Book of Curses

I looked around slowly. My eyes took in every aspect of the place where I stood. It almost sent my body into a confused shock from how gorgeous it all was.  It was an open field full of vibrantly colored flowers of every possible variety. The sun hung high in the clear blue sky, only one or two clouds were visible.  I could hear birds chirping cheerfully, singing their happy songs against the gentle breeze of the wind that carried the scent of fresh air, grass, flowers and water making me take a deep breath. Listening closely enough my ears picked up on the soothing, rushing sound of water nearby and the sound of leaves beginning to rustle in the wind.  I began to move my heavy legs, forcing my body to move forward at a slow pace. My arms stretching forward to let my fingers gingerly pass over the soft, delicate flower petals to feeling their cool smooth surfaces. My lips pulled up into a small smile. Truly, this place was beautiful and peaceful - no; it was magical, and I loved it more than anything I had ever seen.  Then, my peace was abruptly disrupted by a noise behind me. I jumped a little in shock and slight fear, turning around as quickly as I could. Almost as if I was on fast forward. The eerie part about all of this was that there was nothing there. It became still and quiet all around me, like the calm before a storm. The sky grew clouded and dark, the only thing I could think to do was keep still and alert for the slightest sound, or any movement my eyes may catch.  "Hello?" I called out into the silence, listening as my shaking voice echoed all around me, bouncing off of the trees, hills and rocks making me feel even more alone and confused. The fear heightened, and I could hear my heart beating louder and louder in my ears; my throat had become thick, and it was hard to swallow.  "Raine,” my entire body tensed up and froze from that one small voice. My heart stilled in fear, and I looked around as fast as I could trying to find where it was coming from but only saw the trees and flowers. "Come to us Raine, we're waiting..."  "Yes Raine, come," I spun around on my heel looking closely at every little thing. I even looked at my feet at one point as I listened to the voice. Then it dawned on me; this one was new. It was a woman's voice and sounded seductive and velvety, like she was trying to seduce anything that was listening to her. "Don't you want to come and play? We want you to play with us." "What's wrong Raine? Cat got your tongue?" The newest voice echoed around me; it almost sounded like three men talking at once and created an oddly demonic sounding voice, and he was snickering at me. There was a sinister tone to everything it said. I only wanted this to end and was hoping it was just a bad dream. I'd wake up soon.   "Or maybe, we've got your tongue!" Just then it flew out from the trees in a blurred, quick movement. It grabbed my arms and pulled me to the ground. I could only shriek as I fell. It had three heads sitting upon its body; the one in the middle was human, but had vibrant yellow eyes, and its skin seemed to be barely attached and hung grotesquely. The second one - on its left shoulder - was a horse, a light-brown chestnut with black eyes that were staring straight at me. The one on the other shoulder was a wolf, a blood-soaked snarling wolf, with bright yellow eyes like the man in the middle; it looked ready to shred me.  I fell back onto my arms and tried to crawl backwards, away from it, as fast as I could. Whimpering a little as he leaned down and smiled in my face. The overwhelming stench of rotting flesh and blood was the first things I noticed about it.  "Let me have that tongue mortal." He growled loudly at me. I stayed frozen as he came closer, reaching his armor coated hand up towards me, and he pulled the glove off and revealed a disgusting sight. Decaying flesh and bones were sticking out, with maggots crawling over it. He started to chuckle, reaching closer and closer towards my face. Then, I woke up. **** I sat up in my bed and pulled my knees up to my body. I was breathing heavily and felt sweat starting to roll down my face and onto my shoulders. My alarm clock was going off loudly next to me, and I could feel the scream that was caught in the back of my throat begging to be let out. I looked down at my hand and slowly let the fist I made ease up, and stretched my fingers.   Some dream... Leaning over towards my alarm clock I reached my hand out and shut it off, then turned my iPod on listening as Breaking Benjamin started to fill the room and let my mind wander away from the nightmare I had just faced. My nerves began to calm down some and by the second verse of Evil Angel, I was feeling better and could make myself get ready to bear the cruelness of early mornings. I flipped my soft red comforter off of my body and let the cold morning air chill my small body, shivering as goose bumps started to spread over my arms and legs. Without missing a beat I turned, put my feet on the chilled wood flooring and made myself stand up as fast as I possibly could.  