Switch

Chapter Six

Chapter Six | Pure Evil

Erin

Dinner at the Michaels household has always been sort-of a muted thing, let me tell you.

As usual, there were the three of us: me, my mom, and my brother, sitting on our assigned places at the dinner table, which was filled with extravagant, elaborate food which my mom calls 'normal'.

Yeah. Like having lavender and rosemary seasoned grilled lamb chops with mint sauce was normal. Not that I'm complaining, though. I am hungry.

The chair at the end of the table was once again empty. Dad got a call from his work earlier, so he won't be back in an hour.

"So...I heard about today." Mom said, out of nowhere.

Jake and I froze, both of us looking at her.

"W-What d'you mean?" my brother asked nervously, shoveling mashed potato in his mouth. He glanced over at me, sending me a 'did-you-tattle?' look.

He sighed in relief when mom focused her daunting attention at me.

"I heard that Mr. Stowsky gave you another detention today, Erin." Mom said, stabbing a baby carrot with her fork.

I shuddered. "Um, w-well...it wasn't entirely my fault..."

Jake let out a small chortle. "Whoa, Ery. Are you trying to rebel or something? Two detentions and the first week of classes haven't even ended yet!"

I gave him a dark look. "You know mom, Jake here actually left m—"

"H-Hey, teddy." The idiot laughed nervously, pushing the plate of blueberry cheesecake that he has towards me. "You want more dessert? Here you can have mine."

I smirked triumphantly. "Well, I saw this cool skateboard at the mall today. I was planning on buying it, but big bro here abando—"

"I'll buy you your skateboard, okay?" he sighed exasperatedly.

Mom shook her head amusedly at our antics. "I also heard that you ran out halfway through it, screaming the school down."

"That's because I don't want to be murdered!" I said dramatically, flinging my arms out. Why won't they understand?

"Who'll murder you?" my brother asked.

Uh-oh.

I shook my head furiously, paling. "No one! Ha-ha, where are you even getting that stupid idea."

"Sure..." he narrowed his eyes at me.

"Well, I won't tolerate this, just so you know." Mom spoke again. "I know you don't like having detentions, so I have the perfect punishment for you."

I frowned. "Are you going to make me clean all of the rest rooms at school with just an old toothbrush?"

"No, I'm not that evil to make you do that."

"What then?"

Mom stabbed another carrot. "There's this certain student at school who's been causing nothing but trouble since he's first year. We had tried to help him out but...let's just say that at least two teachers and the counselor resigned after it."

"Wow. He's that bad, huh." Jake said, impressed.

"So...?" I prompted curiously.

"So we decided that, since he's a loner and all, maybe he just needs a friend who'll steer him out of trouble."