Firebomb (The Jewel Project #2)

07.2|| Childhood Friends

The others had obviously woken up as Jerry was already ushering them to do chores, looking downright panicked. Sam wondered if they'd noticed he was gone.

"Where have you been?" Jerry demanded upon laying eyes on Sam. "You have no idea how worried I've been. Next time you decide to go wondering off with friends, you should consider leaving a note, or even ask for my opinion seeing as I am your older brother."

"Calm down, older brother." Sam laughed. "I'm the leader and I don't have to report to you. But I'm sorry you were worried about me. I just needed some fresh air for bright ideas."

"Who's this guy?" Jerry asked, his eyes falling on Ron.

Sam stared at Jerry, his jaw dropping. Jerry was usually polite to the point of driving them all mad, and now, out of the blue, he was being extremely rude.

"Oh, excuse my lack of manners," Ron said, bowing towards Jerry. "I'm Ron, an old friend of your folks'. I'm here to assist you with whatever you may need."

"Yeah, okay then," Jerry said waving Ron away with the same uncharacteristic rudeness.

"Who are you and what have you done with Jerry?" Sam squinted at his brother. "Or, you're actually Jimmy and you're pulling a prank on me."

"What?" Ron asked looking from Sam to Jerry confused.

"No, no, I'm Jerry. I just feel a bit odd, that's all," he said, touching his bandaged head. "Must be the worry."

"Where is everyone?" Sam asked, trying not to feel guilty about worrying Jerry into rudeness.

"Around, doing stuff..." Jerry said evasively.

Just as he had finished the sentence, everyone suddenly appeared from among the tents and headed for Sam, Jerry and Ron.

"Who's this, then?" Tom asked interested.

Ron stared back with an expression of utter shock on his face. No more grin or fancy bowing.

"You!" Kyle said advancing upon Ron who looked even more shocked now. "You look awfully familiar. Where have I seen you before?"

"What the...? How?" Ron stammered looking at Kyle.

"How what?" Kyle asked frowning.

"You just... you..." Ron couldn't produce a coherent statement, as if Kyle had stolen all his words. He turned to Sam for support but Sam glanced at him questioningly. "So..." Ron cleared his throat and seemed to pull himself together. "These are your brothers, Sam? Jerry and Kyle and..." He fell silent, looking at Jimmy and Tom absently.

"Yes, this is Jerry, that's his twin, Jimmy, this is my twin, Tom, and that's Kyle, the one who shocked the words right out of you," Sam answered and couldn't suppress a smirk.

"You have twins?" Ron asked turning to Sam completely now.

"Obviously. I was going to ask you about that, since you said you were there when we were born." Sam watched Ron carefully. As shocked as he had seemed, Sam had the feeling Ron was more shocked about Kyle than the existence of Jimmy and Tom.

"I had no idea..." Ron said looking away from Sam and mumbling something unintelligible from which Sam only caught his father's name. "Anyway," Ron said with renewed vigor. "I guess it's time I properly introduced myself. My name is Ron and I followed you here because I wanted to see what's become of you. I haven't seen you since you were as big as bread loafs."

"You do look familiar," Billy said thoughtfully.

"Oh, you must be Bill's kid!" Ron said with an air of surprise, as if he hadn't spotted Billy before.