My Undercover Life

Episode 13

Before I knew it, half of my classes went by in a breeze. When the bell signaled for lunch, I was the first one out of my seat, rushing towards my locker. I was about to dial in my combination when I jumped nearly three feet in the air.
On impulse, I twisted around smacking whoever scared the living daylights out of me. But, when I saw the familiar face howling in pain, I couldn’t help but gasp in horror. My hand automatically went up to his cheek, checking the damages I caused.
“Oh my God!” I shouted, eyes-wide. “Ian, are you okay!?”

“Kind of…” He grimaced, rubbing the side of his cheek. I bit my lips in guilt as I saw his pale skin, reddening. His eyes snapped up, round and doe-like. “Why did you hit me?”
“I-I didn’t think it was you,” I told him honestly, feeling like s–t. “I kind of reacted.”
“Still!” He raised his voice, his lips turning into a pout. “That really hurts!”

“Sorry,” I apologized, my shoulders hunching over in despondency. “I promise I won’t hit you next time.” I placed my palm on my heart, swearing.
“Good.” He laughed, pout gone. “But seriously, Avery. You hit hard. I didn’t think you’ll get that scared.”
“Well, it’s kind of hard not to when someone sneaks up on you like that. Like seriously!” I motioned my hands around as I talked. “How the hell did you even managed to get behind me without me hearing you at all?”
His face twisted up into a smirk, waving his hands around as well. “It’s easy.” The smile on his face more pronounced. “It’s one of my many special skills.” He winked at me.
I arched an eyebrow at him. “I don’t think scaring the living crap out of someone is considered a skill.”
“It only ever scared you.” He shrugged, running his lean fingers through his platinum blonde hair. “And plus I wanted to surprise you. I thought you’ll be happy to see me . . .”
“I am!” I exclaimed, seeing the glint of sadness in his eyes, even though his smile was still there on his face. “Just don’t do that anymore . . . I’m easily frightened,” I confessed, even though I hardly got scared when I was younger. I guess growing up changed that.
“Alright,” he promised, clapping his hands cheerfully together. “So,” he started out, hovering over my shoulders, “what were you doing before I got here?”
“Eh.” I rolled my shoulders up, facing my locker once again. “I was going to switch out some of my textbooks before I head to lunch.”
“Oh!” he shouted, as I felt his presence close behind me. His breath lingered on my neck for a second, as he spoke. “Can I walk with you?”
“Yeah, sure, just let me do this first,” I said, turning the knob to the left, then to the right, and then the left again. Once I heard the soft click, I lifted the lock, and opened the gold-painted lockers. Drifting my eyes downwards, I gathered up my textbook, and switched them out for my afternoon classes.

Once my bag was stuffed again, I slammed my locker shut, spinning around to see Ian smiling happily, as he whistled some catchy tune.
“Ready?” he asked, skipping over to my right.
I giggled. “Ready! Let’s hurry and meet the others, shall we?”
“Let’s!” he hollered, hooking his arm around mine. I couldn’t help but smile as I skipped happily to lunch with Ian by my side. Of course I didn’t miss the stares and the whispers of our fellow classmates as we bypassed them. They were mostly looking at Ian, giving him weird looks, but as I eyed him in the corner of my eyes, he was totally oblivious to all the stares. The corners of my lip curved upwards, smiling, feeling the joyful radiance practically oozing out of him. Ian—he really was a gem.

---

“There you are!” was the first thing I heard when the double doors to the cafeteria opened. “I’d saved a seat for you Avery!” Hunter said, jabbing his fingers behind him. Looking behind his shoulder, two empty seats surrounded by a group of his friends sat in the middle of the room, centered by the other groups of people, just like yesterday.
“Um, thanks Hunter.” I smiled at him, “but I was actually going to sit with my friends. They’re probably waiting for me already.”
His smile deflated. “But I thought you said, ‘you’ll see me at lunch’?”
I nodded slowly. “I did, but I never did said I’ll sit with you.”

