is one of my brother's friends. Even if he did not seem particularly kind to me, I could not deny he was charismatic. Little did I know we were going to live through hell, side by side. 

"Apparently there were 20 terrorist attacks, at the same time all around the world including the UK" he said and shrugged like it was nothing important.

The teacher told us to put our phones away and we continued the class. The bell went off and we all hurried out of class. I saw Alex meeting with his friends including my brother, as tall as Alex but had black hair, hazel eyes and freckles. Of course, they had a group of girls wandering around them. I decided to take another hallway to meet my friend Kiara, as I wanted to avoid any comments from my brother and his girlfriends. I really was not in the mood to recive comments on how I looked or my social life. I waited in front of Kiara's locker, scrolling through my phone and the recent news. For now, there was not more information than what Alex had said in class.

"Have you heard the news?" asked Kiara. I lifted my head and looked at Kiara's concerned face before she switched to another subject telling me about her mathematics class, and the drama that was going on between 2 girls. Kiara had been my friend and only girl-friend since 10th grade  when I had just moved from France to the UK, we  instantly got along. Everything felt easy with her we could talk about futile things but also have deep conversations about how we felt growing up, our emotions, or anything going on in the world really. She was one of the few people I could really feel like myself with. For most people in this school, I was solely Thomas' introverted little sister, and people asked me about two things. Homework and Thomas. I had almost nothing in common with Thomas apart from our family name, our hazel almond-shaped eyes, and our freckles. I was much smaller than him, had lighter hair and was quite introverted. One other thing we had in common though was our dedication when it came to the things we liked: he was excellent at football and not too bad in academic stuff, and I was excellent concerning academics and pretty decent in dance and track and field. But our common points stopped there. It had always been electric between us, even violent, and he liked to remind me of the fact that I had few friends, and didn't like partying or drinking. But I got used to it and simply ignored him. I was waiting for the time he would go to college, in one year, and then maybe our relationship would get better.

"Are we going to the cinema on Friday, and then you can sleep at my house ?" Kiara offered.

"Sure, sounds fun, and I least I won't have to be around my brother and his girlfriend and friends"

"Did he ..." Kiara started but she was interrupted by Lucas and Nate, my two other friends, who hugged me to say hello.

"It's crazy did you hear about what happened?" said Nate, concerned.

"Yeah it's bad but it's nothing new, we shouldn't-" started Lucas before Kiara cut him off.

"It isn't nothing new Lucas, hundreds of people were killed, a hundred more are missing and we still don't know who did that and why it happened at the same in different countries!" They continued arguing for a, while Nate and I listened to them and tried to calm things down. Nate and Lucas were not exactly friends with Kiara, they only tolerated each other because I was their mutual friend, but Kiara found my guy friends too childish and the boys thought she was uptight, and that she used me only when she did not have anyone to hang out with. I was still grateful they tolerated each other because of me. I met Lucas and Nate at the beginning of high school, and they were always supportive, funny and kind, and I was always glad to see them despite their opinions on Kiara.

At 3 pm classes were over, and the only additional information we had about the attacks was the growing number of casualties in India, China, Germany, France, the UK, Brazil, South Africa, Russia, Qatar, Kuwait Canada and the US. Many people were missing, probably buried under the debris.  It was the only thing people were talking about. I made my way to the parking lot, to meet my brother who would be driving me home. I often had to wait for him to finish practice or him to hang out with his friends or walk home for 40 minutes when he "forgot" me or simply had other plans. I saw him with his group of friends near his car, I waited for them to leave before getting in the car, I always felt very uncomfortable around them, and out of place. Alex was also there with an arm around the shoulders of Emma, a tall and pretty girl. They were also talking about the incidents but the discussion switched to an upcoming party on Friday . When most of them had gone, I opened the front door without saying a word.

"Get in the back, I'm driving Grace and Blake home."

"I really need to study Thomas, I'm wasting time right now,I have exams soon" I protested. I was really stressed about my grades and exams as always and I could feel anxiety building in my stomach, but I knew it was none of my brother's concern.

"Like I give a shit". The other two got in the car, and Alex turned the music on. I looked at the news, apparently, all the attacks had been orchestrated by one group EarthRevolution , known to be a climate activist group in Europe, promoting the end of fossil fuel trhough violent means, but nothing as extreme as now. After dropping Blake off and kissing Grace for what felt like forever, we finally took the way home. We were going fast, way too fast. I could feel my body pressing against the seat and the houses scrolling past us.

"Thomas slow down," he only went faster

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"I thought you wanted to be home fast to study? Gosh you're never happy about anything"

He pressed the brake way too hard and didn't say anything else for the whole trip. Neither did I. I had learnt it was better for me to remain silent in those moments. 

I studied for a while in my room. It was 7 pm and my parents were still not home. My mother worked for the government, in scientific research and my father was a business lawyer, usually they would come home late, after work. They were not around much. Nate, Lucas and I were texting about the upcoming maths test and of course the incidents. The casualties were terrible, almost a thousand people were dead 3000 were injured, and about 200 were missing. I heard my parents arriving home and telling us to come down, for dinner they had brought sushis. I set the dinner table and of course, Thomas arrived after everything was ready. They asked us about our day,  looking very serious and tired. Exceptionally we turned the TV on while eating to listen to the news. It's a tragedy. All countries are cooperating to try to understand what happened, and how to find those behind these attacks. The UK Prime minister promised to punish those terrible acts and paid tribute to the ones who perished in the attack . Missions to find the 15 pUK citizens missing are still ongoing. We are just being informed of a new element of crucial importance.

We had stopped eating and were all watching the TV speechless, even Thomas  focused on the news . All access to supplies of oil and gas have been... The journalist took a deep breath and paused...destroyed, everywhere on Earth. The wells exploded and even the supplies underground have been damaged by an unknown chemical substance, scientists are unsure what will be the long lasting effects of this. EarthRevolution claims it is the only way to save Earth ...

"Do you think that's true? How could they have really destroyed all petrol resources" inquired Thomas. My eyes were fixed on the TV, I wasn't hungry anymore, I felt like something big was happening in front of our eyes but we could only watch and wait. 

"I am afraid they have" replied my father with a grave face. "If it is I don't know what tomorrow's world is going to look like, our whole system is based on petrol".

"Maybe it's not such a bad thing, after all, it will force us to use renewable energies" suggested my mother

"Yes if doesn't turn in a huge mess, and violent crisis before" my father countered.