Reuniting

"Liz? Are you even listening?" I smiled and nodded once to my friend, even though I was definitely not listening. My mind was still on the past weekend.

"Your honor she misses entirely too much school so that she can care for her mother. It isn't healthy or good for her education!" My father was making his case yet again.

The judge smiled down at me, "Anything to add, it does seem you miss school a bit and all these moves must make it difficult to keep up?"

I tried to smile as politely as possible, "Not at all your honor. I'm missing school right now just to be here. I am always on time with assignments though and give my teachers heads up when I'll be out so they can prepare work for me. I've kept good grades as you can see in my previous report cards."

"She makes good points. Well, as her grades are up to par and the home seems sufficient I will leave it to her choice. Elizabeth, who do you wish to live with full time?"

I didn't hesitate even a moment, "My mother." Sorry dad. I couldn't look at him as I spoke. I knew the disappointment I would see on his face.

I heard my friend's voice over my mental thoughts, "Yeah, my mom is taking me shopping tonight!" I gave a small smile, wishing I could be so lucky. My mother was a wonderful parent and beautiful inside and out. Unfortunately, she only looked like herself on her good days, which were less and less it seemed.

"You know I was thinking of dying my hair. Do you think I could pull off a dark color?" I nodded, not even looking up at which person at the table was asking. "You're so lucky Liz, your hair is beautiful!" I gave a small smile and shrugged. I had a light brown hair color that seemed a perfect halfway point between my mom's blonde and my father's dark brown. I'd grown my straight hair out past my shoulders this year in an attempt to please my mother. "Probably pointless to even consider, I'm sure my parents will say no!" I nodded as I took another bite. Was that Lucy talking? I should focus on her, but all this talk of parents had me thinking of mine.

My father had stopped me outside the courthouse as I was leaving. His last message is still echoing in my mind. "Liz, it just isn't your place to be in the hospital taking care of your mother. You are still a teenager. You could come stay with me, just long enough to finish school." My father, who was a tall and handsome man, was a doctor. It was no wonder my parents had fallen in love with each other once upon a time. They were both driven, attractive, and caring. Although that was years ago, now my mother tried to protect me from their divorce fallout. My father tried to protect me from my mother's illness.

I was still replaying my response in my mind, wishing I'd thought of something better to say. "I know dad, but mom needs me and I would never be able to focus so far from her. The only reason I do so well now is I can make it work with checking in on her. We only move when a new treatment comes up. It isn't that often."

"It's three schools so far this year! That is often Liz."

"Can't we just not have our visit be about this? Just once?" I walked away from him then, unable to keep the tears from falling anymore. It never made sense to me how him pulling me from school for court hearing after hearing with his judge of the month was less intrusive to my education than my mother needing a little extra help some days.

Another friend at the table spoke between their bites of food, "Yeah, those new kids are supposedly starting today! I heard it from Brittany!"

"Doesn't her mom work in the office?" Lucy and Lilly were fully dominating the conversation at the table.

"Exactly!" I again nodded absentmindedly. The new kids didn't surprise me. They had been at all the schools I went to in the past year.

I had become good friends with them against all my intentions. I never tried to make friends because of the moving so frequently. It was always a relief when they caught up to where we were, it meant someone to talk to without hiding and explaining my constant moving and it helped that they were the best tutors I'd ever had. I didn't ask many questions about their lives, but between court dates for my dad, hospital visits for my mom, and classes they still found time to help me in school when I could barely find time myself. I owed my solid B plus grade average to them.

I was pulled from my thoughts by my new friends, or at least new temporary friends, as we sat at the lunch table. "The two guys look exactly alike, but the girl doesn't look like she should be related to them at all!" It was my perky friend Lucy who said this. She was shorter than me with blonde curls that framed her simple but gorgeous face accented by blue eyes.

I couldn't help but laugh a little out loud. "Yeah, except they all have the same aquamarine-colored eyes. Besides Matthew is shorter than Marcus by about an inch, his hair is a much lighter shade of brown, and..."

