Chapter 5 River

"Hello father, how is your trip going?"

"Do not hello father me, River. Why would you think having a party would be a good idea? You have done nothing like this before. Is this you rebelling because Gab and the kids moved in?"

"I'm not the one who threw the party, Dad. I was at work."

"Oh, don't you dare blame this on Rock... River?"

Of course, he doesn't believe a word I'm saying. I give in... "what do you want my punishment to be while you are gone for two weeks?"

"Don't you sass me. Put Rock on the phone."

"For what, dad?"

"Do it, River, or this will be harder on you."

"Is this some kind of joke?"

"Never mind River, I will call his cell phone myself."

"Oh, look, River, your dad's calling me," Rock says from the door. He must have followed me to my room. "Good evening Mr. Darby, how's your trip going? I'm awful sorry about the party. I was assured it would be okay."

Rock listens to dad for a few minutes. "Yes, sir, we both can do that. We both deserve to be punished for our stunt."

I bite down hard on my tongue to keep from saying something I shouldn't. Rock talks to my father a little longer, then hands his phone to me.

"You and Rock are to clean the whole inside and outside of the house. Then you are to paint the fence. It needs a clean coat of paint on it. And River, you need to thank your step brother for taking some of the blame for your mistake. Next time, I won't be so nice about my punishment."

"Yes, sir," I grit out. "Goodnight, sir. I have school tomorrow."

"Get out of my room, Rock." I point to the door, and when he finally walks through the door, I shut and lock it. At least I have that privacy still. A few minutes later, I hear a knock on my door.

"Yes."

"Hey River, it's me and Brody." Jessica says.

"Coming." Getting off the bed, I let the only other individuals I have faith in, excluding Sydney, into my bedroom. "I'm so sorry River, I tried to keep everything at bay." Brody tries to explain to me, but I cut him off because this isn't his fault. He shouldn't be? Apologizing, or trying to fix anything.

"Thank you for attempting to help Brody, but this isn't your responsibility. "

"And it's not yours either, River. It's my bone headed brother, and I will tell my mother what he did and how he got you in trouble with your dad."

"Oh, Jessica, that's very sweet of you to try, but it will just make it worse with my dad. He looks forward to punishing me any chance he gets because I'm not the son he wanted, but Rock is, so he will take his side over mine any day of the week. I wouldn't put it past him if that wasn't the only reason he's marrying your mother so he can have that son he always wanted. Anyways, we all have school tomorrow, so we better get to bed. I will clean the house in the morning before I head out to school," I tell them.

"It's already been done for you," Brody says.

"Thank you, Brody."

"Any time." He tells me, then leans down and kisses me on the cheek. "I will see you tomorrow at school."

"See ya." Once Brody is gone out of the room, I let Jessica know I'm going to get a shower. "You're welcome to watch some tv while I'm out of the room."

I gather my clothes and head to the bathroom. I knock on the door to make sure nobody is in there because we only have the one besides my dad's bedroom and the half bath downstairs. There is no answer. The doors unlocked, so I open the door and find Rock in there naked and about to get into the shower. "Oh crap, I'm sorry I knocked, but there was no answer."

"It's okay, water girl. You know you like what you see. You want to come join me? I can show you what a real man feels like."

"In your dreams Rock. Besides, if a real man is packing that." I say, pointing to his private area. "Then I think I can probably do better on my own."

"Fuck you, water girl," I hear Rock yell when I shut the door on him. I head to my dad's room to get a shower. He's not here, so he will never know.

I'm in the shower and all I keep seeing is Rock and his package. I didn't lie when I said if that's what he is working with, then I will be better on my own. But I wasn't talking about it being small because that cocky jerk is not lacking in that department, but I would never tell him that.

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The next day, school is brutal. You would have thought I committed a crime instead of breaking up a party. Which I was not the one that broke it up? Whoever called the cops were the ones that got it broken up, but anything to pick on me, they will take it?

"Hey River, are you okay?" Sydney and Brody approach me as I'm picking my books up off the floor where one of the boys from the team knocked me down.

"Yes, I'm just peachy. Let's just head to lunch and hope that's better. "

"Hey, why don't you and Sydney go sit down at our table and I will get us our lunch. I'll have Jessica help me carry the trays."

