Chapter Text
A boy and his brother sit in the backseat of their parent's car. The one on the left looks out the window, his head resting on his chin. He squints at the rising sun that peeks through the trees as the car passes through the lighter clusters of woods. His light blue eyes are a little more sensitive to the sun than someone who has darker eyes like his brother, but his sight in the dark is above average, something that doesn't come in handy very often. His light brown hair starts falling in front of his face, interrupting his attempt at seeming angsty as he looks out the window. He whips his head to the side, getting his short hair out of his face. He quickly goes back to glaring out the window, not very pleased about the situation he's in. He lets out a hard sigh of frustration. The boy sitting next to him looks at him, his eyebrows furrowing in sympathy. The older kid always looks like he is mad, so a "sympathetic" look from him looks more like he's judging someone.
"Jeff," the older kid whispers to his brother next to him.
"What?" Jeff barks back at him, not caring for the tone of his voice or the fact that his brother is trying to talk as privately as possible while in close proximity to their parents in the car.
The older kid continues his thought, "We're home."
Jeff was so caught up in his anger that he didn't even notice the car stop in front of the house. He lets out a sigh and unbuckles his seatbelt.
"It's going to be okay, Jeffery. You know how important this job is to your father, so the move was necessary. You're going to have to start accepting change some time or another." Mrs. Woods has always been a brutally honest mother. She had to grow a lot of thick skin in order to stay sane as a mother taking care of two teenage boys, especially with Liu's health issues and Jeff's anger issues. Regardless of her stern nature, she sees her children as, "A gift from God," as she tells everyone. Jeff doesn't say anything; he just glares at his mom through his eyelids for a few seconds before leaving the car. Liu followed shortly behind him, catching up to him as quickly as he could. Normally, Jeff is the one to trail behind his brother like a lost child.
Margaret lets out a hard sigh. She does her best not to get mad at him, but the occasional argument is bound to happen, in her opinion. It's something she's always seen as normal between people who love each other. She looks at her husband, Peter, who is staring at his hands as they rest on the wheel with his mouth pulled into a line. Margaret lets out another sigh, "Come on. We've got to let them in the house sometime." She smiles at her husband, who has no idea how to respond to emotions. He looks back at her and smiles, "Yeah." They get out of the car and walk up the driveway to the front door where the two teenagers are standing.
Margaret unlocks the door to the house. Jeff storms up the stairs into his room, brushing past boxes lined across the hallway on his way there. He sits on the edge of his bed and lets out a hard sigh. The last thing he wants is to start all over again, especially after just having made a connection with a student at his old school. He felt like everything always has to go wrong, every time he gets close to someone.
A few hours pass. The sound of tape ripping off of boxes goes through the house. Jeff winces at every loud noise before angrily covering his ears with his pillow. He kept his eyes locked to the wall next to him. He starts mumbling to himself about how shitty this place is and how much he hates things being different. His thoughts are interrupted by a knock at the front door.
A few seconds and a lot of eavesdropping later, Jeff hears his mother call from the bottom of the stairs at him.
“Jeff, come meet the neighbors.”
He lets out a groaning sigh as he walks down the stairs, begrudgingly.
“Hello there.” An unfamiliar feminine voice comes from the front door. “I’m Barbara.”
She extends a hand out to Jeff and Liu, who are standing behind their mother. Liu shakes her hand, hesitantly. Jeff ignores her and continues to stare at the woman.
He barely listens to the conversation, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed in front of his chest. His ears perk up at the word “birthday party”. Jeff feels his heart drop. He looks up and gives his mother a questioning glance.
“That sounds lovely. I’m sure they would love to go to your son’s birthday party.” Margaret responds, not letting the kids speak for themselves. Jeff interjects, but Margaret puts her hand up to silence him. He looks over at Liu, his brother looking just as uncomfortable by all of this as him.
“That’s wonderful. Oh! I almost forgot. Billy!” Barbara calls out to her kid from behind her. A short, young teenager runs up. Jeff didn’t get a good look at him, as the kid just said “Hi” and ran off. Jeff cringes at the awkwardness of that interaction.
“Well, if that’ll be all, we will see you at the party. It was nice meeting you Barbara,” Margaret responds.
“Nice meeting you too. See y’all there.” Barbara waves and walks away. Margaret shuts the door behind her. Jeff glares at his mom, watching her return to unpacking. Liu looks over at his brother with concern. Before Liu could say anything, Jeff is already following his mom into the kitchen.
“Why did you do that?” Jeff asks his mom with a gruff voice.
‘“Do what?” Margaret responds, gently unwrapping glasses and putting them in the cabinet.
Jeff steps in front of his mother, stopping her from putting the glass in the cabinet. “Invite me to some kid’s birthday party? If you haven’t noticed, I’m not an idiot child anymore, Mom.”
Margaret lets out a sigh and tilts her head at him. Her tone of voice gets more strict. “We need to make a good impression for the neighbors. We can’t have people thinking we’re rude or anything. Now, go finish unpacking. You start school tomorrow.” She brushes past her son and puts the glass in the cabinet.
Jeff knew there was no arguing with his mom after she had already made up her mind about something. He lets out a sigh and storms back up the stairs. The creaking of him throwing his body onto his bed is heard from downstairs.
“Teenagers,” Margaret mumbles to herself.