There's maybe something unexplored in this chapter that I haven't seen in any other fics before, and I'm kind of wondering what my readers think of it.
Faith
Today is my first day ever at school, and Mike's made it a point to show me around when we get there. I'm confident that he knows what he's doing.
We walk in the door after Michael- oops- dad drops us off. Mike and I are walking back to our classroom when we run into his friends, or what I think are his friends. He told me that the taller one is Garrett, and the shorter one is Trevor. He also told me that no, he does not have a girlfriend.
"Dude, you didn't tell me that you got a girl!" I look at Mike and laugh in his face, and he laughs back. "You moron," Mike says to Garrett. "This is my sister. Twin." Trevor scrunches his nose and looks at me. "Mike doesn't have a sister," Trevor says. I roll my eyes. "Long story short, I've been dead for twelve years and then came back to their house at 2am on Saturday. That's how I exist," I tell Garrett and Trevor, and I need to make sure that I tell Mike to get some new friends.
The bell rings and we walk into class, and I sit by Mike and another kid that's apparently named Parker. "Parker's a flirty jerk. Just ignore him," Mike whispers to me as class starts. I look over to the other side of my desk to see Parker looking at me a little creepily. I give him a look like I'm creeped out and then turn back to the front. "Today, we have a new student. Faith, come introduce yourself," Mrs. Jacobs says politely. I walk to the front of the room, hands in the pockets of my Nike gym shorts, looking down at my Nike shoes. Mike and I are wearing almost the same thing today.
"Hi, I'm Faith. I don't really know much about where I'm from or anything like that, and I don't really want to go into detail, but Mike's my twin brother and he's pretty cool. So be nice to Mike," I say nervously, drawing a laugh. I'm gaining confidence, and I kind of like this. "See, most of you guys know my dad and uncle from Friday. Bad situation... Anyway, my family tells me that I look like my dad. Thoughts?" The class studies me, and one of the pale girls with her hair in ribbons who looks really annoying starts to talk. "Well, I'm Annabelle, by the way. You look just like the younger gender swap of your dad," she contributes. I nod, shrugging. And then Garrett is about to talk. "Uh, I don't really know who you look like, but I think you're pretty cute," he says, drawing a laugh from the class. I'm starting to figure out that Garrett is the dumb one. It's pretty obvious. "Garrett, you're lucky that you're my brother's friend." I smile, letting him know that I'm not serious. That draws a laugh, and I get one from Mrs. Jacobs too. I'm pretty sure I just one-upped Garrett, and he's not too happy about it.
I sit back down, waiting for history to start, when I see Garrett sitting toward the front of the room. He reminds me of someone... Holy crap. How did I not see that before? That's who it is. I'll have to ask dad about that one...
The bell rings and we're going to math, and Garrett comes up to me. "Dear God, I've been in school with you for an hour and I already can't stand you," I say to him, trying to tell him off. He obviously doesn't care. "Hey, jeez. I was just gonna ask you out," he says nonchalantly.
"You don't even know my favorite color," I argue. We apparently have math together too, because he follows me into Mr. Force's classroom. "You seem like the lilac type," he says, and to my surprise, he's exactly right. "How did you know that? What's yours?" He looks at me, smiles, and answers. "Blue. Like your eyes," he says. I look at him in awe. "You've spent that much time out of an hour staring into my eyes that you've decided that they're your favorite color?!" He sits down beside me, and Mike takes his place on the other side of me. "Hey, buddy. Hands off my sister," Mike says, and I laugh. "Mike, he's fine. And besides," I tell Mike, now acknowledging Garrett, "he's my first friend. Literally ever."
Mr. Force is the most boring talker in the history of talkers. He rambles and rants off topic, so probably 15 of the 45 minutes was spent actually learning math. Jeez.
