Chapter 3 The Unexpected
“When you ready come and get it, Na, Na, Na, Na,” I belt out while dancing around like a three legged hyena and my arms frantically waving in the air. Small giggles have me snapping my head towards the small matt in the far corner of the room.
“Oh you like that?” I coo at Lucy, who took time off of her blocks to look at me making a fool out of myself. I smile when she shakes her head. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about, she’s a kid. I’m a great dancer and singer.
“Whatever Lucy, I’ll be stacking paper one day with these moves,” I continue the one sided conversation. Though I can tell she stopped listening as she picks on her blocks once again.
“You can’t go in there!” I hear a commotion down the hallway getting closer by the second. I furrow my brows, it sounded like Claire was talking to someone else. A minute later the door to the room opens with a bang and I hurry to a frightened Lucy’s side. I pick her up and hold her close in my arms.
“What the hell?” he screams, more like bellows, he has a deep voice. I stare at him in confusion and fear. The guy seems oddly familiar. He’s tall, brown hair and eyes with a lean muscled frame. I tighten my hold on Lucy.
“Are you going to explain this Khloe?” he asks a lot calmer now, when I hear his voice clearly realization dawns on me.
“Kohl?” I whisper but in the now silent room he hears. Claire, who hasn’t said a word, comes closer and takes Lucy out of the room.
“How… why are you here?” I voice, trying to desperately form a coherent sentence.
“Khloe is that baby yours?” he asks nodding his head in the direction of the door. I just stare at him in disbelief, barely listening to what he’s saying.
“Are you listening to me?”
“Kohl?” he sighs and steps closer to me. I take a step back not knowing what he’s up to, he merely smiles and envelops me in his arms.
“Yes Khloe, it’s me Kohl, your twin brother,” he mumbles into my ear while he holds me in his arms. He he, guess I forgot to mention I had a twin brother huh? Well, I never thought I’d see him again, can you blame me?
“Where have you been, you weren’t here for the funeral, you left me all alone,” I demand as I step out of his comforting hold. He may be my brother but he has a hell of a lot of explaining to do.
“I wanted to be there Khloe, I did but I couldn’t. After our parents sent me to study abroad I was angry at them, they separated me from my family, from you, I was mad. When I was informed of their death, I was angrier. They sent me away only to leave us alone, literally. I couldn’t handle their death, I was mad at everything,” he explains.
“It was just a couple of months ago that I finally responded to one of Roger’s many letters and I asked if I could come home.”
“I’m sorry I stopped writing but when you wouldn’t respond I automatically assumed that, that was it for us,” I explain.
“It’s okay, I don’t blame you. Now, what I wasn’t informed about was the little girl out there,” he raises an eyebrow. His brown eyes, the same as our father’s, glinting with curiosity.
“He, he, well, you see,” I begin to ramble.
“Now, before you continue, know that I will beat the idiot that dare touched my little sis,” he stops my babbling.
“It’s a long story,” he pats Lucy’s mat on which we sit and I tell him all about my adventurous life. I don’t think I could lie to him.
“So, you adopted her as yours?” I nod.
‘Well, let’s go meet my niece,” he gets up and help me up as well and we head in search of our nanny and my daughter.
“Claire,” I call out.
“She’s in the garden with Lucy,” Roger scares us from behind.
“You need to start wearing a bell,” I exclaim as my heart beats erratically. He follows us as we make our way out.
“And why didn’t you tell me Kohl was coming?”
“Because I didn’t know how you’d take it, but he’s the only family you have left,” the wise man explains.
“That’s not true, you and Claire are family,” I’m surprised that Kohl was the one to correct him.
Roger doesn’t respond as we head downstairs and out the garden. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t care, he’s just one of those people that express their feelings. If he didn’t care he would’ve stopped trying with Kohl a long time ago. We begin to hear Lucy’s giggles as we near them.
Lucy has taken kindly to our vast garden. She loves to be brought out. Her little blue eyes lighting up as she inhales the fresh air. Speaking of blue eyes, I should warn Kohl of Drew and the guys before he starts school. I mean, he’s my brother I can’t lie to him. He’s always had a way of making me talk.
“Come here boy, let me greet you properly,” Claire says before attacking my brother. I don’t miss the faint smile on his lips as she crushes him with one of her motherly hugs while planting various kisses on his face.
I take Lucy out of her swing while smiling widely. I can feel my face stretching with my smile. It feels like a missing piece of my heart has been put back in place. I’m sure it feels like that with nay brother or sister, but he’s my twin, the last of my blood. It’s a huge deal right now.
“Lucy, I want you to meet my brother and your uncle Kohl,” I hope she understands what I’m saying. You can never tell with kids.
Kohl turns to look at her, it seems like they analyze one another before breaking out into a smile simultaneously. My brother takes his niece out of my arms and holds her tightly and carefully in his. He begins to bounce her in his arms and she giggles uncontrollably.