I was suddenly aware of all five pairs of eyes looking at me like I had just told them the answers to tomorrow's test in History. "You know them?" This time it was my friend Chris who spoke. I still hadn't gotten over his long black hair that hung straight beside his round face; his brown eyes were staring at me in disbelief.

"Well yeah, they were at my last school." I half lied looking down at the pizza on my tray. I never bothered to tell my temporary friends about my mom and dad and all their problems. I didn't see much point in their pity when I would only be here another month or two anyway.

"Why are they all the way here then? Didn't you say you moved here from Wisconsin? Why would they be in Oregon?" My other friend Nick asked, his hair was long brown, though not as long as Chris', and his face was much more angled than Chris' but they both had the same brown eyes. The two cousins' voices were even similar in a strange way.

I should have kept my mouth shut. What was a good lie for moving states away? Well, my lie had worked well enough. "One of their parents works in the same department as my mom studying wildlife. I guess they were transferred for the same assignment my mom was." I lied flawlessly; lying was something I had gotten quite used to.

"Oh, well that's pretty cool." Nick had a tone I hadn't heard him use before in the past month I had known him. I couldn't quite figure out what he meant behind the words, but it was definitely not cool. Nick stood the tallest of anyone I knew, even taller than his cousin who was only an inch or so shorter than him. Nick was almost always smiling or laughing. Seeing him so serious caught me off guard.

I shrugged it off as the other girl at my table, Lilly, turned the conversation away from the new kids. "So, when are you two going to get a haircut? The competition ended last week." She was asking Chris and Nick with a big smile on her face. Her tanned face went flawlessly with her long red hair that was almost always up in a hair tie except for a few strands that hung by her hazel eyes. The only person more gorgeous than Lilly I had ever seen was Matthew's sister Katherine.

My last new friend at the table, Trey, who was an inch taller than me with short black hair and brown eyes, took the conversation over. "Oh yeah, Nick man ya owe me twenty! Chris' hair is way longer!"

I was only half-listening, watching the doors to the cafeteria for Matthew, Marcus, and Katherine. I'd never seen their dad or mom but by the talk from other tables, they must be stunning because it's what most people were talking about. I looked back at the table and noticed Nick looking at me. He smiled when I noticed him and I tried to smile back, but I'm not sure how it turned out.

I felt nervous waiting for them to show up. Normally I would have just kept my head down but Nick seemed to be watching me, so I had to do something to at least look like I wasn't totally absorbed in if they were walking through the door. Every time the cafeteria door opened I turned my head to see who it was, and so did Nick. The rest of the lunch conversation wasn't too interesting. It was mainly about upcoming tests.

We were all nervous about the History test, that was one class we all had together and the teacher was known to be brutal on his test. The last test was devastating; the highest grade in the class had been a C. It was mine, and even though I was ecstatic to have the highest score it wasn't a great score to get. I let my mind wander into how I would study more for this test considering my mom had more hospital visits as her chemotherapy was picking up again.

The bell for class saved me from Nick's constant smile. I knew I had looked distracted, but at least I'd managed to stop watching the doors. "You ready for math?" It was Chris who asked. We had statistics together and he always ended up needing my help. I didn't mind though. Statistics was a class I got along pretty well in. The only downside was there was usually a lot of homework which meant late nights after mom's hospital visits.

"Oh yeah! Besides, today is catch-up day. It'll be an easy class." I had a much more upbeat tone about it than he did.

"Oh, that's right!" He finally showed some enthusiasm for class. "I love this day of the month. It's probably the only reason I passed the class!" We shared a laugh as we walked into class.

Then we looked at each other with slight disappointment on our faces. There was a substitute teacher, and the chances of a substitute allowing catch-up day is never good. Something about the substitute looked familiar, she was pale, black hair that was short and curly, and her eyes were aquamarine. Then I realized how I recognized her, those eyes were the same as Matthew, Marcus, and Katherine's. I wondered who she was, maybe they were related.

Chris and I went and sat at our four person table, of course, there were only two of us in our group. The class was small and there were only ten people in it, two groups of four and then us. We shrugged at each other wondering what was going on. Our teacher didn't usually miss class.

