“Military school? What is he talking about, Sebastian?” Mikey asked as she watched Sebastian get to his feet.
“Nothing,” he bit out with a look of warning for his brother as he reached down and helped her up. Mikey looked back at Jonathan in time to see him mouthing, “Sorry,” to his brother with a sympathetic wince that had Mikey absently nodding as she came to a decision.
“Where are you going?” Jonathan asked as Mikey headed for their bedroom door, deciding that she’d played enough games for one night.
“To get answers,” Mikey said as she reached for the bedroom door only to find Sebastian suddenly in her way.
“You promised,” he bit out accusingly.
“No,” Mikey said, reaching over to shove him out of her way before she continued, “what I promised was that I wouldn’t tell your parents that you wanted to go back to school, but since this is a completely different topic, I think I’ll go see what your parents have to say about it.”
“Fine!” Sebastian bit out. “What do you want to know, brat?”
Folding her arms over her chest, Mikey met his glare with one of her own as she said, “Everything.”
Eyes narrowing on her, Sebastian said, “They’re thinking about sending me to military school.”
“Why would they do that?” Mikey asked, unable to help but frown because that didn’t sound like something his parents would do.
“Because the therapist thinks that it would be good for him,” Jonathan said, drawing her attention to find him watching Sebastian. “You want to go back to school? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because it’s not a big deal,” Sebastian said with a pointed look at Mikey as he walked past her and headed back to his bed.
“Maybe if you told Mom and Dad they wouldn’t–”
“They’re not going to send me to military school without a good reason,” Sebastian said, cutting off his brother as he grabbed his book and dropped down on his bed.
“They might if your therapist is telling them to,” Mikey said, wondering why he wasn’t freaking out about this because this was definitely one of those things that he should be freaking out about.
She was definitely freaking out about it.
“Which is why I don’t plan on going back,” Sebastian said as he reached over and grabbed hold of her hand so that he could pull her back down on the bed next to him.
“So, your plan to avoid being sent to military school is to stop going to therapy and give your parents another reason to worry about you?” Mikey asked, blinking slowly.
“She has a point,” Jonathan said, dropping down on the end of the bed with a sigh. “You have to keep going.”
“Or you could just tell your parents what’s really going on,” Mikey suggested as Sebastian handed her book back to her.
“Nothing’s going on,” the stubborn jerk said, gesturing for her to open the book.
“Then you should have no problem talking to them,” Mikey pointed out as Sebastian gave up waiting for her to open the book and plucked it out of her hands so that he could do it.
“It’s fine, so stop worrying about it and focus on getting this book report done on time,” Sebastian said, handing the book back to her.
Knowing that it was pointless to argue with him when he got like this, Mikey grabbed the book with a muttered, “Fine,” and settled back, deciding that she might as well get this over with, but once she was done with this damn book report they were going to talk whether he wanted to or not.
*-*-*-*
“I really hate you,” came the weakly mumbled words as Mikey shifted between his legs so that she was curled up on her side with her head laid against his chest.
“I know you do, but we’re almost halfway there,” Sebastian said around a yawn as he glanced at his alarm clock and saw that it was almost four in the morning.
“I really hate you, too,” Jonathan said as he threw his arm around Mikey and–
Found himself shoved off the bed.
Ignoring his brother’s pained grunt and his sadly mumbled, “Why are you so mean to me?” Sebastian returned his attention back to the book that they needed to get through only to realize that Mikey had fallen asleep, again. She was so damn adorable, he thought, biting back a sigh as he gently cupped her shoulder and gave her a small shake.
“Mikey?”
A grumble, a groan, and the cutest damn whimper that he’d ever heard was her response as she blindly reached down, grabbed the comforter and yanked it over her head, almost knocking the charging wire from the iPad he’d been forced to use when it became obvious that they weren’t going to be able to read the book without turning the light on. Since he didn’t think it was a good idea to alert his parents to the fact that Mikey was sleeping over again, he’d used his last eBook credit and downloaded the book so that they could read it on his iPad.
“We have to finish this book if you want to play baseball,” he reminded her, waiting for the moment when his words sank in and when they did…
“Fine,” came the muttered response as Mikey shoved the comforter away with a soft sigh and an impatient gesture for him to get on with it as Jonathan dragged himself off the floor and walked the short distance back to his bed where he dropped down on his mattress with a groan and promptly began snoring.
“You’re too kind,” Sebastian drawled as he returned his attention to the iPad, noting that they were only forty percent through the book.
Damn.
At this rate, she was going to have to read all day, most of the night and all day tomorrow if she had any hope of finishing the book on time. For a moment, he considered writing the book report for her and breaking down the book for her in case her teacher asked questions, but she would probably throw something at his head if he even suggested it, Sebastian thought, unable to help but smile as he thought about the real reason that he liked her so much.
She was…different.
There was really no other way to put it. She was also funny, kind, smart, determined, too damn adorable for words, and one of a kind. Most of the kids their age were concerned with what everyone else thought of them, but Mikey didn’t give a damn. She never bothered to pretend to be anything else but herself. She knew what she wanted and who she was and didn’t give a damn what anyone else thought, which was the first thing that he’d noticed about her the first time that he’d laid eyes on her.
After spending four hours in the car with his family, he’d needed some time to himself. So, while everyone else had been fighting over who was sleeping where, he’d been sneaking out the back of the cottage that his family had rented for the summer and found himself watching her. She’d been the cutest damn thing that he’d ever seen with her long hair in matching braids, wearing a baseball cap backwards and a baseball jersey at least two sizes too big for her as she yelled at her uncle for throwing like a girl and he hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her.
Whenever Mikey was around, he’d found himself watching her, wondering what it was about her that drew him in. She was definitely the strangest girl that he’d ever met, but that hadn’t been the reason why he hadn’t been able to keep his eyes off her. It wasn’t until he’d gone with her to pick up tools for the renovation on her house that he’d figured it out and once he did…