Ben and Dana walked in silently. For a few moments, they said nothing, just standing there looking half-worried, and half- something else I didn't want to think about. You could probably cut the tension in the room with a steak knife.

Once again, I found myself unable to meet that foreboding gaze burning a hole into my back. My hand predictably went up to scratch at the back of my neck. I cleared my throat awkwardly, and waited for the hurricane to sweep through.

Thankfully, it was Ben who broke the silence.

"Owen, are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine," I said, still not making eye contact or even turning around to face them.

"What happened?" Ben asked.

"I guess I fainted ..."

"Yeah, we know that," Dana said. "But what made you faint? Were you dehydrated?"

I looked at Cooper for some back-up, but he gave me a look that said I was on my own. "I mean, I drank water during the one water break Cooper gave me—"

"Then what was it?" Ben asked. "This isn't the first soccer practice you've ever been at."

"Well, I had to run the entire practice," I said looking at my third oldest brother. "Thanks to him."

"Your running all of practice had nothing to do with why you fainted," Cooper said. "So why don't you tell them the real reason?"

I looked down, contemplating how I was going to go about telling them all that had happened today. My black school trainers tapped out a staccato on the concrete floor in time with my beating heart, and I knew this wasn't going to be easy- not in the slightest.

"I kind of got suspended from the first game," I mumbled, jiggling my leg anxiously.

"And how did you 'kind of' get suspended? You weren't in my class this morning, you know," Dana said, starting to get impatient with my antics.

I eyed Cooper, pleading with him to take over, but my brother wouldn't budge. "Just spit it out, Owen," he urged.

"Fine! I lied to Ms. Peskova this morning about why I was late. She sent me to the principal's office, and Yates suspended me from the first game. Coop here thought he should add on to the punishment," I gestured to him sarcastically, "by making me run the entire practice. Then, I fainted, like any normal person would do after running for so long. End of story."

"As I recall correctly, Owen, this isn't the first time Cooper has made you run the entire practice," Ben said.

"Yeah, I know," I admitted.

"But this is the first time you've fainted from it," he added.

I shrugged and finally looked up at my oldest brother. "So?"

"So it isn't 'end of story,'" Ben said. "You've clearly left out some details."

I panicked a little, trying my best to stall on having to inevitably tell them about the enjoyable breakfast and lunch I'd had earlier in the day. So I spat out the first "detail" I could think of. "... Fine. Before practice Cooper called me in here and beat my butt too." I blushed a little with embarrassment. I hated having to admit to anyone when I got spanked—I'm fifteen for Pete's sake.

"I meant details about why you fainted," Ben said. "Your story still doesn't add up."

"No it doesn't," Dana agreed.

"I already told you, I only got one water break," I said. "So naturally anyone who only had one water break would faint—"

"Owen ..." Cooper said, letting his sentence trail off as he shook his head.

"Wait a minute," Dana said. His eyes suddenly narrowed a little as he stared at me, causing me to gulp. "What did you eat today?"

And now, here I was, in the eye of the hurricane. I couldn't lie, and even I wasn't good enough to avoid a direct question like that. It seemed my stalling had come to an end.

"Well, this morning I woke up really early- you know before they put out all the fruit and stuff..." Dana crossed his arms menacingly. "So I ate pancakes instead," I finished lamely, ducking my head at the chastisement that was sure to come.

"Owen! How many times have I told you not to start off the day with pure sugar? It makes you crash before lunch!" Dana scolded. Why, oh why did I have to have a hypochondriac as a brother?

Ben, once again, came to the rescue- though not in the way I would have liked. "Speaking of lunch, what did you eat then?"

I felt like I was on trial, and my brothers were the prosecutors. Since when was it a crime to eat junk food?

"Pizza," I mumbled, deciding not to beat around the bush. Stalling hadn't been getting me anywhere so far, anyway. I figured I was as good as dead at this point- whether I admitted to just eating pizza or eating ten pounds of candy. Dana was already flipping out.

Ben couldn't come to my rescue this time, unfortunately.

"Owen David Kherrington!" Dana bellowed. I winced as my name echoed in the small office and waited for more to come. "I have been through this with you over and over again! Why is it so hard to understand that I want you to eat right? Is it too much to expect that a fifteen year old should be able to make his own HEALTHY eating choices?" Dana's voice went an octave higher with every rhetorical question he hurled at me.

Where do I even begin responding to that? I tried desperately to clear my eyes of the oncoming tears. A lump in my throat formed, and if I spoke, I knew my voice would crack embarrassingly. Then, a phone rang shrill and demanding in the tense office. The ring was coming from Cooper's back pocket. As he pulled out his phone, I couldn't help but think about how lucky I was to have been saved by the bell—err, ring.

"Hello?" Cooper asked as he put the phone up to his ear. The next thing Cooper did was flinch a little as the sound of a frantic, high-pitched voice come through the phone's speaker. I couldn't make out what the voice was saying, so at first I didn't know who it was until Cooper braved putting the phone back up to his ear. "Penny, Penny! Slow down!" he said loudly but calmly. So it'd been Penny that had saved me from the rest of Dana's wrath—kind of ironic seeing as I was the one that was supposed to help convince Dana to go easy on her. "I can't understand you when you're yelling—" Cooper paused as the shouting started again. "Hang on, I'm gonna put you on speaker." Cooper lowered the phone and pressed the speaker button. "Can you hear me?" he asked as he placed his phone on the desk.

"Where's Owen?" Penny said frantically, completely ignoring Cooper's question. "Is he okay? Where is he?"

"Relax, I'm right here, Pen," I said from where I was sitting.

"Owen? Are you okay?" she asked. "I heard you fainted!"

"I'm—wait, how did you know I fainted?" I asked. I knew the guys on the soccer team were gonna spread the word, but I didn't think it would spread around the student body as fast as a wild fire. There was a long pause on the other line. "Uh, Penny? Hello?"

"... Who cares about how I found out, what matters is the fact that you fainted!" she said.

"Did Ben and Dana tell you?" I asked.

"No, they just rushed out of the house without telling me anything, the meanies! They're probably on their way over there as we speak!"

"They're already here," Cooper told her. I was happy for her sake that she didn't call Ben and Dana something worse than "meanies."

"Oh uh ... hey guys," Penny said in a much lower tone than she'd been using.

"Now she calms down," I muttered wearily, rubbing my hand across my face. Voices in the room faded out momentarily as I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I came back to awareness, Penny was shrieking again.

"How stupid are you, Owen? You know eating junk food makes you crash! Does Dana need to get a megaphone so you can hear him better?" Geez, if I didn't know any better, I'd say Penny was turning into a mini Dana herself!

"Hey at least I don't go around eating salad because I'm scared my brother will say something about it during lunch detention!" I retorted, laughing at my wittiness.

Silence hit the small room like a train wreck. Cooper stopped talking to Ben and Dana. All three of my brothers turned toward me. Penny had gone absolutely quiet, save for her breathing.

Suddenly, Dana snapped his fingers for the phone near my hand. With the harsh look he was giving me, I knew better than to even think about disobeying him. The math teacher pressed a button on the phone- turning off speaker, presumably- and let all verbal hell loose.

"Penelope Grace Kherrington, you knew about that lunch detention, didn't you?" he asked in a harsh whisper.

Poor Penny. If it were me in her position, I would have melted out of fear already!