Author: Zilent1
Rating: PG (for now)
Warnings: Mild swearing and slash
Notes: Locations, names and ages have been changed! Translations at end. Reviews and constructive criticism are greatly appreciated. [e-mail]
Thanks: Gemma for German corrections
Archive: °Z e n i t h Seraphic°, Asil_T LJ, FictionPress.com
Disclaimer: All characters, terms used herein are of my own creation. Anything names related to any persons, dead or alive, are purely coincidental.
Prolgoue: Beginnings
~ + ~
"’Dear Mr. and Mrs. Jürß,
I am pleased to announce that your son, Sven Jürß, has been approved by the ANZE for a one year student exchange between New Zealand and Australia next year...’"
Before my father even finished the sentences, my mother practically jumped from the seat and locked me into a tight bear hug. "Oh my little Junge is growing up so fast! I'm so proud of you! Only 16 and off to the States already," she cooed in my ear.
I swear my face had gone red. I heard a snicker and looked up towards the doorway. There stood my older brother, Oliver. "You little Scheiße! How did you get into an exchange? A little young, no?"
My father frowned at him.
"Ja, ja. I know. Watch my language," he said as he rolled his eyes.
My mother finally unlatched me and motioned my father to continue reading. Even though I didn't look it, inside I was over-the-moon. I had already received the letter well in advanced but I had delayed in actually giving it to my parents, contemplating over how I would approach them.
I looked over at my parents, Hans and Konstanz Jürß, sitting there looking proud for me. I love them very much, but only as much as one adolescent would. I looked over at my brother and was surprised to see that he was actually listening as my father read. That was a surprise! Usually he would've gone back to his little sanctuary and waited for dinner. Maybe he can't wait until I finally leave so he doesn't have to keep up to my standards.
I laugh inwardly at the thought. I may be top in academics but, in my honest opinion, Oliver is at the top with his looks. Yes, I know what you're thinking - incest - but honestly, he is quite good-looking for a 19 year-old. Just about everyone in the entire female population even say so! And he's dated over half of them!
Right now, his blonde hair is streaked with red (it's sort of a personality thing, as he changes colours every month) and not to mention his - green eyes!? What the-? He has brown eyes! How-oh. I get it. Heh. Took him long enough. You see, despite his looks, Oliver is blind as a bat. Because he bluntly refuses to wear glasses, as they'd be a problem when he plays his precious soccer, we (that's Alex, Adrian and I) nagged him to get contacts so he didn't keep misreading words and such. A week later, he said he was saving for coloured one. Four months of saving? They're not that expensive are they?
Anyway, Oliver's original eye colour is this really weird brown colour. It's sort of a rich brown mixed with a lighter brown with red flecks. Yes, that's right, red flecks. Either that or I need my eyes checked. He calls them his 'funky freaky' eyes. Oli-boy is very athletic due to his excessive playing of soccer and hockey. He is also a complete and utter klutz, idiot, joker and all-round nice guy. Oliver, to my knowledge, has two close friends - Alexandria Finlay and Adrian Emerson. I have no idea why my brother insists on calling Adrian Aidan. I mean, it would be more logical to call the guy Abe, seeing as his middle name is Braeden. (Am very jealous of said middle name. Beats Angus any day.) Must ask him sometime when I remember.
Adrian has long black hair with a lone blue streak and nearly always wears his trademark boots, which already make him much taller than he already is. He's really quiet and loves to read - such a contrast to the other two.
The other friend is my best friend's sister. Small world, huh? Yes, Oliver and Adrian have a girl friend. Alex is über friendly - like the sister I never had - and is knowledgeable in sports. She has roughly cut shoulder-length dark brown hair with blonde streaks (what's with the streaks already?) and dark blue eyes. She's also the same height as me - and I'm 16 and she 19! Which is probably why we get along so well...
