Author's Note: Thank you for all the reviews and for all of the people who have stuck with me on this story so far! I really appreciate it- it gives me the motivation to keep writing!
We get a little further into the Blake and Hunter pre-PRNS mystery in this chapter. As this DOES take place in the middle of Ninja Storm, I plan to eventually get some monster/Lothor stuff happening, but for now some more character development.
MaryAgnosia
Blake
Simultaneously
I see Hunter smiling at Tori and I go into full-jealous-crazy-person mode. Hunter's no more of a lady's man than I am, but he's a) older, b) taller, c) nowhere close to being as scrawny as his little brother.
Normally, I wouldn't care. After all, it's not like I had never stolen one of his love interests or girlfriends.
But I'm telling you; Tori is different.
She whirls around to face me, and with her smile directed at me and not my "mysterious" older brother, I feel a little better.
Hunter looks relieved to have Tori distracted, and turns his back to us and his attention back to his bike.
I flop down on the couch, turning the TV on to an action sports channel. Tori joins me, but sits farther away than I was hoping. Though, with Hunter here, that's probably for the best.
"So how was dinner?" Hunter asks from the repair room.
"Good," I tell him. "You should've come with us. Have you even eaten yet?"
"I'm almost done with the bike," he says, without responding to either of my statements. I sigh and shake my head. Tori shares a look with me and laughs. I can't help but smile back.
Do I really, for once in my life, have a chance with someone this great? Someone this beautiful, this kind, this smart, this talented? I find it so hard to believe I'm this lucky.
"Do you maybe want to go to the track tomorrow?" I ask, hopefully.
"Oh…um, I don't know I kind of already killed Hunter's bike I'm not sure I want to go for a repeat," she says, trying to laugh it off, but I see the heat rush to her face. "But if Dustin and Shane want to go then I'm up for it," she adds. "I might just not ride with you guys."
Well, damn. She completely missed my meaning. There's no point in going to the track if Tori isn't even going to be involved in it. And with three other guys there, there's no reason I'd stand out to her. Maybe I'm not so lucky after all.
"Oh, well…you know, I gotta check the work schedule anyways. Maybe we should just postpone it," I answer nonchalantly, trying not to sound like I care.
For the first time I see Tori stuttering over her words. "I-I mean maybe I can ride…I don't want to mess up your plans," she mumbles.
Hunter's voice rings out from the side. "I think Dustin wanted me to help him practice on a 250 tomorrow and Shane's got something planned with his skater buddies. You guys should do something else together."
I look over and see him smirking at me. I cast him a withering look, but I can't help but silently thank him for setting up that idea. Seeing as when I suggest plans it automatically becomes a group outing.
"Oh, sure if you want to, Blake," Tori agrees. "Want to grab lunch or something?"
"Yeah, sure!" I glance over at Hunter and see him shaking his head and looking like he's holding back laughter. His ability to see right through me is really, REALLY irritating.
It's not like he's so suave with the ladies anyways. I think the last time he had a date was the end of the Ice Age.
I see Hunter put his headphones in and turn away from us to finish working on his bike. Subtly giving us privacy, I suppose. Though he's still there- chaperoning. He's such an older brother sometimes.
I scoot closer to Tori on the couch as she changes the channel to some comedy show. We both laugh along to the show, sharing glances and almost brushing fingers a couple of times. I might actually be lucky enough to get this girl.
Despite the unfortunate circumstances I grew up with, I actually consider myself to be pretty lucky. I was young when Mom and Dad died; but old enough to remember them, and to understand they weren't coming back. At eleven years old, it was definitely a hard time in my life. At the time, Hunter and I had been attending public school in the area, and going to ninja classes after school. After the mysterious circumstances of our parents' deaths and our new guardian took us in, we left public school, all the while under the microscope of a dozen administrators waiting for one of us to snap and fellow classmates who either pitied us or made fun of us.
The normal life we had up until that point ended rather abruptly. We had a lot of older people at the Academy come up to us and talk to us about our dead parents; people we didn't know. At the end of that whirlwind year, I was just confused and lost. Hunter was angry. His anger led him on rampage after rampage, trying to rid himself of something, trying to free himself from the bullshit and the pain and the misery. Hunter…well, he was angry for a long time.
Hunter was there when it happened. I had stayed afterschool for some extracurricular activity; funny how I can't seem to remember what it was. So much of that day is seared in my memory.
He had been at home. Come into the room to see our parents at the mercy of some evil monster. Had watched as some man had struck down both our parents. Before the costumes and the entourage, Lothor had looked like a normal person. Unrecognizable as the man we met on Lothor's ship the day our Academy was captured.
We had both been powerless to stop the murder. And for awhile, all I could ask was "why me?"
But I wasn't forced into the foster system. I got to stay with my brother. Raised by someone we trusted. Sensei Amano was the guardian we needed after losing everything. Hunter took care of me as best as he knew how. He made sure there were birthdays and Christmases. I was lucky enough to lose my parents and still have a support system of people I knew and loved to take care of me. Not many people can say that.
Seven years later, Hunter and I are still closer than most siblings ever hope to be. I've found new friends who care about me. I have the ability to save lives and fight evil. I can make sure that no more 12 year old boys have to see their parents murdered.
I don't realize that I've spaced out so much until I feel Tori's hand rest on mine. "Are you ok?" she whispers to me.
I smile, wrapping my fingers around hers. "Yeah, I'm great," I say, smiling contentedly as I settle into the couch.
