Young Writers Society

Ave

My throat burned. It was the one thing we had left of JJ- Halloweens and holidays. And she was taking that away.

"I'll be in the treehouse," I said sharply and promptly stormed, in a very Ave way, into the woods behind the house, pajama clad and sketchbook in hand. I heard Bethie sigh. I didn't even want to know what Zave was doing.

The treehouse was always my place- so picturesque, calm. After dumping my sketchbook on the hammock reserved for me, I dashed back in the house to grab an armful of food and bottled strawberry lemonade, and then back. Putting that in a cooler, I slammed the wooden door shut and threw myself on the hammock, burying my face in the pillow. I pulled a quilt around me and covered all of me save my forehead. Mm. Warm. And the good, strong build (and air control unit) meant my quilt was bug-free and... not icky.

So, after a good ten minutes of crying quietly- oh. Maybe I should explain the massive emotion? Okay. So, I know for a fact that Tiffani is set against any of us acknowledging the real JJ. Because apparently that's not the 'real' real JJ. Still with me? Good. So she comes over to meet us, as a favor to JJ, who she obviously didn't care for. Takes one look at zoned out, unresponsive me, with my abstract sketches and hugely wide eyes, and says, as if I can't hear, "Justin, your sister's, like, autistic or something."

Even Zave got mad at that. He's the only one who's allowed to do stuff like that, make jokes about my less than stellar responsiveness, and even then, he doesn't push it quite this hard, and he's known me since birth. Every time since, she's taken a look at us and stuck her nose up- like we were the losers at her school which doesn't make since we don't even attend.

And now JJ, the only brother I had who truly was affectionate of me, was leaving us for that.

But enough sniffling, I scorned myself. Grabbing a bottle of strawberry lemonade and a muffin, I flipped open my sketchbook and start on a clean, creamy sheet. JJ's face, looking so pained as Tiffani came swinging up, voice strained and eyes sharp; he knew she wasn't good for him.

The second I can see the hurt in his eyes, I tear out the sheet and stuff it in a drawer, even if it is one of my best drawings to date, my eyes welling up again.

Justin~

Justin came back downstairs a few minutes later. He was clad in a crisp white polo and nice jeans. He had on his boots, and had a Columbia jacket in his hand just incase Michaela got cold. The least he could do was give her a jacket while they were shopping at the square. He shook his hair out and smiled at Bethy, who was in the livingroom with a glass of sweet tea. "Where's Ave?" He asked after pecking his little sister on the cheek.

"Treehouse. Took her drawing pad with her." Justin sighed softly. He'd only seen three of his siblings that morning, Zave, Avery, and Bethy, and already one of them was upset. Geeze. It was probably his fault. Justin grabbed his wallet and put everything in the front seat before turning and jogging back to the tree house. He rung the bell at the bottom, Ave's dazed voice coming from above.

"Yeah? Who is it?"

"Me," Justin chuckled, and then proceeded to climb the ladder. Ave quickly flipped a page in her sketchpad as his eyes peeked over the floor of the tree house. "What's wrong kiddo?" He smiled softly, shutting the door behind him and sitting down in a comfortable position. He had about thirty minutes before he absolutely had to be at Michaela and Ellie's, so he had plenty of time.

Ave

I placed my body firmly in front of the drawer. No way was he seeing that. The birds were calling, begging me to draw, draw, draw, but I had to convince JJ I was fine first.

"Who said anything was wrong?" I said, voice chirpy. JJ pointed accusingly at the pillow, which had a nice old wet spot. He then moved his finger to my face, where I was sure my eyes were a little red-rimmed. I was often the one who could hide tears easiest, but JJ had a way with it. I shrugged and hit play on the battery-run iHome. I'd begged Daddy to put in an outlet, but it was yet to come.

Shoot. Acoustic version of Breaking. Anberlin. SHOOOT.

JJ raised an eyebrow. "Sad song plus sad face plus sad drawing?"

"Huhwha?"

He pointed to the sketchbook. Without knowing, I'd opened it again, and now a drawing of my face -god, wasn't I narcissistic?- with the lines faded and blurred was drawn on in thick pencil. And in the corner... oh, poop. JJ's face, looking after Tiffani. I snatched the pad closed before he could see that. He immediately lunged after me, corded arms overpowering my twigs in a second and flipping open the book. I lunged back to the drawer and remained my post as guard.

"Ave..." he murmured, scanning the page.

"Let me come with you!" I blurted.

"What?"

