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I like the storyline you have going, but it was kinda hard to read. If you need an editor, I'd be happy to smooth out the grammar a bit. Other than that, I would definitely like to read more. smile

EDITED

I looked at the picture of the blonde little girl and the two dark haired boys. Ah, the memories. I never did really enjoy my childhood, but I can't say it was the worst thing in my life....but then again, I guess in some ways it was. I put the picture down as I heard someone walk up behind me.

"He has lots of pictures, huh?"

I knew that voice before I turned around. Justin. He was my oldest brother, and Jake used to be my oldest brother, too....until he died.

"Yeah he does...did."

That's why we were all here; everyone in the family, even the people who hated us. The only family member who wasn't here was my sweet, little, old Mama. She's been in a coma for almost three years now, we're about to give up. It's going to be hard to tell her that while she was asleep, her little boy died. Not that Jake was much of a little boy, I mean he was twenty-six, but to every parent we are babies no matter how old we are.

I closed my eyes and relaxed. I thought back to when we were all together. I would say happily together, but it was never happy being with each other.

"Jake!"

I shook Jake but he wasn't waking up. There were tears welling up in my eyes. I ran over to Justin's bed and shook him.

"Justin! Jake won't wake up!" I said almost crying.

Since I was five then I didn't know that Jake was sick. Justin sat up and moved his shaggy, black hair out of his face. He didn't seem really happy. He always hated it when I came into their room without asking, or if I sneaked into their room to sleep with Jake. Jake never minded though, he always welcomed me into his bed.

Justin picked me up and put me on his bed.

"Sit here."

He walked over to Jake’s bed and just stood there. He stood there and waited, for what seemed to be minutes. After a while Jake started laughing. He sat up and looked at me. Once I was in that glance, there was no way for me to get out. It was impossible for me to lie to Jake.

Even though Justin and Jake's eyes were different, people still got them confused. People also always wondered how they had black hair and I had blonde. I always gave a toothy smile and said, "I don't know."

"I was just playing, Klaire Bear, don't worry." Jake got up and sat on Justin's bed with me.

He put me on his lap and played with my hair.

Annoyed, Justin said "Well, how about you stop playing jokes on her and then maybe I can get some sleep. I mean it’s bad enough the two of you were up all night watching horror movies."

Justin got in Jake's bed and threw the covers over his head, then went back to sleep.

Jake and I just laughed.

I opened my eyes and looked around. Sometimes I just slip into my mind and not notice a thing. The reason we had different hair colors is because we weren't actually related. Their dad married my mom when was I was three, so I guess to me they feel like my real brothers.

"Hey, Klaire, you there?" Justin waved his hand in front of my face.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm here."

That wasn't fully true. I never really was "here" anymore; I always just seemed to escape whether it was on purpose or on accident.

"Time for the ceremony to start, come on."

Justin took my hand and led me to the front where my father and the priest were. I wasn't ready for this. I didn't want to be sitting next to Jake lying in a coffin. It was too much for me to handle.

I pulled away from Justin.

"Uh...I'll be up there in a couple minutes, okay? I'm going to get some fresh air." I waited to see if he believed the lie. "You know, with all the people here and all." I made a motion with my hands

He nodded, and I slowly walked away from him, slowly leaving behind my dead beloved brother, slowly leaving the disaster soon to happen.

Not everyone in the family got along, and a lot of the family believes I need "help", but, after losing Jake, my dad would flip out anytime anyone mentioned me getting help, and Justin, he was always used to me being like this, absent minded.

"Hehehe. Higher, Jakey! Push me higher." I squealed.

Jake was pushing me on the swings at the park a block away from our house. My mom and dad never let me go by myself, and Justin never liked the park, so Jake and I always went together.

"If I push you any higher then swing will flip." Jake replied, pushing me higher anyways.

The swing flipping was always the threat he told me when I wanted to go higher on the swings. Now that I was eight, I didn't believe it possible, so the threat didn't faze me.

Some older boys walked into the park grounds. I never noticed them, but Jake sure did. He slowed down the swing and pulled it close to him. By that time, I did see the older boys. They didn't look very nice, and they seemed to be smoking, maybe? Mama told me if she ever caught me smoking, that she'd personally cut off my tongue. I found that a bit harsh, but you know, she was an adult, and they took everything so serious.

"Klairea, run back home." Jake whispered in my ear.

"Huh? Why, Jake?" I looked up at him.

His eyes were fixed on the older boys. I didn't know why they bothered him so much, but they did.

"Just do it." His voice was stern, and I knew something was up because he was never stern with me...or anyone for a matter of fact. I nodded and ran home.

It wasn't until later that night I found out why he told me to leave.

Apparently, I made my way to the backyard without knowing. It’s amazing how long you think you’re out in a daze and how long you actually are. I looked around the backyard. Everything was exactly the same. The old worn out swing set that I got for my tenth birthday, the huge hole from when Jake and I pretended that we were searching for gold, the blackberry bushes we used to eat from all the time. I had some good memories back here. But at the same time I had some bad ones.

I walked over to the swing set. It looked like the simplest touch would have it go crashing down. But like that was going to stop me. I sat down on a swing and started pumping my legs; it felt great to be on it again. The last time I was on this swing set was when I was twelve and Jake and Justin's friends were all out here. I had run inside crying because they were teasing me, Jake took part at teasing me too.

I smiled. I didn't forgive Jake for weeks after that.

I closed my eyes and swung higher. It felt like I was flying.

"Klairea, dear, why don't you go outside and swing, or hang out with Jake and his friends?"

