I see that the first chapter has drawn attention. Now it's time I bring in … dun, dun, dunnn…

Marcus…

Chapter 2: Marcus

"REBECCA! Get up before Adam gets in here to wake you up." I groaned at Leo's wake up call.

"Thanks for the warning," I replied as I lifted my head up from my pillow. I dragged myself out of bed and nearly crawled into the bathroom. I brushed my teeth and showered before coming out to brush my long black waves. Of course I was able to complete all these tasks within 30 minutes because I was using super speed.

I put on a red tank top, a white crop top over, a pair of dark skinny jeans, and leather boots. I grabbed a dark jean jacket and my book-bag before going into the kitchen.

I rolled my eyes as I saw Adam stuffing his face with pancakes in slight dismay. That's all he ever did now. Even after being in school for over a month, Adam, Bree, and Chase were still upset about not having a school friend yet.

"What's the big deal with having school friends anyway?" I grumbled. The only people you should ever trust is family. Besides, isn't Leo their best friend in the whole wide world?

"Speak for yourself, Becca," Adam said, "You've been going to school for as long as I could remember and you have friends."

"That's not really helping your case, Adam," I said knowing he was most likely going to forget what he had for breakfast this morning the minute he got to school.

I grabbed a muffin before walking to school. When I made it to school, I threw the scraps in the garbage. I walked over to my best friend, Hailey, to catch me up on anything I missed.

"Hey, what's new?" I asked. She immediately squealed. She must have "Hot Guy" news.

"There's this new guy," she said, "He's sooooo cute and he's an amazing guitarist! I think he's most likely going to get a most likely in the year book for becoming a rock star or something."

I just rolled my eyes at her once the bell rang. We both walked to class, unfortunately different classes.

I walked into dreadful chemistry. The teacher just gives us an experiment to do and if we blow up the school, he wouldn't care.

I went and sat in my usual seat. I don't sit with anybody even though the desks were meant for two people. I'm more than capable of doing a simple chemistry experiment alone, and it's not because I have super smarts like Chase. In fact I rarely use my bionics because they're mostly suppressed. The ones I can mostly control are the ones I've used everyday since Dad adopted me. I guess it's one of those you use it or lose it type of things, though Dad thinks otherwise.

When I got to my seat, I noticed somebody sitting in the one next to mine, which is usually empty. I sat down quietly and pulled out my notebook. I searched through my book bag for a pen. Being the prepared person I am, I forgot my pencil case.

"Pen?" I turned around to find the guy offering me a pen. I looked up and was met by the most beautiful face I've ever seen. He had fairly long dark brown hair, warm brown eyes, the most adorable freckles on the bridge of his nose, and an equally warm smile that could make any girl's heart stop. Well, I'm not any girl.

"Thanks," I said, as I took the pen and returned the smile.

"My name's Marcus by the way," he whispered as the teacher walked in.

"I'm Rebecca," I replied.

After class, I ran out in search of Hailey. I found her at our lockers and nearly scared the living out of her.

"That guy you were talking about earlier," I said, "By any chance, did he have dark brown hair, brown eyes, and cute freckles over his nose?"

"Yeah, did you see him?" she asked.

"He's my chem partner," I said with slight smile.

"Your soooo lucky, how is it that you're always surrounded by cute boys but are never interested in them?" she whined.

"Hey," I snapped teasingly, "I never said I never said I wasn't interested in Marcus."

"Oh, so his name is Marcus," she said with a smirk, "And you're interested."

"I-I-um…." I said while I felt my face heat up, "I didn't say that either." I sighed when I realized I said that too fast to be believable.

"Aww, that's sooo adorable," she teased. I just rolled my eyes at her. We went to our next classes, and guess what … Marcus was in the same class as me … again.

In fact, Marcus was in 6 of my 8 classes, including lunch. That gave me the opportunity to learn a lot about him. Apparently, he liked playing guitar (obviously), he moved from Northern California, and according to him, he was "shy". He was definitely very friendly towards me. Everything went great until third period ended. Marcus decided to practice his guitar in the hall before study hall. Unfortunately for me, this drew the attention of a lot of people, my two brothers including.

Chase then kind of pulled him away to the other side of the hallway where he knew I couldn't hear (stupid non super senses). I huffed before walking over to them. I seemed to intrude when I saw Chase play a guitar solo. How was Mr. Friend-Thief going to explain that?

"Um…I like playing guitar, too," he said.

"Obviously," I said sarcastically. Chase gave me a glare, Leo smirked, and both Adam and Marcus gave me a confused look, or at least, Marcus's expression looked confused. They seemed to brush that comment off before continuing their conversation.

