Chapter Text
Riland looked out the car window, his siblings bickering in the background as he saw houses and trees fly by him.
His siblings were always arguing, he turned back to them, "Hey, knock it off, guys. I didn't wake up to hear you guys bicker."
His little sister, Lila, looked up at him and stuck out her tongue, it was so quick that it looked more like her imitating a snake than trying to be rude. She then quickly continued her heated discussion of what dinosaur could beat a T-Rex with her twin, Benjamin.
"Moooooom, can you stop their arguing, it's giving me a headache," Riland wined.
Their mom let out a sigh and turned to Riland, "Honey, just ignore it. I have to deal with this too, but it's more important for me to concentrate on the road instead of the two savages right now."
Riland wasn't happy with that answer, but he didn’t want to risk the chance of having to walk to school again if he complained for much longer.
The last time he had to walk to school it was mid-fall, around the same time as it was now, and it coincidentally ended up snowing 10 inches the first day he had to walk (and of course, his siblings made fun of him as he trudged through the snow). He ended up missing half of his first class and got a tardy slip, cold and wet from walking, he didn’t dry off until it was time for him to walk home. That afternoon's walk was one of the worst in his life, with slightly damp pant legs from the morning and getting the bottom rim of his jeans soaked from the dirty slush. To top it all off, because the forces of the universe decided that he wasn't suffering enough and they had a twisted sense of humor, he stepped directly on a patch of slick ice that made him face plant into the muddy ice water. He definitely didn’t want a repeat of that dreaded day.
He pulled out his Walkman and earbuds to drown out the noisy twins he had to deal with on the regular. Right before he had completely tuned everything out, his mom tapped him on the shoulder.
He popped out an earbud and looked up at her from his slumped position, “Yeah mom?”
“Remember what I told you this morning,” she told him as she refocused on the road.
“Do I have to?” he half asked- half whined at her, though he was quickly shut up by an annoyed sigh that came from the driver's direction.
This morning had gone better than usual. He woke up on time after a good night's rest and his sisters weren’t harassing him to help them do their hair or makeup as soon as they noticed he was awake. (Why had they chosen him out of all of their siblings as their personal stylist was beyond him, it has been like this since they were just little kids.) His extended family had left just the day prior, Sunday morning, giving him room to finally breathe a little. The house was normally cramped with his large family, but with five more people in the house, it was unbearable. The loud ruckus of catching up, running through the house in the annual game of “extreme tag”, and his cousin's newborn crying over the already loud chaos he had to deal with on the regular was getting to be too much for him. He was barely able to keep it together for an entire week, thank god for the peace and quiet of the local library. He was also thankful that he finally had his bed all to himself at the end of the week and didn’t have to share it with 8-year-old wiggly Benjamin. He still has bruises on his ribs from being kicked off his bed (literally) in the middle of the night. His sisters didn’t bother him too much this morning, just a simple request from Jasmin to help with a french braid. He also had been excited for that morning, waiting for a day like today since last Tuesday afternoon. While his family was visiting they went to the mall and his mother got him a gift, she always does around this time of year as a reward for having to share his bed with one of his brothers so that his visiting family could have another place to sleep besides the couch. It usually was a small trinket, but his year had been special though, she had bought him a pair of brand-new Converse, the shoe he’d been eyeing for almost an entire year. He had fallen in love with the gray beauties when they were shopping for gifts last winter for the Holidays. It had been a secret desire that he had held inside of him, it was unreasonable to buy brand new shoes when he had perfectly good ones already. His mother, though, has seen his desire and gotten him them, even when his regular shoes had at least another month good on them since they didn’t have any holes. He loved his shoes and had waited for the perfect day to wear them, and he sensed that today would be that day.
