Chapter 3 : Brother Darling

"Darling Darlene, Darlene Darlingggg"

Arlo skunked around the kitchen. At nine, he was two years older and a whole foot shorter than me. He was wearing his favorite gangster t-shirt, with a baseball cap jammed on his straight blonde hair.

I turned my full attention to the muffins in my toy stove. That failing, I stuffed my ears to dim out Arlo's not-so-funny sing-song.

Somehow, 'his secret' made me feel a tad less annoyed.

I have a secret to tell you. Yesterday I discovered that my suspicion had been right all along.

Arlo is not my brother. He is adopted. And he is most probably an alien in disguise.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had all started when the lady in the ugly green kit paid us a visit.

Ethan was at work and Mama had gone shopping with Lisa and Arlo. She had wanted to take me too, but I had cried off saying I had a headache.

Papa hadn't wanted me at home.

"I have a very important meeting with Kennedy." he hissed to Mama, hoping I wouldn't hear.

That should have been my first clue. They obviously didn't want me to know that Arlo was adopted.

In the end, I won. I am quite a good actress. I certainly didn't want to tag around town with Arlo making fun of me. He had become insufferable lately.

So, there I had sat in my room, pretending to be asleep but reading a book Morty Goth had loaned me. I wasn't actually enjoying it. The William in it resembled Arlo a bit too much.

I peeked out of the window. Nothing very interesting there. The heat was sweltering..

I was feeling hungry and decided to sneak down to the kitchen. The heat and my 'headache' had given me a craving for ice cream.

I tip-toed down the stairs. Papa was nowhere to be seen. I had just finished my third ice cream scoop when heard a screeching of breaks.

A huge and ugly jeep drove up and stopped right in front of our house. A woman jumped out. Papa was already at the gate and they shook hands briskly.

The woman was around thirty five years old. She had jet black hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was wearing an ugly green jumpsuit with dirty brown pants.

I debated whether to make it up the stairs and then decided against it. I could always tell I had been dying of hunger.

The front door opened and could hear the click of the lock.

"Thank you for agreeing to this meeting, Kennedy." Papa was nearly inaudible.

She just nodded curtly. To my surprise, they did not even notice me and went straight to the backyard.

I didn't mean to listen. I just wanted to experiment how good my ears were. I found out that they there was not much improvement since I tried to listen to Lisa talking to VJ over the phone. But still I could catch snatches of conversation.

"The child is very young. Wouldn't know anything." It was Dad.

"You mean adopted?" The lady's voice was hard to catch.

More murmuring and finally the lady said. "Don't tell me that some aliens are going to control our lives." she sounded annoyed.

I heard the car drive in. Mom and the rest were back. Goodbye to my ice-cream plans! But before I slid away to my bedroom, I found that vital piece of information. "...and so active!"

That cliched it! As I sat on the bed, I gradually put the pieces together. I was by no means a bad detective!

They had definitely been talking about Arlo when it came to active, and being so young. So he had been adopted, and the lady didn't want to think he was an alien! The lady must have been from the Social Services, by the look of how dowdily she was dressed.

It all made everything perfectly clear. Arlo was so annoying and brash. He was definitely an alien. It was surprising he was not green.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had made things over the past few days easy, you know.

"Darlene!" This time it was my elder sister Lisa. "Could you please stop daydreaming and lay the table?" she snapped.

Lisa had her shoulder length blonde hair held back with two over-sized silver clips. She would have been quite pretty if she wasn't so fond of experimenting with make-up.

We were making dinner. Lisa was pestering me throughout. Usually Mama would oversee us, but today she was resting. You see, I would no longer be the youngest in our family. I had been frightened it would be another brother, but Mama had assured me it was a sister.

Saturday dinner in our family was a huge and elaborate affair.

We rarely ate together. Both Ethan and Lisa finished their weekday part-time jobs at seven in the evening.. Papa was a squadron leader with a less than regular schedule. Mama usually preferred to eat have dinner late at night after all of us were asleep and the housework over.

So, Papa had made it a rule that we had Saturday dinner together, sharp at seven thirty. Cooking usually started around  three in the afternoon after a very light lunch. Mama lets me bake muffins and stuff.

Lisa was not much of a cook, but had managed to put together some sushi to eat with the pizza she had ordered. And then there were my muffins.

The dinner table was quieter than usual. Mama was nearly dozing off and Papa seemed pre-occupied. Lisa was busy describing her work at the spa to Ethan. Arlo was gulping down his food, and I just listened quietly.

"The people are so snooty." Lisa grumbled.

"I heard your friend VJ was in a spot of trouble this morning." Dad broke in suddenly, looking at Lisa directly. "I hope you are not involved."

"It was just been a small school fight, Papa." Lisa looked a bit worried.

"Parker Langerak broke his arm and the Langeraks are not pleased." Dad said heavily. "VJ is really getting uncontrollable. The Principal said he'd be expelled if there was any more trouble."

Lisa just shrugged.

"What was the fight all about in the first place?" Papa probed, speaking more to Ethan than Lisa.

"Something to do with this season's football matches. Parker is the captain. VJ hates Parker and has done some match fixing to stop him from winning."

"You just say so because Parker is your best friend."Lisa said heatedly. "Parker is a snob and deserves any broken arms he got."

Ethan is my favourite from our whole family. He is so good and strong, and rarely gets angry. But now, i could see that he was trying his best to control himself.

"Don't always cover up for VJ, Lisa." he said in a dangerously low voice. "You know he's bad news."

Lisa was famous for her tantrums. She would have flown into one if Papa's phone hadn't started to ring. Papa rarely answers calls, but today he motioned us to be silent.

He listened without saying a word. "I'll be there right away," he said hanging up.

"I've got to go."he said getting up abruptly. Then he looked directly at Lisa. "You are forbidden to leave the house till I'm back, young lady. Drugs have been found in VJ Alvi's possession."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N

Hiya there!

I know most of you hate the Bunch family's legendary 'looks'! And no, they won't be getting much of a makeover. Life isn't always fair. eh!

What do you think? Is Darlene's assumption about alien Arlo going to happen, or is it something alien to what Sunset Valley is used to?

Oh, and I've added a new rating system. I really love comments, but if you just don't feel like commenting (happens to me too), just drop me a rating, anywhere  from boring to sizzling!

Thank you all for reading and commenting. I'm serious about my writing and I love any sort of feedback because it drives me to improve!

xoxo
Velocity