Growing Pains; Brothers.

1

"How did you do on the science test?" Ben Seaver asked as he and his foster brother, Luke Brower, turned the corner and reached their lockers.

"Not too bad," Luke shrugged.

"No really, how did you do?" Ben asked. "I want to know."

"What did you get?"

"A B-," Ben said, seeming proud of himself. "Way better than the last test."

"Your mom said you've got a 3.0 GPA," Luke said. "Is that unusual for you?"

"You could say that, in the past." Ben shrugged. "But really, what did you get?"

Luke held out the test paper and Ben looked at the mark. "A B+?"

"Yeah," Luke shrugged. "I told you, it isn't too bad."

"Mike said you're usually really good at these science tests." Ben handed the paper back to him. "What happened?"

"I got distracted," Luke shrugged again and turned to open his locker.

"Fess up, what was it really?" Ben prodded.

"Nothing," Luke told him.

At that moment, a tall brunette walked past, and Ben shivered a little. "Look at that,"

"Look at what?" Luke asked, confused.

"It's Sasha Serotsky," Ben breathed. He had been in love with her since the third grade. "Look at that, she's practically flaunting herself."

"That little tease," Luke muttered.

"Haven't you said that before?"

"Yes, the last time you saw Sasha Serotsky." Luke reminded him. "And it backfired on you."

"Well this time, this time it's going to work." Ben ran a hand over his hair then checked his breath. "Pretty good, if I do say so myself."

Luke rolled his eyes and turned back to his locker.

"Hi Luke," a girl's voice said, and Luke turned to see Cheryl Murray smiling at him.

"Hey," he smiled. He and Cheryl had been out a few times, and gone to the Sadie Hawkins dance together.

"How did you do on the test?"

"B+," Luke shrugged. "Not too bad."

"I saw you in class," she said slowly. "Is everything alright? You weren't really focusing."

"Yeah, I'm okay." Luke shrugged a little and turned back to his locker. "Things are just really chaotic right now."

"Want to talk about it?"

"Not really," Luke shook his head. "What about you, what did you get?"

"An A," Cheryl said quietly.

"That's great!"

"Well, you helped me study." Cheryl blushed, and Luke remembered them sitting on the couch.

"Well we started out studying,"

Cheryl laughed. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You seem a bit . . . weird."

"How?"

"I don't know, you just seem . . . weird."

"You said that,"

"You look off,"

"Off how?"