After slipping into his brand new shoes, ready for the day ahead of him, he went downstairs. He was wearing what he typically wore, a pair of worn jeans, a shirt to some band that his sister used to like but now had gotten tired of, and an old hoodie that belonged to his oldest brother, Nick, before he went off to college. His mom was up and cooking breakfast for the family, based on the smell alone he knew it was pancakes with maple syrup in the batter. His mom always made pancakes and waffles like that, this way the little ones couldn’t drown their food and then throw away the lake of syrup at the bottom of their plate when they were full. It also made sure that nobody would have to deal with constantly having to stop eating to put topping on the others food. It also made the pancakes taste slightly like caramel, so that was an added bonus that he enjoyed.
When he made it to the kitchen he greeted his mom with a good morning like usual, though she seemed to be almost surprised by it.
“Oh, you seem happier than usual to be up. What happened? Don’t tell me you won the lottery and didn’t give any to your dear old mom,” she teased.
“I just had a good night's sleep, that’s all. It helps when Jamie isn’t kicking me off the bed,” he joked back.
It was true that Riland was visibly happier than usual. He had a slight smile when talking and looked half-way alive this morning. Normally when Riland came down he didn’t seem to have the energy to even walk out the door, let alone be in a good mood. It was routine for someone in his family to tell him that he had toothpaste on his shirt or had forgotten to do something as simple as brush his hair or put on his shoes. Riland was definitely not a morning person, you would think you were talking to a weirdly realistic and grumpy doll until he had been up for a couple of hours. It seemed that today would be a good day for him after all.
The morning went better than most, the twins didn’t get into any major arguments that couldn’t be easily diffused, nobody stole off of his plate, and they didn't seem to be running late. Yet, Rilands mood quickly changed for the worse when his mother cleared her throat, calling for his attention.
“So, Riland, it is still the beginning of the year,” He looked up at her from his plate as she spoke his name, “I bet that there must be some fun clubs that you are interested in.” She cocked him a slight smile as she said this, his siblings all have after school activities, so she must expect him to do the same thing. “Isn’t there a coding club or something you would be interested in? It would be a great opportunity to meet new people and have my baby boy start hanging out somewhere other than the library's computer lab,” she had walked over next to him and pinched his face as she said baby boy.
Riland pulled his face away from his mom's claws, he couldn’t believe that she would take a great day like this to try and force him to go out and make friends. “I’m just not interested in clubs right now. I am perfectly happy sitting at home and coding on our computer, I don’t need other people for that,” he said while rubbing the, now red, spot that his mother had pinched.
His mom let out a sigh at his defensive argument against even trying to meet new people. Then she gave him the look, the look that she always gives any member of the family that made them crumble to her will. It was pure evil for her to use her powers in the ways that she did, yet her villainous ways granted her the ability to not care. Her head was tilted down so that her eyes were looking up at him, which was quite the challenge due to both him sitting in a chair while she was standing up and his lackluster height. Her eyes looked as if they were slightly watering, her face slightly crumpled in disappointment. This look had made the most intimidating people fall to their knees, bending to her whims. Riland knew he was no match for it. He averted his eyes from hers and tried his best to keep his resolve, yet it quickly disappeared. He had been defeated in the small amount of time it took his mom to put on that face, and there was nothing he could do about it then glare. And glare he did, but not at his mom as he couldn’t bring himself to look again at her face, so he settled for glaring at his empty plate.
“Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt to look at clubs,” he mumbled down at his plate. Though he was mumbling, his mother seemed to have heard as she let out a little hum of triumph at the fact of her winning this battle. Without saying more she went back to preparing to leave, leaving Riland alone to wash his plate and prepare for both school, and the fact that he would have to go to a club later today.
He was not excited about joining a club, he didn’t even know what would accept him since it was already a couple months into the year. Then again, he could just try the robotics club or something like that and get told they were full, then he could confidently tell his mom that he was unable to join. That seemed like a decent plan and could definitely work, and if it didn’t it would delay his doom for another day.
Satisfied with his plan, Riland popped back in his earbud and rested his head against the glass window. The upbeat lyrics and beat of his music and the bumping of the car slowly drowned out the bickering of his siblings and thoughts of the impending doom that he would have to face at the end of the day.