"Hello class, I am Mrs. Tennison. I will be taking over your statistics class from here on out." At that Chris gave me a look of confusion. I was too distracted by her name to take in the news properly. This must be Matthew's mother, or rather his aunt. I looked at Chris and shrugged my shoulders trying to be considerate of his worry.

He raised his hand and Mrs. Tennison turned to look at him then she smiled at me. "Yes," her eyes fell to what must have been the seating chart on her desk, "Chris?"

"Hi, Mrs. Tennison, uhm I was just wondering what happened to Mrs. Johnson?" as was the rest of the class who nodded their heads.

"Well, it would appear she only taught this class because of a shortage of teachers. So when I got hired they gave me the classes that the other math teachers were doing because of the shortage. She is still here just now, this is her planning period in her room. I am sorry for the confusion, but I do hope you will enjoy my methods of teaching as well." We all lowered our heads, that didn't sound like today would be catch-up day anymore.

To our surprise, Mrs. Tennison giggled, "Don't worry I wasn't going to change today's plans. That would be rude of me, today is still a catch-up day. Besides, it lets me get an idea as to where the class still needs improvement. I will let you all get to work on past assignments. I only have one request, when you run out of Statistics homework please come and let me review what you've finished, so I can get an understanding of where you stand in the class, then you may work on anything productive."

Chris kicked my foot under the table with a huge smile on his face. I couldn't help but return it, I liked Mrs. Tennison already. The entire class let out a loud 'yay' before getting books out. Most everyone worked in pairs or groups. We weren't the exception. I often helped Chris during class catch-up days. "Liz, what answer did you get for number three on last Wednesday's homework?"

I shook my head, "How are you over a week behind? This is Thursday and you're telling me you haven't even finished any of this week's homework?" He looked down embarrassed, his face blushing red under his tan skin. "Okay sorry, I got twenty-four percent."

I leaned forward to try and look at his paper, but his face told me what I wanted to know. He was nowhere close to that. "Ok, let me try again, and then you can help if I don't get it." With that, he began erasing. I didn't ever mind helping Chris because he was always honestly trying before I helped. He didn't abuse my help like Trey did in Science. I loved Biology. I just didn't like Trey sitting next to me cheating off all my work. Suddenly Chris stopped erasing and looked at me like he'd just had an epiphany. "Oh, before I forget, I'm supposed to ask you something from Nick."

"Okay, go ahead." He wouldn't look me in my eyes while he talked. This couldn't be good.

"Well, he was wondering if this Saturday..."

He was cut off by Mrs. Tennison, "Class I'd like to introduce two of my children who will be joining our class." My eyes shot up and then I saw him. I couldn't stop my smile from spreading to my face.

"This is Matthew and Marcus. They will be joining the available group. Okay, Matthew and Marcus, today is a catch-up day, since you don't have any work I'm going to give you these worksheets to complete so you have something to do."

Matthew was looking right at me with a large grin on his face to match mine. I heard one of the other classmates mutter to her neighbor, "Well at least they aren't getting special treatment. Why is he looking at her? I'm right here." With that Matthew and I both turned and stared daggers at her. She lowered her head and mumbled something I couldn't hear. I'd have to ask Matthew what she said because it made him smirk.

He and Marcus came and sat next to us. Matthew sat beside me, and Marcus sat next to Chris. I suddenly remembered Chris had been saying something before the commotion. "Oh, before I forget Chris, weren't you saying something? What did Nick need to know?"

Matthew looked over at Chris waiting as I was for the rest of Chris' question from his cousin. "Oh nothing, don't worry about it. Okay, I finished that one, I found my mistake." He quickly turned back to the homework in front of him. He was very focused, not even looking up to face my direction as he answered.

Feeling like he was trying to ignore something I turned to Matthew and threw my arms around his neck. "I was wondering if you would be here. Took you long enough." I smiled as he squeezed me gently.

It was Marcus who answered, "Well, the school didn't want to let mom go."

"She's your mom?" Chris sounded shocked, I wasn't surprised Matthew and Marcus were in their teens, but Mrs.Tennison didn't look above thirty and even that would be hard to believe.

