Chapter 2

RAIN

I decided to shut up, I got no responses from both my older brothers who would usually would make a sarcastic answer to my question like "Yeah let's disobey the law by not wearing our seatbelts and get caught and leave little Ean, Lea and Richard to starve!" And Lea would fuss that she is not that little, Richard would ignore us and then Ean would fuss too, as if he knew he wasn't being called big.

I understood him, because I once felt that, my two older brothers playing around with me and then Richard came and everything fell on him, my worries, my … yeah that was about it, but it was worth it. When Lea came along, we knew she was different nothing we said would bother her. Except if we ignored her , that's why she so angry. Anyway, Richard still had the pile, because Lea wasn't like that.

When Teal and I were born, at different times of course, Parker was young and didn't pay too much attention to how we were cared for and then when it was time for him to grow up, he started to work a small job and wasn't home too much to see how to care for Richard and Lea. So I wasn't surprised when I heard this

"Teach me."

"What?" Lea asked more surprised than confused

"Teach me." Parker said again the same normal look on his face. Then he turned away, as if to rethink whether or not he should talk to her. He whispered in her ear, no doubt saying "how to care for Ean" I knew because, guessing on about how smart he is, the only thing he needs help on most about is babies, he acts as if they are adults. Just like he does with us.

"Lea! How to change the baby, and feed him without causing a mess, and knowing the times for sleep, and why he is crying and mostly all the important-" he said after her face lit up and she began to babble about Ean's favorite kind of toys and how to play with him but I guess that wasn't what he was looking for because as soon as she started he cut her off.

"You don't have to be so tense." Lea snapped "And what's this for anyway?" Seeing them go back in forth like this, well it wasn't an actual fight I thought, but it still was trouble, it's like the beginning of two animals fighting, when they walk in circles around their opponent and growl at each other.

I looked ahead, at the windshield, blocking out the roar behind me as if I had headphones on blasting my favorite artist, Bach, although it would not be too loud because if my brothers figured out they would make fun of me. It's weird for me, because I don't seem like the kind of guy who would love music but I do know how to play the violin, the piano, the flute, the saxophone and don't even get me started about the guitar. But those were the only ones I could get my hands on, I was scared that if I found a new one my fingers would instantly know how to play it like all the others, it was creepy that's all.

Twisty streets gave in to the more straight ones as the minivan crossed into the highway and the car picked up speed. Teal started to relax a little more but his brow was still scrunched up in concentration. Where the heck are we going and how come I don't remember this place? I try to remember so I closed my eyes, made my brow identical to my brother's and thought Pine Avenue Pine Avenue Pine Avenue.

I opened my eyes and saw trees. There was a little target a couple feet away from me like the one that people would use for bows and arrows and in my hands was a bow. I tried to turn my head to look to the left but instead it turned to look to the right. I bent down (I am not controlling my movements by the way) and picked up an arrow from the bucket and started to aim. What the—am I dreaming? Because I am pretty sure I was in the car a minute ago. But how am I moving? I shot and hit the blue circle. Two circles away from the middle. Is this camp? I was like 7 when I went here. Young Rain looked up and saw Parker who was ten at the time "Good job Rain, now try to aim a little higher and take your time" I felt my face stretch and realized my younger self whom I was in was smiling. I reloaded my bow and shot again and this time I hit the middle! I looked up to show my eldest brother but he wasn't there I (or younger self, same thing) looked to the right and saw Teal there practicing as well. "Where is Parker?" I asked and my brother who looked less intimidating as an 8 year old with a couple teeth missing. Teal cocked his head to the left and said "Talking to some hairy goat" Really Teal? My younger self would not fall for that! But of course, I failed myself as my head turned to the left and I saw my brother walking and talking to a stranger.

I ran over and caught up with them and when Parker didn't notice me, I tugged on his shirt "Guess what? I hit the middle, Par, I hit it!"