"We should start a band!" Marcus said. Bad idea.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Leo said.

"Oh, come on Leo, what's the worse that could happen?" Adam asked. Like he knew. Marcus could discover the lab, find out that they're bionic, or worse! Meet Eddie.

"A lot of things actually," I said while biting me lip. Marcus gave me a small yet adorable smile and I could help but let some of my uneasiness melt away.

Chase scoffed. "You can come over today," Chase said, "And we can make our band." The bell rang and I sighed before walking off to class. I wish I could ignore this, but the fact that Marcus had almost all my classes with me didn't help.

As I sat in math, I'd peek over at Marcus and find him staring at me. The first time I caught him, he gave me sympathetic smile. I returned it with a warm smile before turning away. The other times I caught him, he would blush slightly, give me a lopsided grin, then turn his head quickly. I couldn't help but giggle at how cute he was being.

The rest of my classes were very similar, if we weren't sitting together that is. We sit together in history and we have to do a history report together so not only is he invited to my house, but he's obligated considering we have to work together on the stupid project.

When lunch came, I decided to sit with Hailey to tell her everything. I had to admit, it was a nice break from my siblings, especially since I was really upset with one particular sibling.

"Guess what?" I started after getting lunch.

"What?" Hailey asked.

"I have almost every class with you-know-who," I whispered.

She immediately squealed. "You're soooo lucky!"

"We're also paired together for the history report," I said. That comment was followed by another squeal.

"I'm so happy for you!" she said.

"Come on, Hailey, it's not like we're dating or anything," I said in attempt to calm her down, "And I think you need a boyfriend so you can stop entertaining yourself with my non-existing love life."

She just rolled her eyes at me.

"Who's non-existing love life?" Leo asked as he walked over to our table.

"Yours," I replied, "Can I help you, Leo?"

"Yes, I need to sit away from them," he said while pointing at Adam, Bree, and Chase's table. Surprisingly, Marcus was sitting with them.

"There's something weird with that kid, and Chase and Adam want to form a band with him," he said.

"I heard," I said with an annoyed tone.

"Can I sit with you?" he begged. I guess my expression looked like a no because he then said, "Look, we're both annoyed with Adam and Chase, so can you please help your step brother out and not make me sit alone?"

I sighed as I nodded. He smiled before putting his book bag in the chair next to mine.

"I'm going to see why Marcus is still talking to them," I said as I got up and went to their table. It's not like my siblings were bad people, but any normal person can see that they're kind of weird. Non-the less, I do still love them, but why is Marcus so intrigued.

"Hey, guys, what are you talkin about?" I asked casually. Marcus shifted his attention away from Adam and Chase for a second toward me before focusing back on them. I found it a bit weird and hurtful. Almost like he was trying to hide something from me. And trust me, I know how to read people, even the closed books. No bionics necessary.

"We're talking about our band, not that that would interest you considering you don't want Marcus to come over," Chase sneered. Marcus shifted uncomfortably at that comment before putting on an act.

"Don't worry about it, Chase," he said with a small smile that could've been believable to anybody else. "Besides, you shouldn't talk to your step sister like that."

At the words "step sister" Marcus turned to me with his eyebrows raised expectantly. I could feel my cheeks flame up, but not in embarrassment, in anger, or maybe both. One of them must have told him that we were siblings, and they must have emphasized the fact that we weren't actually related. It's not my fault that I forgot to mention I had siblings. They shouldn't take it the wrong way, I'm very proud to be Adam, Bree, Chase, and even Leo's sister!

I stomped away furiously and sat down with a huff.

"So, did it go well?" Leo asked.

"Don't humor me," I growled, "They basically infuriated and embarrassed me while I was there. They're trying to make me feel guilty and terrible so I could change my mind about Marcus coming over."

"How do you know for sure?" Leo asked.

"Because I'm that good," I said. I leaned closer to him. "And Marcus does seem to be acting kind of … unnaturally around them, like he's putting up an act, but I have no reason as to why," I whispered so only he could hear. Even with Chase's sensitive hearing, he wouldn't have been able to hear me. Everything else he probably did hear.

"But I don't care," I said in a normal voice, "If they want Marcus to come over, they can. It's not like I'm in charge. In fact, they can do whatever they want, as long as I get to say I told you so in the end…"

So there you have it, chapter two. As you can tell, the very beginning of Concert in a Can is in this, but I didn't want to go too deep into it because in chapter three, you're going to get the rest of the episode in more detail. Watch out Adam, Bree, and Chase, there's something about Marcus that both Leo and Rebecca can see.