Book of Curses (The Renning Chronicles) (2 page)

Running into my bedroom once more I started to sing to the Mindless Self Indulgence song that had begun to start playing through the dock speakers when I walked out. I began to dance around a bit. Catching sight of my black high-tops I went over and grabbed hold of them and sat down on my bed, pulling them on quickly while I let out
a short
yawn.

Once I finally let my mind start to think rationally, I realized we really weren't going to school today. We weren't able to anyway, even if we wanted to. It was unpacking and cleaning day today, and from the sound of it, I was the only one that was even awake so far.

Shutting off my iPod and pulling it off the dock, I grabbed my head phones and shoved
both into
my jean pockets. Leaving my bedroom and going out into the box filled living room, slash kitchen we had I saw Tom sitting silently on the counter and looking over at all the boxes, as if he was mentally setting out a chart on how to tackle all of them.

"Mom up?
”
I asked him as I walked over and leaned back against the counter he was sitting on. I tilt
ed
my head backward and looking up at his startled face. He nodded his head slowly and then looked back over at the boxes.

"I heard her moving in there, so I'd say yeah."

"Oh lord, ready yourself for the bitch attack.
”
I muttered frowning deeply before shaking my own head.

Tom chuckled quietly, nodded his own head and then stretched himself a bit. "Don't you know it?"

Not a moment later, after we had both spoken our peace, my mother's bedroom door opened and Mazy came flying out with her tail wagging happily at the two of us. Tom jumped off the counter, and leaned down to let his hand glide over the soft marble fur as he began to pet her and then say something to her I couldn't hear.

My eyes shifted, and I looked up at my mother catching her cold gaze, I all but gagged when she walked out of her room. Really the woman was as repulsive, in my opinion, as she was cruel. I didn't want a thing to do with her entire existence.

She was wearing a skintight, low cut black shirt that practically showed off her recent plastic surgery upgrade. Her jeans were too tight, and her high heels were too high for any human to try to stand in. Her platinum blonde hair was up in a ponytail and her sunglasses were pulled down over her eyes.

She held her keys in her hand and frowned, pointing a clawed finger at us before she tsk'd at me a few times. I was thrown off guard and just stared at her; god only knew what she was going to go off on me about.

"Really wish you'd start dressing like a girl Raine." She sighed deeply, and started to shake her head before rubbing her overly glossed lips together. "I'll be home around 7 am. Unpack and fix the place up for me and be useful, OK. Thanks dolls." With that loving comment, she turned on her heels and clicked across the floors surface to the door and left.

"Tell me again - Are you certain she's our mother?" I asked Tom, hoping he'd say we were someone else's children, but frowned, knowing it was only a wish that would never be real.

"Same DNA, sadly." Tom replied to me and then stood up slowly, setting a hand on my shoulder.  "Let's get started..."

***
**

We
managed to
work our asses off all morning, unpacking and organizing things. Hanging pictures and plugging in everything that we got our hands on. By the time it was two in the afternoon we were practically done and lounged around on the leather sofa, not caring if we scratched it up or not.

Tom plugged in his new game consul and flipped around until he found the right game. He popped in the disc and then started playing, completely absorbed in the world of the game. I picked up my laptop and opened it up, scrolling around and checking my e-mail. I replied to a few before opening Youtube and looked around, trying to find something to listen to or watch.

"What do you plan on doing for dinner?" I asked aloud, not really knowing if I'd get an answer from Tom or not.

"Ramen?" He said distractedly.

"Sounds good to me."

"Christie may come over tomorrow."

"That's fine." I smiled to him. I did like her; she was a good friend, though I thought, it was awkward between the two of them still. "Alright so, we're going to be too smart at school..."

"How?" He paused in his game, looked over at me, and had the most confused expression on his face that I'd ever seen.

"They're about three years behind on like, everything." I said, frowning a little as I started to explain
while
looking up at my Twin brothers face. "Say's so on this shit" I motioned to our online course calendar and shook my head.

"Great.", He rolled his eyes as he leaned over and started scanning the course calendar. "Guess it'll be prank school for me, sadly. Well, I say we see who's the better gamer here, and play all night!"

"You're on bro." I said to him, as I snatched up the second controller, turned it on and waited for him to start the game back up for us to play.

***
**

With us, it doesn't take much to entertain us for the day, or the night for that matter. We ended up playing the game until around midnight may be oneish. I came out the winner twice, since I knew how to beat his ass as any character I played. When he started calling me a cheater, we both decided it was time to call it a night.

