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Brothers.
8~ Eye for an Eye

8~ Eye for an Eye

Diana

The hallways were crowded beyond belief when school was over. I squeezed my way through the numerous students, constantly repeating ‘excuse me’.

I was desperate to leave. The rest of the day wound up the same, and I had another panic attack in Geometry. Not even my Literature class was enough to keep me optimistic.

But I didn’t want to leave until I knew the reason behind the gossip.

In elementary school, I was basically singled out because I was ‘weird’. The other kids didn’t understand why I was so quiet, or why I had dirty clothes on all the time, or why I did so bad in class. I couldn’t control my ‘moments’ as well as I could now. And my control now was still very slippery, let alone back then.

But I could act normal. I came in ‘normal’. I slapped a smile on my face and tried to be polite. That still didn’t stop the gossip. And the only reason I even had panic attacks today was because of all the looks. I didn’t like having so many eyes on me.

There was a reason. And the boys knew for sure. Not everyone looked at me that way. Mildred, Tony, Thelma, Kate… they treated me like a normal person. And all of them had one thing in common: they were new students.

As I neared the main entrance, my foot was suddenly caught on someone’s ankle, sending me flying forward. I grunted as I hit the tile floor with my legs thrown up in the air. Some of the people around me stopped to look. A few giggled while others seemed hesitant on whether to help me or not.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t see you,” someone said.

“You’re good.” I took the offered hand and stood, looking up. My eyes met hazel.

He went pallid as he stared at me, his hand slackening. He let go of my fingers and stared at me with bewilderment, as if I’d grown two heads.

I sighed in annoyance. “Is there something wrong with my face?” I snapped.

He blinked. “Um…” He shook his head. “No. No, I’m sorry. You’re, uh… sorry.” He adjusted his backpack on his shoulder. “Sorry for tripping you.”

“Yeah, it’s fine.” I crossed my arms, looking away.

He half-smiled and turned to leave.

“Wait.”

He stopped, keeping his eyes averted.

“Why did you look at me like that?” I demanded.

“Like what?”

“Like… that.” I waggled my finger towards his face. “Like this.” I imitated his expression. “Why?”

He stiffened, swallowing. I walked around him so I could be facing him, but he kept his eyes on his shoes.

“It’s not my place to say,” he finally said. He headed out. I stared after him in confusion.

Not his place to say? What did that mean?

I trudged up the steps to my bus and looked for my seat. A bit of relief flooded me when I saw Mildred waiting. “Hi.” I sat down.

She glanced at me and half-smiled. “Hey.” She took off her earbuds. “How was your first day?”

I hesitated, noticing her sudden demeanor, but answered her anyway. “It was… it was pretty good,” I said. “At lunch, I found my old friend from preschool.”

“Really? Small world.”

Tommy and Harry got on the bus. Harry smiled and waved to me as he passed by. Confused, I blinked, unsure how to respond. He seemed a bit disappointed and went to sit down.

“He’s waving to me,” Mildred said. “He’s in my class.”

“Oh.” I felt a bit embarrassed. “But… you didn’t wave back.”

She shifted. “I wasn’t… paying attention.”

The bus jerked as it pulled out, slowly turning to exit the school. I leaned over to see out the window, watching as the large building moved out of sight. I remembered thinking when I was little that the world moved for us when we got in cars or buses. I chuckled to myself. I was so innocent back then.

I missed it.

I then focused on Mildred, who fidgeted, playing with her earbud cords. Her foot tapped as she whistled, looking out the window.

I narrowed my eyes. “What is it?” I asked. “You seem… weird.”

She sighed, looking at me. “Listen, Diana… I heard some… things about you.”

“Things? What things?”

“Well, I found out you’re a foster kid, for one. And in my last class, they told me that you’re with those guys in the back.” She nodded towards Tommy and Harry, who were on their phones.

I bit my lip. I knew she’d probably hear about it, but… “I’m sorry, I-”

“Hey, no, don’t apologize. I’m not mad or anything. And it wasn’t like that was any of my business.” She shifted in her seat. “But… that’s not all I heard about you.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I…” She nervously rubbed her nape, squirming. “I know why people are talking about you so much. Like, literally the entire school is talking about you.”

I glanced at the brothers again. “C-could you tell me?”

