Of Leaf and Lust - Arc 01

= ARDEN

A fist slamming on my bedroom door awoke me.

"You up?" came the voice of one of my sisters, my mushy morning brain unable to differentiate which one through the closed door.

Despite going to bed early and presumably sleeping in late, I still felt exhausted. So I turned over and passed out again.

"Sleepin', huh?" A deep demonic voice grumbled into my ear.

I yelled (a very manly deep-pitched yell, thank you, definitely not a scream) and flailed, getting caught in my sheets while I made an effort to escape the evil being. Only when I managed to press myself completely against the wall to put the maximum possible distance between us did my brain catch up to what was happening. Amerys, my eldest sister, was bent in two gasping for air between bouts of uncontrollable laughter.

Adrenaline-fueled panic faded into red-cheeked embarrassment then anger. I threw my pillow at her. "You jerk!"

She parried my projectile and grabbed onto my throwing arm. Without the panic juice flooding my veins, my exhaustion returned full-force.

"Time to get up!" She physically dragged my boneless self out of bed like I weighed nothing at all. I didn't even bother resisting. Not that it would do much good versus her. I learned long ago that resisting led to pain. Well, more pain. Getting dragged across carpet wasn't exactly my idea of a good time.

"Lemme sleep."

"We're gonna be late."

I gave a zombie-like groan until cool glass pressed against my lips.

"Drink," my other sister Esmera said as she poured.

My favorite beverage, whole milk, hit my tastebuds. I loved the rich, creamy flavor. The first gulp perked me up enough to take the glass from her.

"Thanks, Mera," I mumbled around the rim.

My eyes half-opened to see Esmera give a slight smile. Even in my sleepy state I could read the concern.

This exhaustion had been going on for months now, slowly escalating in severity. How long did I sleep last night? Twelve hours? Thirteen? I barely got through watering my plants before crashing into bed. I hoped I remembered them all.

I drained the rest of the glass as fast as I could drink it. It worked its coffee-like magic, injecting vigor straight into my veins. Say what you will about living in rural Wisconsin, but the dairy here is great.

Mom assured me I was fine when I asked to go to the doctor. I couldn't just go to the doctor when I felt awful. This was 'Merica, where we were so free we lacked basic medical access despite spending more on healthcare than every other country in the world with worse outcomes. Woo, middlemen! I envied the other counties with governments not completely captured by lobbying interest groups.

Because corporations were people here. That made total sense.

Mom had insisted that my excess sleep was natural. Growing young men, according to her, needed more rest. When she said that I couldn't help but bark a laugh. Growing? I was still five foot nothing last I checked. And I checked a lot. Like embarrassingly often. Often enough that each of my family members had seen me turn leveling my hand on the top of my head while standing straight against the wall into an awkward stretch when they came into my room unannounced.

The world wasn't kind to short men. I didn't want to be one of them. But sometimes you're dealt a bad hand in life and had to roll with it.

My internet research told me my condition was either mono or cancer. That certainly didn't worry me. Nope. Not at all. It was easy not to worry. Because worrying took energy. Energy I lacked. So my days became one long drawn-out 'meh'.

Out of everything, I really missed my hikes. Being out in the woods always made me happy, but my lethargy prevented those long strolls through nature nowadays.

I got my feet underneath me, rather than dragging them underneath like limp noodles. "Okay, okay, I'm up."

Amerys stopped bearing my weight. My knees, with the strength of wet cardboard, almost crumpled. They locked off just in time to stay standing after a single stumble.

Amerys walked around into view to stand next to her fraternal twin sister. They both shared a remarkably similar face, taking strong resemblance from mom. But where Esmera inherited mom's straight ink-black hair, Amerys managed to be a sandy blonde. Taken from dad, I supposed, not that we'd ever met the flake. Mom never talked about him.

The one thing that slightly lessened my height worries was looking at my sisters. We all had the same eye level. Together we hadn't really grown much at all since middle school. Some kind of strange sibling height solidarity. As time went on and our peers went through normal puberty we got left behind. Schoolkids nicknamed us the short squad. The tiny trio. The midget menagerie. As a guy it hurt what little ego I had.

