Brothers Who Share – Chapter 4

"Remember to tell the teacher if you feel unwell, and Seth, you take good care of Ryan," Kirsten instructed her boys, crouching down to their level to hug them.

"Yes Mommy," Seth replied cheerfully, giving his Mommy a kiss on her cheek.

"I will be okay Mommy," was Ryan's answer, leaning himself into Kirsten.

Kirsten hugged her boys one final time before letting them enter the classroom, hand in hand. It was her boys' first day at kindergarten, for Caleb her father, had made sure the boys were enrolled into Newport Junior Elementary, where classes ran from age four to give the children a head start. It was also only one day short of a week since Ryan had been diagnosed, and he was to be commencing chemotherapy tomorrow. Kirsten and Sandy had spent the week debating over whether Ryan would start school today, and their final decision had been to let him go, since they were confident of allowing Ryan to have as normal a life as possible. And this meant sharing his first day of school with his twin brother. They had already called up the school to alert them to Ryan's special situation, and had also given Seth countless instructions on what to do should his brother display any serious signs of illness. Ryan had also been told to take it easy and to let the teacher know if at any time he felt too tired and wanted to go home.

Now standing at the door of the classroom, watching as her two boys were directed to their own assigned desk beside each other, Kirsten felt all the second thoughts and worries she had hidden inside her mind rise out, and she watched Ryan's every move with anxiety.

"Big day huh?" a voice spoke up beside her, and she turned around to realize that it belonged to her next door neighbor, Julie Cooper.

"Julie...hi..." said Kirsten, breaking out of her trance to acknowledge the lady, "you're here with...Marissa right?" she asked.

Julie nodded. "There's my one," she replied, pointing to a petite blonde little girl sitting just two desks away from Ryan. "And I see you're here with your twins."

Kirsten nodded... "It"s just so hard...leaving them like this..." she said, voicing her fears to her sudden found peer, though it sort of amazed her that her peer was indeed Julie Cooper.

"Every kid goes through it, one day, you'll probably be glad to rid them to school..." was Julie's nonchalant reply. "Look, you have anything to do? Why don't we go grab a coffee, and take our minds off these little ones," she suggested to Kirsten whilst taking one final curt wave at Marissa.

Kirsten too took a final glance at her boys, who seemed to be quite content chatting away to each other. Her initial reaction was to reject, what if Ryan felt sick and the teacher called home? But she knew that they could always reach Sandy at the office, and she really could not cope with doing nothing but waiting for Ryan to come back from school. Finally she nodded. "Sure...why not."

"What's that?!" a scornful voice erupted loudly, catching Ryan's attention. It was recess time, and the kids were settling down in the playground opening their well packed lunchboxes. The voice, Ryan realized, belonged to a tall, well built boy by the name of Luke, who was at the very moment smirking at Seth, his already formed circle of friends giggling behind him. Seth slowly looked up to meet the boy's eye, and Ryan could make out Captain Oats, Seth's plastic horse, clutched in his brother's hands. Seth had found Captain Oats when they were cleaning out Grandma's things after she passed away. He had instantly taken to the horse and had practically begged Kirsten to let him keep it. Now he carried it with him whenever he could. Seeing as the tall boy advance closer to his brother, Ryan wasted no time before rushing up beside Seth.

"Horses are for sissies!" the boy teased, snatching Captain Oats out of Seth's hands and throwing it to one of his mates beside him whilst they all chanted "Sissy boy, Sissy boy..."

"Hey, give him...give him back," whimpered Seth, moving forward to try and take the toy back, but fearing to face the group of boys. Ryan quickly walked in front of Seth and faced the tall boy squarely in the face.

"Give it back to him," he demanded, his fists clutching by his side.

"Whatcha gonna do?" the boy asked smugly, "Sissy boy," he teased again. Ryan rushed forward, but was held back by a tug on the tail of his shirt.

"Ryan, Daddy said no fighting..." Seth pleaded, tugging once more at Ryan. Hearing Seth's words, Ryan stopped struggling, but continued to stare hard at the boy.

"Give it back," he finally demanded, an unusual demeanor finding its way into his expression. The boy, who had shrunk back at the thought that Ryan was in fact going to hit him when he rushed forward, shrugged nonchalantly, before tossing the plastic horse onto the ground.

"Here's your horsey Sissy boy," he hissed at Seth once more before walking away, leading his troop with him. Ryan stared at the leaving crowd, feeling anger flow through his small body. No one should be able to hurt his brother and get away with it, and even though Seth had gotten Captain Oats back, Ryan still felt at a loss. Suddenly he felt a surge of dizziness hit him, and he did his best to balance himself.

"Ryan? Ryan?" Seth asked, shaking his brother who had suddenly gotten very pale, "Ryan?" he tried again and when Ryan still didn't respond, fearful tears began to make their way into his large brown eyes.

"Seth," Ryan finally answered when the dizziness passed.

"Are you...are you okay? We can call Mommy..."

"I think so..." was Ryan's reply, shaking his head slightly to brush off the dizzy spell. "Is Captain Oats okay?" he asked Seth instead and directed his eyes to the plastic horse laying on the ground. Seth gasped, quickly walking over to pick up the horse and brush smudges of dirt away. After some more careful inspection, Seth turned back to Ryan and grinned.

"Captain Oats is okay too," he quipped, holding out the horse for Ryan to see before walking back to his original spot before the boys had interrupted him and sitting down, Ryan beside him. Opening their lunchboxes, Seth and Ryan then proceeded to munch contently at the ham and cheese bagels Sandy had prepared for them.

"Ry...are you scared...of...of the chemo?" Seth suddenly spoke up. Ryan sighed, pursing his lips in thought of how to respond.

"A...A little I guess," he finally answered, followed by another pause. "Seth...I don't think you should bring Captain Oats tomorrow," he spoke up again, turning to face his brother.

Seth nodded, taking a moment to swallow the bite in his mouth.

"I'm not. He's going with you. He's going to protect you." was his simple reply.

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Back! Actually, I'm pretty busy over here in China, but I'll try my best to update! Here is a short chapter to get it going again! Just a little interaction with the boys. I don't actually know how plausible it is for a child diagnosed with Leukaemia to get to go to school...but it works for this story, so I'm going to use it. Also, I made Luke such a meanie didn't I? Poor Luke! hehe...someone had to get the role:P

And so sad that The OC has finished! I hope this story still gets an audience:(