She blinked. “You… you don’t know?”

“Don’t know what? Mildred, please, I want to know. People have been staring at me all day, and no one says why.”

“You… don’t know.”

“Don’t know what?!”

Some of the others glanced at me with disdain. I shrunk into my seat and lowered my voice. “Mildred, what did you hear about me?”

She gazed at me, looking at my foster brothers. They were now glancing at us as they spoke to each other. The people behind them were also in the conversation, their eyes on me.

“Well… it’s pretty big. Like… really big,” she started. “I don’t know if you can even… handle it.”

“What is it?”

The bus shook as we went over a speed bump, causing my backpack to roll off the seat next to me. It stopped in the middle of the aisle. As I reached over to pick it up, something hard hit the back of my head.

“Ow!” My hand raised up to rub the hurt spot. I looked at the floor, where an orange was rolling around with the movement of the bus. Laughter erupted from the back.

I whipped my head around, glaring at the backseat. A girl shook her head. “Hey, that wasn’t us!” She jerked her thumb to Tommy and Harry, who were suppressing their own laughs.

Picking up the orange, I stormed over to them. My eyes moved to Harry’s lap, noticing his lunch bag. My fury grew and I shoved the orange into his chest, making him grunt in surprise. “Is this yours?”

The other idiots laughed harder, hard enough that one of the boys fell off his seat. The rest of the bus stared at them, clearly unamused.

“Alright, here.” A burly-looking guy reached over with a 10-dollar bill, handing it to Harry. I glared at them with indignation. “A bet?” I scoffed.

Harry shrugged. “I have pretty good aim.”

I grunted again when a banana hit the side of my head. The boisterous group howled and guffawed. I really wanted to punch someone, but I promised myself no fights. They were really pushing it, though.

I contented myself by throwing the banana back. They dove to the side, exclaiming in surprise. “Whoo, she’s got some fight in her!”

The bus jerked forward when it stopped. I grabbed onto another seat as I stumbled. “That’s it.” The bus driver turned in his seat and pointed at me. “You. Off the bus.”

I felt the color drain out of my face. “What?”

“You’re causing riots back there. Off the bus.”

“B-but… I…” This couldn’t be happening.

“But she didn’t do anything!” Mildred protested.

“Look, I gotta keep my eyes on the road for you kids. I don’t have time to break up fights. You can get on the bus tomorrow, but you’re off today. Walk home.” He gestured to the door, which he opened.

I looked around at the other students, who stared at me. I fixed my gaze on the brothers. They shrugged innocently. They were going to make me go alone?

“If I’m getting off, then they have to get off, too,” I said, pointing at them. “I live with them.”

“That doesn’t count,” said Harry.

“I live with you.”

“Just get off the bus.”

I continued staring at them with anger, but they didn’t budge. “W-well… at least tell me where to go. I don’t know this neighborhood.”

Tommy rolled his eyes. “You keep going down here on Durell Road. You turn right on Calloway Boulevard, then left on Cedarwood Avenue.”

“Off the bus already. Watson, isn’t it?” the driver said.

Casting one, last, savage glare at the boys, I walked down the aisle, my face burning with humiliation. Mildred gazed at me apologetically while I grabbed my backpack, her mouth flapping as she tried to say something to defend me.

I stepped off the bus onto the sidewalk and watched as it closed its doors and took off.

