"You guys can go back to class now, before a teacher finds you," Brynn said, looking to each girl. "I'll just go to the toilet."

"You sure, Brynn? We don't mind," Penny replied, but Brynn shook her head. "No, it's fine. I'll be back in English in a moment."

Aubrey and Penny looked at each other unsure, then Aubrey nodded, "okay. I'll message you after school?"

"I'll tell sir you'll be back in a few minutes," Penny also said and then the two left the office through the double doors. Brynn looked to her left, at the nurses' toilets and made her way inside the girls'.

Turns out, getting one on was hard. More difficult than she'd first assumed. It was frustrating.

When she'd actually gotten one on, she felt somewhat accomplished. Then she remembered she had one more left and then she'd have to find an alternative.

Washing her hands, she sighed, emulsifying the soap agitatedly. After drying with the paper towels, she threw it in the bin and left, speeding up a little when leaving the office itself so the nurse didn't see her.

She had the same tactic going down the hallway as the trio did before. Speeding up going past classes and slowing down when in between them.

She couldn't reach the top of the stairs before her name was called. Brynn winced, turning around to Sid jogging slightly down the corridor.

As he got closer, Brynn took a slight step back, not sure what he wanted. They hadn't spoken since Malcolm got a temporary exclusion.

Once he'd caught up to her, he slowed down until he was about three feet away. "Brynn, hey." He didn't seem mad.

Brynn was hesitant, "hey, Sid."

"How have you been?"

"Uhm alright, what about you?"

"Good good. Hey listen about Malcolm, I'm really sorry about what he did," he didn't sound sorry.

"It wasn't your fault or anything-"

"I'm not really sure why you punched him though, that was a bit uncalled for, wasn't it?"

Brynn stopped, mouth agape from being interrupted.

"Well, he did it first."

Sid hummed, staring intently at her. "So, listen I just wanted to apologise on behalf of him."

Brynn nodded slowly, thinking he'd say more; that's what his tone gave off.

He did say more, "I also wanted to ask you something, if you don't mind." Brynn screwed her face up the tiniest amount, waiting for him to ask because she felt he would even if she said she did mind.

"I was wondering if you could talk to your brothers about Malcolm's suspension, to let him come back earlier before anything permanently damages his record. I mean, let's face it, it was a bit unfair that he had to be suspended when you got nothing considering you probably caused more damage."

Brynn couldn't speak. Was he really asking her this? One, to ask her brothers a favour, and two, to try and get Malcolm back to school sooner?

She pulled a face of subtle shocked disbelief. "Uhm..."

"Please, Brynn. Our dad is really stressed about it."

She opened her mouth and closed it, scrunching her eyebrows and opening it again. "I don't think so."

She didn't want to continue this conversation anymore, turning her feet back around to the stairs she intended to go down before this interaction happened.

Sid clenched his fists and face, "I think you will."

Brynn paused, looking at the third step down then up to the blurred stairs window. Turning around, the girl looked Sid up and down. "Excuse me?"

"I think you will," Sid repeated, taking a step forward. "Because it would be a shame if someone found out you were in nurses office today for whatever reason. I mean, I am in Zaiden's class, right now."

Brynn felt her face pale and drop, as well as her insides, her stomach recoiling drastically. Sid saw this and his face darkened, "oh, so that would bother you?"

Brynn turned around fastly, immediately going down the stairs, causing Sid to step forward and lean against the railing to watch as she went further down, "Verlice!"

Said Verlice's heart felt like it was hammering to get out of her chest as she made her way down two flights of stairs and back to class.

Penny's face was concerned, "Brynn, what's wrong?"

Brynn's right hand rubbed roughly at her chest. "Sid," she rasped, quietly.

Penny's face went from concerned to anger, "what? What did he do now?"

Brynn didn't get to answer as her phone buzzed just as the school bell rang signalling the end of the day. The class began packing up whilst she took it out.

Where are you?

Zaiden.

The hand rubbing her chest stilled and her fingers gripped her school shirt. No no no.

Her friend saw the message, "do you want to get a ride home with me?"

Yes, she did. She really did. But that's intruding and she'd never met Penny's mum before.

