Chapter Ten

Seeing Red

It was Monday morning and Savannah was feeling nervous about seeing Leon at school after ignoring his phone calls all weekend.

She was doing her best to ignore the mere thought of him in an effort to prove that she had no romantic feelings towards him, which was surprisingly easy. She kept herself busy studying, looking after her plant and reading underneath the ash tree in the backyard.

Savannah was eating breakfast with a very dull Ben.

"Benj, what's the matter?" asked Savannah after realising that Ben was too quiet for her liking, "It's Monday," he answered groggily.

Savannah was wondering if his lack of drumming had anything to do with his behaviour. The only times she would see Ben this sombre was when he was sick.

Ben was always energetic and full of life, Savannah wondered what sucked it out of him and made him this way. Before Savannah interrogate Ben, in walked in her loved-up parents, arm in arm.

"Good morning son and daughter," said Anthony in such an overjoyed tone, it was almost sarcastic, as Savannah and Ben stared back in confusion.

"It's your father and I's 21-year anniversary!" exclaimed Anita excitedly, Savannah tried to pretend that she hadn't forgotten, since her mother mentioned it everyday last week.

"Savannah dear, we'll be gone for the week, I've prepacked your lunches and there are easy-make meals in the pantry and in the fridge," spoke Anita as her husband grabbed their luggage's.

Savannah smiled and nodded, "Ben, you'll be staying with the Jefferson's, don't you and your friend Charlie drive his parents up the wall," spoke Anita firmly as Ben's face lit up for the first time that morning.

"I'm counting on you to be on your best behaviour Benjamin," she spoke assertively to Ben as he nodded. She moved around to Savannah and began, "it'll just be you and Michael home, I trust that you two will keep the peace."

The thought of being home alone with Michael for a week made Savannah want to cry in frustration, but she made a conscious decision to keep to herself around her brother.

"Anita honey, we'll miss our flight, we best say our goodbyes," said Anthony as he took the last of the luggage outside into the car. Anita approached the front door as Savannah and Ben trailed after her.

"You be good Ben," she said as she kissed her son on the forehead, "take care Savannah," she said as she kissed Savannah on the cheeks.

"I've arranged with Grace for Leon to pick you up and drop you off to and from school, he should be here any minute," she said as she wrapped her scarf around her neck and got into the car.

'Crap!' thought Savannah, she was going to see Leon sooner than she expected. She couldn't work out if she was nervous because she had ignored him all weekend or if she feared what might happen if she saw him.

She felt relieved that her mother had asked Leon's mother to get Leon to drive her around than to ask Mike.

"Goodbye my offspring!" chanted Anthony, ruffling Ben's hair and kissing him on the head then kissing Savannah on the forehead.

Savannah and Ben waved goodbye as their parents drove away down the street and out of sight.

"Alright Benj, got all your things?" asked Savannah, grabbing Ben by he shoulder,

"honey, I've been packing since April," said Ben in the enthusiastic tone that Savannah had missed so much.

At a quarter past eight, Leon pulled up and honked, signalling Ben and Savannah out the door.

Leon helped Ben place his things in the boot of his car as Savannah doubled checked the windows were closed and triple checked the oven and other flammable things were turned off.

She locked the front door, and approached Leon's car. To her relief, Ben was sitting in the front seat.

"Sorry Sav, Ben called shot-gun," said Leon as Savannah sat in the back seat,

"don't apologise to her my man, she's used to losing to me by now," guffawed Ben.

"Oh shut up Ben, soon enough that hair of yours won't be enough to cover your big head,"

retorted Savannah, "you Brown's crack me up," said Leon as he reversed out of the driveway.

Thanks to Ben, there was little Leon and Savannah said to each other, Leon was like another big brother to Ben, Savannah sat back and looked out the window whilst Ben and Leon conversed on sports, cars and other boyish things.

Leon dropped Savannah and Ben at the front gate then drove to the student parking zones on the other side of the campus. He later caught up with Savannah in homeroom, a millisecond before Miss Mewdan arrived.

At lunch Savannah sat at hers and Leon's regular spot in the garden waiting for him to come. He crept up behind her and took a seat beside her startling her in the process.