Amerys owned her height, somehow looking down her nose at people despite having to crane her head back to look them in the eye. Even now she crossed her arms and frowned at me in a way that made me feel less significant to her magnificence. "Are you going to get ready or do you need us to give you a sponge bath too?"

Oh, right, school. I was still in my underwear and a comfy tee whereas the twins were fully dressed and ready minus shoes and coats.

Esmera snatched the glass out of my hand then pulled me towards the bathroom. "C'mon, some of us actually learn things in school."

"Not everyone is a nerd like you."

Esmera was in all the advanced classes she could take, which wasn't much in our small town high school. But she still strove for her best.

"Says plant boy. Go soak up some water." She shoved me into the bathroom and pulled the door shut.

"Hey, plants are cool!" I yelled back through the door, my voice reverberating in that strange way that seems to happen in every bathroom ever.

"Said no cool person ever." Her muffled voice rebutted through the wall. "And hurry up!"

"Sir Attenborough is cool," I muttered.

Towel-clad, I emerged from the bathroom after taking the patented turbo-fast guy shower. Wet, soap, rinse, dry. Did some parts get neglected in the quest for clean? Yeah. Did I hit all the important parts? Of course. The less important bits would just have to wait until I had more time to scrub. The teeth got some love afterwards too.

Yesterdays clothes made it into the hamper and a new set went on. I shuddered at the memory of how long it took to find decent outfits. It hurt to shop in the kids section of the store. But adults didn't really exist in my size. Jeans and a t-shirt today. Not much to think about, really.

"Catch," Amerys said.

I turned only to get decked by a speeding sack of bricks barreling into my gut. It knocked the wind out of me. I doubled over while it thudded against my feet. On second look, it was my backpack. Fully loaded with all my books it probably weighed more than I did.

"My bad," she apologized.

With lots of totally manly and not in any way pathetic grunts I donned my one-way ticket to a scoliosis diagnosis. Jacket in hands and shoes on my feet I joined my sisters in the car. Amerys drove while Esmera took shotgun and I was left with the back seat to myself.

I passively stared out the window while we drove to school. The scenery was a far cry from what I remembered in my youth. It was March, yet greenery was plentiful and only small piles of dirty snow sat in the most shadowed areas. The nights barely touched freezing temperatures. Yet another year of unseasonably warm temperatures. Would it be another drought, too?

The school wasn't too far away. I normally liked to bike my way in, but my declining health prevented such prolonged physical activity. Wouldn't want to risk passing out on the side of the road.

My sisters were being disturbingly quiet on the ride in this morning. Normally they'd be gossiping up a storm. I spun my lethargic brain in gear and tried to figure out if today was special, but I couldn't even remember the day of the week.

"What's today?" I asked.

Despite them both already being silent, they jolted at my question. Amerys gripped the steering wheel just a little bit tighter.

"Friday," Amerys offered as an answer, but her tone made it sound like a question.

"Nothing else's going on?"

Esmera snorted in derision, "Did you forget Spring Break starts tomorrow?"

"Wait, really? Noice."

I knew that I was losing track of time with my constant sleepiness, but to forget a week-long holiday from school? Something truly was wrong with me. From my Winter Break experience just a few months back, the time off would fly way too quickly with me sleeping basically any chance I got. A part of me hoped I could shake off whatever affliction was stealing my vitality away.

My sisters' behavior made me suspicious though. "Any plans?" I probed.

Amerys suddenly turned into the drop-off loop. The car's momentum pulled me. My body strained against the seat belt, preventing me from flopping over. She jerked to a sudden stop. My test-of-strength, otherwise known as a backpack, flew onto the floor.

"Just gonna let you two off here," she said with the fakest smile I've ever seen.

She always parked in the senior-only student section and we went onto campus together as three. Now I knew something was definitely up. Before I could get my wits about me, Esmera opened my passenger door, undid my seat belt, and pulled me out of the car. Amerys reached around her seat, hauled my backpack up with a single arm, and threw it out at her twin who caught it like it wasn't half her weight.

"Here you go."

While Amerys sped off, Esmera handed me my bag. I braced my whole body for its obscene weight. When I had it situated on my back, she handed me a thermos. It was cold to the touch.

"This, too."

"What's in it?"

"Milk."

Say no more! I started to unscrew the lid, but Esmera held my hand. She rolled her eyes at my instantaneous reaction. "Don't just chug it, idiot. Make it last the day."