“Oh . . .” Seeing his brown eyes stirring with sorrow, his demeanor flipping, I couldn’t help but feel guilty. I should’ve been more clearer with him if I’d known he would get the wrong idea from it.
“You can join us if you want,” Ian offered, stepping in before I could say anything back.
Hunter’s eyes snapped to Ian’s. His brow arched down in confusion, probably trying to put a name to his face. “Um, and you are . . .?”
“The ‘freak’ as you so put it.” Ian bowed down, gesturing his hand towards his body. “Nice to meet you, your gracefulness.”
Recognition dawned on him, as Hunter pulled his bottom lip in, chewing on it carefully. “Listen dude . . .” Hunter started, scratching the back of his neck in nervousness. “I was um, in a bad mood yesterday, and I really didn’t mean any of that. I’m really sorry though.”
“It’s fine!” Ian laughed, smacking Hunter on the arm. “Now, are we just going to stand around here or are we going to get some food? Because, I don’t know about you guys but I’m freaking starving! And I want my stomach to stop growling at me.”
“I already got my food,” Hunter said, pointing behind him. “But I’ll wait for you. Where are you guys sitting?”

“You’re actually sitting with us?” I asked, pretty shocked. I would’ve thought he’ll refuse, and demand me to sit with him again or something. Maybe he really was in a bad mood yesterday? Because in all honestly, I have no idea how we went from lashing out at one another to actually having civil conversations with each other in a day. Especially on my end of things.
“Outside.”
“In December?” His eyebrow shot up. “You’re kidding right?”
I smirked, poking him. “Aw, is the big bad Hunter afraid of the cold?”
“No!” he shouted, a little bit too fast may I add. “I’ll meet you there!” He started off towards his table, a determined look plastered on his face. He mouthed some things to his friends before making it back to us with his tray in his hands. My nose scrunched up seeing the gross looking pizza on his plate.
“Um Hunter, do you know where we even sit?”
“No, but I’m pretty sure I could figure it out. I doubt anyone else will be crazy enough to sit outside. Well . . . beside my brother that is.”
“He eats outside too?”

Hunter nodded, bringing the pizza up to his mouth. He took a small bite before putting it back down. “He hates loud noises,” he mumbled around his bite of food.

“How co—?”
“Avery!” Ian whined, pulling on my arm. He stomped his feet like a small child wanting something. “Can’t we just chat afterwards? That pizza is making me really hungry.” He pouted, eyeing me with those eyes of his.
“You go first, I’ll be right there.”
“Promise!?”

I laughed. “Promise, now go get your food!”
His smile brightened, as he nodded furiously. He turned around, waving his hands around in the air, as he shouted, “Yay! Food!” for the whole student body to hear.

When Ian was out of earshot, I turned my attention back to Hunter. “So as I was saying, how come Bradlee doesn’t like loud noises?”
“Um . . .” Hunter started off, sounding uneasy. “I shouldn’t be saying th—”
“I know he’s hard of hearing,” I interrupted him, seeing the surprised look on Hunter’s face.
“H-how?” he asked taken aback. “He usually doesn’t let anyone close enough for them to even notice.”

“I saw his hearing aid today,” I explained, seeing his mouth formed an ‘O’ shape. “Does, um, the loud noises bother him that much or something?”

“Uh yeah.” He lowered his head. “He can’t block out sounds out like the rest of us can. Every little noise hits him full on, and if he doesn’t take his medication, he can’t function correctly.”

“So that’s why he was outside yesterday . . .” I whispered under my breath, lost in my own thoughts. But then again, why was he looking at me so intensity…?

“What was that?” he posed, stepping closer towards me.

“Nothing!” I giggled nervously, taking a step back. “So, um listen I’m going to grab something to eat, and I’ll see you out back, okay?”