Before I know it, we're sitting at the lunch table. Mike is sitting beside me, and I've introduced myself to Sucre's daughter Maria, so she's sitting across from me, and then Trevor and Garrett come up and sit with us. Of course, Garrett snags the seat beside me at the round lunch table. Trevor looks disappointed, but Garrett either doesn't notice or doesn't care. "Hey, baby," Garrett says smoothly, sliding his arm around me. "Eww. No," I tell him, slapping his arm. I would've been in the clear except for the fact that half of the lunchroom heard that. "Shoot," I say, and Mike looks at me. Garrett finally got the message after I gave him the Blue Steel (that's the glare dad and I use, because we're the only blue-eyed ones) and he takes his arm off my shoulder. "Thanks," I tell him, and he plasters a stupid grin on his face and nods to me.
I'm watching basketball at recess, 1 on 1 with some kid named Gunner playing against a kid named Marcus, when Garrett comes outside to watch. Right as he gets to the court, Marcus stuffs a 3-pointer back in Gunner's face and scores his fifth basket. They kick him off the court, because we're playing first to ten, winner stays. Garrett walks up to the top of the key, and I walk to the free throw line and face him. "Faith, you're gonna lose. He's the best in the grade," Trevor shouts from the sideline. Murmurs of agreement go through the kids watching. "Shut up, Trevor, you've never seen me play basketball," I fire back at him, and that does a sufficient job of shutting him up. Garrett takes the ball first, tries to dribble to the hoop, but I cut him off and he loses his dribble. I'm almost as tall has he is, except for a couple inches, so he's got nothing. He throws up some crap shot that has no prayer, so I rebound and throw it back up and score. Garrett eyes me oddly, then I take the ball because we've decided: if you make the basket, you take the ball (Make it, Take it). I shoot without even taking a dribble, and Garrett lets me because he doesn't think I can hit the shot, but it goes through the net with a clean swish.
Five to nothing.
I think I'm earning respect, because more kids are coming over to watch. By now, it's eight to nothing, and the next shot I hit is the end.
Of course, that's the next shot I take. A three pointer, for the record.
All of Garrett's friends are going nuts, and I think it's embarrassing him.
"Hey, Garrett, great job. Seriously, man," I tell him, being completely honest. "Hey, someone else take the floor," I yell, running after Garrett. "Hey, did I just beat you that bad that you got mad?" He laughs and looks me in the eyes like he has something to say. "Faith... Can I ask you something?" I'm a little uneasy about this, but I consider him my friend, so I guess it's okay. "Sure." Garrett takes a deep breath and seems to be gathering himself. "Will you go to the last day of school dance with me?" He says this so quickly, I almost didn't catch it. "I didn't know that existed, but what do you mean? Like friends, or... a couple?" I say, slightly blushing. He smiles. "Either way, because you're pretty cool. It doesn't matter, as long as I go with you," he says sweetly. "Aww, that's sweet, Garrett," I tell him.
The bell rings and I take the free period to text dad and ask him something.
Can one of my friends come over after school today?
Sure, Faith, we don't care!
I go to walk by Mike to the next class, and somewhere along the line Garrett and Trevor find us. "Trev... shut it," Garrett tells Trevor to prevent him from spilling the beans to Mike about the dance thing. "Hey Garrett," I say, high-fiving him. "Whoa, Faith, quit stealing my friends," Mike playfully says. I shoot Garrett and Trevor a look that says "Shut up or I'll kill you" and then look back to Mike. "Too late. I invited Garrett to our house tonight," I tell him, and then Mike looks at me like I'm from another planet. "Well, guess what? I already invited Trevor too," he lies, and I know it. "Yeah, right," I say, beating him to science. It's weird; out of the seven classes that I have, only two of them don't include Mike. I only have one without Garrett, and that's gym because they separate by gender.
