My Older Brothers

28

"Cole, can you take me to the mall after karate practice?" I ask, taking the last piece of toast off my plate before Kade can.

"Sure," He says as he starts making oatmeal. He's going to try but probably fail to get Martin to eat it. Martin has always hated oatmeal, he wouldn't eat it if it was the last food on the earth. Cole's hoping that if he puts a couple of pieces of bacon on the side that Martin will try some of the oatmeal. 

If that fails then Cole is going to just give him what we had for breakfast. Good thing he made a lot of breakfast today, Kade would've eaten all of it if Lane didn't tell him to stop.

"Why do you want to go to the mall?" Beck asks me

"To get someone a present." I say

Katie's birthday is tomorrow and I haven't gotten her a gift yet. Her birthday's on the test day. I'm glad I have a summer birthday, I couldn't imagine having to go to school on my birthday.

"Can I come?" Miles asks

"Sure," Cole says

"Let's leave before we're late." Lane says grabbing his car keys.

We all rush out of the door and Cole yells a goodbye to us. Lane drives as slow as usual to the school. When we finally get there we run out of the car and to the entrance where the kids are starting to head into school.

"Hazel!" Katie waved at me

I leave my brothers and walk over to her. She's basically jumping up and down with joy. Not even Cole is that happy in the morning.

I smile at her. "Hey Katie."

She squeals and I laugh. "Why are you so happy?"

"Tomorrow's my birthday and this is the last week of school. What is there not to be happy about?" Katie says

"We have a big test tomorrow and it's on your birthday." I say

Katie stops jumping and frowns. "Wow Hazel. Way to ruin the mood."

"How will you ever forgive me?" I ask sarcastically

"You could come to my birthday party." She says

"I didn't know you were having a birthday party." I say

"Yeah. My parents are out of town again and I convinced Kalani to let me throw a small birthday party after school tomorrow with a few of my friends." Katie says

"What time in the afternoon?" I ask

"Right after school. You can ride with my sister and me if you want." Katie says

"But I have karate practice right after school." I frown

"Come on, you can skip one day. You need a break, plus it's my birthday." Katie whines

I sigh. I would feel really bad if I missed Katie's party. I hope one day off isn't going to ruin everything. I'll practice extra hard after. I wish I could do both, but I know it won't work.

"Okay, I'll skip tomorrow. But that's it. Until the competition is over I am not available from 3:00pm to 7:00pm." I say with my finger up

"Yes! Thank you. You won't regret it, I promise. Wanna walk to our classes together?" Katie says

I nod and we walk to our different classes, saluting each other before going our separate ways. I walk in and smile at Sam who waves to me.

"You look happy," He says with a boyish grin

"Katie's birthday is tomorrow and I can't wait!" I say excitedly

"She's turning 15 right?" Sam asks

"Yep." I say

"When is your birthday?" I ask him

"September 20, when's yours?" He says

"August 15," I say

"Ha. I'm older than both of you." Sam says

"But my birthday's in August." I say

"I was born the year before." Sam says

"So you're already 15?"

"Yep," He says

"Can you drive?" I ask

He laughs. "No."

"I can." I say

"Oh yeah?" Sam asks

"Yes. I drove a four wheeler on a dirt road by myself." I say

"And you didn't get in trouble?" He asks

"Well, a sheriff pulled me over and gave me a ticket. He said to give it to my mom but that doesn't matter because I was driving around for a good 45 minutes before I got pulled over and I didn't crash into anything." I say proudly

Sam starts laughing really hard and I find myself laughing with him. I am very proud of myself, it's not everyday a fourteen year old can get away with driving for that long without being pulled over. 

I honestly think the sheriff should have just given me a warning. I'm pretty sure I was in the speed limit. The only bad thing I was doing was not wearing a seat belt and believe me when I say that the sheriff was especially mad about that.

I gave the ticket to Martin and he said he would take care of it. Cole scolded me and Beck for it. Beck because he was supposed to be watching me and me because I shouldn't have run off to drive.

Soon class starts and our math teacher is very focused on making sure everyone understands everything that might be on the test. Thanks to Sam's help I pretty much knew everything. Everything was much, much easier.

Before we left class, Sam asked me if I wanted to hang out again sometime. He said instead of studying we could go to some place fun. I said yes and he gave me a huge smile. My face started turning red. I like Sam a lot.

As I went to my different classes I noticed that everyone was in a good mood. Even the grumpy teachers were smiling. 

"Four more days and that's it. We won't have to deal with these rats for a whole three months." One teacher whispered to another

"I can't wait. I've been counting down the days since the second week of school." The other teacher whispered.

I guess we all wanted to get away from each other. I don't blame the teachers, some of the kids here are a handful.

School ends soon and this day felt way shorter than most. We didn't really have much to do in classes so we had free time. In science I played chess with Sam again and won. Sam said he was going to go home and practice so he can beat me the next time we play.

All my brothers that go here and I get into Lane's car. Cole is taking us to the mall later. Lane drops Miles off at the skate park, Kade at Emily's house, and then me at the dojo. Beck and Lane wave to me as I say bye.

I ask them to check on Martin when they get home but both of them say they don't want to get sick. I'll check on him when I get home from the mall. Maybe I can get him something to help him feel better.