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15 Years Old

Zhavia

I walk down the stairs in search of my mum. She has to be in here somewhere—I swear this house is too big some days. I’m grateful we now spend the week at the boarding facility, just like the other Olympia students, even though my dads are not happy with me being so close to my team. Back when they were in high school, they all had to stay with their parents or guardians, but now they have us all living on campus. I don’t know what they are complaining about—the girls have a separate dorm to the boys. Though Zadom still finds his way into my room most nights. I know it may be weird, but when we are apart, we feel a loneliness inside that is only eased by each other’s presence.

Speaking of the dark angel himself, he and the rest of my team are lounging around the living room. Zadom looks up as soon as I enter the room. He always knows when I’m close to him. I feel his pain, just as he feels mine, and lately he always seems to be hurting but won’t tell me why.

“Have you seen Mum?” I ask. It’s a matter of urgency, for once.

We can usually never get rid of her on the weekends. She’s all up in our business, always making us do things together as a family. Uncle Colt and Aunt Blayne are the only reason family days are bearable; they always end up in a fight, and Aunt Blayne kicks his ass.

“I’m not sure. If you’re game, you can go upstairs and check,” Zadom throws back, and I pretend to gag. One of our dads is always touching her inappropriately, much to our disgust. We have started to call them by their first names lately as it helps stop the confusion.

“I can volunteer if you need someone to check,” Kyro jokes.

“I don’t need you to go and fucking perve on my mother,” I snap, and he holds up his hands in surrender.

Cramps ripple through my stomach, and I breathe through them as best as I can. Mum has had the period talk with me before, and all my friends have had theirs for years. I’m fifteen, so I was bound to get them eventually.

“Are you okay?” Zadom asks, looking at me from underneath his thick black lashes and dark eyes. We are polar opposites—he has jet-black hair, and dark chocolate-brown eyes that almost look black from a distance, whereas I have snow-white hair and aqua-coloured eyes. Daddy Creed says I look just like Mum, except her hair is always kept dark now. He says she changed her hair after an accident, and she closed off that part of her life. I have asked what happened, and all they say is Mum will tell me when she is ready. Maybe now that I’m a woman she will tell me about her past—even Nan won’t tell me anything. She just says that some things are better off kept in the past where they belong.

“I’m fine,” I snap, storming out of the room.

Our dynamic has changed lately. I notice the boys a lot—the way their bodies are transforming, how their voices have dropped, and even the small touches. I know they are linked to me just like my dads are to Mum, but what does that really even mean? They have to love me, just like Zadom does? But what if I don’t want them to love me like a sister? Argh!

I make the trek up the stairs that lead to my parent’s wing, and I decide the best course of action is to announce myself.

“I’m coming upstairs, and you all better be decent. I’m still scarred for life after seeing things no child should.”

Father Chester steps out of the room first. We call him that, mainly because it irritates him. He is the one who decided we should start calling them by their first names, which suits us fine, but Daddy comes in handy when I need something.

“Hey, Dad. Have you seen Mum? I can’t find her anywhere.”

He tilts his head and looks at me, taking a step closer to me, his eyes watering.

I point at him. “Nope, I’m not doing this with you.”

Kai steps out of the room next, and he really isn’t a morning person. “What’s going on?” he asks.

“Dad is being a weirdo again—please help me. Where is Mum? I just need her.”

Kai looks from me to Chester and back to me. “She had to get up early and take Aya to see the doctor. Can we help you?”

“She has her period,” Chester says, the huge idiot almost crying.

“Okay, what do we do? Do you need pads, tampons, a heat pack? What about chocolate? Oh, do we need a cake?” Kai rambles on, and I slap my forehead.

“No, why the hell would I need cake?” I ask, and he shrugs.

“She needs medicine,” Zadom says from behind me. “She is in pain—I can feel it.”

I turn and death-stare my brother.

It pisses me off that just like Creed, who can feel Mum’s emotions, and Mum, who can feel whenever they are in extreme pain, Zadom can sense both my emotions and my pain. I think maybe my abilities are defective, as while I can feel Zadom’s pain most of the time, it’s more like a loneliness even though we are always together. Yet, I get my period, and the asshole feels my cramps.