Garrett and I are sitting by each other in science so we can do an experiment together. I look over at him and he's staring off into space. "Garrett," I say, but when he doesn't respond, I say, "Earth to Garrett." He snaps out of his stare. "Do you want to corrode this desk?" I'm being mischievous and he knows it, so he nods and I tell him what to do. "Copper," I say, and he hands it to me. I dump a small bit of it into the desk. "Sulfate," I say, adding a drop on top of the copper. "Phosphoric acid," I say, and when I put it into the desk, the thin steel corrodes and leaves a hole. "Thank god! Someone figured it out," Mrs. Scott yells from the front of the room. I whip my head up, and she's walking toward the desk and sees the hole. "How'd you know how that worked?" I stare at her and lock up, not really wanting to tell her that that's how my dad escaped from a state penitentiary. "Umm... my dad taught me," which isn't a lie. "Well, great job," she congratulates us, making Garrett smile at me.
•••
The final bell rings and Mike, Garrett, Trevor, and I all walk to the door where my dad's picking us up from school. Garrett walks beside me closer than Mike does, which I can't tell if that bothers my dad or not. "Hey, guys," dad says, and he obviously has met them many times before. He has his Tesla, and I know that the boys haven't ridden in that yet. "Whoa, Mr. Scofield, I didn't know that you got a new car," Trevor says. Dad looks at Trevor. "Actually, it was from a long time ago and I kinda forgot that I had it. And, by the way Trevor and Garrett, you could call me Michael or even dad and I'd be cool with that," dad tells the guys honestly. They shrug and climb in.
Mike has obviously established the front seat, so Garrett slides in, me after him, then Trevor on the other side of me. I'm kind of tired after today, and it takes all my willpower not to just lay on Garrett's shoulder because I'm sure that would be more comfortable. I'm so tired that I didn't even notice Garrett slip his hand into my knee and start massaging it. "Garrett! Hands off, she's not a toy," Mike says, and dad laughs. "I promise you, Mike, I know. And besides, you punch me all the time, so why can't I touch my friend?" Garrett's actually arguing for me, and I kinda like it, not that I'd admit it to him or anyone else. Garrett leaves his hand where it is, though, and that's when Mike's suspicious. So I give Garrett an apology look and smack his hand off of my leg. "What the heck?!" I'm glad the drive to our house is short, because we're pulling in the driveway and parking in the garage. "I think we're going to order pizza later, so you guys do whatever you want until then," dad says, and it's then that I realize that I have the cool parents who just go with the flow.
"Do you want any basketball pointers?" Garrett walks into my room and puts his stuff down beside my closet.
We exchange numbers and then he looks around my room. "Bulls? Really? I thought you'd be more of a Golden State girl," he says, sounding surprised. "About the basketball pointers, yes, because you beat the crap out of me at recess and I want to know how you did it."
We're outside, and I plan to help him a lot. Lord knows he needs it.
"Okay. What do you want to start on?" He gives the question a moment of thought. "Defense," he decides plainly. He stands beside me, and I ask him a basic question to see what he knows. "If the shooter is left handed, what hand to you use to block their shot?" Without a thought, he replies, "Right."
That's more than most people I've met know.
"Okay," I say, making sure he knows that he's right. "Have you ever heard of a block out?" He shakes head no, and I decide to teach him. "Okay, our a shot up," I tell him, and he shoots a clean jump shot from the edge of the paint.
The concept of a block out is kind of awkward when you're doing it to a guy, because you basically crouch a little bit and put your butt into their body. If you're following me.
I do that to him and he stands there, eyebrows raised and grinning a little bit. "Whoa! Faith, what the heck was that for?!" Mike comes running from the side yard with Trevor, and apparently had never seen a block out either. "I'm giving him basketball tips, and that's how you rebound a shot. Throw one up again," I say, and Garrett agrees and throws up a shot. I block him out again and beat him easily to the rebound. "My point exactly," I say, then I turn to face Garrett to high-five him, but he has a stupid grin on his face. "No," Mike and I tell him in unison.
"Hey, pizza's here!" We run inside to heat the pizza guy.
We sit down to eat and I realize that this is my first time eating pizza. It looks pretty good, so I decide to try it and it's fantastic. "You guys have been eating this-" I cut myself off, so they don't ask questions. I give Garrett a look of "Maybe later" because I'll have to tell him eventually.
