Fighting Family

24

Axel's POV

Homework was stupid. Liam had spent over an hour looking hovering at my back trying to help and I was more confused now than I was when I first started.

"I'm just going to drop out," I groaned and set my head down on the table.

"I think Callum would kill both of us if I let that happen so how about we just take a break for a second instead," he said as he closed the book and wandered to the kitchen. "I thought you were good at school? Your transcript was nothing but A's."

"Weylyn lets me cheat off of him," I admit because there was no point in lying when he has seen firsthand how bad I am in these subjects. "I can do science and sometimes history if it's interesting but English and math make no sense."

"Was that why you wanted to be in the same classes this year?"

"Partially. We also just don't like being away from each other for long. Survival in numbers, you know?" Liam hummed and returned with a glass of water and set it in front of me.

"I get that. Ryder insisted to be apart of all of Callum's classes when he first started camp too. Thankfully I joined a year later so their grades got a lot better after that."

"Callum was good at school though," I argued as I took a sip of the water.

"He was," Liam agreed. "But school at camp was harder. They were trying to over work us so we didn't have time to think about the reasons why we were there. A lot of us also didn't go to school before we were caught so they were trying to make up for lost time and make sure we understood everything before we left to get a job or go to college. Callum was good enough to keep up but he couldn't teach to save his life and poor Ryder did not understand what was happening."

"Yeah, that sounds like Callum. Whenever he tried to help us in school it usually ended with him saying the same thing over and over until Weylyn started crying and then he would give up and we had to look up the answers. Noah used to help but when he started doing college prep he didn't have time anymore and Weylyn had to figure everything out for us."

"I've noticed that you two haven't been talking lately," Liam said as he sat down beside me. "It must be hard to have your best friend just stop talking to you out of nowhere."

"Don't," I scoffed. "Don't go all therapist on me right now. You're supposed to be teaching me math."

"I'm not being a therapist, I'm being a concerned person who lives with you," Liam shrugged with a small frown.

"I'm fine so just stop. Either pick something else to talk about or help me finish this homework so I can be done for the day." I wait for him to frown or get upset and just walk out but Liam only nods and switches subjects like it was nothing.

"What's your favorite subject in school?"

"Gym. I like running and not having to sit still. Gives me time to run off the energy I've been storing up after all day of sitting down."

"God you're just like Jax," he said with a sigh but there was a small smile on his face. "He hated staying still. He still doesn't really. He could run laps around everyone else and still want to keep going after class was over." I hummed but didn't comment. Jax was cool I guess. I still didn't trust him and I didn't want to be compared to him but he was alright to be around. I guess it was better than being compared to Ryder. I was nothing like that skinny twink and would not be insulted in that way.

A few minutes of break later and we were back at trying to get this math done. It took hours compared to the few helpful comments he made in English. By the time we were finally done Jax declared dinner ready.

I sat between Liam and Jax, where it seemed to be my new spot while Weylyn sat by Callum and Ryder. He sat right in front of me and I tried my hardest to not look at him even when he tried to catch my eyes.

Carter was talking about some asshole he had to deal with at work, something about having to make the guy leave because he wouldn't stop causing a scene over a tattoo he didn't even do. Liam talked about how he wanted to plant flowers in the garden next year and Ryder was excited to help him when it got closer to time. Callum groaned and demanded that he would not help no matter how much they begged.

The conversation ended and Callum turned to me as if he expected me to pick up on the silence and offer some topic to fill it. When I didn't he turned to Wey, who also stayed silent.