“See, my niece already loves me,” he turns to smile at me like a fool. He completely ignores the fact that Claire is standing inches away from him with her arms stretched out, as if he will drop Lucy at any moment. He won’t, I’d kill him.
I’m serious.
“We should be heading inside for dinner, Roger have you arranged for Kohl to go to school with Khloe?” Claire turns to our butler. You know, I don’t want to get all soap opera on you but I always thought those two had a thing.
“It has been arranged, you two will have the same schedule so Khloe you’ll have to accompany him in the morning. Kohl, I hope you can keep the bullies in check,” I think I just choked on air.
Oh God, please tell me he didn’t just say that.
“Bullies?”
“Yes, some people have taken it upon themselves to give your sister problems,” Roger continues.
Does he not have an off button?
“I entrust that you will keep them in check,” Roger continues while staring at Kohl in the eye.
“You can bet I will,” Kohl smiles mischievously.
Oh God no, this can’t be happening. There’s a reason Kohl was sent away.
After Roger basically dooming the school population, we head inside for dinner. Roger sits at the head of the table while Claire takes the other end. I sit with Lucy and Kohl sits across form us on the other side.
“So, who are the bitches I’ll be taking care of?” Kohl asks nonchalantly.
“Kohl, language,” Claire scolds.
“No he’s right,” Roger interferes.
“Look Kohl, it’s nothing. Ignore them like I do,” I instruct while resuming to eat. Lucy just seems to be following the banter with her head, looking from one of us to the other. She already ate so she’s just here for her entertainment.
“Fine, don’t tell me, I’ll figure it out sooner or later,” he waves me off.
This isn’t good. I know Kohl and I know he won’t let it go. He has a way of getting explosives, and then he just claims he knows people. I mean come on. Seriously, a rich kid out for revenge just spells trouble.
Once we finish dinner, I place a sleepy Lucy in her crib and head into my room. I lay out different papers on my desk from various subjects. At least I find homework easy. I think Roger led Kohl to his room, apparently he had the room across from mine fixed into Kohl’s own little bachelor pad.
Knock. Knock.
“Come in,” I wait until Kohl makes his way inside to turn myself around. Call it twin intuition, but I just knew it was Kohl behind that door. I turn my swivel chair to face him face planted on my bed.
“Are you alright?” I smile.
“Why won’t you tell me who hurt you?” he mumbles. Ah, he’s playing the guilt card, I know him far too well, and the years have barely changed him.
“Look, leave them alone. I have bigger problems, like Lucy’s dad being in school now,” that catches his attention.
I proceed to explain everything about Drew’s sudden appearance and am glad he’s on my side. It’s good to have his support. Maybe having him in school with me won’t be that bad.
The Next Day
I take it back, I take it all back. Having Kohl in school has been terrible so far and we haven’t even made it into first period. When Mike tried to approach me in the morning Kohl just assumed straight on and punched him, an instant knockout.
My brother may look lanky and like he can’t fight but they don’t call it military school for nothing. I lead him to the office and wait for him to get his papers sorted before we go into our first class. We get there early as usual. Well usual for me.
“Hello Mr. Pine, this is your new student,” I stop by me favorite teacher’s desk to introduce Kohl. Mr. Pine takes a look at his schedule and looks up confused.
“You’re related?”
“I’m her twin brother Kohl,” Kohl speaks up. The teacher nods and motions for us to take our seats, which Kohl decides to, follow me to the back. It’s like he’s appointed himself to be my living, moving shadow.
Freaky.
I look down when Lucas comes in the class and takes notice of his now occupied desk. He says nothing as he steals the one in front of me. Damn, I thought for sure that would get rid of him. I turn to Kohl who gives me a questioning look.
He’s one of them, I mouth.
He looks pensive for a moment before nodding. The day goes on like this with me teaching Kohl what’s what and who’s who in the school, for an outcast I sure do know a lot. Kohl would glare at anyone whom he thought was looking at me the wrong way and it was surprisingly effective. People have indeed been backing off.
Unfortunately, my dear brother ordered me to stop being a punk and forced me to go to the cafeteria and eat lunch with him. People stared but they were more like curious stare. Although when we sat down at a table to Kohl likes, people gaped.
“This school is full of weirdoes,” Kohl mumbles before chomping down on his sandwich. We look up as someone clears their throat. Great, the person I’d been able to ignore all day finally makes an appearance.
“This is our table,” Drew states.
Kohl looks at him and realization dawns instantaneously, those eyes are so alike it’s scary. I thought Kohl would haul my ass out of the room, or at least that’s what I hoped for, but instead he did something totally unexpected.
“Hey I’m Kohl, Khloe’s twin brother,” he gets up to greet while I choke on my sandwich.
Just kill me now, somebody please.
I continue to watch in horror as Kohl continues to make friends with my mortal enemies. This is worse than when I thought Derek was dead in Teen Wolf, or Toby for that matter in Pretty Little Liars. Bottom line is, I’m going to kill him and what a sweet and painful death it’ll be.