Ice

2-'why are you frowning, gabe?'

Hemera. A peculiar name for the girl with the peculiar hair. "I'm a sophomore, but I know you from the basketball games. You're really good, by the way," she beamed. Gabe flushed, mentally telling himself that he was definitely not good. At least not as good as she must have been making him sound to his mother.

"Well, um, nice to meet you... Hemera," he responded, refusing to make eye contact. His mom elbowed his ribs, but he still didn't look up.

The girl, sounding slightly dejected, said, "Yeah... I'll see you around school, alright?" He nodded, and then she spun around and skipped away. His eyes followed her as she left, one eyebrow still quirked. Even after Hemera had disappeared around the corner of the ice rink, he watched.

As they entered their home not long later, Chelsea casually pointed out, "That Hemera girl was cute." Gabriel, having not really given her more than a glance, shrugged. He entered the room designated to movie-watching and settled down.

His mom joined him for the endurance of The Grand Budapest Hotel, a favorite of Gabe's. Throughout it, however, he could only wonder about the sophomore from the park and her intriguingly blue-striped brunette hair.

She was shorter than him, which was understandable, being that she was female and a year behind him in school. However, he was one of the last juniors to turn seventeen. A February birthday made him quite young compared to his peers. Hemera was probably sixteen, based off of her appearance and grade.

Gabe scolded himself for not looking at her further as he tried to recall her features. A small nose, round eyes, long hair. A dimple in her chin. That was about all he could bring to mind. His next curiosity was put toward her name. Hemera? Was that Italian or something? Not that he desperately needed to know, he would probably only ever see her in the halls of school. They weren't friends.

Her puffy winter jacket made it apparent that she was raised in the cold weather, and he despised her for it; for not being from Tucson, Arizona, where their thickest jackets were considered the thinnest ones worn here.

The movie ended abruptly, forcing Gabriel to realize that he had paid attention to very little of it. Now that it was early evening, his mother left to prepare dinner. He sat in the Movie Room with his thoughts few and far in between. The sleep he had ached for earlier now made a begging reappearance.

But he could not sleep, not when his cell phone was ringing and his brother's face smiled up from the screen. "Hi," Gabe answered it monotonously.

"Gabe! Just wanted to call and wish you a happy birthday, little man. Pretty soon you'll be joining me here at Yale, right?"

"Thanks," the younger brother replied, choosing to ignore the latter of the questions. There was no way he could make it into Yale. He just didn't have the qualifications that Joseph Adams did.

There was a prolonged silence that Gabe felt no need to fill. Finally, Joseph said, "Alright, I guess that's it. See you over spring break, little man."

Gabe tried to ignore the way his brother kept referring to him as "little man." He said a quiet goodbye and hung up, perhaps a bit angrily. There was only a three year age gap between the two, but Joseph had always thought himself superior.

Perhaps he truly was, achieving remarkable grades even after being shipped to the East Coast, being a member of the National Honor Society throughout his schooling, and forever being known as his basketball team's MVP. Gabe would never accomplish any of that. Joseph was just better than him in every way imaginable, and he had to hate him for it.

He left his cellphone in the Movie Room when his mom called him to dinner.

**

Two mornings later, Gabriel was practically dragged out of bed by his mom, who insisted that he attend class. He arrived at the high school donned in a white t-shirt, black jeans, and a deep scowl. The expression remained throughout the morning, so thoroughly that his teachers did not dare call on him to provide answers.