"You know what, you're getting dropped off by my mum. No choices, besides she's wanted to meet you for ages. Just message your brother and tell him that, okay?" Brynn knew she could have said no, and she could have stopped Penny pulling her along, but she couldn't find it in her to do that.

Going with her friend was so much better than having to explain why she was at the nurses office to Zaiden and probably the rest of her brothers.

Penny kept an eye out for the two of them, checking they were good to go out. Brynn didn't see her brothers by Silas' car which meant they were still in the building and they had limited time to get to Penny's mum's car.

Said car was in the pick up station and Penny went straight to the backdoors and had Brynn get in first. Brynn shuffled to the seat on the far right and Penny sat on the far left, slamming the door shut behind her.

Penny's mum looked through the mirror the second the door was opened, "hey sweetie, how was-" she watched as someone who wasn't her daughter get in first. "Who's this?"

Penny looked towards the school's entrance, just as Brynn was. "Hey, mum. This is Brynn."

Penny's mum let go of the steering wheel and put her hands together, turning fully in her seat to look at the flushed girl behind. "Oh, Brynn, it's so nice to meet you. I've heard so much about you-"

"Mum, drive," Penny interrupted, as Brynn smiled shakily and nodded to the nice lady in the front. The woman turned to her daughter and raised an eyebrow. Penny gulped, "please."

Her mother turned around and placed her hands back on the steering wheel, turning out of the spot she was in. As she went out the school gates, Brynn turned around to look out the back window. Zaiden was just coming out of the school entrance, glaring at his phone.

She turned back around, now only noticing how hard she was breathing, her back hit the seat every time she exhaled.

"So," the lady at the front started, "may I ask why this sudden meeting. Not that it's not nice to finally meet you, Brynn." Brynn smiled, guiltily. "I'm really sorry-"

Penny reached her right hand out to hold her left elbow softly. "Brynn just needed a lift home, I said you wouldn't mind and I thought you could finally meet her."

The woman nodded, keeping her eyes on the road. "Ah, okay," she said. "Do you know your address, Brynn, honey?" She used the nickname so normally, like Aubrey's mum did, yet it still didn't have the same effect as when Callan did it. But it was from an older woman figure, who acted similar to her mother, that felt much different.

Brynn swallowed shallowly, staring at the woman who looked like the carbon copy of Penny in the mirror for a few minutes whilst she continued to look at the road.

"Uhm," she brought her phone up, knowing it was written in her notes. She told the woman it, the closed the app, before her eyes widened, remembering she hadn't messaged one of her brothers yet.

Opening messages, she read over Zaiden's message again, letting the keyboard up and shakily typing a message.

getting dropped off by penny's mum.

She backspaced. The retyped it again and sent it.

The phone was placed on the middle seat, facing down and Brynn looked out the window, noticing that the woman was taking the long way to her house which Brayden usually took when he wanted to talk to her after a session with Derek.

She really hoped she was home before the other three.

When Penny's mum dropped her off at the bottom of the gates, she got out, first surveying the front of the house then turning back to the people inside. "Thank you so much, I'm really sorry to have sprung it on you."

Penny's mum waved her off, "no worries, Brynn honey, it's no trouble. I hope to see more of you." Brynn felt her lips upturn as she looked at Penny who gave her a reassuring thumbs up. She reached back in to grasp her phone from the middle seat and thanked them again.

The car drove off once she made it through the main gates okay. Brynn inspected the entire house as she walked closer to it, her shoes making crunching noise whenever they came back down onto the gravel.

The house seemed relatively isolated. She didn't see anybody looking through the windows, or anybody waiting outside.

She got to the big steps leading to the front door, pausing when she heard the unforgettable noise of Silas' car coming into the driveway.

She inhaled as sharply as Silas' car came to a stop. No way was she being confronted right now. She turned back, for the first time, running up the steps. She got three quarters of the way she heard a car door open, and fast steps on the gravel.

"Brynn!" Zaiden bellowed, making a noise come up the back of the girl's throat.

She didn't stop running.

The front door was open, as it usually was when they came home from school, just in case they didn't use the garage. Perfect for her in this situation.

She entered the foyer, letting her backpack completely drop from her shoulders, down her back and onto the hard floor. Loosely gripping the top handle, she slid it to against the wall and took off, glancing back at the door to see Zaiden, Zach and Silas so close to entering through the door.