His brown eyes brightened, glowing of joy. Why? I wasn’t quite sure. “Alright!”
“Make sure to tell them I sent you though.” I gave Hunter a pat on the shoulder before I made my way over to the lunch line. Even though I was still a few feet away from Ian, I could hear Ian, talking loudly to himself debating if he should have the chicken nuggets or the pizza. Seeing the lunch lady roll her eyes at him, I could tell she was getting impatient.
“Why don’t you just get both?”
“But then I’ll get fat!” he complained, his eyes not even looking at me.
“Trust me Ian, you won’t get fat.” The boy was like one hundred pounds. Even if he did magically gain weight, he still won’t be considered fat by any means.
“How would you know?” He finally faced me. “Can you see into the future?”
“No Ian.” I chuckled, throwing my head back. “Just trust me on this.”
“Fine,” he concluded, turning back to the lunch lady. “I’ll get the pizza and the chicken nuggets then!”
“Do you want corn or carrot—” She shut her mouth realizing her mistake a little bit too late. Whispering a quiet, “s–t” under her breath, she slapped her forehead, shutting her eyes.
“Geez.” Ian started tapping his index finger under his chin in thought, “I’m not exactly sure . . .”
“For the love of—” the lady started to scream, before I cut in. I didn’t want an argument to break out or something.
“—Ian, just get them both, alright?” I suggested, praying he would do as I said.
“But what if I don’t finish it?”
“Then you can throw it out,” I stated the obvious, extending my hand towards the trashcan located by the double doors we’d just walked through.
“But, I don’t like wasting food!” he retorted, “think about all of the starving children in Africa! I just feel so bad about—”
“Then I’ll have it, okay?”
“Well . . .” he paused in mid-sentence, giving it a second thought, “I guess that’s alright.”
“Great!” I chirped, hearing the lunch lady giving out a sigh of relief. In the corner of my eye, I could see her curving a smile at me, thankful. I smiled back as I faced her, stating my order, “Can I please just get the chicken salad with corn on the side?”
“You can have whatever you want sweetheart,” she said, probably still grateful for what I’d done.

After she handed us our trays full of food, we paid for them quickly before Ian could debate about getting fruit or not. When we got to our usual lunch spot outside, we saw Hunter and Megan chatting aimlessly while Annemarie and Asher watched, nodding their heads to whatever Hunter was saying.

I was about to wave my hand to get their attention when Ian screamed, “We’re here!” at the top of his lungs, letting everyone know in a five mile radius of our presence.
“Took you guys long enough!” Megan shouted, clearing two seats between her and hunter. Ian planted his butt next to Megan while I sat in between Ian and Hunter. “What happened? Did you guys get lost?”
“No,” I said, sitting crossed-legged. “Ian just couldn’t decide on what to get.”
“Hey!” he shouted, causing me to crank my neck back, his face practically two inches from mine. “It’s not my fault everything looked so good to me.”

“Sure it wasn’t.” I rolled my eyes, stabbing my fork into a piece of chicken. “So, what are you guys chatting about?” I asked, eyeing everyone in the group. I took a bite, chewing slowly, actually enjoying the chicken salad. It wasn’t too dry or too bland.

“Megan here,” Annemarie spoke up, “was just asking Hunter why his brother was so quiet compared to him.”
I arched a brow. “And?”
“Hunter just said, ‘it’s not my business to tell’.”

“I see . . .” I couldn’t help but hid the small smile ghosting across my face knowing that I was the only one to know the real reason why Bradlee was so quiet.

“He likes his space, that’s all,” Hunter pipped in, shrugging.
“Is he like that at home too?” Annemarie asked, as I saw a small flicker of interest in Asher’s oddly colored eyes.

Hunter nodded, as he took a loud gulp of his drink. “Yeah, he’s in his room a lot doing God knows what. The only time I ever see him at home is during dinner.”
“Do you guys even talk then?” Megan asked, joining the conversation.
“Of course! We’re not zombies you know.”
“Ha-ha.” She fake-laughed, rolling her light orbs at him. I couldn’t help but laugh as well, knowing that Megan’s God like image was forever ruined by Hunter himself. “So, I’m guessing you’re close then?” she asked next.
“Um . . . I wouldn’t say we’re the typical twins that stays glue to one another, but we’re not strangers either.”
I rolled my shoulders. “Better than nothing, right?”

“True.” Hunter gave me an open-mouth smile, before his eyes started squinting slightly. Soon his smile turned into a smirk. “And speaking about my twin, he’s right behind you actually.”
I jolted in my seat, twisting around preparing to see his lean body and those memorizing eyes of his, but he was no where in sight. “Where?” I asked, confused.

He covered a laugh, seeing my reaction. “Over there.”

Looking towards the direction Hunter was pointing to, I started to make out Bradlee’s figure sitting on the bottom bleachers. He had his headphones on, jamming away to whatever he was listening to, bobbing his head up and down. As I was about to turn away, his eyes flickered upwards, connecting with mine. I s—-d in a breath of air when I saw his eye swimming with despair a second later.