"Well she adopted us after her older sister died, technically she's our aunt." Matthew had pulled a pencil from his pocket and was writing his name on his worksheet.

"But she's been our mom since we were little kids, her and our uncle." Marcus was already finishing up the first problem on his worksheet.

"Didn't you hear her say they were her children? Oh, by the way, that should be a seven, not a two." I realized Chris was still not looking at me.

"No, I didn't hear. I was still trying to finish that other problem. Thanks. I gotta go to the bathroom. I'll be right back."

"Okay, you can finish telling me what you had to say after class if you need to work on homework." With that, he got up and grabbed the available bathroom pass for boys, and left.

"So what's been going on lately? Any news from your neck of the woods?" Marcus was the one who struck up the conversation. A large smile on his face, as usual, he was already starting the assignment his mother had given them. Barely taking the time to read them before answering.

"Well, I had another court date the day you guys came to sign up for school. Other than that it's the same ol' same ol'. My mom starts a new set of chemo tomorrow night." I spoke so quietly it was barely a whisper. I knew they would be able to hear me though. They always did. My train of thought reminded me of something. "Hey, Matthew, what did the girl over there say that made you smirk like that at the beginning of class?"

Marcus and he both laughed at my question. "What? Come on, you gotta tell me now!" Their smiles were the most perfect I had ever seen, especially Matthew's. His smile just made my heart skip a beat. He had perfect white teeth, and his cheeks had little dimples when he smiled. His skin was as pale as mine, a little paler actually. Not that it was a surprise, he spent as much time in the hospital as I did.

"You might not want to hear it." Marcus was still smirking at us, but his eyes were over at the girl who had made the rude comments.

"Well, now I HAVE to know!" I put as much emphasis on the have as possible.

"Okay then, but you asked for it." Matthew leaned in close to my ear, his lips brushed my ear as he spoke and I swear I could hear my own heartbeat. "She said, 'I guess rudeness and being part albino go together.'" I couldn't help but laugh at that.

"Wait? She called us albinos?" Matthew nodded his head as he leaned up, still smiling. I shook my head at the notion, the one who had said it wasn't exactly known for being nice, but that was probably my favorite insult she'd made since I got here. I noticed Matthew had broken his pencil when he went to grab a second one and start on his first problem.

"Matthew, Marcus, I hope you two are working and not distracting anyone?" It was posed as a question but we all knew it was a recommendation to focus on work. We all nodded once before turning to our papers, "Good, class is for work, keep the chit chatting to the hall-ways." I liked her.

"No ma'am. We are not distracting Elizabeth. I was just needing help with my worksheet." Matthew lied to his mother. I looked up without lifting my face from my paper. She had an eyebrow raised and a half-smile that said she knew he was lying, but she let it go. The way he had said my name made my heart flutter and skip a beat like it usually did. I ignored my body and its bizarre behavior while trying not to smile at Matthew.

I went up to Mrs. Tennison and provided her with the last that had been assigned in the class. "I don't have any missing work for this class, but this is the assignment that should have been due today. Would it be okay if I continued to work on other classwork instead?"

She looked at the page and smiled at me, "Of course, this looks very well done. Nice work my dear." I smiled a small smile as I headed back to my desk. I continued to put my attention to my other classes where I still needed to focus a bit more.

When Chris came back from the bathroom he didn't look too pleased. He didn't say anything as he sat down, but he looked up at me with a half-smile. He looked at Matthew as if he was going to say something, but after a couple of seconds, he just went back to focusing on his homework. Matthew and Marcus just continued working as if they hadn't noticed. Maybe they hadn't, I could have even been overanalyzing the situation.

I pulled out the history study guide for the upcoming exam when Marcus asked me something I wasn't expecting, "Hey my mother has been begging Matthew to invite you to dinner sometime. Would you like to come over tomorrow night?"

"Oh uhm I don't know." As I answered Chris raised his head from his work and was looking at me with a strange face. As if he was almost worried about me.

"Well, do you have other plans?" Matthew asked as he put his hand on mine. I ignored the rage I saw in Chris' face at the touch and just focused on not blushing. His hand was cool and familiar. I tucked my hair behind my ear as I tried to remember how to talk.

