Chapter Six

The weekend went by too quickly, at one moment I was at Danny's house, hanging out and playing the bass guitar to a song that Tom, Danny, and a friend of ours, James, wrote called 'Five Colours in Her Hair' and the next thing I know, Jazzie is waking me up for school. The weekends sure do go by fast.

"Dougie, get up." Jazzie practically sang into my ear. I groaned and opened an eye to see her standing above me, a small smile on her face. "Are you up yet? Or do I have to get a hose?"

"Bugger off, Jazzie." I grumbled in reply, pulling my blankets over my head. Jazzie pulled them back down and I pulled it back up and she pulled it back down. "Jazzie, knock it off!" I cried, sitting up and glaring at her. My eyes narrowed slightly when I saw that Jazzie had a weird look flash through her eyes. I couldn't be sure, but it looked like fear. I sat up and turned my body towards hers. "What is it?" I asked in concern.

"Nothing, dad just wants you get ready for school so he can drive us there, mum had to go to work early." Jazzie replied and shrugged. "I don't know why, but knowing mum to go in early, it must be important."

"That's not what's bothering you, is it?" I asked, rubbing an arm, as I stared hard at my sister. She avoided my gaze and then glared at me.

"There's nothing bothering me, god, you can be an annoying brother!" Jazzie replied and stormed out of the room. I shrugged and got dressed to go to school, in that annoying school uniform, and went downstairs to eat breakfast.

"Cutting it kind of close, huh?" Dad asked as I walked by him to get to the cabinet that held the cereal. I grunted in reply and finished making my bowl of cereal, leaning against the counter as I shoveled it into my mouth as fast as I could. "I would like to have an answer instead of a grunt." He added pointedly. I stopped eating, my mouth full, and looked at him. He was looking back at me with a serious expression on his face.

"I said whatever." I replied after a few seconds of silence and continued eating.

Dad nodded and gave a contended sigh as he got up from the table and folded the newspaper. He picked up his plate and set into the sink beside me. I turned my body away from him, distinctly remembering the fact that he had slapped me only a few days ago. Dad sighed again and leaned against the sink, crossing his arms over his chest. He didn't seem to want to say anything, so I ate faster and as soon as I was done, I practically threw my bowl into the sink and started out of the room.

"Dougie!"

My name caused me to freeze and turn around.

Dad was staring at me.

It was unnerving to see him staring at me with his cold grey eyes, the same eyes that watched my mum's life fall apart without doing anything to change it once. The same eyes that stared when I put my mum's and my sister's happiness before mine.

"What?" I asked in a low voice, trying not to look at him, although I could feel his eyes boring into mine.

"I'm sorry about what I did over the weekend." Dad said which shocked me into looking at him. He was staring right at me and he did look really sorry. "I let my anger get the best of me, and…I shouldn't have hit you, but you also could have tried and helped us move everything instead of just sitting there and pissing me off."

I hung my head. I guess I did make him feel bad, so his hitting me was my own fault.

Right.

It was.

"I'm sorry too." I muttered the words thick on my throat. Dad gave a small smile and walked towards me. "But don't think that I'm forgiving you for walking out on us!" I added, glaring up at him. He laughed.

"I didn't think I would be able to win you over that fast." He replied and picked up the car keys that were on the table. "Jasmine, are you ready to go?" he called.

"Yeah dad!" Jazzie called back. I raised an eyebrow.

'Does she forgive him?' I asked myself and then shook my head. Mum may have been able to forgive him, but I know that Jazzie and I definitely aren't going to be able to be won over that easily. I followed dad out of the kitchen and grabbed my skateboard on the way out the door. Jazzie and I put our stuff into the trunk of Dad's car, which I'm surprised fit. Along with my skateboard were my backpack, and my bass guitar. And Jazzie had her backpack and her large sports bag in there. The trunk was large so it was able to carry all of it. I looked at the car as I walked around it to the passenger seat. 'Dad really has done himself good.' I thought to myself bitterly and got into the car.


School.

I hate school.

Don't get me wrong, I like to learn. I know, shocker, Dougie Poynter likes to learn. But it's the fact that they have to give us tests and quizzes about the things that we learn that I don't like. If I understand what's going on in class, why should I do the homework and why should I do any of the tests and quizzes they give us? The answer to that: no fucking idea. So I hardly do my homework, which my mum is annoyed of, and just scrape by on tests.

