Someday We'll Be Together

Chapter 1- The Project

"Who wants some French toast?"
"Leo, didn't you oversleep?" Mrs. Fontana asked her son, who was dressed in his fast food restaurant uniform.
"Isn't it 8 o'clock?" Leo asked, tilting his coffee mug to his head.
"It's fifteen minutes past," Lena said, biting into her toast.
"You're kidding," Leo said sarcastically.
"Thanks to your father, no one wants to fix anything that's broken around here," said Mrs. Fontana.
Mr. Fontana's eyes darted from the horse race on the TV to Mrs. Fontana.
Leo quickly gathered his things and left the house as someone's phone started ringing. Max popped the last piece of toast into his mouth, pulled out his phone from his pocket, turned it over in his hand, and answered it.
"Who's calling at this time of the day?" Mr. Fontana asked.
"Who else? That slacker girl," Mrs. Fontana said.
She was referring to Max's girlfriend, Samantha.
"Oh God. Okay, Sam. Whatever you want!" Max hung up the phone and got up from the table:
"I'll be back late."

Lena followed her brother as they walked to school together, Max looking sullen. When they reached the basketball court, he stopped and pointed to a Range Rover passing by:
"One day that'll be mine."
"Do you really think my dad, who even turns the bedroom into a garage, is going to buy you a Range Rover?" Lena scoffed.
"Of course he won't. But I will, one day," Max said proudly.
"How do you plan to get it? Or rather, with what? Watching horse races?"
"Do you think those science journals and research papers you read are going to make you money?" Max snapped.
Before Lena could answer, Max caught the ball that one of the kids on the basketball court had passed to her.
"Hey Max, come play!" he called out, walking towards Max.
"I can't, Jerry. I haven't finished school yet, unlike you," Max said with a grin. He threw the ball back to Jerry.
As Lena continued walking, passing Jerry, Jerry smiled at her:
"Ah, hi Lena!"
Lena smiled slightly and waved to her brother's best friend. As she walked away from the basketball court, Max answered Lena's question by brushing it off:
"Well no. Watching horse races is my dad's thing. Somehow... I'll get a job and buy it somehow!"

When they got to school, they realized they were late. Max looked around the school corridor and signaled for Lena to come.
"This will be the third time we're late," Lena said.
"You know it's not our fault. If Dad had fixed that clock-"
Just then Max felt a hand on his collar. It was the grumpy school principal, Mrs. Murray.
"That's three tardies in a row," she said, her eyebrows furrowed, her face expressionless.
Then she turned to Lena:
"Miss Fontana, do you think you have the right to be late for school after your success at the math olympics?"
Lena was lost in thought, looking at the basketball trophies on the nearby locker. She had caught a glimpse of her father in a photo.
"Miss Fontana, are you listening?"
Lena snapped out of her thoughts and said to the grumpy woman, "Yes, ma'am."
"And that. Whatever it is, don't wear it again," the woman said, pointing disapprovingly at Lena's off-the-shoulder blouse, handing Lena a tardy slip. Then she turned back to Max. Max grinned and took the tardy slip from the woman's hand. Seeing this, the woman's face turned bright red.
"Fontana! You're a slacker. Just like your father and that good-for-nothing brother of yours."
Max took a step back from the woman standing in front of him as she continued to rant.
"You have behavior problems!"

"Lena took her books from her locker. Fortunately, it was the last lesson of the day. At least the weekend was coming. As she reluctantly walked to the classroom at the end of the long hallway, her eyes fell on the locker where Mrs. Murray's was standing and yelling at her brother. Inside were trophies from the school's basketball tournaments. Lena focused on a trophy dated 1982. She immediately recognized her father in the team photo next to the trophy. He was standing in the front, holding the trophy. Beside the photo was another trophy dated 1983. However, her father was not in the team photo from 1983. Lena knew her father was still in high school in 1983. There was only one explanation for him not being in the team photo. Her father had left the team. As Lena wondered why, the bell rang. She felt someone bump into her, and her books fell to the ground. It was Tyler. She hated him. He was a stupid, spoiled brat. He was the guitarist in the school's music band and quite popular. But to Lena, he was just a jerk. Tyler smirked, showing he had bumped into her on purpose, and said, "Watch where you're going, Fontana!"
"Coward," Lena whispered. Tyler only bullied her when his brother Max wasn't around. They had fought several times, and Max was older than Tyler.