Pulling down the oversized plain black cotton shirt I had worn to bed, I bounced on my heels a few times before I looked back at my clock and iPod. I realized how late I had slept and started wondering why I hadn't been woken up, then figured Tom and I weren't going to school. Inhaling deeply, I flew across the cold wooden surface towards my new walk-in closet and opened it up. Shivering one last time I jumped onto the small rug I remembered to throw down before I slept, saving my feet from anymore abuse. I pulled out a pair of light grey jeans and a shirt at random, then taking another deep breath I ran across the floor towards the tiny bathroom that was attached to my bedroom. The steady beats from the bass coming out of my speakers forewarning me of the 3oh!3 song that was starting to play. It didn't take me long to get dressed as I listened to the music that flowed into the bathroom, putting me in a somewhat cheery mood. I pulled on my tight skinny jeans, smoothing them down out of habit before I pulled on my shirt. I looked at it and smiled, there was no way in hell I was passing up on a day wearing my Darth Vader T-shirt.  I pulled the chain out from under my shirt and looked at the end of it, smiling at the shining griever that hung at the bottom and then looked into the mirror. Sue me, I was a nerd, and I couldn't care less. I pulled out my hair brush and started running it through my dark hair until each tangle was pulled out smoothly. Running into my bedroom once more I started to sing to the Mindless Self Indulgence song that had begun to start playing through the dock speakers when I walked out. I began to dance around a bit. Catching sight of my black high-tops I went over and grabbed hold of them and sat down on my bed, pulling them on quickly while I let out a short yawn. Once I finally let my mind start to think rationally, I realized we really weren't going to school today. We weren't able to anyway, even if we wanted to. It was unpacking and cleaning day today, and from the sound of it, I was the only one that was even awake so far.  Shutting off my iPod and pulling it off the dock, I grabbed my headphones and shoved both into my jean pockets. Leaving my bedroom and going out into the box filled living room, s***h kitchen we had I saw Tom sitting silently on the counter and looking over at all the boxes, as if he was mentally setting out a chart on how to tackle all of them.  "Mom up?” I asked him as I walked over and leaned back against the counter he was sitting on tilting my head backward and looking up at his startled face. He nodded his head slowly and then looked back over at the boxes. "I heard her moving in there, so I'd say yeah." "Oh lord, ready yourself for the b***h attack.” I muttered frowning deeply before shaking my own head.  Tom chuckled quietly, nodded his own head and then stretched himself a bit. "Don't you know it?" Not a moment later, after we had both spoken our piece, my mother's bedroom door opened and Mazy came flying out with her tail wagging happily at the two of us. Tom jumped off the counter, and leaned down to let his hand glide over the soft marble fur as he began to pet her and then say something to her I couldn't hear.  My eyes shifted, and I looked up at my mother catching her cold gaze, I all but gagged when she walked out of her room. Really the woman was as repulsive, in my opinion, as she was cruel. I didn't want a thing to do with her entire existence.  She was wearing a skintight, low cut black shirt that practically showed off her recent plastic surgery upgrade. Her jeans were too tight, and her high heels were too high for any human to try to stand in. Her platinum blonde hair was up in a ponytail and her sunglasses were pulled down over her eyes.  She held her keys in her hand and frowned, pointing a clawed finger at us before she tsk'd at me a few times. I was thrown off guard and just stared at her; God only knew what she was going to go off on me about.  "Really wish you'd start dressing like a girl Raine." She sighed deeply, and started to shake her head before rubbing her overly glossed lips together. "I'll be home around 7 am. Unpack and fix the place up for me and be useful, OK. Thanks dolls." With that loving comment, she turned on her heels and clicked across the floors surface to the door and left. "Tell me again - Are you certain she's our mother?" I asked Tom, hoping he'd say we were someone else's children, but frowned, knowing it was only a wish that would never be real.  "Same DNA, sadly." Tom replied to me and then stood up slowly, setting a hand on my shoulder.  "Let's get started..."  **** We managed to work our asses off all morning, unpacking and organizing things. Hanging pictures and plugging in everything that we got our hands on. By the time it was two in the afternoon we were practically done and lounged around on the leather sofa, not caring if we scratched it up or not.  Tom plugged in his new game console and flipped around until he found the right game. He popped in the disc and then started playing, completely absorbed in the world of the game. I picked up my laptop and opened it up, scrolling around and checking my emails. I replied to a few before opening Youtube and looked around, trying to find something to listen to or watch. "What do you plan on doing for dinner?" I asked aloud, not really knowing if I'd get an answer from Tom or not. "Ramen?" He said distractedly. "Sounds good to me." "Christie may come over tomorrow." "That's fine." I smiled to him. I did like her; she was a good friend, though I thought, it was awkward between the two of them still. "Alright so, we're going to be too smart at school..." "How?" He paused in his game, looked over at me, and had the most confused expression on his face that I'd ever seen. "They're about three years behind on like, everything." I said, frowning a little as I started to explain looking up at my twin brothers face. "Say's so on this s**t" I motioned to our online course calendar and shook my head.  "Great." He rolled his eyes as he leaned over and started scanning the course calendar. "Guess it'll be prank school for me, sadly. Well, I say we see who's the better gamer here, and play all night!"  "You're on bro." I said to him, as I snatched up the second controller, turned it on and waited for him to start the game back up for us to play.  **** With us, it doesn't take much to entertain us for the day, or the night for that matter. We ended up playing the game until around midnight may be oneish. I came out the winner twice, since I knew how to beat his ass as any character I played. When he started calling me a cheater, we both decided it was time to call it a night.  I slept peacefully and dreamlessly that night, and ended up waking up before my alarm even went off to warn me I had to get myself ready for school. I got dressed, did my hair and makeup, then waited until I heard my mom go into her room before I decided to walk out and had to roll my eyes at that. Some parent she was, two seventeen-year olds in the house, and she didn't care what we did, as long as we pretended we were dead. That's how she had been for almost thirteen years, if not longer.   Tom walked out a few minutes later, yawning and scratching at his head of blonde hair. He slung his bag over his shoulder, and then nudged me to get my attention. I picked up my own bag as he started to push me towards the door, and followed him out and away from the house and our mother.  We both took our time, not caring if either of us were late or not. What could they do to us?  Suspend us? Give us in-school detention? Like any of that would even work. I pressed my nails into my arm, scratching at the flesh a bit as I waited for the light to change from red to green so that our side was clear, and we could run across. It really was too early, and I couldn't stand just waiting around here; it was starting to make me impatient. I wanted to get across the street already.  Tom made a strange noise for a moment, and then I realized he was clearing his throat and doing it rather loudly before looking at me and speaking slowly, as if he was choosing his words carefully. "So, did they wake you up last night?" "Who?" "Mom had some guy over... They were practically laughing as loud as possible for an hour or so." "Oh... No, I never woke up." "Good, I had to go and scream at them, so I could sleep." He chuckled, before rolling his eyes and sliding his fingers through his hair. "Mom's just become extremely stupid... I miss our old mom, the one that was there when dad was alive. You know?" I looked down as I spoke, shaking my head slowly as I thought back. Then I looked forward trying to ignore the sadness I felt over it.  "Yeah, I miss her too sis." Tom slowly slid his arm around my shoulder to pat it a few times before letting out a small laugh again, looking down at me strangely. "At least we didn't change though." "That's true enough; I'd have to kill you if you changed." I frowned deeply at him until my face started to hurt from it and then just tried to look as seriously as I could at him. "Lost our mother, don't need to lose my only living family now." "Oh please, like you'd ever lose me." He rolled his eyes at my statement, and patted my head a few times.  "I'm your twin; it's impossible for me to change without you knowing. We practically feed off each other's emotions half the time." "Not my fault I can tell when you're pissed off." I told him, sticking out my tongue for a split second. "Or upset." I added after thinking about it.  "Yeah, sometimes I wish we couldn't do that." He snorted rather loudly at me, before smiling a little. "Makes it too easy to know if a guy f***s with you, and I'm sick of beating in heads."  "Then stop beating them in, and just tell them to back off." I arched one of my eyebrows as I looked my brother over, shrugging my shoulders at him and sighing a little. "Right... So, how're you taking the move?"  "It's OK for now... I miss everyone though, you know." "Of course, I know you do; I miss them too Ray."  I nodded towards him absentmindedly, and then charged across the street as fast as my short legs could possibly let me move as the light finally changed colors. I could hear Tom's matching stomp's across the hard top ground before ending up beside me on the sidewalk once more, as we started off towards our new school. What fun this'd be, more of the same-old studies we took back at our prep school, and more teachers insisting we're stupid for being bored with it.  "Geez, can't we just skip?" I asked loudly, sounding as miserable as I possibly could.  "I wish, see you at the end of the day?" "See ya then." I said, as upset as I possibly could. I started off towards the front doors of the already barren looking, run down old school that our classes were going to be held in. Yeah, this was a total let down compared to the last school we were at. Class was probably starting already, and I seriously couldn't even be bothered to care. It was only roll call so, whatever; no one ever pays attention to that stupidity anyway.  **** “When the King, so to say, of Mount Olympus, Zeus - The God of Lightning - saw that his brother, Hades, was a threat to himself and the other Gods of Mount Olympus, such as..?” Mr. Rayson paused for a long moment, letting his eyes wander over the class of thirty students who didn't bother to even try to answer. This included me. “Anyone?”  “Nyx Goddess of the Night, Artemis Goddess of the Hunt and or Moon.” I muttered under my breath, as I kept working at my doodles in my notebook, it was just loud enough though that he heard me and gave me a rather dirty look for even speaking.  “Miss. Renning, how nice of you to volunteer for us; care to list six, since you seem to know so much?” He asked in a cruel voice as he looked at me, I noticed the all too visible glare across his pale face. His beady eyes were staring straight at me, and for his benefit I decided, what the hell.   Letting out a soft, but rather loud sigh, I pulled myself up in my seat so that I was sitting up in a straight position, and began to list off more Gods for him so that he would be happy with his sad teaching life. “Poseidon the God of the sea, Apollo God of music and light, Aphrodite Goddess of love and beauty, Ares the war God, Hera Goddess of the hearth, and Athena Goddess of war.”  Mr. Rayson straightened himself and pushed his glasses up on his face. I swear he cursed under his breath, there was a hint of disappointment on his face that disappeared as quickly as it came, to be swapped with his nasty glare as he grunted and walked back towards his white board while pulling out a black marker.  Starting to write on the board, I noticed quickly that he was listing each God that I had managed to list for him. “Yes, those are a few Gods and Goddess’ anyone else want to name any?” He turned back around looking at the entire class. His disappointment only grew from the silence in the room. I smiled to myself, leaning back in my seat once more and returned to my doodling. I didn't much care for this class, or the one before it, or for that matter, any of the classes we had to take here. We had already studied these subjects; it was boring, and the teachers were too stuck up for their own good. The only thing they were going to teach was attitude 101.  The doodle in my margin slowly became a picture as I ignored the lecture that our teacher was now continuing with about the Gods, I studied the Gods when I was bored. I was sure I knew twice as much as he did about them, so I really didn't have it in me to be bothered with his lecture.  I watched my drawing as it became a girl, I brushed my black hair from my face and kept drawing; a circle here, dot there, stroke here, and bam… I had a drawing that even I didn't understand, but I thought it was gorgeous. One of my best, sitting in front of my face, staring straight at me.  It was an Angel, or well looked like one at least. She was beautiful with long wings that came from her back; a cascade of glossy hair tumbled down her shoulders towards her small waist. Her body was clothed in a dress that really didn't cover much more than what was needed.  