Chapter 2

Fifteen. That number always haunted me.

That's how old Nate is turning today.

He's outside on the trampoline with a bunch of his mates, jumping. Mum and I are just now adding the fifteen candles to his birthday cake he picked out.

He's such a dork. It has polar bears on it.

I got outside and hear all those kids laughing. "Hey!" I call to them. "Cake and pizza is here!"

They all stop jumping and race each other inside.

Jason is sitting at the table, sipping a glass of water. It reminds me how thirsty I am, so I grab a water bottle and join him at the table.

When the crazy-ass fifteen-year-olds come inside, the noise level increases.

"Headache," Jason says, getting up and going over to the medicine cabinet. He shakes out two pills of Advil and drinks them down with some water.

"Me too," I say, putting my head down on the table.

"Want one?"

"No thanks. I don't do drugs."

"They're not drugs."

"Yes, they are."

"No they're not."

"I'm not even going to argue with you."

"Whatever," he says, sitting down again once he put he bottle back in the cabinet.

I groan. "Too many people are chattering right now. Make them stop."

"The post man is here!" I hear Nate yell and the crazy hooligans all run outside.

Good. They left.

Thank you, Buddha.

But, of course, I can't have one moment of peace, and they all run inside.

"Mummy, I got mail!" Nate exclaims. He throws the rest of the mail down on the kitchen counter and opens the letter. It's in a blue envelope. Fancy smanchy.

"Who's it from?" Jason asks.

"Aunt… and then the rest of the name is smudged," he says.

"Is it… Aunt Flow?" I ask.

Then I burst out laughing. That was really funny. I bang my head down on the table and then my headache hurts even more.

"That's weird…" Nate trails off.

"What?" Jason asks.

Ooh, now I'm interested. I lift my head up and turn around, facing my brothers. They're both looking at the letter.

"Well that's jacked," Jason says.

I go over to them to see what all the hoopla is about. I look at the letter. It's all in some sort of weird language I've never seen before. "That's pretty fucked."

Jason turns to me and glares at me.

Forgot I'm not supposed to swear.

But really, that's fucked.

"Maybe they got the wrong address or something," Nate says, tossing the letter into the trashcan.

I peer down into the trashcan and look at the letter.

It's pretty fucked. It looks like it got wet or something because it's all smudgy. But then again, some of the letters are legible. And it's not in English.

This is going to annoy me now that I don't know what it says.

Meh, oh well. I toss my plate of pizza in the trash and then go into the living room to watch TV. Jason is watching something, so I change the channel.

"Hey!" he exclaims.

"My bad," I say, and switch it back.

Damn, didn't work this time.

I hear the doorbell ring. "I'll get it," I say and go over to the door. I see some kid standing there. "We don't want any," I say, slamming the door in his face. Only the kid knocks on the door again, so I reopen it. "What? What do you want?"

But I don't see the kid.

"Hello?" I ask.

I look down when I hear a cat meowing. Sitting there on my porch is a black cat, licking its paws.

It looks up.

Then it hisses at me.

I scream and quickly shut the door.

That was fucked.

Jason calls from the living room, "What are you screaming about? Who was there?"

I turn around. "No one," I say and join him in the living room.

I hear some stomping upstairs and then laughter.

Damn kids.

And then I hear a silence.

That does not sound good.

I hop off the couch and run upstairs. The kids weren't in the playroom. Or Nate's room.

They were in my room.

I go into my room and see them all huddled around where my desk is. "What did you break?" I ask, rushing over there. I push them away and see Nate standing there with my laptop in his hands. It looks pretty fucked.

Nate looks up at me, fear present in his eyes. "Shane, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to!"

I grab my computer and try to turn it on. It won't turn on. "Nate!" I yell. "You broke it! Do you know how much this cost me?"

"I'm really sorry Shane!" he cries.

I slam my laptop back on my desk harshly. It's already broken so it doesn't matter. "Get out of my room! God, sometimes I wish you would just go away and never come back!"

Be careful what you wish for…