"So how was your weekend," he chuckled,

"mostly just studied, sorry I missed your calls by he way, I was just so busy," she lied.

Savannah made eye contact with Leon for the first time since Friday night, to her surprise she felt nothing but brotherly love for him, the way she always did, the way that it should be. She internally breathed a sigh of relief and genuinely smiled at him.

"It's alright mate, we're in twelfth grade, I get it," he smiled exposing his uniquely charismatic smile.

"You looked like you had fun Friday night," he said as he playfully poked Savannah on the shoulder,

"yeah, socialising isn't so bad when and if you're with the right people," Savannah retorted cleverly.

"You sound so much like Mitch, you guys are so much alike," commented Leon,

"speaking of Mitchell, guess who was forced to be in his environmental sustainability club?" asked Savannah.

Leon sat straight up and stared at her in confusion,

"someone ratted me out to Mrs Bennet, told her I wasn't doing an extra-curricular activity, so naturally, she placed me in one."

"You know, Savannah you ought to be more grateful," Leon said flatly, "some people who didn't choose an extra-curric' last year got stuck with crummy jobs like canteen duty and the buddy program with seventh graders... You're lucky that Mrs B put you in something you actually like, with someone who actually likes you, especially this far along the year."

Savannah didn't say anything, Leon was right, and she knew it, she didn't want to waste her time doing compulsory activities for extra credit she didn't need, but at least plants and environmental sustainability was something she was interested in, not to mention Mitchell, her new friend, was the leader.

She couldn't help but still want to know who had told Mrs Bennet in the first place, but decided not to voice her problematic opinion out loud.

"So how's the prom committee?" Savannah asked after they sat in tense silence.

"It would be better if Ethan and Caleb weren't complete imbeciles, we're five months away and all we've got worked out is the music, we haven't even got a theme," he laughed but Savannah could sense his nervousness.

This much didn't surprise Savannah, Leon was always the one doing all the work in a group with the likes of Heather, Natalie, Ethan and Caleb. She would feel sorry for him if he didn't get himself into that mess in the first place.

The afterschool bell rang that day and Savannah made her way to the courtyard where the sustainability team meet. She hadn't seen Mitchell since Friday night and couldn't figure out how to act but then again, Savannah has never really known how to behave around people.

After about twenty people showed up, Mitchell and his friend James from the restaurant approached, Mitchell looked around, when he met Savannah's eyes he smiled and motioned for her to come to him.

"Hey guys this is Savannah, she's a new member of the enviro club," said Mitchell, as Savannah smiled and waved. If Savannah could blush her skin would be as red as the dying tree leaves.

They spent the afternoon piling fresh bark in the school gardens, watering the plants and scraping dead leaves out of the gutters.

To Savannah's surprise she had enjoyed it a lot more than she thought she would. The school was peaceful and calmer when there was nothing but twenty students.

"I meant every word of what I said Friday night," said Mitchell as he and Savannah were raking, "you're a good friend."

"I really appreciate it Mitch," spoke Savannah as Mitchell's face lit up, "You've been a good friend to me and... I never really thanked you for that... so, thanks," said Savannah as Mitchell radiantly stared at her, smiling ear to ear.

After Mitchell realised he was glaring at Savannah for a little too long he looked away and cleared his throat as if he had snapped back into reality.

It seemed like time was going faster than it usually did, Savannah was feeling optimistic about the environmental club, and slightly disappointed that they only had it three times a week.

She felt incredibly fortunate to have Mitchell as a friend and slightly guilty for not giving him a chance sooner.

The week went by quickly, before Savannah knew it it was 5pm on a Friday afternoon, her and Mitchell were trimming the bushes in the school yard. Leon approached them with his school bag hung on one shoulder, his formal committee program ran the same time the environmental club did.

"Ready to go?" smiled Leon, "just about," answered Savannah as she removed her garden gloves.

Leon and her relationship had gone back to normal, as if the feelings she had for him a week ago never happened.

"You sure you can't stay for dinner?" asked Savannah hopefully after Leon had pulled up in the drive-way.

Fridays were the only day Mike didn't have training.