If that proved that I didn't like school, I don't know what else would. I just want to get out of here as soon as possible. If there was some kind of gas leak that blew up the school, or a water main pipe broke and the school flooded, I wouldn't be complaining.

When I got to school, I went straight to the band room to play a little bit of my bass guitar. It was also the place that Danny, Tom, Harry, and I would meet up before school if we had anything to talk about. Or if we just wanted to play with each other, you know, to practice for the talent show, not what you pervs were thinking.

I stopped short almost as soon as I walked into the room. Cocking my head to the side, I watched as a girl jumped around the room, her fingers flying over the fret board of the guitar that was in her hands. I chuckled to myself and waited until she struck her last chord before starting to clap enthusiastically, causing the girl to spin around. I instantly recognized her as Riley, the girl I met the last weekend.

"Bravo, bravo, aww, don't tell me that you're stopping now. It was just getting good." I said teasingly.

"What do you want?" Riley asked as she set her guitar down on the ground and unplugged it from the amp. She stood up and pulled down the hem of her skirt. "Are you following me or something?"

"Uh, no, I just came in here to meet some friends of mine." I replied as I motioned to my bass guitar. "I didn't know that you came to this school, I haven't seen you around."

"That's because this is my first day…which was kind of implied when I said that I just moved here." Riley replied with a raised eyebrow as if she were confused about something. "But then again," she cocked her head to the side, just like I had a few moments ago. "I don't tag you to be the brightest bulb in the lamp. Later." She picked up her guitar and left the room, just as Tom, Danny, and Harry walked into the band room.

"Hey guys." I greeted them as I plugged my bass guitar into an amp.

"Hey Dougie," Tom smiled in reply as he walked over to me, dragging his guitar behind him. "How was the rest of your weekend? You came over to Danny's house looking pretty mad, you ok now?"

"I reckon so." I shrugged in reply. "And the rest of my weekend was fine. But, I have something to tell you guys."

"What, is that bird your girlfriend?" Danny interrupted a large grin on his face. I looked over at Harry, who nodded at me and then smacked Danny on the back of the head.

"There goes the last of his brain cells!" Tom declared, between his laughter.

"Shocker" I replied teasingly as I rolled my eyes and laughed a little. "No, what I want to tell you guys is that…my dad is back." I coughed and avoided my friends' gazes. Tom, just like I suspected, was the first one to speak.

"I'm sorry, did you say that your dad is back?" he asked and I nodded in reply. "Uh, I'm not really sure what to say, Dougie."

"I do," Danny said and I looked over at him. Instead of the usually happy look on his face, he had a scowl and a darker look in his eyes. It didn't surprise me. Like my father, his left him when he and his sister, Vicky, were really young and he had never gotten over it. "Don't forgive him!"

"Now, Danny, I think that's a bit harsh." Harry said gently. Danny shot his glare over to Harry, who looked back at him calmly."I think that he should give his dad a chance, I mean, he came back to try and make things right, right? I think that you should give him a chance."

"I think that you should kick his ass out of your house!" Danny declared.

"What do you think, Tom?" I asked him quietly, looking up from the strings on my bass guitar, which had suddenly become really interesting. Tom gave a small sigh and an apologetic look.

"I think that this decision is up to you." He replied. I blew air out of my mouth in annoyance, blowing my hair out of my face in the process.

This is very annoying.

"Whatever," I replied, quickly trying to change the subject. "Have you guys gotten the lyrics written out to 5 colours yet?"

"Uh, yeah, here you go" Tom said and pulled a sheet of paper out of his backpack and walked towards me to give it to me, but tripped over a chair on the way and knocked into me, knocking me off my feet and onto the ground. I let out a cry when my bass guitar landed on my stomach, knocking the wind out of me.

"Dougie, are you ok?" Danny asked between his laughter. Harry covered his mouth with his hand, but from where I was lying, I could see him close his eyes, so I knew that he was laughing.

"I'm sorry, dude, are you ok?" Tom asked, looking concerned, like he always did.

I liked that the most about Tom, he always worried about his friends. The one thing that I hated about him was the fact that he tried to be perfect, especially when we we're practicing a song, if we start goofing off he would get all mean and PMSy.

That's not fun.

I couldn't help but laugh as I got to my feet. When he saw me laughing, Tom started to laugh too and soon the four of us were rolling around in hysterics. What can I saw, Danny, Harry, and Tom were the best friends I could ever want or have. They always made things better.

If only I knew that they wouldn't be able to help me when things started to go out of control.