I pull up my socks and slide my shoes on, clumsily attempting to tie them. And once again miserably failing. As the big brother he is Law makes his way over and fixes my mess up.

"Look it's not that hard. Just tug and pull through." He states while showing his master like skills. "Honestly you're overcomplicating it." He pulls me up so that i'm standing.

I stare down at my shoes overcomplicating. What does that mean again? To complicate? Wait, what does complicate mean?

I didn't realize my brother was observing me until he said, "To make something more difficult." He slings his bag over his shoulders. "Jesus christ you're a freaking open book."

Open book . . . I knew what that meant, it had came from his mouth so many times before. And not once was it used as a compliment. I frown, "Oh yeah? Well you're a closed book!" I cross my arms heading towards the door.

I feel two arms pull me back into a hug, I immediately look back through the corner of my eye.

"It's better to be closed than open, sometimes." I felt a kiss on my cheek and I quickly wipe it off. Nearly right after that I feel bristles on my cheek, nuzzling me. I attempt to speak against it, "Mom, dad let me go." As if that was some sort of trigger, the kisses and nuzzles became more numerous until I finally escape the lock.

My brother is trying so hard to catch his breath after laughing. Although before he can calm himself he too experiences the torment I went through. It's my turn to laugh now, but i'm more gracious than my brother. So I try to save him, "We're going to be late, you guys." Worked like a freaking charm.

They stopped immediately and smiled. My mom pulled both of us into a hug, "Have a wonderful day, don't cause trouble, and be different." My brother and I exchanged a glance and then looked back at mother and nodded.

As we started to run off dad yelled, "Make sure you pay attention both of you!" That wasn't even necessary, we weren't troublemakers, we were subtle and actually enjoyed learning. Maybe that's why I . . .

"Lamie!" My neck takes a sharp turn. Two orange pigtails flopping towards me and a hand shooting up and moving side to side. I smile immediately.

"Hey Carla!" I say as she catches up to both me and Law. He waves just for the fact of acknowledging her existence. "Are you ready?" My heart pounded with every syllable I pronounced of the question.

"I'm more than ready. Scissors, glue, crayons, paper. What more do I need?" She smirks, obviously proud by her bragging rights. I challenge her, that was our relationship.

Carla was a kind, considerate , well spoken nerd, with millions of ideas. She wasn't usually fazed by anything. "Pencils? Color pencils? Folder? Binder?" Then I narrowed my eyes and smirked, there was always one thing that could shake her up pretty well though and that's food. "Snacks?"

Carla grew tight lip in an attempt to hide her smile, so all she could manage was a nod. A self satisfying nod at that. That's when it started turning upside down.

"Emma said she was excited to see you!" Carla practically chirped into my ear.

At the mention of that I felt my smile go stale, but still tried to contribute to the conversation. "Oh, seriously? Anyway I haven't seen her around! What did she do over break?!"

Carla gave me a confused look before saying, "She was here silly. Didn't you get the invite to her birthday party?"

Whoosh just like that reality crashes in. My shoulders slump a tad bit, "Oh yea. I just forgot to show my mom." Desperately trying to hide my lie with a false smile and closed eyelids.

"Seriously? It was so much fun. Oh! Do you remember what the card looked like? Wasn't it pretty?" My close friend practically cooed as she held her hands to her cheeks. She scooted a bit closer to face and her eyes narrowed, "Hold on. Do you remember? Did you even ge-"

"You guys have it so easy, I remember when we used to get to color our homework. Good times. Now, we don't do that baby work anymore." He blew a raspberry as those last three words slyly rolled off his tongue. "It's also great that you guys don't have drama between each other, since you're just snot nosed kids."

He was always there for me even if I didn't want him to be, he was. As gracious as I am, I still find the power to contradict his statement. "We aren't babies, we-" His hand pressed down on my head and he began to aggressively rub it. I look to the side and noticed Carla suffering the same fate.

"Now, now we don't have time to start a fight. We're here." He declared removing his hand from our heads. We start to head up the steps, "I can walk you two to cl-"

"No, no need. Let's go Carla!" I reach for my friend's hand and we take off. With Carla looking back at my brother's, i'm assuming, confused face.

We finally stop in front of the classroom, I feel like dead weight. My toes and fingers start to suffer from frostbite, while my neck begins to overheat. This is happening. I feel a hand touch my back, it's the ever so trusting Carla. She nods and smiles, I return the favor only out of politeness though.

I open the door and everyone immediately stops what they're doing. No talking, no rummaging through the bag, no sucking up to the teacher, no nothing, but pure silence.

I can feel all of the protruding eyes as I make my way to my seat. I put my bag down and then slump miserably into my chair and put my hands over my ears. School just started, but i'm already wishing for it to be over.

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