Disclaimer: If I owned the gone series, then I wouldn't have made a fanfiction about it
Brianna's eyes widened for a second, she frowned, then said, "You don't act like your brother."
"No." I said, somewhat proudly, "no, I don't."
"How old are you?" she asked, "You look like you're about.. eight..?"
"I'm nine." I told her "Four and a half years younger than Drake."
"Hey!" called some kid across the field, "Who's that?" well, fuck. I thought, as Drake appeared in the doorway. His grey eyes darted across the field, when they found me, his mouth twisted into his sinister shark's grin.
He walked over to me, "Hey, Arty," he used the hated nickname with glee, "How are you?"
"You know this kid?" asked Caine, "Take him inside, come on." Drake grabbed me by the collar, dragging me into the large school building. I struggled under Drake's grip, elbowing him in the stomach in a weak attempt to make him let go of me. Caine's eyes darted between the two of us, taking in the similar features and the familiar way we fought,"I'm guessing you two are related, then." he said, we nodded, "So, Arty," he said, a fake smile stretching across his face, "How old are you?" his tone reminded me of that of the policeman, and I unconsciously slipped into my silent uncaring mode.
Drake smirked, "He's nine," he said, "and he doesn't like you." Caine's girlfriend smirked, and Caine grinned.
"Doesn't he?" he said, "Why not?" the three teenagers laughed, I glared at the three of them, but was ignored.
"Diana," Caine said, addressing his girlfriend, "read him." Diana walked over to me,
"Let me see your hand," she said, I kept my hand in my pocket, aware that it was probably covered in dried blood, which I'm sure Drake would find amusing. After a moment, Drake grabbed my arm and pulled my hand out of my pocket. Diana touched my hand, then said, "He's a three bar," Caine nodded, "And there's blood on his hand."
"How'd that get there?" laughed Drake, his hand darted to the knife handle protruding from my jacket pocket, but I was faster, grabbing the knife a second before him. Some of the policeman's blood was still on the handle, and the long blade shone in the light from the windows. Drake grabbed my arm and yanked the knife out of my grip, he eyed the knife and smiled, "Where'd you get this?"
Caine looked at him in a way that said Shut up and let me speak. And said "So, Arty, now the question is, will you come with me and help me take over Perdido beach, or do you agree with Brianna, as I'm sure you heard her view on what we should do."
"I agree with Brianna." I said, Caine sighed,
"Well then," he said, "Drake will take care of you until we decide what to do with you"
Diana smirked, "Yeah," she said sarcastically, "because Drake is the perfect baby sitter for an eight year old."
"He's nine." said Drake, "And I plan to lock him in a closet and hand him the occasional bit of stale bread until you guys come up with something to do with him and the rest of them."
They made it sound like anyone who didn't agree with Caine was part of an organised terrorist group, rather than a bunch of kids who don't fancy the idea of driving down a hill and taking over the town because he'd asked them to. "Come on, then," Drake said, dragging me towards his room, "You two had better come up with something to do fast."
His room here at Coates was relatively similar to the one at home, decoration-wise, at least, the furniture was much nicer, and the room was about half the size of the one at home. Posters hung from the walls, and I noticed that many had been taken down, likely due to the swear words, his bed had not been made, and the curtains were drawn, a few pictures had been drawn on the wall in permanent ink, and I saw a few designs copied from some of my own drawings. In one corner, some of my own drawings had been taped to the wall, I could remember giving him them on those rare occasions when we got along.
"Make yourself at home," Drake said with a smirk, "knowing those two, it will be about a year before they stop flirting and finally make a decision. You'd think one of them would finally ask the other out already, but nothing's happening."
"I thought Diana and Caine were already boyfriend-and-girlfriend." I said, sitting at his desk and turning on his computer, "Do you have internet?" I asked, relatively certain he didn't.
"Nope," he said, "when the adults poofed, so did the internet. Anyway, how are Mum and Dad? And where did you get this knife?" he pulled the knife out of his pocket and looked at the blade in the light, "It's freaking awesome."
"Dad killed himself after you left, remember?" I said, "Mum was killed yesterday. The police were looking into it." neither of us were at all sad that our parents had died, neither of us were very good at being sad about things, "I was a suspect." I glared at him, "Because of you." Drake smirked, "anyway, that's where I got the knife, this policeman-guy had it in a drawer he left open. Ironically, I was only able to get out of possibly going to prison for murder, by actually committing a murder." Drake laughed, I smiled slightly, I said hated Drake, but we were brothers, and if there was one thing I liked about Drake, it was that he was trustworthy, I could tell him that I'd killed a man, and he'd never tell a soul for as long as he lived. That was the thing about us, though, we claimed to hate each other, but when it came down to it, we were the best of friends.
Of course, most of the time we fought anyway.
"You know, Artemis," said Drake, suddenly serious, "if you ran away now, I wouldn't stop you." he was offering to let me go, he knew perfectly well that I wouldn't take the offer, but he was giving me a chance to get away.
I smiled, "where would I go?" I asked, "I didn't want to come here, anyway, but Perdido beach is filled with idiots. There's no way I'm going there. And no, I haven't changed my mind about helping Caine take over, he's a power hungry bastard, and I don't want to be around him any more than I need to."
"Watch your language." laughed Drake, "But you could still just tag along, you could just hang out with me. Then at least I'd have someone with half a brain to talk to."
"I don't like you either." I joked, he looked up at me in mock-hurt and laughed, "Anyway, I don't really like the idea of trying to take over a town with just a few people, and I don't even like any of those few people." Drake nodded, accepting that I wouldn't change my mind.
"But, remember, if Caine tells me to encase your hands in a block of cement, I won't hesitate to do so."