Chapter Ninety Two
Leif finished his homework and stretched. With Aralyn having moved out, the twins agreed to take separate rooms for the first time their lives. Leif had moved into her room, repainting it and removing the girly look and feel. Now it was painted in dark green and black, and Bo and Trixie had agreed to recarpet in dark green. Posters of theatre productions he and his brother had been in decorated the walls, along with posters of well-known theatre actors and their favorite movies.
At his desk was laptop. Logan had one to match in his room, which he had redone in gray and black, much to Trixie's chagrin. His posters were of James Dean and other rebellious figures, with mementoes of his theater productions.
"You ready to start those applications?" Logan wandered in.
"Yeah," Leif sighed, reaching for the stack. Logan flopped on his brother's double bed, spreading his out.
"You got your essays done?" Leif asked.
"Kinda. I figure we can use the same ones for most of them, tweak 'em here and there for specifics. Where do you want to start?"
"In-state I guess." They knew they couldn’t sit on their heels and wait for Julliard; they had to apply elsewhere too.
"Go for it. You know I love the theatre but I don't know that it's what I want to do," Logan flipped through the applications. "Have you thought about anything else since we auditioned?”
"I want to act, but I don’t know that I want to go to school. I mean, Julliard is the best, but even there, I don't know that I'd be happy in another classroom setting."
"Just don't go traipsing around the country on your bike, ok? 'Cause I don't think Dad and Mom will go for it a second time."
Leif grinned. "How come Aralyn got to do all the fun stuff?"
"Cause she's the oldest. They learned from her," Logan sighed.
There was knock on the semi-open door and they looked up to see Bo in the doorway.
"Hi, Dad," they chimed.
"Come on in," Leif added. Bo stepped in, trailed by Sean, their fourteen-year-old brother who carried a plate of cookies.
"Your mama's on a tear about something, mind if I hide out up here for a few minutes?" Bo's dark blue eyes twinkled at his sons.
"Not if Sean'll share the cookies," Leif smiled at his younger brother, who sat on the floor next to him. Leif leaned down and snagged a cookie.
"What’s Mom riled about?" Logan asked, flipping through the Julliard brochure.
"Something about someone dyeing clothes in the washer and not rinsing it out, so her favorite white blouse got ruined," he answered calmly.
Logan's eyes bulged out. "Oh no. That was me. I'll take care of her."
"Go bat your eyes at her," Bo laughed, "and smile. It always works for me." Logan leapt from the bed and hurried downstairs to soothe the irate Trixie.
Bo's eyes turned to his oldest son. "You boys busy?"
"Just college stuff," Leif shrugged. His dad had been pretty cool with his older sister skipping college and going on a cross country jaunt with their cousin Tiffany, until the incident in Texas. Leif was pretty sure Bo wouldn’t go for that again.
"You sound about as enthusiastic as your sister did," Bo commented. "You got other dreams too?"
"I don't know," Leif ran his hand through his curly hair. "I want to act; I know that much."
"Just not in school?"
"Yeah," he admitted. "But if I could get into Julliard, I could settle, I guess."
Bo just smiled. "You know it's the genes."
"The genes?"
"The Duke genes. Just can't settle down."
"You did, with Mom," Leif said.
"There's a difference between settling down to make a life, and settling for a life," Bo replied. Leif laughed.
"I never thought you'd say something like that. Sounded more like Luke."
"Well, truth is, I settled down with the woman I love. But my job is anything but settling."
Leif nodded. The NASCAR car driver turned US Marshal was a self-admitted adrenaline junkie, a trait his oldest daughter had inherited. The twins themselves weren’t ones to shy away from an adrenaline rush, either.
"Keeps the blood going. And your mama keeps me in line," he smiled ruefully, studying the boy who resembled his wife so much.
"Would you be mad if I decided not to go to college?"
"No," Bo said simply, "and I ain't disappointed if it what's you really want. Of course, we'd like to think we managed to send one kid to college on time."
Leif grinned. "I'm just restless, Dad. I think want to be on Broadway, or maybe the movies. I can’t decide."
"A Hollywood life ain't as easy as it sounds, son," Bo said.
"I know. And I'd kind of like to stay in New York. I think I’m leaning towards theatre."
"Well, think some more on it and let me know. In the meantime—"
"I'll apply to school," Leif grinned. "Hey, Dad?"
"Yeah?"
Leif bit his lip, wishing Sean wasn't in the room but better Sean than his twin, who would tease him. "I know how you met Mom, but how'd you know she was the one?"