Mom usually limited my milk intake to a single glass per day. Otherwise she'd have to go shopping for the stuff way too often. I think she bought locally from a farmer because it came in big old-fashioned one-gallon glass jugs. It didn't even have a label or anything.

"Does mom know?"

"Yea, it's a treat."

"For... what occasion?"

She hastily checked her phone for the time. "Oh, geeze, I should go. I think Mrs. Salthior is going to give a quiz today. I should refresh myself on the topics."

"Uhh, later?" I said to her retreating form. Definitely suspicious.

I mean, it was totally reasonable that Mrs. Salthior would give a quiz on the day before Spring Break. The old bat of an English teacher acted like she hated her students, so I wouldn't put it past her. Or maybe she just hated me because I fell asleep so often. What else did she suspect with her monotone voice and my schedule having her right after lunch?

But my sisters were up to something. Three instances were too much to be a coincidence. I suppose I'd have to wait until after school to find out.

Without her lording over me I finished unscrewing the lid and confirmed, yes, it was milk. And, yes, it was chilled to perfection and whatever tasty non-brand my mom bought. Just a sip. Well, more like a gulp. Or two. There was plenty. I had a lot of cobwebs that needed clearing out in my brain.

The tow minute warning bell went off. Certainly my steps felt lighter on the way to class. Esmera was right about the time, though. We were almost late.

= ARDEN

The bell rang, signaling the end of classes for the day. Fucking, finally! Zipping backpacks, shuffling papers, and spontaneous conversations about plans drowned out Mr. Henderson halfheartedly trying to remind everyone to do their homework and not wait for the last moment. I cursed him in my head. It's Spring Break! It should be against the Geneva Convention to assign homework over Spring Break!

I stood up from my desk only to get shoved back into the chair by a classmate bounding out of the room at a sprint. My peers all towered over me. Not because I had skipped grades or anything. I was a normal senior in high school just like the rest of them. No, I just lacked, well, basically everything. It seemed my genes had decided I shouldn't grow. I had banked my hopes on late bloomer, but it seemed that wasn't in my cards. I grumbled under my breath, powerless to do anything about the situation, so I just sat and waited for everyone else to leave lest they step on me by accident.

"Arden, where the fuck are you?" Amerys, my sister, yelled over the cacophony of so many students rushing to leave for vacation. Despite her sharing a similarly diminutive size to myself, she pushed against the flow of students and into the classroom. I think people just knew not to get into my sister's way. The blonde pixie of a young woman had a reputation. They parted out of her path like she was a shark and they were minnows as she made a beeline for my desk.

Esmera stumbled along after her, unable to break her sister's iron grip on her hand. Unlike the bombastic and boisterous Amerys, she looked like she wanted to be literally anywhere else. "Amy, we could have waited in the hall," she protested barely above a whisper.

"Arden needs to get his ass in gear. It's time to go, slow poke! Chop, chop!"

A few snickers at my sister's words left me wanting to dig a hole and bury myself alive. I didn't even know how they got here so fast. Their last class was across the school from mine. Why are they even here? We usually meet at the car. Oh, wait, she dropped us off. We don't know where she parked. I tried my best to salvage the remnants of reputation by playing it cool, "Chill, Ames."

"No," she hoisted me out of my chair with a single arm, practically dislocating my shoulder, "It's The Day."

Just in the way she said it I knew she had capitalized the words. But my sleepy mind lacked the capability to connect the dots, if there were any to begin with. "What are you talking about?"

"It's your birthday, you dolt!"

I had completely forgotten about it. Well, maybe at some point I had purged it from my mind entirely. My eighteenth birthday was today. I hated birthdays. They reminded me of my lack of friends. I usually begged mom to not bother celebrating mine, but this year she refused saying it was a 'big day,' whatever that meant. It's just another revolution around the sun. Who cares?

I lugged my too-heavy backpack filled with its too-many books off the ground and onto my too-tiny shoulders. My back strained with the load. Amy arranged the daisy chain of siblings with me in the middle.

"Hey, Mera, fancy seeing you here," I greeted my other sister while rolling my eyes behind Amerys' back. She gave a wan, knowing smile in return.

