Battle of the Captains

over protected

When I was in the second grade, on Valentine's Day, Mason Turner walked up to me at recess time to give me pretty, pink flowers and told me that I was the prettiest girl in the world.

He was an adorable kid with big glasses and light blonde hair, taller than me by half an inch. He was a friend of my brother, in a higher grade, and I'd never seen him as more than a friend. But at that moment, it didn't matter what he looked like or whether I liked him at all because his gifts had completely won me over.

The flowers weren't at all like the big bouquet of deep, red roses my dad had given my mom that morning before they dropped us of at school. Mason had given me small flowers, which seemed like he'd handpicked them from one of the bushes surrounding the school grounds. They were light pink, not exactly following the traditional Cupid color scheme, but I loved them nonetheless. It was the thought that counted. Plus, what kind of girl wouldn't love it if a boy gave them flowers on Valentine's Day, even if they were as small as your hand.

I kissed his cheek, which turned red even before I touched it. I hooked my arm in his and just like that, he'd gotten himself a girl. No one had ever done something sweet like that for me before– after all, I was in the second grade– so I adored him for it.

The grade school area wasn't big and my brother's saw us together. I wouldn't say they bullied Mason but they went as far as bulling in grade school could go: name calling, getting un-invited and breaking apart as friends.

"Stay away from my sister!"

And that was the beginning of my journey to being untouchable.

My brother's took over protective to a different level.

Which was why I wasn't sure I wanted to hear their opinion about me dating Blake. I didn't tell them a thing. I did my best to hide all possible evidence.

But of course, with the speed of the gossip spread around the school and the tons of connections my brothers had, the latest news revolving and my new boyfriend reached them within a day, or maybe even less than a day, of my relationship becoming official.

A couple days ago, my brothers called to check in.

"What the hell is this?" Kaden had yelled through the phone when he called me exactly eight minutes after I got home after school.

"What's what?" I said.

"Is that her?" I heard the voice of another brother call at him in the background. "Let me talk to her."

"Yeah, hold on." As he said it, his voice got softer as he moved the phone away from his mouth to switch his phone onto speakerphone.

"Kody?" Kain– brother number three.

"Hey! What's up? It's been a while since you last called."

"What's up? I'll tell you what's up," he said lowly. His tone made me wince. "I just got a text from Randy Jackson. You remember him, right?"

I fought the urge to roll my eyes, though no one would see it even if I did. Of course I knew Randy Jackson. The guy was now a senior and one of Austin's many bonehead teammates. Throughout my high school life, I had spent most of my time hiding from him.

You know how there's that horrible girl who pretends to love you and wants to be your BFF but really, all she's wanted was an invite to your house so that she could get a peek at your cool brother's room? Randy was the boy version of that. He was a total suck up, kiss ass, fan boy or whatever it was that you called those people. He idolized my brothers (more specifically the one closest to me in age– Kain) and in the process of wanting to be like them, he tried to make me a big part of his life too.