A tight smile was pulled across her face, and her eyes seemed to be looking into my own; her right arm was outstretched and holding what looked like a sword, the end of it was covered in a dark substance, blood I suppose. It had flowers carved into it and was decorated with beautiful gems, there was writing that I could barely make out as well.  I could have sworn I heard a whisper as I stared at the picture, and I felt a jolt rush through my body. Suddenly, I remembered the dream I had, the forest and that creepy man thing that had attacked me wanting my tongue, I felt uneasy as I stared at the picture, then it moved, I swear to God it moved, across the notebook paper.  She winked at me, her arm laying against her side as she lifted her other hand up to point at me, as she smiled wickedly at me. Then I saw her lips start to move and disturbingly I could swear I heard the words echoing through my mind, I didn't think I could forget them any time soon. "Chosen one, we're waiting… You will be here soon."   Mr. Rayson ripped the notebook out from under my hands and frowned deeply at me and then it, he studied the picture for a long hard moment and then ripping the picture out of the front of it. Crumbling the picture up, he then threw it into the trash can next to his desk, I locked my jaw and glared daggers into the back of his head, I could feel my hate for him already reaching well above what it should for only being the first day, and then I heard the chorus of snickers from the kids around the room.  “This might have been how you studied and did homework at your previous school, but it’s not how we do it.” He told me, as he slammed his hands down onto my desk making me jump in my seat before wanting to tear his arms from his body, seriously you just don't touch my art, no matter what. “Learn my rules, Miss. Renning, and you just might survive the rest of this term.”  I stared him down, wishing for all kinds of things to happen to him for what he had just done. I watched as he walked back to his desk away from my own and sat, suddenly becoming engrossed in whatever papers he had stacked there like they were the only thing in the world.   “Asshole.” I grumbled under my breath before turning to look over at the clock, hoping that it was time to leave already, only to be disappointed. There was another fifteen minutes of this God forbidden class, bearable, but not what I'd hoped to have to deal with. I could do it though. I knew I could, or well, I hoped I could anyway, because it'd suck for everyone here if I couldn't.  “Hey, new girl, is it true your dad left your mom for a hooker? Everyone’s been saying that, it’d suck ass if that was real." A boy next to me asked, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to say. I mean, come on, how stupid can you be? I worried about the people in this world sometimes, especially the kids at school who tried to act cool.  Turning my head slowly towards him, I met his eyes with cold daggers and stared at him for what felt like a long, long moment. Forcing a fake smile sometime after, I began to speak to him. “Gee, I don’t know; I'll have to ask him when I visit his grave again next week.” I said as flat toned as I could to him, watching for his reaction.  “Whoa sorry!” He instantly said, his hands went up in the air in what seemed like withdrawal in the same exact moment; I smile a little. “I didn’t know man.”  “You know; I heard that new girl is a real slut.” Another boy in the back of the room managed to say loudly, which only made me worry for them.  “Really, where’d you hear that?” I heard another one ask and let out a small sigh.   “Some boy, he said he dated her when she went to his school, he said she’s really easy to get.”  “Dude, really? Think we can get any?”  “You’ll get a fist in your face if you keep talking about my sister that way, and I’ll throw in a rearrangement of your entire bodies for free, hell maybe I could turn you both into women if you’d like.”  I couldn't help it then; I looked back at my brother who'd spoken to them, if the look he was giving them at the time wasn't enough to make them drop dead, right then and there; the tone in his voice may have been sufficient to make their hearts stop and their bladders empty on the spot.  “S-sorry man! We just heard it!” The second boy started to say, his face was drained of all color, and he looked like he was in shock.   “Yeah! Some David boy told us!” The first one instantly said, trying to make Tom find another target or forget about them. It didn't work though.  “Honestly, I don’t really give a damn who told you anything, talk about it to anyone again, and I’ll do what I said. Raine doesn’t need a bad name because of two twig sized geek assholes.” Tom hissed in the most sinister voice I had heard come from him in a long time. I had to smile to myself for a moment, biting back a laugh that threatened to break free from my lips. The horror on their faces really was just priceless. I mean you couldn't pay for this kind of amusement anywhere; it was sad to see but at the same time so funny. I wish I could've taken a picture of it to keep for the rest of my life, but I didn't have a good phone on me at the time.  “He’s so cute.”  “Yeah and he’s so muscular too, only thing is he has a girlfriend.”  “Maybe we can break them up, and then the new boy can be one of ours.” “You mean mine.”  My attention was caught, and I looked over towards the two blonde girls who were redoing the gloss on their lips and applying more eyeliner to their already overdone eyes, fake blonde Barbies, just what every High School needed.  They were exactly what Tom and me hated, so that really sucked for them since they thought he was oh so cute, not that what they said was true anyway. Tom's supposed girlfriend, Christie, was his ex-girlfriend as of a week ago.  They hung out still, but it was more of a, we're good friends so screw it type thing, because that's what they used to be, really good friends, and they didn't want to lose that. Then again, who would?   “Homework is due on Monday, there’s a test this Thursday. Next week, we start in on The Roman Empire. Thursday's test is going to show where you end up grade wise this semester.” Mr. Rayson announced loudly, just as the bell sounded throughout the classroom. I stood to get ready so I could leave.  “Miss. Renning, I need a word with you please.” He added I groaned, looked over at Tom and mouthed a simple enough 'I'll meet you outside' to him. With a quick nod, he followed the rest of the class out the door and towards the hall of lockers and teenagers as I stalked towards the i***t teacher we had to have. He reached into his waste bin, took out the picture, and without trying to fix it, he placed the scrunched up ball of paper into my hand and stared me down. I wanted to hit him for ruining something like that. “If I catch you drawing in this class again, I’ll shred it.” He said simply enough to me, and then nodded to the door. “You can go.”  I closed my hand around the picture, looked at him for another moment, then walked to the door slamming it shut as loud as I could as I went straight to my locker. I started fumbling around with the combination, when the frustration finally kicked in I started kicking the crap out of my locker, cursing a steady flow under my breath at it.   “Gee Ray, aren’t we in just a super great mood?”  Tom asked me as he came up beside me. He hit my locker a few times in a couple of weird places; I heard a pop, then he hit the locker next to it as hard as he could and mine swung open.  “Thanks, and well, you heard everyone, even you weren’t too thrilled about that Tom.” I said, as I grabbed my jacket and a few books from the locker, they were more of a curiosity type thing to take with me. I wanted to see what they taught in a few odd classes here. Slamming the locker door shut, I turned towards him and tilted my head slowly as I let out a sigh. “Transferring to new schools, isn’t it just the greatest?” The sarcasm from that very sentence rolled off my tongue perfectly without any needed effort. It was like a second language that I spoke fluently at this age.  “Ah, come on Ray, we got each other and tomorrow’s our birthday!” He said in a strange sing-song voice as he slung his arm across my shoulders, he effortlessly turned me, and started walking down the hallway. “Be a little happy, maybe you can get your gift early.”  “Right.” I said dragging it out slowly as I slid away from him and pulled my mind back, blue-black hair up into a ponytail as we both started clambering down the flight of stairs so that we could get to the exit faster.  “Ugh, so many stairs, ok I’m missing Brasinton more and more.” Tom groaned, as he kept moving his feet hurrying to get down them all.  “Especially how easy it was to go from there to Christie’s and Josh’s.”  “I miss Allie and Josh…” I said, frowning deeply as I thought about them, shaking my head.  “Cheer up Ray, I’m sure Allie can drive over herself soon enough.” Tom smiled towards me softly, as he patted my shoulder a few times.  “Yeah and pigs will learn how to fly.” I rolled my eyes, let out a sigh, and then went down the stairs with him next to me.    **** Tom laughed as we made it out of the doors of our new prison, I kept walking and noticed when he fell back for a moment, shaking my head I didn't bother stopping for him and just kept walking up the street. I heard him come running with his bag pulled in front of his body.  I really didn't want to ask why he was carrying it like that. Instead, I just stared at him for a moment, arching my eyebrow as I waited for him to catch his breath enough to start walking again. “So tell me Tom, what's it like getting detention on your first day of school?” I asked aloud. I decided to take a look back at him and notice the look on his face.  