Mine

Chapter 2: Welcome to the Family

The end of the school day confirmed his hypothesis; school was a waste of time. His father, of all people, had to know that it wasn't worth his time. Most, if not all, students there were immature and superficial. They hadn't known the meaning of prioritizing. And the obsession over certain cliques, gee! It was a playground for a spoilt rascal like Liam. Matthew never belonged in that place.

Sitting at the dinner table with the Snyders still felt strange even on the second night as one of them, especially with Mrs. Snyder suddenly back from Germany. Not that she was unpleasant, bless her heart. Matthew couldn't help but wonder how she felt about her husband's bastard son joining them at the table.

The evening's conversation was about Mrs. Snyder's time in her hometown, which morphed to being about sports and Liam's basketball team. Competition and sports were in the Snyder DNA, even Mrs. Snyder indulged in the trash-talking. Matthew sat back and enjoyed the fierce yet harmless fun.

"Are you challenging me?" Their father asked the overly egotistic Liam.

"I could wipe the court with you, old timer," he had a smug look on his face, certain about his abilities even though his father taught him how to b-ball.

"Ooh, no bueno," Élisabeth remarked.

"Tomorrow's Friday. Lily, you don't have to wait for him," their father declared, "I'll pick him up."

"And what? Miss the action? No way!" She exclaimed.

"We have trials tomorrow and Saturday. Coach's choosing a new captain with Josh suspended."

"What? You're too scared to get your a*s kicked by your old man?" The trash-talk continued.

Matthew raised his eyebrows, and made a remark too. But Liam never let down, and had his own witty comeback. "Wait, this is really happening?"

"You know what? You two can pair up. Your mom and I can teach you a lesson or two."

"Mom's a professional player-"

"Soccer player. But I can't join, I have, erm, errands to do." Mrs. Snyder's English was improving, Matthew thought, but the scale dipped each time she returned from Germany- where she spent most of her time in a given year. "But I will go again next month, so there is time."

"Awesome," Élisabeth smiled at her mom.

"About that teaming up; are you a baller?"

"I'm more of a football player," said Matthew. "Almost broke dad's back while we were away."

"Only because Valerie distracted me," he defended himself. Knowing how that sounded, Mr. Snyder moved on from that line of conversation. Or maybe he never wanted to hurt Matthew with the mention of his biological mother's name. "Anyway, how was your first day at school."

"A drag," he sighed, "but I'm supposed to meet this girl, Christina Montgomery to catch up with schoolwork. Apparently, I'm her punishment for whatever she had done wrong."

"Who's Christina Montgomery?" Liam asked.

"I'll find out tomorrow, I guess."

"Don't you know Christina?" Élisabeth asked, and thought it necessary to elaborate for the then squinting Liam, "Glasses and pigtails, and for some reason always goes to detention on Fridays and Saturdays."

"Oh," Liam exclaimed, "I still don't know her."

"They chose a no-good student to help you with your school work?"

"She's a straight-A student, dad. No one really knows why she gets in trouble," Élisabeth said.

The next morning...

Matthew waited in his father's car that Friday morning, and mentally listed all the viable reasons why he never needed to go back to school; why school was a waste of time for him.

"You are still going to school and that's the end of it," said Mr. Snyder, but he agreed to hear him out since they hadn't sat down and talked since they got back.

He started listing all his valid reasons, from school being a waste of time to the lack of promotion of diversity and individuality while his father still drove him there. "The faculty is so closed-minded. When they don't understand a certain way a student behaves, they outcast them, send them to the counselor or call the parents-"

"Do you need to see a therapist to talk about what happened?"

"What?" He had a heightened pitch. "No, dad. That's not what I'm saying."

"Then what are you saying? Do you need to talk to me about it? I know what you went through is far from normal. Valerie and I aren't very good at uh... those kinds of stuff." When Mr. Snyder said that Matthew just wanted to bury himself under the seat or have it swallow him whole. "Lily and Liam always turn to Mira for counsel, but I'm not sure if she can handle-"

"Dad, I'm not traumatized! I just... I want to work with you."

"You need a GED for that, and a-"

"I'm not talking about your office job," he said.

"I told you that that was a one-time thing. You needed help, so I called your mom- I mean Valerie to help too," he said as they arrived outside the school with a few minutes to spare.

"I want to do what you did, dad. You know I'm good. I just need you to get me in touch with the right people. Let me fight for this country instead of contributing to this clichéd place. I want to serve."

"You know, Liam and Lily are hooked on the adventurous stories, and they don't understand what it means," he shook his head. "Even for policemen, it might be easy to take a life, but it's a different story when it comes to living with it."

"It's me you're talking to, dad. We've done all that, and I'm fine," he raised his hands for emphasis, "It's not that I'm callous. They were bad guys and they had it coming."

Mr Snyder killed the engine and sat back with a sigh. "I've never told anyone this: when I lost Valerie, I lost everything. I mean everything. Grief turned me into something ugly. Very f*****g ugly," Matthew raised his eyebrows while his dad stared into the distance in front of them. I had never, not once, heard dad swear, not even at his worst. "Death and destruction. You don't need to know the details about it, but I could no longer recognize myself. I never want to have to go back to that, ever. If I lost you, or any of my kids..." he trailed off, shaking his head. He turned to me with the sternest look ever. "You are not going to be a hired g*n, for the government or otherwise."