The alarm clock beeped letting me know it was 6:30 and time to face the world. I groaned and turned off the alarm, but remained in bed for a moment longer. The smell of waffles wafted up to my room, motivating me to start the day. I pulled myself out of bed and into the bathroom. I blindly got ready for school and slid into my usual seat at the breakfast table.
"Good morning, Sweetie," Mom said and kissed my cheek while placing a plate in front of me. On the plate was a waffle with two eggs and a strip of bacon to make a smiley face. Mom was always doing cute stuff like that for my brothers and I. Frank came downstairs and grabbed a plate from Mom. Frank talked with Dad as I ate my breakfast. Joe still hadn't appeared for breakfast yet. I checked the clock on the wall and it was almost 7. I took one last drink of milk before depositing my dirty dishes into the sink. Frank did the same and grabbed his car keys.
"Come on, Joe! We're going to be late!" Frank called up the stairs for him. Frank and I waited at the bottom of the stairs. Joe came running down the stairs and tripped on the last stair. Unfortunately, he caught himself by grabbing onto my backpack making me lose my balance. Frank grabbed my arm and we were able to stay standing.
"Sorry, Brooke!" Joe breathed heavily.
"Lets just go," Frank said and we followed him to the car. All the way to school Joe kept scratching at his ear and it was really starting to bother me.
"Joe! Will you stop that!" I said when we were almost to the school.
"Stop doing what?" He asked.
"Scratching at your ear like that. You look like a dog with fleas," I replied.
"Oh, sorry. It's just really itchy," He said. I shook my head and sighed, but he stopped messing with his ear. We arrived at school and I dreaded getting out of the car. Unlike every other morning I got out a little slower and got caught in the crowd of Frank and Joe's friends. They didn't notice me, but getting through them was difficult.
"Excuse me," I said politely, but of course they couldn't hear me.
"Excuse me!" I yelled and they still wouldn't move. I sighed as I tried to shove through them. It was like I was nothing more than a fly. Joe must have noticed my predicament.
"Yo guys! You're blocking my sisters way," Joe said.
"Oh sorry, man. We didn't know she was your sister," One guy said and the rest mumbled in agreement. I sighed and move through them. I was hoping Angie had already gone by and saw that I wasn't by my locker, but just my luck we entered the hallway at the same time. I thought about turning back the other way, but she had already seen me.
"Oh Brooke!" She called out.
"How unpleasant to see you Angela," I replied with a sarcastic smile.
"I'm having a party this weekend too bad you aren't invited. I'll be sure to invite Frank and Joe. Everyone loves Frank and Joe! You wouldn't have any fun anyway because you don't have any friends," Angela said and smirked.
"excuse me, Angela. You're in front of my locker," Joe said with his winning smile.
"Oh, Joe! Just the boy I was looking for! I'm having a party this weekend and would looooove for you to come!" Angela said returning to her bubbly, fake, personality.
"Oh will you be there?" Joe asked.
"Of course, it's my party," Angela said and batted her eyelashes at him.
"Then, no thanks. I have better things to do on my weekends," Joe replied. Angela stuttered looking for something to say, but came up with nothing.
"Excuse me, but you're still in front of my locker," Joe said. Angela scowled and walked away without another word. Joe laughed and opened his locker. I just stared at him.
"What?" He said. I shook my head.
"Thank you," I said and turned back to my locker and entered the combination.
"No problem. It's what brother's are for," Joe said and smiled at me.
"It's a good thing your locker is next to mine, otherwise she would have torn me apart," I said.
"Yeah, good thing," He said.
...
"Frank? What's going on?" I asked as we pulled in front of our house after the long day of school. Police were parked along our driveway and the chief waited in front of the house. The neighbors littered the sidewalks and some even peeked through their front windows to see what was going on.
"I don't know, Brooke," Frank replied, "but whatever it is, it can't be good." Frank turned off the car and we got out. Frank started over to the chief first and Joe and I followed behind.
"What's going on?" Frank asked the chief.