We're done eating pizza, and then a huge rainstorm hits. "Guys, there's a tornado watch, so I don't think it's safe to be driving. I'll call your parents to see if it's okay that you stay, because I don't think it's a good idea that we take you home right now. You have all of your things for school, right?" This is just like dad to be so concerned for everyone. "Yeah, dad, we have everything," Garrett says tauntingly. This kind of sets off a pit in my stomach, because I'll have to sleep in the same room as Garrett. CRAP. That's gonna be awkward.
We're confined to the indoors now, so Mike and Trevor go to watch Walking Dead. I've never seen that, so the four of us go into the basement to watch the movie.
I wasn't sure what I was being roped into, but now that I'm sitting on the couch in the den sandwiched between Mike and Garrett, I'm finding out that it's a horror movie. Memory triggers galore.
First, a zombie smacks someone over the head with a metal pipe, causing me to wince and Mike notices, and he squeezes my shoulder.
Then, someone gets tied up to a chair and I almost scream when the tied up guy gets smacked with a broom stick. I tense, and then relax as I try to think of an excuse to go upstairs. "I'm going to grab a water," I say shakily.
I walk upstairs and Trevor yells behind me. "Aww, is Faith too scared to watch the horror movie?" He has no idea why I'm scared of it, what sends me over the edge. "Shut it, Trev," Mike jumps in, smacking Trevor in the face with a pillow. Mike gives me a smile from the dark basement and I give him a thumbs-up.
I'm walking to the fridge to grab a bottle of water when Garrett walks up behind me and puts his hands on my shoulder. "Boo!" He says, his hands on my shoulders scaring me more than his voice. "Jeez, Garrett! That scared the crap out of me," I say, playfully slapping him on the arm.
But my chin starts to quiver, giving my memory reel of horrific memories away. "Hey, I didn't mean to scare you that bad. What's wrong?" He seems concerned for me, and I almost wish it was Mike or one of my parents, but Garrett has been a great friend today. I put my arms around his shoulders and bite my lip, trying not to cry. He seems a little shocked at first, but then wraps his arms around me and rubs my back. "It's not your fault, it's just from before," I tell him, biting back my tears. "Well, do you want to talk about it?" I don't know if I do or not, but I guess it would be nice to have someone that knows everything. I'm normally not trusting enough to do something like this, but since Mike told me about his friends, I'm a little more comfortable.
"Okay," I tell him, walking back to my bedroom with the bottle of water.
•••
"It started twelve years ago when I was born, and you probably know that I'm Mike's twin. A man kidnapped me and I've been with him my entire life, except for the three years they sent me to learn how to fly planes," I tell him, leaving out names and specifics from my parents' past. "The reason that I get nervous when you put your hands on my shoulders or something like that, or someone gets tied up and hit with something is because it happened to me. When someone out their hands in my shoulders, that meant they were about to hurt me or something like that," I explain, lifting up my t-shirt to show him the scars. "Faith..."
They look like mom's, and I notice it.
He looks at me over my shoulder, then lightly and ever so gently runs his fingertips over them. "They're fine, they don't hurt anymore," I reassure him, and he guides my shirt down my back.
I look at the clock and it's 10:30 at night, which means that we should probably get to bed.
"So, quick question, you can actually fly planes?" I smile and grab my pajamas. "Sure. If you guys have to go somewhere, I can get you a free flight to anywhere in the world, yours truly as a pilot." I walk out to change, leaving Garrett thinking.
I change in the bathroom and go to find my parents. I check in the basement and they delivered the leftover pizza to the boys downstairs. "They cancelled school tomorrow because there's a tornado warning, so you guys can either go home or stay here tomorrow," dad says. That'll be fun, and I'm pretty excited about it.
The pair of pajamas I'm wearing is a pair of short-shorts and a t-shirt from Mike's basketball team. "Man, it's cold down here," I comment while I'm in the basement. Mom looks at me and smiles, hugging me. "Faith, I heard you telling Garrett about... everything. I'm proud of you," she says once the boys go upstairs. "I wasn't able to tell your dad, or anyone for that matter, about anything about what happened to me for almost five years," she says, and it seems genuine. "Well, I figured that someone deserved to know," I reply honestly. She hugs me, and I hug her back.
