Let's Play a Game [Editing]

| Chapter Nine : Serenity's Brother, and Embarrassed Alex |

It's been going quickly; the seconds turned into minutes, minutes seemed to speed into hours, to which soon became a full day. It continued like that for about three days - and now it seems like time is lagging. Somewhere in that speediness, it slowed and got stuck in a sticky mess. The ticking of the clock in class seemed to grow louder and louder as I tried to concentrate on the test in front of me. To my bad luck, the clock kept ringing in my ears and distracted me.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before I opened them again and looked down at that piece of paper with confidence. No matter what the grade - at least I try, right? At least it's not a complete zero.

As I filled in the questions, everything around me started failing away. The rest was the center of my attention; it was if that test was the only in-focus thing at the moment. Everything else grew blurry and far away.

Suddenly before I knew it I had finished the test - with five minutes to spare might I add - and flipped it over so the teacher knew I was done. I slid out a piece of blank paper and started doodling. But instead if it being a regular doodle; I could see a face appearing from the combined doodling. A face I had seen only rarely, off and on.

Serenity.

My mind flew in every direction as I continued to doodle.

But just as fast as those few days sped by, the clock ticked. The bell rang throughout the school, catching me by surprise and sending a jolt through me which made me jump. The slight jump was hardly noticeable though so no one noticed. Whew.

I grabbed my things and scurried out of the class, the crowd of kids swarming back into the hallway like a mad beehive clumping back into the hive with the freshly found pollen. Groups formed here and there as some madly pushed past me to get somewhere. But then I noticed a shy face. As I got closer, I realized it was Serenity.

She looked tired. The bags under her eyes were small; forming bigger, but dark enough to be noticed from a ways away. Her figure - if believable - was thinner than I remembered it to be. Not to mention a few scrapes and bruises here and there. As I got closer, I noticed someone else she was hanging out with.

It was that boy...the one I helped a week ago. The abused, broken rib boy. I raised an eyebrow lightly from confusion as I continued to slowly approach them.

"Hey, Serenity!" I said, smiling lightly.

"Oh....h-hi..." She stuttered, frowning at the boy as if she wanted him to leave. I pursed my lips together in a tight line lost in confusion as I watched.

"Why are you still here?" She asked in a gruff tone. I had never seen this side of her - it almost scared me to be honest. Whenever I saw her, I saw the sweet, shy, innocent Serenity I knew... But she wasn't acting herself.

"Serenity....cut the act." I said softly, frowning and furrowing my eyebrows together. She froze, gulping as she turned around a bit.

"Why...? Everyone hates the kid," she said, gesturing to the boy who was slowly slinking away before continuing. "so why should he stick around?"

"Because..." I started, frowning at his still slinking away, "I honestly could care less what everyone else thinks. Why are you being nice to him one minute and mean the next? Who is he...?"

She sighed heavily, not sure if she should tell me or not. I frowned again, sad she didn't trust me. So I spoke up again, softly, "Serenity... You can trust me, you know."

Her big blue eyes found their way to my deep brown ones. The sadness and terror that welted up in her eyes made my heart ache. She sighed heavily before she looked over at the boy and extended her hand out for him to hold, to which he grabbed and stood beside her. Almost no one noticed us talking there, to which I was great full.

"He-he's my brother." She finally said softly, looking over at him as he looked down at the ground.

I examined them both closely, seeing the resemblance slowly. I nodded to myself as my lips formed into a small smile.

"Oh okay, I see." I said, the smile staying slightly there.

"Yeah, h-he... umm is older than me, too." Serenity stuttered out.

"Yup... So?" I asked confused as my eyebrow raised slightly.

"Well he's behind in school, and everyone teases him for it." She said softly as the boy slightly hid behind her.

"That's stupid." I said plainly. I wasn't going to lie.

"So y-you won't hurt him...?" She asked skeptically.

"No I won't." I said softly in a soothing tone as I shook t head. "I promise I won't."

"O-okay..." She spoke softer than I.

"What's your name?" I asked politely, smiling warmly and waving slightly. He started to come out from behind her and shyly smiled ever so slightly - if you looked close enough you could see it, but just looking at him it wouldn't look like a smile.

I stood there patiently, waiting for someone to reply to me as they just stared at me...not sure if I was trust worthy or not. Suddenly it hit me...there was something that was held in their eyes. Scaredness...pain...lost. Lost in a world that tired them both.

"My...my brother's name is...Josh." Serenity cut me off from the thoughts that flew through my head like a flock of birds going south for the winter.