And she had passed the chance to go upstairs, if she went back to go up, she'd most definitely be caught. So she carried on into the kitchen which was empty. She looked for potential spots to go through.

The backdoor? No, there's not many places to properly hide and she wasn't allowed far into the woods. She'd be caught within three minutes.

Try another room? No, she couldn't go back, there was such a huge chance they'd already caught up.

She looked to the right, at the archway to the dining room. Better than doing nothing, her throat made another noise as sped up footsteps got closer.

Her feet brought her to the dining room, three steps before she reached the arch way, Silas entered the kitchen followed by the other two.

Brynn got in room she wished to, running straight around the table to the other side. The other three entered right after, Zaiden coming down the table on her left and Zach on her right whilst Silas took the opposite end to her.

Brynn looked to all three of their hardened faces, then to the exits. The archway was blocked by Silas and the main entrance blocked by Zaiden. She was trapped.

Everytime she moved slightly to the left, Zaiden got closer which made her retreat back, but that meant she was also closer to Zach.

Zach spoke, "Bry, love, please just tell us what's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong," she insisted breathlessly, acting like she had no idea what they were talking about and she hadn't just spent the past two minutes avoiding them and running away.

Ezra came in through the arch way behind Silas, "what's going on?"

"Our sorellina is hiding something from us," Zaiden stated, rather loudly, to the new arriver. Brynn winced, "no, I'm not!"

"Lie!"

"I'm not lying!"

"Bullshit!"

"Hey!" All four of them flinched at Zayne's voice from the main entrance behind Zaiden.

Zayne walked in inspecting the brothers' face and then Brynn's flushed one. "Sit down. All four of you."

Zach sighed, pulling the chair he was behind out and taking a seat. Silas growled, practically throwing his seat out and Zaiden scoffed, but took his seat nonetheless. Brynn exhaled not-so-calmly, bringing up both her hands to pull the chair out and taking a seat.

Ezra stayed stood by Silas and Zayne scanned over each one of the people sitting down with a harsh gaze, which made Brynn feel like she was being silently scolded.

"Now, are you going to inform me of what is happening?" he asked, sternly and emotionlessly. It was an open question for anyone to answer, and Silas decided to answer first.

"Brynn went to the nurses office today and won't tell us the reason."

Zayne's eyes narrowed in on the girl, like he was mentally breaking her down, which was what she felt like doing.

She cringed, playing with her hands atop the table and narrowing her eyes at them. Her lower abdomen had started burning again.

"And she got a lift with her friend's mother, without telling us until she had left," Zaiden added, tonelessly.

Zayne didn't seem so utterly angry before, but, by god, did he now. Once he'd heard what Zaiden said, his head whipped from the back of Zaiden head to Brynn's guilty face. His eyes were black and his jaw actually physically clenched. "What?"

Brynn's face paled the hardest it ever had, her heart stopping entirely as she flinched back into the back of the seat.

Zayne took a step forward, his hands physically shaking, "Brynn, do you even understand how dangerou-" he stopped himself, closing his eyes and inhaling sharply.

"Zayne," Zach started slowly, but didn't actually finish a whole sentence.

Brynn's abdomen started to have a searing pain flare up inside, she wanted to be in her bed, in her room, alone.

She breathed in painfully, "I just needed a glass of water."

"That doesn't matter, Brynn," Ezra cut in, "it was reckless of you to do such a thing as get into somebody else's car who we don't know without telling one of us first."

Brynn saw his point, but began not caring after some seconds. The pain wouldn't go away. Were periods always like this?

"I don't always have to tell you everything I'm doing," she grumbled, causing her brothers to narrow their eyes.

"Brynn, you don't understand-" Zach started, but Zayne cut him off, "you do as we say, Brynn Marie Verlice."

Brynn, for the first time and probably only time, narrowed her eyes on Zayne, "says who?"

The pain was getting worse and she wanted to be alone and nothing was being filtered. She just felt anger.

Zayne's face hardened and got darker, "says me."

Brynn's eyes filled with copious amounts of salty tears threatening to fall at any moment as she stood up from the chair.

"Who cares? You're not my dad!"