When I think about it, I wonder how the 'kreuz trio' got together. I mean, two guys, one girl; two bibliophobics, one bookworm; Two 19 year-olds, one 17 year-old. One weird combo there! But they are all weird in their own ways, so I guess anything is possible between those three. And that, my friends, is Oliver's private life in a nutshell!
I must have drifted deep into though as I suddenly snapped out of my trance after someone hit my on the head. I rubbed the sore spot and glared up at Oliver, who was grinning like a maniac. My father frowned at him again and my mother...well, my mother was nowhere to be seen.
The starting of the car noted other wise.
"Where is Mutti going?"
"She had to go to work," my Dad said, sounding a little grim. My mother is a nurse in the A and E at the local hospital. I take it she must have been on-call.
"Nein, she couldn't handle the thought of her little Wunderkind leaving home so soon, so she decided to adopt a new son." Oliver just had to put his two-cents worth in.
I glared at him again, as he used the hated nickname, but he grinned even wider. I tried to think of a smart comeback, but I always fail in that department. Oliver takes them as jokes anyway.
"Aw, is little Wunderkind speechless?" he taunted.
I growled at him.
"That's enough you two," my father said warningly. "Anyway, congratulations on being approved son. We're both proud of you-" I gagged inwards "-but you are saving for any excesses, alright?" (Translation: get a job)
I nodded then he looked at his watch and smiled apologetically at us. Both Oliver and I nodded in understanding, and he left. My father one of the directors of some computer company and he is always busy with board meetings and business conferences. How my parents managed to conceive two children during their busy lifestyles is beyond me!
Oliver looked at me and smirked. "Last one to the letterbox pays for dinner!"
I smirked in reply before lunging towards the door but he created diversions (such as toppling chairs in my path) so I was last out.
Bastard.
Well, would you believe it? He ended up paying even though I was last! Hell, I ended up running after him all the way to the pizza place! When we arrived he expected me to pay.
"Alright, Schnecke, cough up."
I searched my pockets and had a dramatic panic attack I couldn't find my wallet. Like the loving big brother he is, he paid so I...we wouldn't starve that night, then on the way back, I suddenly found it.
"Oh look. I've found my wallet," I said in feigned shock, holding up the black thing to show Oli.
I think I gave him whip-lash when he turned his head. "You what? Sie kleiner Lügner! You're paying next time then!" As if to declare it a done deal, he cuffed me around the head after he said it.
Heh. We'll see.
Sometime later, the Finlay duo showed up. Oliver and Alex flopped out on the couch and watched some replay of last night's soccer game, while Sebastian and I went to my room and studied. Sebastian Finlay has been my best friend for the past four years. That was when I moved from Germany to here, little New Zealand. Culture shock, anyone?
I'm not sure how you'd describe his personality, but he has leader quality; someone you'd obey. He has this kind of air about him, but it's just a façade. Behind the leader mask is a friendly, quiet boy who hates attention. I think opposites attract in our relationship - I'm loud and he isn't. Our locks also contrast. He has ear-length dark brown hair (like Alex), blue eyes (also like Alex), he's also well-built but he's taller than his sister by a head, and he's only 17. I pity the poor girl.
I'm the complete opposite: brown-rooted blonde hair, plain hazel eyes, short and thin as a stick. I'm 16 going on 17. How we became friends is beyond me. Maybe I ran my mouth a mile too much when I first moved here and he saved me from my first beating? I dunno.
In my poster-and-magazine-cuttings-clad bedroom, Seb paced the length of the room as I sat on my bed with his French vocabulary list in hand.
"Autrefois."
"In the past."
I nod and scan down the list. "L'avis."
His pacing immediately stopped and the room is filled with the tick-tocking of my clock. I think it's telling him to hurry the Hell up because Sven is bored!! Good clock...
"No idea." He resumed his pacing.
"A mon avis, je pense...!" I say in a sing-song voice.
"I don't know!" he moaned, throwing me a glare.