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Tomorrow, they were going to pay. I would make sure of it.

~~~

I didn’t say anything to their parents when they asked me about the incident. I told them some other kid provoked me and that I lost my temper. If I didn’t get them in trouble, I could catch them off guard.

When I got home yesterday after the long walk, I executed the first step of my plan; finding something to get them back with. I thought about involving Kyle and Jack, but I decided not to. It was easier to keep it between the three of us.

While they were playing PS5 in the den, I went to Tommy and Harry’s room to look for anything I could use. “Something… anything…” I opened all the drawers, searching through them. “Incriminating…” I tried Tommy’s desk drawers; those were off-limits when I cleaned.

In a notebook, I found a torn slip of paper that said: Computer password: july13th2007

My birthday?

That was… kinda weird. Maybe it was also an important date for him.

I entered the password, successfully logging into his computer. I went online and clicked on a direct link to FamiliarFaces, where he was already logged in.

Hmm… what could I post?

There were thousands of unread messages from different chats. At the top was a group chat, and inside, the members shared tons of… suspicious links. I clicked on one of them.

“Whoa… look what we have here. Tsk, tsk, tsk… Tommy Field, what do we do with you?” Who knew he was such a perv? I felt mildly bad for his girlfriend, despite her being an annoying, toxic brat.

With a grin, I took screenshots of the chats and pages and posted them on his wall and 24-hour stories, also taking the liberty of tagging a few people, including TommyFieldsBaby— his girlfriend’s username. It was 8 in the evening, so it would last all day tomorrow.

I glanced at Harry’s computer. Hmm…

I checked his drawers for his password. I soon found it buried under a bunch of old notebooks in the bottom drawer. May62023

These guys couldn’t come up with more secure passwords? A kindergartner could get into their computer.

Once I sent the pictures into Harry’s chat, I downloaded them and posted them with a cute little caption: Thank you @tomarthurfield for the links (wink face) (thirsty face)

I pressed ‘Enter’ with a satisfying click on the keyboard and hurried out.

~~~

Tommy

I got out of the shower and headed to my bedroom to change, rubbing a towel over my hair. My phone buzzed relentlessly on my bed with messages.

I decided to ignore them. All I’d been getting since yesterday were disgusting jokes and memes about Diana and Amy. And when Harry accidentally opened his big mouth and told Lucas, everything escalated.

Why was he always such a blabbermouth? He used to call me the tattletale.

I ran downstairs once I was ready. Harry came after me, yawning tiredly, his mouth stretched wide open. With a smile, I stuck my elbow inside. He stopped yawning and his eyes popped open.

“Tommy!” He tried to punch me as I laughed.

Diana came down, a strange smile on her face. After yesterday, I thought she’d be beyond angry. She didn’t even tell our parents what happened, which I found pretty weird. Wouldn’t she want us to get grounded or something?

“See you, Mom!” I went to the door.

“Bye, Dad!” Harry yelled.

“Be careful!”

“Don’t get thrown off!”

“We won’t,” Harry snickered, making me laugh.

We didn’t expect the driver to literally kick Diana off the bus. All we did was toss her an orange. But if we didn’t do something, that girl would’ve told her everything, and the whole bus would be there for it. We didn’t mean for it to go that far.

But we were definitely not getting off with her, especially in front of everyone.

One look at her on the first day of school was enough to spread so many rumors. All in one day. This was exactly why we didn’t want her here.

Hopefully, if we kept pushing her around, she’d decide to leave. I’d been counting on her quitting on the first day, but she was a lot more resilient than we thought.

We got on the bus and ignored the whispers and giggles, slumping in our seats. It was best not to feed it. In school, I received the same looks. Yesterday, people had looked at me with shock, confusion, mischief, and pity. Today, it was all sort of… weird smiles and giggles.

Everything was a joke now. The ultimate gossip of the year.

Entering my Honors Art History class, I put down my bag, sitting in the desk I chose yesterday. My phone continued buzzing in my pocket.

I sighed. I’d have to face it sooner or later.

Reluctantly, I pulled it out and went into the FamiliarFaces app. My notifications were flooded and my inbox was overflowing. Bruh, did they have to be so obsessed with this?

Shirley Heffer reacted to your story.

Jason Diver commented on your post.

Lucas Flynn commented on your post.

I frowned. I hadn’t posted in a while.

When I clicked on the post, I received the shock of my life. I could feel the color draining from my face.

What. The. F—

“Hey, Field,” someone whispered behind me. I turned, meeting eyes filled with laughter. “Could you send me those pictures later?” he said. “Where’d you get stuff that good?”

I huffed and ignored him, returning to the post. Endless comments were posted below, from my family, friends…

Oh, God. Shirley.

Jason Diver: I want someee

Lucas Flynn: (laughing emoji) I wonder what @amythearchitect would say about this… maybe ask her copy lol

Sonya Wellingsly: Tommy… if u need to talk, u can just text me. Dont go down this path pls… tell me u got hacked or something

Kurt Wellingsly: Tommy WTH??? I dont want to judge u but did u have to post it?