"Oh, that's a nice name!" I exclaimed softly as time ticked away. Suddenly the bell rang and they vanished into a classroom. I frowned as I walked to my own class and sat down in my usual cold, hard desk chair. I pulled out my books and sat them on the desk, next came my notebooks. But instead of just leaving them until the teacher started babbling on, I opened it to the very last page and started to draw - no, doodle - randomly with no inspiration at all.

I don't consider myself a very good artist, in fact if I had to be completely honest...my voice is better than my art, but I liked to mess around. Sometimes I'd find myself drawing a music staff with music notes on it, other times it'd be something easy like a flower...others it could be an animal... It just depended on my mood, basically. But no, this time it was an eye. Not just any eye, but an eye that held an unshed tear. It wasn't very detailed, but the details I added to it made a lump form in my throat. The bright blue eye looked exactly like Serenity's.

Suddenly the teacher made me jolt up-right in surprise from his firm tone of voice.

"Good...hmph...afternoon, class." His strong and gruff voice boomed. Its annoying, mean teachers like this than drive me up a fricking wall.

I, along with half of the other class, replied with a 'Hello' or 'Hi' as he set his briefcase on the table - probably with freshly printed tests no doubt - as he grunted and looked up at the class from behind his desk.

As he began talking, the clock ticked faster. Soon we had a test placed in front of us...before anyone could say anything though, the bell rang indicating school was almost over for the day and if you didn't finish your test, you're dead. Well, not dead, but failing. Most likely.

I quickly bubbled in the last two tests before I handed in my paper and walked out to the hallway, about to venture back into another class and hopefully survive.

As I walked towards the last class of the day, I saw Alex laughing with some friends, well "friends". I smirked to myself and walked over, about to embarrass the crap out of that boy. This will be a moment everyone will remember.

Muwhahaha.

I tried sashaying over, but basically tripped on myself with every step, so I stopped trying not to make a fool of myself when my goal was to make Alex the fool. I got up to them, tapping Alex on the shoulder and smiling innocently and cutely as I peeked up at him through my eyelashes. Alex raised his eyebrow as he looked down at me before he spoke up.

"Yes? What do you want?" He asked, still looking confused.

Good. Right where I want him, I thought to myself while laughing evilly in my head, but not showing it on the outside.

"Ohh, nothing." I said sweetly and innocently, reaching up on my tip toes and kissing his cheek tenderly.

His "pack" of "friends" smirked and snickered as a few oh's and ah's were thrown here and there, as well as some wolf whistles. I rolled my eyes ever so slightly - so slightly no one could see it as I smiled up at him again.

"Sure you don't. What do you want, Joce...lynn...?" He paused for a second, almost saying my nickname instead of my full name, but soon caught himself and finished my name.

"Oh fine, you got me." I said, pouting my lower lip out lightly and giving him puppy dog eyes before continuing. "I want the fifty bucks you owe me."

He stood there, bewildered as he thought, then suddenly - as if a light bulb lit up above his head - he realized and blushed lightly. I was sure he hoped no one noticed except me to which I lightly smirked, but turned it into an innocent smile.

"Whoa, dude, you owe her fifty bucks?!" One of the guys in the group chuckled out.

"What'd you do? Make a bet or something?" Another snickered.

Before we knew it there was laughing all over the hallway as his cheeks grew rosier red. He glared down at me as I smiled and bounced on the balls of my feet and back on my heels as I held out a hand, gesturing for him to pay up.

"Well? Going to pay me?" I asked softly, but enjoying every minute of this.

Hey! No one said no teasing or joking, right? Right.

He sighed and grabbed his wallet from his pocket and placed the fifty bucks in my hand. A second later he leaned down and growled in my ear, the warmth tickled it as his minty breath hit my nose.

"You so owe me now." His growl was low, but intriguing.

I grinned and whispered back, "Love you too, babe."

After he stood back up, straight and tall, I thanked him and skipped off to my next class, proud of myself and laughing at Alex's expressions.

I will never hear the end of this.... Ever.

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A/N: AHH! FINALLY UPDATED GUUYYSS!! ^~^ Hope you enjoyed it, sorry it's kinda ...o_O not my best...but hopefully it'll do. Whatcha think, hhmmmm?

And I'm sure I probably got the amount wrong... :/ Whenever I do something like that (put a last name or name or amount or something) I forget it... Short term memory loss, all I gots to say.

Okay, little talky-time-here. ^.^ I figured out TWO ship names for Alex and Joce, but I don't know which is better, so I want YOU *points* yes...you...to decide and tell me which is better. I'll have a tally and see what wins. And basically a ship name is just joining the names that are of a dating couple together as one name. The names are Jex and Ace.

WEEELLLLL here's the sentence I need you to finish for today;

I think ___ should be Alex's and Jocelynn's "ship" name.