"That's great Rain, ok listen I have to go but I'll be right back you stay here with Teal" He said

Then the stranger who did in fact have a lot of hair everywhere, mostly spoke something in a different language which older me could decipher "No, Teal is also needed" I don't know how I knew that. "But what about Rain?" Parker said "he'll be okay" At this point I felt like a human google translate. The person who was talking was tall (for me) but a little taller than Parker, so basically not tall at all. The man strangely looked like he had horns underneath that cap…

"But where are we going? Why does Teal have to come? Why me? And where again?" I could see that Lea learned to ask so many questions from the brother that she was aiming them at!

"Pine Avenue, Parker, and Pine Avenue" he walked away, taking his pants off what the heck? Ugh I wish I could turn around!

"That man has really hairy legs Parker!" and sure enough, little me was right. The "man" had fur on his legs and it didn't look normal.

"Teal! Come, we have to go!" Parker yelled gathering up his stuff, rethinking then putting them down again "don't bring anything we have to go now!" then that's when things started getting blurry and I saw black. I realized those were my eyelids as I quickly opened my eyes and saw the building.

The building was one titled "exchanging homes MR.D one step at a time.". I thought that was a weird name for a building but being ADHD, my eyes turned to the commotion on the side of the rectangle tall brick building where there were construction men arguing with a man in a suit. They had paint and long sheets of cardboard next to them and the guy in the suit was going crazy over what they had done. But the car swerved over to the other side because as being a car it has to go to the parking lot to park.

I looked behind me and saw Lea crossing her arms with a tiny smile and when I looked even more behind which hurt my neck, I saw Parker with a stuffed bear and was changing him, Lea slowly giving him directions. Then I looked out their windows and heard pieces of conversation

"Really?! Now we will never get customers! You put MR.D in the middle of the title?- Right,but… Oh we do have customers! You guys are lucky!" saw the guy in the suit push past the goofy construction men yelling "customers" as he ran into the back door straitening his outfit.

The parking lot was packed so I didn't see what he was so excited about. I was excited about getting out of the car when they finally found a spot. I was the one who pointed it out; because Teal was too busy being concentrated.

"What—what? Oh… thanks Rain. Parker are you sure about this?" Teal said

"Nope." And before Teal could reply Parker opened the door to the car and went to the other side of the car for Ean.

When he couldn't manage to get the seatbelt he somehow found getting the whole car seat out of the base easier. "Garwin said it would be best if we saw Kaleb… who's Kaleb?" He muttered

"What?" Lea asked, I thought that Lea was suddenly in a better mood than before… how long was I out?

"What?" He answered as If he didn't remember saying anything.

"Would somebody just let me out of the car?" Richard whined as I looked at the time: 2:15

"Sure" Lea said as her and the rest of us got out of the car which already had snow on the bottom of it, which was dark from the dirt. I still didn't know how long the car ride was, but it must have been a long one because the snow was already hard and abundant.

"Where is Parker?" Richard asked, stretching out his legs

Teal pointed, he looked tired but it looked like he didn't like the feeling, his face was pained from memory of this place and his outstretched arm stiff from fear.

They looked towards his hand and saw Parker walking fast with the car seat with Ean with it.

"Let's go then" I said, looking at Parker and I marched, leading the rest of the group. When I noticed my feet were hitting the road with a rhythm I stumbled and fell.

"Seems like every one is in a daze" said Richard, looking at Lea as if he were expecting her to fall too. But Lea just walked silently, unusually. Her lips were shut and they looked quite brighter than they used to. I did not even have a chance to react as my only sister glowed out of her previously inflated mouth. When she opened it, it was as bright as, the sun, well maybe not the sun but the moon, yes the moon.

She quickly closed it, unaware that she almost blinded her brothers. 2:15? I missed lunch? And about 3 hours of my day?

"The sun looked like it just flashed!" Richard said

"I didn't see it" Lea said causing the same reaction to her brothers again

Teal looked like he just woke up from a coma he quickly put his hand over Lea's mouth, tucking her between his body and elbow as her head was in his chest and started walking quickly to the building. He looked back once to see Richard wondering how in the world the sun was in the other side of the sky for a second. So he came back for him, covering his mouth too.

That left me, the previous leader to the really confused brother who was forgotten and left behind. So I did what I had to do, lead myself.