"Actually, she does." We all looked at Chris. I didn't remember setting any plans, but then again I did forget things quite often when it wasn't about my family. "My cousin already planned on inviting her to accompany him to a movie this weekend." His tone was a little rude. Besides, as far as I remembered I hadn't agreed to go anywhere this weekend. I know I would most likely have remembered a date.

Matthew didn't seem to notice though as he smiled and replied. "By 'planning to ask' I assume he hasn't yet. Which means she can still do something else?" He looked at me with those stunning aquamarine eyes that seemed to burn with the intensity of something just beyond my reach. I don't know why, but even though he was obviously talking to Chris he was looking at me.

"Actually my mother needs me home tomorrow night." May as well put a stop to their questions before it went any further. I was going to be at the hospital tomorrow, as I was every Friday. Something I knew Matthew already knew, but I would handle his request later. Chris was the one I needed to put a stop to before he began to ask more questions. I looked at Chris without meeting his eyes. I had to lie about why my mom needed me since no one here knew the truth. "She is working late and I have to make dinner and clean the kitchen." At least that was only a half-lie. I really would make dinner and clean. She just wouldn't be there since I'd have to meet her at the hospital after.

I saw Marcus and Matthew smile with their heads down. "Oh, well okay then I'll let Nick know. Maybe next weekend?" Chris didn't seem as upset as before. He turned his attention back to his homework.

"Yeah, maybe next weekend." I heard the sarcastic tone in Marcus' voice, but I crossed my fingers in hope that Chris hadn't.

The rest of class was pretty normal. Apparently, I was the only one in the entire class that didn't have any behind assignments. I stopped studying to help Chris with problems every now and then. When I helped Chris it was quick and nothing out of the ordinary. I kept waiting for him to explain why he seemed so upset, but he didn't mention it for the rest of class. I asked Matthew for help to clarify something from the study guide. I knew he would be able to help even though he hadn't been in my class to learn the subject.

At the end of class, I was putting away my things when I realized Chris was heading out the door. He usually walked me out to the front. I rode my bike home, but I always talked to him and Nick at their cars for a while. Matthew and Marcus had stayed behind to talk with their mother so that left me walking out on my own to my locker. I was heading out the door to my locker when I noticed I hadn't walked to my locker by myself since I had made friends.

I knew better than to get attached, but here I was wishing one of them could fill the silence. I was used to silence, but I guess I just hadn't realized how much I had actually come to enjoy the girls' constant babbling about one thing or another. I never realized how much easier it was not to think about my mother and father or about Matthew when there was someone who could ramble on about something unimportant. Listening to all of my friends talk about the parts of their life that they felt was so important.

I considered them feeble and of little importance compared to my mother and father's problems. However, listening to them and being supportive made me feel more like a teenager. Like maybe in another life I would have been one of them just going on and on about a date for the weekend, how the hairdresser had cut my bangs unevenly, or any other little thing that didn't affect my life in the long run but seemed like an urgent matter at the time.

Without the distraction of conversation, my mind ran on about Matthew and the way he said my name. How he always said it with a certain tone of desire just beneath the surface. Then about the way his hand felt against mine. How the single touch sent a jolt of excitement through me every time it happened. How even though his hand was always rather cold, my body was warm wherever his hand lingered or brushed against. Then as I reached my locker I was lost in thought of his aquamarine eyes and the sheer beauty and darkness I always sensed from them.

The funny thing is I never got the same reactions from Marcus' eyes or touch, even though he was just as cold and his eyes were the exact same color. It was actually a little strange that their eyes were the exact same color. My mother and I were the only people I'd ever met whose eyes were the exact same shade and tint. Usually, people's eyes at least varied in the tint, even when they were related.

I love how my mother's eyes used to glow in the moonlight on our walks we would take after dad fell asleep. That was back when I was young, of course. I missed those times, they were simpler. I almost jumped as my mind was pulled out of my memories and back to the present.

"Well hey there!" as if on cue Matthew was beside me as I closed my locker.