Throughout the week Mike and Savannah coexisted, they were never in the same place at once and acted unaware of each other's existences, which was upsetting to Savannah, but she would rather her brother ignore her than fight her.

"I can't sorry Sav, its that time of the year when dad wants to get the family's legal papers in order," he frowned.

"Think of it this way, it's the last night you two have to spend alone together, you'll be fine," said Leon encouragingly, he waved Savannah goodbye as she got out of the car.

She approached the front door and her stomach dropped when she saw Mike's flaming red car. She put the key in the keyhole, took a few deep breaths turned the key and pushed the door open.

She was making her way to the kitchen when she was confronted with a very furious looking Mike.

"Where the hell were you?! Who do you think you are coming home at this time?" he shouted, startling Savannah.

This was what she so desperately tried to avoid. A fight.

She did her best to remain calm, and answer respectfully, but the tone he was speaking to her in, made her feel that he was unworthy of any respect from her.

"Why would you care where I was?" she said with as much confidence she could master, she puffed out her chest and tilted her head up, locking her eyes with her older brother, she wanted him to know that she no longer feared him.

Mike chuckled making Savannah's knees tremble, despite how scared she was of where this was going, she was not going to back down to Mike, not after doing it for so long.

"Oh, I don't care where you are or what happens to you, I just hoped you'd run away so I could turn your bedroom into my personal gym," he said sinisterly, every detail of his face etched with malice as he stared at Savannah.

A lump grew in Savannah throat. That was the nastiest thing anyone has ever said to her and it hadn't come out of Natalie's mouth, nor Heather's but her brother's.

Although there was nothing more she wanted to do than cry or hurt Mike with her words or her fists, she held it together with ever fibre of her being and decided to be the bigger person, the better person, to relinquish from sinking to Mike's level.

She heaved a sigh, turned around and walked upstairs to her room.

She got out of her school uniform, the words Mike had said replaying on a continuous loop in her mind.

Her deep hurt had turned into anger, which she tried to blow off but only seemed to be getting stronger and stronger by the minute.

She heard footsteps approaching up the stairs, she got out of her room and intended on going to the kitchen when she was once again face to chest with Mike.

She sighed and attempted to move out of the way when he deliberately and aggressively shoved her against the wall with his broad and built figure.

Savannah's face roughly collided with the corner of wall, she steadied herself against the wall as the side of her face stung with numbing pain.

She rapidly blinked away the tears growing on the corner of her eyes as she felt fury like never before.

She did her best to ignore his blatant act of violence but as he chuckled at her pain, clearly satisfied with what he did, she acknowledged that, keeping peace, was no longer a possibility.

She had to stand up for herself, to stand up to Mike.

Savannah slowly turned around with her palm to her face, flooding with anger and rage she had never in her life felt.

She wanted to hurt him. Cause him as much, or even more pain than he ever caused her in the past year.

She looked at Mike as if he weren't her brother, but her enemy that was about to witness a side of Savannah nobody has ever seen.

She lunged at Mike, punching him as hard as she could on the cheekbone. Her knuckles instantly tingled with pain as Mike grunted under his breath.

Mike grabbed Savannah's wrist and twisted in behind her shoulder, crushing her fingers with his beefy palms, she silenced her screams of agony and staggered backwards in an effort to get him off.

She kicked at his shins but it was no use, his grip grew tighter around her wrist, she was no longer aware if he was still twisting her fingers, she had lost all feeling in them.

With her free hand she grabbed Mike's injured hand and gripped on it as hard as should could.

Mike gave in and swore so loud, the whole neighbourhood could hear. He pushed Savannah from behind with all his might, she staggered forward, her face mercilessly collided with the oak console table.

She felt a blow to the head, making her vision bleary, unable to see or get to her feet, she felt another blow to the stomach, feeling like all the air had been sucked out of her lungs.

She didn't understand if she was running into things, falling on things or if she was being beaten by Mike. She was dizzy, her eyes swollen shut, unaware of which way was up.

She lay on the floor in foetal position as the taste of coppery blood filled her mouth, her breathing became laboured, she was unable to open her eyes or move her body.

Her face throbbed in agony, she felt herself drifting away from consciousness as darkness swallowed her whole.