His bright green eyes met mine for a brief moment. I saw a flash of his normal wildness in them and then saw the goofy smile that slapped itself across his face as he began to talk. “Well, Miss. Lowman kind of pissed me off in a major way, so, I say it's the most amazing experience in the world to get that honor.”  I shook my head at him; I didn't understand him sometimes. I truly didn't. “Tell me, what did you do this time?”  “Stuffed a fake rat in her drawer, and set a bucket of water on the rafter right above her chair, then tied a string from it to the chair. When she opened the drawer and sat up screaming she pulled the string, and down came the water.” He paused, seeming to gaze off into the nothingness in front of him before speaking again. “Best wet shirt ever.”  “You’re horrible Tom.” I rolled my eyes at him and yawned almost right after.  “Ah but you love me.” He retorted, smiling brightly towards me and sticking out his tongue.  “Where did you even find a bucket?” I decided to ask, then thought about it and added onto that question. “Or the fake rat!”  “The rat was in my bag, you know I never leave without my school things.” He winked at me, and then started laughing. “The bucket was in the storage room outside her class.”  Shaking my head again, I rolled my eyes once more. Walking a bit faster as we quickly met the busy traffic area of downtown New York City. I began to rock myself on the heels of my shoes as I waited for the crosswalk light to light up so that we could finally move. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Tom was looking at me, and when I looked at him, he grinned brightly.  “I’ll race you across.” He beamed, moving his body back and forth as if he was full of energy that he just had to get rid of right then, or he'd die.  Honestly, yeah we were turning eighteen in about a day, that was true enough, but sometimes being childish was the best thing in the world for the two of us. It made us forget the stupid stuff that we dealt with every day.  I felt the tug of a grin on my lips. I couldn't resist this challenge. I watched for the light to change, and when it finally did I raced Tom across. He beat me by one tiny step. He stuck his tongue out at me like a little five-year-old as he basked in his victory.  “Just wait Tom, I’ll beat you.” I told him as I caught my breath, making a promise to both, him and myself.  “Yeah, sure.” He laughed at me; I just shrugged my shoulders as we both rounded the corner to our new place. “I’ll always win you know.” “You’re six foot two Tom; your legs are hellishly long. I’m five foot four, and you’ll only win because you have longer strides.” I glared at him for a long moment, and then let out a sigh.  “Height has nothing to do with how fast you are.” He retorted, letting out a bit of a snort as we continued to walk.  Looking up at our home I wanted to turn around and run away as fast as I could. It was just another reminder that we were never going to have a home to keep. It was yet again a temporary place to live, not something I wanted or cared about. We lasted four years in our last place, and God only knew how long our mom was going to decide this place was suitable. “Hmm, thinking what I am?” Tom asked pulling me away from my thoughts. I looked at him and saw him scanning the doors to the building, then it hit me what he meant. “I’ll beat you.” I started, smiling from ear to ear as I eyed him.  “Doubt it, on three. One.” He started, smiling brightly as he put his arms through the straps of his bag, attaching it to his chest like a total moron.  My smiled turned as dark as possible as I pulled my messenger bag up onto my shoulder snugly and looked at the building. “Two.”  “Three.”  Both of us took off at the same time, running full speed towards the building and shoving open the doors. We ran straight through the lobby, ignoring the stares of the various people who were in there, and raced to the stairs that sat off to the side of the room.  All I could see was out of the corner of my eye, when Tom somehow managed to lose his balance and fall back a bit, that's when I took advantage and started to run faster, getting as far ahead of him as I could.  My advantage lasted less than a minute though; he was right back up and beside me, with both of us taking two steps at a time, trying to get the top before the other. Soon enough we reached the door to the apartment and started shoving each other away from the door, trying to be the one to get it open first. As I reached to open it though, it swung open.  Our mother stood on the other side of the door, and I went tumbling forward, landing at her feet. When I looked up, she was scowling down at me, and I'd swear to God, she was cursing my very existence. It wouldn't surprise me though, she never really did like us when we were around, and this just showed that even more.