Fish Out of Water.

Chapter 30

✖Jay's P.O.V.✖

The next day I woke up feeling like something big was about to happen.

Then it hit me. The Winter Formal. I sighed, why did Ryker do this to me? Why did he tease me? He had said it yesterday. He didn't like me. Then why did he ask me to the dance? It's not like he couldn't have found another date. I groaned and buried my head in my pillow. Why was this so confusing?

My mom called me upstairs. I walked slowly up the stairs and passed our family pictures. My dad wasn't in a lot of them since he was usually not home. My dad was in the armed forces and was usually out of state. I hadn't seen him for six months. Mom was the more influential parent since Dad was never home. Axel and Jason were affected the most by Dad not being here. Jason didn't get to bring his dad to Boy Scouts, go camping or fishing with him, dad hasn't been to one of Jason's soccer games since last year. Axel had had to grow up faster because of it. Now if I guy likes me they went through Axel. Axel had a job and was basically the man of the house.

Axel and I were closer than most siblings. We were friends, not just siblings. He was one of my best friends actually. Jason looked up to Axel, like a lot. If Axel did it, Jason would do it. Jason tended to stick with his friends more than family, not having his dad around like the other kids had really affected him. As far as I could tell, he was a popular kid in his grade and many of the girls in his class liked him. That's right, my little brother was THAT kid. He was the handsome sporty kid that everyone liked. Or as Jason tells me, that's how they roll in elementary school.

I walked into the kitchen to find everyone at breakfast. I sat down at the counter in my usual spot next to Axel. "Who are you going with?" I asked Axel through a mouth of pancakes. Axel shrugged, "Nobody. Joy will probably ask me though." I sighed, "Just don't say yes. She gave me these," I showed him my knuckles and he raised his eyebrows. "Dude, you give a heck of a fight apparently." I smiled and rolled my eyes, "Watch out. I might use my fighting skills on you sometime."

I looked over to see Jason stuffing his mouth full of pancakes. He stood up, "Colton's giving me a ride today, right Mom?" He asked her. She nodded, "Do you want to go wait outside?" He nodded and grabbed his soccer bag. My mom yelled love you and Axel and I said goodbye.

After breakfast Axel and I went outside and messed around with our basketball hoop. "Here Jay goes she shoots and... SHE SCORES! The crowd goes wild!" I made yelling noises. Axel rolled his eyes, "Two out of three?" I nodded. Suddenly we heard a crashing noise from next door. We looked over.

"Oh! Sorry."A Girl with strawberry blonde hair said. She had knocked over her bike. "It's cool, you didn't do anything." I smiled. "I'm Jay and this is my brother Axel. What's your name?" She smiled, "I'm Autumn. Do you play basketball?" I shook my head, "No. I'm a volleyball player."

Autumn's eyes lit up, "No way! Me too!" Autumn was pretty cool. "Sweet, what school do you go to?" She sighed, "I'm going to Webster Public High School when break is over." I smiled, "Sweet! We go there too, you can sit by me and my friends at lunch if you want." Autumn smiled. "That'd be great."