Walking down the street lined with pine trees, nice paths and luxury houses I sigh and turn around to my younger brother, Tom, who is following me closely behind

"Tom, come on please stop mucking around, we're going to be late to school."

I stop and grab his arm

"Tom! Hurry up!" I yell and pull him along

"No! I don't want to go to school!" He yells and yanks his arm back collapsing on the ground crying.

Great, make a scene before we have even entered the school grounds.

"Oh my God, Tom please get up." I say kneeling down to him, taking his hand in my hands

He looks up at me with watery eyes "But I don't want to go to school.."

I stand up looking down at him "Maybe if you brushed your teeth faster this morning we wouldn't of missed the bus"

He slowly gets up, sniffling, picking up his bag that has fallen on the ground. The hole that has been slowly staring to get bigger since some kid in his grade snatched his bag off him, ripping it, and then through the bag and all of its belonging's onto the ground, decides to rip open and let all of its content's onto the ground. Tom has a serious mental disability; he has the brain and learning capacity of a 5 year old when he's really 13.

Being bullied for having him as my sibling is a regular thing, people stare at us while we walk to school, small children point and laugh at the 'retard kid'.

"Oh man.." I sigh, kneeling back down to pick up everything that has fallen out of his bag.

I hear a car horn to look up to see Haylee and her boyfriend, Dan, driving past in his truck. They laugh and speed off. I continue to pick up all of Tom's belongings

"What are we going to do now, Kat?" he looks at me rubbing his eye, squinting the other

"I don't know buddy. You might have to borrow my bag for the day." I sigh standing up

He slowly finds his feet "Does that mean I get to come to your locker!?" he says smiling

"Possibly.." I say giving a faint smile

He yells with excitement "Yes!"

I put all of his belongings into my bag and continue walking with Tom beside me, he jogs up to my speed and puts his hand in mine. I look down and smile "Love you, Bud." He looks up at me "Love ya!" He says with a big cheesy grin.

When we finally make it to school, Tom and myself still holding hands, make it to my locker I take out all my books, lunch and sport uniform and stuff it in my locker. I leave his stuff in my bag, zip it up and put it on his back. He stands next to me while doing this saying a friendly "Hi!" to everyone walking past, they all give him weird looks and continue walking through the halls.

I sigh turn around to him, straightening up his jacket and fix his hair "Be good Bud and have fun today." He smiles and nods "Do you need me to take you to your classroom?" He shakes his head "No, no, no I should be fine." I nod, giving a faint smile "Ok goodbye Bud." I stand up giving him a kiss on his head; he turns around and runs towards his class.

I turn back around to my locker and grab the books I need for my first 2 periods, Maths and English. I close my locker and walk to class trying to ignore all the looks I'm getting from people.

Maths dragged on and was finally over. I walk into English late and am forced to sit at the back of the classroom. A spare set, as per usual, is left empty next to me. Suddenly, a guy wearing a black beanie with red hair escaping the bottom of it with skinny black jeans framing his legs, a baggy grey jumper and a nose ring walks into the classroom. I don't ever remember him being in this English class? I tune in to see the teacher - Mr Gregory - point to me, the red haired guy looks my way, making eye contact and giving a faint smile. I quickly look down at my English books and pretend to be sorting through the sheets of notes I've written. He comes and takes a seat next to me, I try not to look at him but see out of the corner of my eye him glancing at me, and finally, Mr Gregory breaks through my thoughts

"Some of you may already know Alan from the music department of school but, he has swapped English classes to excel in his English. I hope you all make him feel welcome. Now back to what we were learning last week, Kat will you give Alan your notes?" I realise that Mr Gregory is talking to me "Uh, yeah of coarse!" I say giving a faint smile "Excellent!" He says turning back to the board.

I scramble through my book and tear out the notes and hand them to Alan "Excelling in English, hey?" I say trying to make conversation, failing miserably.

He smiles taking the notes from me "Hah, yeah, English is a big passion of mine." He opens his notebook to copy the notes down, as he's flicking through some small bunches of paper fall out onto the ground. I bend over and pick them up; they simply have 'Lyrics' printed in messy handwriting

Picking it up I start to scan over them "You write music?" I ask him handing back the lyrics "Ah, yeah, I guess that's where I 'excel' in English.." He says smiling "I mainly play guitar but apparently my lyrics are pretty impressive." I nod smiling "I better finish these notes then." He says with a slight chuckle "Oh yeah of coarse!"

"Kat! Kitty Kat!" I hear my name and my nickname - which I am not to found of - being called out as I walk down the hall to my locker, I turn around to see Tom running directly at me with some boys chasing after him. He runs directly into my arms and I catch him

"What up? Are you okay?" I ask franticly "They are calling me retard!" He says crying, I turn around to see 3 boys standing there "What the fuck do you want?" I say to them. They look at me terrified "I better not catch you three picking on him again, comprende?" They start walking back "Scram!" I say to them and they run back the way they came.

I look down at Tom who is still hugging me tightly "Are you okay?" I kneel down so I'm at his level. He nods rubbing his eyes "They took my food though, Kat. Now I can't eat!" I sigh, "It's okay Bud you can have some of mine."

I get up, slipping my hand into Tom's walking towards my locker. I walk past Haylee who's hanging off Dan like a bad smell. She looks me up and down rolling her eyes at me. I shake it off, stoping at my locker I pull out my food and lead Tom to the cafeteria.

The cafeteria just happens to be conveniently packed with people gossiping, staring and giving me weird looks. I decide to go sit outside under a tree near the playground so Tom can play.

I sit there for a while watching him play and be happy while I chomp on an apple I grabbed from the fruit bowl when I suddenly feel a tall, slender figure cast a shadow over me. I look up to see Alan standing there eating some potato chips.

He looks at me with a smile "Mind if I sit?"