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Bree had never really been one to follow the crowd, and high school had never been her domain. Yet here she was, on a Thursday afternoon, listening to her math teacher drone on about trigonometry. Ever since she had first studied this topic over two years ago, she had agonized over when, in her entire life, she would need it. ‘When the hell will I ever need to figure out the length of one side of a triangle?’ She had asked her best friend Carrie as she had struggled with her homework one night in sophomore year. Carrie had merely shrugged and fiddled with her lip piercing as she gazed at her own homework, a blank page on which she was supposed to be writing an essay about Shakespeare.

The two best friends were now in junior year, and not much had changed. Bree watched Carrie fiddling with her lip ring with a befuddled expression upon her face as she flipped through textbook, not even aware of what page they were supposed to be looking at. She was far too absorbed watching Carrie to even notice when her name was called. ‘Brianna’ was called three times, and several students had giggled unkindly at Bree’s inattention before Carrie spoke out of the corner of her mouth to her friend.
‘He’s talking to you.’ Bree frowned at Carrie, confused and turned to the front of the classroom.
‘Would you care to solve the problem?’ Bree squinted at the whiteboard, trying to make sense of the letters, the picture of the triangle and the numbers.
‘Um, no, not really,’ she replied nervously, and a group girls sitting in the second row from the front sniggered.
‘And why’s that?’ The teacher asked, basking in Bree’s uncomfortable air.
‘Because I wasn’t listening,’ Bree replied mechanically. ‘Sorry, sir.’
‘You should be. It’s you who will be paying for it in your finals.’ And with that, he turned back to the blackboard to solve the problem.

The girls at the front were laughing and whispering as they turned to look at Bree pointedly. Bree turned to Carrie and spoke under her breath. ‘I want to smoosh their faces.’
Carrie’s head arose from her napping spot on top of her textbook and replied, ‘Who?’ She followed Bree’s eye line to the group of girls. ‘Oh, Nicole and her groupies? Just ignore them.’ Bree was scowling at them as she spoke again.
‘They’re just as stupid as I am, they just get caught out less for it.’
Carrie made a grunting sound of nonchalance in reply. ‘Fuck ‘em,’ she whispered. ‘Let them keep thinking they own the world. They’ll get what’s coming to ‘em eventually.’
‘I suppose,’ Bree agreed, slumping in her seat and staring at the clock. She was counting down the minutes until the period ended, because with the ringing of the bell would come the beginning of Christmas vacation.

~

The minute the bell rang, Bree and Carrie were out the door of the classroom at lightning speed. They rushed down the hall to the classroom that held advanced placement chemistry. There they found Bree’s older brother, Jackson, leaning up against the wall, awaiting their arrival. Carrie made an inappropriate moaning noise upon seeing Jackson and Bree nudged her aggressively with her elbow. Jackson was a senior, and Carrie had been lusting over him ever since she had hit puberty, which made Bree feel extremely uncomfortable. ‘What? As if you wouldn’t be doing the same thing if he wasn’t your brother!’
Bree made a disgusted noise. ‘Keep it in your pants.’

Jackson grinned when he saw them and picked up his bag smoothly, sauntering towards the two girls. Bree could understand why Carrie was attracted to Jackson, along with many other girls. He exuded confidence, he was intelligent and he was funny. Additionally, he wasn’t unattractive. He and Bree were polar opposites in terms of their appearances; he had dark hair that swept across his face and slightly brushed his shoulders while Bree had blonde tresses that hung wavily and messily down past her chest. His eyes were chocolate brown while hers were ocean blue. He was tall and lean, while she was small and thin. He looked like their father, and she looked like their mother. ‘Hello you two,’ he said smoothly as he approached them. ‘Looking for a ride?’ Carrie nodded, hardly containing her grin while she bit her lip. Bree rolled her eyes and followed them to Jackson’s car, Carrie tagging behind Jackson like a lovesick puppy.