They weren't even loud and yet they made the most deafening sound in the room.

Zayne's expression dropped to nothing and Brynn breathed tremulously. She rounded the table, Zaiden got up from the chair to follow, but wasn't so fast. Zayne didn't even move, still staring at the spot like she was still there.

Brynn ran from the room to the foyer. She didn't even take notice of Callan coming down the stairs, or Brayden lifting her backpack up by the front door.

Even when Callan tried to hold her arms and stop her, she shrugged them off violently.

Callan was shocked, "Brynn, hun, talk to me."

She continued up the stairs, tearily, "leave me alone."

He didn't, following a few steps after her hurried pace all the way to the bedroom hallway, until the door was slammed in his face.

He knocked twice, softly. "Brynn, please."

On the other side, Brynn rested her forehead against the door and sobbed, "Go away, Callan. Go away, please."

Callan's face screwed up, almost dolefully, "Brynn."

Brynn lifted her head up and put it back down onto the door, creating a tiny thump. "Please, Callan."

It took a few moments. Callan hesitated, opening his mouth to try and say something. "O-okay."

He walked down the hallway, keeping his eyes on the door in case it opened, but it didn't.

Downstairs, the five from the dining room entered the foyer and Brayden furrowed his eyebrows at them. "What's going on?"

"Brynn-"

Zayne cut Silas off, fixing his blazer, "nothing to keep talking about."

Brayden raised an eyebrow, doubtedly. "Why did she fling her backpack at the wall then?" he lifted the bag up for emphasis, "what did you three-" he was cut of when something fell out of the backpack's front pocket.

The six of them looked towards the object, silently as it made contact with the floor.

Zayne shut his eyes and thinned his lips out, before he turned to the younger four behind him, whom all looked at him unsurely.

"Go to the pharmacy." He turned back to Brayden, "we'll be going upstairs."

Ezra held his hand out for Silas' keys which he received and the other three followed him out of foyer.

It was oddly silent between the four of them, which it wasn't usually. The roughness of the drive didn't assist either. Ezra drove with Silas in the passenger seat and the twins in the back.

Halfway to the pharmacy, Zach loosened his tie and gave up counting the trees. He looked to each of his brothers, who all were in their own thoughts.

First to Ezra, who looked the same as always, then to Silas, whose face he couldn't see due to it being faced to the left, out the window. And Zaiden was just picking at his school trousers, boredly.

He didn't remember them being so quiet, especially in such a confined space.

In fact, they'd all been off for a while. Ezra had always had a problem with not being in a mood, but he surely didn't expect it to be so much worse when Brynn came back. He was the one who gave Zayne the most attitude for letting her go.

And Silas was just like a puppy following Ezra's moodiness and finding a reason to have an issue himself. And he always found a one.

He couldn't say much for Zaiden, he was just stubborn as the other two with anger issues that could challenge Satan in the flesh.

He did a once over of all of them again, looking back out the window and sighing. They were just pulling up to traffic lights.

"You guys don't have to be such dicks, you know," he muttered.

Ezra stopped the car harshly, following the other two when they spun their heads to look at the youngest brother, who rolled his eyes.

"She hasn't done anything. You're only mad that you've missed so much and there's nothing you can about it," he spoke the words harshly.

Ezra turned back around and clenched his fists around the steering wheel.

"See, and you know I'm right. It's not her fault that we weren't there when she needed us," he continued.

"Shut up, Zach," Ezra hissed from the front.

"You're a fine one to talk, Ezra. You're the one who's been the biggest prick," Zach hissed back, "and if I remember correctly, Brynn used to adore you most of all, hm? Where's that now, Ezra, hm? Does she look at you like that now?"

"Zach."

"No, she doesn't. And whose fault is that?"

Ezra fists started shaking around wheel.

"Because it's not Brynn's and you know fucking well it's not. You all know. You don't think Callan and Brayden feel like you do? I'd say they feel it more so, but are they doing what you three are?"

The three tightened their jaws. Zach scoffed half-heartedly, "thought so. Honestly, grow up the three of you. You can't take back what you've missed but you can fucking try and make life a little easier for the sister you haven't seen in years. Because you know what's going to happen one day? She's going to realise that it's not worth it and you'll be the ones fighting for just a sliver of attention from her. That's exactly what you're doing now, but you're doing it in a way that is soul-crushing for her. Get over yourselves."

