The Story of a Teenage Secret Rebel

Ch 1. My Typical Family

"Wake up!" He shouts in my ear. I groan, turning over to the other side of my bed. Unfortunately my older half brother does not give up on trying to wake me up. He jumps on the bed, shaking me violently.

"Dude, stop it!" I say, opening my eyes, fully awake now because of that guy. Seriously. Does anyone never care that I need my sleep? What's he doing in my room anyway?

Stupid annoying brothers. Ugh. And yes - I have more than one, Dylan's two years older while my other brother, Nate, is a year older than me. And a sister who's a year younger than me. But she doesn't matter, she hates me. The feeling is mutual.

It's different with Dylan and Nate, though they are slightly more annoying. We can tolerate each other. I'm closer to Nate than anyone else in my family.

"Mom! She's awake!" Dylan shouts and I cringe  at how loud he is.

"Come on let's go downstairs," he says and leaves me be, finally. I stretch and glance down at my watch. 6:45. It is so early for a Monday.

I go downstairs anyway and greet my parents and sister - who doesn't bother answering as usual, just glares at me without saying a word - while Nate's face splits into a big grin when he sees me. I flash him a smile in return. He always makes my day better.

"Oh, great, you're up," Mom says unenthusiastically (not that I'm surprised). My dad is sitting at the kitchen table, as quiet as ever, reading the newspaper. He doesn't even look up when I enter the room. I sigh, siting down next to Nate and across from Dylan. My sister, Anna, has a thing for sitting as far away from me as possible. At school, she pretends I don't exist, but it makes everything a lot easier there. She doesn't know half the people I surround myself with. That is a good thing. I'd hate for her to find out what type of people I hang out with and where we go on weekends.

She'd tell Mom and Dad in a heartbeat.

The only person who knows my friends is Nate and I want to keep it that way. Nate's best friend, Finn, also knows, but that's because I trust him - and only him. But I've known him all my life so it's fair.

I tie my auburn hair in a bun and begin to eat the pancakes Mom made. She's an amazing cook, I have to admit. Not that I don't say it often, whenever I try to compliment her she doesn't bother thanking me, instead she hates it when I say nice things to her. When Anna compliments her however, she looks at her as if she's an angel. Favouritism, obviously.

"We need to go to school," Anna says matter-of-factly. I finish eating my breakfast, pretending not to hear her.

"Oh! It's already 7:15, you guys better get going," Mom says but she ignores me when I ask her what time she'll be fetching us. Dylan repeats my question.

"Not sure honey, probably 15:30." Dylan nods, satisfied and I sigh. I wish she would come later so I can hang around school a bit longer. But no. Mondays are 'family days' and ironically, I hate Mondays.

Ten minutes later, we're ready to go.

"Don't forget your lunches!" Mom exclaims, rushing to grab the four bags and gives them all to me.

"Thanks-" I begin but she's already gone inside the house. "Never mind," I mutter to myself, handing out the lunches to my siblings.

Anna walks faster than all of us. I'm assuming it's because she doesn't want to be associated with us. Dylan is a few feet behind her and I'm walking with Nate.

"You ok?" He asks me quietly, and I nod slowly, not saying anything.

"Don't mind them, you know how they can be," he adds as an attempt to make me feel better but unfortunately for him, it doesn't.

"You're lucky Nate, you have one more year left and then you'll be going away from home. Away from all of us. I still have two years and that's like a lifetime for me," I let out a forced laugh.

"Hey. It's alright. Two years isn't that bad, three on the other hand..." He gestures towards Anna and I shake my head in amusement. Yeah. I don't think she has it half as bad.

When we arrive at school it's already 7:46. Finn, Nate's awesome and - I discovered recently, hot - best friend grins when he sees us and he waves. I laugh, waving back. Finn's tall, with dirty blonde curls and piercing green eyes that every time look at you make you want to smile at him. He's awfully friendly and also a prankster, he's smart but sometimes pretends not to be, I don't know why. Finn has dimples making him even more good-looking.

I never say it out loud though, it's embarrassing. Besides, we're both already taken so I'll just admire him from afar. I mean, from up close too of course but I won't ever say anything about it to him. It'll just make things complicated.

"Hey Nate, Kaia," he nods at us and when he starts to chat with Nate I go inside the building, looking for my own friends. I take a quick glance behind me and although (hopefully) my brother doesn't notice as he's talking, Finn's staring at me. He smiles timidly when he sees me and I turn back around trying to hide the unavoidable smile that's crept on my face.

"Hey, babe," my boyfriend Matt greets me. When I see him I run to him and kiss him.
"Hey," I breathe, smiling. He makes me so happy. I love him so much. He holds me protectively as he hugs me tightly.

"I missed you," he whispers in my ear and I visibly blush. "Missed you too," I say grinning.

"So guys -" Emma says, running to us and hugging us both in a group hug when she spots us. Then she leans in, "what's today's plan?"

My face falls. "I can't do anything, it's Monday remember?" I sigh, running a hand through my hair.

"Oh right. Well, tomorrow then?" She looks at me hopefully.

"Okay..." I say slightly unsure of my answer. I wanted to hang out with them, I really did, I just needed to come up with something, a lie, to tell my family so they won't ask any questions. A project for school is too cliche, so I have to come up with something better.

"Okay," I repeat. I look at the both of them. "I'll think of something to tell my parents and I'm in."