The Black Tent

Chapter 1

"Mom please! I really wanna go." I heard my brother, Zach say to my mother at the dining table. I closed the front door behind me.

"No Zachary. It's a school night and I don't want you out late." She replies in a serious tone.

"What are you talking about?" I ask and throw my highschool baseball bag on the ground.

My dad suddenly walks in after me, wearing his usual police uniform. "Hey, boys." He greets with a warm smile.

"Hey, dad." I replied and he ran his hand through my messy dark brown hair, messing it up even more. I chuckled and slapped his hand away. He has done that to me ever since I was little and it was our usual way of greeting one another.

"Did you have some good hits at practice today, Justin?" He asked and took a seat at the table.

"Yeah, practice is always good." I replied.

"You are always coming to dinner late Justin. Go wash up and change out of that dirty uniform." My mom scolded as she set down a plate of pasta in front of my dad.

I did as I was told and began to walk away until my younger brother spoke up. "Dad, can I go to the circus tonight?"

I paused by the hallway to overhear their conversation.

"It's a Thursday. Isn't there school tomorrow, Evelyn?" My dad looked to my mother, who was sitting across from him.

My mom is an 8th grade geography teacher at Zach's middle school. Zach is actually one of her students.

"Yes, and that's why I told him he couldn't go." She dug her fork into her pasta. "Besides, he has a geography test tomorrow and needs to study."

"Is that so." My dad paused for a moment and looked to my annoyed brother who was sitting next to my mom.

"I already studied, mom." He groaned. "This is the only day that the circus is going to be in town."

"Only for a day? That's odd." Dad raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I don't know why they aren't here for the entire weekend, but a girl came to our school and passed out free tickets to the students and teachers." Zach said before taking a bite of his bread roll.

My dad smiled. "Why don't you just let him stay out for tonight? He already has the ticket and he said he studied."

Zach's blue eyes lit up at his words.

My mom sighed. "Fine, but you better make an A on the test tomorrow. I can't take you though, I have a bunch of papers to grade."

My brother jumped up from his seat and squeezed her in a hug.

My dad spoke up. "We'll tell Justin to take you."

Hell no.

I quickly darted for my room until my dad called my name.

I slowly walked back, pretending like I didn't know what was going on.

"We need you to take your brother to the circus tonight please." My dad grinned.

"I thought you were going to change out of that uniform?" Mom raised an eyebrow.

"I don't wanna go, circuses are lame." I ignored my mom's question.

"C'mon Justin, please?" Zach begged. "Sorry bro, I have stuff to do anyways." I replied.

"Like what?" My dad asked, glaring at me.

I rubbed the back of my neck and sighed. "Well I wanted to go out to the field and practice some more with the guys-"

"No. You need to spend some time with Zach anyways." Dad replied and my mom handed me a red ticket. "Here's my ticket, you can have it since you're taking him." She added.