The Rules My Brothers Made

Chapter 16

The following weeks flew by rather uneventfully.

Mark made the varsity lacrosse team, like Evan had said he would, and was actually one of the starting forwards.

He blended in with everyone magnificently and scored two goals his first game.

Matt and I were on the sidelines screaming our hearts out for him, totally amazed at how great Mark was.

It was like he was a different person from last year, and it was amazing to witness.

Evan continued to take him under his wing and help him out with his skills, and the two of them became a force to be reckoned with on the field.

Thankfully, Mark also got over his issues with me, and had returned to his normal self.

No more yelling at me, no more calling me names, and no more freaking out over nothing.

As soon as he turned 16, I brought him to the DMV and had him get his learner’s permit, and was teaching him how to drive so he could get his own license soon.

As soon as he could, it would be a huge help.

Then we would only have to worry about chauffeuring Max around, and that was something he could actually help us with.

So while it seemed like I was helping him, but really, I was dying for him to be able to drive because he is a handful to cart around.

Matt decided to hold off on asking Kate out, claiming he didn’t want to mess with our friendship.

I was secretly relieved, but I couldn’t say anything about it.

She never told me anything about the two of them hooking up, so I just kept it to myself that I already knew.

I didn’t want to embarrass her by calling her out on it, so I left it alone.

Matt was playing the single game for a while, and girls were flocking to him.

Kate was dating Ben pretty seriously now, so they both seemed happy, which made me happy,

The whole thing with Max blew over pretty quickly.

Dad went in the next day to meet with the principal, and threw a fit regarding Mrs. Wilson.

He told him about all the things Mrs. Wilson says to me about his being late, and my outfits, and apparently Mrs. Wilson got a stern talking to, because she never said anything rude to me again.

Dad started doing most of the morning drop offs, though, and Savannah started to do a few more pickups to take the stress off me.

It was actually really nice, but I felt terrible that my flip out turned into an inconvenience for everyone.

Savannah was hanging around a bit more, and it made things easier on everyone.

She had been around for so long, she was pretty much part of the family anyway.

Mike hadn’t been home since he went back to school, which kind of annoyed me.

I know he was busy with his fraternity and his position on the baseball team, but I thought he would at least come home for dinner once in a while or something.

San Diego was only two hours away, it would be so easy.

I offered to meet him halfway a couple times, but he was always busy.

Matt thought nothing of it, but Mark and I were convinced he was hiding from us.

I guess for a family so close knit, we had a lot of secrets.