Bo looked surprised. "Well, I guess I always knew. The moment we met here was just something there. But it took her being thrown out a window and hanging from a flagpole before I realized there was no one else for me."
Leif nodded. He knew the story, but just wanted to hear it confirmed.
"You meet a little filly you like?" Bo asked mildly. “Kinda young, ain’t you?”
Leif rolled his eyes. "She's not a filly, Dad." Bo’s southern expressions amused Leif.
"Well, if you meet the right one, you'll know," Bo smiled at his son, wondering what it was he and Trixie had done to make all three of his older children reluctant to pursue normal teenage relationships. Not that Bo was complaining! The last thing he needed was one of the boys turning out like him, or Aralyn coming home pregnant by a boy she hardly knew. Or God forbid, one of the boys knocking a girl up.
Leif nodded again as Logan came back in, smiling with a cookie in his hand.
"The Duke charm wins again," he said dramatically, dropping to the bed.
"Told you. She can't resist." The Duke men shared a laugh.
***
The next day Leif found himself paying unusual attention to what he wore. While most comfortable in jeans, he finally decided on a deep blue, button down, short- sleeved shirt over a white t-shirt. In his usual style, casual, but he knew his mother was fond of him in dark blue, and wondered if Sarai would notice.
After the usual noisy breakfast, the twins grabbed their matching black leather jackets and helmets, heading out the door.
Leif was surprised to see she was ready, but then, he noted, she didn't seem like the type to be ultra-fussy about her appearance. She had a natural prettiness to her, with her own style, and he appreciated that.
"You left your helmet with me yesterday," she called, walking out to greet the twins. Leif had removed his helmet.
"I know. I figured you'd let me pick you up if you had it," he grinned.
She gave him an amused smile.
"Good thing I'm not the kind of girl to fuss about my hair."
"I like your hair," his blue eyes were warm.
"You would know the hell of curly hair," she said thoughtfully, slipping her other arm through her backpack, "but if I cut it off, I’d look like a boy.”
Leif let his eyes wander down her curvaceous figure, smiling when he saw the worn combat boots on her feet. "No one’ll take you for a boy," he grinned as he slipped his helmet on, "trust me."
Sarai couldn't find an answer since he had put his helmet on. Quickly she put her helmet on, hoping he wouldn't notice her blushing.
Leif grinned behind his visor as he realized he'd embarrassed her. Good, she’s modest, he thought, smiling as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
***
It turned out her homeroom was with the twins. There weren’t enough students whose last names started with D, so they were mixed in with the Cs, while E, F and G were together.
"Just put it in your locker," Leif said mildly when she tried to give him the helmet.
Aware of other students watching, Sarai did so, not wanting to cause a scene. The trio walked towards homeroom, Leif very aware of the girls watching. By now he knew the rumor mill would have spread like wildfire, everyone would know the new girl had been given a ride home, and to school that morning.
Mabon was in her gym class as well, and Sarai was relieved as the perky blonde gave her a winning smile. Mabon was chosen as a team leader for dodge ball, and promptly called Sarai to her team.
Sarai noticed a familiar-looking girl with beady dark eyes watching. She had been in a class or two with her the day before she thought. Thin lips, ratty dark hair, she seemed to be putting some extra force into her ball throwing—mostly at Sarai. Mabon returned the favor, hitting the girl with it hard, and Sarai wondered about the girl. She suspected there was history there between her and Mabon.
As she redressed from her quick shower, she froze when she heard someone say, “That can’t be her real hair. I mean, did she not get enough attention as a child?”
Two girls giggled with her, and Sarai felt hot tears poke her eyes. Any other school she’d blend in, but not here. Not in this preppy place. She should have gone with the plain, dark brown hair, like she had been told to.
The catty voice continued. "I’ve been trying to land Leif Duke for over a year, and that purple-haired skank just comes in and snatches him away!"
"Oh relax, and stop being catty. She seems really nice," came a milder voice. “Besides, all the Belden-Dukes like her. She can’t be that bad if they’ve taken her in. You don't have a claim on Leif, you know. He's been pretty clear he has zero interest in you.”
Sarai stuffed her books into her bag, preparing to slip out the door.
"Leif Duke is going to be mine is what he is," the first girl continued, "you just wait and see!"
Neither the speaker nor Sarai saw Mabon Belden stroll right up to the snarky girl. At the sound of Mabon’s icy voice, Sarai turned to watch. So did the rest of the locker room.
