Cherry Blossoms in Winter

By: Cheryl and Richard Gardner

Ghostwritten by: June Gilbert

X-men next generation book 2

Chapter One: Prelude to Destruction

I silently wheeled out of the school yard, looking around for Richie, probably playing in this year's first snowfall, even if it was only inches. He was usually perfectly on time, waiting there for me so we could go home on the bus. Ever since that day, I had never allowed my brother anywhere near a car and vice versa. I tried to ignore the sneers of the boys, who liked to make my life miserable when I couldn't defend myself as I waited for Richie. One particular boy loved to smack my backpack, making it drop from its place in the handles of my wheelchair, and walk away laughing as I tried to maneuver to pick it up. Thankfully, Tristan or his cronies weren't anywhere to be seen. That was certainly a blessing.

Richie was late. Worry clumped in my belly. Where could he be? Oh, Richard… My mind started going into overprotective sister mode; what had happened to him? Was he getting into another fight? Richie often got into fights on my behalf; people just loved to twit him about his older sister in the wheelchair. Knowing Richie's temper, he would flare up and start hitting people every time. Richie often lost the fights he started but, at least, he came away alive from all of the more dangerous ones. Albeit he had only gotten into real, knife fighting trouble twice. Dad always ended up upset if he realized Richie had been fighting. It was never good when Dad got upset... Which was why I usually patched my brother up somewhere else. And I couldn't help but worry about him; I think it's an older sister thing. What if he got killed one day fighting because someone insulted me? I shivered unhappily at the thought, nerves redoubling.

"Hey, Cheryl, I'm over here!"

Oh, phew. My tension slowly unwound when I heard his familiar voice. I could see him there, short dark brown hair gleaming in the weak winter sunlight as he waved. It looked like he hadn't gotten into a fight, thank god. I waved back, smiling in relief. He was okay… I wheeled over to him. He smiled and re arranged my backpack more securely on the back of my wheel chair.

"Good, now we can go home. Richie, let's get on the bus," I said, smiling at my fourteen year old brother.

Richie took hold of my wheelchair handles and pushed me onto the lift, which raised my wheelchair to my normal seat in the back of the small short bus. Richie hurried around and grabbed his usual seat just near the barrier that separated me from the rest of the kids. Mostly so my wheelchair wouldn't go flying across the bus when we stopped suddenly.

I asked, as the bus pulled away from Narre High school, "Richie, can you pass me my Fairy Tale book from my backpack?"

"Sure," he said, obligingly doing so.

I re read some of my old favorites, like The Colony of Cats, Cinderella, Snow White and many more. The long, thick book was a compendium of faery tales that never ran out. I love to read, craving the new knowledge it gave me. And it was one of my few ways to escape the bitterness of my life since that day. The day my most precious dreams were shattered, and my innocence and Richie' were both snatched from us. Don't tell anyone, but when we were younger, I often read to Richie from this very book. He thought he was too old now for fairy tales, so I kept it for personal reading. Besides, it was one of our few mementos of Mom. Dad had long ago sold or thrown out much of her stuff. It hurt him to see things that reminded him of Mom. Which was also why I hid the story book in my bookshelf in my room.

Disembarking the bus, Richie walked beside me as I used my electric controls to move my wheelchair along. We always walked home like this, side by side until we reached our apartment. I enjoyed spending this time every day with him, hearing about his day and telling him about my day too. Richie was happy to spend the time with me.

We hadn't any idea of what awaited us upon our return home…

Okay, this is finally edited correctly. What do you think? This chapter is in Cheryl's perspective. Any questions? Please review!

-June