five: from 0 to 100

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solar clarke's pov

There was this big red oriental carpet in our living room. It was magnificently detailed with rich blue, yellow, black and white. I was laying on it, staring at the ceiling, and I could hear the old wood floor creaking faintly every time I shifted.

Do You Want to Know a Secret by The Beatles was playing from an old record player, so loudly dad would scold me about it as soon as he came home. Then he would probably start jamming around the living room. Grandma was reading in the kitchen, but her hearing wasn't what it used to be, so the loud music never bothered her.

I had been thinking about Nicholas and his twin brother Nathan ever since that Friday morning after the practice. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a temper. I can go from 0 to 100 real quick, which often leads to either apologies or detentions or both. 

This time I felt especially shitty about the way I had acted for more than one reason. First of all, I had punched someone who had nothing to do with the matter. Secondly, I seemed to have really scared the guy.

"I don't care what you think he's done to you, if you touch him one more time, you're dead." Nicholas had snarled at me, no doubt meaning every word, after his replica had run out of the door. 

"I swear I didn't —" I had begun, still flabbergasted. I simply couldn't wrap my head around what had just happened: I had gotten the wrong brother.

"And don't think for a second this leaves here." Nicholas had interrupted me before storming out of the locker room.

I had spent the rest of the day trying to find Nathan, but he was nowhere to be seen. I got a feeling he was avoiding me, and seriously, who could blame him?

"Dammit." I groaned, covering my face with my hands. But how was I supposed to know there were two Nicholases if no one cared to mention it to me? It wasn't exactly like I could read it from a school magazine or social media. Okay, maybe I could have found that out from Instagram or who knows even from TikTok, if I had used them. 

I was still lying on the carpet when I dug my phone out of the hip pocket of my faded blue jeans. Was I about to check Instagram and TikTok? Fat chance. Instead I was going to vent to the very person who started all this.

"You again." Kieran answered after a few beeps. He uttered the words with annoyance and even sighed loudly to emphasize how fed up he was with me.

"I know, I wouldn't have called you, if I had had any other options." I complained to him.

"You're an ass." Kieran mumbled.

Despite the warmth that was oozing from our conversation, we were in fact best friends. I had known Kieran Williams for years now, even though we only now lived in the same town and went to the same school. 

Two things I have always looked up to in him was his openness to be himself and his disinterest in what others thought about him. Kieran came out of the closet when he was 12 years old and he refused to take any shit about it. If someone did try to do something, he gestated the most diabolic yet undetectable ways to make them pay for it. He might have been small, but there were no limits to his shrewdness.

"I know, love you too." I chuckled. "Why didn't you tell me Nicholas has a twin?"

"You didn't know? You're joking, right?" Kieran exclaimed incredulously.

"How could I when nobody told me about it?" I sat up, barely even noticing it. 

"I mean.. They're the Dawson twins, it's like the basics of Frostford High. How could you possibly not know?" I could hear from his voice that he could barely keep himself from cracking up. 

"What are they like?" I asked, ignoring Kieran's amusement altogether.

"You know Nicholas. He's this smug team captain in —" He began slowly, only to annoy me a little more, so I didn't feel bad cutting him short.

"Haha, very funny. I want to know about Nathan." I demanded, moving my phone to my other ear while I stood up and switched off the record player. Then I started pacing around the room.

"Well.. He's definitely not smug. He's kind of a loner, you know? He used to stutter and I guess some kids gave him a hard time about it, so he doesn't talk much. Basically he's just the opposite of Nicholas in ever—" Kieran explained. I cut him short again.

"I punched him. I punched Nathan." I blurted out.

"What? Why?" Kieran was genuinely shocked by that, and I couldn't blame him. It was a lot even from me.

"I thought he was Nicholas, obviously." I had been pacing around the living room so efficiently it was surprising I hadn't left a groove in the old floor. 

"So you just went and punched him?" Kieran scolded me, probably shaking his head in exasperation.

"Yup. Just imagine my bafflement when he fell on the ground like a featherweight and started stammering.. and.. and then he ran away." I laughed briefly and not in a joyous manner. "I've been trying to find him, so I could apologize, but I'm pretty sure he's avoiding me."

"Christ, you really are an imbecile." Kieran bemoaned. Then he was quiet for a while before adding: "Good luck with trying to make him forgive you. I bet he won't even give you an opportunity to talk to him."

"I'm going to apologize to him, no matter what it takes." I vouched, hoping more than anything that Kieran was wrong. 

"I still don't get why you hate Nicholas so much." He pondered then.

"You know why." I answered bluntly.

"Because of that? Still?" Kieran managed to say before I could hear someone at the front door. When I noticed who it was, I quickly ended the call and promised Kieran we would talk more at school on Monday. 

It seemed like I needed to make a plan. Unfortunately I suck with making plans, big time. I'm way too impatient to mastermind a project of any sort, and even if I did, I usually ended up doing something stupid enough to make all the planning go up in smoke. Though this time I was going to do my very best to make sure I didn't. 

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