"No, I can't keep letting them think they have won every time they do something to me."

"Are you sure?" Sydney asks.

Not really, but I can't let them see that I'm weak. "Yes, mom I'm sure I will be fine." Or so I thought. I made it to my table just fine this time without any hiccups. But once I get sat down is when the fun begins. The kids in the surrounding tables started throwing their food at me and guess what day it is today. Yep, that's right, spaghetti and meatball day! By the time I get out of the lunchroom, I'm soaked from head to toe with spaghetti sauce.

"Shit, River, what the hell happened to you?" Rock asks, coming up from somewhere down the hall.

"Like you had nothing to do with this."

"River, I didn't this time. Here, let me take you somewhere and help you get cleaned up."

"Get your hands off me, Rock." I yell at him, then run off to the bathroom. The door swings open a few minutes later. Rock walks in. "Damnit, River, let me help you with this."

"And why would you want to help me, Rock? Any other time you would be right along with them laughing your butt off at my expense."

"I'll be the first to admit that I'm an asshole to you 90% of the time, but even this has gone too far for me."

"I have you some clean clothes," Sydney is saying as she is walking through the bathroom door. "What in the hell are you doing in here, Rock? Haven't you done enough damage in one day?"

"Contrary to what you believe, Sydney, I had nothing to do with this."

Sydney looks at me and I just shrug my shoulders, not knowing what to believe at this point.

"Just leave Rock. We can handle it from here." Sydney tells him.

"What the hell was that about?" Sydney asks.

"I don't know. He says he had nothing to do with this. That this even goes too far for him."

"Do you believe him?"

"I think I do."

"Okay, let's start with your hair. Get it cleaned up, then we will get you out of them clothes."

It took us thirty minutes to clean the mess out of my hair, so I missed my whole lunch and half of my fourth period.

"Ms. Darby, is there a reason you are walking into my class fifteen minutes late?"

"I had a spill on my clothes, so I had to run home and get some more clothes. It took a little longer than I hoped for." I tell the teacher and everyone in the classroom bust out laughing at me.

"Freak." Someone says as I'm walking by them.

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I'm standing around talking to Brody after school lets out. They don't have practice today, so we are talking about going and grabbing a pizza at our favorite pizza parlor when Sydney and Jessica come out of the building.

"Hey Sydney, Jessica, do you guys want to grab a pizza?"

"Heck yeah, I'm not turning a pizza down," Sydney says.

"Jess, how about it?" I ask her.

"Sure."

"Hey where are you going Jessica?" Rock asks his sister.

"Going to eat pizza with River and them."

"Not without me, you're not."

Jessica looks over at me and I just shrug my shoulders. At this point, I guess we are going to have to get along at some time in this crappy situation.

"I'm going to take my Jeep to the pizza place. Jessica, you and Sydney want to ride with me?" I ask them.

"Of course." They both agree.

We all meet up at the restaurant and there are more than just Brody and Rock in Rocks truck.

"What in the hell is this?" Sydney growls.

"Another way for Rock to torture me." I told her. We girls make our way to our table. Brody comes over a minute later. "I'm sorry River, I didn't know he was going to invite the entire team with us."

"It's fine. You guys just sit at a different table, so the temptation to make fun of me won't be so strong for the jerks."

"They can sit over there, but I came here with you, not them. I just got stuck riding with them." Brody protests.

I smiled at him. "Well, sit down then," I tell him.

We order our pizza and drinks. Then we sit at our booth and tell jocks. It's really nice hanging around Brody. He's such a breath of fresh air. I even think I might be falling for him. Who knew I would ever like a football player.

"So, Jessica, any guys getting your attention at school these days?" Sydney asks her.

"One or two." Jessica says with a twinkle in her eyes. Jessica followed in her brother's footsteps. She made the cheerleading squad and we've noticed she's been looking at some of the juniors. It's actually kinda cute. I just hope she doesn't turn as shallow as the others.

"So, Jess, how's the squad treating you?" I ask her, and she gives me a look. "Uh oh, that's bad?" I ask her.

"It wasn't too bad at first. Then my brother dumped the head cheerleader, and now she's making my life hell." Jessica shrugs her shoulders like it's no big deal.

One more thing Rock gets to screw up without consequences.