The Bad Boy's Sister

Chapter 2 - Troublemaker

Cody arrives at our house at seven -thirty the next morning and Jace is really upset by then. He expected to be given a couple of days to plan his tricks but now Cody is here and the time is all up.

Cody walks in while we are shoving our breakfast in and I don't think he gets the surprise he is expecting. That is, except from my mother.

"Cody!" she exclaims. She runs to him and throws her arms around him, jumping up and down like a kid on Christmas morning. "Your father and I didn't expect you to come so soon!"

"All part of the plan, Mom," Cody grins, looking up at Jace and me. "Hey, Jace and Samantha!"

I grit my teeth together and do exactly what Jace had planned for us to do: ignore him. Jace does the same and I can tell this upsets both my mom and also Cody. I can see the frustration plastered on their faces in my peripheral vision. The room grows very quiet as if my mom is going to come up with some way to yell at us for being disrespectful, but instead it just remains soundless.

"Where's Carley and Ashlyn?" my mom finally asks, breaking the awkward silence. I let out a little breath of relief; I really didn't want to listen to another lecture from her about respect.

"They're pulling our stuff out of the van," Cody replies. "They let me get a head start."

"Maybe you should go help them, son," she suggests. "I'm glad to see you, though. We can catch up when your things are in the house."

"Bye, Mom," Jace suddenly calls. I watch him throw his bag over his shoulder and he gestures for me to follow, which I willingly do.

I listen to Jace way more than I should...

"Come back here, young man!" she hollers, but he doesn't listen. I run after him and wave to her before I slide in the passenger seat next to Jace. He revs the engine like Lightening McQueen before a race and we're speeding away before our mom or Cody can even protest.

"I freaking hate him," Jace growls, sliding his aviators on his face and hitting the accelerator once again. "He doesn't belong here anymore. He ruined his-"

"Flipping," I quickly substitute his word before I hear it.

"-chance! He can rot in-"

"Heck."

"-and so can his family!"

I get a little surprised at him saying this. I thought he somewhat liked Carley?

"Even Carley? I mean you have to admit that she is a saint for putting up with him," I point out to him.

"Carley is okay, but not mentally," Jace shrugs.

"What do you mean?"

"She has to be mentally insane to marry such a loser. Just think of the poor baby. She's half crazy. She has one of the worst fathers in the world."

"Yeah, that's definitely true," I agree. He lets out a giant sigh before he flips on the radio. He turns it up so loud that I can barely hear myself think, which in a way is nice because I don't really want to think right now, but it's slightly obnoxious too. I guess if it makes him happy, then it's worth it.

We make it to school about two minutes before the first bell rings so I scurry to my first hour and Jace does whatever the heck he wants. Normally I bug him about getting to class on time, but this morning I decide not to push his buttons. He's extremely irritated and upset about Cody and I don't want to aggravate him more. When Jace loses it, it's never pretty.

My classes go pretty fast in the morning, thank goodness. Maybe it's because my attention span is next to nothing today, but I think it's more of the fact that I'm dreading going back home. It's funny how things work that way...when you want something to come fast, it never does, but when you want something to go slow and enjoy it, it zooms buy like a race car.