“What? You do. I’m sure this isn’t any of our fathers’ first rodeo when it comes to periods,” Zadom says, as if that is in any way going to make this better.

“That I can help with,” Chester says and runs back into his room.

Now all my dads, besides Brennan, are standing in the damn hallway gawking at me. “He just told you all, didn’t he?”

None of them say anything, but just like Davis, I can read people, and I know when people are lying to me. They all just stare back, making me bristle. This is getting weirder by the second. I just got my period, for god’s sake. I wasn’t deflowered or won any prizes. Not that my dads would understand how big of a deal losing my virginity would be, and not that I’m ready for that. No one has ever even kissed me before. And I have the whole issue of my brother feeling my pain—I don’t want him to know when I first do it. That would be embarrassing.

Chester comes back out and hands me a bottle of pills. “These are what your mum uses when she has her period. If they don’t work, just let me know.”

“Umm, thanks. I’m going now because you’re all being weirder than usual, and I don’t like it.”

“Dad, I wanted to have a chat,” Zadom says to Kai, just as I make a hasty retreat across to our wing and into my room.

I take a bottle of water from my mini fridge, take one of the pills Dad just gave me, and crawl back into bed. For the last year, all I wished for was to be like everyone else and get my period, but now I wish I could take it back.

I settle in and watch an old rerun of Gossip Girl—Mum laughs every time I watch it. Mum, Aunt Sinclair, and I started watching it earlier this year, and we finished it a few months ago. They had never watched it before, considering it would have ended when they were nine. I’m obsessed with Chuck—not season one Chuck, but he grows on you over the seasons, and the sexual tension between Blair and Chuck was swoon worthy.

I’m watching the scene where Blair asks Chuck what they are because she can’t move on without him answering her, and it gets me every time I watch it. Someone knocks on the door, and I pause the show and wipe away the tears.

Kyro pops his head in and smiles. He closes the door behind himself even though he knows the rules. My dads would kill him—or, more specifically, Chester or Boston.

“I brought you some things,” he says, holding out a shopping bag.

Kyro is one of those guys you can’t stop looking at. He is beautiful. Most guys you could say are handsome, but he is absolutely stunning, with his sandy-blond hair and crystal-blue eyes that always sparkle with mischief.

“What have you got in there?” I ask, patting the bed beside me.

He smiles and comes to sit beside me, opening the bag and pulling things out. “Zadom told us about your situation, and I went to get you some supplies. I always see Dad buy this stuff for Mum. A heat pack for your cramps, chocolate because Mum says chocolate fixes everything, and blue M&M’s that your mum can’t steal. I made Cruze help me pick the blue ones out on the drive back. Oh, and a girly magazine, which I didn’t even know was sold in paper form anymore, but the guy on the cover is pretty cute.”

I look down at the cover, and it’s him. I remember Kyro saying he had a photoshoot for Girl magazine in the “Who’s Hot” section, but I didn’t know he got the cover.

“You got the cover,” I gasp.

He nods. “I did. I just found out this morning when they sent me a copy,” he beams.

Excited, I launch myself into his arms and pull him close to my body. His large arms wrap around me, making my heart beat wildly in my chest. He pulls back and looks down at me, and I bite my lip, letting it slide through my teeth.

“I’m going to kiss you now,” he whispers.

“You’re going to kiss me now,” I whisper back.

He leans in, and his lips softly press against mine, my insides jumping for joy. My first kiss. His hand slides just under my shirt and rests on my hip, but he doesn’t try to move it further. His plump lips I have daydreamt about kissing so many times feel just as good as I imagined they would.

He pulls back and rests his head against mine. “I have waited so long to do that,” he says in a hushed tone.

“Why?” I ask.

Before he can answer, my bedroom door opens, and Zadom rushes through, making Kyro jump from the bed.

“That’s why,” he says, and zig zags his movements so my brother can’t catch him.

“I’m going to kill you,” Zadom snaps.

“No, you’re not!” I scream, removing the covers and sliding from the bed.

