Him and His Hoodie novel Chapter 1

I looked at the time on my phone for what seemed like the hundredth time, sighing when I noticed that the school day ended twenty minutes ago, yet my mom wasn't here to pick us up. And my brother and sister weren't even outside waiting for her like usual.

I was hoping my mom was just running late after picking up my nine year old sister from her school, so I waited five more minutes before heading back inside because I had enough sunlight for the day.

Five more minutes passed and Mom didn't show up, and Alan and Orchid weren't at the front of the school either. I tried calling all three of them, but I wasn't getting a single answer.

Great. Just great.

Where else could my brother and sister be? I mean, sure, they sometimes had after school activities, like Orchid being on the student council and Alan being on the basketball team, but they always told me when they had a meeting or practice.

Since I still wasn't getting a reply from anyone, I decided to head to the gym to see if my brother was there since it was a lot closer than the student council room.

I got to the gym to see some people there but I honestly had no idea if they were on the team or not. I was dragged to every single one of my brother's basketball games but I never paid attention long enough to recognize every player on the team. Especially with my not-so amazing memory.

I did, however, know that the teacher in the gym was the basketball coach so I walked over to him. "Mr. Lowe? Is my brother here?"

Mr. Lowe looked at me, his eyebrows furrowed. He probably had no idea who I was since I wasn't in any of his classes and nobody really knew me.

Even though us Princes were quite the unforgettable family.

"Who?" he asked.

"Alan," I said. "Prince."

"Ah," Mr. Lowe said. "Well, there is a practice for the team so if he's not in the gym right now, then he's most likely in the change room. You can check there."

Check in the change room where a lot of basketball team players, who are most likely very fit, could possibly be shirtless, thus making me blush like crazy?

Ha ha, not happening.

I would rather wait outside of the change room.

Alan finally walked out of the change room after probably a minute of me standing there, though it felt like a lifetime because I had already been in school long enough. Alan noticed me almost right away and walked over to me. "Am I imagining things?" he asked. "Am I actually seeing my brother in the gym? When he doesn't have gym class?"

"Why didn't you tell me you have basketball practice?" I asked. "I've been waiting by the front of the school for you and Orchid to show up."

"I thought Orchid told you."

"You thought Orchid would tell me that you have basketball practice?"

"Well, yeah. She has a student council meeting as well so I thought she was going to tell you about my practice while she told you about the meeting."

"Okay, does your practice and her meeting have anything to do with Mom not being here yet?"

"Yeah, I just got to the dance studio for rehearsal," he said. "Why?"

I sighed. Great. There goes my last chance of being picked up. "Orchid and Alan decided to tell Mom we don't have to be picked up until four-thirty because they both have things after school, and Mom isn't answering her phone for me to tell her that I will cry if I have to be here any longer."

"Are you always so dramatic?" Ryder asked. "I'm pretty sure you're not going to burst into tears if you have to stay in the school longer."

"You don't know how I feel."

"Okay, did you call everyone else who can pick you up?" Ryder asked. "Did you ask Uncle Tony when he's leaving his classroom?"

"He's on detention duty this whole week so I'm pretty sure that's not for a while."

"And did you call everyone else you know that can pick you up?" Ryder asked.

"Yes. You and Mom. Even though Mom isn't answering. And I don't have any friends."

"What about Jerome?"

What about Jerome? What about my brother's girlfriend's best friend who was probably the most attractive human being ever and made my heart beat way too fast every time he was in the same room as me?