CHAPTER NINE
NOSTALGIA
It was a Wednesday evening for the many students of the school and for some, that meant living out their worth while hobbies through acts of cigarettes and smuggling drugs. For others that meant going out to shops and stuffing their faces full of junk and over processed food until their stomachs gave up on them. For people like Isaac Lahey however, that meant having to come home to a short tempered father who had to question his location every five minutes.
He used to be able to ignore his faux sentiment because at the end of the day, the façade would fade away and the act would tire itself out eventually, leaving behind the anger that would always happen to pent up whenever he did anything that he wasn't pleased with. That included occasionally speaking aloud when he wanted silence, or for coming back home at late hours purely because he wanted to stay at school longer.
No matter how much he hated school, he still found it to be a lot safer than staying at home with a short fused bomb for a father. School wasn't all bad at times. Befriending Roman in the time of a few weeks was enough to keep him going. She was a light that had somehow managed to illuminate the dark room that he had been stuck inside, drawing him up, out and into the reality of the world, something that he hasn't been able to do in a long time. No more sitting by himself during lunch because she was always there.
His friendship with Autumn had been nice as well. They had known each other since they were young so each other's presence wasn't as foreign as people may make it out to be. She knew him as the tall, loner kid whereas he knew her as the brunette who always had a smile plastered on her face and her hair always cut short to a bob. He was glad to see that hasn't changed at all. Australia had done a good job brightening up the pigment in her hair follicles for they seemed more auburn than a deep chestnut. And her eyes had glowed into a warm, honey shade instead of the dark acorns that he found littered about in their porch.
He had admitted previously to Roman that he used to have this crush on her but she was always so busy with Scott McCall and Stilinski that she never came to notice his feelings. It was true however. And he also came to realise that Stilinski had dropped his unrequited love for the strawberry-blonde Lydia Martin and had instead fallen for Autumn Rose Hale, known to be the youngest out of all the Hale family.
More times than usual, she only seemed approachable when she wasn't around her older brother Liam George Hale and her sister Cora, a short-tempered raven haired girl who had much rather preferred to busy herself with martial arts and of a sort. One thing that they all shared in common however was their admiration for high school sports. Particularly, lacrosse and soccer.
Liam immersed himself into the universe of all things lacrosse whilst Cora and Autumn decided to join the soccer team. They even watched each other play as Cora held onto Autumn in the extra hoodies that their brother had spare in his closet. Laura would complain about his inability to get rid of them but the two youngest each agreed to share them between themselves. To this day, Autumn still has the number 13 embroided into her soccer jersey. Holly had objected first, wanting to question why she wouldn't wear number 11 corresponding to her position on the field, but had eventually obliged to it. It was the only memory that she had of the pair.
Roman's past was mysterious too. She never spoke too much about her background unless she needed to, which was why finding out about her family history had surprised him at first. Their personalities seemed to compliment each other to the point where you would eventually think that they were related. But that never meant that they were a perfect family as you say.
Leo and Roman were both short tempered teenagers —— only separated by a year of excruciating labour and family drama intertwined in each month. Whilst Leo belted it out through sports, Roman found peace in breaking things, which helped bring her mind back to the ground where she could make proper decisions. At times, their anger divided them, which Isaac had seen its end of the stick more times than never. She was hard to eventually get through to, which was what made her so interesting.