I didn't want to go outside. I knew they were going to make fun of me, they always did. The boys never wanted me to hang out with him. They hated it when I was around. But I listened to my Mama and went outside. I held my head up high, and I went straight for the swings. They boys were off in the corner of the yard smoking where no one could see them. When I came out, they quickly hid what they were doing.

"Oh, it's just the whiny little brat." One of the boys exclaimed.

I did my best to ignore it and went to swinging. About five minutes after I started swinging I was suddenly stopped by, of course, one of the boys. I opened my eyes to Adrain, one of Justin's friends.

"Watch ya doing, little twerplette?” He asked with a mocking grin on his face. He always called me that, Twerplette. I called him the a*****e. Not actually, but I wished I did.

"Oh, you know, just sitting out here enjoying MY swing set." I had to make it clear that it was my swing set. Then, maybe, they'd get the hint and stop using it, but, alas, I was getting my hopes up. A couple of the boy snickered.

"Oh, it's your swing set?" He came closer to me. "I think not." Then he pushed me off the swing. All the boys, including my own brothers, laughed. I got up and just ran straight inside.

"CRYBABY!" I heard behind me as I ran.

Justin forgot about that day, but Jake never did, I never forgot it either. After that day he tried to apologize to me so many times, but I wouldn't listen. I was so sick of him acting like someone he wasn't. I hated his friends; I hated who he pretended to be...I hated him.

Everyone loved Jake. I envied him. My parents always thought of him more, loved him more, and showered him with everything he wanted. He had all the friends in the world, friends he didn't even like. He got everything he wanted, besides the one thing he actually wanted, my love. Love in a sibling type of way, not love-love. He wanted to be a Big-Brother type, but he never could. He was always being pressured into being mean to me, and then he always thought he could make up by taking me to the park or by buying me ice-cream. I was such a care free child when I was younger.

A snap of a branch took me out of my thought. I opened my eyes and saw Faith, my niece, there. She was four, and very sweet. She didn't talk much, but when she did speak, it was always something nice.

"Hello there, Faithlynn."

Faith stopped sucking her thumb and waved. I smiled lightly.

"Wanna swing with me?"

She smiled and ran over to me. I stopped my swing and let her get on my lap. If her mom saw this, she would flip out. My sister in-law, a.k.a Faith's mom, thought I was purely crazy, and always tried to keep Faith away from me. It never worked well because Faith loved me. Her father, my brother, once told me that Faith will only say my name; that, of course, pisses off her mother.

I can't say that I'm not crazy, but it's not like I'm harmful to children, and I'm certainly not bat s**t crazy.

I started pumping my legs, and Faithlynn and I started to go higher and higher. She giggled and smiled. She was having a good time swinging with me. It was all going well...until her mother came out.

"What are you-!"

"I thought I told-"

"Faithlynn Jay Hesser get in-"

I hardly heard anything. I knew Anna was yelling at me, but I heard only a few words.

My parents were mad at each other. I don't seem to recall why, they just were. They were yelling and throwing things around and saying real nasty, mean things. This was the only time my brothers were nice to me, this day and the days after. They knew way before I did that my parents were splitting up. All I knew was that my mommy and daddy were fighting and that my brothers told me to go upstairs. Then they went downstairs and a few minutes later came upstairs to find me sitting on the stairs. I remember this day so clearly, because this was the day we all found out just how sick Jake was. I also remember this day very clearly because Jake and Justin let me go in their room and watch them play games. They never let me go in their room, so something was wrong. But when I asked they told me not to bother with it and to not worry.

"Are you even listening to me?!"

Anna's yelling in my face took me out of the daze. I looked up at her, and there was a whole crowd around us. My brother pushed past the crowd and came towards us. He looked at Anna, then me, then just shook his head.

"Ann, dear, if Faith wants to swing with her Aunt, then let her, there is nothing wrong with my sister. How many times do I have to tell you that my sister isn't crazy? She just likes to live in both the past and the present." Justin smiled a bit

"If she could she'd probably live in the future too." Justin looked up at me and gave me a reassuring smile. Just like then his smile means nothing.

Justin gave me a reassuring smile and said everything was fine with Jake. I didn't believe him. I just kept on crying. I scared me really. When Jake sat up and started coughing blood. It was all on his bed and, scared me. Justin just pulled me away from Jake then ran down stairs to mom and dad, who were yelling at each other again.

1...2...3...4

Four seconds it took for Justin to reach the bottom of the stairs and get our parents. During those four seconds I couldn't stop staring at my brother, who just kept on coughing and coughing.

"Klairea?"

I looked up to see Justin. I stood up and got off the swing.

"Yeah, Just?"

That was the nickname Jake and I gave him. When I was younger, I couldn't pronounce his name, so it sound like "ustin" and Jake was "ack". My parents didn't find out I had a speaking disability until I was 10, but my parents never seemed to notice or care.

"Okay, Klaire, J...J...J as in jug. Jug J...u...g. Jug."

"Ug"

"No Klaire J...J...Justin...Jake"

"Istin, Ack."

Jake sighed; he couldn't teach me for the life of him. He tried so hard but he just couldn't. Only he and Justin knew about my disability before we were actually told about it. They always tried to help, but I did little help.

"Klaire, Klaire. Look at me. Look at how I move my lips."

He mouthed J

"J?" I tried to pronounce it.

Justin, now sitting in the tree that Jake and I were under, clapped.

"Good job, Klaire, now can you say Justin?"

Jake glared at him.

"One step at a time please, Justin, she just was able to pronounce the letter J."

They had a stare down for a while and didn't notice me.

"J-j-j Justin?"

Both boys looked at me. Jake smiling, Justin just giving me his normal look.

Later that year Jake was hospitalized, and I stopped talking in general.

Justin took my hand and we walked back inside.