The lights switched to amber, then to green and the car started moving again.

Zach sat back and looked out the window again, a faint, relieved smile on his lips.

---

Zach and Ezra stood in the 'Sanitary Products' aisle, confused plastered across both of their faces.

Why were there so many?

Zach reached forward, thinking he had the right one, but recoiled his hand back, when reading more of the box.

"What about day pads and night pads?" Zach suggested, looking to Ezra. "You know, for the day and night."

Just then, they heard snorting in the right, turning their heads to see two adolescent boys by the nude magazine collection at the end of the aisle.

Ezra once over'd them up and down blandly and nodded his head towards the shelves in front of him, "what kind do you guys use?"

From joking to offended the boys' faces went as the, one smirking and other glaring, men kept looking at them. They looked at each other, both red, then went out of sight.

Ezra looked back to the shelves, "day and night pads it is."

He removed one of the purple day pads from the shelf and took the two from behind it, placing the first one back and doing the same with the blue night pads.

At the checkout counter, he placed the products down and inspected the shelf on his right filled with pain killing tablets. Zach was already ahead of him, reaching forward to take the children's dissolvable ones which Ezra didn't even think to look for. Why didn't he think to look for them?

Just then, a hot water bottle with a soft black cover was placed onto the counter next to the pads. Ezra looked towards it confusedly and then up to the person who put it down.

Silas narrowed his eyes, "what?" he snarked, slipping his phone into his pocket.

---

The oldest three stayed outside in the bedroom hallway. Callan against Brynn's door, Zayne stood in front of said door and Brayden sat on the wall opposite.

Meanwhile inside the room, Brynn sat on the floor, holding her legs to her chest and whimpering into her hands because this hurt. Not just the cramps and not just physically.

She rocked the tiniest amount, digging her palms into her eyes more.

She was surprised she hadn't been bombarded yet. Her door had no lock on it. Now that she thought about it, the bathroom did, which would have been the wisest thing to go into. But she didn't want to move now.

The entire room was pitch black, having not bothered turning on any lights and the glow of the moon seemed to avoid her room tonight. She briefly wondered if the moon was even glowing tonight.

She sniffed, removing her hands from her face. Limply, they crossed over her knees, allowing her head to rest on her forearms as she looked out the window. She saw nothing, but the occasional twinkle of stars.

She breathed in, tearfully and difficult-ly, taking in the glow of them.

Her eyes trailed to each of them, as many as she could, even trying to join them up in fake constellations. A moving one came into view. First white, then the colour turned red, then white again.

She imagined she was on that plane, not knowing where it was going, what she would do, but knowing she was away from this situation would be enough.

Outside, Callan sighed softly, letting his head fall back against the door again and closing his eyes.

Footsteps coming down the hallway had him standing up fully, watching as the four youngest brothers came down, Zach with a blue bag in his hand.Ezra stopped walking first, a few feet away from Zayne, and Silas and Zaiden stopped a few milliseconds after him.

Zach reached toward Callan with the bag, the latter throwing him a confused look. Zach gestured down quietly to the bag.

Taking ahold of the two handles, Callan opened it as silently as he could, his eyes scanning over the items with a worried brow and lip. He looked back up to his brothers, whom all already seemed to be aware.

Callan sighed, reclosing the bag and going back to the door. He hesitated, bringing his right hand up and having it hover near the hardwood.

After a second or two, he licked his bottom lip then allowed himself to gently tap them twice against the surface.

"Brynn? Hun?"

Nothing.

But he expected that.

"We've... uhm..." he looked up to the rest of them unsurely, then looked back down at the bag. "We have some stuff for you."

Brynn physically cringed her face and body. She knew she shouldn't have left her bag downstairs.

Callan looked at the rest of them again and didn't say anything else for a while.

He sighed after that while, "we're sorry you felt like you couldn't tell us."

Still nothing.

"And we want you to know that it is nothing to be ashamed about. It's a completely normal part of," Callan gulped, "growing up."

Stop talking, stop talking, Brynn wanted to scream.

Still nothing.

