Behind His Mask

II.

Something's burning.

This thought startles me out of my peaceful sleep into an annoyed and concerned morning daze. I race to the kitchen to find Lily perched on the counter reading an outdated version of People magazine while humming a peaceful rendition of Favorite Things from The Sound of Music. "What are you doing? What smells like its burning?" Lily looks up from the article about J. K. Rowling's "new" book and replies.

"Oh, g'morning. And the smell is my toast. The toaster must be broken because it wasn't cooking at all, so I turned it up to the highest setting, hence the burnt toast."

I try to stifle a chuckle. "Can't even make toast for yourself, flower?"

"Shut up it's not funny! It's not my fault our stupid toaster can't even make toast." Lily crosses her arms and pouts, shifting her gaze away from mine.

"Whatever, just go get ready for school, Flower, and I'll make breakfast." Lily hops down from the counter and makes her way towards our room to change. Although it is strange for a brother to share a room with his 11 year old sister, our house only has two rooms, so we have to make do.

I begin to prepare a breakfast that isn't as black as the night sky as she gets ready: perfectly toasted toast and no-pulp orange juice. I set breakfast on the table and shout to Lily to come eat. She saunters in still braiding her wavy brown hair into the normal style she usually wears. She has on her t-shirt dress and black rip-off vans.  She sits down at the table and says her prayers before starting to eat.

I head into our room and quickly throw on a pair of jeans, a white band tee, and my favorite and most beat-up pair of converse. I head back into the other room and check the time: 3:55 am. Needing to leave in five minutes, I quickly scarf down breakfast, throw on my backpack, grab Lily and my keys, and begin to walk to school.

~ 

Halfway to the high school is the middle school Lily is enrolled at, so I drop her off and continue on my way.

~

When I arrive at school at promptly 5:04, I walk around to a side entrance of the school. Due to my special circumstances, I have a key that only opens the door to the boys' locker room so i can shower at school. I only shower at school to keep our water bills as low as possible. Lily also arrives early at the middle school so she can shower as well. 

I quickly shower an rid my body of the smoke and alcohol smell that I've been told constantly resides in my house. After I shower I sit and read The Great Gatsby, my English class's continual assignment. I have two hours to kill until school officially opens. During the spring, I would have morning basketball practice, but alas, winter drags on. Our school's basketball team is the best in the county, with 56 wins and 4 loses the previous season. We were in the top 10 for the state competition, however we lost to last years champions. I play center. It ma not be the flashiest part in basketball, but the team wouldn't survive without me.

Three hours of time killing later, the school opens its doors and I make my way to the cafeteria and sit at my normal table. I never actually eat anything in the morning, because my school only offers free lunch, but I waste time talking to my friends instead. Joel and Max usually arrive early because their parents work early and they live out of the bus zones. Max is on the team with me as a forward and he's as vain as one can get. Joel is an art nerd who spends his time painting, but he is actually cooler than he sounds, I swear. He goes to every game and party when he doesn't have a project to finish.

Joel arrives at our table first and begins talking about the "huge" party last night that was so "lit", as he put it. According to him, he slept with a super hot babe, but I couldn't believe him. Joel is the biggest virgin I have ever met. "Seriously, dude, she had to be, like, a D-cup! And she was awesome, SO awesome. The things she did with her mouth, bro, damn..you wouldn't believe."

"There is no way you landed that big of a catch, man. No. Fucking. Way." I refute.

"Oh no no no, David, this is where you're wrong." Max says as he swaggers towards us in a way that made it extremely obvious he was hung over. "Joel here has bigger game than you think. She was a hell of a babe. If only you'd have been there."

My jaw slightly drops as Joel laughs while yelling, "In your face!". "Are you kidding me? Man that sounds great," I muse.

"Don't let Olivia hear you say that or she'll throw a fit," Max jokes, slapping my back.

"Yeah yeah, I know I know. I was only joking," I respond, lightly punching him pack. Olivia has been my girlfriend for two years now, since the middle of freshmen year and everyone is always saying that she is a bratty bitch but they never see her when we're alone. When we're alone, she is extremely sweet, and not at all clingy. She's a great kisser too, which is a bonus.

We continue to joke around as more people are added to our lively table; Olivia eventually joins and takes a place next to me, laughing when Max tells her about Joel's nighttime adventure. Eventually the bell for homeroom interrupts our fun. Joel is in my homeroom class, so we walk together to our lockers, and then to our coffin- I mean, homeroom class with Mr. Feld.

AN: ahhhhhhhh an update!