Amelia Weber: People, its obvious he got hacked. Relax. @tomarthurfield pls see this and report it

I looked through the list. I soon found a post from Harry, which I was tagged in. Dread filled me when I saw similar screenshots on his wall, as well, with a caption thanking me for ‘sending him the link’. I’d never let him see this! He’d blab it all over the place!

I quickly went to my messages. Lots of my family members were asking me if I was hacked, while others were begging me to stop the habit. Guys from the football team, Shirley’s friends, everyone was going crazy.

And Shirley…

She sent a long voice message, but I couldn’t play it here. Maybe I had some earbuds in my backpack…

I bent down, leaving my phone on my desk, and looked for them. I finally found them buried under my books and pulled them out. When I reached for my phone, it was gone.

“Tommy, how could you do this to me?!”

I whirled around, finding the guy behind me holding my phone. He held it up as Shirley’s message played at full volume. “I knew you didn’t want me! I knew there was something wrong when I asked you…”

I was frozen. I couldn’t move. I wanted to snatch the phone away, to punch the guy in the face, to do something. But I couldn’t.

Everyone in the classroom murmured and reacted quietly as they listened to Shirley’s sobbing rant, her tone seeping with desolation and anger. I soon managed to unlock my limbs and reach for the phone, but the guy stood from his desk and backed away.

“Give me my phone!” I went after him and grabbed him by the shirt. After a bit of struggle, I finally grabbed it, but the message filled with screams and curses was only a few seconds shy of being done.

I looked around at my staring classmates and stopped the message. Quietly, I moved to my seat and put away my earbuds, stuffing my phone in my pocket. My entire body shivered with goosebumps, despite my temperature rising to the point that my skin burned.

The silence was broken by the final bell. Everyone got into their seats and waited for the teacher. All the while, they glanced at me, whispers and murmurs echoing through the room.

The teacher came in a couple of minutes later, oblivious to the class atmosphere. “Good morning, everyone.” We listened to morning announcements and said the Pledge before she started the class. “Everyone take out their books and turn to page 10.”

I slowly reached into my backpack and pulled out my textbook. I blankly watched the teacher as she narrated instructions.

What just happened to my life?

Was it Kyle? No… he didn’t know my password. Neither did Jack. And Harry wouldn’t have doomed himself like that… none of the guys would do something like this.

How would Diana do this? She never touched my desk drawers. I always told her they were off-limits.

Unless she did…

I kept my phone under my desk as I glanced between it and the teacher, opening the story posted on my profile. It was posted at 8:13 PM. What was I doing…? I was playing PS5 with the guys, right? She could’ve done something.

I put away my phone, clenching my jaw. This girl wasn’t going to quit school. She was going to make our lives more and more miserable the longer she was with us.

We needed to make her leave. But would everything we did come with revenge? Would she just pay us back and continue coming to school?