"Something terrible has happened, kids," He replied.
"Chief, just tell us what's going on," Joe said.
"Your parents have been murdered. Both were here in the home when they were shot. Your mother was shot first in the kitchen and then your father in his office," the chief said.
"No, it's not possible," Joe said shaking his head. I grabbed his hand, more for my comfort than his own. He pulled his hand out of mine and ran into the house.
"Mom! Dad!" I heard him call out, but I didn't follow behind him. Frank followed him into the house and yelled after him. I didn't want to go in. I don't think I could have handled it.
"I'm very sorry about your parents. They were good people. Sad this had to happen to them," The chief said and went back to his police car. He spoke into a walkie talkie and then one by one the police cars pulled out of the driveway. The one question that was burning through my mind was who did this? I wanted to find them and I wanted them to be put behind bars.
The front door of the house was still wide open from when Frank and Joe had run into the house, but I still didn't enter. Instead, I walked in the opposite direction and down the street to a park we used to go to when we were kids. I sat on the swings and gently swayed back and forth. Memories of when I was little came flooding back to me. My mother pushing me on these very swings and my father chasing the boys around. Laughter filled my mind and tears began streak down my cheeks. I had been sitting there for much longer than I had intended to because the sun had set and it was dark outside. I looked up at the stars and more tears fell as I remembered several camping trips and all the wishes I had made on the stars then with parents right by my side. I wept loudly knowing that no one would be coming by here at night. I let the hot tears fall freely and I clutched my sides.
"Brooke?!" I heard someone call. I tried to get myself to stop crying so they wouldn't see me, but it was no use, the tears kept coming.
"Brooke!" Another voice called out and I recognized it as my brother's.
"Frank! Joe!" I called back, but the voice sounded thick and foreign from my tears. I saw their silhouettes on the sidewalk and they shined a flashlight at me.
"Brooke!" Joe called and ran to me. I stood up from the swings and he enveloped me in a hug. I looked up at him and his eyes were red and puffy and I knew he had been crying as well.
"We were worried about you," Joe said and released me.
"Sorry, I wasn't expecting to be here that long. I sat down on the swings and all the memories came back," I said and shook my head. I closed my eyes to hold back the tears that were stinging at my eyes. Another set of arms surrounded me and I recognized them as Frank's as they were slightly more muscular than Joe's.
"Something could have happened to you!" Frank said sternly.
"I'm sorry," I said and squeezed him tighter.
"We don't know where the man who did this to our parents is," Joe said, "he could be after us!" I shivered. I hadn't realized that whoever had done this might not be done with their work and come back for us. I released Frank.
"Frank? Do you think it's safe at home?" I asked.
"I don't know, but it's the only place we have to go," He replied. He was right. We were all alone in the world now. We had no other family, at least no one that we knew of.
"We should get home," Joe said and led the way back to the sidewalk. We walked in comfortable silence on the way home. Joe paused at the front door of the house and looked back at us. He took a deep breath and pushed the door open. I walked into the front hall and looked around like I hadn't been there in years when in reality I had been there just this morning. Joe ran upstairs and I followed him with my eyes, but my body wasn't really ready to move until I noticed that Joe wasn't going into his room, but into mine.
"Joe! What are you doing?" I asked and ran up the stairs behind him. I heard Frank follow me too.
"Joe?" I asked as I saw Joe bend over my backpack.
"There's something Frank and I need to tell you," Joe said.
"No, Joe! We can't tell her," Frank said.
"She could be in danger! She needs to know!" Joe insisted. Joe pulled a small black thing off the back of my backpack.
"What is that?" I asked.
"It's a microphone," Joe replied.
"Joe, stop!" Frank said.
"Why is there a microphone on my backpack?! Oh my gosh! Do you think Mom and Dad's murderer put it there?!" I asked starting to panic a little.
"No it wasn't their murderer," Joe said.
"What?" I asked.
"It wasn't their murderer because I put it there," Joe said.
Please review!