Callan sighed again, slumping his side and head against the door defeatedly. Zach stepped up to the door. "We know we're not good at this, Bry, but we're really going to try."

Zach stared at the door for a few moments, but didn't get anything either.

Callan lifted himself back up. "We also know that none of us could possibly understand what you are going through," his eyes trailed off to the rest of them once again as his hands clenched, "what you went through."

The air outside in the hallway thickened, as though the particles tensed like the brothers did.

Callan shook his head, "but we're really going to try to understand, okay? We promise."

Nothing.

"We love you."

Nothing.

After twenty two seconds, Callan closed his eyes and wiped under his right one before whispering a small, "okay."

He turned so his back was against the door and slid down it. Similarly, the rest of them sat, bar Brayden who was already down.

Inside her room, Brynn gripped her pillow harder between her mouth and arms, trying to keep the tremors down.

Once she'd managed to get her tears to stop flowing profusely, she just laid her head on the pillow and stared tiredly at the door.

She was so tired.

Goosebumps trickled up her arms as she brought the pillow closer to her chest and tried to take up any warmth it gave off. Her legs started to feel the same coldness, but she didn't care.

Well, she did. She just couldn't be bothered to do anything about it right now. So she was okay with just watching the unmoving door.

She didn't hear anything. Or maybe she was too tired to hear anything. Or maybe they'd left. Maybe it was just the silent hallway.

One of those was right. It was just the silent hallway.

But the silent hallway had seven older brothers who were not going to leave.

Not when the clock ticked eight, or nine, or ten.

By the time the clock ticked nine, Brynn was in and out of sleep. The longest she was out was for forty one minutes and when she woke, her head hurt massively and her eyes ached red.

They felt crusty and her mouth had a bitter taste; drool lay on the pillow and it appeared that the goosebumps had comforted her throughout her sleep state seeing as they were still there.

Outside, Callan tied the bag handles together and un-tied them again after doing so. Something he'd been doing for a while. Something he paused doing when the most prominent sound of the door handle turning was heard in the hallway. He sat up rapidly, standing up, as did the rest of them.

The door opened half an inch. That was it. But that was all they could ask for.

The seven of them kept each of their eyes on the door, not moving, until Callan turned around to Zayne,

He brought his hand holding the bag up. Zayne looked up at him and then the bag. Callan gave him a nod.

Taking the bag off the man, he let it drop at his side and let himself get closer to the barely opened door. He pushed it open just enough for him to get in, then closed it behind.

The man couldn't take in the room as well in the darkness, but he could make out the figure by by the bedside.

Using slow steps, he went further into the room. At the end of the bed, he lightly put down the bag and came to stand next to the girl's curled in position.

Brynn tensed at the position, her tensing not easing up when Zayne slowly sat on the floor next to her.

She moved her face, taking every precaution to not look at her eldest brother.

Zayne, however, slithered his fingers to under chin, moving her head anyway even when she tried to resist it.

And she wished he hadn't. Because the second she got a look of his face, she started crying. Zayne tutted, bringing her onto him. "I know, I know."

Brynn shoved her head into his neck, taking in his cologne, one she wasn't even aware he wore, and gripping his pristine shirt.

"I know," he whispered again, staring straight ahead at nothing.

Brynn sniffed, not caring how dead her legs felt.

Zayne moved her hair from her face with the hand that was keeping her head to him, before he whispered something again, "I'm sorry."

Brynn nodded and hiccuped a sob and used the hand that wasn't on Zayne's front to grip the left bicep of his blazer. "Me too."

Zayne leaned his chin down onto the top of her head gently. He moved his head to the right, rather similarly to how Brynn did tonight, looking out the window.

"Look out the window, Brynn. Look at the moon."

Brynn shook her head, wanting to tell him that tonight, in fact, the moon was not out for her, but when she opened her eyes, there it was, taking up most of the window and glowing marvellously.

She sniffed, her head now becoming completely limp against him so there was no need for his hand, though it was still kept there.

"It's beautiful, hm?"

Brynn nodded weakly, the view of the moon blurring more and more.

Zayne leaned down, "go to sleep, Brynn."

So she did.

---

This chapter is for those currently doing exams, more specifically the ones on my message board having a bad day.

<3