We were trapped.

~~~

Diana

I decided to sit with Thelma and Kate again. This time, the girls brought their own lunches while I had a tray, having decided to try it out of curiosity.

“So you did it? They’re not actually into that stuff?” Thelma laughed.

“Well, Harry isn’t. I got those pictures from Tommy.” I took a bite out of my school hamburger. The minute it touched my tongue, nausea hit my stomach and I spit the whole thing out. The two girls laughed loudly, annoying the students sitting near us.

“This is disgusting!” I exclaimed.

“Told ya!” Kate laughed.

“I should’ve listened.” I pulled my paper bag out of my backpack, pushing the lunch tray away.

“Anyways… how did Tommy’s girlfriend react?” Thelma asked.

“I th-thought Harry had the g-girlfriend.”

“No, it’s Tommy. Harry’s the ‘single pringle’.”

“That’s right,” I laughed. “And I haven’t seen her reaction. Probably hilarious. Honestly, I’m doing the guy a favor. She’s toxic.”

“That was so… I don’t know. Daring. You really know how to stand up for yourself.”

“You mess with me, I’ll mess with you more.”

“R-remind me not to get on y-your bad s-side.”

The rest of the day went on normally. People stared at me a bit less, but there were still plenty of students that gave me the same looks as yesterday. I kept my gaze forward, ignoring them all.

At the end of the day, I went to my locker and switched out my books to get rid of any extra weight. I turned around and instinctively leaned back, bumping into the lockers, when the two Field brothers appeared in front of me.

“Oh. Hi.”

“Hi,” Tommy said coldly.

“How was your second day?” Harry asked.

I quirked a brow, feigning confusion. “Fine?”

“You hear any new gossip with your friends?” Tommy asked.

I shrugged. “I dunno.”

“Let me be more specific. Did you hear anything about us?”

“About you?”

“Yeah,” Tommy continued. “Rumors say Harry and I posted some… inappropriate pictures on our FamiliarFaces page. But funnily enough, I haven’t posted anything since last month.”

“Me neither.” Harry shrugged.

“Maybe you were hacked.”

“Maybe.” Tommy leaned on the locker next to me. “Or… a little rat snuck into our room and tweaked a few things on my computer.”

“How do you know?”

“It’s pretty obvious. Unless, of course, both our accounts happened to get hacked at exactly the same time, on the same day, after you got thrown off the bus.”

I continued my innocent façade. “Okay. Maybe it was Kyle. Or Jack.”

“They torture us, sure, but they would never do anything like that.”

“The point is, we know you did it, okay?” Harry snapped.

I grinned. “Impressive, Holmes and Watson.” I held up my hands. “Okay, I did it. So what?”

“So what? So everything!” Tommy yelled, catching some students’ attention. Harry noticed and nudged him.

They looked around restlessly and headed to an open classroom across the hall. Tommy took me by the shoulder and pulled me along, preventing me from escaping. Despite his lanky frame, he was still stronger than me.

Harry closed the door behind us and Tommy continued his rant. “Shirley broke up with me, everyone’s talking about us, our family saw it… you’ve literally ruined everything.”

“Oh, get in line. If you didn’t want something like this to happen, you shouldn’t have humiliated me on the bus.”

“Boo-hoo! Diana got teased on the bus!” Harry mimicked. “That’s nothing compared to what you did to us!”

“It’s not just because of that! All of you have treated me like trash since day one, and I’ve had enough!” I retorted.

“I thought you were used to it,” Tommy said.

My voice momentarily left me. “Excuse me?”

“Isn’t it true?”

Harry glanced between us. “Tommy…”

My rage reached new heights. It was so intense that I couldn’t form any words. My hands shot out and shoved Tommy. He grunted, stepping back a few paces.

“Hey,” Harry began.

“So because I’ve ‘suffered worse’, that gives you the right to treat me like this?! What kind of mentality are you guys… my God!” I shoved him again.

“We have the right because you ruined our lives the minute our parents took you in!” Tommy approached me angrily. We were only inches away from each other, rage radiating off the both of us.

“Why? Why are your lives so ruined because of me?!”

Harry closed his eyes, seemingly on the verge of bursting. “BECAUSE YOU’RE JUST LIKE-”

Tommy elbowed him in the stomach, cutting him off. “Look, we did what we did because you’ve already screwed us up. If you mess with us, we mess with you more. That’s the rule.”

The rising tension frightened me, but my anger won over. “I don’t get what your problem is,” I continued. “I know you don’t want me with you, but I don’t have a choice. I didn’t ask to move in with you!”

“You could ask to move out, you know!”

“Why should I?”

“Tommy-”

“No, Harry.”

“No? No what? What do you want to say, Harry?” I looked at the younger brother.

“Nothing! He’s not saying anything.” Tommy’s eyes were on fire as he glared at him.

“Somebody will!”

“Harry, shut up.”

“Someone has to-”

“SHUT UP!” Tommy shoved him. Harry tripped over one of the desks and fell with a crash, his backpack slipping off his shoulder. My hands flew to my mouth.

The loud volume and the sudden noise of Harry’s fall kicked my heart up to 200 beats per minute. I backed away from Tommy, whose face immediately filled with regret. Harry stood, his face red. He silently picked the desk and his bag back up.

“Harry, I… I’m sorry. I’m sorry, I just-” He reached out. Harry pushed him away and yanked the classroom door open, storming away. “Harry, wait! I’m sorry!” Tommy moved to follow, then stopped. He sighed and leaned his forehead on the wall.

He looked at me. I flinched away, bracing myself for a similar or worse blow. I found myself screaming tearfully, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry I did all that, I’m sorry, I promise I won’t do it again, just please let me out!” I ran out of the classroom before he could say anything.

I thought I was safer with this family… maybe I was wrong.