“Let me tell you a thing a two, Cammie West,” the bright blue eyes were blazing as the blonde squared off against the brunette. “My cousin has better sense than to even look your trashy way. He has taste in women. And if he didn’t, then I wouldn’t let anyone related to me get within in ten feet of your skanky self. Do I need to remind you what happened when your whore of a sister interfered with my cousin Aralyn? How’d that work out? Oh right, Cam chose Aralyn over your nasty sister.” The blue eyes became slits as Mabon advanced just slightly. “So back the hell off both my friend and cousin, or you and I are going to have serious words.”
Mabon spun on her heel and picked up her backpack.
“Sarai, you ready?” she asked.
Stunned, Sarai nodded, and Mabon slipped one arm through hers as they headed out.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Sarai murmured.
“Yes, I did. Besides, I wanted to. That’s Cammie West. I’m generally not one to slut shame, but she and her sister are big ho’s and troublemakers. And I really don’t like calling other women names like slut or whore, but they bring it out in me. Her sister tried to split up my cousin Aralyn—that’s Leif’s older sister—and her boyfriend, but it didn’t work. Cam only ever had eyes for Aralyn. And Cammie is no better. She only sets her eyes on a guy once he’s hooked up with someone else. She likes the thrill of the steal.”
Sarai smiled at her friend. For the first time in a long time, she wondered if she could make a life here, instead of waiting for the next move.
They met up with the male cousins in Trigonometry, where Leif gave her a lazy, sexy smile. Sarai smiled back shyly.
From the corner of her eye, Sarai saw a pretty brunette girl toss a piece of folded paper on Mabon's desk. Her face went hot when she saw the purple marker. Now she was the subject of the notes. Great. Forcing the tears to not come, she focused instead on her test paper.
When the bell rang, she grabbed her books and dashed out the door before Leif could move towards her, melting into the crowd. Leif turned towards Mabon.
“What was that about?”
"I'll take care of it," she said grimly as the brunette girl joined her. Leif knew Janette; she was one of Mabon's best friends from childhood. Leif also knew Janette had a crush on Logan, and he had tried to get Logan to ask her out.
The two girls whispered together as they headed out of the classroom, and Leif and Logan made it to the hallway as they saw Mabon confront Cammie West at her locker. Janette had caught up with Sarai and was bringing her back.
"You have a problem with my friends, West? Guess what, I don't care. But don't you dare start the childish tactics your older sister pulled a few years ago! Just because you got implants this summer to make your tits a little bigger, doesn’t make you better than anyone else. If you think bigger tits will get my cousin in your bed, you’re stupider than you look, and that’s saying something. And if my cousin was to suddenly go deaf, blind and dumb and even think about agreeing to go out with you, I'd still slap him silly. This is the last warning you get—back off!"
The crowd that had gathered snickered as Mabon faced off against Cammie, the former stood several inches over the latter. Of course, word of the implants rippled through the crowd.
"What's going on here? Miss Belden?" Ms. Applegate had appeared.
"Nothing, Ms. Applegate. Just setting something straight." Mabon kept her eyes locked on Cammie.
"Well, do it a little more quietly. All of you, get to class," she snapped.
The crowd started to break up as the twins and Miles stepped forward. Janette was dragging Sarai towards Mabon.
Sarai had recognized Janette's voice from the locker room, as the one who had told Cammie to leave her alone. The pretty brunette had quickly caught up to her and insisted she come back to Mabon with her.
"I'm not touching that girl, ever!" Leif exclaimed, watching Cammie walk away. "I have standards, dude, and I don’t wat an STD!"
"Good to know," Mabon said dryly, putting her arm around Sarai’s shoulders. "C'mon, we better to get to class."
Sarai glanced at Leif. She hadn’t heard him protest going out with Cammie but his eyes were gentle when he smiled at her.
By lunch word had spread like wildfire about Mabon Belden telling off Cammie West, not once, but twice and Sarai noticed people seemed a lot more friendly towards her.
"Is this like, some long-standing feud between you two?" Sarai asked Mabon at lunch.
Leif answered first. He wondered if Sarai was a vegetarian, he had noticed her lunch both today and yesterday had no meat.
"Sort of. Her older sister Callie was in our older sister Aralyn's class. Callie started a nice rumor mill about Cam, the guy Aralyn was interested in, and that he had a bet going he could sleep with her, etc. Totally backfired but us being the loving family that we are—"
"—decided to protect our sister's honor," Logan took up the story, "and us, Mabon's older brother—"
"And me, our cousins Jesse and Jace all kinda ganged up on him," Miles finished.
"Poor guy turns and there we are, having him surrounded after Aralyn ripped him a new one in the hallway. The guy turned as white a sheet," Logan laughed. “And he’s a big guy!”