Bree slid into the backseat, having lost in a scuffle with Carrie for the front seat. She poked her head through the middle of the two front seats as Jackson turned out of the parking lot. ‘So what are you doing tonight?’ Bree asked Jackson.
‘Yeah, got any plans we can steal from you?’ Carrie asked hopefully.
‘Actually,’ Jackson frowned. ‘I was thinking of going to a gig tonight. My friend’s band’s playing. You guys can come with me if you want, I don’t wanna go alone anyway.’
Carrie looked to Bree, her eyes begging for approval, pleading for a yes. Bree contemplated for a moment. If Carrie was going to be standing around looking at Jackson with lovelorn eyes all night, she was not sure she could stand it. On the other hand, any alternative plans were non-existent, and Bree usually loved going to see bands with her brother. ‘Fine,’ she conceded as Jackson pulled up outside their house.

It was only Bree and Jackson together in the one house. They had never known their mother and their father had passed away two years previously of a heart attack, leaving the siblings in the care of their grandparents. The minute Jackson had turned eighteen they had moved out together, Jackson was named Bree’s legal guardian and they had both gotten jobs in order to pay the rent. Bree would not have it any other way. She loved living with her brother, and though her heart ached every day with her father missing from the picture, she could not complain about the life she had. Despite the fact that the two siblings could not afford to waste money frivolously, they still had each other and their sanity, which was more than they could have hoped with what they had been through in their lifetimes. With this life came freedom and the positives of this freedom far outweighed the negatives of the responsibility that came with it.

Jackson dropped his keys on the table in the hall and retreated to his bedroom, while Bree and Carrie headed for the kitchen, in search for food. Carrie picked up an apple and bit into it, making herself comfortable by sitting on the kitchen table. The house was a small two bedroom unit, with one bathroom and a kitchen. Bree had grown to love its size. The unit was always warm and welcoming, and although it was quite old and therefore in less than pristine condition, it was full of touches that made it homely. Pictures lined the walls of the living room; a family portrait, a picture of Bree’s old dog Scooter, a photo of Bree and Jackson’s father from the eighties where he was playing his bass on stage with his old band, and finally, a picture of Bree and Jackson at Bree’s first rock concert, Nirvana. Jackson’s guitar sat on a stand in the same room, next to their father’s old sofa, which sat in front of a television that was only turned on to watch the occasional zombie film. The kitchen was plain, but full of appliances their father had left to them; a toaster, a coffee machine, a waffle iron and a microwave. Overall, although the house was small, it was full of all the two-member family needed.

Bree dumped her bag on the table next to Carrie, a banana in her mouth, and sighed. ‘Should we get started on homework then?’ She turned the bag upside down and let her belongings pour out in a cascade of colours.
‘Can we just skip to the part where we don’t do our work, instead of pretending we’re going to and sit around procrastinating for half an hour?’ Carrie threw her apple core and got it into the trash can which was on the other side of the room.
‘Can’t say I didn’t try,’ Bree muttered as she stashed her belongings back into her bag. Carrie was not listening to Bree as she was far too preoccupied with rummaging through the refrigerator.
‘Wanna drink and watch Day of the Dead before we go out?’ Bree shrugged and followed Carrie through to the living room.

~

A few hours had passed, and before the two girls knew it, it was 8pm. ‘We should get ready,’ Bree said, standing up from the sofa. Carrie, who had indulged in a few more drinks than Bree, merely stayed on the sofa, giggling. ‘Hold on,’ she laughed. ‘I love this bit.’ Carrie broke out into hysterics as a man’s head was ripped clean off while he screamed. ‘What an idiot!’ She exclaimed, just as Jackson emerged from his room.
‘You guys ready to go?’ He asked as Carrie fell off the couch. ‘She get into the Jimmy again?’ He privately questioned Bree.
She nodded. ‘Maybe we should just stay here, we’ll see you when you get back. She’ll be too much of a hassle.’
Jackson shook his head insistently. ‘No, I’m not going alone. She can come, we’ll just have to keep an eye on her and have her looking at least a little sober to get her through the door. After that we’ll be sweet.’
‘Oh cool, so you want me to play babysitter all night so you don’t look like a loner?’
‘Please?’ Jackson crossed his fingers and waited for her answer.
‘Fine.’ She rolled her eyes. Within 15 minutes they were ready and out the door. It was going to be an interesting night. Bree did not know what she was in for when she stepped out that door.

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