Theo's POV:
Of course by home I mean the old abandoned house near the edge of town. The house still has power, and water. It's become a home base for now, until we can afford a home.
"Theo? That you?"
"Yeah I'm here." Alex rushes into the room half dressed for his job down the street at the side store.
"Violet is eating in the kitchen."
I nod and head to the kitchen to start my turn on watching Violet.
"Alright i'll see y'all later." Alex calls and I hear the door slam behind him.
"Teooo!" Violet calls for me happily when I walk into the kitchen.
"Hey V, How was the first day of school?" Violet is 5, we think, and she started pre-k today. She starts talking about her new teacher, and how she made a lot of friends during recess.
"You got homework V?"
"Yea I have to finish coloring my nametag." I shake my head, those were the days.
"Well, let's start on homework" I walk into the living room and grab Violets and I's bag.
About an hour later Violet finishes with her homework and starts to fall asleep at the table.
"You ready for bed kid?"
She nods. I pick her up and carry her to the homemade bed that we made out of the free stuff we could find.
"Good night Teo"
"Night V"
I walk back out into the living room and sit on the couch that was in the house when we got here. It's easier to sleep on it if you don't think about what could be living in it. I lay down on the couch and crash immediately.
"Hey i'm home" I open my eyes and see James walking in from the kitchen. He looks exhausted. I roll onto the floor because I've noticed how his back has been hurting.
"What are you doing?" He asks
I mumble gibberish and fall back asleep, this time on the floor.
"Theo wake up, school." Alex nudges me with his foot. I nod and sit up, my back screaming in protest. I get up and quickly get ready, then I make sure Violet is up and getting herself ready.
"I can't put my hair up" Violet holds out a rubber band. I look at the band, then all the hair on top of her head.
"I can't put your hair up either."
Violets face scrunches up like she's about to cry.
"Uh Alex! James!" I yell down the hall
I hear them both run to V's room.
"What?
"What's wrong?"
"I can't put Violets hair up."
They look at me like i'm stupid.
"I thought you were being killed the way you yelled."
"She was about to cry" I shrug
Alex takes the rubber band out of my hand and kneels down to Violets level.
"You want one of them ponytail things?" He asks her
She nods happily and sits patiently while he gathers her hair up into a ponytail. When he's finished it actually looks decent.
"Where the hell did you learn how to do that?" James asks looking at Violet's hair amazed. Alex shrugs.
"Imma take her to school, i'll be back." I motion for Violet to follow me.
"Bye guys!" She yells as she grabs her bag and follows me out the door. Then we walk a couple blocks down the street to where we park the car.
The bell is about to ring so me and the boys immediately go to class, instead of hanging around like we normally would do. The woman at the elementary school tried to corner me, asking all these questions about Violet that I didn't have the answer to, like the names of her parents. Alex and I rush down hallways after hallways but we are still late to our first period.
"Mr. Theo and Mr. Alex would you like to explain why you are late."
Because we don't have a parent figure, but we have a five year old girl to look after, so we work our asses off all day and half of the night.
"Sorry sir it won't happen again." I decide to say instead. I sit down at my desk in the back row, next to Memphis. I can feel his eyes on me so I look over.
He mouths "Are you good?"
I nod my head and throw in a thumbs up just for reassurance. Then I take my notebook out and try to focus on whatever the teacher is talking about.
Before I head to third I grab my notebook, and the huge book about cars. I'm shoving the rest of my things into the locker when I see Georgia a few lockers down from mine.
"Hey Georgia." I walk up next to her
"Hey" she ducks her head
"What class-" I stop, and tilt her head so I can see her full face, trying to ignore the sparks shooting from my fingertips.
"What the hell happened to your face?" Her eye is bruised, like someone punched her. I get angry, if someone touched her, they'll have broken hands by the end of the day. She pulls her head away from my hand
"Nothing I ran into a wall, calm down." she still won't make eye contact with me.
"Bullshit, Georgia if someone touched you your brothers gotta know."
So they could help me beat them to a pulp, I think.
She stops suddenly, almost making me run into her.
"If my brothers find out, I'll end up worse." before I could ask her what she means, she hurries down the hallway.
I can't focus in third, all I can think about is Georgia's black eye. Georgia seemed scared, in the week that I've known her I've never seen her scared. Maybe the person is someone out of school, then why would she be scared? What if they tried to hit her again? What if they already got her again? I should have walked her to class. I groan and slam my head on the table.
"Careful Theo, you need the few brain cells you got left." Alex grins
"Haha so funny." I say in a dry voice
"You good?"
"Peachy."
"What happened?"
"You'll see at lunch"
Alex looks at me weird but he drops it and continues working on the worksheet that was passed out in the beginning of class. I look to the back of the classroom to the twins. I wonder if they already know that Georgia is getting beat on. Memphis looks up and makes a funny face at me, I give a fake laugh and turn back around. They definitely don't. I let my head fall back to the table.
I stay quiet at lunch, Georgia used the same "I ran into a wall" excuse with everyone else as she did with me. No one caught on that she was lying.
"Yea this one kid flew off the horse the other day, you should have seen his arm. It.." I zone out.
"Georgia." Everyone stops their conversation and looks at me.
"Yea?"
"Can you show me where the vending machines are again?"
She narrows her eyes at me, but still stands and motions for me to follow her. Right when we get outside of the lunch room, I take her arm and walk far away from where any kids are.
"You gotta tell me what happened."
She looks at me but doesn't speak.
"No one's around, you could even whisper it to me. Trust me"
She sighs "I'll tell you at the ranch ok?"
I nod "I'll take it."
YOU ARE READING
Darling
Romance"That was cheesy...in fact this whole thing was cheesy". His arms tighten around me. "It was bad?" "God no, it just seems like something I've read in a book".