"It's 'opinion,' dumbass," I replied then flicked over two pages out of boredom. "Next: quand même il exagère. "
He looked at me as to say, 'do you really think I'm stupid?' "That's not in the list, is it?"
I looked at him in feigned horror. "It is so! It's right there!" I shoved the list in his face and pointed at the word, momentarily forgetting that I was showing him the whole list.
He looked at where I pointed then looked at me pointedly. "You're on the wrong page."
The 'moron' that would usually accompany such a comment was left unsaid.
"I was bored," I shrug.
"But the test is tomorrow!"
I looked at the list in front of me, scanning it for another word and absentmindedly said, "Ça m'est egal."
He muttered something that sounded vaguely like 'smart-arse.' Is it me or is he starting to sound like my brother?
Suddenly, as if my hand had a mind of its own, the list flies out of my hand, off the side of the bed and lands in an uncoordinated mess on the floor by the door. Seb stares at it, back at me, looks out the window into the night sky then flops down onto my bed, using my stick legs as a pillow.
"If I fail that test, I'm blaming you," he muttered darkly, glaring up at me for emphasis.
"It's not worth anything so I don't know why you're so worked up over nothing!"
"Easy for you to say, you're fluent in the damn language!"
I felt my left eyebrow rise. "I'm fluent in two and French is not one of them. French just happens to like me, that's all."
Seb rolls his eyes as I try and process what I just said. I hate confusing myself. There's a comfortable silence, aside from the clock, then an almighty cheer runs through the house.
"You'd think that after watching the game this morning that they'd be a little more considerate for the bored?" I mused aloud.
Seb sniggered. "You're starting to sound like Claudia."
"If I'm Claudia, you're some form of Tama."
We laughed and started talking about Claudia putting up with Tama's antics. Claudia Zhang and Tamati Williams are the old married couple of our group, even though Claudia would slap you silly for suggesting they were a couple (which they're not). Even Lucy is no exception and she's the Witch's best friend. Many remembrances of fond arguments later, but as our conversation went onto the other couple in the group, Corin and Chris, the mood suddenly turned serious.
Corin LeBlanc and Christian O'Conner were currently dating but there was something in their relationship that made me worry. When I first met Corin, she had just moved here from France. She was shy, quiet and only spoke when spoken to. She also had a major crush on Chris, an old school friend of Seb's. Every time he spoke to her, she would go red, which was very each to spot, as she is quite pale.
Then he finally asked her out and have been together every since. Which is over two years. She told me that it was the one of the happiest times of her life. I was happy for her and, because I was her closest, perhaps only, friend, she always confided in me. That all changed a year ago. She spent less and less time with me and made poor excuses when only surrounded by us males. I was pretty naïve then to not notice the signs of her withdrawal. She always tensed whenever someone touched her or when Chris's name was ever mentioned. Her eyes looked empty and lifeless, like all her happiness and life had been sucked out. Even her long blonde tresses looked dead.
I told Seb, as I would, but at first he dismissed it as an illness or home sickness (she lives with her aunt). But then it started becoming more frequent and agreed with me. Something was definitely going on. To add to our suspicions, Chris always had a dominant and possessive look in his eye. Just about everyone noticed the change but he denied everything and said that we were all paranoid when Tama asked him.
As of late, Corin hasn't been attending school. I would've dismissed it as illness but with her current change, I was worried as hell. I rang her house but her Aunt said she was very ill. 'A nasty tummy bug'. Come on! I'm not that daft! A stomach bug for a fortnight? I tuned down a little in my worrying when she came back to school, but then she was absent again.
The bed shifted slightly beneath me and I took this as a signal that Seb was becoming uncomfortable. I think it's a touché subject for us all so I let him change the subject and, for some odd reason, it was about our love lives, or lack of.
"So, you and what's-her-face broke up, I take it," I say, staring blankly at the ceiling with my arms cushioning my head.
