Chapter 1
Daniel Straight groggily walked into the dim kitchen, much like a zombie would. In about two more months, the sun should shine through the big panorama windows and light up the entire room, but winter was still on; it was still dark. Daniel expected it to get easier to wake up now that the nights were getting shorter, but it seemed as cold as ever. His icebox of a room made it awfully difficult to leave his nice cocoon of warm blankets at 6:30 in the morning.
Grabbing a box of Cheerios, Daniel sat down at the kitchen table. Erik, who was a year and a half younger than Daniel, was already sitting down slurrping up a bowl of Captain Crunch. Daniel noticed that Erik had spilt a couple drops of milk down the front of his shirt, probably from poor spoonmanship.
“Nice goin Bro.” Daniel said, flicking him in the chest where the dark spots of the milk showed.
Glancing down, Erik noticed the milk spots, “Aw crap, this is a new shirt!” he said as he attempted to soak up the milk using the tablecloth.
“You better go change, the bus is gonna be here in a couple of minutes.” Daniel said, skillfully pouring the perfect amount of milk into his cereal bowl.
“Naw, it’s not that bad, it’ll probably dry before we have to get on the bus.” said Erik, stuffing another spoonful of cereal into his mouth. “At yeast id’s nod as bad as da Hod Chocolad incidend.” He smirked evilly.
Daniel shuttered; So far, the lowlight of this winter was easily the Hot Chocolate Incident. Last week, his clumsy brother had spilled a massive mug of hot chocolate all over his pristine white shirt. Scalded and practically drenched, he would have changed if the bus hadn't, just then, pulled up to the bus stop, which was two blocks away.
“I’ll pummel you later.” Daniel yelled, grabbing him and sprinting to the bus. Panting and sweaty, they stopped the bus just as it was starting to drive away. Apparently, no one wanted to walk to school in the snow, because the bus was packed. There were exactly two seats left: One was by Alex Cornwell, Erik’s best friend, and the other was right next to none other than Samantha Felix.
Samantha was the kind of person that would look beautiful even if she was mauled by a pack of angry alley cats. She had maple brown eyes and silky chestnut hair. It was no coincidence that was Daniel’s favorite combination of eye/hair color. She was wearing a bright orange hoodie which made everyone else look dull in comparison. How was it possible she was sitting alone today? There was supposedly a waiting list of guys wanting to sit by her, not to mention the bus was filled. On any other day, Daniel would be thrilled, but it only so happened that today he was sticky, sweaty, and looked like, well, like he had hot chocolate spilled all over him. Erik sat by Alex; Daniel made a good effort to slug him on the shoulder.
“Hey Sam,” he said, silently sitting down next to her, “how ya doin?”
“Oh my gosh, what happened to you?” she said with a face similar to what you might have after watching someone slurp up a large spoonful of mayonnaise.
Carefully choosing his words, Daniel poured imaginary liquid over the front of her shirt, “Don’t you just love little brothers?” Eavesdropping on their conversation from a couple rows down, Erik threw a pencil at him. He under shot and the pencil landed at Daniel’s feet. He picked up the pencil and launched it at Erik, nailing him in the middle of his forehead.
“Yeah, sure, just don’t touch me okay?” Sam said as she scooted a little closer to the window. The rest of the bus ride was spent in awkward silence.
Throwing the painful memory out of his mind, Daniel shivered. He hated embarrassing flashbacks. “I think I still might hate you, Erik.” He shot across the kitchen table, “Remind me, I still need to beat you up for that.”
“Hey bro, just a reminder,” Erik said, waving his spoon around, “You still need to beat me up for the Hot Chocolate Incident.”
“You--- butt.” Daniel stood up. “Let’s get going, I don’t want to be late again.”