•••
Garrett was enough of a gentleman to let me keep my bed and sleep on the air mattress on the floor. Mike and Trevor slept in his room, and we didn't make it to bed until eleven.
"Faith? You awake?" At about 2 in the morning, Garrett's voice cuts through the silence. "About what you said earlier... do you ever think about what happened?" I sigh and roll over on my bed. "To be honest, yes. A lot," I say honestly.
I wake up a few hours later breathing heavily but nothing more than that. Either Garrett is an incredibly light sleeper or was already awake, because he stands up and is facing me while I lay there, awakened from a horrible nightmare. "What happened?" I look up at him, his worried face in the moonlight coming though the blinds. "I don't want you to have to carry that around with you, that everywhere you go, you're thinking about what's happened to me," I tell him, not wanting to hurt him even more than I probably already have. I sit up on the bed, Garrett sitting beside me. "But I want to know, I want to be able to help you. It's not fair to you if you have to keep all of that inside you," he says, slowly, carefully, thoughtfully.
I've legitimately thought about kissing him several times during this conversation.
"Okay, I'll tell you. I had this nightmare where I was sitting in a basement like the one I stayed in, where I was tied to a chair. There were five other people tied to chairs around me, but I couldn't see any of their faces. Then a light clicked on in the middle of the circle of chairs and it was mom, dad, Mike, my uncle, and..." I don't know if I can say the next person or not. "Who else?" He's so gentle, I feel like I could tell him everything about my life and not care.
I take a deep breath. "You. I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be everyone I care about, and that's why it scared me so bad when... when all the chairs fell through trapdoors, and that's when I woke up." His face looks so broken, he looks like he's happy, but I can't really be sure in the skimpy light of the room. "Trust me when I say this: your parents, Mike, heck, even me, won't let anything happen to you. Ever. Just please, believe me," he reassures me.
Why did I think that he was the dumb one? He's the most compassionate BY FAR and seems to genuinely care.
"Thanks, Garrett."
He moves to lay back down when I wince and try to bite my tongue. It doesn't work. "Garrett... are you staying awake?" I hear the sound of his body hitting the air mattress. "I can, if you want." I take a deep breath and fold my hands behind my head. "I was asking because I'm getting cold and wanted to change into something warmer," I explain. "Okay," he shrugs, walking out and standing in the hallway. He shuts the door behind him, then I hear dad walking down the hallway as I open my dresser drawer. "Hey, Garrett. Can't sleep?" Garrett laughs a little bit. "No, Faith was changing into something warmer," he explains. "Mr. Scofield, can I ask you something?" I can almost see dad nodding his head with a smile. "Of course you can, Garrett. Anytime." Garret takes a deep breath on the other side of the door. "Your daughter is the best girl I've ever met. I know that it's pretty uncustomary to ask someone this at 4 o'clock in the morning, but can I take your daughter to the dance this week?" Oh my gosh, he's such a gentleman! "Garrett, yes, you can, but just promise me a few things first." I can just about see Garrett smiling. "Anything." Dad is already kinda protective of me, which I kind of like. "Please don't break her heart, because then it gets personal between us, or be the kind of guy who takes her on one date and then she never hears from him again. Just don't be sleazy," dad says with a laugh. Garrett laughs, and I open the door since I'm finished changing. "Thanks, Mr. Scofield!" As dad walks back to bed, he says back with a laugh, "That's Michael, to you!"
I look at Garrett's face, with the stupid grin plastered on it, and I pretend to be in the dark on the conversation that just took place. "What?" He chuckles and keeps smiling.
He lays on the edge of the air mattress closest to the bottom of my bed, and my arm was laying just close enough for him to grab my hand and hold it for a while.
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I'm not sure where this idea came from, but I thought about it and decided that I liked it and so I took it and ran with it. Review your thoughts!