Zadom catches him and raises his fist, but Kyro just smirks and says, “Worth it.”

Zadom socks him right in the face just as Trace and Davis rush through the door, and one grabs Zadom while the other stands next to Kyro.

“What the fuck is all the noise in here?” Laughn asks, storming into the room.

“Zadom hit Kyro,” I snap. “For no reason.”

“There was a perfectly good reason,” Zadom throws back at me.

“I’m with Zadom—I deserved it. We all made a pact, and I just broke it,” Kyro adds, but doesn’t look sorry at all.

“What pact?” I demand, placing my hands on my hips. I’m sure I look ridiculous in one of Lynx’s hoodies, my hair in a messy bun, and scrunchy socks from the nineties, but they are so damn cute.

Both my brother and Kyro look at me. Zadom turns to look at Kyro and his glare is cold as ice.

“I said, what fucking pact?”

“I think one of you boys better start talking before my girl castrates you, and I’ll happily watch,” Laughn says. He is one who is always on my side, no matter what—the more bloody and violent, the better. If I ever killed someone, he would be who I’d call if I needed help to get the body to Creed’s morgue.

“Zadom made us all promise to stay away from her,” Kyro answers. He isn’t one hundred percent telling the truth, but that is as much as we are going to get out of him.

“Why would you do that?” I cry. “I have spent so long thinking there is something wrong with me.”

“Zavvy, there is nothing wrong with you,” Kyro says, taking a step forward, and Davis lets him go. “I have always seen you. So have the others, but we can’t risk not working as a team, and Zadom is part of the team.” He uses his thumb to wipe the tear from my face.

“Why, Zadom?” I whisper, looking over at my brother. He doesn’t answer me.

“Answer your sister . . . NOW,” Laughn yells.

“Because I don’t want to share you with them. You’re my calm, and they will take you away from me. Just now, when you kissed him, I felt it. I felt what you felt.”

Zadom snatches his arm back from Trace and storms out of the room, and I chase after him. He doesn’t get to react this way and walk away.

I chase him down the stairs. “Stop!” I yell, and he does, turning to face me.

“What, Zhavia? What do you want from me, to know how sick and twisted I am? That I’m a fifteen-year-old boy, who feels things for his sister, and to have everyone look at me like that?”

I look around, and our dads are all staring at us, and so is my team, along with our younger brother Kenji.

“Dude, do you have a hard-on for our sister?” Kenji laughs, and Marlow slaps him upside the head.

“No, fuckwit. I don’t have a hard-on for her, but she is mine, and I don’t want to fucking talk about it.”

“Zay, please look at me,” I whisper, tears rolling down my face. He looks up at me, and I take a step down, not giving a shit that everyone is watching us.

I take his hands in mine. “I feel the same things you feel. Our situation is unique, but I won’t ever not need you. I can’t sleep when you’re not near me, and my heart aches when you’re not close. I don’t understand it yet, but we will work it out together.”

He pulls me into his arms and rests his chin on my head. “I will still kill them if they touch you.”

“No, you won’t. Maybe if we find you a girlfriend, you won’t be such a stage-five clinger.” My giggle explodes as he starts to tickle me.

“I’ll give you a clinger,” he says with a crooked smile.

I run and Zadom chases me until we reach the foyer, just as Mum walks in with Aya and Brennan, who has a handful of bags that he drops on the floor.

Aya starts at Olympia High, formally known as Northwood Pines, in the summer, which is still almost six months away. But my sister is so organised I wouldn’t be surprised if she has planned her wedding, named her babies, and scoped out houses in the suburbs already.

Our younger siblings have a few more years before they join me, Zadom, Kenji, and Aya.

“What is going on here?” Mum asks, pushing her sunglasses on top of her head.

“Zhavia got her period, kissed Kyro, and Zadom punched him in the face. Then Zadom admitted he is into incest and feels a bit too much for his own sister,” Kenji blurts, making Mum’s mouth drop, and Brennan scratch his head.

“Family meeting,” Brennan announces, and we all know the drill. We get half an hour, and then we all meet in the kitchen and talk over a bowl of ice cream. This is going to be fun.