"He did some fast talking, trying to explain to us Callie was starting all these rumors. Rayma, Miles and Mabon's older sister came along and talked us out of pummeling the guy."
“Let’s be honest, he could have wiped the floor with all us scrawny boys if he had wanted,” Logan laughed.
"How sweet," Sarai answered with a sile, amused. "What happened? Are they still together?"
"No. They broke up this spring for the third time.” Logan answered, taking a bite of his sandwich.
“Second,” Mabon corrected. “Aralyn is seeing someone else right now. We haven’t met the new guy yet, but Cam was a great guy.”
“We met him skydiving, remember?” Leif asked. “We told you.”
“I meant me and Miles.”
“He’s nice enough, I guess, looks uptight,” Logan said. “But he seems like Ari’s type – tall, dark hair, good looking.”
"Off track, guys,” Mabon said, rolling her eyes.
Sarai had noticed the brothers often finished each other’s sentences, but Miles and Mabon rarely did.
"Hope Frankie-boy is up for some pranking," Logan snickered. "Cam never minded us pranking him, he’d give it right back."
“Are you going to get into trouble for that scene earlier?" Sarai asked Mabon softly. As entertaining as the twins were being, she was worried about the potential drama.
"Nah. The administration loves me," she grinned. “Currently I’m in the lead to be valedictorian the spring, with only Miles close behind.”
The rest of the day was bearable until Sarai realized Cammie was in her Physics class, but none of the Dukes were. She did take pride in receiving the only A on the previous day's surprise test. She could feel Cammie's beady eyes boring into her from the back of the room, but Sarai didn't care. She had been hearing whispers of Mabon being Homecoming Queen, and a shot of warmth spread through her as she realized one of the most popular girls in school, and her family, had welcomed her into their social circle.
At the beginning of their next class, Leif slapped his forehead.
"Hey, I forgot we've got rehearsal today after school. If you don’t mind waiting, I'll take you home."
"Oh, I can ride the bus," she answered.
"Nonsense. We can take you home," Miles said.
"No, it's—"
"We live on the street two over from you, one over from them. It's not out of the way," Miles said.
"But I—"
"You could watch us rehearse," Logan suggested.
"How about I go to the library for some research, and then meet you afterwards?" Sarai asked. The twins agreed.
Leif found her in the library that evening after play rehearsal, curled up in a chair immersed in a heavy book.
"Genetics?" he asked, standing over her shoulder.
She jumped and he winced. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”
"It's my major when I go to college," she explained.
"You understand that stuff?"
"Well, sure," she laughed.
"I understand that basic chart they taught us in fifth grade or something but that’s about it. Logan and I look like our mom, my sister looks like my dad, and our little brother looks like our uncle and grandfather. That’s about as much as I get into it," he grinned at her as she picked up her books. “My cousin Riley—that’s Mabon and Miles’ older brother—is a total science geek, he can talk all day about specific genes and stuff. He works in cancer research, so he knows all that.”
"The basics aren't difficult at all, once you move pass the standard percentage of hair and eyes what child is going to have what feature, it gets more involved."
"So, are you into like, cloning?" he asked. One shoulder lifted and dropped gracefully.
"For me it's more about tracking characteristics, like is there a gene for anger, a gene for obesity, stuff like that. I think cloning is kind of dangerous, not to mention, screwing with Mother Nature."
"You are one fascinating girl," he murmured with a smile, and without thinking. His smile increased when she blushed. One thing he had inherited from his father was the Duke smile and charm.
"Thanks," she managed, wishing her heart wasn't pounding.
"You're welcome," he slung one arm around her shoulders, sending a shot of heat through her body. "C'mon, let's get you home."
***
When Leif took her home that afternoon, Logan turned off onto their street as Leif dropped Sarai off alone.
"Hey, do you have plans tomorrow night?" he asked, pulling his helmet off.
"No," she said hesitantly. Was this why he had been so nice? Just to ask her out?
"Good. Some of us from drama club are going for pizza tomorrow after rehearsal. Would you want to join us?"
"Uh, sure," she stammered. Her reward was the sexy smile, distracting her from the thought of being social in a group of people she didn’t know.
"Great. Your parents won't mind you coming home late?"
"Nope," was the short answer.
Touchy subject, Leif thought.
"Cool," he grinned, “pick you up tomorrow.” As he slipped his helmet back on, starting up the bike.
Meet the cast in full & see the family tree!
Author’s Notes
- A huge yee-haa to the fabulous and lovely Ronda, for editing!
- Word Count, 3,603
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