Fog Rising

✿four

The day following Aurora's induction to the family was a busy one. Sean woke her up by tossing a garbage bag on her stomach.

"What the hell?" She frowned at him groggily. Pushing the bag onto the floor, she sat up on the couch and glared at her 'cousin'.

"Open it," he nudged the black bag with his foot.

She rolled her eyes and bent down, untying the knot. Inside were heaps of women's clothes. "I don't wanna know," she laughed and pulled a purple lacy bra from a pair of jeans.

"It's shit that girls have left here," Sean said cockily.

"Yeah?" She raised an eyebrow and held up a winter coat. "She must've been in a hurry to leave if she forgot this."

He blushed red and snatched the bag back. "Fine then, I rescind my offer to help you find clothes for the day," he stuck his tongue out and moved to stand up.

"Wait, wait," Aurora sighed, "come back."

"Only if you promise to be nice," Sean crossed his arms.

She laughed again, "no promises."

"Then no clothes for you," he stood and walked for the doorway of the living room. "Although maybe that's a good idea..."

Matt walked in, only wearing a tight crew neck sweater and boxers and holding a box of cereal. "Give the girl clothes, you sick pervert," he chuckled and punched his brother's arm.

Sean grumbled as he tossed the bag back to Aurora, who sifted through it until she found a pair of running shorts and flip flops.

"What, are you not gonna wear a shirt?" Sean asked excitedly, just to be punched by his brother again.

"None of these," she gestured to the few tops, "are my size or appropriate." She was right; there was a glittery crop top, a XXL polo shirt, and a tiny tank top with 'hot bitch' written on the chest.

Matt burst out laughing at the sight of the tank. "You can't possibly wear any of these. Here," he set down the cereal box and lifted his sweater over his head. Aurora tried not to let herself drool as he exposed his torso and threw her the sweatshirt.

"Um," she said dumbly, holding the thing in her hands. "Thanks?"

He stood there confidently in just his boxers, but it wasn't like he had anything to be ashamed of. Aurora shook her head to try and stop thinking about his toned body. "Anyway, what're we doing today?"

"Andy's taking you to school to register, then Matt and I are taking you shopping," Sean smiled widely.

"Jesus," she groaned playfully, "looks like my last day on earth has finally arrived."

The brothers laughed and left her to get dressed. When she came out of the bathroom, Andrew was waiting for her on the couch.

"Ready?" He asked, and she nodded.

The drive was quiet, but Aurora didn't mind. She was nervous. It had been two years since she dropped out of school, and although she was pretty smart, she was afraid they'd make her enter as a sophomore again. That would be social suicide. Not that she even had a social status at this school; she hadn't even seen it yet. But she guessed that Matt was pretty popular, and she'd probably get lots of attention for living with him.

"Nervous?" Andrew read her mind. They were walking towards the front doors now. She shrugged her shoulders and tried to play it off, but raised her hand to her mouth and but her fingernails in anxiety.

He held the door for her and led her down the hall to the main office. The school was massive and bright, with a huge courtyard in the middle and wide hallways. Aurora was in awe. Her old school was just a big brick rectangle with dim lighting and even dimmer people. When they reached the office, there was a middle aged man sitting behind a computer.

"Hello," he smiled tightly when he noticed Aurora and Andrew, "can I help you?"

Andrew took a step closer to him. "Yeah, this is my little cousin," he gestured to Aurora, who smiled warmly, "and she's come to stay with me and my younger brothers. I'd like to register her to attend school here."

The man nodded and stood, walking over to a file cabinet. After a few moments of rustling through it, he pulled a thin stack of papers from it and walked back to the pair.

"Fill these out," he handed Andrew the papers and a pen and pointed to a row of chairs.

Andrew and Aurora sat down and tried to make sense of the forms. He more or less just handed them all to her so she could fill out her basic information, and she passed them back to him for all the adult stuff. When they were finished, she walked them back to the man behind the desk.

"Done?" He asked, and Aurora nodded. "Very well. Take this," he handed her another packet, "and choose your classes."

She thanked him as sat back down next to Andrew. "What classes do you wanna take?" He pulled the list of available classes from her hands and flipped through it.

"Not sure. Do you know Matt's schedule? Maybe I could try to take a class with him," she said.

Andrew nodded and pulled out his phone. While he scrolled through the pictures, the man called her up.

"Miss... Landry, is it?" She almost shook her head to correct him, but nodded at the last minute. "Are you Matthew Landry's cousin and brother, then?"

"Yes sir," Andrew spoke up with a smile.

The man nodded. "Good kid. Good ball player. Well, Miss Landry, since you should be in your senior year but missed some time, putting a schedule together will be difficult. We don't want you to start as a sophomore again, so we'll put you in the senior class but you'll have to take some online courses to get credit for what you missed. We have eight class periods here, and seniors normally have two to three electives, but you'll only be able to have one. Is that okay?"

"That's great, thank you," Aurora sighed in relief.

The man smiled and gestured for her to go sit back down and finish picking her classes.

"Here," Andrew showed her Matt's schedule when she joined him. Within ten minutes, she had made up a schedule that would fulfill the requirements from 10th and 11th grade but also had two classes with Matt.

She returned to the desk and handed the man her papers. He read over them and nodded. "These all seem in order. Can you step over here," he motioned to a blank section of a wall, "so I can take your school ID picture?"

"Sure," Aurora said, frowning down at her outfit. She ruffled her hair out of its ponytail and stood against the wall while the man grabbed a camera and snapped her picture.

He plugged it into his computer and she waited silently until he printed a thick card and handed it to her. "Welcome to Everly, Miss Landry."

-

Sorry for the wait!

I've never dropped out of high school and tried to come back two years later, so I dunno how that works but hey this is called fiction for a reason ok

Tell me what you think!