"Her name is Rebecca," was his muffled reply as he ran a hand over his face, or from what I could see anyway.
I made an impatient noise, not really caring what her name was. Trials and tribulations, I say. "Why the hell'd you break up anyway?"
"She's too quiet," he murmured.
I stared at him as if he were mad. What the hell is he on about? He's just as friggin' quiet! I would've thought they'd be perfect together - all silence and no talk.
My love live, however, has the long-term status of Single…except on the occasional Friday, Saturday or family function when I become Lucy's 'boyfriend'. Everyone but her parents know that we don't go out, but only I know the real reason why. Let's say that Lucy's sexual orientation is a bit disorientated at the moment as it has veered off the Straight pathway. And because of that, she has a crush on none other than the Oh Mighty Short One herself...Alex, not me. Yes, people, I'm veryone's confidant. Even if I do have the biggest mouth this side of the Pacific.
I look over at Sebastian, who is staring at me with an odd look in his eye. But there's something nagging me.
"What's the real reason why you broke up?" I blurted out suddenly.
"Tu," he said absentmindedly.
"Two? Two reasons?" I asked.
He snapped out of his trance and looked at the roof, where my Rammstein poster stared back at him. "Nein. Du."
I stared at him, blankly, as he spoke in my native language. 'Since when did he speak German?' Dismissing the question, I slowly processed the words in my head. For a 'Wunderkind' I sure was acting dumb.
"Ich?" I asked in German, deliberately speaking in the other language out of pure curiosity.
He faced me. "Ja. Ich lie-" He drifted off and looked back at the roof.
"Du magst mich?" I frowned slightly and turned my head to face him. His eyes didn't meet mine.
"Magst? Nein. Liebe?" He hesitated, flicking his eyes towards mine for a slight second. "Ja."
My brain went into slow-motion processing. Ok, his German needs a little wo- "Was? Sie lieben mich? Sie lieben mich?" I asked unbelieving.
I sat up, looking at him in shock and surprise. To say 'in horror' would be out of my nature. My breathing had quickened and my eyes were wide. 'Did I just hear right?'
Sebastian then made a sudden movement and with a squeal of surprise, I find myself back on the bed but with Sebastian hovering above me. His slender hands on either side of my shocked face, his dark hair dancing upon my face and his face inches away from mine. If it were possible, I think my eyes went wider and my heart started pounding over-time.
"Ja, ich liebe dich," he whispers huskily.
'Wha-?'
Without waiting for any reply, he leaned down and kissed me. Not one of those quick pecks on the lips, oh no. This was an actual kiss, which made my whole body tense. Pulling back slightly, he looked hard into my eyes, which is quite unnerving, and I think he sees the message I’m trying to relay to him without speaking.
He sighs quietly and gently caresses the side of my face even though I feel my head shaking. There really isn’t any need for words right now for I think our actions say enough. Ducking his head, he rests it on my chest and his arms wrap around my body. I do the only comforting thing I can think of and wrap my own arms around him, one hand absently stroking his hair.
Oh. I guess I forgot to mention that I’m quite platonic…
End Prologue.
To be continued...
Vocabulary List
- Junge - son
- Scheiße - shit
- Mutti - Mum
- Wunderkind - prodigy child
- Kreuz - cross
- Schnecke - snail
- Sie kleiner Lügner! - you little liar!
- A mon avis, je pense...! Fr. - In my opinion, I think...
- Quand même il exagère Fr. - Really he goes too far
- Ça m'est egal Fr. - I don't mind, I don't care
- Tu Fr. - you
- Du - you
- Ich - me, I
- Du magst mich? - you like me?
- Liebe - love
- Sie lieben mich? - you love me?
- Ich liebe dich - I love you
- Mein Gott - my God
- Scheiße - shit
Notes
The German grammatical error when Sebastian says 'like' is put there on purpose.
Layout by Kitsune Arashi