"I mean... you're about to leave, right? Let me come. And when Halloween comes... JJ, god, please come." My voice was shaking, and a clamped down on the corner of the desk to stop myself from bear-hugging him.

I just waited.

Justin~

Justin took a deep breath. She couldn't come. She'd find out all about Ellie and Michaela. "Ave... I can't take you... I'd love to, but I really can't, not this time." Justin frowned slightly. Avery's brow creased with frustration.

"If I can't go then I'm not going to come to your graduation." Justin laughed softly. This was Avery. His little sister. His (and he wouldn't admit this aloud) favorite little sister. He smiled and stood up. She wouldn't tell, he was sure of it.

"Alright, you can come. But I'll explain everything after we pick 'Tiffani'," he put air quotes, "up, alright?"

Ave gazed at him suspisiously, but noded her head nonetheless."Okay," she nodded and stood up, Justin smiling and opening the hatch. He dropped straight down, landing on the ground without a care. Avery hurried after him and then they raced to his truck, Justin even tripping over an old stump on the way there.

*All I gott, grr! Writer's block!*

Ave

I beamed and hopped my way along. I was one of -if not the most- nimbler ones of the family, and had to stop for JJ several times before we got to his truck, and I virtually launched myself. I was buckled and grinning ear to ear by the time JJ had even just gotten to the driver's side.

"Hold your horses, miss artiste," he mumbled at my excitement, the key sliding into the ignition. I just leaned forward as if I was a roller coaster fan, which I wasn't. Doo doo doo doo. (That was the Twilight Zone theme, by the way.)

And as we rolled forward, JJ looking doubtful and me looking adrenaline-pumped, I gripped my sketchbook with both hands.

Grace:

Now showered, in clothes, and with hair blow dryed and straightened, I headed for the stairs My black leather pants, black tanktop, black boots, my hair, adn my heavy eye make-up made me look goth but I could care less. Black is my favorite color, though you can't tell from my completely white, but extremely messy, room.

When I passed Xavier's room I heard him say something about a party. I burst through the door and he nearly jumped out of his skin. I popped my spearmint gum and said "I won't tell mom and dad if the band can come over too."

*Sorry it's short*

Bethie

I went outside and grabbed my electric scooter just in time to see Jordan walking up the driveway.

"Really, what's wrong?" I asked him.

"Stacy broke up with me," he admitted after a minute.

"I'm sorry," I pulled him into a hug, "Me and you will both go to the club tonight, you'll meet a girl who's actually pretty, and then you'll forget all about Stacy."

"Who's she?" Jordan mocked.

"That's the spirit. I'm going bowling, if you want to come."

"No, I'm okay," he went inside, and I drove my scooter of to the alley.

Xavier

I cursed under my breath, rolling my eyes at Grace. First, she'd started dressing like me. Then she'd started listening to the same music as me. She was beginning to act like me now. At the start, I felt kind of complimented, but it was rather annoying now.

"Fine, just as long as they don't get on my nerves." I muttered, pushing Grace out of my way.

I heard her say a pleasured thank you behind me as I ran down the stairs. As long as Grace didn't say anything, the party should have gone perfect. The other kids wouldn't say anything; I'd make sure of that. If they told my parents after the party happened, It would be fine. It was them distributing the party I was more concerned about. I'd waited way too long for a party in this house for it to be crap.

As I walked into the living room, I noticed how the sky was darkening outside. Today had gone pretty quickly, which surprised me. Normally int his house, the days dragged on like years. I seriously couldn't wait to move out. Dropping myself onto the sofa, I shut my eyes, smiling. For a moment, the entire house was silent. It was soon filled with noise again as I heard some of my siblings fighting over something. The silence was cut way too short, if you asked me.

"I'm hungry..." I sighed to myself, standing back up.

Jordan

After I had collected myself a bit, I walked back into the house. Maybe I would go to the club tonight with Bethie. I mean, it couldn't be that bad. I might even have fun.

Probably not.

I walked upstairs, and went to find Justin. I knocked on the door to his room, but there wasn't any answer. If I needed his stupid gospel tips anytime, it was now. I needed a little cheer, and if Bethie couldn't pick me up, he was my last option. Even playing guitar with Alex hadn't been any help, mostly because his girlfriend Sarah came. And I had to watch him and her make eyes with each other the whole time. It was gross, really.

So that didn't exactly cheer me up, as much as anyone could imagine it would.

I walked into Xavier's room, "Where the hell is Justin?"

"Not here," he said, and then waved me out of the room with his hand. Then he went back to talking on the phone. Jerk.