CHAPTER 5

The situation had cooled down a lot within the following two weeks. I was in my room. I was in a crossroad of choosing whether I should go to the statue or not. But since mom did not want me to go, I thought it must be better not to. But the fact that she doesn't want me to go makes it more tempting to go there. I hopped on to my bed, took my phone and connected it to my speaker and started playing songs just to calm myself down. My high school life would start within a few days; I started thinking how it would be. Someone knocked on my door "come in" I said. August came inside my room. "What's the matter?" I asked.

"Should a brother have any particular reason to see his sister" he asked.

"I don't know about others but you always have a reason" I said.

"Okay Charlie, since you're going to the same school as I am..."

"So"

"So when we reach school I don't know you and you don't know me" he said.

"What?" I asked.

"AT...SCHOOL....I.....DON'T.....KNOW.....YOU.... AND.....YOU... DONT... KNOW... ME" he said it like I was hearing English for the first time in my life.

"I.....KNOW.... ENGLISH" I said.

"Well I'm really happy that we would act like strangers at school but what's the matter August?" I asked.

"Nothing. Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Come-on August you can tell me"

"Tell me"

"Don't worry I won't tell anyone"

"I just don't want to babysit you" he said.

"Yeah, big responsibility right? Being a big brother" I asked.

"Yeah" he said. I hit him in the head with my pillow and asked

"Babysit who? You don't want to babysit me?" I continued hitting him.

"Ouch... Charlie stop, okay I'm sorry, stop" he said and ran to the door then turned back and asked "you will act like you don't know me won't you?" this guy, I threw a pillow at him and he ran downstairs. I quickly called Alex she picked up the phone almost immediately

"Hello" we said together.

"I have good news" I said.

"I would like good news" she said.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Nothing, just an argument with mom"

"You shouldn't argue with your mum" I said.

"What's the good news?" she asked.

"August wants me to act like a stranger at school" I said.

"That's awesome, I mean he won't be checking if we were all right every single minute like Eleanor's cousin" she said and sounded so happy that I couldn't help but smile.

"One week left, are you excited?" I asked.

"Is that supposed to be a question?" she asked. I chuckled at her excitement. The following week was spent by shopping for school supplies and mom bought me some dress.

One week seemed like more than 10 days when I was waiting for school to start. But finally it's near I am going to start high school tomorrow and I don't know if it's a thing to get excited but I am. That night I went to bed with just one wish in my head 'Laila should not be in the same school'.

The next day I woke up really early, my school starts at eight but I woke at half past five. I got ready in like 30 minutes that's really quick because usually I take a lot of time to get ready. I got down and saw the time was 6:15. August came down; he looked like he just woke up.

"You're awake and ready already?" he checked time.

"I guess I was a bit excited" I said to which he sighed.

"Look Charlie I don't know what picture you've got in your head about high school but it's definitely not same for all. Plus you don't have to be this excited"

"Ookaay" why did that feel bad?

7:30 and August is still eating his breakfast. Okay now I think we are going to be late. When August finished eating his breakfast he got up and was leaving "wait" I said. He turned to face me "what?" he asked.

"I'm coming with you" I said

"Whoa Charlie we talked about it remember? You don't know me and stuff" he said.

"You're saying I wasted all this time waiting for you?" my inside was burning with anger, well he told me beforehand that we will be pretending like strangers so maybe it wasn't exactly his fault but still...

"Look Charlie, I'm going with Will so you can't come with me either way" he looked at me.

"It's okay I'll tell dad to drop me" he left. So I asked dad whether he'd drop me to school. Ten minutes later I was at the school gate. We reached quickly because dad drove with high apparently he didn't want me to be late on my first day. At the gate I met up with my team Jacob even asked me why I was so early, yes he teased me. We were going in when someone from behind called us, we turned and three guys walking towards us and they looked older than us maybe two but older

"Why do I smell trouble?" Benjamin asked.

"I don't know maybe because there is a high chance of us getting bullied or something" Alex replied.

The guys came closer and the one standing in the middle asked me what my name was. I looked at them for about ten seconds wondering why they would want to know my name. Then the one on the right came closer and asked "what is your name?" the guy came so close that I had to take a step back.

"Charlie Fernando" I said.

"Oh look it is a Fernando you were right Arthur, how did you know?" The one in the right asked.

"Laila once showed me her photo said that she hates her or I wouldn't have realized I mean they have nothing in common other than color of their eyes and hair" the guy in the middle said whose name turns out to be Arthur.

"As much as I know that's the only good thing that happened to you because of your sister" the one in the left said. The news gets better and better turns out he is Laila's brother and that would get me killed. They stopped talking and turned their attention towards me Arthur raised his hand ready to slap me and maybe knock me out. I panicked I couldn't move. I tried to close my eyes but even that was impossible. His hand was close to my face now and suddenly someone grabbed his hands I couldn't turn my head to see who it was. Then the person came in front of me and my first thought was 'I know this shirt'

"Don't involve her in this Arthur" then I realized who it was, it was August. But Arthur did not listen raised his other hand but this time to punch august. I couldn't believe how easily August blocked it fought back like a pro and when I say pro I mean it. I mean he did things the way you'd see in movie or something.

"THAT'S ENOUGH ARTHUR AND AUGUST, TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE NOW" we turned to see who it was and obviously it was the principal. August stopped fighting. He gave me nod that everything was fine before he went along with the principal. Someone pulled me and I saw it was Alex; I looked at the time and saw we were 5 minutes late we started running until we found our class thankfully the teacher wasn't here yet. We entered the class and took seats. Me, Benjamin and Alex sat in the third row and Eleanor and Jacob on the fourth. The moment we got seated the teacher came in, a lady in her late twenties. She stood in front of the class full of energy and a smile on her face she seemed too friendly. She introduced herself as Sarah and said her age was 27 and usual blah blah blah. I wasn't actually paying any attention to it I was deep thought about August. Did aunt Nat mean that he was training to fight? Is he some kind of government agent or something? Am I supposed to be an agent? Nope that doesn't make sense. I was so lost in my thought when someone nudged me. I turned to see it was Alex; I looked around and saw that everyone was looking at me" you are supposed to say your name and hobby" Alex whispered.

I stood up and looked at everyone "hey I'm Charlie Fernando and I like drawing" I said and that's definitely a lie I do not draw why did even say that. When stood up I saw a drawing near madam and I just said what came to my mind.

"Ooh we've got an artist, can you draw something on the board". Now I'm definitely regretting saying that. I slowly walked towards the front of the class then I turned towards miss Sarah and said to her in a low voice

"I'm sorry but I can't really draw I was just nervous it just slipped out of my mouth" she turned and facing the students she said

"okay maybe we can see Charlie's drawing some other day".

Bless her she is the best teacher unlike other teachers I had who would have shouted at me. I went back to my seat and the rest of the period was utilized to show everyone's talent Miss Sarah even made me sing, I'm told I'm good at singing. After that we were outside the class because it was chemistry period. Even though we are not doing any practical experiment today our chemistry teacher whose name is Connor insisted that we go to chemistry lab. On our way to the lab Alex came closer.

"Hey are you okay?" She asked. And I decided to tell her about everything my parents' conversation and all

"Hey Alex I actually wanted to tell you something"