I slept peacefully and dreamlessly that night, and ended up waking up before my alarm even went off to warn me I had to get myself ready for school. I got dressed, did my hair and makeup, then waited until I heard my mom go into her room before I decided to walk out and had to roll my eyes at that. Some parent she was, two seventeen-year  olds in the house, and she didn't care what we did, as long as we pretended we were dead. That's how she had been for almost thirteen years, if not longer. 

Tom walked out a few minutes later, yawning and scratching at his head of blonde hair. He slung his bag over his shoulder,
and then
nudged me to get my attention. I picked up my own bag as he started to push me towards the door, and followed him out and away from the house and our mother.

We both took our time, not caring if either of us were late or not. What could they do to us?

Suspend us? Give us in-
school detention
? Like any of that would even work.

I pressed my nails into my arm, scratching at the flesh a bit as I waited for the light to change from red to green so that our side was clear, and we could run across. It really was too early, and I couldn't stand just waiting around here; it was starting to make me impatient. I wanted to get across the street already.

Tom made a strange noise for a moment,
and then
I realized he was clearing his throat and doing it rather loudly before looking at me and speaking slowly, as if he was choosing his words carefully. "So, did they wake you up last night?"

"Who?"

"Mom had some guy over... They were practically laughing as loud as possible for an hour or so."

"Oh... No, I never woke up."

"Good, I had to go and scream at them, so I could sleep." He chuckled, before rolling his eyes and sliding his fingers through his hair.

"Mom's just become extremely stupid anymore... I miss our old mom, the one that was there when dad was alive. You know?" I looked down as I spoke, shaking my head slowly as I thought back. Then I looked forward trying to ignore the sadness I felt over it.

"Yeah, I miss her too sis." Tom slowly slid his arm around my shoulder to pat it a few times before letting out a small laugh again, looking down at me strangely. "At
least we didn't change though."

"That's true enough; I'd have to kill you if you changed." I frowned deeply at him until my face started to hurt from it and then just tried to look as seriously as I could at him. "Lost our mother, don't need to lose my only living family now."

"Oh please, like you'd ever lose me." He rolled his eyes at my statement, and patted my head a few times.  "I'm your twin; it's impossible for me to change without you knowing. We practically feed off each other's emotions half the time."

"Not my fault I can tell when you're pissed off." I told him, sticking out my tongue for a split second. "Or upset." I added after thinking about it.

"Yeah, sometimes I wish we couldn't do that." He snorted rather loudly at me, before smiling a little. "Make's it too easy to know if a guy fucks with you, and I'm sick of beating in heads."

"Then stop beating them in, and just tell them to back off." I arched one of my eyebrows as I looked my brother over, shrugging my shoulders at him and sighing a little.

"Right... So, how're you taking the move?"

"It's OK for now... I miss everyone though, you know."

"Of course, I know you do; I miss them too Ray."

I nodded towards him absentmindedly, then charged across the street as fast as my short legs could possibly let me move as the light finally changed colors. I could hear Tom's matching stomp's across the hard top ground before ending up beside me on the sidewalk once more, as we started off towards our new school. What fun
this'd be, more of the same-old
studies we took back at our prep school, and more teachers insisting we're stupid for being bored with it.

"Geez, can't we just skip?" I asked loudly, sounding as miserable as I possibly could.

"I wish, see you at the end of the day?"

"See ya then." I said, as upset as I possibly could. I started off towards the front doors of the already barren looking, run down old school that our classes were going to be held in. Yeah, this was a total let down compared to the last school we were at. Class was probably starting already, and I seriously couldn't even be bothered to care. It was only roll call so, whatever; no one ever pays attention to that stupidity anyway.

***
**

“When the King, so to say, of Mount Olympus, Zeus - The God of Lightning - saw that his brother, Hades, was a threat to himself and the other gods of Mount Olympus, such as..?” Mr. Rayson paused for a long moment, letting his eyes wander over the class of thirty students who didn't bother to even try to answer. This included
me
. “Anyone?”

“Nyx Goddess of the Night, Artemis Goddess of the Hunt and or Moon.” I muttered under my breath, as I kept working at my doodles in my note book, it was just loud enough though that he heard me and gave me a rather dirty look for even speaking.

“Miss. Renning, how nice of you to volunteer for us; care to list six, since you seem to know so much?” He asked in a cruel voice as he looked at me, I noticed the all too visible glare across his pale face. His beady eyes were staring straight at me, and for his benefit I decided, what the hell