"Less talky, more walky!" Amerys commanded as she dragged us in a jog across campus toward her car. Like some kind of springtime snow plow for people, she parted the crowd easily. My giant overstuffed backpack kept slamming into people and my throat was getting sore from apologizing so many times, but there's not much I could do about it.

Amerys got what she wanted, often by force. And it's not like I had the ability to break from my sister's probably-secretly-steroid-powered grasp. I think I heard the bones creaking in my hand. Seriously, where does the strength come from? She's scrawny like me.

Amerys threw us both into the back seat of our car and slammed the door shut behind us. Just as violently she flung open her own driver's side door and got inside. Before I could even untangle myself from Esmera, let alone get my seat belt on, Amy wailed on the horn and yelled "Get the fuck outta my way!" out of the open window.

Burning rubber squealed on the pavement of the parking lot while she peeled out. The centrifugal force caused Mera and me to slam against the door. Pedestrians yelped in surprise as they dodged the reckless driver that was my sister. We made some headway through the lot only to be forced to stop by the line of cars waiting to exit. Amy let out a feral growl of frustration and shook her whole body forward and back using the steering wheel.

"Move, you grannies!" she slapped her hand onto the outside of the car and I swear I heard it dent.

I knew my sister was impatient, but this? This was a whole new level. I took this time to actually get in the seat properly and take off my god-awful back torture device known as a backpack. My eldest sister still white-knuckled the steering wheel while we sat unmoving in the congested parking lot.

"Sis, you okay?"

"It's fine," she seethed through clenched teeth.

Esmera placed a hand on my knee to get my attention. "She's just a bit... hangry."

"Oh, uh, hmm. Sorry, I don't have any snacks."

"Like I said, it's fine," she was taking deep breaths through her nose. Her forceful exhales could be heard easily even in the back seat.

I hesitated. Normally interfering with the driver was definitely a bad idea. But it wasn't like we were going anywhere. And a lifetime of experience told me my touch tended to calm her down. I tentatively placed my hand on Amerys' shoulder. "Hey, it's going to be fine."

She kept her right hand on the steering wheel and used her other to clamp over mine, pressing my fingers. Her breathing turned to shuddering exhales. She started snuffling.

"Are you crying?"

I got slapped upside the head. "Ow, what the fuck?"

Esmera glared at me. "Don't be an ass! Never ask a girl if she's crying. Console her."

I was baffled. Amerys' emotions are all over the place. Even the normally timid Esmera is on my case. It's not like Amerys is starving or anything. She can wait to get home. I had enough tact to at least close my yap instead of blurting all these thoughts out. I still didn't know what to say. "I'm sure mom made something good for dinner."

That apparently wasn't the right thing because the sniffles only got louder. It was escalating to an ugly cry. Her shoulders were shaking now with her crying gasps. "But what if she didn't?"

I turned to Esmera with pleading eyes. She continued to level a fierce stare at me. It's Spring Break! Why is there a test? I'm not a mind reader! "Of course she did. It's tradition. She probably secretly took time off work to make something really special."

"You think so?"

"Yeah," I lied. I really was out of the loop here. I wished I had some snacks in that forty pounds of crap stuffed in my backpack because it felt like this car was at DEFCON-3, minimum. But I did have tissues, courtesy of my low-constitution allergies.

Amerys continued to clamp down on my hand, not letting it go. Mera had softened a bit towards me with my latest words. I asked her to fish some tissues out for Ames. The honking snot blast out of Amerys was most unlady-like, but it seemed to give her some relief. Doubly so when the car actually lurched forward in progress. Traffic had cleared up.

Distractions. I need distractions. "So what are your plans for Spring Break?"

"Depends on tonight."

Esmera cleared her throat loudly before I could even form an answer. I darted my eyes between the twins. "What's tonight?"

"Don't worry about it. It's fine."

I didn't know if those words were for me or herself. But they worried me either way. "Seriously. What's tonight?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing my ass. Tell me."

"It's nothing!"

Now I really wanted to know about this spicy secret my sisters held from me. Amerys was busy driving, so I couldn't mess with her. But Esmera, on the other hand. I eyed her particularly vulnerable sides. An evil grin slowly spread across my face.

"No." She shut down.

I limbered up my fingers by wiggling them. This was going to be awkward with my right hand still trapped.